November 1981

[November 1], 1981 (Sunday)

• The nation of Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from the United Kingdom. At midnight in St. John's, Antigua, the British flag was hauled down and the Antiguan flag raised in its place at the city's cricket park. Princess Margaret, appearing on behalf of her sister, Queen Elizabeth II, presented the instruments of state to Prime Minister Vere Cornwall Bird.
• Paid maternity leave was introduced in the Soviet Union as part of the 11th Party Congress reforms.
• Born: LaTavia Roberson, American singer, in Houston

  [November 2], 1981 (Monday)

• At the U.S. Polaris nuclear submarine base at the Holy Loch in Scotland, a Poseidon missile slipped from a crane that was transferring the weapon from a ballistic missile submarine to the submarine tender. The missile fell 17 feet without incident, although the magazine New Statesman reported in its November 27 issue that the missile had ten nuclear warheads, that there had been the risk of an explosion that could have released a large radioactive cloud, and that the crews had been evacuated. Although the story has sometimes been retold as an incident where "we almost nuked Scotland" and that the fully armed Poseidon missile "did not detonate, but it could have", the magazine itself emphasized that "The risk was not thermonuclear explosion but detonation in the fierce, sensitive chemical explosives of the warhead trigger-system" that would have released a radioactive cloud.
• Born:
• *Tatiana Totmianina, Russian pair figure skater, two-time world champion and Olympic gold medals; in Perm
• *Katharine Isabelle, Canadian actress, in Vancouver
• Died: Kenneth Oakley, 70, English anthropologist whose testing exposed the Piltdown Man as a fraud.

  [November 3], 1981 (Tuesday)

• High school junior Anthony Jacques Broussard raped and strangled 14-year-old Marcy Conrad, in Milpitas, California. "The unusual, and perhaps more disturbing, aspect of the crime was what ensued in the two days between the murder and the notification of police", an author would write later. Broussard not only bragged about the murder, he took at least 13 of his classmates to see the body before one of them finally told the police.
• Demonstrators marched in Codrington, on the island of Barbuda, the smaller of the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, in support of secession from the newly independent nation. Hilbourne Frank, chairperson of the Barbuda Council, declared that at least 75% of the people wanted to separate from the more populous island of Antigua.

  [November 4], 1981 (Wednesday)

• Eagerly anticipated as mankind's first trip into space on a reused vehicle, the second launch of the space shuttle Columbia was called off at literally the last minute. Countdown halted at 00:00:31 when a computer detected an increase of oil pressure in two of the three auxiliary power units.
• Poland's Communist Party leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski conferred with Solidarność union leader Lech Wałęsa in a meeting arranged by Cardinal Józef Glemp in a last-ditch effort to resolve the labor crisis in that nation. Wałęsa declined to put the independent union under government control, and a crackdown would follow a month later.
• Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, who had been indicted for overprescribing addictive drugs to Elvis Presley was acquitted of all charges.
• Hungary applied to the World Bank. It was only the second Communist nation to join.
• The Vietnamese Buddhist Songha was created in Hanoi at the behest of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as the only legal religious organization in that nation, accountable to its government.
• After a successful off-Broadway run, Crimes of the Heart began a run at the John Golden Theatre. Playwright Beth Henley, who had been encouraged by friends four years earlier to put her script into production, would later win a Pulitzer Prize for the play, the first of several successful efforts.
• The first transfer of land was made under the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981, as South Australian premier David Tonkin transferred back to the control of the Australian Aborigines, the aboriginal landholder.
• Born: Vince Wilfork, American NFL player, in Boynton Beach, Florida

  [November 5], 1981 (Thursday)

• Following an all-night meeting in Ottawa of nine of the premiers of the ten provinces of Canada, an agreement was reached on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Excluded was René Lévesque of Quebec, who was told of the results at breakfast later that morning. The agreement of the leaders of the English-speaking provinces was that the power to opt out of application of an amendment to the future Constitution of Canada would be limited to matters of education or culture.
• It was announced from Buckingham Palace that Diana, Princess of Wales was pregnant and that her due date would be in June. Prince William would be born on June 21, 1982.
• The Glucometer, the first portable meter to measure blood sugar levels of patients with diabetes, was introduced.
• Died: Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa Lama, 57, spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu system of Tibetan Buddhism, at a hospital in Zion, Illinois. There is a dispute within the Karma Kagyu as to whether he was reincarnated as Ogyen Trinley Dorje or Trinley Thaye Dorje

  [November 6], 1981 (Friday)

• What was intended as a "tune-up" bout for WBC heavyweight boxing champion Larry Holmes nearly became an upset when unheralded challenger Renaldo Snipes nearly knocked out Holmes in the 7th round in their fight at Pittsburgh. A powerful overhand right by Snipes sent Holmes to the canvas, and the champ staggered into the post in his corner. Holmes came back into the fight as the count reached 8 and continued. In the 11th round, referee Rudy Ortega stopped the fight as Holmes was hitting Snipes with a barrage of punches, and declared Holmes the winner.
• The government of Sweden permitted Soviet submarine U-137 to leave its territorial waters, nine days after the sub had run aground while approaching the Karlskrona Naval Base.
• Born: Cassie Bernall, American victim of the Columbine High School massacre and subject of the book She Said Yes; in Wheat Ridge, Colorado

  [November 7], 1981 (Saturday)

• The skeleton of Saint Lucy, who was martyred in the year 304 and was designated as the patron saint of eyesight, was taken by two masked youths from the Church of San Geremia in Venice, near the Santa Lucia railway station. Saint Lucy and her relics were recovered on December 13, 1981, which coincided with her feast day. Gianfranco Tiozzo was arrested at a hunting lodge in nearby Marcon, where Lucy's remains had been kept by him.
• Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, the Chief of Strategic Defense Planning for the People's Army of Poland, escaped to West Germany along with his wife and children, then flew to the United States four days later. Only after his departure was it revealed that the adviser to General Jaruzelski had been spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency since 1970.
• Died: Will Durant, 96, American historian and co-author, with his wife Ariel Durant, of ''The Story of Civilization''

  [November 8], 1981 (Sunday)

• In elections in Belgium, Mark Eyskens was forced out of office as Prime Minister of Belgium after only eight months. The French and Flemish Christian Democratic Party candidates lost 21 seats overall, while the two Belgian Socialist parties gained 3 seats, giving the two groups each 61 seats. Wilfried Martens, whose government had collapsed in April, formed a coalition that lasted until 1992.
• Born: Joe Cole, English footballer, in Islington

  [November 9], 1981 (Monday)

• Edict No. 81-234 legally abolished slavery in Mauritania. Despite bans made by the French colonial administration in 1905 and by the Mauritanian government in 1960 and 1980, the practice persisted, and a report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission by the London-based Anti-Slavery Society estimated that the nation of 1.5 million people had 100,000 slaves.

  [November 10], 1981 (Tuesday)

• David Stockman, the budget director for President Reagan, was celebrating his 35th birthday when the December issue of The Atlantic magazine reached newsstands with the article "The Education of David Stockman". In the article, based on Stockman's interviews by William Greider, the President's chief economic strategist criticized supply-side economics. Democrats in Congress were quick to cite the article as proof that the President's program would not work. Stockman protested that his comments had been made off the record with understanding that they would not be published. Stockman remained as OMB Director, but with less influence than he had had as an adviser.
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 492 admits Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations.
• Born:
• *Jason Dunham, American Medal of Honor recipient, in Scio, New York
• *Tony Blanco, Dominican-born Japanese baseball star, in San Juan de la Maguana
• Died: Abel Gance, 92, French film director

  [November 11], 1981 (Wednesday)

• The was commissioned at Groton, Connecticut. At the time, it was the largest submarine to begin service, and was the first, designed to carry 24 Trident II missiles, each missile in turn capable of carrying 17 nuclear warheads. On December 12, 1981, an even larger class of subs, the Soviet Typhoon class submarine, was first commissioned with the launch of the Dmitriy Donskoy. U.S. Vice-President, and future President George H. W. Bush declared, "If she is successful in her life's mission, she will never fire a shot. Her purpose is to deter enemies of the United States, potential enemies of the free world. Her mission is to preserve peace."
• Fernando Valenzuela became first rookie to win the Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in Major League Baseball as voted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Valenzuela received 70 points overall based on 5 for first place, 3 for second and 1 for third, finishing ahead of Tom Seaver by the margin of a single second-place vote.
• Born:
• *Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, heir apparent to the throne since 2000
• *Natalie Glebova, Russian-born Canadian beauty queen and Miss Universe in 2005; in Tuapse, Krasnodar Krai, USSR;