February 2-3, 1982. The Hama massacre begins in Syria. Syrian president Hafez al-Assad orders the army to purge the city of Hama of the Muslim Brotherhood and other rebels. Ten to twenty thousand Syrians die in the ensuing massacre.

June 2, 1982. Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their “Operation Peace for the Galilee,” eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut. The United Nations Security Council votes to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

June 14, 1982. Argentinian forces that had invaded the nearby Falkland Islands in April surrender to British forces after a fierce war over control of the islands. Although Argentina still claims the island group that it calls the Malvinas, Great Britain retains control of the government of the Falklands.

August, 1982. Israeli troops drive the Palestinian Liberation Organization out of its base in Beirut, Lebanon. Yassir Arafat and other Palestinian leaders evacuate to Tunisia.

September 18, 1982. The Lebanese Christian Militia (the Phalange) kill thousands of Palestinians in refugee camps. The massacre is in retaliation for the assassination of pro-Israel president-elect, Bachir Gemayel, as well as several Palestinian massacres against Lebanese Christians.

October, 1982. Socialist Felipe Gonzales becomes prime minister of Spain.

November 12, 1982. Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev dies of a heart attack and is succeeded by Premier Yuri Andropov.

November 14, 1982. The leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, Lech WaÅ‚Ä™sa, is released from 11 months of internment near the Soviet border.

December 2, 1982. The first operation to successfully implant an artificial heart in a human being is performed on retired dentist Barney Clark at the University of Utah Medical Center. The heart, the Jarvik-7, is named after its inventor, Robert Jarvik.

CD’s (compact discs) and CD players are first released to the public in 1982. The first album to be released on CD is Billy Joel’s 52nd Street.