Download PDF - University of Idaho Library

D
espair and hope. No two
words could more accurately
describe the year.
As the economy pushed record
numbers of Americans onto
unemployment lines, cyanide-laced
Tylenol killed seven Chicago
residents, a retired dentist survived
an artifical heart implant and an aging
Soviet leader died.
But regardless of whether the
headlines told of triumphs or
tragedies, the news events left their
mark on the year.
Economic woes
In a word, the economic dilemma
was "unemployment" as the
country suffered from the largest
business slump in the post World
War II era. The jobless rate climbed
steadily from 8.5 percent of the
workforce in January 1982 to 10.8
percent by November 1982 - the
highest rate in 42 years.
Unemployment wasn't the only
economic woe plaguing Americans:
stores posted "Going Out of
Business" signs and big corporations
crashed into bankruptcy.
Inflation was the big exception to
the otherwise grim economy. The
year's increase in consumer prices
was held to about 6 percent, compared
to 9 percent the year before.
Tylenol tragedy
Cyanide-laced Extra-Strength
Tylenol killed seven Chicago-area
people. They were unlikely companions
in death - a 12-year-old girl
with a sore throat, a mother recovering
from childbirth, a post office
supervisor with chest pains and a
stewardess resting after a flight. The
tainted capsules of the best selling
over-the-counter pain reliever were
all purchased the same day,
Wednesday, September 29.
By that Friday all were dead, including
a mourning husband a.nd
year of despair and hope
Rising unemployment, Tylenol tragedy dominate news
wife who took capsules from the
same cyanide-filled bottle that had
killed the man's brother.
The hunt for those responsible
spanned the nation as did the incidents
of copycat tamperers. By
January, tamper-resistamt packages
of Extra-Strength Tylenol were back
on the shelf. Those responsible for
the poisonings remained unaccounted
for.
A plastic lifesaver
A 61-year-old retired dentist was
wheeled into surgery the night of
December 2 and became the first
human to receive a man-made
heart.
Although there were a number of
early setbacks, by December 21,
Barney Clark was standing on his
feet and joking with his wife and
daughter in the University of Utah
hospital in Salt Lake City.
Palestinian massacre
On September 16, following a
summer-long seige of West Beirut,
Israeli troops sealed off the Chatillia
and Sabra Palestinian refugee
camps and allowed Lebanese Christian
militiamen inside to clean out
remaining guerrilla pockets. In the
two days that followed, hundreds of
Palestinian refugees, including
women, children and elderly were
slaughtered.
By all accounts, Israeli Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon gave his approval
to allow the militiamen inside.
Sharon later reported that
militiamen were told that civilians
"must not be harmed." On February
11, Sharon resigned.
Israeli invasion
During the summer, the Israeli
army launched a massive invasion
across the border into Lebanon. According
to Prime Minister Begin,
the operation was aimed at
eliminating the threat of Palestine
Liberation Organization terriorism
on Israel's northern frontier.
The Israelis besieged PLO-held
west Beirut for ll weeks. By the end
of August, under Israeli military
pressure and through U.S. mediation,
PLO Chief Yasser Arafat and
several thousand guerrillas were
evacuated from Beirut and scattered
through the Arab world.
Arab world.
Falkland war
Argentina and Britain fought a
74-day war over the right to rule the
Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic,
an island chain of boulders and
bog inhabited by 1,800 people and
600,000 sheep. Britain had ruled the
archipelago since 1883 despite a
decades-old Argentine soveriegnty
claim.
Before the Argentine forces surrendered
in June, more than 1,000
lives had been lost, three-fourths of
them Argentines.
Football strike
From the time the baseball strike
was settled in the summer of 1981,
the word was out: "Football's next."
And so it was. The strike lasted 57
days. It was settled on November 16.
The league added an extra game to
make a nine-game regular season
schedule and announced that 16
teams would qualify for the expanded
Super Bowl playoffs instead of
the usual 10.
Late greats
Several well known personalities
died during the school year. Russian
leader Leonid Brezhnev,
Alabama football coach Bear
Byrant, singer Karen Carpenter,
former first lady Bess Truman and
princess Grace Kelly were among
the big-names who managed to
leave indelible impressions. 0
38 Current Events