1982
Falklands War
Argentine marines landed on the bleak South Atlantic islands Britain had ruled for a hundred and forty-nine years. Margaret Thatcher sent a task force eight thousand miles to take them back. Ten weeks later the Argentines surrendered at Stanley. Seven hundred died. The Argentine junta collapsed; Thatcher won reelection in a landslide.
Israel invades Lebanon
Israeli tanks rolled north across the Lebanese border to eject the PLO from its Beirut strongholds. They besieged the capital through the summer and Israeli forces would remain in southern Lebanon until 2000. In September, Christian Phalangist militiamen entered the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps under Israeli watch and massacred perhaps two thousand Palestinian civilians. The occupation would incubate Hezbollah.
CD released
Sony and Philips launched the compact disc in Japan, a small silver plastic circle holding seventy-four minutes of digitally encoded music read by a laser. Vinyl began its slow retreat. The digitization of music, and eventually everything, had started with a single disc said to have been sized to hold all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Brezhnev dies
After eighteen years in power, Leonid Brezhnev died at the age of seventy-five. His gerontocratic regime had presided over economic stagnation and a bloated military apparatus. His successor, Yuri Andropov, would die within fifteen months. The Soviet Union entered a period of what Russians called the funeral years before Gorbachev arrived in 1985.
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Christian Phalangist militiamen entered two Palestinian refugee camps in West Beirut while Israeli forces held the perimeter, and over three days killed perhaps two thousand civilians. The atrocity triggered worldwide condemnation and the biggest antiwar protest in Israeli history. Ariel Sharon was found indirectly responsible and forced to resign as defense minister.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1982?
Saeculum lists 5 curated events from 1982. The most significant is Falklands War: Argentine marines landed on the bleak South Atlantic islands Britain had ruled for a hundred and forty-nine years.
What era was 1982 part of?
1982 falls within the Modern Era (1901-2000). World wars, cold war, and the splitting of the atom.
Which regions saw notable events in 1982?
The curated events from 1982 span South America, Middle East, East Asia and Europe.