The following lists events that happened during

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Incumbents

* President – J. R. Jayewardene * Prime Minister –

Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( si, රණසිංහ ප්‍රේමදාස ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa'', ta, ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசா ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was t ...

* Chief Justice – Neville Samarakoon

Events

* An mob of Sinhalese origin went on a rampage on the nights of May 31 to June 1, 1981, torching the

Jaffna Public Library The Jaffna Library is the second largest public library in Sri Lanka located in Jaffna, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It was considered the largest library in South Asia in the pre-1980s. Like many great libraries of the world, this library was ...

in an

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

attack. It was one of the most violent examples of ethnic

biblioclasm Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

in the 20th century. *The England cricket team toured Sri Lanka in February 1982. The tour included two

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) matches and one Test match. *Sri Lanka had obtained Full Member status of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1981, making them the eighth Test playing nation.

Notes

:a. Gunaratna, Rohan. (1998). Pg.353, ''Sri Lanka's Ethnic Crisis and National Security'', Colombo: South Asian Network on Conflict Research.

References

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