1980

1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1980th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 980th year of the 2nd millennium, the 80th year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 1980s decade.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1950s  1960s  1970s  – 1980s –  1990s  2000s  2010s
Years:	1977 1978 1979 – 1980 – 1981 1982 1983

Events

• January 20 – The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Los Angeles Rams to win their 4th Super Bowl championship. They hold the record for most wins by one team until 1995.
• April 12 – Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope in Canada.
• April 30 – Beatrix of the Netherlands crowned
• May 18 – Mount St. Helens erupts.
• August 1 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir becomes the 4th President of Iceland. She is the first female ever elected as a head of state in a democratic election.
• August – Rising Solidarity a Polish trade union which make for fallen communism in East Europe
• September 1 – Terry Fox ends his Marathon of Hope, after his cancer resurfaces.
• September 22 – War begins between Iran and Iraq.
• November 4 – Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter during the presidential elections.
• December 8 – John Lennon of The Beatles is shot and killed outside of his apartment in New York City by Mark David Chapman.
• Pictures taken by the Voyager 1 probe lead to the discovery of Saturn's moon, Atlas.

January

Jimmy Durante

• January 1
  • Adolph Deutsch, American composer (b. 1897)
  • Frank Wykoff, American Olympic athlete (b. 1909)
• January 2 – Alessandro Bruschetti, Italian artist (b. 1910)
• January 3 – Joy Adamson, Austrian-born conservationist and author (b. 1910)
• January 7 – Simonne Mathieu, French tennis champion (b. 1908)
• January 8 – John Mauchly, American physicist and inventor (b. 1907)
• January 10
  • Bo Rein, American football coach (b. 1945)
  • George Meany, American labor leader (b. 1894)
• January 11 – Barbara Pym, English novelist (b. 1913)
• January 13 – Andre Kostelanetz, Russian conductor and arranger (b. 1901)
• January 17 – Barbara Britton, American actress (b. 1919)
• January 18 – Sir Cecil Beaton, English photographer (b. 1904)
• January 19 – William O. Douglas, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1898)
• January 21 – Georges Painvin, French cryptographer (b. 1886)
• January 22
  • Walter Pym, Australian actor (b. 1905)
  • Teresa Noce, Italian labor leader, activist, and journalist (b. 1900)
• January 23 – Leonard Strong, American actor (b. 1908)
• January 24 – Lil Dagover, German actress (b. 1887)
• January 25 – David Newell, American actor (b. 1905)
• January 27
  • Hans Aeschbacher, Swiss sculptor (b. 1906)
  • Peppino De Filippo, Italian actor (b. 1903)
  • Eric Wyndham White, British administrator and economist, first Director-General of the GATT (b. 1913)
• January 28 – Franco Evangelisti, Italian composer (b. 1926)
• January 29 – Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer and comedian (b. 1893)
• January 30
  • Maria Bolognesi, Italian Roman Catholic laywoman, mystic and blessed (b. 1924)
  • Professor Longhair, American musician (b. 1918)
• January 31 – Eduardo Cáceres, Guatemalan politician (b. 1906)

February

Oskar Kokoschka

Yigal Allon

• February 1 – Jack Bailey, American actor (b. 1907)
• February 2
  • Hanna Rovina, Russian-born Israeli actress (b. 1889)
  • William Howard Stein, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• February 6 – Albert Kotin, American abstract expressionist painter (b. 1907)
• February 7 – Richard Williams, Royal Australian Air Force officer (b. 1890)
• February 8
  • Isadora Bennett, American publicity agent (b. 1900)
  • Nikos Xilouris, Greek pop singer (b. 1936)
  • Francesco Zucchetti, French Olympic cyclist (b. 1902)
• February 9 – Tom Macdonald, British journalist and novelist (b. 1900)
• February 10 – Wels Eicke, Australian rules football player (b. 1893)
• February 11 – R. C. Majumdar, Indian historian (b. 1884)
• February 12 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (b. 1913)
• February 13 – David Janssen, American actor (b. 1931)
• February 14 – Luitkonwar Rudra Baruah, Assamese composer and actor (b. 1926)
• February 17
  • Jerry Fielding, American conductor and music director (b. 1922)
  • Graham Sutherland, English artist (b. 1903)
• February 18 – Gale Robbins, American singer and actress (b. 1921)
• February 19
  • Robert Morrison, British Olympic rower (b. 1902)
  • Bon Scott, Scottish-born Australian rock singer (b. 1946)
• February 20
  • Joseph Banks Rhine, American parapsychologist (b. 1895)
  • Alice Longworth, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, wife of Nicholas Longworth (b. 1884)
• February 21 – Aldo Andreotti, Italian mathematician (b. 1924)
• February 22 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter and poet (b. 1886)
• February 23
  • Enrico Celio, Swiss politician, 49th President of the Swiss Confederation (b. 1889)
  • Robert Hayden, American poet (b. 1913)
• February 24
  • Michael Browne, Irish Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1895)
  • Clement Martyn Doke, South African linguist (b. 1893)
• February 26 – Mario Mattoli, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1898)
• February 27
  • George Tobias, American actor (b. 1901)
  • Shin'ichi Hisamatsu, Japanese philosopher (b. 1889)
• February 28 – James Goff, American football and basketball head coach (b. 1912)
• February 29
  • Gil Elvgren, American pin-up artist (b. 1914)
  • Yigal Allon, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1918)

March

Mohammad Hatta

Óscar Romero

Tôn Đức Thắng

Jesse Owens

• March 1
  • Dixie Dean, English football player (b. 1907)
  • Daniil Khrabrovitsky, Soviet film director (b. 1923)
  • Wilhelmina, Dutch-born American high-fashion model and owner of model agency (b. 1940)
• March 3 – Roger Davis, American actor (b. 1884)
• March 5 – Jay Silverheels, American actor (b. 1912)
• March 6 – Barbara Brukalska, Polish architect (b. 1899)
• March 9 – Nikolay Bogolybov, Russian actor (b. 1899)
• March 10 – Herman Tarnower, American medical doctor and diet guru (b. 1910)
• March 11 – Maud Hart Lovelace, American author (b. 1892)
• March 13 – Roland Symonette, 1st Premier of the Bahamas (b. 1898)
• March 14
  • Anna Jantar, Polish singer (b. 1950)
  • Mohammad Hatta, Indonesia's first vice president (b. 1902)
  • Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish naturalist and television presenter (b. 1928)
• March 17 – Boun Oum, 4th Prime Minister of Laos (b. 1911)
• March 18
  • Jessica Dragonette, American singer (b. 1900)
  • Elsa Goveia, Guyanese-born Jamaican scholar (b. 1925)
  • Erich Fromm, German-born psychologist and philosopher (b. 1900)
  • Louise Lovely, Australian actress (b. 1895)
  • Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-born painter (b. 1898)
• March 21 – Peter Stoner, American mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (b. 1888)
• March 24
  • John Barrie, Welsh actor (b. 1917)
  • Pierre Etchebaster, French real tennis player (b. 1893)
  • Óscar Romero, Salvadorian Roman Catholic archbishop (b. 1917)
• March 25
  • Roland Barthes, French literary critic and writer (b. 1915)
  • Erminio Macario, Italian actor (b. 1902)
  • Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (b. 1913)
  • James Wright, American poet (b. 1927)
  • Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist (b.1901)
• March 28
  • Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová, Czechoslovak illustrator (b. 1894)
  • James Hayes, American-born Filipino Roman Catholic, Jesuit archbishop, missionary and servant of God (b. 1889)
  • Dick Haymes, Argentine actor and singer (b. 1918)
• March 29 – Mantovani, Italian-born conductor and arranger (b. 1905)
• March 30
  • David Sharpe, American actor (b. 1910)
  • Tôn Đức Thắng, 2nd President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) (b. 1888)
• March 31
  • Vladimír Holan, Czech poet (b. 1905)
  • Jesse Owens, American Olympic athlete (b. 1913)

April

William R. Tolbert Jr.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Mario Bava

Alfred Hitchcock

• April 2 – Stanley Forman Reed, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1884)
• April 4 – Red Sovine, American country and folk singer-songwriter (b. 1917)
• April 6
  • John Collier, English writer (b. 1901)
  • Nils Ericson, Swedish actor (b. 1906)
• April 8 – Bill Eastman, British army officer (b. 1911)
• April 10 – Kay Medford, American actress and singer (b. 1919)
• April 11 – Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, Turkish writer (b. 1935)
• April 12
  • Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (b. 1895)
  • William R. Tolbert Jr., 20th President of Liberia (b. 1913)
• April 13 – Karl Stegger, Danish actor (b. 1913)
• April 15
  • Raymond Bailey, American actor (b. 1904)
  • Marshall Reed, American film and television actor (b. 1917)
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• April 18 – Antonio Caponigro, American gangster (b. 1912)
• April 19
  • Charles Seel, American actor (b. 1897)
  • Tony Beckley, English character actor (b. 1927)
• April 20
  • Katherine Kennicott Davis, American composer (b. 1892)
  • Helmut Käutner, German director (b. 1908)
• April 21 – Sohrab Sepehri, Persian poet and painter (b. 1928)
• April 22
  • Jane Froman, American singer and actress (b. 1907)
  • Fritz Strassmann, German chemist (b. 1902)
• April 24 – Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (b. 1904)
• April 26 – Cicely Courtneidge, British actress (b. 1893)
• April 27
  • Mario Bava, Italian director (b. 1914)
  • John Culshaw, British recording producer and musicologist (b. 1924)
• April 28 – Thomas G. W. Settle, American record-setting balloonist and admiral (b. 1895)
• April 29 – Alfred Hitchcock, British suspense film director (b. 1899)
• April 30 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist and politician (b. 1898)

May

Josip Broz Tito

• May 1 – Henry Levin, American film director and actor (b. 1909)
• May 2
  • George Pal, Hungarian-born animator and producer (b. 1904)
  • Clarrie Grimmett, New Zealand-born cricketer (b. 1891)
• May 4
  • Kay Hammond, English actress (b. 1909)
  • Josip Broz Tito, Croatian-born Yugoslav communist military and political leader, 19th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and 1st President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)
• May 5 – Isabel Briggs Myers, American psychological theorist and co-creator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (b. 1897)
• May 7
  • Isla Cameron, British actress (b. 1930)
  • Margaret Cole, British politician (b. 1893)
• May 8 – Geoffrey Baker, English field marshal (b. 1912)
• May 9
  • Prince Himalaya of Nepal (b. 1921)
  • Kate Molale, South African anti-apartheid activist (b. 1928)
• May 12 – Lillian Roth, American actress (b. 1910)
• May 14
  • Carl Ebert, German theatre and opera director (b. 1887)
  • Fatmawati, First Lady of Indonesia (b. 1923)
  • Hugh Griffith, Welsh actor (b. 1912)
• May 16
  • José Calvo, Spanish actor (b. 1916)
  • Marin Preda, Romanian writer (b. 1922)
• May 18
  • David A. Johnston, American volcanologist (b. 1949) (killed by eruption of Mount St. Helens)
  • Ian Curtis, English musician and singer (b. 1956)
  • Reid Blackburn, photojournalist for National Geographic (b. 1952; also killed by eruption of Mount St. Helens)
  • Harry R. Truman, Owner/Operator of Mt. St. Helens Lodge (b. 1896; killed by eruption of Mount St. Helens)
• May 20 – Jack Walsh, Australian cricketer (b. 1912)
• May 21 – Ida Kamińska, Polish-born Jewish actress, playwright and translator (b. 1899)
• May 25 – George West, British Anglican missionary (b. 1893)
• May 28 – Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (b. 1895)
• May 30 – Carl Radle, American bassist (b. 1942)

June

Masayoshi Ōhira

• June 1 – Rube Marquard, American baseball player (New York Giants) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1886)
• June 7
  • Richard Bonelli, American opera baritone (b. 1889)
  • Henry Miller, American writer (b. 1891)
  • Elizabeth Craig, British chef and writer (b. 1883)
  • Salvator Gotta, Italian writer (b. 1887)
  • Philip Guston, American painter (b. 1912)
  • Marian Spychalski, Polish architect and politician, former head of State (b. 1908)
• June 8
  • Ernst Busch, German singer and actor (b. 1900)
  • Alfredo Brilhante da Costa, Brazilian football player (b. 1904)
• June 9 – Shyam Kumari Khan, Indian lawyer (b. 1904)
• June 12
  • Billy Butlin, South African-born Canadian founder of Butlins Holiday Camps (b. 1899)
  • Masayoshi Ōhira, Japanese politician, 43rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1910)
  • Milburn Stone, American actor (b. 1904)
• June 13 – Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure (b. 1942)
• June 14 – Sante Spessotto, Italian Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1923)
• June 18 – Terence Fisher, British director (b. 1904)
• June 20 – Amy Key Clarke, English mystical poet (b. 1892)
• June 21 – Bert Kaempfert, German orchestra leader and songwriter (b. 1923)
• June 23
  • Clyfford Still, American painter (b. 1904)
  • John Laurie, Scottish actor (b. 1897)
  • V. V. Giri, Indian politician and 4th President of India (b. 1894)
• June 24 – Boris Kaufman, Russian cinematographer (b. 1897)
• June 26 – Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Jacob III (b. 1912)
• June 27 – Carey McWilliams, American author, editor and lawyer (b. 1905)
• June 28 – José Iturbi, Spanish conductor and musician (b. 1895)

July

Peter Sellers

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

• July – Robert Brackman, American painter (b. 1898)
• July 1 – C. P. Snow, British physicist and novelist (b. 1905)
• July 3
  • Deng Hua, Chinese general (b. 1910)
  • Abdelhamid Sharaf, 51st Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1939)
• July 4 – Gregory Bateson, British anthropologist, anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, semiotician and cyberneticist (b. 1904)
• July 6 – Gail Patrick, American actress (b. 1911)
• July 7
  • Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia (b. 1901)
  • Reginald Gardiner, English actor (b. 1903)
  • Dore Schary, American film writer, director and producer (b. 1905)
  • Dan White, American actor (b. 1908)
• July 8 – Rudolf Creutz, Austrian criminal (b. 1896)
• July 9 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian writer, poet and diplomat (b. 1913)
• July 13 – Seretse Khama, 1st President of Botswana (b. 1921)
• July 15 – Ben Selvin, American orchestra leader and recording artist (b. 1898)
• July 17
  • Red Barry, American actor (b. 1912)
  • Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)
• July 19 – Nihat Erim, Turkish politician and jurist, 30th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1912)
• July 20 – Lado Gudiashvili, Soviet painter (b. 1896)
• July 21 – Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Syrian politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Syria (b. 1912)
• July 22 – Hans-Georg Bürger, German racing driver (b. 1952)
• July 23 – Keith Godchaux, American musician (b. 1948)
• July 24 – Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor (b. 1925)
• July 25
  • Tony Catalano, American football player (b. 1895)
  • Vladimir Vysotsky, Soviet singer-songwriter, poet and actor (b. 1938)
• July 26
  • Allen Hoskins, American actor (b. 1920)
  • Kenneth Tynan, English theatre critic (b. 1927)
• July 27 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1919)
• July 28 – Maria Luisa Monteiro da Cunha, Brazilian librarian (b. 1908)
• July 30 – Lucien Dalsace, French actor (b. 1893)
• July 31
  • Pascual Jordan, German physicist (b. 1902)
  • Bobby Van, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1928)

August

Yahya Khan

• August 1
  • Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (b. 1944)
  • Strother Martin, American actor (b. 1919)
• August 2 – Donald Ogden Stewart, American writer (b. 1894)
• August 9
  • Harry Bell, Australian footballer (b. 1897)
  • Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
  • Elliott Nugent, American actor (b. 1896)
• August 10
  • Gareth Evans, British philosopher (b. 1946)
  • Yahya Khan, Pakistani general and statesman, 3rd President of Pakistan (b. 1917)
• August 14 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress and model (murdered) (b. 1960)
• August 15 – William Hood Simpson, American general (b. 1888)
• August 18 – Arman, Iranian-born Soviet actor (b. 1921)
• August 19 – Otto Frank, German father of Jewish diarist Anne Frank (b. 1889)
• August 20 – Joe Dassin, American-born French singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
• August 22 – Norman Shelley, British actor (b. 1903)
• August 24 – Yootha Joyce, British actress (b. 1927)
• August 25 – Gower Champion, American theatre director, choreographer and dancer (b. 1919)
• August 26 – Tex Avery, American cartoonist (b. 1908)

September

Jean Piaget

John Bonham

• September 3
  • Barbara O'Neil, American actress (b. 1909)
  • Dirch Passer, Danish actor (b. 1926)
  • Duncan Renaldo, American actor (b. 1904)
• September 4
  • Pepe Abad, Spanish-born Chilean television presenter and radio host (b. 1932)
  • George Murray Burnett, British mathematician and chemist (b. 1921)
• September 8 – Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
• September 9 – Manzoor Ali Khan, Pakistani classical singer (b. 1922)
• September 12 – Lillian Randolph, American actress (b. 1898)
• September 14 – Domingo Acedo, Spanish football player (b. 1898)
• September 15 – Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (b. 1929)
• September 16
  • Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (b. 1896)
  • Julio Franco Arango, Colombian Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1914)
• September 17 – Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicataguan politician, President of Nicaragua (b. 1925)
• September 18 – Katherine Anne Porter, American author (b. 1890)
• September 19 – Sol Lesser, American film producer (b. 1890)
• September 23 – Jacobus Johannes Fouché, 5th President of South Africa (b. 1898)
• September 25
  • John Bonham, British rock drummer (Led Zeppelin) (b. 1948)
  • Lewis Milestone, American film director (b. 1895)
  • Marie Under, Estonian poet (b. 1883)
• September 30
  • John McGuire, American actor (b. 1929)
  • Peter, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1922)

October

Edelmiro Julián Farrell

• October 2 – John Kotelawala, Sri Lanka soldier and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Ceylon (b. 1895)
• October 6 – Hattie Jacques, British actress (b. 1922)
• October 7 – Sydney Gordon Russell, English designer and craftsman (b. 1892)
• October 10 – Billie Thomas, American actor (b. 1931)
• October 12 – Alberto Demicheli, Uruguayan political figure, President of Uruguay ("de facto") (b. 1896)
• October 15 – Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark (b. 1908)
• October 18 – Hans Ehard, German lawyer and politician (b. 1887)
• October 21
  • Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician after whom Asperger syndrome was named (b. 1906)
  • Valko Chervenkov, Bulgarian politician, 34th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1900)
  • Edelmiro Julián Farrell, Argentine general, 28th President of Argentina (d. 1887)
• October 23 – Mariano Suárez, Ecuadorian politician, 27th President of Ecuador (b. 1897)
• October 25
  • Virgil Fox, American organist (b. 1912)
  • Víctor Galíndez, Argentine boxer (race car accident) (b. 1948)
  • Sahir Ludhianvi, Urdu/Hindustani poet and Hindi film lyricist (b. 1921)
• October 26 – Marcelo Caetano, Portuguese politician and scholar, 101st Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1906)
• October 27
  • Steve Peregrin Took, British rock musician (b. 1949)
  • John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• October 29 – Giorgio Borġ Olivier, Maltese politician and statesman, 7th Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1911)
• October 31 – Elizebeth Smith Friedman, American cryptographer (b. 1892)

November

Steve McQueen

John McEwen

Sara García

Mae West

• November 4
  • Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (b. 1904)
  • Johnny Owen, Welsh professional boxer (b. 1956)
• November 7 – Steve McQueen, American actor (b. 1930)
• November 9
  • Gloria Guinness, Mexican-born American fashion icon (b. 1912)
  • Carmel Myers, American actress (b. 1899)
  • Victor Sen Yung, American actor (b. 1915)
• November 16
  • Boris Aronson, Russian set designer (b. 1898)
  • Imogen Hassall, English actress (b. 1942)
• November 18 – Conn Smythe, Canadian NHL coach (b. 1895)
• November 19 – E. J. Bowen, English chemist (b. 1898)
• November 20
  • Avtandil Gogoberidze, Soviet football player (b. 1922)
  • John McEwen, Australian politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1900)
• November 21 – Sara García, Mexican actress (b. 1895)
• November 22
  • Norah McGuinness, Northern Irish painter and illustrator (b. 1901)
  • Mae West, American actress (b. 1893)
• November 24 – George Raft, American actor (b. 1901)
• November 26 – Rachel Roberts, British actress (b. 1927)
• November 27 – F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect (b. 1882)
• November 29
  • Dorothy Day, American journalist, activist, Roman Catholic convert and Servant of God (b. 1897)
  • Babe London, American actress and comedian (b. 1901)

December

John Lennon

Colonel Sanders

Alexei Kosygin

Héctor José Cámpora

Karl Dönitz

• December 2
  • Jean Donovan, American Roman Catholic missionary (b. 1953)
  • Murder of the Three American Roman Catholic fellow missionaries by Salvadorian military:
    • Maura Clarke (b. 1931)
    • Ita Ford (b. 1940)
    • Dorothy Kazel (b. 1939)
  • Romain Gary, Lithuanian-born writer (b. 1914)
• December 3 – Sir Oswald Mosley, British fascist leader (b. 1896)
• December 4
  • Francisco de Sá Carneiro, Portuguese lawyer, 109th Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1934)
  • Stanisława Walasiewicz, Polish-born runner (b. 1911)
• December 7 – Darby Crash, American rock songwriter, singer (b. 1958)
• December 8 – John Lennon, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
• December 9 – Patriarch Benedict I of Jerusalem (b. 1892)
• December 11 – Dorothy West, American actress (b. 1891)
• December 12
  • Bruno Bartolozzi, Italian composer (b. 1911)
  • Erich Jantsch, Austrian astrophysicist (b. 1929)
  • Severino Montano, Filipino actor, director and playwright (b. 1915)
• December 14 – Elston Howard, American baseball player (b. 1929)
• December 16
  • Colonel Sanders, American fast-food entrepreneur (b. 1890)
  • Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (b. 1900)
  • Peter Collinson, British film director (b. 1936)
• December 17 – Chiang Kuei, Chinese novelist (b. 1908)
• December 18
  • Frances Fuller, American actress (b. 1907)
  • Alexei Kosygin, Soviet politician, Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1904)
  • Sir Albert Margai, 2nd Prime Minister of Sierra Leone (b. 1910)
• December 19 – Héctor José Cámpora, Argentine Peronist politician, 38th President of Argentina (b. 1909)
• December 21 – Marc Connelly, American playwright (b. 1890)
• December 23 – Frank Norman, English novelist, playwright and autobiographer (b. 1930)
• December 24
  • Karl Dönitz, German admiral and 4th President of Germany (b. 1891)
  • Heikki Liimatainen, Finnish Olympic athlete (b. 1894)
  • Siggie Nordstrom, American model, actress, entertainer, socialite and lead singer (b. 1893)
• December 25 – Victoria Drummond, first woman marine engineer in Britain (b. 1894)
• December 28
  • Alfredo Barrera Vásquez, Mexican anthropologist (b. 1900)
  • Sam Levene, American actor (b. 1905)
• December 29 – Tim Hardin, American musician (b. 1941)
• December 30 – Giuseppe Carraro, Italian Roman Catholic bishop and venerable (b. 1899)
• December 31
  • Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author and professor (b. 1911)
  • Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)

Date Unknown

• Nureddine Rifai, 25th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1899)

Movies released

• Airplane!
• The Blue Lagoon
• The Blues Brothers
• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• The Island
• Popeye
• Stir Crazy
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
• Used Cars
• 9 to 5

TV Series

• Gumby Adventures – The first Gumby in 1980's. Gumby episode is "The Music Ball", "Shrink-a-Dink" and "Hatching Out" in November 1, 1980 first aired.

Hit Songs

• "A Forest" – The Cure
• "All Out of Love" – Air Supply
• "Any Way You Want It" – Journey
• "Another One Bites The Dust"-Queen
• "Ashes To Ashes" – David Bowie
• "Babe" – Styx
• "Back Together Again" – Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway
• "Borrowed Time" – Styx
• "Breaking the Law" – Judas Priest
• "Cheap Wine" – Cold Chisel
• "Fool in the Rain" – Led Zeppelin
• "Freewill" – Rush
• "Good Morning Girl" – Journey
• "Hungry Heart" – Bruce Springsteen
• "I Can't Tell You Why" – The Eagles
• "I Hope I Never – Split Enz
• "Living After Midnight" – Judas Priest
• "London Calling" – The Clash
• "Love The World Away" – Kenny Rogers
• "Metal Gods" – Judas Priest
• "On And On And On" – ABBA
• "People – Mi-Sex
• "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" – Aerosmith
• "Stay Awhile" – Journey
• "Suddenly" – Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard
• "Super Trouper" – ABBA
• "The Winner Takes It All" – ABBA
• "Too Late" – Journey
• "Train in Vain" – The Clash
• "Tulsa Time" – Eric Clapton
• "Turn It On Again" – Genesis
• "Why Me" – Styx
• "You May Be Right" – Billy Joel
• (Just Like) Starting Over – John Lennon
• Another Brick In The Wall, Part II – Pink Floyd
• Another One Bites The Dust- Queen
• Call Me – Blondie
• Coming Up – Paul McCartney & Wings
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
• It's Still Rock And Roll To Me – Billy Joel
• Lady – Kenny Rogers
• Magic -Olivia Newton-John
• Rock With You – Michael Jackson
• Upside Down – Diana Ross
• Woman In Love – Barbra Streisand