Allan Dwan ( April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981 ) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.

* 1892 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aviation industrialist ( d. 1981 )

* 1892 – Lowell Thomas, American writer ( d. 1981 )

* 1981 – Robert Earnshaw, Zambian-Welsh footballer

* 1981 – Jeff Faine, American football player and agent

* 1981 – Kari Jobe, American singer and songwriter ( Gateway Worship )

* 1981 – Alex Suarez, American bassist ( Cobra Starship and This Is Ivy League )

* 1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle ( Columbia ) takes place-the STS-1 mission.

* 1981 – Nicolás Burdisso, Argentine footballer

* 1981 – Grant Holt, English footballer

* 1981 – Brian Vandborg, Danish cyclist

* 1981 – John O ' Shea, Irish footballer

* 1981 – Emma Pierson, English actress

* 1981 – Kunal Nayyar, Indian-English actor

* 1895 – Andreas Alföldi, Hungarian historian and archaeologist ( d. 1981 )

* 1933 – Joke Smit, Dutch activist and politician ( d. 1981 )

* 1981 – Maxwell Cabelino Andrade, Spanish footballer

* 1981 – Alessandro Gamberini, Italian footballer

* 1981 – Demetria McKinney, American actress

* 1981 – Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italian race car driver

* 1981 – Travie McCoy, American rapper and songwriter ( Gym Class Heroes )

* 1981 – Diána Póth, Hungarian figure skater

* 1981 – Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player

* 1981 – Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player

* 1981 – Claire Dames, American porn actress

* 1919 – Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor ( d. 1981 )

This album, which drew inspiration from both soul and Motown, was produced by Mike Hedges, who had replaced Roger Bechirian as the Undertones ' producer following the 1981 release of Positive Touch.

* January 21 – Roger Nash Baldwin, American social activist ( d. 1981 )

The last episode, in 1981, featured then-James Bond actor Roger Moore.

The film also features, as " witnesses ," interviews with the 98-year old radical educator and peace activist Scott Nearing ( 1883 – 1983 ), author Dorothy Frooks ( 1896 – 1997 ), reporter and author George Seldes ( 1890 – 1995 ), civil liberties advocate Roger Baldwin ( 1884 – 1981 ), and the American writer Henry Miller ( 1891 – 1980 ), among others.

* In 1981 Derrida, on the prompting of Roger Scruton and others, founded the French Jan Hus association with structuralist historian Jean-Pierre Vernant.

Nickelodeon originally aired a handful of episodes in edited half-hour form during 1981 as a test run, since producer Roger Price and director Geoffrey Darby had edited the entire 1981 season of You Can't Do That on Television episodes into a half-hour format similar to Whatever Turns You On for national and international syndication.

* Albany ( 1981 ), a well-known German language schlager by the British singer Roger Whittaker

Roger Wolcott Sperry ( August 20, 1913 – April 17, 1994 ) was a neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and Nobel laureate who, together with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with split-brain research.

In 1981, Roger Sperry won a Nobel Prize for his split brain research: the right hemisphere, he concluded, is indeed a conscious system in its own right – it perceives, thinks, remembers, reasons, wills and emotes, all at a characteristically human level.

* Roger Lockyer, Buckingham, the Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, 1592 – 1628 ( Longman, 1981 ).

Leakey's early published works include: Origins and The People of the Lake ( both with Roger Lewin as co-author ); The Illustrated Origin of Species ; and The Making of Mankind ( 1981 ).

The neuroscientist Roger Sperry, in his Nobel Prize lecture in 1981, described modern scientific concepts of the nature of consciousness and its relation to brain processing and emergent properties as follows:

* Roger Wilson ( rugby union ) ( born 1981 ), Irish rugby player

* 1981 Roger Yate Stanier, France

is a mystery novel written by Gary K. Wolf in 1981, later adapted into the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit ( 1988 ).

* Roger Perry ... Mr. Charles Parker ( 1981 – 1983 )

Flying Nun Records is an independent record label formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 by music-store proprietor Roger Shepherd.

* Changeling ( 1981 ) by Roger Zelazny.

* Roger Nash Baldwin, ( 1884 – 1981 ), founder of ACLU

* Bigley, Roger ( 1981 ).

Roger Taylor of Duran Duran used rototoms extensively on their self titled debut album Duran Duran of 1981.

Elements from the stories have been used in a number of the Eon Productions James Bond film series, including the 1981 film, For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore as James Bond.