1980 in Zimbabwe

Incumbents

• President: Canaan Banana
• Prime Minister: Robert Mugabe

  Events

• April 17 - Zimbabwe gains independence from the United Kingdom, recognised internationally.
• April 18 - Canaan Banana, a Methodist minister and theologian, becomes the first President of Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe becomes the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
• July 31 - The Zimbabwean field hockey team wins the Gold Medal in the 1980 Summer Olympics celebrated in Moscow .
• August 25 - Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
• November 8 - Enos Nkala makes remarks at a rally in Bulawayo, in which he warns ZAPU that ZANU would deliver a few blows against them. This starts the first Entumbane uprising, in which Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army fight for two days.