July 1981 - July 3, 1981 (Friday)

July 3, 1981 (Friday)

• 1981 England riots: A race riot began in Southall, London, as a group of white "skinheads" clashed with British Asians. The next day, black British youths in the Toxteth section of Liverpool fought with police, and within a week, disturbances broke out in other English cities.
• 1981 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Singles: Chris Evert Lloyd defeated Hana Mandlikova in straight sets, becoming the first woman in 14 years to win the tournament without losing a single set. In seven matches, she lost only 26 games.
• The New York Times became the first major newspaper to report on the existence of AIDS, with a report on page 20, headlined "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals". Initially referred to as "GRID" (for "Gay Related Immune Disorder"), the illness would later be named Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The news, picked up by CNN the next day, was based on an article in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, entitled "Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Pneumonia Among Homosexual Men- New York City and California".
• Died: Ross Martin, 61, American TV actor (Artemus Gordon on The Wild Wild West). Martin, a native of Poland, was playing tennis in 100 degree heat at Ramona, California, when he collapsed.
• Died: Wen-Chen Chen, Carnegie Mellon University professor from Taiwan, was killed by security police during a vacation in his homeland.