1982 was a pretty nice year, overall. Wikipedia goes into gruesome detail on many things, but doesn't list all of these.
- Commodore 64 was published
- ZX Spectrum, a significant 8-bit computer in the UK, was published
- PC-9801, the dominant Japanese 16-bit home computer by NEC, was published
- Intel developed the powerful first stepping of the 80286 processor (and the less famous 80186 and 80188)
- AMD began mass-producing Intel's pre-286 processors under license, stepping deeper into the nascent PC market
- Compaq was founded, soon becoming the first huge IBM PC clone maker, exploding the home PC market
- Internet e-mail protocols were standardised in RFC821 and RFC822, based on earlier and messier ARPANET versions
- Sequential Circuits' Prophet 600, the first MIDI-standard synthesizer, was published while the original MIDI specification was being written
- Sony published the first 3.5" disks with their SMC-70 computer, and a consortium of other media companies created a disk standard based on it
- The first commercial CD and CD player were published in Japan, utilising the new "Red Book" specification by Philips and Sony
- The first multi-touch touchscreen was developed at the University of Toronto
- The Computer was given the Time Magazine's Man of the Year nomination
- Digital emoticons were proposed
- The first shareware program was published
- Lucasfilm Games was formed
- Microprose Software, Inc. was founded
- Imagine Software was founded in Liverpool (soon the company imploded, spawning Psygnosis)
- Ultima II was published
- Some young hackers started developing Hack, NetHack's predecessor
- Zork III (for microcomputers) was published
- Melbourne House's The Hobbit, an incredibly dynamic text adventure, was published
- Steve Meretzky started developing his first title Planetfall at Infocom
- Microsoft published subLogic's Flight Simulator 1.0 for the IBM PC
- Mickey & Donald, the first video game starring Donald Duck, was published as a Game&Watch handheld
- Artworx's Strip Poker, possibly the first in the genre, was published
- Koei's Night Life, the first commercial erotic game in Japan, was published for PC-8801
- Douglas Adams' Life, the Universe, and Everything was published
- Tracy Hickman started developing Dragonlance at TSR
- The first Fighting Fantasy book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, was published by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone
- Robert Asprin's Myth Directions was published
- The first four-issue series of Wolverine was published by Marvel
- James Hogan's Voyage from Yesteryear was published
- William Gibson's Burning Chrome was published, coining the term "cyberspace"
- Benoit Mandelbrot published his definitive work, The Fractal Geometry of Nature
- The movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released
- The movie Blade Runner was released
- The first Eddie Murphy movie, 48 Hrs., was released
- The movie Conan the Barbarian was released
- The movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released
- The movie Tron was released
- The movie Shaolin Temple, Jet Li's first appearance, was released
- Monty Python performed Live at the Hollywood Bowl
- The original Blackadder pilot episode was produced
- The first season of Knight Rider was aired
- The first season of Family Ties, a sitcom with Michael J. Fox, was aired
- The brief comedy series Police Squad! was aired
- Ed Starink founded Star Inc., the famous synthesizer music studio
- Jean-Michel Jarre released the album Concerts in China
- Michael Jackson released the album Thriller
- Depeche Mode released the album A Broken Flame
- The Alan Parsons Project released the album Eye in the Sky
- Madonna released her first single, Everybody
- The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Louis Clark released Hooked on Classics 2
- The Finnish rock band Neljä Ruusua was founded
- Yazoo published their first album Upstairs at Eric's
- 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark won five Academy Awards, for visuals and sound
- 1981's Chariots of Fire won four Academy Awards, for the music and generally being interesting
- Aaron Klug received the Nobel Prize for chemistry, for work on electron microscopes and research on microbiological structures
- George Stigler received the Nobel Prize for economics, for various studies and research on regulatory capture
- Kenneth Wilson received the Nobel Prize for physics, for developing a method for exactly calculating matter phase transitions
- Sune Bergström, Bengt Samuelsson, and John Vane received the Nobel Prize for physiology, for research on prostaglandins
- Alva Myrdal and Alfonso García Robles received the Nobel Peace Prize, for years of successful advocacy for disarmament
- David Copperfield set up Project Magic, intended to teach magic tricks to
disabled patients in hospitals to improve their physical and mental control
and supporting their self-esteem
- The longest lunar eclipse of the century took place
- The Soviet Union successfully launched space station Salyut-7 into orbit
- The Soviet probes Venera 13 and 14 each deposited a lander on Venus, and sent back the first color photographs of the surface
- The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, a significant experimental fusion power generator in Princeton, New Jersey, began operating
- The pinyin romanisation system, a wonderful simplification of Chinese hanzi, became an official ISO standard
- British Airways Flight 9 flew into a volcanic ash cloud, experienced complete engine failure, observed exciting luminous plasma, and eventually landed with no casualties
- The European Court of Human Rights did something right for once and prohibited teachers from physically punishing kids (unless the parents said they could)
- Germany, Italy and the UK jointly produced a design for the Agile Combat Aircraft, a milestone on the road to the modern Eurofighter
- The British, seven-sided 20p coin was issued
- The Helsinki metro began operating
- Kyiv celebrated its 1500th anniversary, although the exact founding date is obviously guesswork
- Koivisto replaced Kekkonen as President
- Javier Pérez de Cuéllar replaced Kurt Waldheim as UN Secretary-General
- Keke Rosberg won the Formula 1 world championship
- Natalie Dormer was born
- Kirsten Dunst was born
- Cobie Smulders was born
- Anne Hathaway was born
- Colin Jost was born
- Taran Killam was born
- John Mulaney was born
- Matt Smith was born
- The radiant Princess Madeleine of Sweden was born