December 1980

December 1, 1980 (Monday)

• South Korea began color television broadcasting, introduced by the public Korean Broadcasting System with the inauguration of its second network, "KBS2" on Channel 7. Until then, South Korean manufacturers like Samsung were on their way to becoming one of the world's major producers of color television monitors but unable to sell them at home. The restriction was only lifted by the government on August 1.
• Popular Czechoslovak vocalist Marika Gombitová was paralyzed after being seriously injured in a car accident while being driven to one of her band's concerts. The car she was in went out of control as she was traveling from Brno to Bratislava and flipped over multiple times near Hustopeče. Despite her disability, Gombitova would return to recording and performing concerts and remained popular in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic after the breakup of Czechoslovakia.
• Bravo, a cable television network acquired in 2001 by NBC, was launched in the United States as a channel "devoted exclusively to the performing arts", starting at 8:00 in the evening with its own news program, Bravo Magazine, followed by a tribute to composer Aaron Copland. Initially, Bravo's programming was available only on Sundays and Mondays, from 8:00 pm to 2:00 am.
• The city of Poway, California, a suburb of San Diego, was incorporated after a November 4 approval by the voters in the unincorporated area of San Diego County. As of 2020, Poway has a population of almost 50,000. The city of Santee, California, another San Diego suburb, was incorporated on the same day.

  December 2, 1980 (Tuesday)

• A missionary and three Roman Catholic nuns, all Americans, were raped and murdered by members of the El Salvador National Guarda military death squad in El Salvador while doing charity work during that country's civil war. The four were returning home from the airport when they were stopped and executed by five guardsmen at a secluded spot. The bodies of the four Americans were discovered two days later, and a local judge had signed an order for their burial without notifying anyone.
• The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was signed into law by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, adding more than of Alaskan land to double the area covered by the U.S. National Park Service.
• The Central Committee of Poland's ruling Communist party, the Polish United Workers' Party, dismissed four members of the Party's Politburo who had urged retaliation against the Solidarity Union. Wladyslaw Kruczek, General Stanislaw Kowalczyk, Alojzy Karkoszka and Andrzej Werblan, who had been supporters of former General Secretary Edward Gierek, were replaced by people loyal to the new General Secretary, Stanislaw Kania.
• Journalist Robert Dreyfuss became the first person to suggest the "October Surprise", a link between Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign and the decision by the government of Iran to prolong the Iran Hostage Crisis until after the U.S. presidential election. Dreyfuss made the allegation in his article, "Strange diplomacy in Iran", in a magazine published by left-wing political activist Lyndon LaRouche, Executive Intelligence Review.
• Died: Romain Gary, 66, French novelist and diplomat, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

  December 3, 1980 (Wednesday)

• Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, fugitives from the leftist militant group Weather Underground, turned themselves in at the U.S. District Attorney's office in Chicago after having been fugitives for more than 11 years. During much of the 1970s, Dohrn and Ayers lived together in Chicago under the aliases Christine Douglas and Anthony J. Lee, respectively. Dohrn later became a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, while Ayers became a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
• The Kaidun meteorite impacted in South Yemen on the grounds of a Soviet Army base near Al-Khuraybah. Most of the meteorite had burned up as it passed through Earth's atmosphere, but a stone weighing was recovered from an impact pit.
• Born: Anna Chlumsky, American actress; in Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois
• Died: Sir Oswald Mosley, 84, former British MP who founded and led the British Union of Fascists, died in exile in France.

  December 4, 1980 (Thursday)

• One of the most popular films of 1981, Superman II, was first shown in theaters as it premiered in Australia. Sydney Morning Herald critic Meaghan Morris recommended that viewers see the film "in a hurry before some insensitive soul tells you all and spoils the surprises", and praised it for allowing Superman to "come to terms with his sexuality" and for its "series of hilarious one-liners" to help make the adventure saga "one of the funniest films of the year". With Christopher Reeve reprising his dual role as Clark Kent and Superman, the film would be released in the UK four months later on April 9, and in the United States on June 19, 1981.
• In the Gang of Four trial in Beijing, the widow of the late Chairman Mao Zedong, Jiang Qing, confessed on the witness stand that she had ordered the 1968 persecution of China's head of state Liu Shaoqi during the Cultural Revolution. Liu had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and was imprisoned and tortured, before dying of pneumonia the following year. Liu's widow, Wang Guangmei, had spent more than 10 years in solitary confinement until being released after the death of Mao.
• Speakers of the Xhosa language in South Africa voted in favor of making their area the semi-independent Republic of Ciskei, the fourth of South Africa's Bantustans or "homelands". With a capital at Kingwilliamstown, Ciskei would have a population of two million people, of which only 600,000 lived within its boundaries. The 1.4 million non-white designated people who lived and worked in the "white areas" outside of Ciskei were declared no longer eligible for South African citizenship, but would still be entitled to the limited residential and employment rights that had been set aside by the South African government for non-whites classified as black or as mix-race coloured. The nominally independent nation would exist until April 27, 1994, and then be re-incorporated into South Africa as apartheid gave way to majority rule. Ciskei and the other Xhosa-speaking Bantustan, Transkei, are now part of the Eastern Cape Province.
• Portugal's Prime Minister Francisco de Sá Carneiro was killed in a plane crash along with Defense Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa and five other people. Sá Carneiro had been on his way to Porto to campaign for General Antonio Soares Carneiro, three days before the presidential election in which Antonio Ramalho Eanes was running for a second term. The twin engine Cessna 421 crashed into a house in Camarate shortly after taking off from Portela Airport in Lisbon. Initially ruled to be an accident, the crash would later become the subject of several murder investigations. The statute of limitations having expired on criminal charges in 2005, several people have come forward saying that they were part of a conspiracy to assassinate Sá Carneiro and da Costa by planting a bomb on the aircraft.
• British rock band Led Zeppelin officially broke up two months after the death of drummer John Bonham, who died on September 25, 1980, by pulmonary aspiration. The band announced, "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as were."
• A fire at a hotel in Harrison, New York killed 13 of the top executives of Arrow Electronics Corporation and 11 executives of the Nestlé USA, Inc., the American subsidiary of the Swiss-based conglomerate Nestlé SA. The blaze broke out on the third floor of the Stouffer's Inn, where several conference rooms were hosting meetings. Seven victims were found in a walk-in closet that they had confused for a fire exit during their escape, and three others were located at a fire exit that had been locked with a deadbolt. Although the guest bedrooms had sprinkler systems, the same feature had not been installed in the conference rooms.
• In the small town of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, police chief Gregory B. Adams was shot and then beaten to death by Donald Eugene Webb after pulling him over in a parking lot. The killing was only the second in the history of Saxonburg and the first there since 1942. Webb was then placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, remaining there for more than 25 years, but was never apprehended. In 2017, Webb's remains were found in Dartmouth, New Hampshire at the home of his wife, who had kept him hidden until he died of a stroke on December 30, 1999. Before dying, Adams had managed to permanently disfigure Webb's face and to give his killer a compound fracture that failed to heal properly.
• Died: Don "Jeep" Warrington, 32, Canadian Football League running back, died two days after being fatally injured in a car crash near Sherwood Park, Alberta.

  December 5, 1980 (Friday)

• The leaders of the seven Warsaw Pact nations held an emergency meeting in Moscow to discuss solutions to the problems with the challenge to the Communist government in Poland, including a review of the recent shakeup in the Polish United Workers' Parties. After questioning Poland's leader Stanislaw Kania, the Soviet Union and the other six nations elected not to intervene. An official government statement said the nations "expressed confidence that Communists, the working class, and the working people of fraternal Poland will be able to overcome the president difficulties and will assure the country's development along the socialist path" and added that "the Polish people can firmly count on the fraternal solidarity and support of the Warsaw Treaty countries... Poland has been, is and will remain a socialist state, a firm link in the commonwealth of socialism."
• Died:
• *Michael J. Halberstam, 48, American heart surgeon and novelist, was shot and killed by a burglar at his home in Great Falls, Virginia. Halberstam and his wife had come home to find Bernard C. Welch, Jr., burglarizing their house. Mortally wounded, Dr. Halberstam tried to drive himself to the hospital and even struck Welch with his car after recognizing him. Taken by ambulance to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, Halberstam died on the operating table. A search of Welch's expensive Great Falls home found that he had garnered four million dollars' worth of stolen goods that he had gotten from burglarizing the homes of wealthy people.
• *Stella Walsh, 69, Polish-born American sprinter who won a gold medal for Poland in the 1932 Olympics, was shot and killed in the parking lot of a discount store in Cleveland. Originally named Stanislawa Walaslewicz, she had lived in the U.S. since the age of 2 and became a citizen in 1947.