1981

• Air Supply - “The One that You Love” 
• Blondie - "The Tide is High"
• Blondie - “Rapture” 
• Christopher Cross - "Arthur's Theme"
• Diana Ross & Lionel Richie - "Endless Love"
• Eddie Rabbit - “I Love a Rainy Night”
• Foreigner - “Waiting for a Girl Like You” 
• Hall & Oates - "Private Eyes"
• Hall & Oates - “Kiss on my List”
• Joey Scarbury - "Believe It or Not"
• John Lennon - "(Just Like) Starting Over"
• John Lennon - “Woman” 
• Journey - "Who's Crying Now" 
• Kim Carnes - "Bette Davis Eyes"
• Kool & the Gang - "Celebration"
• Olivia Newton-John - "Physical” 
• REO Speedwagon - "Keep on Loving You”
• Rick Springfield - "Jessie's Girl"
• Sheena Easton - “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” 

• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• On Golden Pond
• Superman II
• Arthur
• Stripes
• Cannonball Run
• Chariots of Fire
• For Your Eyes Only
• Fox & The Hound

• Dynasty
• Private Benjamin
• The Smurfs
• Gimme a Break
• The Fall Guy
• Simon & Simon 

• Charlie's Angels
• The Waltons
• Eight is Enough
• Soap
• The Tim Conway Show

• Dallas
• The Jeffersons
• Three's Company
• Alice
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Too Close for Comfort
• M*A*S*H
• One Day at a Time
• The Love Boat
• Hart to Hart
• Magnum, PI
• Happy Days
• Laverne & Shirley
• The Facts of Life
• Little House on the Prairie
• The Fall Guy
• TJ Hooker
• Fantasy Island

• Beyonce Knowles - pop singer, "Crazy in Love"
• Justin Timberlake - pop singer, "Sexyback"; was in band NSYNC
• Britney Spears - pop singer, "Baby One More Time", and "Oops... I did it again"
• Chris Evans - movie actor, plays Captain America in "Avengers" and "Captain America" movies
• Pitbull - rapper, "Timber" and "I Know You Want Me"
• Alicia Keys - pop singer, "Fallin" and "Girl on Fire"; judge on "The Voice" 
• Stephen Amell - TV actor, in "Arrow"
• Tom Hiddleston - movie actor, plays Loki in "Thor" movies
• Serena Williams - tennis player, has won every major tournament, has 23 single titles, and 14 doubles titles (with her sister Venus Williams)
• Natalie Portman - movie actress, in Star Wars prequel trilogy and "Black Swan"
• Eli Manning - football player, MVP of Super Bowls XLII (with New York Giants) and XLVI (with New England Patriots)
• Jennifer Hudson - pop singer, on "American Idol"
• Jesse Williams - TV actor, in "Grey's Anatomy"
• Meghan Markle - actress, in "Suits"; engaged to marry Prince Harry
• Alexis Bledel - TV actress, in "Gilmore Girls"

• First London Marathon
• DeLorean Car (Back to the Future)
• First Indiana Jones movie
• MTV launched

• TGV - first high speed train in Europe
• Scientists identify the AIDS virus
• Very first space shuttle mission launched (Columbia)
• IBM launches it's first PC which uses Microsoft MS Dos
• Term Internet first mentioned

• autocorrect
• body double
• boom box
• buffalo wing
• camcorder
• connect-the-dots
• cred
• fist pump
• French manicure
• glycemic index
• high-definition
• infomercial
• photo op
• screen saver
• sleazeball
• snowboard
• spellchecker
• sticker shock
• trash talk
• uninstall
• unsubscribe
• warm fuzzies
• woo-hoo

The hostage crisis started Nov 4, 1979, when about 500 Iranians seized the American embassy in Tehran. The 52 American hostages were finally released 444 days later (on Jan 20, 1981). 

July: The Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, attracting crowds of more than 600,000 people to witness the historic event. An estimated 750 million people, worldwide, watched it on television. The Royal Wedding drew the public’s interest in an extreme way with the perception that Diana and Charles’ relationship was a modern fairy tale.

March 30: American President Ronald Reagan and 3 others were shot and wounded by John Hinkley Jr in Washington, DC, as they were leaving a speaking engagement at a hotel. Hinckley's motivation for the attack was to impress actress Jodie Foster.

In April of 1981, NASA launched the very first Space Shuttle mission. The Space Shuttle Columbia successfully carried two astronauts, Robert Crippen and John Young, into space. The purpose of the mission was to safely launch the vehicle into space and return it to Earth so that the craft was reusable. The total length of the mission was two days, six hours, twenty minutes, fifty-three seconds.

The first DeLorean DMC-12 futuristic sports car were produced on January 21st. Known for its distinctive gull-wing doors and stainless steel body panels, the vehicle garnered a lot of attention for its unusual look. The DeLorean was only manufactured for two years and about 9,000 vehicles were produced in total. The DeLorean was most well-known for being featured as the time travel machine used in the popular 1985 film “Back to the Future.” 

The first high speed train service in Europe begins with the French TGV / high-speed train between Paris and Lyon.