| 13th February 1980 | The Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York. |
| 21st March 1980 | U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. |
| 27th March 1980 | The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its total crew of 212. |
| 31st March 1980 | Jesse Owens, African-American athlete (b. 1913) dies. |
| 10th April 1980 | Spain and the United Kingdom agree to reopen the border between Gibraltar and Spain, previously closed since 1969. |
| 18th April 1980 | Zimbabwe gains independence from the United Kingdom; controversial leader Robert Mugabe becomes Prime Minister. |
| 25th April 1980 | A Dan-Air Boeing 727 crashes in Tenerife, killing all 146 occupants and marking the worst air disaster involving a British-registered aircraft in terms of fatalities. |
| 30th April 1980 | Six Iranian-born terrorists take over the Iranian embassy in London. The SAS retakes the Embassy on 5th May; 1 terrorist survives. |
| 21st May 1980 | “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” is released. |
| 22nd May 1980 | “Pac-Man” is released and has since become the best-selling arcade game of all time. |
| 28th May 1980 | Nottingham Forest wins the European Cup, beating Hamburg 1-0 in Madrid |
| 10th July 1980 | Alexandra Palace is destroyed by a fire. |
| 19th July 1980 | The 1980 Summer Olympics begin in Moscow, Soviet Union. The United States heads a boycott of the event by sixty-one countries in protest to the 1979 Soviet War in Afghanistan. |
| 1st October 1980 | Associated Newspapers announces that The Evening News will close and merge with the Evening Standard. |
| 10th October 1980 | Margaret Thatcher tells the Conservative Party conference "U-turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning." |
| 15th October 1980 | James Callaghan announces his resignation as Leader of the British Labour Party. |
| 7th November 1980 | Steve McQueen, American actor (b. 1930) dies. |
| 21st November 1980 | Millions of viewers tune into the U.S. television soap opera “Dallas” to learn who shot lead character J.R. Ewing. The "Who shot J.R.?" event had been a national obsession. |
| 8th December 1980 | Former Beatle John Lennon dies in a hospital after being shot outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan who had received his signature earlier in the day. |