August 1, 1981 (Saturday)
- MTV, the Music Television cable network, went on the air at 12:01 AM from Fort Lee, New Jersey on cable systems in the United States, with John Lack's introductory words, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." Initially, MTV showed music videos 24 hours a day. The very first selection was "Video Killed the Radio Star" from Buggles. Pat Benatar's "You Better Run" was the second. It was not until March 10, 1983, however, that MTV played a video from a non-white artist in heavy rotation for the first time. When it launched, MTV reached 800,000 subscribers and cable television was still in only 25% of American homes.
- Abu Daoud, the PLO terrorist who had overseen the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes was shot five times at close range while sitting in the coffee shop of the Victoria Hotel in Warsaw.
- A freight train derailment near San Luis Potosi ruptured a tanker car carrying chlorine gas, killing 29 people and sending another 1,000 to the hospital.
- Died: Paddy Chayefsky, 58, American screenwriter and 3-time Oscar winner
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Famous quotes containing the word august:
“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)