At A Glance
23 August 1981 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 23 August 1981 was a Sunday.
- UK Number One
- The UK Number One single was “Japanese Boy” by Aneka.
- Top Film of 1981
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1981 was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 23 August is Virgo.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 23 August 1981 fell in the Year of the Rooster.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for August is Peridot.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 23 August 1981 was Waning Crescent.
On this day: 23 August
- 1975 The start of the Wave Hill walk-off by Gurindji people in Australia, lasting eight years, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 Paul Kelly song and an annual celebration.
- 1975 The Pontiac Silverdome opens in Pontiac, Michigan, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Detroit, Michigan.
- 1977 Waylon Jennings arrested in a drug raid.
- 1985 Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
- 1989 Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands.
Famous people born on 23 August
- River Phoenix, American actor (1970–1993)
- Kobe Bryant, American basketball player and businessman (1978–2020)
- Scott Caan, American actor (born 1976)
- Louis XVI (1754–1793)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
Events of 1981 in the United Kingdom
A selection from Wikipedia's '1981 in the United Kingdom'. Not a complete list.
- 30 March – Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire released.
- 4 April – Bucks Fizz representing the United Kingdom win the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up.
- 10 April – Bobby Sands, an IRA member on hunger strike in the Maze prison, Northern Ireland, is elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election.
Life in 1981
Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
Monarch
Elizabeth II
Pint of Beer
50p
Loaf of Bread
37p
Average House
£24,188
Weekly Wage
£135.00
Or
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Famous Faces Born in the 1980s
Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.
Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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