* 1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.

He was succeeded by Datuk Hussein Onn, the son of UMNO ’ s founder Onn Jaafar, and then by Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, who had been Education Minister since 1981, and who held power for 22 years.

* 1981: Dr. John Hennessy at Stanford University leads research in building a microprocessor using RISC principles.

In the 20th century, painter Fritz Faiss ( 1905 – 1981 ), a student of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, together with Dr. Hans Schmid, rediscovered the so-called " Punic wax " technique of encaustic painting.

He also appeared in other films such as the Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob ( 1951 ) and the 1981 PBS production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and he had a small role in the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ( 1968 ) which was itself based on a children's book by Bond author Ian Fleming.

Cardiovascular radiologist Dr Andre Duerinckx reported in 1983 that he had first used the term in 1981.

* A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1875-1905, by Dr. Tom D. Crouch, W. W. Norton, 1981

After successful experiments with Voice over Ethernet from 1981 to 1984, Dr. W. David Sincoskie joined Bellcore and began addressing the problem of scaling up Ethernet networks.

* Dr. Joyner's son, Ben Joyner ( 1909 – 1981 ), was a Baptist minister who was living in Mansfield in De Soto Parish at the time of his death.

Kudish, Dr. Michael, 1981.

Opened in 1959, it closed in 1981 after it became known as the site of the alleged killings in the " Dr. X " murder trial of Mario Jascalevich and was torn down in 1984.

Her grandson, Dr. Lindley Murray Winston, deeded the property to the Town of Altavista in 1981 as a memorial to his family.

He reprised his role as Dr. Loomis in Halloween II ( 1981 ), IV ( 1988 ), V ( 1989 ) and VI ( 1995 ).

In an interview he gave in Arizona magazine in June 1981, Dr. Seuss claimed the book took nine months to complete due to the difficulty in writing a book from the 223 selected words.

* 1981 Dr. John H. Watson in ' Sherlock Holmes v. Dracula ' by Loren D. Estleman, dramatised and directed by Glyn Dearman, broadcast in the Saturday Night Theatre slot on BBC Radio 4.

He also became familiar to a wider audience as the well-meaning but addlepated Dr. Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark ( 1981 ) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

* Prof. Dr. Hans Wehr ( 1909 – 1981 ), Islam Scientist and Author of the leading Arabian-English dictionary ( also used for Wikipedia guidelines ).

* Dr Rob Robertson-Cuninghame ( 1981 – 1993 )

After Dr. Gorman's untimely death in 1981, Dr. Joyce White continued research and publications as Director of the Ban Chiang Project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

* Metamorphosis ( 1981 ): Skaggs played Dr. Gregor, inventor of the Cockroach Vitamin Pill, which was supposed to be a cure-all drug.

DSPD was first formally described in 1981 by Dr. Elliot D. Weitzman and others at Montefiore Medical Center.

* Mitchell W. Hecht MD FACP ( NFA Class of 1981 )-author, nationally-syndicated Q and A medical column, " Ask Dr. H " ( 1997 – present )

The purified rabbit IgG antivenom was developed in 1981 through a team effort led by Dr Struan Sutherland, head of immunology at the Australian Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne.

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

Because of the game's success, a sequel followed in 1981 dubbed Asteroids Deluxe.

Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova (; born 7 June 1981 ) is a Russian retired professional tennis player.

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

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

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

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

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

* 1981 – C. C. Swiney, American actor, writer, and director

Brearley retired from Test cricket in 1979 and was succeeded by Ian Botham, who started the 1981 series as England captain, by which time the WSC split had ended.

* 1981 – Eua Sunthornsanan, Thai composer and bandleader ( b. 1910 )

* Sanderson, Steven E. Agrarian populism and the Mexican state: the struggle for land in Sonora ( 1981 )

* 1981 – MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, " Video Killed the Radio Star " by the Buggles.

* 1981 – Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front – Suxxali Reew Mi.

* 1901 – Stefan Wyszyński, Polish cardinal ( d. 1981 )

This graph shows the proportion of world population in extreme poverty 1981 – 2008 according to the World Bank.

In 1981, Parsons, Woolfson and their record label Arista, were stalled in contract renegotiations when on 5 March the two submitted an all-instrumental atonal album tentatively titled ' The Sicilian Defence ' ( the name of an aggressive opening move in chess ), arguably to get out of their recording contract.

No. 93, ( 1981 ), pp. 483-494 in Persée

* 1981 – The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.

* 1901 – Ann Harding, American actress ( d. 1981 )