Yearly Inflation Rate: 6.16 %
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 1046
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve: 11.50%
Average Cost of new house: $82,200
Median Price Of and Existing Home: $67,800
Average Income per year: $21,050.00
Average Monthly Rent: $320.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas: $0.91
New Car Average price: $7,983.00
US Postage Stamp: $0.20
Vic-20 Computer: $299.95
Satellite Receiver: $245.95
GMC 1500 pickup: $5,400
TRS-80 PC: $149.95
Sony 19" color TV: $499
Brass finish ceiling fan: $199
US GDP (1998 dollars): $3,242.10 billion
Federal spending: $745.76 billion
Federal debt: $1137.3 billion
Median Household Income (current dollars): $20,171
Consumer Price Index: 96.5
Unemployment: 9.7%
Physics : Kenneth G. Wilson
Chemistry : Aaron Klug
Medicine : Sune K. Bergström, Bengt I. Samuelsson, John R. Vane
Literature : Gabriel García Márquez
Peace : Alva Myrdal, Alfonso García Robles
Economics : George Stigler
01/08: AT&T agrees to divest itself into 22 subdivisions.
01/28: United States Army Brigadier General James L. Dozier is rescued by the Italian anti-terrorism Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza (NOCS) force after being held captive for 42 days by the Red Brigades.
02/19: The DeLorean Motor Company Car Factory in Belfast is put into receivership.
02/24: In South Africa, 22 National Party MPs led by Andries Treurnicht vote for no confidence in P. W. Botha.
03/10: The United States places an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging Libyan support for terrorist groups.
03/10: All eight planets align on the same side of the Sun.
03/16: In Newport, Rhode Island, Claus von Bülow is found guilty of the attempted murder of his wife.
03/26: A ground-breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC.
03/29: The 54th Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held. Chariots of Fire wins Best Picture and three other Academy Awards.
04/02: The Falklands War begins: Argentina invades and occupies the Falkland Islands.
04/17: Canada gains full political independence from the United Kingdom.
04/23: Dennis Wardlow, mayor of Key West, Florida, declares the independent "Conch Republic" for a day.
04/25: Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in accordance with the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty.
05/01: A crowd of over 100,000 attends the first day of the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. The fair is kicked off with an address by President Ronald Reagan. Over 11 million people attend the fair during its 6-month run.
05/02: Falklands War: The nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, killing 323 sailors.
05/02: The Weather Channel airs on cable television for the first time.
05/04: Falklands War: HMS Sheffield is hit by an Exocet missile and burns out of control; 20 sailors are killed. The ship sinks on May 10.
05/05: A Unabomber bomb explodes in the computer science department at Vanderbilt University; secretary Janet Smith is injured.
05/12: Spanish priest Juan Krohn tries to stab Pope John Paul II with a bayonet during the latter's pilgrimage to the shrine at Fatima.
05/12: Braniff International Airways is declared bankrupt and ceases all flights.
05/21: Falklands War: British landings sparked the Battle of San Carlos
05/22: Falklands War: HMS Ardent is sunk by Argentine aircraft, killing 22 sailors.
05/23: Falklands War: HMS Antelope is lost.
05/24: KGB head Yuri Andropov is appointed to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
05/25: British ships HMS Coventry and Atlantic Conveyor are sunk during the Falklands War.
05/30: Spain becomes the 6th member of NATO and the 1st nation to enter the alliance since West Germany's admission in 1955.
05/30: Cal Ripken, Jr. plays the first of what eventually becomes his record-breaking streak of 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games.
06/06: The 1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
06/06: The United Nations Security Council votes to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
06/08: President Ronald Reagan becomes the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
06/08: Falklands War: British RFA Sir Galahad is destroyed during the Bluff Cove Air Attacks.
06/14: The Falklands War ends: Formal surrender of Argentine forces, and liberation of the Falkland Islanders.
06/30: The Equal Rights Amendment falls short of the 38 states needed to pass; Phyllis Schlafly and other leaders of the Christian right take credit for its defeat.
07/01: Larry Walters, a.k.a. Lawn Chair Larry, flies 16,000 feet above Long Beach, California in a lawn chair with weather balloons attached.
07/16: The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $25,000 for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
07/23: The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985–1986.
07/23: On a movie set, the Twilight Zone actor Vic Morrow and 2 child actors die in a helicopter stunt accident.
08/04: The United Nations Security Council votes to censure Israel because its troops are still in Lebanon.
08/17: The first compact discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
08/20: Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.
08/25: U.S. Marines arrive in Lebanon.
09/19: The first emoticons are posted by Scott Fahlman.
09/21: The first International Day of Peace (United Nations)
09/29-10/1: The 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders occur when 7 people in the Chicago area die after ingesting capsules laced with potassium cyanide.
10/01: Walt Disney World opens the second largest theme park, EPCOT Center, to the public for the first time.
10/01: Sony launches the first consumer compact disc (CD) player (model CDP-101).
10/08: Poland bans Solidarity after having suspended it on 13 December 1981.
10/11: The Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII of England that sank in 1545, is raised.
10/19: John De Lorean is arrested for selling cocaine to undercover FBI agents. He is later found not guilty due to entrapment.
10/20: World Series: The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 6–3 in game 7.
11/12: Former KGB head Yuri Andropov is selected to become the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, suceeding the late Leonid I. Brezhnev.
11/13: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.
11/14: The leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, Lech Wałęsa, is released from 11 months of internment near the Soviet border.
11/20: University of California, Berkeley executes "The Play" in a college football game against Stanford. Completing a wacky 57-yard kickoff return that includes 5 laterals, Kevin Moen runs through Stanford band members who had prematurely come onto the field. His touchdown stands and California wins 25–20.
11/28: Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.
11/30: Michael Jackson releases Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time.
12/02: 61-year-old retired dentist Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. He lives for 112 days with the device.
12/03: A soil sample is taken from the site of Times Beach, Missouri. It is found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
12/07: The first U.S. execution by lethal injection is carried out in Texas.
12/23: The U.S. EPA recommends the evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri due to dangerous levels of dioxin contamination.
12/26: Time Magazine's Man of the Year is given for the first time to a non-human, the computer.
A brief but severe recession begins in the United States.
The car brand Toyota Camry is introduced.
The Commodore 64 PC is released (over 20 million will be sold by 1994).
A global surplus of crude oil causes gasoline prices to collapse.