October 1981 - October 1, 1981 (Thursday)

October 1, 1981 (Thursday)

• The first cellular telephone system was inaugurated. Nordic Mobile Telephone (Nordisk MobilTelephoni), NMT, set up the network in Sweden.
• Eighty-three people were killed and more than 300 injured when a car bomb exploded outside of the Beirut headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization's intelligence center. The "Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners", which the PLO asserted was a front for Israel, took credit for the attack.
• Gunther Guillaume, whose unmasking as an East German spy brought down the government of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1974, was released from prison and allowed to cross into the DDR.
• The first 5 percent of President Reagan's 25% cut of U.S. federal income taxes took effect. The next 10% would take effect July 1, 1982, and the final 10% on July 1, 1981.
• Led by Dr. Paul L. Schechter, astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory reported the discovery of a "hole" in the universe, 300 million light years in diameter, that had only one-tenth of the stars and galaxies found elsewhere. The void, described by Schechter as "exceedingly hard to understand", is located beyond the constellation Boötes and encompasses one percent of the space in the known universe.