Top News Stories from 1983

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Lech Walesa (Poland)
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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Ronald W. Reagan
Vice President: George Bush
Population: 233,791,994
Life expectancy: 74.6 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 51.8
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 46.4
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Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $3,514.50 billion
Federal spending: $808.38 billion
Federal debt $1371.7 billion
Consumer Price Index: $99.6
Unemployment: 9.6%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.20

Sports

Super Bowl
Washington d. Miami
World Series
Baltimore d. Philadelphia Phillies (4-1)
NBA Championship
Philadelphia 76ers d. LA Lakers
Stanley Cup
NY Islanders d. Edmonton
Wimbledon
Women: Martina Navratilova d. A. Jaeger (6-0 6-3)
Men: John McEnroe d. C. Lewis (6-2 6-2 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Sunny's Halo
NCAA Basketball Championship
N.C. State d. Houston
NCAA Football Champions
Miami-FL (11-1-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction:

The Color Purple, Alice Walker

Music: Three Movements for Orchestra, Ellen T. Zwilich
Drama: 'Night, Mother, Marsha Norman
Academy Award, Best Picture: Gandhi, Richard Attenborough, producer (Columbia)
Nobel Prize for Literature: William Golding (UK)
Record of the Year: "Rosanna," Toto
Album of the Year: Toto IV, Toto (Columbia)
Song of the Year: "Always on My Mind," Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, songwriters
Miss America: Debra Maffett (CA)
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Events

  • With the introduction of noise-free compact discs, the vinyl record begins a steep decline.
  • Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy wins the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and Tony Award for best play, marking the acceptance of gay theater.
  • Singer Karen Carpenter dies of complications from anorexia nervosa at age 32.
  • More than 125 million viewers tune in to the last episode of M*A*S*H.

Movies

  • The Big Chill, Terms of Endearment, Fanny & Alexander, The Right Stuff

Books

  • J.M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
  • William Kennedy, Ironweed

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Henry Taube (US), for research on how electrons transfer between molecules in chemical reactions
Physics: Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar and William A. Fowler (both US), for complementary research on processes involved in the evolution of stars
Physiology or Medicine: Barbara McClintock (US), for her discovery of mobile genes in the chromosomes of a plant that change the future generations of plants they produce
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...

Death

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