At A Glance

31 August 1980 at a glance

Day of the week
31 August 1980 was a Sunday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Sailing” by Christopher Cross.
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 31 August is Virgo.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 31 August 1980 fell in the Year of the Monkey.
Birthstone
The birthstone for August is Peridot.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 31 August 1980 was Waning Gibbous.

On this day: 31 August

  • 1968 Start of the Congress of Carrara, one of the major 20th century anarchist congresses.
  • 1991 Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
  • 1993 Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.
  • 1994 Russia completes removing its troops from Estonia.
  • 1996 Saddam Hussein's troops seize Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.

Famous people born on August 31

  • Richard Gere, American actor and producer (born 1949)
  • Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (born 1985)
  • Jalen Brunson, American basketball player (born 1996)
  • Caligula, Roman emperor (born 12)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.

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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