On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 1980, the world population was approximately 4,447,606,236 people[†]
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of November 19, 1980, covering November 23, 1980.
Bruce Springsteen
Barbra Streisand
Kenny Rogers
Stevie Wonder
Queen
Pat Benatar
Diana Ross
AC/DC
The Doobie Brothers
The Jacksons
1980Ishmael Beah, Sierra Leonean child soldier and American author[†]
Ishmael Beah is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, A Long Way Gone. His novel Radiance of Tomorrow was published in January 2014. His most recent novel Little Family was published in April 2020.
1980Jonathan Papelbon, American baseball player[†]
Jonathan Robert Papelbon is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Boston Red Sox, with whom he was an All-Star in four consecutive seasons (2006–2009), won the 2007 Delivery Man of the Year Award, and was a 2007 World Series champion. The Red Sox drafted Papelbon in the fourth round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft, and he played three seasons of minor league baseball before breaking into the majors. He also pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2012 to 2015, and the Washington Nationals during 2015 and 2016.
1980Kirk Penney, New Zealand basketball player[†]
Kirk Samuel Penney is a New Zealand former professional basketball player. He is the all-time leading scorer for New Zealand's national team and he ranks 12th all-time in points scored at the FIBA World Cup. In 2024, he was inducted in the FIBA Hall of Fame.
1980The 6.9 Mw Irpinia earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 2,483–4,900, and injuring 7,700–8,934.[†]
The 1980 Irpinia earthquake took place in Italy on 23 November 1980, with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). It left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, and 250,000 homeless.
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Hollywood has adopted some new jargon. Studio executives now speak of themselves as producing "software." Their motion pictures, which once had grand openings, are now phased, like multistage moon rockets, through a series of "optimal sequential release windows." The talk seems out of NASA's Space Flight Center in Houston--not Hollywood.
The owners of Kips Bay Towers, the massive 1,118-unit midtown apartment complex built for middle-income tenants in the early 1960's, are planning to offer the property for sale as a luxury condominium.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 22--Not even the cheers of a record crowd of 88,827 could inspire the Ohio State football team to win another trip to the Rose Bowl today. Michigan's mighty defensive line throttled the Buckeyes, and its backs dominated the ball and orchestrated a 9-3 victory in the decisive Bie Ten clash at Ohio Stadium.
MERIDEN WHEN the Middletown High School boys' basketball team won 80 consecutive games in the late 1970's, the streak was publicized throughout the state.
EAST HAMPTON IN East Hampton, the Town Board is concerned that those who can afford to buy a piece of the shoreline are increasingly tempted to build houses in the path of potentially dangerous flood tides and erosion-- particularly since the Federal Government has made the homeowner's bailout easier with flood insurance.
PRINCETON THE new Federal regulations designed to halt illegal dumping of hazardous wastes were criticized last week by several state officials. The rules, they said, do not go far enough.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 22--Mae West, the Diamond Lil of filmdom, died at 7:00 this morning at her home in Los Angeles. She was 87 years old.
ALBANY, Sunday, Nov. 23--The New York State Legislature adjourned its special session this morning after approving a major banking bill that is likely to increase interest rates sharply for consumers in the next few months.
HARTFORD CONNECTICUT'S population shifted signifi cantly in the last decade, away from the larger cities and the long-established suburban towns and toward the more rural and exurban towns, particularly in the western end of the state and east of New Haven.
LAS VEGAS, Nev., Nov. 22--Firefighters and police officers sifted the ashes of the once-lavish MGM Grand hotel and casino today, searching floor by floor for victims of one of the nation's worst hotel fires.