At A Glance

19 August 1980 at a glance

Day of the week
19 August 1980 was a Tuesday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Magic” by Olivia Newton-John.
Top Film of 1980
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1980 was The Empire Strikes Back.
Bestselling Novel of 1980
“The Covenant” by James A. Michener was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1980.
Top-Rated TV Show
“Dallas” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1980–81 season.
Star sign
The star sign for 19 August is Leo.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 19 August 1980 fell in the Year of the Monkey.
Birthstone
The birthstone for August is Peridot.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 19 August 1980 was First Quarter.

On this day: 19 August

  • 1981 Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States F-14A Tomcat fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
  • 1981 Silvio Santos launches a new Brazilian television channel in São Paulo, Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão.
  • 1989 Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.
  • 1989 Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
  • 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.

Famous people born on August 19

  • Bill Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas, 42nd President of the United States (born 1946)
  • Kirk Cousins, American football player (born 1988)
  • Matthew Perry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (1969–2023)
  • Kyra Sedgwick, American actress and producer (born 1965)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1980 in the United States

A selection from Wikipedia's '1980 in the United States'. Not a complete list.

  • January 27 – Canadian Caper: Six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, manage to escape from Tehran, Iran as they board a flight to Zurich, Switzerland.
  • March 22 – The Georgia Guidestones are erected in Elbert County, Georgia.
  • April 15 – A mass exodus of Cubans to the United States known as the Mariel boatlift begins. It ends on October 31 by agreement between the two countries.
More events of 1980 →Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Life in the US in 1980

President

Jimmy Carter

Gas (per gallon)

$1.19

Loaf of Bread

$0.50

Average House

$64,600

Weekly Wage

$267

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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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