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

* 1981 – Ray William Johnson, American comedian

* 1918 – William Holden, American actor ( d. 1981 )

William John Clifton " Bill " Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981 ) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians.

*" Nicaragua 1981 – 1990: Destabilization in slow motion, by William Blum.

* 1905 – William Loeb III, American newspaper publisher, ( d. 1981 )

Screenwriter William Goldman identified Schaffner in 1981 as being one of the three best directors ( then living ) at handling ' scope ' ( a gift for screen epics ) in films.

* 1902 – William Wyler, French-American director ( d. 1981 )

Jetsprinting as an organised sport originated in New Zealand in 1981, and events were originally held in the same natural braided rivers that had inspired Sir William Hamilton to develop the jetboat, but when the sport was introduced to Australia in the mid-1980s permanent artificial courses were used — and this is now the norm even in New Zealand.

* Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook ( 1981 ) by Elizabeth Bond Ryan and William J. Eakins ISBN 0-89919-032-4

Almost immediately after his election as leader he was faced with a serious crisis: the creation in early 1981 of a breakaway party by four senior Labour right-wingers, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers ( the so-called " Gang of Four "), the Social Democratic Party.

* 1981 – William Holden, American actor ( b. 1918 )

In 1981, William J. Moran began discussions and research in the NRC on the dust effects of a large exchange of nuclear warheads.

The first multiprotocol routers were independently created by staff researchers at MIT and Stanford in 1981 ; the Stanford router was done by William Yeager, and the MIT one by Noel Chiappa ; both were also based on PDP-11s.

Sir Robert William Askin GCMG, ( 4 April 19079 September 1981 ) was an Australian politician and the 32nd Premier of New South Wales from 1965 to 1975, the first representing the Liberal Party of Australia.

In 1978, the NASA SETI program was heavily criticized by Senator William Proxmire, and funding for SETI research was removed from the NASA budget by Congress in 1981, however, funding was restored in 1982, after Carl Sagan talked with Proxmire and convinced him of the program's value.

* Thompson, William Irwin, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality, and the Origins of Culture ( New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981 ).

* William Jardine and other Jardine tai-pans are fictionally portrayed in author James Clavell's popular fiction novels Tai-Pan ( 1966 ), Gai-Jin ( 1993 ), Noble House ( 1981 ) and Whirlwind ( 1987 ).

* April 17 – William Holden, American actor ( d. 1981 )

* August 31 – William Saroyan, American writer ( d. 1981 )

* July 1 – William Wyler, American film director ( d. 1981 )

** William Edmunds, Italian stage and screen character actor ( d. 1981 )

The larger scientific community became aware of the significance of the EMP problem after a series of three articles were published about nuclear electromagnetic pulse in 1981 by William J.

* Kerman, J., The Masses and Motets of William Byrd ( London, 1981 )

* The Filth Amendment William Rushton ( Queen Anne Press, 1981 )