1980
- Hughes Airwest, based out of San Francisco International Airport, is acquired by Republic Airlines
- The Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall (pictured) in San Francisco is completed
- A medical patient in San Francisco is reported to have both Kaposi's sarcoma and Cryptococcus
- KSAN radio switches formats from freeform rock to country music
- University of California, Berkeley Slavic Languages and Literature Professor Czesław Miłosz (pictured) is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature