Argentina seizes the Falkland Islands; Britain dispatches a task force and retakes the islands after a 74-day conflict.
A team at the Pasteur Institute including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier reports the virus later named HIV, the cause of AIDS.
After a guerrilla war and the Lancaster House Agreement, Rhodesia became the internationally recognised independent state of Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe as prime minister.
After strikes at the Gdańsk shipyard, Poland's government accepts the right to form independent trade unions, opening the way for Lech Wałęsa's Solidarity movement.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front enters Managua after dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle flees, ending the Somoza family's rule.
Mikhail Gorbachev is chosen as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and goes on to launch the policies of perestroika and glasnost.
Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine explodes, spreading radioactive material across Europe in the worst nuclear accident in history.