1983 in Belgium

Events in the year 1983 in Belgium.

← 1982 1981 1980 1983 in Belgium → 1984 1985 1986
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	Other events of 1983 List of years in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Baudouin
• Prime Minister: Wilfried Martens

Events

• 1 January – In the Flemish municipality of Voeren (Belgium), the controversial French-speaking José Happart is installed as mayor. However, Mayor Happart refuses to learn Dutch, which is contrary to the Belgian Constitution.
• 1 April – Master scammer William Vandergucht withdraws 76 million Belgian francs from an ASLK bank branch in Ghent with a bad check and disappears without a trace.
• 17 May –The first scratchcard is introduced in Belgium: Presto from the National Lottery.
• 23 October – A very large peace demonstration is taking place in Brussels (from Brussels South towards Brussels North) against the installation of NATO cruise missiles on Belgian territory with around 400,000 demonstrators according to the organizers (120,000 according to the police).

Publications

• Hugo Claus, Het verdriet van België
• Francis Delpérée, Chroniques de crise, 1977-1982 (Brussels, C.R.I.S.P.)
• Ernest Vandevyvere, De watervoorziening te Brugge van de 13e tot de 20e eeuw (Bruges)
• I. Verbeeck, Functionele analyse van de sleepdiensten in de haven van Antwerpen (Antwerp)

Art and architecture

Cinematic releases

• Brussels by Night, directed by Marc Didden

Births

• 25 January – Astrid Coppens, performer
• 31 January – Tom Vangeneugden, Olympic swimmer
• 26 February – Andrei Lugovski, Belarusian-born tenor
• 12 March – Sigrid Persoon, gymnast
• 11 May – Frédéric Xhonneux, athlete
• 2 June – Jo Deman, scouting executive
• 16 September – Katerine Avgoustakis, singer
• 6 October – Nina van Koeckhoven, athlete
• 25 October – Nawell Madani, media figure
• 26 December – Jeroen Soete, politician

Deaths

• 15 March – Albert-Émile de Beauffort (born 1899), colonial administrator
• 11 July – Paul Harsin (born 1902), historian
• 25 September – Leopold III (born 1901)