December 20, 1981 (Sunday)
- Dreamgirls, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theater. It would win six Tony awards and run for 1,521 performances.
- "In the Land of the Khmer Rouge", by Christopher Jones, was published as the cover story for the New York Times Magazine, as the investigative reporter described a month with guerillas fighting against the Vietnamese in Cambodia. Less than a month later, Alexander Cockburn of The Village Voice noted that parts of the report had been plagiarized from the André Malraux novel The Royal Way, and began questioning the story. By February, the New York Times had to concede that it had been the victim of a hoax.
- Rajvendra Sarswat was born in India.
- At a cabinet meeting convened by Prime Minister Menahem Begin, Israel's Defense Minister Ariel Sharon first presented the contingency plan for an invasion of Lebanon to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization from its neighbor to the north. Many of the ministers were shocked at the plans to begin a war, and no votge was taken at that time on whether to approve the plan. The operation was given the go ahead the following year.
- The communications satellite Marisat was successfully launched into geosynchronous orbit from French Guiana in the fourth test of the Ariane rocket.
- Poland's Ambassador to the United States, Romuald Spasowski, defected. Two days later, he was welcomed at the White House by President Reagan.
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Famous quotes containing the word december:
“Work—work—work,
In the dull December light,
And work—work—work,
When the weather is warm and bright—
While underneath the eaves
The brooding swallows cling
As if to show me their sunny backs
And twit me with the spring.”
—Thomas Hood (1799–1845)