UK, 
US, 
Australia & 
IrelandAt A Glance
16 January 1981 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 16 January 1981 was a Friday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “(Just Like) Starting Over” by John Lennon.
- Top Film of 1981
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1981 was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Bestselling Novel of 1981
- “Noble House” by James Clavell was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1981.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “Dallas” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1981–82 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 16 January is Capricorn.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 16 January 1981 fell in the Year of the Monkey.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for January is Garnet.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 16 January 1981 was Waxing Gibbous.
On this day: 16 January
- 1969 Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
- 1979 Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
- 1984 A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.
- 1991 Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
- 1992 El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.
Famous people born on January 16
- Aaliyah, American singer and actress (1979–2001)
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, American actor, playwright, and composer (born 1980)
- Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer (born 1959)
- Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor (born 1985)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
Events of 1981 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '1981 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- March 31 – The 53rd Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Robert Redford's directorial debut, Ordinary People, wins four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
- April 12 – The Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia (John Young, Robert Crippen) launches on the STS-1 mission, returning to Earth on April 14.
- June 12 – Raiders of the Lost Ark, directed by Steven Spielberg is released as the first film of the Indiana Jones film series.
Life in the US in 1981
President
Jimmy Carter
Gas (per gallon)
$1.31
Loaf of Bread
$0.54
Average House
$68,900
Weekly Wage
$285
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.
Hayden Panettiere21 August 1989Actress & singerView their day →Alan Ritchson28 November 1982ActorView their day →Anne Hathaway12 November 1982ActressView their day →Dakota Johnson4 October 1989Actress & modelView their day →Macklemore19 June 1983RapperView their day →Andrew Garfield20 August 1983ActorView their day →Julia Stiles28 March 1981ActressView their day →Taylor Swift13 December 1989Singer-songwriterView their day →Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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