1983 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Baudouin
• Prime Minister: Wilfried Martens

Events

• 1 January – In the Flemish municipality of Voeren, the controversial French-speaking José Happart is installed as mayor. However, Mayor Happart refuses to learn Dutch, which is contrary to the Belgian Constitution.
• 1 April – Master scammer William Vandergucht withdraws 76 million Belgian francs from an ASLK bank branch in Ghent with a bad check and disappears without a trace.
• 17 May –The first scratchcard is introduced in Belgium: Presto from the National Lottery.
• 23 October – A very large peace demonstration is taking place in Brussels against the installation of NATO cruise missiles on Belgian territory with around 400,000 demonstrators according to the organizers.

Publications

• Hugo Claus, Het verdriet van België
• Francis Delpérée, Chroniques de crise, 1977-1982
• Ernest Vandevyvere, De watervoorziening te Brugge van de 13e tot de 20e eeuw
• I. Verbeeck, ''Functionele analyse van de sleepdiensten in de haven van Antwerpen''

Art and architecture

Births

• 25 January – Astrid Coppens, performer
• 31 January – Tom Vangeneugden, Olympic swimmer
• 26 February – Andrei Lugovski, Belarusian-born tenor
• 12 March – Sigrid Persoon, gymnast
• 11 May – Frédéric Xhonneux, athlete
• 2 June – Jo Deman, scouting executive
• 12 September – Niels Tas, politician
• 16 September – Katerine Avgoustakis, singer
• 6 October – Nina van Koeckhoven, athlete
• 25 October – Nawell Madani, media figure
• 26 December – Jeroen Soete, politician

Deaths

• 3 March- Hergé,comics author
• 15 March – Albert-Émile de Beauffort, colonial administrator
• 11 July – Paul Harsin, historian
• 25 September – Leopold III