Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). It was designated as the Chinese Year of the Boar, and Yin Water.
- July 1 - A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet, en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea, crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
- July 1 - The High Court of Australia blocks construction of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania.
- July 1 - Technical failure causes release of Iodine-131 from Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant, Germany
- July 7 - Samantha Smith flies to the Soviet Union (see April 25).
- July 15 - The Nintendo Entertainment System goes on sale in Japan.
- July 16 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
- July 20 - The government of Poland announces the end of martial law and amnesty for political prisoners.
- July 21 - The lowest temperature on earth is recorded in Vostok Station, Antarctica with −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).
- July 22 - Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation in a helicopter.
- July 23 - Gimli Glider: Out of fuel, Air Canada Flight 143 glides in to land in Gimli, Manitoba.
- July 23 - The Black July communal riot occurs in Sri Lanka. These anti-Sri Lankan Tamil riots leave over 1,000 Tamils massacred and millions of dollars worth of their property destroyed. This pogrom is the beginning of a deadly Sri Lankan civil war.
- July 23 - Heavy massive rain and mudslides at western Shimane prefecture, Japan, kill 117.
- July 28 - New South Wales premier Neville Wran is exonerated by the Street Royal Commission, over claims raised by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programme Four Corners, that he attempted to influence the NSW magistracy.
- August 1 - America West Airlines begins operations out of Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada.
- August 4 - Thomas Sankara becomes President of Upper Volta.
- August 16 - The Bill first airs as Woodentop.
- August 18 - Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion (2005 dollars) in damage.
- August 18 - Five people are killed and 18 others injured when a road train is deliberately driven into a motel at Ayers Rock (Uluru), NT (the driver, Douglas Edward Crabbe, is convicted in March 1984).
- August 21 - Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.
- August 24 - The Old Philadelphia Arena is destroyed by arson.
- August 26 - Heavy rain triggers flooding at Bilbao(Spain) and surrounding areas, killing 45 people and causing millions in damages.
- August 30 - STS-8: Space Shuttle Challenger carries Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American astronaut, into space.
- October 2 - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the British Labour Party.
- October 4 - Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph, driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.
- October 7 - A plan to abolish the Greater London Council is announced.
- October 9 - The Rangoon bombing kills South Korea's Foreign Minister, Lee Bum Suk, and 21 others.
- October 12 - Japan's former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed, and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
- October 15 - Montreal designer Andy Jean-baptiste is born in Saint-Justine hospital
- October 16 - World Series: The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 in Game 5, to win the series 4 games to 1 for their 3rd World Championship.
- October 19 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, and 40 others are executed in a military coup.
- October 21 - At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
- October 22 - In Bonn, West Germany, people demonstrate for nuclear disarmament.
- October 23 - Simultaneous suicide truck-bombings destroy both the French and the United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, 58 French paratroopers and 6 Lebanese civilians.
- October 24 - Arthur Hutchinson kills 3 members of the Laitner family and rapes their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore.
- October 25 - United States troops invade Grenada at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.
- October 25 - Microsoft Word is first released.
- October 27 - Pope John Paul II visits his would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca in prison to forgive him.
- October 30 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after 7 years of military rule are held.
- November 2 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: At the White House Rose Garden, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
- November 2 - Able Archer 83: Many Soviet officials misinterpret this NATO exercise as a nuclear first strike, causing the last nuclear scare of the Cold War.
- November 3 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the 1984 Democratic Party presidential nomination.
- November 5 - Byford Dolphin rig diving bell accident: Off the coast of Norway, 5 divers are killed and one severely wounded in an explosive decompression accident.
- November 10 - The anticancer drug etoposide is approved by the FDA, leading to a curative treatment regime in the field of combination chemotherapy of testicular carcinoma.
- November 11 - Ronald Reagan becomes the first U.S. President to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
- November 13 - The first United States cruise missiles arrive at Greenham Common Airbase in England amid protests from peace campaigners.
- November 14 - The immunosuppressant cyclosporine is approved by the FDA, leading to a revolution in the field of transplantation.
- November 15 - The Turkish part of Cyprus declares independence.
- November 16 - A jury in Gretna, Louisiana acquits Ginny Foat of the murder of Argentine businessman Moses Chaiyo.
- November 17 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.
- November 19 - An attampted hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 6833 in Soviet Georgia results in several dead and wounded.
- November 24 - Lynda Mann, 15, is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough, England (Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988).
- November 26 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold is ever recovered, and only 2 men are convicted of the crime.
- November 27 - Colombian Avianca Flight 11 crashes near Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, killing 181 of the 192 on board.
- November 29 - Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37, stating that the Soviet Union should withdraw from Afghanistan.
- December 2 - Michael Jackson's world famous music video for "Thriller" is broadcast for the first time. It becomes the most often repeated and famous music video of all time, increasing his own popularity and record sales of the album "Thriller".
- December 4 - Lt. Bobby Goodman of the United States Navy is shot down over Lebanon and captured by the Syrians.
- December 5 - ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal this same year.
- December 7 - Two Spanish passenger planes collide on the foggy runway at a Madrid airport, killing 90.
- December 9 - The Australian Dollar is floated, by Federal treasurer Paul Keating. Under the old flexible peg system, the Reserve Bank bought and sold all Australian dollars and cleared the market at the end of the day. This initiative is taken by the government of Bob Hawke.
- December 10 - Military rule ends and democracy is restored in Argentina.
- December 11 - Grêmio (Brazil) becomes the new soccer world champion, after beating Hamburger SV (Germany) by 2-1.
- December 13 - The Denver Nuggets and the visiting Detroit Pistons combine for an NBA record 370 points, with Detroit winning in triple overtime, 186-184.
- December 17 - A discotheque fire in Madrid, Spain, kills 83 people.
- December 17 - A Provisional IRA car bomb kills 6 Christmas shoppers and injures 90 outside Harrods in London.
- December 27 - A propane explosion in Buffalo, New York kills 5 firefighters and 2 civilians.
- December 29 - The Reverend Jesse Jackson travels to Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who has been in Syrian captivity since being shot down over the country during a reconnaissance mission.
- December 31 - Brunei gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- December 31 - Two bombs explode in France; 1 on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. The other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34.
- January 1 - Emi Kobayashi, Japanese gravure idol
- January 1 - Jasmine Dustin, American actress and model
- January 2 - Kate Bosworth, American actress
- January 4 - Spencer Chamberlain, American musician
- January 7 - Natalie Gulbis, American golfer
- January 8 - Chris Masters, American wrestler
- January 8 - Chen Xiexia, Chinese weightlifter
- January 9 - Gala Évora, Spanish Actress
- January 10 - Li Nina, Chinese aerial free-style skier
- January 13 - William Hung, Chinese-American musician
- January 13 - Ronny Turiaf, French basketball player
- January 16 - Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
- January 17 - Andrea Lowell, American model
- January 17 - Johannes Herber, German basketball player
- January 18 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
- January 19 - Hikaru Utada, Japanese singer and songwriter
- January 20 - Geovany Soto, Puerto Rican baseball player
- January 20 - Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer and DJ
- January 21 - Moritz Volz, German footballer
- January 22 - Shaun Cody, American football player
- January 24 - Scott Speed, American Formula One driver
- January 25 - Andrée Watters, Canadian singer
- January 31 - James Sutton, British actor
- February 2 - Carolina Klüft, Swedish athlete competing in heptathlon, long jump and pentathlon.
- February 3 - Hillary Scott, American pornographic actress
- February 6 - Sreesanth, Indian cricketer
- February 7 - Elin Grindemyr, Swedish model
- February 8 - Jim Verraros, American singer
- February 8 - Atiba Hutchinson, Canadian footballer
- February 15 - Alan Didak, Australian footballer
- February 15 - Russell Martin, Canadian baseball player
- February 16 - Agyness Deyn, English supermodel
- February 18 - Juelz Santana, American rapper
- February 18 - Jason Maxiell, American basketball player
- February 19 - Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
- February 19 - Ryan Whitney, American ice hockey player
- February 22 - Penny Flame, American pornographic actress
- February 23 - Mirco Bergamasco, Italian rugby player
- February 23 - Mido, Egyptian footballer
- February 23 - Emily Blunt, English actress
- February 27 - Devin Harris, American basketball player
- March 4 - Max Vergara Poeti, Colombian writer
- March 9 - Mayte Perroni, Mexican singer and actress
- March 9 - Clint Dempsey, American soccer player
- March 10 - Carrie Underwood, American singer
- March 10 - Reena Virk, Canadian murder victim (d. 1997)
- March 14 - Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
- March 14 - Taylor Hanson, American musician
- March 17 - Christian and Joseph Cousins, American twin actors
- March 21 - Bruno Langley, British actor
- March 27 - Shawntinice Polk, American basketball player (d. 2005)
- March 30 - Zach Gowen, American wrestler
- March 30 - Hebe Tian, member of the Taiwanese girl-group S.H.E