- January 11
- Michael Jackson's "Thriller" record album becomes the all-time best-selling album. With ten-million copies sold, it surpasses the soundtrack from "Saturday Night Fever". [457]
- January 13
- Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore International, resigns as president and CEO. Tramiel founded the company in 1954 as a typewriter repair service. [4]
- January 14
- In Canada, Lotto 6/49 lottery draw has a grand prize of CDN$13.9 million won by a single player in Ontario. Winning numbers are 2, 12, 29, 31, 44, 46. This is a Canadian record for a single winner, and a record for a single draw. [40.4,82]
- January 18
- Mitsui Miike coal mine explosion at Omuta, Kyushu, Japan, 83 killed. [114]
- Malcolm H Kerr, 9th president of American University of Beirut, shot dead. [1]
- January 23
- The Peace and Friendship Treaty is signed between Argentina and Chile in Vatican City. [114]
- January 24
- Apple Computer introduces the Apple Macintosh computer. It features 7.83 MHz 32-bit Motorola 68000 processor, built-in 9-inch 512x342 graphics monochrome monitor, 3.5-inch diskette drive, and 128 kB RAM. Price is $2500, well above the original $1000 target. [1] [4] [114]
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- January 26
- US navy exhibits Piasecki helistat-4 helicopters and a blimp able to lift 26 tons in Lakehurst, New Jersey. [1]
- February 1
- China and Netherlands regain diplomatic relations. [1]
- Ravindara Mhatrem, Indian diplomat, kidnapped in England (killed February 3). [1]
- Medicare comes into effect in Australia. [114]
- February 2
- Lebanese army fight in Beirut. [1]
- February 3
- Birth of first baby conceived by embryo transplant, in Long Beach, California. [1]
- Ravindara Mhatrem, Indian diplomat, killed in England. [1]
- Mattel announces it is selling its Intellivision video game business for US$20 million in cash to a group lead by Terrence Valeski, an executive of Mattel Electronics. [9]
- February 6
- Muslim militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese army. [1]
- February 7
- Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. [1] [114]
- February 8
- Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of three to Salyut 7. [1]
- February 9
- Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of Soviet Communist Party (1982-84), dies at age 69 (born 1914). [1] [114]
- February 13
- Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. [1] [114]
- Six-year-old Texan Stormie Jones gets first heart and liver transplant. [1]
- February 15
- 500,000 Iranian soldiers move into Iraq. [1]
- Leamon Hunt, US director-General in Sinai, killed by communists. [1]
- February 18
- Revised concordat between Italy and the Vatican signed. [1]
- February 19
- USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk. [1]
- February 21
- Timex withdraws from the home computer business. Timex introduced the British Sinclair Research ZX81 computer to North America as the Timex/Sinclair 1000 in 1982. Priced at $100, then dropped to $50, a lack of software and physical size and memory size limitations dampened initial public enthusiasm. [4]
- February 24
- Iraq resumes air attack on Iran. [1]
- February 25
- Oil fire in Cubatao, Brazil kills 500. [1]
- February 26
- Last US marines in multinational peace-keeping force in Lebanon leave Beirut. [1] [114]
- February 27
- Worker's union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa. [1]
- February 29
- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement. [1] [114]
- March 1
- NASA launches Landsat-D Prime (Landsat 5) to thematic map the Earth. [1]
- USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk. [1]
- March 2
- Iranian offensive against Iraq fails. [1]
- March 5
- Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons. (The United Nations condemns their use on March 30.) [1] [114]
- Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders Operation Blue Star to flush out separatist militants from Harimandir Sahib, the most sacred shrine of Sikhism. [114]
- March 6
- National Union of Mine Workers in England begin strike action (lasts 51 weeks). [114] (March 12 [1])
- March 9
- Emile Gumbs' Anguilla National Alliance wins elections. [1]
- March 14
- Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and three others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the UVF. [114]
- March 15
- Tanzania adopts constitution. [1]
- March
- David Feldman SA in Switzerland sells a Sweden 1855 3-skilling banco stamp, error in yellow, only one known, for 977,500 Swiss francs (US$455,000) in a private transaction. [673.10] [815.3] [1226.7]
- March 16
- Islamic Jihad gunmen kidnap William Buckley, US Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon (later dies in captivity). [1] [114]
- South Africa and Mozambique sign non-attack treaty. [1]
- March 19
- Mobil oil tanker spills 200,000 gallons into Columbia River. [1]
- In Western Uzbekistan, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurs. [53]
- March 21
- Soviet submarine crashes into USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier off Japan. [1]
- March 23
- General Rahimuddin Khan becomes the first man in Pakistan's history to rule over two of its provinces, after becoming interim Governor of Sindh. [114]
- March 27
- Near the north coast of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurs. [53]
- March 28
- Kenneth Whitty, first Secretary at British Embassy in Athens, is shot dead. [1]
- March 29
- USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk. [1]
- March 30
- US ends participation in multinational Lebanon peace force. [1]
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