German author Heinrich Boll's Fursorgliche Belagerung: Roman (1979) is translated into English by Leila Vennowitz and published as The Safety Net.

University of Geneva literature professor George Steiner publishes The Portage to San Cristobal of A. H.

British novelist Salman Rushdie completes Midnight's Children.

West German writer Peter O. Chotjewitz publishes The Thirty Years Peace.

Wolfgang Peterson's antiwar study, Das Boot (The Boat), starring Jurgen Prochnow, is released.

Australian filmmaker Peter Weir completes Gallipoli, starring Mark Lee and Mel Gibson.

The world population reaches 4.5 billion, up from 2.5 billion in 1950.

Divorce is legalized in Spain.

French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, 80, dies.

Britain completes the building of the 4,626-foot Humber Bridge at Hull, the longest suspension bridge in the world.

The new U.S. presidential administration of Ronald Reagan resumes grain exports to the Soviet Union and agrees that the United States will not suspend any future grain shipments. The grain embargo had...