Moments in the Arts : 1980

Jan. 1: Former model makes good when Sherry Lansing is named president of 20th Century Fox Productions, becoming the first woman to head production at a major studio.

Jan. 21: The Los Angeles Times introduces a daily Calendar section.

Feb. 15: Walter Cronkite retires after 19 years as leading man of the “CBS Evening News,” relinquishing the throne to Million-Dollar Dan--”60 Minutes” correspondent Dan Rather.

June 1: “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Ted Turner, critic of commercial television news, opens his own shop with Cable News Network, the nation’s first all-news-all-the-time cable television network.

June 9: Comedian Richard Pryor nearly goes up in smoke at his Sherman Oaks home when a substance explodes in his face; doctors give him a 1-in-3 shot at survival.

Aug. 15: Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten and her estranged husband, Paul Snider, are found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide. Stratten had been romantically linked to director Peter Bogdanovich since her role in his film “They All Laughed.”

Nov. 19: United Artists yanks “Heaven’s Gate” from New York theaters after the film is blasted in preview. Michael Cimino’s epic Western weighs in at 220 minutes and nearly $40 million, redefining the term disaster movie.

Dec. 8: The day the music died. Ex-Beatle John Lennon is shot and killed by J. D. Salinger fan Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota apartment building in New York City.

1981

April 11: Pre- glasnost , Soviet symphony director Maxim Shostakovich, son of the renowned composer, defects to West Germany.

July 31: MTV hits the small screen as the biggest television boost to pop music since “American Bandstand.” The first music video? “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

Nov. 29: Actress Natalie Wood drowns after falling from a boat moored off Santa Catalina Island.