• Strikes accross Poland
• Gang of four goes on trial
• Libyan troops intervene in Chad Civil War
• Iran-Iraq War breaks out
• Leftists seize embassy in Colombia

 

Most Popular Books

Fiction
1. "The Covenant" by James Michener
2. "The Bourne Identity" by Robert Ludlum
3. "Rage of Angels" by Sidney Sheldon
4. "Princess Daisy" by Judith Krantz
5. "Firestarter" by Stephen King

Nonfiction
1. "Crisis Investing" by Douglas Casey
2. "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan;
3. "Free to Choose" by Milton & Rose Friedman
4. "Anatomy of an Illness" by Norman Cousins
5. "Thy Neighbor's Wife" by Gay Talesee Pritiken Program for Diet and Exercise by Nathan Pritiken

Most Popular Television Shows

Academy Awards

Best Picture: "Ordinary People"
Best Director: Robert Redford ... "Ordinary People"
Best Actor: Robert DeNiro ... "Raging Bull"
Best Actress: Sissy Spacek ... "Coal Miner's Daughter"

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year: "Sailing" ... Christopher Cross
Best Song; "Sailing" ... Christopher Cross
Best Album: Christopher Cross ... "Christopher Cross"
Male Vocalist: Kenny Loggins ... "This Is It"
Female Vocalist: Bette Midler ... "The Rose"

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry
The prize was divided, one half being awarded to: BERG, PAUL, U.S.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA, b. 1926: "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA"; and the other half jointly to: GILBERT, WALTER, U.S.A., Biological Laboratories, Cambridge, MA, b. 1932; and SANGER, FREDERICK, U.S.A., Great Britain, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, b. 1918: "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids"

Literature
MILOSZ, CZESLAW, U.S.A., and Poland, b. 1911 (in Seteiniai, Lithuania): "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"

Peace
ESQUIVEL, ADOLFO PEREZ, Argentina, b. 1931: architect, sculptor and human rights leader.

Physiology or Medicine
The prize was awarded jointly to: BENACERRAF, BARUJ, U.S.A., Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, b. 1920 (Caracas, Venezuela); DAUSSET, JEAN, France, Universite de Paris, Laboratoire Immuno-Hematologi, Paris, b. 1916; and SNELL, GEORGE D., U.S.A., Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, b. 1903, d. 1996; "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions"

Physics
The prize was divided equally between: CRONIN, JAMES, W., U.S.A., University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, b. 1931; and FITCH, VAL L., U.S.A., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, b. 1923: "for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons"

Pulitzer Prizes

Drama: Lanford Wilson ... "Talley's Folly"
Fiction: Norman Mailer ... "The Executioner's Song"
History: Leon F. Litwack ... "Been in the Storm So Long"
International Reporting: Joel Brinkley ... "Louisville Courier-Journal"
National Reporting: Bette Swenson Orsini & Charles Stafford ... "St. Petersburg (FL) Times"
Public Service: "Gannett News Service"