1981

Joshua B Jeyaratnam of the Workers Party wins the first opposition seat in government since 1966.
All dialect programmes are phased out on National Television.
The Vanda Miss Joaquim is selected as our National Flower.
Pizza Hut comes to Singapore (Jelita branch).
Singapore is out of the Malaysia Cup for the first time since 1921.
Dr Mahathir Mohamed takes power in Malaysia.
February 7: Adrian Lim arrested with his two wives. He is executed on Nov 25 1988.
May 12: Benjamin Sheares dies in office. (took office in 1972)
July: Creative Technology is founded by Sim Wong Hoo.
July 1: Changi Airport starts operations.
July 31: Henry Scully, a former national cricketer and a notorious conman who forged promissory notes to banks in the name of Lee Kuan Yew, is found dead of suicide from gas inhalation in his home with his wife and two sons.
October 24: Devan Nair becomes the 4th President.
The end of 1981 came half an hour earlier at 11.30pm, 31 December 1981, thanks to time-zone adjustments. When our neighbour decided that West Malaysia would change its time zone to match East Malaysia’s, which is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, Singapore followed suit in view of our close trade links.