November 1983

Freddy Heineken, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and one of the richest people in the Netherlands, and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped on 9 November 1983 in Amsterdam. They were released when Heineken's family paid, against police advice, a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders (~US$18 million) on 30 November of that year. The kidnappers—Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boellaard [nl], Frans Meijer [nl], and Martin Erkamps [nl]—were all eventually caught and served prison terms.

Miss World 1983, the 33rd edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 17 November 1983 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. The winner was Sarah-Jane Hutt from United Kingdom. She was crowned by Miss World 1982, Mariasela Álvarez of Dominican Republic. First runner-up was Rocío Isabel Luna representing Colombia and second runner-up was Cátia Pedrosa from Brazil. Miss World 1983 marked the first Miss World event that included an intelligence test for contestants. The intelligence test was created by psychologists.

The United States and a coalition of Caribbean countries invaded the small island nation of Grenada, 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela, at dawn on 25 October 1983. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in military occupation within a few days. It was triggered by strife within the People's Revolutionary Government, which led to the house arrest and execution of the previous leader and second Prime Minister of Grenada, Maurice Bishop, and to the establishment of the Revolutionary Military Council, with Hudson Austin as chairman. Following the invasion there was an interim government appointed, and then general elections held in December 1984.

The Brink's-Mat robbery was one of the largest robberies in British history, with £26 million (equivalent to £111 million in 2023) worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash stolen. It occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate, London, on 26 November 1983, from a warehouse operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint venture between US security company Brink's and London-based company MAT Transport. The bullion was the property of Johnson Matthey Bankers Ltd. Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were convicted of armed robbery. Most of the gold has never been recovered. Lloyd's of London paid out for the losses, and several shooting deaths have been linked to the case.

The 1983 October Revolution Parade was a parade on to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917. It took place on Red Square in Moscow the capital of the Soviet Union on November 7th 1983. Marshal of the Soviet Union and the Minister of Defence Dmitry Ustinov inspected the parade. the 1983 parade commander was the head of the Moscow Garrison Pyotr Lushev. Music was performed by the head of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union Major General Nikolai Mikhailov. Yuri Andropov the Soviet leader at the time did not attend the parade due to a sickness prior to the parade.

The March for Equality and Against Racism (French: Marche pour l’égalité et contre le racisme), also called the March of the Arabs (French: Marche des beurs) by French media (beur is the backslang of arabe), was a demonstration concerning issues of racism and immigration that took place in France in 1983, from October 15 to December 3.

Northern Cyprus declared its independence in 1983 with its official name being the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). It is recognized by Turkey.

General elections were held in the Cook Islands on 2 November 1983. The result was a victory for the Democratic Party, which won 13 of the 24 seats. A coalition government was formed with the opposition Cook Islands Party, with Democratic Party leader Thomas Davis as prime minister and CIP leader Geoffrey Henry as deputy prime minister. Henry was later replaced with Terepai Maoate.

Aeroflot Flight 6833, en route from Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, to Leningrad, Russian SFSR, with an intermediate stop in Batumi, was the scene of an attempted aircraft hijacking by seven young Georgians on 18–19 November 1983. The crisis ended with a storming of the Tu-134A airliner by Soviet special forces that resulted in eight dead. The surviving hijackers were subsequently tried and executed.

Avianca Flight 011 was a Boeing 747-200BM Combi on an international scheduled passenger flight from Frankfurt to Bogotá via Paris, Madrid, and Caracas that crashed near Madrid on 27 November 1983. It took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 22:25 on 26 November 1983 for Madrid Barajas Airport; take-off was delayed waiting for additional passengers from a Lufthansa flight due to a cancellation of the Paris-Frankfurt-Paris segment by Avianca for operational reasons.