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Top Song(s)
• Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall
• Barbra Streisand - A Woman in Love
• John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over
• Lipps Inc - Funkytown
• Queen - Another One Bites the Dust
Top Film(s)
• The Empire Strikes Back
• The Shining
• Raging Bull
• Airplane!
• The Blues Brothers
Best Selling Book(s)
• The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
• The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
• Firestarter - Stephen King
• Cosmos - Carl Sagan
• The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
Famous Deaths
• January 8 - John Mauchly, American physicist and inventor
• January 31 - Lady Evelyn Beauchamp, first woman in modern times to enter the tomb of Tutankhamun
• February 23 – Enrico Celio, Swiss politician, 49th President of the Swiss Confederation
• March 13 - Roland Symonette, 1st Prime Minister of the Bahamas
• April 12 - William Tolbert, 20th President of Liberia
• May 13 – Elliott Arnold, American newspaper feature writer, novelist, and screenwriter
• June 23 - V. V. Giri, Indian politician and 4th President of India
• August 5 – Harold Runnels, U.S. Representative from New Mexico
• August 10 - Yahya Khan, Pakistani general and statesman, 3rd President of Pakistan
• September 23 - Jim Fouche, 5th President of South Africa
Medical/Science/Technology
• A total solar eclipse is seen in North Africa and West Asia.
• The main-belt asteroid 2404 Antarctica is discovered by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos.
• The arcade game Pac-Man is released in Japan.
• The "Chinese room" argument is introduced in a paper by John Searle.
• Microsoft's Bill Gates agrees to create an operating system for the new IBM Personal Computer.
• Atari release a conversion of the hit arcade game Space Invaders for the Atari 2600.
• Global eradication of smallpox certified by the World Health Organization.
• First successful human heart transplantation to use the immunosuppressant cyclosporine.
• Global campaign to eradicate Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) begins.
• First commercial MRI whole body scanner manufactured by Oxford Instruments.
Political
• January 4 – President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
• January 7 – President Jimmy Carter signs legislation approving $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
• February 2 – FBI personnel target members of the Congress of the United States in a sting operation.
• April 1 - The 1980 United States Census begins. There are 226,545,805 United States residents on this day.
• April 7 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions.
• May 16 - The Department of Education begins operations.
• June 3 - U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy wins several primaries, including California.
• June 27 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs Proclamation 4771.
• July 16 – Former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan is nominated for U.S. President.
• August 14 - President Jimmy Carter defeats Senator Ted Kennedy to win renomination at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.
National
• February 2–3 – The New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot takes place; 33 inmates are killed and more than 100 inmates injured.
• February 13 – The XIII Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
• March 5 – Channel Islands National Park is established.
• April 21 – Rosie Ruiz wins the Boston Marathon, but is later exposed as a fraud and stripped of her award.
• May 18 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.
• June 10 – A Unabomber bomb injures United Airlines president Percy Wood in Lake Forest, Illinois.
• October 14 – The Staggers Rail Act is enacted, deregulating American railroads.
• November 20 – A Texaco oil rig breaks through to a mine under Lake Peigneur.
• December 8 - John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.
• December 11 – CERCLA is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
Worldwide
• January 14 – Congress party leader, Indira Gandhi returns to power as the Prime Minister of India.
• February 4 – Abolhassan Banisadr is sworn in as the first President of Iran after winning the January 25 presidential election.
• April 2 – The St Pauls riot breaks out in Bristol.
• April 18 – Zimbabwe gains de jure independence from the United Kingdom.
• May 22 – Namco's Pac-Man, the highest-earning arcade game of all time, is released in Japan.
• June 27 - Itavia Flight 870 crashes into the sea near Ustica island, Italy, killing all 81 people on board.
• July 8 – A wave of strikes begins in Lublin, Poland.
• October 31 - The Polish government recognizes Solidarity.
• November 20 – The Gang of Four trial begins in China.
• December 16 – During a summit on the island of Bali, OPEC decides to raise the price of petroleum by 10%.