1983 Australian Touring Car season
Touring Cars competed at 19 race meetings in Australia during the 1983 season, contesting the following events:


1983 Australian Touring Car season, Australian Grand Prix support race
A Group C race was a support event at the 1983 Australian Grand Prix meeting. Known as the "Berri Fruit Juices Trophy" race, George Fury won driving his Nissan Motor Co. Bluebird Turbo. Peter Brock finished second in his Holden Dealer Team Commodore, with team mate Larry Perkins driving the Bathurst winning #25 car to 3rd place.


1983 Australian federal election
The 1983 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election, following a double dissolution. The incumbent Coalition government which had been in power since 1975, led by Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party) and Doug Anthony (National Party), was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labor Party led by Bob Hawke. This was the first of 5 consecutive election victories for the Labor party.


1983 Australian federal election
This election marked the end of the 3 term 7 year Liberal-National Coalition Fraser Government and started the period of the 5 term 13 year Hawke-Keating Labor Government. The Coalition would spend its longest ever period of opposition and the Labor party would spend its longest ever period of government at the federal level. The Coalition would not return to government until the 1996 election.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
At the time of the election, the economy suffered from high inflation and high unemployment, alongside increases in industrial disputation and drought across much of the rural areas. The coalition government was led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser since 1975. Fraser had fought off a leadership challenge from Andrew Peacock, who had resigned from the Cabinet citing Fraser's "manic determination to get his own way", a phrase Fraser had himself used when he resigned from John Gorton's Government in 1971. The Liberal government had to contend with the early-1980s recession. They unexpectedly won the December 1982 Flinders by-election, after having lost the March 1982 Lowe by-election with a large swing.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
Bob Hawke had entered Parliament at the 1980 federal election following a decade as leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Labor factions began to push for the deposition of Bill Hayden from the party leadership in favour of Hawke. Fraser was well aware of the ructions in Labor, and originally planned to call an election for 1982, more than a year before it was due. However, he was forced to scrap those plans after suffering a severe back injury.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
On 3 February 1983 at a meeting in Brisbane, Hayden resigned on the advice of his closest supporters. Hawke was elected as interim leader unopposed. An election wasn't due for seven more months, however Fraser, emboldened by the unexpected retention of Flinders, had caught wind of the impending change and attempted to immediately call an election (for 5 March), which would have put Parliament into "caretaker mode" and essentially frozen Labor into contesting the election with Hayden as leader.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
However, Fraser was unable to have the Governor-General, Sir Ninian Stephen, officially accept his recommendation and dissolve Parliament before the announcement of the change in Labor leadership, and was now stuck opposing the more popular Hawke (future Captain of Qantas flight 32 which was crippled on a flight from Singapore to Sydney, Richard de Crespigny, was serving as aide de camp to Governor-General Stephen at the time and details this event in his book). The actual dissolution of the parliament occurred the following day, 4 February.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
In response to his removal, Hayden claimed that a "drover's dog" could lead the ALP to victory. Five days later, the ALP formally elected Hawke as party leader. Fraser also hoped to gain control of the Senate, where the Australian Democrats had held the balance of power since 1 July 1981.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
Fraser's campaign used the slogan "We're Not Waiting for the World". Hawke's campaign theme was based around his favoured leadership philosophy of consensus, using the slogan "Bringing Australia Together". The Ash Wednesday bushfires that devastated areas of Victoria and South Australia on 16 February disrupted the Prime Minister's re-election campaign which was unofficially put on hold while he toured the affected areas.


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
In response to an attack from Fraser on the security of the banking system to protect people's savings in which he asserted that ordinary people's money was safer under their beds than in a bank under Labor, Hawke laughed and said "you can't keep your money under the bed because that's where the Commies are!"


1983 Australian federal election, Background and issues
As counting progressed on election night, it was obvious early on that the ALP had won on a massive swing. Hawke with wife Hazel claimed victory and a tearful Fraser conceded defeat. Ultimately, Labor won power on a 24-seat swing—the largest defeat of a sitting government since 1949, and the worst defeat a sitting non-Labor government has ever suffered. Fraser soon resigned from Parliament, leaving the Liberal leadership to one-time foe Andrew Peacock, who would later form a fierce leadership rivalry himself with future Prime Minister John Howard. The Labor Party would spend 13 years in government, the longest period of continuous federal government in the party's history.


1983 Austrian Grand Prix
The 1983 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Österreichring on 14 August 1983. It was the eleventh race of the 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship.


1983 Austrian Grand Prix
The 53-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a factory Renault, with Drivers' Championship rivals René Arnoux and Nelson Piquet second and third in a Ferrari and a Brabham-BMW respectively. With the win, Prost extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 14 points with four races remaining. However, this would turn out to be the final victory for the original factory Renault team.


1983 Austrian legislative election
Parliamentary elections were held in Austria on 24 April 1983. The result was a victory for the Socialist Party, which won 90 of the 183 seats. However, the Socialists lost the outright majority they had held since 1971, prompting Bruno Kreisky to stand down as SPÖ leader and Chancellor in favour of Fred Sinowatz. The SPÖ stayed in office by entering into a coalition government with the Freedom Party of Austria, which at this point was a liberal party. Voter turnout was 92.6%.


1983 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix
The 1983 Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix was the sixth round of the 1983 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 27–29 May 1983 at the Salzburgring.


1983 Avensa Douglas DC-9 crash
The 1983 Avensa Douglas DC-9 crash occurred on 11 March 1983, when an Avensa Douglas DC-9 airliner on a domestic flight from Caracas Airport to Barquisimeto Airport, Venezuela landed hard, went off of the runway, and exploded. Twenty-two passengers and one crew member died.


1983 Avensa Douglas DC-9 crash, Accident
The Douglas DC-9, registration YV-67C, was on an internal flight when it made an ILS approach in thick fog at Barquisimeto Airport, Venezuela. The DC-9 landed hard 1,015 meters beyond the runway threshold, causing the landing gear to collapse. The aircraft subsequently slid off the runway and exploded. The aircraft was carrying 45 passengers and 5 crew, of whom one crewman and 22 of the passengers died. Ten passengers were seriously injured.


1983 Avensa Douglas DC-9 crash, Investigation
The probable causes were ruled to be "Improper in-flight decisions and inadequate supervision of the flight".


1983 Avon Cup
The 1983 Avon Cup was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts in Marco Island, Florida in the United States that was part of the 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series. It was the inaugural edition of the tournament and was held from January 22 through January 30, 1983. First-seeded Andrea Jaeger won the singles title.


1983 Avon Cup, Finals, Doubles
Andrea Jaeger /  Mary Lou Piatek defeated  Rosemary Casals /  Wendy Turnbull 6–3, 6–3


1983 Avon Cup – Doubles
Andrea Jaeger and Mary-Lou Piatek won in the final 7–5, 6–4 against Rosemary Casals and Wendy Turnbull.


1983 Avon Cup – Doubles, Seeds
Champion seeds are indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which those seeds were eliminated.


1983 Avon Cup – Singles
Andrea Jaeger won in the final 6–1, 6–3 against Hana Mandlíková.


1983 Avon Cup – Singles, Seeds
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated. The top nine seeds received a bye to the second round.


1983 BC Lions season
The 1983 BC Lions finished in first place in the West Division with an 11–5 record. They appeared in the Grey Cup but lost to the Toronto Argonauts.


1983 BDO World Darts Championship
The 1983 Embassy World Darts Championship was staged at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent from 1–8 January 1983.


1983 BDO World Darts Championship
The tournament saw one of the World Darts Championship's biggest upsets, when Keith Deller defeated Eric Bristow, by 6 sets to 5 in the final, to become the youngest ever World Darts Champion and the first qualifier to win the World Championship.


1983 BDO World Darts Championship
Deller also beat world number 3, John Lowe in the quarter-finals and defending champion and world number 2, Jocky Wilson in the semi-finals, making him the only player in history to defeat the world's top three ranked players in the World Championship.


1983 BDO World Darts Championship
The final featured one of darts' most memorable moments, when Bristow was left on 121. Having hit single 17 and then treble 18, Bristow decided against hitting the bullseye. Instead he hit a single 18 to leave double 16, whilst Deller was on 138. Deller had already missed seven darts at a double to win the title in the ninth set, when leading 5-3 and Bristow believed his opponent would not check out the high finish. However, Deller hit treble 20, followed by treble 18 and finally finished on double 12 to win the title. To this day commentators often refer to 138 as the "Deller checkout" if a player is left with that score.


1983 BDO World Darts Championship, Prize money
There was also a 9 Dart Checkout prize of £30,000, along with a High Checkout prize of £750. In the semi final, Jocky Wilson missed double 18 for the 9 dart finish.


1983 BDO World Darts Championship, The Results
BBC commentator Sid Waddell describes the 138 finish that gave Keith Deller the 1983 World Title


1983 BMW Championships
The 1983 BMW Championships was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at Devonshire Park in Eastbourne in the United Kingdom that was part of the 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series. The tournament was held from 13 June through 19 June 1983. First-seeded Martina Navratilova won the singles title and earned $23,000 first-prize money.


1983 BMW Championships, Finals, Doubles
Martina Navratilova /  Pam Shriver defeated  Jo Durie /  Anne Hobbs 6–1, 6–0


1983 BYU Cougars football team
The 1983 BYU Cougars football team represented the Brigham Young University (BYU) in the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The team was led by head coach LaVell Edwards, in his twelfth year, and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. They finished the season with a record of eleven wins and one loss (11–1, 7–0 WAC), and with a victory over Missouri in the Holiday Bowl. The Cougars offense scored 505 points while the defense allowed 247 points.


1983 BYU Cougars football team, Team players in the NFL
The following were selected in the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft.


1983 Badminton World Cup
The 1983 Badminton World Cup was the fifth edition of an international tournament Badminton World Cup. The event was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 16 August to 21 August 1983. China won titles in 3 disciplines : Both the singles events and Women's doubles. South Korea won Men's doubles while cross country pair from Denmark and England won the mixed doubles title.


1983 Bakersfield Open
The 1983 Bakersfield Open, also known as the Ginny of Bakersfield,  was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts in Bakersfield, California that was part of the Ginny Tournament Circuit of the 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series. It was the inaugural edition of the tournament and was held from September 26 through October 2, 1983. Jennifer Mundel-Reinbold  won the singles title.


1983 Bakersfield Open, Finals, Doubles
Kyle Copeland /  Lori McNeil defeated  Ann Henricksson /  Pat Medrado 6–4, 6–3


1983 Bakersfield Open, Point distribution
The following Virginia Slims ranking points were available for the tournament.


1983 Balearic regional election
The 1983 Balearic regional election was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 1st Parliament of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. All 54 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.


1983 Balearic regional election
The regional picture, at first glance, had been dominated by the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), heading the pre-autonomic government since 1978 and having won the 1979 elections to the Mallorca and Menorca Island Councils. However, the UCD was dissolved in early 1983 after its disastrous defeat in the 1982 Spanish general election, with its supporters fleeing to the People's Alliance (AP), the People's Democratic Party (PDP) or, as one of its erstwhile leaders, the newly founded Majorcan Union (UM). Other parties which had also contested the Island Council elections four years previously were the regional branch of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the Socialist Party of Majorca (PSM) or the Communist Party of the Balearic Islands (PCIB).


1983 Balearic regional election
The election resulted in a tie at 21 seats between the People's Coalition—formed by AP, the PDP and the Liberal Union (UL)—and the PSOE, with a narrow overall victory for the centre-right parties. AP candidate Gabriel Cañellas was able to access the regional government through the support of UM—which had obtained 6 seats—and the votes from the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) and the Menorcan Independent Candidacy (CIM).


1983 Balearic regional election, Overview, Electoral system
The Parliament of the Balearic Islands was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution and the Balearic Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a President of the Government. Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in the Balearic Islands and in full enjoyment of their political rights.


1983 Balearic regional election, Overview, Electoral system
The 54 members of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Each constituency was allocated a fixed number of seats: 30 for Mallorca, 12 for Menorca, 11 for Ibiza and 1 for Formentera.


1983 Balearic regional election, Overview, Electoral system
The electoral law provided that parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors were allowed to present lists of candidates. However, groupings of electors were required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of the electors registered in the constituency for which they sought election—needing to secure, in any case, the signature of 500 electors—. Electors were barred from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to take part jointly at an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days of the election being called.


1983 Balearic regional election, Overview, Election date
The Inter-island General Council, in agreement with the Government of Spain, was required to call an election to the Parliament of the Balearic Islands before 31 May 1983. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional President within a sixty-day period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected deputies merely serving out what remained of their four-year terms.


1983 Balearic regional election, Parties and candidates
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one-thousandth of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election—with a compulsory minimum of 500 signatures—disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.


1983 Balearic regional election, Parties and candidates
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:


1983 Balearic regional election, Parties and candidates
The electoral disaster of the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) in the October 1982 general election and the outcome of its extraordinary congress held in December, in which the party's leadership chose to transform the UCD into a christian democratic political force, brought the party to a process of virtual disintegration as many of its remaining members either switched party allegiances, split into new, independent candidacies or left politics altogether.


1983 Balearic regional election, Parties and candidates
Subsequent attempts to seek electoral allies ahead of the incoming 1983 local and regional elections, mainly the conservative People's Alliance (AP) and the christian democratic People's Democratic Party (PDP), had limited success due to concerns from both AP and UCD over such an alliance policy: AP strongly rejected any agreement that implied any sort of global coalition with UCD due to the party's ongoing decomposition, and prospects about a possible PDP–UCD merger did not come into fruition because of the latter's reluctance to dilute its brand within another party. In Mallorca, the former president of the Inter-island General Council, Jeroni Albertí, led the formation of the regionalist coalition Majorcan Union (UM) as a continuation of UCD on the island.


1983 Balearic regional election, Parties and candidates
Together with AP, the PDP had agreed to maintain their general election alliance—now rebranded as the People's Coalition—for the May local and regional elections, with the inclusion of the Liberal Union (UL), a political party created in January 1983 out of independents from the AP–PDP coalition in an attempt to appeal to former UCD liberal voters. The Coalition had seen its numbers soar from late February as a result of many former members from the UCD's christian democratic wing joining the PDP.


1983 Balearic regional election, Opinion polls
The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 28 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of the Balearic Islands.


1983 Balkan Bulgarian hijacking
On March 7, the 1983 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines hijacking occurred. A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines An-24 was hijacked by four hijackers demanding to go to Austria.


1983 Balkan Bulgarian hijacking, Aircraft
The aircraft involved was an Antonov An-24, registration LZ-AND with the manufacturer's serial number 77303301. The aircraft first flew in 1968.


1983 Balkan Bulgarian hijacking, Incident
A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines An-24 was hijacked shortly after taking off at 18:00 local time for a regular flight from Sofia to Varna. Four men, aged from 17 to 22 (Lachezar Ivanov, Krasen Gechev, Ivaylo Vladimirov and Valentin Ivanov), produced knives and took the 40 passengers and crew hostage. They claimed to the passengers that they were recently escaped recidivist criminals and threatened that they would depressurise the plane if an attempt were made to disarm them or impede the takeover. The hijackers proceeded to threaten the stewardess and demanded the plane be diverted to Vienna.


1983 Balkan Bulgarian hijacking, Incident
A passenger was sent to the cockpit to communicate their demands to the pilot, who in turn relayed them to local authorities and received orders to simulate compliance, while actually maintaining a course to Varna. Meanwhile, authorities cut off all electrical power to Varna, in order to prevent the hijackers from recognising the Black Sea coast. After landing at the Varna airport, a Bulgarian police officer and an airport worker, who spoke fluent German were disguised as Austrian airport staff as they attempted to convince the hijackers that they were in Vienna  and to lure them out of the plane.


1983 Balkan Bulgarian hijacking, Incident
The hijackers asked for a translator to negotiate their surrender, until one of them noticed that the disguised police officer was wearing a Bulgarian made leather jacket, which led them to panic and threaten to start executing hostages. At this point the crew managed to let four commandos aboard the plane through a hatch in the luggage compartment. The commandos stormed the plane, disarmed and arrested three of the hijackers. The only remaining hijacker, Valentin Ivanov, had locked himself in the airplane bathroom and threatened to kill the stewardess.


1983 Balkan Bulgarian hijacking, Incident
Two more commandos entered the plane through the passenger hatch, kicked in the bathroom door and shot Ivanov as he attempted to kill his hostage. Ivanov was the only victim of the incident. The stewardess, having sustained a wound in her neck and bleeding heavily, was quickly transported to a nearby hospital and made a full recovery.


1983 Ball State Cardinals football team
The 1983 Ball State Cardinals football team was an American football team that represented Ball State University in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) during the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. In its sixth season under head coach Dwight Wallace, the team compiled a 6–5 record (4–4 against MAC opponents) and finished in fifth place out of ten teams in the conference. The team played its home games at Ball State Stadium in Muncie, Indiana.


1983 Ball State Cardinals football team
The team's statistical leaders included Neil Britt with 2,377 passing yards, Terry Lymon with 517 rushing yards, David Naumcheff with 1,065 receiving yards, and John Diettrich with 59 points scored.


1983 Ballon d'Or
The 1983 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in Europe as judged by a panel of sports journalists from UEFA member countries, was awarded to Michel Platini on 27 December 1983.


1983 Ballon d'Or
Platini was the second French national to win the award after Raymond Kopa (in 1958), and the third player from Juventus after Omar Sívori and Paolo Rossi (in 1961 and 1982, respectively).


1983 Baltimore Colts season
The 1983 Baltimore Colts season was the 31st season for the team in the National Football League (NFL). This would be the last season in Baltimore as they moved to Indianapolis for the following season. The Colts finished the year with a record of 7 wins and 9 losses, and tied for fourth in the AFC East division with the New York Jets. However, the Colts finished ahead of New York based on better conference record (5–9 to Jets’ 4–8).


1983 Baltimore Colts season
Having finished the 1982 season with the NFL's worst record at a winless 0–8–1, the Colts held the No. 1 pick in the 1983 NFL draft and expected to land the nation's top collegiate player to their 1983 roster. The Colts used the top pick on John Elway of Stanford. Elway, however, refused to play for the Colts and even considered joining the New York Yankees baseball organization unless he was traded. The Colts were forced to trade Elway to the Denver Broncos and Mike Pagel retained his position as starting quarterback.


1983 Baltimore Colts season
The Elway controversy became more interesting when Elway's Broncos visited Baltimore for the second game of the season. The Broncos won that game 17–10. Later, when the teams faced each other again in Denver for the second-to-last game of the season, the Colts took a 19–0 lead over the Broncos, only to blow the lead in the fourth quarter and lose 21–19. They won their final game as a Baltimore team against the Houston Oilers 20–10. This left Baltimore without an NFL team until the Ravens began play in 1996.


1983 Baltimore Orioles season
The 1983 Baltimore Orioles won the Major League Baseball World Series after finishing 1st in the American League East with a record of 98 wins and 64 losses, The Orioles won the championship by beating the Philadelphia Philles 4–1 in the 1983 World Series. The season was the Orioles first in nearly 15 years without legendary manager Earl Weaver who retired after the Orioles missed the playoffs in the final game of the 1982 season. The Orioles replaced the  Weaver, with Joe Altobelli. The World Series victory was the Orioles' first championship since 1970 and their most recent to date.


1983 Baltimore Orioles season, An Overview of the Team
On April 3, 1983 the Baltimore Orioles left Spring Training with much the same team that fell just a game short of the playoffs the year before. Of the Orioles starting in the  only Lenn Sakata and Al Bumbry would lose their opening day spots in 1983.


1983 Baltimore Orioles season, An Overview of the Team
Terry Crowley was the last player cut on Spring Training, and on his way out of the clubhouse he predicted an Orioles championship, "The shame of it is," he told a ''Sun reporter, "the Orioles are going to win in it all this year, and Joe is going to do a tremendous job" Still, the team was an up-and-coming squad, in fact, no Oriole would be voted on to the All Star team's starting lineup. However, the team featured three future Hall of Famers:


1983 Baltimore Orioles season, An Overview of the Team
While the Orioles fielded a team similar to the team fielded in 1982 Altobelli put his own mark on the squad by breaking camp with a four-man rotation which occasionally increased to five pitchers rather than the three man rotation preferred by Weaver.


1983 Baltimore Orioles season, Starting Pitching
One significant difference between the 1982 Baltimore Orioles and the 1983 Baltimore Orioles was Altobelli's willingness to use different starting pitchers. , Orioles pitches would take the mound to start the game in 1983 whereas in 1982 only  got the starting nod.


1983 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; SB= Stolen bases


1983 Baltimore Orioles season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: Pos = position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; SB= Stolen bases


1983 Baltimore mayoral election
The 1983 Baltimore mayoral election saw the reelection of William Donald Schaefer to a fourth consecutive term.


1983 Bandy World Championship
The 1983 Bandy World Championship was the 13th Bandy World Championship and was played in Finland. The Swedish national team became champions for the second time. Only four countries participated, but this was the last world championship played with so few contestants.


1983 Bandy World Championship squads
Below are the squads for the 1983 Bandy World Championship final tournament in Finland.


1983 Barcelona City Council election
The 1983 Barcelona City Council election, also the 1983 Barcelona municipal election, was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 2nd City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 43 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.


1983 Barcelona City Council election, Electoral system
The City Council of Barcelona (Catalan: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Barcelona, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly.


1983 Barcelona City Council election, Electoral system
Voting for the local assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in the municipality of Barcelona and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights. Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council. Councillors were allocated to municipal councils based on the following scale:


1983 Barcelona City Council election, Electoral system
The mayor was indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause required that mayoral candidates earned the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the eldest one would be elected.


1983 Barcelona City Council election, Electoral system
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one-thousandth of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election—with a compulsory minimum of 500 signatures—disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.


1983 Barcelona City Council election, Opinion polls
The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 22 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.


1983 Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council election
Elections to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council were held on 5 May 1983. One third of the council was up for election. Prior to the election the defending councillor in Darton had defected to Independent Labour from  Residents. The election resulted in Labour retaining control of the council.


1983 Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council election, Ward results
+/- figures represent changes from the last time these wards were contested.


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting
Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1983 followed the system in place since 1978. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected two, Juan Marichal and Brooks Robinson. The Veterans Committee met in closed sessions to consider older major league players as well as managers, umpires, executives, and figures from the Negro leagues. It selected Walter Alston and George Kell. A formal induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown, New York, on July 31, 1983, with Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn presiding.


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1963 or later, but not after 1977; the ballot included candidates from the 1982 ballot who received at least 5% of the vote but were not elected, along with selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last appearance was in 1977. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Voters were instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates; any candidate receiving votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be honored with induction to the Hall. The ballot consisted of 46 players; a total of 374 ballots were cast, with 281 votes required for election. A total of 3,125 individual votes were cast, an average of 8.36 per ballot. Those candidates receiving less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future BBWAA ballots but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Candidates who were eligible for the first time are indicated here with a dagger (†). The one candidate who received at least 75% of the vote and was elected is indicated in bold italics; candidates who have since been elected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics. The 23 candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, thus becoming ineligible for future BBWAA consideration, are indicated with an asterisk (*).


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Gil Hodges and Red Schoendienst were on the ballot for the 15th and final time. As of 2018, Hodges's 63.4% remains the highest percentage of any candidate who has not been elected to the Hall of Fame (excluding those still on the writers' ballot).


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
The newly-eligible players included 22 All-Stars, three of whom were not included on the ballot, representing a total of 68 All-Star selections. Among the new candidates were 15-time All-Star Brooks Robinson, 9-time All-Star Joe Torre, 7-time All-Star Dick Allen and 5-time All-Star Cookie Rojas. The field included four MVPs (Allen, Robinson, Torre and Boog Powell), one Cy Young Award-winner (Mike Cuellar), and two Rookies of the Year (Allen and Tommy Helms). Brooks Robinson also had 16 Gold Gloves, the all-time record at third base.


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election
Players eligible for the first time who were not included on the ballot were: Ken Boswell, Ollie Brown, Willie Crawford, Bruce Dal Canton, Tom Hall, Steve Hargan, Terry Harmon. Mike Hegan, Bob Heise, Jerry Johnson, Ed Kirkpatrick, George Mitterwald, Dave Nelson, Phil Roof, and Gary Ross.


1983 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, J. G. Taylor Spink Award
Si Burick (1909–1986) received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award honoring a baseball writer. The award was voted at the December 1982 meeting of the BBWAA, and included in the summer 1983 ceremonies.


1983 Basildon District Council election
The 1983 Basildon District Council election took place on 5 May 1983 to elect members of Basildon District Council in Essex, England. This was on the same day as other local elections. The Labour Party retained control of the council, which it had won at the previous election in 1982.


1983 Basque foral elections
The 1983 Basque foral elections were held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 2nd Juntas Generales of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. All 153 seats in the three Juntas Generales were up for election. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.


1983 Basque foral elections, Foral deputation control
The following table lists party control in the foral deputations. Gains for a party are displayed with the cell's background shaded in that party's colour.


1983 Bath City Council election
The 1983 Bath City Council election was held on Thursday 5 May 1983 to elect councillors to Bath City Council in England. It took place on the same day as other district council elections in the United Kingdom. One third of seats were up for election. Two seats were contested in Twerton and Widcombe due to extra vacancies occurring.


1983 Bath City Council election, Ward results
Sitting councillors seeking re-election, elected in 1979, are marked with an asterisk (*). The ward results listed below are based on the changes from the 1982 elections, not taking into account any party defections or by-elections.


1983 Batticaloa Jailbreak
1983 Batticaloa Jailbreak happened in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka on 23 September 1983. After the Welikada prison massacre, Tamil political inmates were transferred to Batticaloa. Since they were not co-operating with the police they were told by the prison guards that they were to be transferred back to a Sinhalese area. Fearing death, 41 Tamil political inmates decided to escape. Using smuggled weapons and outside help they overwhelmed the guards and escaped in groups. Using this opportunity 150 criminal inmates also escaped. Prominent political escapees include Ramalingam Paramadeva, Panagoda Maheswaran, Douglas Devananda and few Tamil Tiger sympathisers. This jailbreak was bloodless. The escapees left behind some female political inmates, who were rescued by Ramalingam Paramadeva of the Tamil Tigers in 1984 Batticaloa Jailbreak.


1983 Bauchi State gubernatorial election
The 1983 Bauchi State gubernatorial election occurred in Nigeria on August 13, 1983. The NPN nominee Tatari Ali won the election, defeating other candidates.


1983 Bauchi State gubernatorial election, Electoral system
The Governor of Bauchi State is elected using the plurality voting system.


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships
The 1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships was a men's Grand Prix tennis circuit tournament held in Munich, West Germany which was played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 67th edition of the tournament and was held form 16 May through 22 May 1983. First-seeded Tomáš Šmíd won the singles title.


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships, Finals, Singles
Tomáš Šmíd defeated  Joakim Nyström 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 2–6, 7–5


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships, Finals, Doubles
Chris Lewis /  Pavel Složil defeated  Anders Järryd /  Tomáš Šmíd 6–4, 6–2


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships – Doubles
Chip Hooper and Mel Purcell were the defending champions, but Hooper did not participate this year. Purcell partnered Trey Waltke, losing in the semifinals.


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships – Doubles
Chris Lewis and Pavel Složil won the title, defeating Anders Järryd and Tomáš Šmíd 6–4, 6–2 in the final.


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships – Singles
Gene Mayer was the defending champion, but did not participate this year.


1983 Bavarian Tennis Championships – Singles
Tomáš Šmíd won the singles title of the 1983 BMW Open, defeating Joakim Nyström 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 2–6, 7–5 in the final.


1983 Baylor Bears football team
The 1983 Baylor Bears football team represented the Baylor University in the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Bears finished the season third in the Southwest Conference. They lost to Oklahoma State in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, 14–24.


1983 Baylor Bears football team, After the season
The following players were drafted into professional football following the season.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War. The attack killed 307 people: 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians, and two attackers.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
The first suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb at the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (Battalion Landing Team – BLT 1/8) of the 2nd Marine Division, killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors and 3 soldiers, making this incident the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II and the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Armed Forces since the first day of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Another 128 Americans were wounded in the blast; 13 later died of their injuries, and they are counted among the number who died. An elderly Lebanese man, a custodian/vendor who was known to work and sleep in his concession stand next to the building, was also killed in the first blast. The explosives used were later estimated to be equivalent to as much as 9,500 kg (21,000 pounds) of TNT.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Minutes later, a second suicide bomber struck the nine-story Drakkar building, a few kilometers away, where the French contingent was stationed; 55 paratroopers from the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment and three paratroopers of the 9th Parachute Chasseur Regiment were killed and 15 injured. It was the single worst French military loss since the end of the Algerian War. The wife and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building were also killed, and more than twenty other Lebanese civilians were injured.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
A group called Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombings and said that the aim was to force the MNF out of Lebanon. According to Caspar Weinberger, then United States Secretary of Defense, there is no knowledge of who did the bombing. Some analysis highlights the role of Hezbollah and Iran, calling it "an Iranian operation from top to bottom". There is no consensus on whether Hezbollah existed at the time of bombing.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
The attacks eventually led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed following the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) withdrawal in the aftermath of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings
In 2004 it was reported that an Iranian group called the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign had erected a monument, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery in Tehran, to commemorate the 1983 bombings and its "martyrs".


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
On June 6, 1982, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation "Peace for Galilee" and invaded Lebanon in order to create a 40 km buffer zone between the PLO and Syrian forces in Lebanon and Israel. The Israeli invasion was tacitly approved by the U.S., and the U.S. provided overt military support to Israel in the form of arms and materiel. The U.S.' support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon taken in conjunction with U.S. support for Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) alienated many.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
Bachir Gemayel was the legally elected president, but he was a partisan Maronite Christian and covert associate of Israel. These factors served to disaffect the Lebanese Muslim and Druze communities. This animosity was made worse by the Phalangist, a right-wing, largely Maronite-Lebanese militia force closely associated with President Gemayel. The Phalangist militia was responsible for multiple, bloody attacks against the Muslim and Druze communities in Lebanon and for the 1982 atrocities committed in the PLO refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila by Lebanese Forces (LF), while the IDF provided security and looked on. The Phalangist militia's attacks on Sabra and Shatila were purportedly a response to the September 14, 1982, assassination of President-elect Bachir Gemayel. Amine Gemayel, Bachir's brother, succeeded Bachir as the elected president of Lebanon, and Amine continued to represent and advance Maronite interests.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
All of this, according to British foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, served to generate ill will against the MNF among Lebanese Muslims and especially among the Shiites living in the slums of West Beirut. Lebanese Muslims believed the MNF, and the Americans in particular, were unfairly siding with the Maronite Christians in their attempt to dominate Lebanon. As a result, this led to artillery, mortar, and small arms fire being directed at MNF peacekeepers by Muslim factions. Operating under the peacetime rules of engagement, MNF peacekeepers – primarily U.S. and French forces – used minimum use of force as possible in order to avoid compromising their neutral status. Until October 23, 1983, there were ten guidelines issued for each U.S. Marine member of the MNF:


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
The perimeter guards at the U.S. Marine headquarters on the morning of October 23, 1983, were in full compliance with rules 1–3 and were unable to shoot fast enough to disable or stop the bomber (see The bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983 below).


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
In 1982, the Islamic Republic of Iran established a base in the Syrian-controlled Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. From that base, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "founded, financed, trained and equipped Hezbollah to operate as a proxy army" for Iran. Some analysts believe the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran was heavily involved in the bomb attacks and that a major factor leading it to orchestrate the attacks on the barracks was America's support for Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War and its extending of $2.5 billion in trade credit to Iraq while halting the shipments of arms to Iran.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
A few weeks before the bombing, Iran warned that providing armaments to Iran's enemies would provoke retaliatory punishment. On September 26, 1983, "the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted an Iranian diplomatic communications message from the Iranian intelligence agency, the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS)," to its ambassador, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, in Damascus. The message directed the ambassador to "take spectacular action against the American Marines." The intercepted message, dated September 26, would not be passed to the Marines until October 26: three days after the bombing.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission
Much of what is now public knowledge of Iranian involvement, e.g., PETN purportedly supplied by Iran, the suicide bomber's name and nationality, etc., in the bombings was not revealed to the public until the 2003 trial, Peterson, et al v. Islamic Republic, et al. Testimony by Admiral James "Ace" Lyon's, U.S.N. (Ret), and FBI forensic explosive investigator Danny A. Defenbaugh, plus a deposition by a Hezbollah operative named Mahmoud (a pseudonym) were particularly revealing.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission, Incidents
On July 14, 1983, a Lebanese Armed Forces patrol was ambushed by Lebanese Druze militia elements and from July 15–17, Lebanese troops engaged the Shia Amal militia in Beirut over a dispute involving the eviction of Shiite squatters from a schoolhouse. At the same time, fighting in the Shuf between the LAF and Druze militia escalated sharply. On July 22, Beirut International Airport (BIA), the headquarters of the U.S. 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (24th MAU), was shelled with Druze mortar and artillery fire, wounding three U.S. Marines and causing the temporary closure of the airport.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission, Incidents
On July 23, Walid Jumblatt, leader of the predominantly Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), announced the formation of a Syrian-backed "National Salvation Front" opposed to the May 17 Agreement. In anticipation of an IDF withdrawal from the Alayh and Shuf districts, fighting between the Druze and LF and between the Druze and LAF, intensified during the month of August. Druze artillery closed the BIA between 10 and 16 August, and the Druze made explicit their opposition to LAF deployment in the Shuf. The LAF also clashed with the Amal militia in Beirut's western and southern suburbs.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission, Incidents
As the security situation deteriorated, US positions at BIA were subjected to increased fire. On August 10 and 11, an estimated thirty-five rounds of mortar and rocket fire landed on US positions, wounding one Marine. On August 28, in response to constant mortar and rocket fire upon US positions, US peacekeepers returned fire for the first time. On the following day, US artillery silenced a Druze battery after two Marines were killed in a mortar attack. On August 31, the LAF swept through the Shia neighborhood of West Beirut, establishing temporary control over the area.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission, Incidents
On September 4, the IDF withdrew from the Alayh and Shuf Districts, falling back to the Awwali River. The LAF was not prepared to fill the void, moving instead to occupy the key junction at Khaldah, south of BIA. That same day, BIA was again shelled, killing two Marines and wounding two others. No retaliation was given due to the ROE. As the LAF moved slowly eastward into the foothills of the Shuf, accounts of massacres, conducted by Christians and Druze alike, began to be reported.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission, Incidents
On September 5, a Druze force, reportedly reinforced by PLO elements, routed the Christian LF militia at Bhamdun and all but eliminated the LF as a military factor in the Alayh District. This defeat obliged the LAF to occupy Souk El Gharb to avoid conceding all of the high ground overlooking BIA to the Druze. U.S. positions were again subjected to constant indirect fire attacks; consequently, counterbattery fire based on target acquisition radar data was employed. F-14 tactical airborne reconnaissance (TARPS) missions were conducted for the first time on September 7. On September 8, naval gunfire from offshore destroyers was employed for the first time in defense of the U.S. Marines.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Beirut: June 1982 to October 1983, Mission, Incidents
On September 25, a ceasefire was instituted that same day and Beirut International Airport reopened five days later. On October 1, Walid Jumblatt announced a separate governmental administration for the Shuf and called for the mass defection of all Druze elements from the LAF. Nevertheless, on 14 October the leaders of Lebanon's key factions agreed to conduct reconciliation talks in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the ceasefire officially held into mid-October, factional clashes intensified and sniper attacks on MNF contingents became commonplace. On October 19, four Marines were wounded when a US convoy was attacked by a remotely detonated car bomb parked along the convoy route.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
At around 06:22, a 19-ton yellow Mercedes-Benz stake-bed truck drove to the Beirut International Airport. The 1st Battalion 8th Marines (BLT), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Larry Gerlach, was a subordinate element of the 24th MAU. The truck was not the water truck they had been expecting. Instead, it was a hijacked truck carrying explosives. The driver turned his truck onto an access road leading to the compound. He drove into and circled the parking lot, and then he accelerated to crash through a 5 feet (1.5 m)-high barrier of concertina wire separating the parking lot from the building.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
The wire popped "like somebody walking on twigs." The truck then passed between two sentry posts and through an open vehicle gate in the perimeter chain-link fence, crashed through a guard shack in front of the building and smashed into the lobby of the building serving as the barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (BLT). The sentries at the gate were operating under rules of engagement which made it very difficult to respond quickly to the truck.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
On the day of the bombing, the sentries were ordered to keep a loaded magazine inserted in their weapon, bolt closed, weapon on safe and no round in the chamber. Only one sentry, LCpl Eddie DiFranco, was able to chamber a round. However, by that time the truck was already crashing into the building's entryway.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
The suicide bomber, an Iranian national named Ismail Ascari, detonated his explosives, which were later estimated to be equivalent to approximately 9,525 kilograms (21,000 pounds) of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story building into rubble, crushing to death 241 American servicemen. According to Eric Hammel in his history of the U.S. Marine landing force,


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
The force of the explosion initially lifted the entire four-story structure, shearing the bases of the concrete support columns, each measuring fifteen feet in circumference and reinforced by numerous one-and-three-quarter-inch steel rods. The airborne building then fell in upon itself. A massive shock wave and ball of flaming gas was hurled in all directions.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
The explosive mechanism was a gas-enhanced device consisting of compressed butane in canisters employed with pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) to create a fuel-air explosive. The bomb was carried on a layer of concrete covered with a slab of marble to direct the blast upward. Despite the lack of sophistication and wide availability of its component parts, a gas-enhanced device can be a lethal weapon. These devices were similar to fuel-air or thermobaric weapons, explaining the large blast and damage. An after-action forensic investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined that the bomb was so powerful that it probably would have brought down the building even if the sentries had managed to stop the truck between the gate and the building.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
Less than ten minutes later, a similar attack occurred against the barracks of the French 3rd Company of the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment, 6 km away in the Ramlet al Baida area of West Beirut. As the suicide bomber drove his pickup truck toward the "Drakkar" building, French paratroopers began shooting at the truck and its driver. It is believed that the driver was killed and the truck was immobilized and rolled to stop about 15 yards (14 m) from the building. A few moments passed before the truck exploded, bringing down the nine-story building and killing 58 French paratroopers.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Bombings: Sunday, October 23, 1983
It is believed that this bomb was detonated by remote control and that, though similarly constructed, it was smaller than and slightly less than half as powerful as the one used against the Marines. Many of the paratroopers had gathered on their balconies moments earlier to see what was happening at the airport. It was France's worst military loss since the end of the Algerian War in 1962.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Rescue and recovery operations: October 23 to 28, 1983, American
Organized rescue efforts began immediately – within three minutes of the bombing – and continued for days. Unit maintenance personnel were not billeted in the BLT building, and they rounded up pry bars, torches, jacks and other equipment from unit vehicles and maintenance shops and began rescue operations. Meanwhile, combat engineers and truck drivers began using their organic assets, i.e., trucks and engineering equipment, to help with the rescue operations. 24th MAU medical personnel, Navy dentists LT Gil Bigelow and LT Jim Ware, established two aid stations to triage and treat casualties.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Rescue and recovery operations: October 23 to 28, 1983, American
Medevac helicopters, CH-46s from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM-162), were airborne by 6:45 AM. U.S. Navy medical personnel from nearby vessels of the U.S. Sixth Fleet went ashore to assist with treatment and medical evacuation of the injured, as did sailors and shipboard Marines who volunteered to assist with the rescue effort. Lebanese, Italian, British, and even French troops, who had suffered their own loss, provided assistance.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Rescue and recovery operations: October 23 to 28, 1983, American
Many Lebanese civilians voluntarily joined the rescue effort. Especially important was a Lebanese construction contractor, Rafiq Hariri of the firm Oger-Liban, who provided heavy construction equipment, e.g., a 40-ton P & H crane, etc., from nearby BIA worksites. Hariri's construction equipment proved vitally necessary in lifting and removing heavy slabs of concrete debris at the barracks site just as it had been necessary in assisting with clearing debris after the April U.S. Embassy attack.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Rescue and recovery operations: October 23 to 28, 1983, American
While the rescuers were at times hindered by hostile sniper and artillery fire, several Marine survivors were pulled from the rubble at the BLT 1/8 bomb site and airlifted by helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima, located offshore. U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and Royal Air Force medevac planes transported the seriously wounded to the hospital at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and to U.S. and German hospitals in West Germany. A few survivors, including Lt. Col. Gerlach, were sent to the Italian MNF dispensary and to Lebanese hospitals in Beirut. Israel's offers to medevac the wounded to hospitals in Israel were rejected as politically unacceptable even though Israeli hospitals were known to provide excellent care and were considerably closer than hospitals in Germany.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Rescue and recovery operations: October 23 to 28, 1983, American
At about noon Sunday, October 23, the last survivor was pulled from the rubble; he was LTJG Danny G. Wheeler, Lutheran chaplain for BLT 1/8. Other men survived beyond Sunday, but they succumbed to their injuries before they could be extracted from the rubble. By Wednesday, the majority of the bodies and body parts had been recovered from the stricken barracks, and the recovery effort ended on Friday. After five days, the FBI came in to investigate, and the Marines returned to normal duties.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Rescue and recovery operations: October 23 to 28, 1983, French
"The explosion at the French barracks blew the whole building off its foundations and threw it about 6 meters (20 feet) westward, while breaking the windows of almost every apartment house in the neighborhood .... Grim-faced French paratroopers and Lebanese civil-defense workers aided by bulldozers also worked under spotlights through the night at the French barracks, trying to pull apart the eight stories of 90 centimeter (3 foot) thick cement that had fallen on top of one another and to reach the men they could still hear screaming for help. They regularly pumped oxygen into the mountain of rubble to keep those who were still trapped below alive."


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Victims
The explosions resulted in 346 casualties, of which 234 (68%) were killed immediately, with head injuries, thoracic injuries and burns accounting for a large number of deaths.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Victims
The New York Times printed a list of the identified casualties on October 26, 1983. Another list of those who survived the incident was published by the Department of Defense. The information had to be re-printed, as individuals were misidentified, and family members were told incorrect statuses of their loved ones.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Victims
Twenty-one U.S. peacekeepers who lost their lives in the bombing were buried in Section 59 at Arlington National Cemetery, near one of the memorials to all the victims.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the attack a "despicable act" and pledged to keep a military force in Lebanon. U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who had privately advised the administration against stationing U.S. Marines in Lebanon, said there would be no change in the U.S.'s Lebanon policy. French President François Mitterrand and other French dignitaries visited both the French and American bomb sites to offer their personal condolences on Monday, October 24, 1983. It was not an official visit, and President Mitterrand only stayed for a few hours, but he did declare "We will stay."


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
During his visit, President Mitterrand visited each of the scores of American caskets and made the sign of the cross as his mark of respectful observance for each of the fallen peacekeepers. U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush arrived and made a tour of the destroyed BLT barracks on Wednesday, October 26, 1983. Vice President Bush toured the site and said the U.S. "would not be cowed by terrorists." Vice President Bush also visited with wounded U.S. personnel aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima (LPH-2), and he took time to meet with the commanders of the other MNF units (French, Italian and British) deployed in Beirut.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
In retaliation for the attacks, France launched an airstrike in the Beqaa Valley against alleged Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) positions. President Reagan assembled his national security team and planned to target the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) believed to be training Hezbollah militants. A joint American–French air assault on the camp where the bombing was planned was also approved by Reagan and Mitterrand. U.S. Defense Secretary Weinberger lobbied successfully against the mission, because at the time it was not certain that Iran was behind the attack.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
Some of the U.S. Marines in Beirut were moved to transport vessels offshore where they could not be targeted; yet, they would be ready and available to serve as a ready reaction force in Beirut if needed. For protection against snipers and artillery attacks, the Marines remaining at the airport built, and moved into, bunkers in the ground employing 'appropriated' Soviet-bloc CONEXes.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
Col Geraghty requested and received reinforcements to replace his unit losses. BLT 2/6, the Second Marine Division Air Alert Battalion stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and commanded by , was dispatched and flown into Beirut by four C-141s in less than 36 hours after the bombing. Lt . Col. Kelley officially replaced the seriously injured BLT 1/8 commander, Lt. Col. Larry Gerlach. The entire Headquarters and Service Company and Weapons Company of BLT 2/6 was airlifted into Beirut, along with Company E (Reinforced). Lt


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
. Col. Kelley quietly redesignated his unit, BLT 2/6, as BLT 1/8 to help bolster the morale of the BLT 1/8 survivors. The BLT headquarters was relocated to a landfill area west of the airfield, and Company A (Reinforced) was repositioned from the university library position to serve as landing force reserve afloat, aboard Amphibious Ready Group shipping. On November 18, 1983, the 22d MAU rotated into Beirut and relieved in place the 24th MAU. The 24th MAU with Lt. Col. Kelley commanding BLT 1/8 returned to Camp Lejeune, NC, by sea for training and refitting.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
Eventually, it became evident that the U.S. would launch no serious and immediate retaliatory attack for the Beirut Marine barracks bombing beyond naval barrages and air strikes used to interdict continuous harassing fire from Druze and Syrian missile and artillery sites.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
A true retaliatory strike failed to materialize because there was a rift in White House counsel (largely between George P. Shultz of the Department of State and Weinberger of the Department of Defense) and because the extant evidence pointing at Iranian involvement was circumstantial at that time: the Islamic Jihad, which took credit for the attack, was a front for Hezbollah which was acting as a proxy for Iran; thus, affording Iran plausible deniability. Secretary of State Shultz was an advocate for retaliation, but Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was against retaliation. Secretary of Defense Weinberger, in a September 2001 Frontline interview, reaffirmed that rift in White House counsel when he claimed that the U.S. still lacks "'actual knowledge of who did the bombing' of the Marine barracks."


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
The USS New Jersey had arrived and taken up station off Beirut on September 25, 1983. Special Representative in the Middle East Robert McFarlane's team had requested New Jersey after the August 29th Druze mortar attack that killed two Marines. After the October 23rd bombing, on November 28, the U.S. government announced that the New Jersey would remain stationed off Beirut although her crew would be rotated. It was not until December 14 that New Jersey finally joined the fray and fired 11 projectiles from her 16-inch guns at hostile targets near Beirut.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
"This was the first time 16-inch shells were fired for effect anywhere in the world since the New Jersey ended her time on the gunline in Vietnam in 1969." Also in December 1983, U.S. aircraft from the USS John F. Kennedy and USS Independence battle groups attacked Syrian targets in Lebanon, but this was ostensibly in response to Syrian missile attacks on American warplanes.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
In the meantime, the attack boosted the prestige and growth of the Shi'ite organization Hezbollah. Hezbollah officially denied any involvement in the attacks, but was seen by many Lebanese as involved nonetheless as it praised the "two martyr mujahideen" who "set out to inflict upon the U.S. Administration an utter defeat, not experienced since Vietnam." Hezbollah was now seen by many as "the spearhead of the sacred Muslim struggle against foreign occupation".


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
The 1983 report of the U.S. Department of Defense Commission's on the attack recommended that the National Security Council investigate and consider alternative ways to reach "American objectives in Lebanon" because, "as progress to diplomatic solutions slows," the security of the USMNF base continues to "deteriorate." The commission also recommended a review for the development of a broader range of "appropriate military, political, and diplomatic responses to terrorism." Military preparedness needed improvement in the development of "doctrine, planning, organization, force structure, education, and training" to better combat terrorism, while the USMNF was "not prepared" to deal with the terrorist threat at the time due to "lack of training, staff, organization, and support" specifically for defending against "terror threats."


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri, who had previously supported U.S. mediation efforts, asked the U.S. and France to leave Lebanon and accused the two countries of seeking to commit 'massacres' against the Lebanese and of creating a "climate of racism" against Shias. Islamic Jihad phoned in new threats against the MNF pledging that "the earth would tremble" unless the MNF withdrew by New Year's Day 1984.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the Marines to begin withdrawing from Lebanon largely because of waning congressional support for the mission after the attacks on the barracks. The withdrawal of the 22d MAU from the BIA was completed 12:37 PM on February 26, 1984. "Fighting between the Lebanese Army and Druze militia in the nearby Shouf mountains provided a noisy backdrop to the Marine evacuation. One officer commented: 'This ceasefire is getting louder.'"


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
On February 8, 1984, the USS New Jersey fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Syrian positions in the Beqaa Valley east of Beirut. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War. Firing without air spotting, the battleship had to rely on Israeli target intelligence. "In a nine-hour period, the USS New Jersey fired 288 16-inch rounds, each one weighing as much as a Volkswagen Beetle. In those nine-hours, the ship consumed 40 percent of the 16-inch ammunition available in the entire European theater ... [ and] in one burst of wretched excess," New Jersey seemed to be unleashing eighteen months of repressed fury.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
"Many Lebanese still recall the 'flying Volkswagens,' the name given to the huge shells that struck the Shouf." In addition to destroying Syrian and Druze artillery and missile sites, approximately 30 of these behemoth projectiles rained down on a Syrian command post, killing the senior commanding Syrian general in Lebanon along with several of his senior officers. Some of New Jersey's shells missed their intended targets and killed non-combatants, mostly Shiites and Druze.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
Following the lead of the U.S., the rest of the multinational force, the British, French and Italians, was withdrawn by the end of February 1984. The ship-borne 22d MAU contingent remained stationed offshore near Beirut while a detached 100-man ready reaction force remained stationed ashore near the U.S./U.K. Embassy. The 22d MAU was relieved in place by the 24th MAU on April 10, 1984. On April 21, the ready reaction force in Beirut was deactivated and its men were reassigned to their respective ships. In late July 1984, the last Marines from the 24th MAU, the U.S./U.K. Embassy guard detail, was withdrawn from Beirut.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, American and French response
Although the withdrawal of U.S. and French peacekeepers from Lebanon following the bombings has been widely cited as demonstrative of the efficacy of terrorism, Max Abrahms observes that the bombings targeted military personnel and as such are not consistent with the most widely accepted attempts to define terrorism, which emphasize deliberate violence against civilians. A 2019 study disputes that the bombings motivated the withdrawal of U.S. forces, arguing instead that the collapse of the Lebanese national army in February 1984 was the primary motivating factor behind the withdrawal.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Search for perpetrators
At the time of the bombing, an obscure group called the "Islamic Jihad" claimed responsibility for the attack. There were many in the U.S. government, such as Vice President Bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, and National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane (who was formerly Reagan's Mideast envoy), who believed Iran and/or Syria were/was responsible for the bombings. After some years of investigation, the U.S. government now believes that elements of what would eventually become Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, were responsible for these bombings as well as the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut earlier in April.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Search for perpetrators
It is believed that Hezbollah used the name "Islamic Jihad" to remain anonymous. Hezbollah eventually announced its existence in 1985. This is while, according to President Reagan's Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, "We still do not have the actual knowledge of who did the bombing of the Marine barracks at the Beirut Airport, and we certainly didn't then." Weinberger mentions lack of certainty about Syria or Iran's involvement as the reason why America did not take any retaliatory actions against those states. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have continued to deny any involvement in any of the bombings. An Iranian group erected a monument in a cemetery in Tehran to commemorate the 1983 bombings and its "martyrs" in 2004. Lebanese author Hala Jaber claims that Iran and Syria helped organize the bombing which was run by two Lebanese Shia, Imad Mughniyah and Mustafa Badr Al Din:


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Search for perpetrators
Imad Mughniyeh and Mustafa Badr Al Din took charge of the Syrian–Iranian backed operation. Mughniyeh had been a highly trained security man with the PLO's Force 17 . . . Their mission was to gather information and details about the American embassy and draw up a plan that would guarantee the maximum impact and leave no trace of the perpetrator. Meetings were held at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. They were usually chaired by the ambassador, Hojatoleslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi, who played an instrumental role in founding Hezbollah. In consultation with several senior Syrian intelligence officers, the final plan was set in motion. The vehicle and explosives were prepared in the Beqaa Valley which was under Syrian control.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Search for perpetrators
Two years after the bombing, a U.S. grand jury secretly indicted Imad Mughniyah for terrorist activities. Mughniyah was never captured, but he was killed by a car bomb in Syria on February 12, 2008.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Search for perpetrators
Commentators argue that the lack of a response by the Americans emboldened terrorist organizations to conduct further attacks against U.S. targets. Along with the U.S. embassy bombing, the barracks bombing prompted the Inman Report, a review of the security of U.S. facilities overseas for the U.S. State Department.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Alleged retaliation
On March 8, 1985, a truck bomb blew up in Beirut killing more than 80 people and injuring more than 200. The bomb detonated near the apartment block of Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Shia cleric thought by many to be the spiritual leader of Hezbollah.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Alleged retaliation
Although the U.S. did not engage in any direct military retaliation to the attack on the Beirut barracks, the 1985 bombing was widely believed by Fadlallah and his supporters to be the work of the United States; Sheikh Fadlallah stating that "'They sent me a letter and I got the message,' and an enormous sign on the remains of one bombed building read: 'Made in the U.S.A.'" Robert Fisk also claims that CIA operatives planted the bomb and that evidence of this is found in an article in The Washington Post newspaper.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Alleged retaliation
Journalist Robin Wright quotes articles in The Washington Post and The New York Times as saying that according to the CIA the "Lebanese intelligence personnel and other foreigners had been undergoing CIA training" but that "this was not our [CIA] operation and it was nothing we planned or knew about." "Alarmed U.S. officials subsequently canceled the covert training operation" in Lebanon, according to Wright.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Lessons learned
Shortly after the barracks bombing, President Ronald Reagan appointed a military fact-finding committee headed by retired Admiral Robert L. J. Long to investigate the bombing. The commission's report found senior military officials responsible for security lapses and blamed the military chain of command for the disaster. It suggested that there might have been many fewer deaths if the barracks guards had carried loaded weapons and a barrier more substantial than the barbed wire the bomber drove over easily. The commission also noted that the "prevalent view" among U.S. commanders was that there was a direct link between the navy shelling of the Muslims at Suq-al-Garb and the truck bomb attack.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Lessons learned
Following the bombing and the realization that insurgents could deliver weapons of enormous yield with an ordinary truck or van, the presence of protective barriers (bollards) became common around critical government facilities in the United States and elsewhere, particularly Western civic targets situated overseas.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Lessons learned
A 2009 article in Foreign Policy titled "Lesson Unlearned" argues that the U.S. military intervention in the Lebanese Civil War has been downplayed or ignored in popular history – thus unlearned – and that lessons from Lebanon are "unlearned" as the U.S. militarily intervenes elsewhere in the world.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
On October 3 and December 28, 2001, the families of the 241 U.S. peacekeepers who were killed as well as several injured survivors filed civil suits against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In their separate complaints, the families and survivors sought a judgment that Iran was responsible for the attack and relief in the form of damages (compensatory and punitive) for wrongful death and common-law claims for battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress resulting from an act of state-sponsored terrorism.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
Iran (the defendant) was served with the two complaints (one from Deborah D. Peterson, Personal Representative of the Estate of James C. Knipple, et al., the other from Joseph and Marie Boulos, Personal Representatives of the Estate of Jeffrey Joseph Boulos) on May 6 and July 17, 2002. Iran denied responsibility for the attack but did not file any response to the claims of the families. On December 18, 2002, Judge Royce C. Lamberth entered defaults against defendants in both cases.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
On May 30, 2003, Lamberth found Iran legally responsible for providing Hezbollah with financial and logistical support that helped them carry out the attack. Lamberth concluded that the court had personal jurisdiction over the defendants under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, that Hezbollah was formed under the auspices of the Iranian government and was completely reliant on Iran in 1983, and that Hezbollah carried out the attack in conjunction with MOIS agents.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
On September 7, 2007, Lamberth awarded $2,656,944,877 to the plaintiffs. The judgment was divided up among the victims; the largest award was $12 million to Larry Gerlach, who became a paraplegic as a result of a broken neck he suffered in the attack.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
The attorney for the families of the victims uncovered some new information, including a U.S. National Security Agency intercept of a message sent from Iranian intelligence headquarters in Tehran to Hojjat ol-eslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi, the Iranian ambassador in Damascus.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
As it was paraphrased by presiding U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, "The message directed the Iranian ambassador to contact Hussein Musawi, the leader of the terrorist group Islamic Amal, and to instruct him ... 'to take a spectacular action against the United States Marines.'" Musawi's Islamic Amal was a breakaway faction of the Amal Movement and an autonomous part of embryonic Hezbollah. According to Muhammad Sahimi, high-ranking US officials had a different interpretation from that intercept, which stopped them from ordering a revengeful attack against Iran.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Civil suit against Iran
In July 2012, federal Judge Royce Lamberth ordered Iran to pay more than $813m in damages and interest to the families of the 241 U.S. peacekeepers that were killed, writing in a ruling that Tehran had to be "punished to the fullest extent legally possible... Iran is racking up quite a bill from its sponsorship of terrorism." In April 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that frozen assets of Iran's Central Bank held in the U.S. could be used to pay the compensation to families of the victims.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Mossad conspiracy theory
Former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky, in his 1990 book By Way of Deception, has accused the Mossad of knowing the specific time and location of the bombing, but only gave general information to the Americans of the attack, information which was worthless. According to Ostrovsky, then Mossad head Nahum Admoni decided against giving the specific details to the Americans on the grounds that the Mossad's responsibility was to protect Israel's interests, not Americans. Admoni denied having any prior knowledge of the attack.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Aftermath, Mossad conspiracy theory
Benny Morris, in his review of Ostrovsky's book, wrote that Ostrovsky was "barely a case officer before he was fired; most of his (brief) time in the agency was spent as a trainee" adding that due to compartmentalization "he did not and could not have had much knowledge of then current Mossad operations, let alone operational history." Benny Morris wrote that the claim regarding the barracks was "odd" and an example of one of Ostrovsky's "wet" stories which were "mostly fabricated."


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Memorials and remembrance
A Beirut Memorial has been established at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, and has been used as the site of annual memorial services for the victims of the attack. A Beirut Memorial Room at the USO in Jacksonville, North Carolina has also been created.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Memorials and remembrance
The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Center, the site of Chaplain Corps training for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force at Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina, includes the partially destroyed sign from the Beirut barracks chapel as a memorial to those who died in the attack. According to Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, one of the navy chaplains present during the attack, "Amidst the rubble, we found the plywood board which we had made for our "Peace-keeping Chapel." The Chaplain Corps Seal had been hand-painted, with the words "Peace-keeping" above it, and "Chapel" beneath. Now "Peace-keeping" was legible, but the bottom of the plaque was destroyed, with only a few burned and splintered pieces of wood remaining. The idea of peace – above; the reality of war – below."


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Memorials and remembrance
Other memorials to the victims of the Beirut barracks bombing have been erected in various locations within the U.S., including one at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boston Ma. and one in Florida. Additionally, a Lebanese cedar has been planted in Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of some of the victims of the attack, in their memory.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Memorials and remembrance
A plaque in the ground in front of the tree, dedicated in a ceremony on the first anniversary of the attack, reads: "Let peace take root: This cedar of Lebanon tree grows in living memory of the Americans killed in the Beirut terrorist attack and all victims of terrorism around the world." The National Museum of the Marine Corps, in Quantico, Virginia, unveiled an exhibit in 2008 in memory of the attack and its victims.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Memorials and remembrance
One memorial to the attack is located outside the U.S., where Gilla Gerzon, the director of the Haifa, Israel USO during the time of the attack coordinated the creation of a memorial park that included 241 olive trees, one for each of the U.S. military personnel who died in the attack. The trees lead to an overpass on Mount Carmel looking toward Beirut.


1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Memorials and remembrance
There is also an ongoing effort on the part of Beirut veterans and family members to convince the U.S. Postal Service and Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to create a stamp in memory of the victims of the attack, but the recommendation has not yet been approved. In the meantime, Beirut veterans have created a "PC Postage" commercially produced Beirut Memorial statue private vendor stamp (with or without the words "They Came in Peace") that is approved for use as postage by the U.S. Postal Service.


1983 Belgian Grand Prix
The 1983 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 22 May 1983. It was the first Belgian Grand Prix to be held at Spa since 1970 and the first on the modern Spa circuit, and was also the sixth race of the 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship.


1983 Belgian Grand Prix
The 40-lap race was won from pole position by Alain Prost, driving a factory Renault. Patrick Tambay finished second in a Ferrari, with Eddie Cheever third in the other Renault. The race marked the debut of local driver and future race winner Thierry Boutsen.


1983 Belgian Grand Prix
The first attempt to start the race was waved off. The field drove around the circuit and lined up again for the second attempt, which was successful.


1983 Belgian motorcycle Grand Prix
The 1983 Belgian motorcycle Grand Prix was the ninth round of the 1983 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 1–3 July 1983 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.


1983 Bendel State gubernatorial election
The 1983 Bendel State gubernatorial election occurred on August 13, 1983. NPN's Samuel Ogbemudia won election for a first term, defeating main opposition UPN candidate, Ambrose Alli, and other party candidates in the contest.


1983 Bendel State gubernatorial election, Electoral system
The Governor of Bendel State is elected using the plurality voting system.


1983 Bendel State gubernatorial election, Results
The NPN candidate, Samuel Ogbemudia defeated the Incumbent Governor, UPN's Ambrose Alli to win the contest.


1983 Benson & Hedges Championships
The 1983 Benson & Hedges Championships was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor carpet courts at the Wembley Arena in London in England that was part of the 1983 Volvo Grand Prix. The tournament was held from 7 November until 12 November 1983. First-seeded John McEnroe won the singles title.


1983 Benson & Hedges Championships, Finals, Doubles
John McEnroe /  Peter Fleming defeated  Steve Denton /  Sherwood Stewart 6–3, 6–4


1983 Benson & Hedges Cup
The 1983 Benson & Hedges Cup was the twelfth competing of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup.


1983 Benson and Hedges Open
The 1983 Benson and Hedges Open was a men's Grand Prix tennis tournament held in Auckland, New Zealand. It was the 16th edition of the APT Auckland Open tournament and was held from 10 January to 16 January 1983. First-seeded John Alexander won the singles title.


1983 Benson and Hedges Open, Finals, Doubles
Chris Lewis /  Russell Simpson defeated  David Graham /  Laurie Warder 7–6, 6–3


1983 Benson and Hedges Open – Doubles
Chris Lewis and Russell Simpson defeated David Graham and Laurie Warder to win the 1983 Benson and Hedges Open doubles competition.


1983 Benson and Hedges Open – Doubles, Seeds
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated.


1983 Benson and Hedges Open – Singles
John Alexander defeated Russell Simpson 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to win the 1983 Benson and Hedges Open singles competition. Tim Wilkison was the champion but did not defend his title.


1983 Benson and Hedges Open – Singles, Seeds
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated.


1983 Benue State gubernatorial election
The 1983 Benue State gubernatorial election occurred in Nigeria on August 13, 1983. The NPN nominee Aper Aku won the election, defeating other candidates.


1983 Benue State gubernatorial election, Electoral system
The Governor of Benue State is elected using the plurality voting system.


1983 Berlin Marathon
The 1983 Berlin Marathon was the 10th running of the annual marathon race held in Berlin, West Germany, held on 25 September. Belgium's Karel Lismont won the men's race in 2:13:37 hours, while the women's race was won by Britain's Karen Holdsworth in 2:40:32. West Germany's Gregor Golombek (1:55:10) and Gabriele Beyer (2:51:12), won the men's and women's wheelchair races. A total of 5121 runners finished the race, comprising 4886 men and 235 women.


1983 Bermondsey by-election
A by-election was held in the Bermondsey constituency in South London, on 24 February 1983, following the resignation of Labour MP Bob Mellish. Peter Tatchell stood as the candidate for the Labour Party, and Simon Hughes stood for the Liberal Party. Following a bitter campaign, the Liberals made huge gains and took the seat, with a majority of votes cast. Labour's vote fell from 63.6 per cent in May 1979 to 26.1 per cent as Tatchell came a distant second, while the Conservative candidate, Robert Hughes, managed only fourth place. With a swing of 44.2%, the 1983 Bermondsey by-election remains the largest by-election swing in British political history.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
Bob Mellish had represented the constituency and its predecessors in the House of Commons since 1946. He was the Labour Chief Whip from 1969 until 1976, but had become disenchanted with the left-wing drift of the Labour Party, and resigned from both the Party and his Parliamentary seat in 1982. He was recruited by the Conservative government to the board of the London Docklands Development Corporation; as he did not wish to be disqualified, the post was made non-salaried until such time as Mellish chose to accept payment. This meant that Mellish had a paid job to go to as soon as he wanted.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
On 7 November 1981, Bermondsey Labour Party selected Peter Tatchell, its Secretary, as prospective Parliamentary candidate. Tatchell was a leading member of the left-wing faction that had taken control of the local party the previous year. He was also a contributor to London Labour Briefing, a magazine that circulated among the London left, and had written an article suggesting the use of extra-Parliamentary direct action by the Labour Party, saying: "We must look to new, more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule".


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
This call to civil disobedience was considered a call to violent action by some, and was used "as a stick to beat [Tatchell] with" by political opponents. For example, the article came to the attention of James Wellbeloved, a former London Labour MP who had defected to the Social Democratic Party; Wellbeloved then referred to it in a Parliamentary Question to Margaret Thatcher on 3 December.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
Labour Party leader Michael Foot responded to Wellbeloved by denouncing Tatchell's article and declared "the individual concerned is not an endorsed member of the Labour Party and as far as I'm concerned never will be".


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
Tony Benn wrote in his diary that many people, including himself, thought that Foot had confused Peter Tatchell with Peter Taaffe, then the leader of the Trotskyist Militant tendency, and Michael Crick in his book on Militant agrees that the fact that Tatchell and Taaffe have similar names contributed to public confusion between the two, despite the fact that Militant opposed Tatchell's candidacy due to anti-gay feeling and political differences between the old left (Militant) and new left (Tatchell) of the party.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
As to whether Tatchell was a member of the Labour Party itself, Foot later clarified that he meant to say "endorsed candidate" instead of "endorsed member" in his response to Wellbeloved. At the next meeting of the Labour Party National Executive Committee, Tatchell was narrowly rejected as a candidate. Mellish was not reassured about the future direction of the Labour Party and resigned from it on 2 August 1982, a clear preliminary to resigning his seat, which he did by taking the Chiltern Hundreds on 1 November that year. The left wing of the Labour Party agreed Tatchell would be eligible for selection, and Tatchell was duly selected again in January 1983.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Preliminaries
Tabloid newspapers had begun researching his background when Foot denounced him, in particular Tatchell's activities with the Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s. Several stories were published which made it clear that he was gay.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Other candidates
At the 1981 Greater London Council election, the Liberal Party had come second in Bermondsey. They chose their GLC candidate Simon Hughes, a barrister who had moved to the constituency earlier that year, to fight the by-election. The Conservatives chose Robert Hughes (no relation), who was a Greater London Council (GLC) Councillor in Croydon. He later became the MP for Harrow West. Among those who applied for the Conservative nomination but were not chosen was Sara Keays, then having an as yet unrevealed affair with Cecil Parkinson.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Other candidates
The right-wing former Labour leader of Southwark Borough Council, John O'Grady, who had been a target for the left-wing faction locally, also decided to stand under the banner 'Real Bermondsey Labour' with Bob Mellish's support and encouragement. His campaign was dominated by personal opposition to Tatchell and defence of his leadership of the Council. Twelve other candidates stood, including Screaming Lord Sutch, appearing for the first time under the Official Monster Raving Loony Party label, and the Dowager Lady Birdwood.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Other candidates
Esmond Bevan intended to stand as an independent Labour candidate, but erroneously entered his occupation in the section on the nomination papers headed 'description', thus appearing on ballot papers as "Systems Designer".


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Start of the campaign
The Labour campaign started disastrously when it was discovered that the first leaflets had been printed at Cambridge Heath Press, owned by the Militant tendency (then practising entryism in the Labour Party; a group whose five key members were expelled two days before polling day). The leaflets were all pulped and reprinted, but the cost of the first printing  still counted against the limit for election spending.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Attacks on Tatchell
There was much controversy over Tatchell's homosexuality. The Labour Party persuaded Tatchell to keep quiet about his sexual orientation, although he had previously declared himself 'out'. Various campaigners for opposition candidates, as well as many within the Labour Party, made homophobic comments about Tatchell. Widespread graffiti throughout the constituency referred to him in derogatory terms, while some of those putting up posters in his support found their windows attacked. Tatchell received hate mail, including a live cartridge, and was attacked when out in the street.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Attacks on Tatchell
Some of the other by-election candidates joined in: John O'Grady (Southwark Council leader, who was promoted as the 'Real Bermondsey' Labour candidacy by the previous MP, Bob Mellish) was filmed touring the constituency on the back of a horse and cart, singing a song which referred to Tatchell "wearing his trousers back to front". On the last weekend of the campaign, an anonymous leaflet was sent round the constituency headed "Which Queen will you vote for? ", contrasting the republican Tatchell, who was pictured looking very effeminate, with Queen Elizabeth II. The leaflet gave Tatchell's home address and telephone number.


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Attacks on Tatchell
An alternative analysis of Tatchell's eventual defeat was given by David Sutch, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate, in his 1991 autobiography. When being interviewed on TV at the by-election count, Sutch related to Tatchell how horrified he was at the treatment Tatchell had received, but added that "what I did not tell him was that he had been so bad a candidate that he had largely brought it on himself".


1983 Bermondsey by-election, Attacks on Tatchell
Sutch criticised Tatchell's preference for press conferences and press releases rather than traditional meeting-and-greeting, which was generally regarded as the best way to win hearts and minds at a by-election. In a later interview, when the subject of Bermondsey came up, Sutch said that Tatchell "seemed to think all he needed to do to become the MP was turn up at the count."