October 13, 1981 (Tuesday)
- Polisario Front guerillas attacked the Moroccan army garrison at Guelta Zemmur, and shot down two warplanes of the Royal Moroccan Air Force, marking a turning point in the Polisario's war to free the Western Sahara from Moroccan control.
- Hosni Mubarak, the Vice-President of Egypt who had been acting president after Anwar Sadat's assassination on October 6, was confirmed as President of Egypt in a special referendum, with 9,567,504 yes votes (98.46%) and only 149,650 nays. He would be re-elected in 1987, 1993, 1999 and 2005,
- Kåre Willoch succeeded Gro Harlem Brundtland as Prime Minister of Norway, following the success of the Conservative Party of Norway in September elections.
- Died: Nils Asther, 84, Danish-born film actor, in Hellerup
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Famous quotes containing the word october:
“The autumnal change of our woods has not yet made a deep impression on our own literature yet. October has hardly tinged our poetry.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)