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January 2 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows at the Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City.

January 8 - A riot breaks out at Sing Sing prison, New York.

January 10 - Mafia hitman Roy DeMeo is found dead in the trunk of his own car.

January 15 - Mafioso Meyer Lansky dies at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

January 19 - High ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

January 22 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.

January 24 - Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Aldo Moro.

January 26 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.

January 26 - Red rain falls in the UK, caused by sand from the Sahara Desert in the droplets.

January 31 - Seatbelt use for drivers and front seat passengers becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.

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February 2 - Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial for multiple counts of bigamy involving 105 women.

February 3 - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament for elections on March 5. Bob Hawke replaces Bill Hayden as federal ALP leader.

February 6 - Klaus Barbie is officially charged with war crimes.

February 7 - Iran opens an invasion in the southeast of Iraq.

February 13 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims 1983 "The Year of the Bible".

February 16 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 76 people in one of Australia's worst fires ever.

February 18 - Wah Mee massacre: 13 people are killed in an attempted robbery in Seattle, Washington.

February 23 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announces its intention to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.

February 24 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report critical of the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.

February 25 - U.S. playwright Tennessee Williams is found dead in his hotel room.

February 28 - The TV series M*A*S*H ends after 11 years and 251 episodes on CBS.

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March 1 - The Irish band U2 releases its 3rd album War.

March 1 - The Balearic Islands and Madrid become autonomous communities of Spain.

March 1 - Swatch introduces their first watches.

March 5 - Bob Hawke is elected Prime Minister of Australia.

March 8 - IBM releases the IBM PC XT.

March 8 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."

March 9 - Anne Burford resigns as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency amid scandal.

March 11 - Australia's First Hawke Ministry is sworn in; Andrew Peacock becomes Federal Opposition leader.

March 16 - The radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany, is demolished.

March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."

March 23 - The Apatosaurus is made the official state dinosaur of Guam.

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April 7 - STS-6: Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).

April 11 - The National Economic Summit is held in Canberra, Australia.

April 12 - The British film Gandhi wins 8 Oscars.

April 12 - Harold Washington is elected the first African American mayor of Chicago.

April 15 - American Public Radio is founded; changes its name to the current Public Radio International in 1994.

April 15 - The first non-American Disney theme park opens in Japan as Tokyo Disneyland.

April 18 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, killing 63 people.

April 22 - Soviet Embassy official Valery Ivanov is expelled from Australia for allegedly trying to recruit spies in the Australian government.

April 23 - Stern magazine in West Germany announces it has the Hitler Diaries.

April 23 - Corinne Hermès wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 for Luxembourg with the song, Si la vie est cadeau.

April 25 - Manchester, Maine schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov, after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.

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May 6 - Stern magazine publishes the "Hitler Diaries" (later found to be forgeries).

May 9 - Pope John Paul II retracts the ban on Galileo Galilei.

May 11 - Aberdeen FC wins the European Cup Winners Cup - beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the final played in Gothenburg, Sweden.

May 16 - London police begin the use of wheel clamps on illegally-parked vehicles.

May 16 - NSW Premier Neville Wran steps down, in response to allegations raised by ABC program Four Corners that he attempted to influence the NSW Majestry

May 17 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

May 25 - Return of the Jedi opens in the United States.

May 28 - The 9th G7 summit begins at Williamsburg, Virginia.

May 29 - 67th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Tom Sneva wins his first race after three previous runner-up finishes.

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Shipbreaking begins on the beach at Alang in Gujarat.

June 9 - Conservative Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1979, wins a landslide victory (42% of the popular vote) over Michael Foot, who led a highly-divided and weakened Labour Party which earned only 28% of the vote. The much improved economy (after 2-3 years of restructuring), her victory in the Falkands, as well as shrinking unemployment rates consolidates her election victory.

June 13 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.

June 18 - STS-7: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

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July 1 - A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea, crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.

July 1 - The High Court of Australia blocks construction of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania.

July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see April 25).

July 16 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.

July 20 - The government of Poland announces end of martial law and amnesty for political prisoners.

July 22 - Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation in a helicopter.

July 23 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 crash-lands in Gimli, Manitoba.

July 23 - The Black July massacre of Tamils occurs in Sri Lanka.

July 24 - George Brett and The Pine Tar Incident, Yankee Stadium, New York.

July 25 - Anti-Tamil riots break out in Sri Lanka which leaves over 3,000 Tamils massacred and millions of dollars worth of their property destroyed. This genocide is the beginning of a deadly civil war and ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka.

July 25 - Metallica releases their debut album Kill 'Em All.

July 28 - New South Wales premier Neville Wran is exonerated by the Street Royal Commission, over claims raised by ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programme Four Corners, that he attempted to influence the NSW magistracy.

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August 4 - Thomas Sankara becomes President in Upper Volta.

August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion (2005 dollars) in damage.

August 18 - Five people are killed and 18 others injured when a road train is deliberately driven into a motel at Ayers Rock (Uluru), NT (The driver, Douglas Edward Crabbe, was found guilty of this in March 1984).

August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.

August 24 - The Old Philadelphia Arena is destroyed by arson.

August 30 - STS-8: Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off, carrying Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American astronaut, into space.

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September 1 - Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed.

September 4 - Six men walk underwater across the Sydney Harbor - 82.9 km in 48 hours.

September 5 - Tom Brokaw becomes lead anchor for NBC Nightly News.

September 6 - The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

September 10 - Jon Brower Minnoch, the heaviest man in the U.S., dies weighing 362 kg. When he was admitted to the hospital in March 1978, his weight was 635 kg.

September 16 - Donna Griffiths of Pershore in England stops sneezing after a continual series of sneezes for 978 days (since January 13, 1981).

September 17 - Vanessa Lynn Williams becomes the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

September 23 - Violence erupts in New Caledonia between native Kanaks and French expatriates. The French government withdraws the promise of independence.

September 23 - Mass outbreak in Maze prison: 38 prisoners hijack a lorry and crash out of the gate; 1 guard is killed and 5 others injured. Nineteen of the prisoners are later apprehended.

September 25-September 26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.

September 26 - Australia wins America's Cup.

September 27 - The GNU Project is announced publicly on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups.

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October 2 - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the British Labour Party.

October 4 - Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

October 4 - Hooters opens up in Clearwater, Florida

October 7 - A plan to abolish the Greater London Council is announced.

October 9 - The Rangoon bombing kills South Korea's Foreign Minister, Lee Bum Suk, and 21 others.

October 12 - Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed, and sentenced to four years in jail.

October 19 - Maurice Bishop, the Prime Minister of Grenada, and 40 others are executed in a military coup.

October 21 - At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

October 22 - In Bonn, West Germany, people demonstrate for nuclear disarmament.

October 23 - Simultaneous suicide truck-bombings destroy both the French and the United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 US servicemen, 58 French paratroopers and 6 Lebanese civilians.

October 24 - Arthur Hutchinson kills three members of Laitner family and rapes their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore.

October 25 - United States troops invade Grenada at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.

October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits his would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca in prison to forgive him.

October 30 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after 7 years of military rule are held.

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November 2 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

November 3 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the 1984 Democratic Party nomination for U.S. President.

November 5 - The worst offshore diving accident ever, happens on board the Byford Dolphin rig in the North Sea of the coast of Norway. Five divers are killed and one severely wounded in an explosive decompression accident.

November 11 - President Reagan became the first U.S. chief executive to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.

November 13 - The first US cruise missiles arrive at Greenham Common Airbase in England amid protests from peace campaigners.

November 15 - The Turkish part of Cyprus declares independence.

November 16 - A jury in Gretna, Louisiana acquits Ginny Foat of the murder of Argentine businessman Moses Chaiyo.

November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.

November 24 - Fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough, England (Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988).

November 26 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold is ever recovered, and only 2 men are convicted of the crime.

November 30 - Microsoft Word is first released.

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December 9 - The Australian Dollar is floated, by Federal treasurer Paul Keating. Under the old flexible peg system, the Reserve Bank bought and sold all Australian dollars and cleared the market at the end of the day. This initiative is taken by the government of Bob Hawke.

December 10 - Military rule ends and democracy is restored in Argentina.

December 13 - The Denver Nuggets and the visiting Detroit Pistons combine for an NBA record 370 points, with Detroit winning in triple overtime, 186-184.

December 17 - A fire at a discotheque in Madrid, Spain, kills 83 people.

December 17 - A Provisional IRA car bomb kills six Christmas shoppers and injures 90 outside Harrods in London.

December 29 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson travels to Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who has been in Syrian captivity after being shot down over the country on a reconnaisance mission.

December 31 - Brunei gains independence from the United Kingdom.

December 31 - Two bombs explode in France. One on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. The other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34.

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The Dodge Caravan, the first minivan to enter production, is released as a 1984 model.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program launched in U.S.

Flashdance and Return of the Jedi are box-office hits.

Gerard Debreu wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

The immunosuppressant cyclosporine was approved by FDA, leading to a revolution in the field of transplantation.

In Australia, the Northern Territory decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults

Kellogg's introduces Crispix cereal.

Leopold Kohr, the people of Belau, Amory and Hunter Lovins / Rocky Mountain Institute and Manfred Max-Neef / CEPAUR win the Right Livelihood Award

McDonald's introduces the McNugget

MyFamily was founded.

Roxanne Pulitzer divorces Herbert Pulitzer

Kary Mullis discovers polymerase chain reaction while working for Cetus

The De Lorean Motor Company ceases production.

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January 2 - Kate Bosworth, American actress

January 4 - Spencer Chamberlain, American musician (UnderOATH)

January 8 - Chris Masters, American wrestler

January 18 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress

January 19 - Hikaru Utada, Japanese singer and songwriter

January 20 - Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer and DJ

January 23 - David Firth, British flash animator

January 24 - Scott Speed, American racecar driver

February 7 - Elin Grindemyr, Swedish model

February 8 - Jim Verraros, American singer

February 8 - Atiba Hutchinson, Canadian footballer

February 19 - Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress

February 19 - Ryan Whitney, American hockey player

February 23 - Mido, Egyptian footballer

February 27 - Devin Harris, American basketball player

March 10 - Carrie Underwood, American singer

March 10 - Reena Virk, Canadian murder victim (d. 1997)

March 14 - Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer

March 14 - Taylor Hanson, American musician

March 15 - Sean Biggerstaff, British actor

March 21 - Bruno Langley, British actor

March 28 - Ryan Ashington, English footballer

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April 10 - Ryan Merriman, American actor

April 13 - Schalk Burger, South African rugby player

April 14 - Simon Burnett, British swimmer

April 15 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player

April 17 - Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player

April 21 - Paweł Brożek, Polish footballer

April 22 - Matt Jones, American football player

April 22 - Sean Muir, American playwright

April 23 - Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakian tennis player

May 11 - Matt Leinart, American football player

May 11 - Holly Valance, Australian actress and singer

May 13 - Natalie Cassidy, British actress (EastEnders)

May 14 - Amber Tamblyn, American actress

May 18 - Vince Young, American football player

May 27 - Bobby Convey, American soccer player

May 30 - Jennifer Ellison, British actress

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June 6 - Joe Rokocoko, New Zealand rugby player

June 8 - Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player

June 9 - Vic Zhou, Chinese actor and singer

June 13 - Jason Spezza, Canadian hockey player

June 15 - Julia Fischer, German violinist

June 17 - Lee Ryan, British singer

June 18 - Billy Slater, Australian Rugby League

June 24 - Alexander Beyer, German actor

June 30 - Cheryl Tweedy, British singer

July 2 - Michelle Branch, American singer

July 6 - Gregory Smith, Canadian-born American actor

July 11 - Marie Eleonor Sernehlot, Swedish-born American singer (A*Teens)

July 12 - Megumi Kawamura, Japanese model

July 13 - Liu Xiang, Chinese athlete

July 21 - Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer

July 21 - Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player

July 23 - Bec Cartwright, Australian actress

July 23 - Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer

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August 5 - Sam Stacey, British model

August 6 - Robin van Persie, Dutch football player

August 14 - Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress

August 16 - Nikos Zisis, Greek Basketball Player

August 19 - Tammin Sursok, Australian actress

August 21 - Chantelle Houghton, British reality TV star

August 23 - Nicol David, Malaysian squash player

August 24 - Christopher Parker, British actor

September 1 - José Antonio Reyes, Spanish football player

September 17 - Jennifer Peña, American singer

September 21 - Maggie Grace, American actress

September 21 - Joseph Mazzello, American actor

September 24 - Randy Foye, American basketball player

September 26 - Samantha Hammel, American producer, actress and singer

October 4 - Risa Kudo, Japanese gravure idol

October 5 - Nicky Hilton, American model and socialite

October 10 - Alyson Hau, Hong Kong Radio DJ

October 14 - Vanessa Lane, American &
112;orn star

October 17 - Michelle Ang, Australian actress

October 24 - Brian Vickers, American race car driver

October 29 - Amit Sebastian Paul, Swedish-born American singer (A*Teens)

October 29 - Richard Brancatisano, Australian actor/musician (Power Rangers: Mystic Force)

October 30 - Diana Karazon, Jordanian singer

November 8 - Blanka Vlašić, Croatian high jumper

November 11 - Philipp Lahm, German footballer

November 16 - Fallon Bowman, South African-born guitarist (Kittie)

November 18 - Mila J, American singer/rapper

November 18 - Jon Johansen, Norwegian computer programmer

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December 6 - Bryan Habana, South African rugby player

December 9 - Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer

December 10 - Patrick Flueger, American actor (Law & Order: SVU, The 4400)

December 12 - Katrina Elam, American singer

December 12 - Brad Smith, American football player

December 13 - Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer

December 15 - René Duprée, Canadian professional wrestler

December 17 - Erik Christensen, Canadian hockey player

December 20 - Lucy Pinder, British model

December 31 - Sayaka Ichii, Japanese singer

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January 11 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist and educator (b. 1894)

January 15 - Meyer Lansky, Russian-born gangster (b. 1902)

January 23 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b. 1908)

January 24 - George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)

January 28 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890)

January 28 - Billy Fury, British Rock 'n' Roll artist of the 1960s

February 4 - Karen Carpenter, American singer (b. 1950)

February 12 - Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1887)

February 14 - Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)

February 22 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)

February 25 - Tennessee Williams, American playwright (b. 1911)

March 3 - Hergé, Belgian comics creator (b. 1907)

March 3 - Arthur Koestler, Austrian writer (b. 1905)

March 8 - William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)

March 9 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)

March 15 - Rebecca West, English-born writer (b. 1892)

March 17 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)

March 27 - Elsie Eaves, American civil engineer, George Norlin Silver Medal from the University of Colorado (b. 1898)

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April 4 - Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1897)

April 22 - Earl 'Fatha' Hines, American musician (b. 1903)

April 30 - McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, American musician (b. 1915)

May 8 - John Fante, American writer (b. 1909)

May 14 - Roger J. Traynor, American judge (b. 1900)

May 18 - Frank Aiken, Irish Foreign Minister (b. 1898)

May 19 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission (b. 1902)

May 21 - Kenneth Clark, British art historian (b. 1903)

May 22 - Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

May 31 - Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight champion boxer (b. 1895)

June 2 - Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (b. 1949)

June 12 - Norma Shearer, Canadian-born actress

June 18 - Marianne Brandt, German industrial designer (b. 1893)

June 25 - Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (b. 1916)

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July 1 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895)

July 4 - John Bodkin Adams, alleged English murderer (b. 1899)

July 7 - Vicki Morgan, American model (murdered) (b. 1952)

July 20 - Frank Reynolds, American journalist (b. 1923)

July 23 - Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)

July 29 - Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)

July 29 - David Niven, English actor (b. 1910)

August 16 - Earl Averill, baseball player (b. 1902)

August 21 - Benigno Aquino Jr., Filipino politician (b. 1932)

September 1 - Larry McDonald, U.S. Congressman (plane crash) (b. 1935)

September 10 - Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)

September 25 - King Léopold III of Belgium (b. 1901)

September 26 - Tino Rossi, Corsican singer (b. 1907)

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October 6 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (b. 1921)

October 8 - Joan Hackett, American actress (b. 1934)

October 18 - Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)

October 23 - Jessica Savitch, American journalist (drowned in a car accident) (b. 1947)

October 28 - Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (b. 1892)

November 7 - Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (b. 1892)

November 15 - John Le Mesurier, British actor (b. 1912)

December 2 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (b. 1904)

December 6 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer (b. 1903)

December 8 - Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)

December 11 - Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (b. 1897)

December 21 - Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (b. 1919)

December 23 - Colin Middleton, Northern Irish artist (b. 1910}

December 25 - Joan Miró, Catalan painter (b. 1893)

December 28 - Dennis Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (drowned) (b. 1944)

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Physics - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, William Alfred Fowler

Chemistry - Henry Taube

Medicine - Barbara McClintock

Literature - William Golding

Peace - Lech Wałęsa

Economics - Gerard Debreu

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn