Forty years ago Lynmar was formed to support the growing use of technology and microcomputers, both in the workplace and at home. 1983 was a great year! Here's a truncated listing of some of the year's highlights, in no particular order.

Do you remember...

• A gallon of petrol was £1.50, a gallon of beer was £4; that same gallon today: unleaded is £6.90 and beer £31.20
• The introduction of the £1 coin in England and Wales and the demise of the paper Pound note
• Migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP (Internet Protocol) is officially completed, considered the beginning of the true Internet
• Space Shuttle 'Space Shuttle Challenger' STS-6 is launched on its maiden voyage into space
• Richard Noble set a new land speed record of 633.468 mph km/h, driving the British turbojet-powered car Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada
• Word processor software Multi-Tool Word, soon to become Microsoft Word, is released with free demo copies distributed with the November issue of PC World magazine, though the first version designed for Windows will not be released until 1989
• Northern Cyprus named Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is founded, but recognized only by Turkey
• Britain's Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, is re-elected by a landslide majority
• Law passed that all drivers and front seat passengers must wear a seatbelt when driving in the UK; the law for mandatory back seat seatbelts won’t be passed until 1989 for children and 1991 for adults
• Unemployment stood at a record high of 3,224,715 – though the previous high reached in the Great Depression of the early 1930s accounted for a higher percentage of the workforce
• The Austin Metro was Britain's best selling car, having outsold every other new car registered in the UK during January
• The first compact discs (CD's) went on sale in the United Kingdom
• Wheel clamps are first used to combat illegal parking in London
• The thirteenth James Bond film – Octopussy – is released in UK cinemas; it was the sixth of seven films to star Roger Moore as James Bond
• Computer tycoon Clive Sinclair is knighted
• The first episode of historical sitcom Blackadder was broadcast on BBC One television
• Much of the country embraced a heatwave as July temperatures reached 33°C in London
• One of the major events in 1983 was biggest theft of cash in British history: £6 million in cash is taken at gunpoint from a Security Express van during a robbery; actress Barbara Windsor’s former husband, Ronnie Knight and his brother are jailed for 22 years after they are arrested for the crime in 1984
• Brink's-Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are taken from the Brink's-Mat vault at Heathrow Airport; only a fraction of the gold is ever recovered, and only two men are convicted of the crime
• The second of two James Bond films not produced by Eon Productions – Never Say Never Again – was released in UK cinemas; it marked Sean Connery's return as James Bond for his seventh and final overall outing
• Designer and entrepreneur James Dyson released his prototype vacuum cleaner
• The UK was hit with red rain: the weather phenomenon had been dubbed blood rain and was caused by winds in the Sahara Desert causing sand to enter the atmosphere; this sand was then carried back to earth within raindrops, the sand within the rain was so dense the droplets appeared red in colour
• Though originally released as a B-side in 1981, Men at Work’s single Down Under topped the UK charts in January
• Singer and drummer of The Carpenters, Karen Carpenter, died from complications caused by eating disorder anorexia nervosa, aged 32
• Michael Jackson’s Thriller got to number 1 in the US 200 Billboard album charts for 37 weeks, setting a world record for the amount of time an album stays at number 1
• The most-watched finale of a TV show ever shown, 105.9 million viewers tuned in to see the last ever episode of M*A*S*H (it went on to remain the biggest television event ever (in terms of numbers watching) until Super Bowl XLIV in 2010)
• Thoroughbred Shergar was kidnapped in an armed robbery: a ransom of £2 million was demanded for the horse but communication with the thieves broke down; the ransom was never paid and Shergar is never returned
• Monty Python’s Meaning of Life was released
• David Bowie’s single Let’s Dance hit the top spot in the United States Billboard chart: Let’s Dance is Bowie’s only single to reach number one in both the UK and USA
• Return of the Jedi was released for the first time and became the highest grossing film of 1983
• After swimming for a total of 15 hours 27 minutes, 12-year-old Samantha Druce became the youngest person to swim the English Channel
• US president Ronald Regan announced that GPS would be made available to the public, though it was originally intended for military use only
• At Harefield hospital the first full heart and lung transplant was successfully carried out
• The Who announced the group was disbanding (for the first time) as Pete Townshend, the group’s guitarist, wished to leave the band