February 1982

1982

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The following events occurred in February 1982:

February 1, 1982 (Monday)

• The Senegambia Confederation was created as a partial union of the two West African nations of Senegal and The Gambia, pursuant to an agreement signed on December 12. After Gambia declined to move toward a closer union, Senegal would end the Confederation on September 10, 1989..
• Born: Gavin Henson, Welsh professional rugby union player with 33 caps for the Wales national team; in Pencoed, Mid Glamorgan,

February 2, 1982 (Tuesday)

Images of the destruction of Hama

• The Hama massacre began in Syria as the Syrian army worked on suppressing a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian city. The government of President Hafez Assad was dominated by Alawite Muslims while the brotherhood was largely composed of Sunni Muslims. On the first day of the massacre, the members of a government security force were killed while trying to raid a Brotherhood hangout.
• Belgium's Senate joined the January 18 vote by Chamber of Deputies to grant Prime Minister Wilfried Martens power to enact economic reforms by decree for the remainder of the year.
• A Cuban hijacker took control of an Air Florida jetliner with 77 people on board shortly after the Boeing 737 took off from Miami to Key West. After the jet landed in Havana, the passengers and rew were returned to Miami later in the day.
• In the U.S., the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that a new analysis had discovered at least four more small moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the number of known Saturnian satellites to 21.
• Born:Filippo Magnini, Italian competitive swimmer and world champion in the 100m freestyle event in 2005 and 2007; in Pesaro

February 3, 1982 (Wednesday)

• Syria's President Hafez al-Assad ordered the nation's army to purge the Muslim Brotherhood from the city of Harran. Estimates of deaths and disappearances from a bombing campaign range from 10,000 to 40,000 civilians.
• Leonid Brezhnev, head of state of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, presented an arms-control plan for both the USSR and the U.S. to reduce their nuclear weapons in Europe by two-thirds. The next day, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the American plan for elimination by both sides of all nuclear missiles in Europe.
• The highest ranking Soviet military officer in the Soviet embassy in Washington was expelled from the United States after being declared persona non grata by the U.S. Department of State. Major General Vasily Chitov had been taken into custody by the FBI after a high-speed car chase, after which he had been found with incriminating documents, but released without being arrested for espionage because of diplomatic immunity.
• Born: Vera Brezhneva (stage name for Vira Viktorivna Halushka), Ukrainian singer and actress; in Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union

February 4, 1982 (Thursday)

• Parliamentary elections were held in the Principality of Liechtenstein, with voting limited to men.

February 5, 1982 (Friday)

• Based in London, the low-cost airline Laker Airways halted operations, leaving 6,000 passengers stranded and debts of £270 million. All flights were canceled and in one case, a flight that had already departed with309 passengers from London to the Canary Islands "was called back, apparently out of concern that it might be seized abroad to satisfy debts."
• The government of West Germany, led by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, won a vote of confidence by a margin of 269 to 226.
• Born:
  • Jenn Suhr, American pole vaulter and 2012 Olympic gold medalist for the women's pole vault; in Fredonia, New York
  • Rodrigo Palacio, Argentine footballer with 27 caps for the Argentina national team; in Bahia Blanca
• Died: Dr. Neil Aggett, white South African labor leader, was found hanged in his jail cell.

February 6, 1982 (Saturday)

• U.S. President Reagan announced the federal budget of $757.6 billion for Fiscal Year 1983 (to run from October 1, 1982 to September 30, 1983), and a 91.5 billion dollar increase in the deficit to take effect in his "New Federalism" policy of transferring payment for social welfare programs to the individual U.S. states.

February 7, 1982 (Sunday)

• Elections were held in Costa Rica of the president and for the 57-member legislative assembly. Luis Alberto Monge of the National Liberation Party was elected President of Costa Rica, receiving more votes than the other five candidates combined. Rafael Calderon Fournier, finished well behind, with 35% of the vote.Costa Rica Elects a New President, The New York Times, by Alan Riding, February 9, 1982, p.9
• The Iraqi soccer football club Al-Shorta won the 1982 Arab Club Champions Cup with a 4–2 aggregate victory over Al-Nejmeh in the final.
• Born: Nicola Spirig, Swiss lawyer and 2012 Olympic gold medalist for the women's pole vault; in Winkel, Canton of Zurich.

February 8, 1982 (Monday)

• A pre-dawn fire at the Hotel New Japan in Tokyo killed 32 people and injured 60 others. The fire broke out at shortly after 3:00 a.m. in Room 938 of the hotel.
• Philippine special forces freed Tommy Manotoc, son-in-law of President Ferdinand Marcos, from captivity after a raid on the headquarters of the Maoist New People's Army. Manotoc had been kidnapped on December 9, almost six weeks earlier.
• Born: Zersenay Tadese, Eritrean long-distance runner who held the world record for the half marathon from 2010 to 2018; in Adi Bana
• Died: Mousa Khiabani, 34, commander of the People's Mojahedin of Iran militia, was killed in a gunbattle with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, who had been learned of the location of his safe house in northern Tehran.

February 9, 1982 (Tuesday)

• The crash of Japan Airlines Flight 350 into Tokyo Bay killed 24 of the 174 people on board, after a sudden thrust reversal while making its approach to Tokyo International Airport.
• Han Sy became the new Prime Minister of Cambodia within the Vietnamese supported government, formally replacing deposed premier Pen Sovan.
• Kai Mierendorff, the former leader of a West German organization that had helped more than 1,000 paying customers to escape from East Germany, was injured by a letter bomb sent to his hotel in Munich.

February 10, 1982 (Wednesday)

• A consortium of French banks, with the approval of the government of France, announced its loan of $140 million to the Soviet Union to finance purchase of French equipment for building a natural gas pipeline that would bring natural from Siberia to Western Europe.
• Born: Justin Gatlin, American sprinter and 2004 Olympic gold medalist for the 100-meter race; in Brooklyn

February 11, 1982 (Thursday)

• The government of France nationalized five major industrial groups and 39 private banks as Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy signed the "industrial nationalization bill" into law, with the government to pay seven billion dollars as compensation to the acquired companies.
• Italy's Parliament approved a $12,000,000 project to prevent the leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling, including the installation of an electric pump to maintain the water pressure in underground pools beneath the monument. The Tower would be closed to the public while the project was being completed.
• Born: Neil Robertson, Australian professional snooker champion; in Melbourne

February 12, 1982 (Friday)

• The Communist government of Poland began a two-day operation to arrest 145,000 people who had violated the rules implemented in December during martial law.
• A major strike took place in Portugal and police arrested a group of men in a car loaded with explosives and assault weapons, along with pamphlets callinf gor the overthrow of the government. Interior Minister Angelo Correia appeared on television the next day to accuse unions of attempting to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Franciso Pinto Balsemao.

February 13, 1982 (Saturday)

• A group of 55 men and 19 women was executed by Guatemalan government sponsored Civil Patrol members, who had confiscated their government identity cards and then directed them to the city of Xococ to recover the documents. The victims, mostly Mayan people, were among 440 men, women and children killed in Rio Negro from 1980 to 1982.
• Pope John Paul II made his first trip outside of Italy since having been wounded in an assassination attempt, beginning an 8-day tour of West African nations starting with a flight to Lagos, capital of Nigeria, where he was greeted by President Shehu Shagari.
• Ossie Ocasio defeated Robbie Williams in a 15-round bout to win the first World Boxing Association cruiserweight (or junior heavyweight) title.
• Died:
  • Zeng Jinlian, 17, Chinese girl who had been, at the time of her death, the tallest person in the world, standing 8 feet and 1 inch (246 centimeters) tall
  • Brother Leo William Miller, 37, Amerrican missionary and Roman Catholic martyr, was shot by masked men in the city of Huehuetenango in Guatemala and later declared a Roman Catholic martyr.

February 14, 1982 (Sunday)

• Night of 100 Stars, a live television benefit for the Actors Fund of America, was presented on NBC. One of the 100 people featured, American actor and acting coach Lee Strasberg, died three days after the broadcast.
• Bobby Allison won NASCAR's Daytona 500 stock car race, becoming the third driver (after Cale Yarborough and then 7-time winner Richard Petty) to win the race more than once. Allison's car ran out of gas after he crossed the finish line, reaching empty as he was driving to victory lane to collect the $120,000 check for the winner.
• The radio show Rock, Roll & Remember, which would run for 22 years and would be hosted by Dick Clark, broadcast its first episode as a documentary and "oldies" music program. Though the show would be named for Clark in 1983, it was initially hosted by Gene Weed.
• Born: Marian Gaborik, Slovak ice hockey player and 2012 NHL All-Star Game MVP, member of the Slovakia national men's team; in Trenčín, Czechoslovakia

February 15, 1982 (Monday)

The Ocean Ranger platform prior to its destruction

• All 84 rig workers aboard the oil platform Ocean Ranger were killed when the structure fell and sank during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland.

February 16, 1982 (Tuesday)

• The sinking of the Soviet freighter Mekhanik Tarasov killed 28 of the 35 persons known to have been aboard, after the ship's captain refused to allow his men to be taken aboard a Danish fishing vessel, declaring that a Soviet rescue vessel was on the way. The Soviet ship, Ivan Dvorsky, did not arrive until more than three hours after Mekhanik Tarasov went down in the Atlantic Ocean off of the coast of Newfoundland. The Danish trawler rescued nine of the Soviet crew who had escaped into the sea.
• The Israeli government ordered the closure of Bir Zeit University, the largest Palestinian educational institution in the West Bank.
• Born: Lupe Fiasco (stage name for Wasalu Muhammad Jaco), American rap artist; in Chicago

February 17, 1982 (Wednesday)

• In Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe dropped his main political rival, Joshua Nkomo, from the cabinet of ministers after accusing Nkomo of plotting to overthrow the government of the southern African nation, ending the unity of the Patriotic Union that had governed the former colony of Rhodesia since 1980.
• Born: Adriano Leite Ribeiro, Brazilian footballer known as Adriano, with 48 caps for the Brazil national team; in Rio de Janeiro

February 18, 1982 (Thursday)

• Elections for the Dail Eirann were held in the Republic of Ireland. The ruling Fianna Fáil slightly increased its lead from 78 to 81 seats, and Fine Gael remaining as it went from 65 to 63 seats.
• Deng Xiaoping, the Vice-Premier of China and the nation's de facto ruler, was seen in public for the first time in five weeks as he appeared at a meeting in Beijing with Foreign Minister Huang Hua in greeting the exiled Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
• The government of Iran announced that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, ailing supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, would eventually be replaced by a council of three men.
• Voters in a by-election in Canada's province of Alberta elected Gordon Keller, the candidate of the Western Canada Concept, which proposed the secession of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

February 19, 1982 (Friday)

• The Boeing 757 jet made its first flight.
• The DeLorean Motor Company went into receivership as part of bankruptcy proceedings in Northern Ireland after the British government and American businesses declined to provide additional aid.
• Born: Camelia Potec, Romanian swimmer and 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the 200m women's freestyle; in Braila

February 20, 1982 (Saturday)

• Tanguturi Anjaiah, tendered his resignation as Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after being asked to step down by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi following an argument with her son Rajiv Gandhi.
• The first stereoscopic video game, SubRoc-3D, was introduced at a press conference in Japan by Sega Enterprises. Simulating the firing of torpedoes from a submarine, the shooter game featured a periscope-shaped viewer that offered a different image for each eye and released to arcades in Japan and North America in the summer.
• Born:
  • Osita Iheme, Nigerian comedian and film actor known being part of a duo with comedian Chinedu Ikedieze
  • Tisha (Nusrat Imrose Tisha), Bangladeshi film and TV actress; in Rajshahi
• Died:
  • Dr. Edward C. Franklin, 53, American immunologist known for the discovery of heavy chain disease and for his research in the discovery of amyloids. One variety of gamma heavy chain disease, "Franklin's disease", is named for him.
  • Isobel Wylie Hutchison, 92, Scottish explorer and writer
  • Frances Grant (stage name for Stella Fortier McCarron), 68, American film actress known for Oh, Susanna! (1936) and Red River Valley (1936), both with Gene Autry.

February 21, 1982 (Sunday)

• The musical revue Ain't Misbehavin', a tribute to the music of Fats Waller, closed on Broadway after 1,604 performances dating to the premiere on May 9, 1978.
• Died: Murray Kaufman, 60, American disc jockey and promoter known professionally as "Murray the K", died from cancer.

February 22, 1982 (Monday)

• The governments of Belgium and Denmark devalued their currencies in relation to the other eight member nations of the European Monetary System, with the value of the Belgian franc reduced by 8.5 percent and the Danish krona by 3 percent.

February 23, 1982 (Tuesday)

• In a referendum in Greenland, a voters narrowly approved remaining in the European Community, as proposed by Premier Jonathan Motzfeldt.

February 24, 1982 (Wednesday)

• In South Africa, a vote of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister P. W. Botha was held, with a faction (led by Andries Treurnicht) of 22 members of parliament from Botha's own National Party joined the motion by the opposition.
• The Central Committee of Poland's communist party, the Polish Workers Party, held its first session since the December imposition of martial law.
• Twelve Lebanese gunmen hijacked a Kuwaiti Airlines jet with 105 people aboard after it took off from Beirut. The hijackers surrendered the next morning.

February 25, 1982 (Thursday)

• The European Court of Human Rights ruled that teachers who caned, belted or tawsed misbehaving children, against the wishes of the child's parents, were in breach of the Human Rights Convention.
• Born:
  • Flavia Pennetta, Italian tennis player and winner of the 2015 U.S. Open singles and the 2011 Australian open doubles; in Brindisi
  • Chris Baird, Northern Ireland footballer with 79 caps for the Northern Ireland team; in Ballymena, County Antrim

February 26, 1982 (Friday)

• An Air Tanzania Boeing 737 airliner was hijacked during a domestic flight in Tanzania with 94 passengers and crew was hijacked and diverted to Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Greece before landing at the Stansted international airport that serves freight traffic near London. The hijackers released eight foreign passengers before flying to the UK with the Tanzanian citizens. British commandos from the Special Air Service (SAS) surrounded the aircraft and the hijackers released a pregnant woman and a child, but held the remaining hostages. On Sunday, the hijackers released their 82 remaining hostages at the request of Oscar Kambona, former Foreign Minister of Tanzania who had been living in exile in England.
• Turkish security police arrested 14 dissident members of the Turkish Peace Association on charges of communist propaganda and sedition, including Mahmut Dikerdem and Reha İsvan. Sentenced to terms of eight years imprisonment, the group members were held for four years at the Maltepe military prison.
• The popular Indian Tamil language film Payanangal Mudivathillai (Journeys Never End) was released. The romantic drama, the first to be written and directed by R. Sundarrajan, starred Mohan and actress Poornima Bhagyaraj and was shown in theaters for more than a year.
• Born:
  • Brian Shaw, American strongman, winner of the World's Strongest Man in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016, known for breaking a record for heaviest deadlift weight (975.5 pounds (442.5 kg)) in 2013; in Fort Lupton, Colorado
  • Li Na, Chinese tennis player known for winning the women's singles title at the French Open (2011) and the Australian Open (2014); in Wuhan, Hubei province
• Died:
  • Teinosuke Kinugasa, 86, Japanese actor and filmmaker, known for A Page of Madness (1926) and Gate of Hell (1954)

February 27, 1982 (Saturday)

• Elections were held for the 47 seats of the Fono Samoa the unicameral parliament of Western Samoa. While 25 independent candidates won a majority of the seats, the new Human Rights Protection Party won the other 22 seats and its leader, Tofilau Eti Alesana, would form a government as Prime Minister later in the year.
• The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which had existed for more than 100 years since its founding in the 1875, gave its final performance before going out of business, with a farewell show at the Adelphi Theatre on London's West End. The company would be revived in 1988 following a bequest in the will of the founder's widow, Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte.
• Born: Bruno Soares, Brazilian tennis player, winner of the 2012 and 2014 U.S. Open mixed doubles, and the 2012 and 2016 men's doubles; and the 2016 Australian Open men's doubles and mixed doubles; in Belo Horizonte

February 28, 1982 (Sunday)

Nereus in 2021

• The asteroid 4660 Nereus, notable for an orbit that brings it close to Earth and, as such, ideal for exploration by Earth's spacecraft, was discovered by astronomer Eleanor F. Helin from the Palomar Observatory. The discovery came after Nereus had come within 2.6 million miles (4.1 million km) of Earth. Nereus would approach within 2,444,625 miles (3,934,242 km) of Earth on December 11, 2021 and will pass within 744,407 miles (1,198,007 km) on February 14, 2060.
• The Organisation of African Unity (OAU), led by Secretary-General Edem Kodjo, granted membership to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which was fighting for independence of the Western Sahara, a colony of Spain until its annexation by Morocco.
• Parliamentary elections were held in North Korea for the 615 members of the Supreme People's Assembly, with voters limited to voting yes or no for the candidates of the nation's only political party, the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, commonly called the Fatherland Front. Kim Jong Il, the son of the North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Il Sung (and his eventual successor), was on the ballot for the first time.