1983 History, Facts, and Trivia
Quick Facts from 1983
- World-Changing Event: President Reagan called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire” in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, on March 8, 1983 — the most confrontational framing of U.S.-Soviet relations by an American president in decades, and a signal that the Cold War’s rhetorical temperature was still rising
- Other World-Changing Event: Operation Able Archer 83, a NATO military exercise in November 1983, was so realistic that Soviet intelligence became convinced it might be cover for an actual nuclear first strike. The Soviet Union came closer to launching a preemptive nuclear attack on the West than the public knew for decades.
- Top Song: Every Breath You Take by The Police, which spent eight consecutive weeks at #1 — a song widely misidentified as a love song that is actually about obsessive surveillance
- Must-See Movies: Return of the Jedi, Scarface, WarGames, The Big Chill, A Christmas Story, Risky Business, Flashdance, Vacation, and Terms of Endearment
- The Most Famous Person in America: Michael Jackson
- Notable Books: Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- Arnold stuffing mix (15 oz.): $1.35; Swiss cheese (1 lb.): $3.49; gallon of gas: $1.24
- Super Bowl ad (30 seconds): $400,000
- The Funny Guy: Eddie Murphy; The Funny Duo: Cheech and Chong
- Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Pig, associated with generosity, good luck, and an appreciation for the good things in life — qualities harder to maintain when two superpowers kept pointing nuclear weapons at each other
- The Conversation: Did you see the M*A*S*H finale? And what do you think about this Evil Empire business?
Top Ten Baby Names of 1983
Girls: Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda, Ashley, Sarah Boys: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, David, Joshua
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols
Loni Anderson, Catherine Bach, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Beals, Jacqueline Bisset, Christie Brinkley, Anne Carlisle, Phoebe Cates, Joan Collins, Lydia Cornell, Linda Evans, Farrah Fawcett, Deborah Foreman, Daryl Hannah, Goldie Hawn, Grace Jones, Nastassja Kinski, Jessica Lange, Heather Locklear, Madonna, Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton, Victoria Principal, Betsy Russell, Brooke Shields, Suzanne Somers, Cheryl Tiegs, Heather Thomas, Mary Woronov, Sean Young
Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men
Tom Cruise, Burt Reynolds, John Travolta, Richard Gere, Sean Connery
The Quotes
“Go ahead, make my day.” — Clint Eastwood, Sudden Impact
“Say hello to my little friend!” — Al Pacino as Tony Montana, Scarface
“Would you like to play a game?” — The W.O.P.R. computer, WarGames
Time Magazine’s Men of the Year
Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov — the two men most capable of ending the world as it then existed- recognized jointly for defining the central tension of the decade
Miss America and Miss USA
Miss America: Debra Maffett, Anaheim, CA
Miss USA: Julie Hayek, California
We Lost in 1983
Karen Carpenter, the singer whose voice defined easy listening pop through the 1970s, died February 4, 1983, at age 32, from heart failure resulting from years of anorexia nervosa. Her death brought anorexia into the American public consciousness in a way that medical literature had not. The word “anorexia” entered the common American vocabulary largely as a result.
Ira Gershwin, the lyricist who, with his brother George, produced some of the most celebrated songs in the American songbook — Someone to Watch Over Me, ‘S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm — died August 17, 1983, at age 86.
Born in 1983
Kim Kardashian — October 21, 1983.
Mila Kunis — August 14, 1983.
Olivia Wilde — March 10, 1983.
Carrie Underwood — March 10, 1983.
Amy Winehouse — September 14, 1983.
Andrew Garfield — August 20, 1983.
America in 1983 — The Context
Ronald Reagan was in the third year of his first term, governing through the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment peaked at 10.8% in December 1982 and was still high through much of 1983. The economy began to recover by the second half of the year, setting the stage for the “Morning in America” narrative that would carry Reagan to a landslide reelection in 1984.
The Cold War was at its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Reagan’s military buildup, the deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe, and the rhetoric of “Evil Empire” had pushed Soviet leadership into a state of genuine strategic anxiety. In September, the Soviets shot down a Korean Airlines passenger jet. In October, the United States was attacked in Beirut. In November, a NATO military exercise nearly convinced the Soviet Union that a nuclear attack was imminent. The year required several things to go right that could easily have gone wrong.
The MAS*H Finale
The final episode of M*A*S*H — “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” — aired on CBS on February 28, 1983. An estimated 125 million Americans watched, making it the most-watched television broadcast in American history — a record it held for 27 years until the Super Bowl surpassed it. The episode ran two and a half hours. Hawkeye Pierce had a breakdown. The finale was watched by approximately half the population of the United States at a time when network television still meant nearly everyone was watching the same thing.
The series had run 11 years — three times the length of the actual Korean War it depicted.
Operation Able Archer 83
In November 1983, NATO conducted a military exercise called Able Archer 83 simulating a coordinated nuclear release. Soviet intelligence, already on high alert from Reagan’s military buildup and the “Evil Empire” rhetoric, monitored the exercise closely. Several Soviet analysts concluded that Able Archer might be a cover for an actual first strike. KGB agents in Europe were ordered to watch for final pre-attack indicators. The Soviet nuclear forces were placed on heightened readiness.
The crisis passed in part because a Soviet intelligence officer, Oleg Gordievsky, who was also a British double agent, alerted British intelligence to the Soviet alarm, enabling the British government to quietly reassure Moscow through back channels. The American government did not learn how close the situation had come until classified documents were partially declassified in the 1990s. President Reagan reportedly found the briefings genuinely disturbing and cited them as a factor in his subsequent shift toward arms-reduction diplomacy.
Beirut Barracks Bombing
On October 23, 1983, suicide bombers drove trucks packed with explosives into U.S. Marine and French military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The attack on the Marine barracks killed 241 American service members — the deadliest single-day death toll for the U.S. military since Iwo Jima in World War II. A separate bombing killed 58 French paratroopers. The bombings were carried out by Hezbollah with Iranian backing. President Reagan ordered U.S. forces withdrawn from Lebanon in early 1984.
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
On September 1, 1983, Soviet fighter jets shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747 that had strayed into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin Island, killing all 269 people aboard. The aircraft had been off course due to a navigation error. The Soviet pilot knew it was a civilian airliner. He shot it down anyway under orders. The incident intensified the Cold War and prompted the U.S. government to make GPS technology available for civilian use once it was fully developed — a decision that shaped navigation technology for the rest of the century.
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk
On May 16, 1983, Michael Jackson performed “Billie Jean” on the NBC television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever. At the end of the song, he executed the moonwalk — a backward gliding step he had refined from a technique used by soul performers, including Jeffrey Daniel and James Brown. The audience response was immediate and overwhelming. Fred Astaire called Jackson to tell him it was the most magnificent dancing he had seen. Jackson himself said later that the moonwalk moment was the most memorable of his career.
Thriller had been released in November 1982 and sold 32 million copies worldwide by the end of 1983 — the best-selling album in the United States for two consecutive years. It was certified 34x Platinum by the RIAA in 2021, making it the best-selling album in American history.
Pop Culture Facts and History
Scarface, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino, was released on December 9, 1983. It was a remake of the 1932 film of the same name, both based on a 1929 novel about Al Capone. Tony Montana’s trajectory from Cuban refugee to Miami drug lord became one of the most imitated character arcs in American film, with the film’s quotations, imagery, and poster appearing in more college dormitory rooms over the following decades than any other single movie.
WarGames, released on June 3, 1983, depicted a teenage hacker who accidentally connected to a NORAD military computer and nearly started World War III. The film prompted a classified White House briefing on actual computer security vulnerabilities at military facilities, after which President Reagan asked his security advisors whether the scenario depicted was possible. They came back a week later and reported that it was. The resulting concern contributed to the National Security Decision Directive 145, the first American government policy on computer security.
A Christmas Story was released on November 18, 1983, to modest reviews and moderate box office. It became one of the most-watched holiday films in American television history over the following decades and helped establish the now-standard 24-hour Christmas Eve marathon broadcast. It eventually earned more on television than it had in its theatrical run.
Return of the Jedi was released on May 25, 1983, and was the highest-grossing film of the year. The speeder bike chase sequence through the forest of Endor was filmed by cameraman Garrett Brown walking through the redwood forest at less than one frame per second, then projected at 24 frames per second, making walking speed appear at approximately 120 mph. No CGI was involved.
Risky Business was released on August 5, 1983. Tom Cruise slid across a floor in his socks to Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll and became a star. The sock slide took one take. The scene was not in the script.
The Apple Lisa — the first commercially available personal computer with a graphical user interface and a mouse — launched on January 19, 1983, priced at $9,995. It sold poorly due to its price and incompatibility with existing software. Its successor, the Macintosh, launched on January 24, 1984, at $2,495 and sold considerably better. Lisa’s operating principles were correct; its timing and price were not.
The video game industry crashed catastrophically in 1983. Revenues that had peaked at approximately $3.2 billion in 1982 fell to $100 million by 1985 — a 97% collapse. The crash was caused by a flood of low-quality games, most notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600, considered one of the worst games ever made. Atari discreetly buried millions of cartridges in a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico — a disposal that became legendary and was confirmed by excavation in 2014. The crash ended the second generation of American console gaming and created the opening for Nintendo’s NES to redefine the industry beginning in 1985.
Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces, was on duty at a nuclear early warning facility on September 26, 1983, when the Oko satellite system reported that the United States had launched five intercontinental ballistic missiles. The protocol required him to report the detection as an attack. Instead, Petrov judged it a false alarm — correctly, as it turned out to be a satellite malfunction caused by sunlight reflecting off clouds. He reported a system error. Had he reported an attack, a retaliatory launch may well have followed. His decision was not acknowledged by the Soviet government for years. He received no commendation at the time.
The Cabbage Patch Kids craze reached its peak in the 1983 Christmas season. The dolls, sold with adoption papers and individual names, triggered the first major American toy-shopping frenzy — the template for every Tickle Me Elmo, Furby, and PlayStation shortage that followed. Parents fought in store aisles. Lines formed overnight. A Pennsylvania store manager used a baseball bat to control the crowd. Coleco, the manufacturer, produced over three million dolls and still could not meet demand.
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger’s seventh mission. She was 32 years old. At a pre-flight press conference, reporters asked her whether she cried when things went wrong on the job and whether the spaceflight would affect her reproductive organs. She handled both questions with more grace than they deserved.
The America’s Cup had been held by the United States since the race’s founding in 1851, 132 consecutive years and 25 consecutive competitions without a loss. Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, won the 1983 Cup from the New York Yacht Club’s Liberty by four races to three, ending the longest winning streak in the history of international sport. The prime minister of Australia declared a national holiday. The yacht club burgee was reportedly cut from the flagpole.
Jaron Lanier coined the term “virtual reality” in 1983 while working on computer simulation technology. The term described immersive computer-generated environments that a user could experience as if physically present. The technology required to deliver on the concept did not arrive in consumer form for several more decades, but the vocabulary preceded it by 40 years.
The Hitler Diaries were announced on April 22, 1983, by German magazine Stern, which claimed to have acquired 60 volumes of secret diaries written by Adolf Hitler. Several historians authenticated them. Newsweek and The Sunday Times purchased rights to publish excerpts. Within weeks, handwriting experts and historians identified them as obvious forgeries — the paper, ink, and binding all postdated the war, and the historical content was riddled with anachronisms. The forger was Konrad Kujau, who had been selling fake Hitler memorabilia for years. The scandal was one of the most embarrassing episodes in postwar journalism.
Best Buy was founded in 1983 when Dick Schulze renamed his electronics retail chain from “Sound of Music” to “Best Buy” and shifted the business model toward large-format superstores. The original Sound of Music store had opened in 1966. The name change preceded a decade of rapid expansion.
Dick Shulze’s timing was fortunate: the video game crash of 1983 sent consumers away from games and toward stereos and other electronics, which was exactly Best Buy’s core inventory. The crash that hurt Atari helped Best Buy.
Walter Johnson’s career strikeout record of 3,508, set between 1907 and 1927, was broken by three different pitchers in the 1983 season: Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, and Gaylord Perry. The record that had stood for nearly 50 years fell to three different pitchers in the same calendar year. Ryan went on to retire with 5,714 strikeouts, a record unlikely to be approached.
Peter Reyn-Bardt confessed in 1983 to the murder and dismemberment of his wife after a human skull was found in a peat bog near his property. He gave the police detailed information about the killing. Forensic scientists then dated the skull to approximately 1740 AD. Reyn-Bardt attempted to retract his confession. He was convicted anyway, on the strength of the confession itself. The skull was approximately 250 years older than his wife’s.
Troy Aikman was Oklahoma’s state high school typing champion in 1983. He subsequently became an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, suggesting that motor skills transfer across applications.
Donna Griffiths of Worcestershire, England, who had begun sneezing on January 13, 1981, finally stopped on September 16, 1983 — her 977th consecutive day of sneezing. She had sneezed an estimated one million times. The cause was never definitively identified. The Guinness World Records entry requires no additional context.
The modern computer mouse was developed into its commercial form in 1983 and standardized by Apple Lisa. Doug Engelbart had invented the concept in 1964. Lisa’s mouse had a single button and cost $25 to manufacture. Current mice cost $25 at retail and have many more buttons.
Mr. Rogers dedicated five episodes of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in November 1983 to nuclear war, titled “Conflict.” The episodes addressed children’s fears about nuclear weapons in age-appropriate terms. They have not aired in reruns. Their existence is documented, but the episodes are rarely discussed.
In 1983, Austrian authorities made a special exception to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger to become a U.S. citizen without losing his Austrian citizenship — the only such exception Austria had granted. He became a U.S. citizen on September 16, 1983. He ran for governor of California twenty years later.
The 1983 United States invasion of Grenada was planned partly using a tourist map of the island and a copy of The Economist. Detailed military maps of Grenada were not available. Several U.S. commanders used the tourist maps during the operation. The invasion succeeded.
The Good Stuff
Jim Thorpe’s 1912 Olympic gold medals were restored posthumously to his family on January 18, 1983, 30 years after his death. He had been stripped of them for accepting $2 per game while playing semi-professional baseball in 1909-10, a violation of amateur rules. The IOC’s restoration acknowledged that the punishment had been unjust.
Captain Bob Pearson landed Air Canada Flight 143 safely at a decommissioned air force base at Gimli, Manitoba, on July 23, 1983, after the Boeing 767 ran completely out of fuel at 41,000 feet over central Canada. The aircraft had been fueled in pounds instead of kilograms, resulting in roughly half the required fuel. Pearson used the plane’s gliding characteristics and his experience as a glider pilot to bring it down on what was then a racetrack. Nobody was seriously hurt.
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics — Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and William Alfred Fowler; Chandrasekhar for theoretical studies of the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars, particularly the Chandrasekhar limit that determines whether a dying star becomes a white dwarf or a black hole; Fowler for theoretical and experimental studies of nuclear reactions involved in the formation of elements in the universe
Chemistry — Henry Taube for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes
Medicine — Barbara McClintock for her discovery of mobile genetic elements (“jumping genes”); she had published her findings in 1951 and had been largely ignored for 30 years; the field eventually caught up with her
Literature — William Golding, British novelist, for his novels which illuminate the human condition in the world of today, best known for Lord of the Flies
Peace — Lech Walesa, Polish trade union leader and founder of Solidarity, for his efforts to ensure workers’ rights; he was awarded the prize while still under government restrictions in Poland
Broadway in 1983
La Cage aux Folles opened August 21, 1983, at the Palace Theatre, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The first Broadway musical to center its story on a gay couple, it won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran until 1987. It was, for its time, a significant step toward the representation of gay relationships in mainstream American entertainment.
Best Film Oscar Winner
Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Ben Kingsley, won Best Picture at the 55th Academy Awards on April 11, 1983, presented for the 1982 film year. Kingsley won Best Actor. The film ran 191 minutes and depicted the life of Mahatma Gandhi from 1893 through his assassination in 1948.
Top Movies of 1983
- Return of the Jedi
- Terms of Endearment
- Flashdance
- Trading Places
- WarGames
- Octopussy
- Sudden Impact
- Staying Alive
- Mr. Mom
- Risky Business
Most Popular TV Shows of 1983
- Dallas (CBS)
- 60 Minutes (CBS)
- Dynasty (ABC)
- The A-Team (NBC)
- Simon and Simon (CBS)
- Magnum, P.I. (CBS)
- Falcon Crest (CBS)
- Kate and Allie (CBS)
- Hotel (ABC)
- Cagney and Lacey (CBS)
The M*A*S*H finale drew 125 million viewers in February 1983, more Americans than any other broadcast in television history at the time. In fall 1983, NBC launched an entirely new schedule of shows. Every single one was canceled by the end of the season — the first and only time in American television history that an entire network’s fall lineup failed completely.
1983 Billboard Number One Songs
December 18, 1982 – January 14, 1983: Maneater — Hall and Oates
January 15 – February 11: Down Under — Men at Work
February 12 – February 18: Africa — Toto
February 19 – March 4: Baby, Come to Me — Patti Austin featuring James Ingram
March 5 – April 22: Billie Jean — Michael Jackson
April 23 – April 29: Come On Eileen — Dexys Midnight Runners
April 30 – May 20: Beat It — Michael Jackson
May 21 – May 27: Let’s Dance — David Bowie
May 28 – July 8: Flashdance… What a Feeling — Irene Cara
July 9 – September 2: Every Breath You Take — The Police
September 3 – September 9: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) — Eurythmics
September 10 – September 23: Maniac — Michael Sembello
September 24 – September 30: Tell Her About It — Billy Joel
October 1 – October 28: Total Eclipse of the Heart — Bonnie Tyler
October 29 – November 11: Islands in the Stream — Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton
November 12 – December 9: All Night Long (All Night) — Lionel Richie
December 10, 1983 – January 20, 1984: Say Say Say — Paul McCartney featuring Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson spent 11 weeks at #1 in 1983 across two separate singles — Billie Jean and Beat It — in addition to the year being dominated by the ongoing Thriller phenomenon. The year’s chart is a snapshot of early MTV culture: Men at Work, Toto, Eurythmics, Dexys Midnight Runners, and The Police all at the peak of their commercial visibility.
Biggest Pop Artists of 1983
Michael Jackson, The Police, Bonnie Tyler, Lionel Richie, Hall and Oates, Men at Work, Toto, Irene Cara, David Bowie, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Billy Joel, Eurythmics, Michael Sembello, Madonna, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Men Without Hats, Dexys Midnight Runners
Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1983
Cathedral — Raymond Carver
Changes — Danielle Steel
Christine — Stephen King
Hollywood Wives — Jackie Collins
The Little Drummer Girl — John le Carre
The Lonesome Gods — Louis L’Amour
Mistral’s Daughter — Judith Krantz
The Name of the Rose — Umberto Eco
Pet Sematary — Stephen King
Poland — James A. Michener
Winter’s Tale — Mark Helprin
The Habits
Wearing Swatch Watches — stacked on both arms; break dancing anywhere there was linoleum or cardboard; Wacky Wallwalkers (the sticky octopus that slimed down walls); debating whether Han Solo shot first; and trying to explain to parents that every Michael Jackson song was great, not just “the hits.”
Sports Champions of 1983
World Series: Baltimore Orioles defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1; pitcher Mike Boddicker was dominant; the Orioles had finished the regular season 98-64
Super Bowl XVII: Washington Redskins defeated the Miami Dolphins 27-17 on January 30, 1983; John Riggins rushed for 166 yards and was named MVP after breaking several tackles on a memorable 43-yard touchdown run
NBA Champions: Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 4-0; Moses Malone had predicted “fo’, fo’, fo'” (meaning sweeping every series) before the playoffs; the actual record was 12-1, close enough
Stanley Cup: New York Islanders — defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-0, their fourth consecutive championship; the dynasty that Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers eventually overtook was still very much running
U.S. Open Golf: Larry Nelson
U.S. Open Tennis: Men/Women: Jimmy Connors / Martina Navratilova
Wimbledon: Men/Women: John McEnroe / Martina Navratilova
NCAA Football Champions: Miami Hurricanes
NCAA Basketball Champions: North Carolina State — defeated heavily favored Houston in one of the greatest upsets in tournament history; head coach Jim Valvano’s run-across-the-court celebration became one of the most replicated images in sports
Kentucky Derby: Sunny’s Halo
Sports Highlight: North Carolina State’s defeat of Houston in the 1983 NCAA basketball championship game produced one of the defining images in sports history: coach Jim Valvano running across the court looking for someone to hug. Australia’s 1983 America’s Cup victory ended the longest winning streak in the history of any sport — 132 consecutive years of American dominance. Walter Johnson’s strikeout record fell to three different pitchers in the same season. Moses Malone said “fo’, fo’, fo'” and nearly delivered.
FAQs:1983 History, Facts, and Trivia
Q: What was the “Evil Empire” speech?
A: President Reagan’s address to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, on March 8, 1983, in which he described the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and called the nuclear freeze movement “naive.” The phrase sharply escalated Cold War rhetoric and alarmed Soviet leadership, contributing to the near-crisis atmosphere of Operation Able Archer eight months later.
Q: What was Operation Able Archer, and how dangerous was it?
A: A November 1983 NATO military exercise simulating a nuclear attack that Soviet intelligence concluded might be preparation for a real first strike. Soviet nuclear forces were placed on heightened alert. A British double agent within the KGB alerted Western intelligence to the Soviet alarm, and quiet reassurances prevented escalation. The episode was classified for years; Reagan said that briefings on it influenced his subsequent pursuit of arms-reduction talks.
Q: What was the MAS*H finale’s viewership?
A: An estimated 125 million Americans watched the final episode on February 28, 1983, making it the most-watched television broadcast in American history — a record held for 27 years. The show had run 11 seasons, three times the length of the actual Korean War.
Q: What was Michael Jackson’s moonwalk debut?
A: Jackson performed the moonwalk during “Billie Jean” on the NBC television special Motown 25 on May 16, 1983. Fred Astaire called him afterward to say it was the most magnificent dancing he had ever seen. Jackson later called it the most memorable moment of his career.
Q: What happened to the Atari video game cartridges buried in New Mexico?
A: Following the 1983 video game crash, Atari disposed of millions of unsold games — including copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — in a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The burial became an industry legend. Excavation in 2014 confirmed it and recovered hundreds of cartridges. Several were sold at auction.
Q: Who was Stanislav Petrov, and what did he do in 1983?
A: A Soviet lieutenant colonel who, on September 26, 1983, correctly judged that his nuclear early warning system’s report of five incoming American missiles was a false alarm rather than the beginning of a nuclear attack. He reported a system malfunction rather than an attack, as protocol required. His assessment was correct. He received no official recognition for decades.
Q: What ended the 132-year American winning streak in the America’s Cup?
A: Australia II won the 1983 America’s Cup, defeating the American defender Liberty in seven races — the first time any country other than the United States had won in the event’s history since 1851.
Q: What was the first American computer with a graphical user interface and a mouse?
A: The Apple Lisa, launched January 19, 1983, at $9,995. It sold poorly due to its price. Its successor, the Macintosh, launched on January 24, 1984, at $2,495 and defined the category.
More 1983 Facts and History Resources:
Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Beirut Barracks Bombings
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1983X
1983 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Everything 80s Podcast 1983
Fact Monster
1980s, Infoplease.com World History
Lech Walesa Nobel Peace Prize
1983 in Movies (according to IMDB)
1983 Top Movies (according to BoxOfficeMojo)
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
The 80s(History.com)
1980s Slang
1980s Timeline (Security and Exchange Commission)
Wikipedia 1983
