1985

Events

   * January 17 - British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the
     famous red telephone boxes.
   * February 6 - Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer
   * February 7 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of
     New York City.
   * February 11 - Wasim Akram takes 10 wickets in his 2nd Test Cricket
     match, but New Zealand still wins.
   * February 14 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in
     Lebanon.
   * February 19 - Artificial-heart patient William Schroeder becomes the
     first such patient to leave hospital.
   * March 3 - Censorship: Women Against Pornography award their "Pig Award"
     to Huggies Diapers for claiming that their television ads had "crossed
     the line between eye-catching and porn."
   * March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
   * March 16 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in
     Beirut. He would later be released on December 4, 1991.
   * March 17 - Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker", commits
     his first two murders in Los Angeles, California.
   * March 20 - Libby Riddles becomes the first women to win the 1,135-mile
     Iditarod dog sled race.
   * May 8 - New Coke is released on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola. It
     will later become a major flop with consumers
   * May 20 - Propaganda: Radio Marti begins broadcasting to Cuba.
   * May 23 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for
     attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
   * May 29 - The Heysel Stadium disaster, 39 football fans die and hundreds
     are injured.
   * May 13 - Philadelphia's mayor orders police to storm the radical
     group's MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an
     explosive device into the headquarters killing 11 MOVE members and
     destroying the homes of 250 city residents in the resulting fire.
   * May 25 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge which
     kills approximately 10,000 people.
   * July - Wreckage from the Titanic is discovered by Dr. Robert Ballard of
     the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The wreckage is filmed with a
     robotic underwater camera.
   * July 10 - The Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk
     in Auckland Harbour by French DGSE agents.
   * July 10 - After a storm of controversy surrounding a change in its
     cola's formula (see New Coke), Coca-Cola re-introduces the old formula
     as "Coca-Cola Classic."
   * July 19 - US Vice President George H. W. Bush announces that New
     Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher
     to ride aboard the Space Shuttle (see Space Shuttle Challenger).
   * July 20 - The main ship wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra
     Senora de Atocha (which sank in 1622) is found 40 miles off the coast
     of Key West, Florida by treasure hunters who soon begin to raise $400
     million in coins and silver.
   * August 6 - In Hiroshima, tens of thousands mark the 40th anniversary of
     the atomic bombing of the city.
   * September 1 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of
     the RMS Titanic.
   * September 6 - A Douglas DC-9 carrying Midwest Express Airlines Flight
     105 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin killing 31.
   * October 7 - The passenger ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by
     Palestinians.
   * October 10 - United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian
     plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to
     land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily were they are arrested.
   * October 29 - Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the
     first multiparty election in Liberia.
   * November 13 - The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts in Colombia, killing
     an estimated 23,000 people.
   * December 27 - Palestinian guerrillas kill twenty people inside Rome and
     Vienna airports.
   * December 27 - American naturalist Dian Fossey is found murdered in
     Rwanda.
   * Buckyballs were discovered by Harold Kroto, Robert Curl and Richard
     Smalley
   * First syndication of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
   * GNU Manifesto first written by Richard Stallman
   * Western Sahara is admitted to the Organization of African Unity;
     Morocco, which claims Western Sahara, leaves in protest
   * Ethiopian famine continues -- Live Aid attempts to raise funds for
     famine relief

Art, Culture & Fashion

   * 1985 in film
        o Out of Africa
        o The Color Purple
        o Witness starring Harrison Ford
        o Back to the Future
   * 1985 in music
        o January 28 - "We Are The World" is recorded, by USA for Africa.
        o July 13 - Live Aid benefit concert
   * 1985 in sports
        o January 14 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
        o January 20 - Super Bowl XIX San Francisco 49ers (38) def. Miami
          Dolphins (16)
        o January 23 - O. J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner
          elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
   * 1985 in television
        o February 8 - After 6-1/2 years, the television series The Dukes of
          Hazzard goes off the air.
        o August 19 - David Letterman interupts the Today Show with a
          megaphone while both shows are on the air. Letterman leaned out
          the window of his building and announced "My name is Larry
          Grossman (then president of NBC News) and I'm not wearing any
          pants!". The Today Show was taping an interview several stories
          below.
        o NBC becomes the first commercial television network to use
          satellite interconnection for its stations.

Births

   * March 2 - Robert Iler, actor
   * October 24 - Wayne Rooney, English football star

Deaths

   * February 8 - Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Motors
   * February 11 - Heinz Eric Roemheld, composer.
   * February 11 - Henry Hathaway actor/director.
   * February 11 - Ulysses Simpson Kay, composer.
   * February 20 - Clarence Nash, Disney voice actor
   * February 27 - Henry Cabot Lodge, politician, candidate for Vice
     President of the United States
   * March 10 - Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist
     Party of the Soviet Union
   * April 11 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania
   * May 8 - Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer
   * May 9 - Edmond O'Brien, actor
   * May 10 - Chester Gould, cartoonist
   * May 12 - Jean Dubuffet, painter
   * May 16 - Margaret Hamilton, actress
   * May 17 - Abe Burrows, songwriter, composer, writer
   * August 12 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
   * August 25 - Samantha Smith, U.S. activist
   * September 6 - Little Brother Montgomery, musician
   * October 2 - Rock Hudson, actor, died of AIDS
   * October 11 - Orson Welles, movie director
   * October 22 - Thomas Townsend Brown, scientist

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - Klaus von Klitzing
   * Chemistry - Herbert A Hauptman, Jerome Karle
   * Medicine - Michael S Brown, Joseph L Goldstein
   * Literature - Claude Simon
   * Peace - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
   * Economics - Franco Modigliani

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