November 1981 - November 4, 1981 (Wednesday)

November 4, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, who had been indicted for overprescribing addictive drugs to Elvis Presley (and indirectly causing Presley's death) was acquitted of all charges.
• Eagerly anticipated as mankind's first trip into space on a reused vehicle, the second launch of the space shuttle Columbia was called off, literally at the last minute. Countdown halted at 00:00:31 when a computer detected an increase of oil pressure two of the three auxiliary power units.
• Hungary applied to the World Bank. It was only the second Communist nation to join.
• The Vietnamese Buddhist Songha was created in Hanoi at the behest of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as the only legal religious organization in that nation, accountable to its government. P
• After a successful off-Broadway run, Crimes of the Heart began a run at the John Golden Theatre. Playwright Beth Henley, who had been encouraged by friends four years earlier to put her script into production, would later win a Pulitzer Prize for the play, the first of several successful efforts.
• The first transfer of land was made under the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981, as South Australian premier David Tonkin transferred 102,630 km2 (39,625 2) back to the control of the Australian Aborigines the aboriginal landholder.
• Poland's Communist Party leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski conferred with Solidarnosc leader Lech Wałęsa in a meeting arranged by Cardinal Józef Glemp to last-ditch effort to resolve the labor crisis in that nation. Wałęsa declined to put the independent union under government control, and a crackdown would follow a month later.
• Born: Vince Wilfork, American NFL player, in Boynton Beach, Florida