Events of 1982

January

• January 1 – ITV companies Central Independent Television, Television South and Television South West start broadcasting, replacing ATV, Southern Television and Westward Television respectively.
• January 6 – William Bonin is convicted of being the Freeway Killer.
• January 8 – AT&T agrees to divest itself into 22 subdivisions.
• January 10 – The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Braemar, in Aberdeenshire. This equals the record set in the same place in 1895, and the record would be equalled again at Altnaharra in 1995.
• January 11 – Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara during the Paris-Dakar rally. He is rescued January 14.
• January 11-January 17 – A brutal cold snap sends temperatures to all-time record lows in dozens of cities throughout the Midwestern United States.
• January 13 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78. On the same day, a Washington Metro train derails to the north, killing 3 (the system's first, worst, and so far only fatal accident).
• January 17 – Cold Sunday sweeps over the northern United States.
• January 26 – Mauno Koivisto is elected President of Finland.
• January 26 – Unemployment in the United Kingdom increases by 129,918 to 3,070,621, a post-war record.
• January 27 – The Garret Fitzgerald government of the Republic of Ireland is defeated 82-81 on its budget; Fitzgerald announced his resignation.
• January 28 – U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.

February