Editing 1981 (section)

===August===
{{Main|August 1981}}
[[File:MTV Logo.svg|250px|thumb|right|August 1, 1981: MTV cable network begins]]
* [[August 1]] – The first 24-hour video music channel [[MTV]] (Music Television) is launched in the United States and airs its first video, "[[Video Killed the Radio Star]]" by [[The Buggles]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jan-Patrick Stolpmann|title=MTV: The (r)evolution & Impact Between 1981 - 1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_OK3Gn6bLwAC&pg=PA3|date=May 2011|publisher=GRIN Verlag|isbn=978-3-640-91967-3|pages=3}}</ref>
* [[August 9]] – [[1981 Major League Baseball strike]] ends in the United States, and [[Major League Baseball]] resumes with the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] in [[Cleveland]]'s [[Cleveland Stadium|Municipal Stadium]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Texas Business Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQBSAQAAMAAJ|year=1981|publisher=Bureau of Business Research|page=268}}</ref>
* [[August 12]] – The original Model 5150 [[IBM PC]] (with a 4.77&nbsp;MHz [[Intel 8088]] processor) is released in the United States at a base price of $1,565.<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Tompkins V, Bruccoli M, Baughman J, Layman R, Bondi V, Bargeron E, McConnell T, Tidd, J |title=American Decades: 1980-1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSkOAQAAMAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Gale Research|isbn=978-0-8103-8881-9|page=583}}</ref>
* [[August 19]] – [[Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)|Gulf of Sidra incident]]: [[Libya]]n president [[Muammar Gaddafi]] sends two [[Sukhoi Su-22]] fighter jets to intercept two U.S. Navy fighters over the [[Gulf of Sidra]]. The U.S. jets destroy the Libyan fighters.<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Norton Moore|author2=Robert F. Turner|title=Readings on International Law from the Naval War College Review, 1978-1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUzLAU-hkbMC&pg=PA489|year=1995|publisher=Naval War College|pages=489}}</ref>
* [[August 23]] – South African troops attack [[SWAPO]] bases in [[Xangongo]] and [[Ongiva]], [[Angola]], during [[Operation Protea]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jacqueline Audrey Kalley|author2=Elna Schoeman|author3=Lydia Eve Andor|title=Southern African Political History: A Chronology of Key Political Events from Independence to Mid-1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oVrVK2ElINMC&pg=PA17|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-30247-3|pages=17}}</ref>
* [[August 24]] – [[Mark David Chapman]] is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering [[John Lennon]] in [[Manhattan]] eight months earlier.
* [[August 27]] – North Korea fires a surface-to-air missile at a U.S. SR-71 Blackbird spy plane flying in South Korean and international airspace. The missile misses and the airplane is unharmed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/27/world/missile-is-fired-by-north-koreans-at-us-spy-plane-near-the-dmz.html|title=Missile is Fired by North Koreans at U.S. Spy Plane Near the DMZ|date=August 27, 1981|website=The New York Times}}</ref>
* [[August 30]] – [[1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing]]: Eight people, including the country's president and prime minister, are killed when a briefcase, planted by [[People's Mujahedin of Iran]], explodes in the building.<ref>{{cite news|author1=United Press International|author-link=United Press International|title=Iranian Says Secretary to Premier Hid Fatal Bomb in Teheran Office|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/14/world/iranian-says-secretary-to-premier-hid-fatal-bomb-in-teheran-office.html|access-date=14 March 2017|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=14 September 1981}}</ref>
* [[August 31]] – A bomb explodes at the United States [[Ramstein Air Base]] in West Germany, injuring 20 people.