date: December 10

text: December 10 – Military rule ends and democracy is restored in Argentina, with the beginning of Raúl Alfonsín's first term as President of Argentina.


date: December 13

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: December 13 – Turgut Özal, of ANAP forms the new government of Turkey (45th government); beginning a new civilian regime.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 14

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 14 – The head of Bangladesh's military dictatorship, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, announces his intentions to "turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state."

source_section: Events › January


date: February 12

text: February 12 – 100 women protest in Lahore, Pakistan, against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq's proposed Law of Evidence. The women are tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into lock-up but are successful in repealing the law.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Wah Mee massacre: 13 people are killed in an attempted robbery in the Chinatown area of Seattle, United States.


text: February 18 – Nellie massacre: Over 2,000 people, mostly Bangladeshi Muslims, are massacred in Assam, India, during the Assam agitation.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Erich Honecker cancels planned goodwill visit to Bonn due to escalating nuclear tensions.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Aberdeen F.C. beat Real Madrid 2–1 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983, becoming only the third Scottish side to win a European trophy.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Church Street bombing: A car bombing in Pretoria, South Africa, kills 19 people. The bomb has been planted by members of Umkhonto we Sizwe, a military wing of the African National Congress.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Hamburger SV defeat Juventus 1–0 in the final of the European Cup.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The Second Sudanese Civil War begins in Sudan.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Iranian teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other women are hanged because they are members of the Baháʼí Faith.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican girl, mysteriously disappears in Rome while returning home from a music lesson. The disappearance of the girl led to many speculations involving international terrorism, Italian organized crime, and even a plot inside the Vatican to cover a sexual scandal inside the Holy See. Because of all these theories, the Orlandi case would later become Italy's most famous mystery.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Orly Airport attack in Paris leaves eight dead and 55 injured.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 23

text: July 23 – 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers are killed during a deadly ambush by the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, thus beginning the Sri Lankan Civil War, which would continue until 2009.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000 Sri Lankan Tamils and Hill-country Tamils.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Benigno Aquino Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 26

text: September 26 – 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident: Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a warning of attack by U.S. missiles as a false alarm.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Rangoon bombing kills South Korea's Foreign Minister, Lee Bum Suk, and 21 others. The perpetrators are believed to be North Koreans.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, and 40 others are assassinated in a military coup.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Beirut barracks bombing: Simultaneous suicide truck-bombings destroy both the French Army and United States Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, 58 French paratroopers and 6 Lebanese civilians.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Invasion of Grenada by United States troops at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member of the Organization of American States.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Commencement of the battle of Tripoli between Arafat loyalists and PLO dissidents.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Able Archer 83: Many Soviet officials misinterpret this NATO exercise as a nuclear first strike, causing the last nuclear scare of the Cold War.


text: November 7 – 1983 U.S. Senate bombing: A bomb explodes in the United States Senate with the intent to kill Republican senators; no one is injured. The perpetrators are members of the May 19th Communist Organization.


date: July 22

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: July 22 – Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation of the world in a helicopter.


date: January 6

section: Religion & Belief

text: January 6 – Pope John Paul II appoints a bishop over the Czechoslovak exile community, which the Rudé právo newspaper calls a "provocation." This begins a year-long disagreement between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Vatican, leading to the eventual restoration of diplomatic relations between the two states.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – 1983 Code of Canon Law: Pope John Paul II revises Roman Catholic canon law, the first such revision since 1917. Among the changes is a reduction in the number of offenses qualifying for automatic excommunication, from 37 to only seven.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Reform rabbis in the U.S. vote to affirm both patrilineal and matrilineal descent for determining Jewish identity. While Jewish tradition defines a Jew as someone with a Jewish mother, this decision by the Central Conference of American Rabbis amends this principle to mean one Jewish "parent."

source_section: Events › March


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Sweden re-establishes diplomatic ties with the Vatican after a 450-year interruption. Sweden broke off relations in 1534 in keeping with the rise of Lutheranism.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Pope John Paul II visits Rebibbia prison to forgive his would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca.


date: January 23

section: Economy & Finance

text: January 23 – The European Economic Community's Common Fisheries Policy comes into effect.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – The Venezuelan bolívar is devalued and exchange controls are established in an event now referred to as Black Friday by many Venezuelans (the Bolívar had been the most stable and internationally accepted currency).


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The Australian dollar is floated by Federal treasurer Paul Keating. Under the old flexible peg system, the Reserve Bank bought and sold all Australian dollars and cleared the market at the end of the day. This initiative is taken by the government of Bob Hawke.


date: January 1

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet).


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) in Japan, breaks through.


date: February 5

text: February 5–6 – The team of A. J. Foyt, Preston Henn, Bob Wollek and Claude Ballot-Léna win the 24 Hours of Daytona automobile race in a Porsche 935.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The final episode of the TV series M*A*S*H, entitled Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, airs on CBS, to a total audience of 121.6 million.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The 3D printer is invented by Chuck Hull.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Tokyo Disneyland opens to the public.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – The Disney Channel launches in the United States.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – John Glenn announces a presidential run.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – The first worldwide mobile telephone, the Motorola DynaTAC, enters the market.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – A total loss of coolant occurs at the Embalse Nuclear Power Station, Argentina. It is classified as an "Accident With Local Consequences" – level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Nintendo's Family Computer, also known as the Famicom, goes on sale in Japan.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The world's first commercial mobile cellular telephone call is made, in Chicago, United States.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Word processor software Multi-Tool Word, soon to become Microsoft Word, is released in the United States. It is primarily the work of programmers Richard Brodie and Charles Simonyi. Free demonstration copies on disk are distributed with the November issue of PC World magazine.


date: January 25

section: Science & Discovery

text: January 25 – IRAS is launched from Vandenberg AFB, to conduct the world's first all-sky infrared survey from space.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on its maiden voyage: STS-6.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Stern magazine publishes the "Hitler Diaries" (which are later found to be forgeries).


text: June 13 – Pioneer 10 passes the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first human-made object to leave the vicinity of the major planets of the Solar System.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Sally Ride becomes the first female American astronaut in space when she launches on board Challenger's STS-7 mission together with four male crewmates.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Ten-year-old American girl Samantha Smith accepts her invitation from Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov and begins her visit to the USSR with her parents.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The Australian yacht Australia II wins the America's Cup, the first successful challenge to the New York Yacht Club's 132-year defence of the sailing trophy.


text: September 26 – The Soyuz T-10-1 mission ends in a pad abort at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, when a pad fire occurs at the base of the Soyuz U rocket during the launch countdown. The escape tower system, attached to the top of the capsule containing the crew and Soyuz spacecraft, fires immediately, pulling the crew safe from the vehicle a few seconds before the rocket explodes, destroying the launch complex.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – The GNU Project is announced publicly on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – British entrepreneur Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph (1,019.468 km/h), driving Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – The first United States cruise missiles arrive at RAF Greenham Common in the UK amid protests from peace campaigners.


date: January 30

section: Health & Medicine

text: January 30 – Chinese newspaper People's Daily reports that the nation will run out of food and clothes by the year 2000 if the state's population control efforts are not successful.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Strategic Defense Initiative: U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The FDA approves sale of the first spermicidal sponge, "Today."


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Soviet authorities pass harsher punishments for drunkenness and absenteeism, responding to public calls to curb high rates of alcoholism.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The immunosuppressant cyclosporine is approved by the FDA, leading to a revolution in the field of transplantation.


date: January 24

section: Crime & Justice

text: January 24 – 25 members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1978 murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial on charges of polygamy involving 105 women.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Dismembered sets of human remains are found at a block of flats in Muswell Hill, North London. 37-year-old civil servant Dennis Nilsen, is arrested on suspicion of murder.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Five people are killed and 18 others injured when a road train is deliberately driven into a motel at Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory of Australia (the driver, Douglas Edward Crabbe, is convicted in March 1984).


date: August 23

text: August 23 – In a crackdown on crime, the Chinese state executes 19 people for murder, 10 for rape, and one for auto theft. By the end of the year, Amnesty International estimates that at least 600 people have been executed in China.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Two U.S. Marines are killed by mortar blast in Beirut, marking the first U.S. combat fatalities of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.


text: September 26 – The mass burial of around 700,000 unsold Atari video game cartridges, consoles, and computers occurs in Alamogordo, New Mexico.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Japan's former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed, and sentenced to 4 years in jail.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – The Jules Rimet Trophy is stolen from the Brazilian Soccer Confederation building in Rio de Janeiro. As of 2025, the trophy has not been recovered.


text: Leopold Kohr, the people of Belau, Amory and Hunter Lovins/Rocky Mountain Institute and Manfred Max Neef/CEPAUR win the Right Livelihood Award.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 16

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: February 16 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 75 people, in one of Australia's worst bushfire disasters.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – The 1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63 people.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – A reactor shutdown due to failure of fuel rods occurs at Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russia.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Benton fireworks disaster. An explosion at an unlicensed and illegal fireworks operation near Benton, Tennessee, kills eleven and injures one. The blast is heard within a radius of 20 mi km.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The Italian cargo ship Michelle ran aground just northwest of Dugi Otok.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet, en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea, crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains of Guinea, killing all 23 people on board.


text: July 1 – A technical failure causes the release of iodine-131 from the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant, Germany.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Heavy rain and mudslides in western Shimane Prefecture, Japan, kill 117.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by Soviet Union Air Force Su-15 Flagon pilot Major Gennadi Osipovich near Moneron Island when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Gulf Air Flight 771 crashes in the United Arab Emirates after a bomb explodes in the baggage compartment, killing 117.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Byford Dolphin rig diving bell accident: Off the coast of Norway, 5 divers are killed and 1 is severely wounded in an explosive decompression accident.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – An attempted hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 6833 in Soviet Georgia results in several dead and wounded.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Colombian Avianca Flight 011 crashes near Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, killing 181 of the 192 on board.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Two Spanish passenger planes collide on the foggy runway at a Madrid airport, killing 93 people.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – The Alcalá 20 nightclub fire in Madrid, Spain, injuring 47 and killing 83 people.


text: December 17 – Harrods bombings: a Provisional IRA car bomb kills 6 people and injures 90 outside Harrods department store in London.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Two bombs explode in France: one on a Paris train kills three and injures 19; the other at Marseille station kills two and injures 34.


date: January 18

section: Climate & Environment

text: January 18 – U.S. Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt makes controversial remarks blaming poor living conditions on Native American reservations on "the failures of socialism." Watt will eventually resign in September after a series of other controversial remarks.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – The 7.8 Sea of Japan earthquake shakes northern Honshu with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami is generated that leaves about 100 people dead.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Britain's Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, is re-elected by a landslide majority.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – The lowest temperature on Earth is recorded in Vostok Station, Antarctica with −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion (2005 dollars) in damage.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Heavy rain triggers flooding at Bilbao, Spain, and surrounding areas, killing 44 people and causing millions in damages.


text: September 23 – Violence erupts in New Caledonia between native Kanaks and French expatriates. The French government withdraws the promise of independence.


text: The meteorological 1982–83 El Niño event causes severe weather worldwide.


date: January 30

section: Culture & Society

text: January 30 – The Washington Redskins defeat the Miami Dolphins to win Super Bowl XVII at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Spain's Seve Ballesteros won the 47th PGA Masters Tournament.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Michael Jackson performs the Moonwalk for the first time while performing "Billie Jean" on the Motown 25 television special.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Two separate research groups led by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier independently declare that a novel retrovirus may have been infecting people with HIV/AIDS, and publish their findings in the same issue of the journal Science.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The 9th G7 summit begins at Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.


text: June 9–25 – The 1983 Cricket World Cup is held in England with India defeating West Indies in the final.


date: June 18

text: June 18–19 – The team of Vern Schuppan, Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – India wins the Cricket World Cup, defeating the West Indies by 43 runs.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Reading Rainbow debuts on PBS.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Press Your Luck premieres on CBS.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal this same year.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).


date: January 10

text: January 10 – The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations.


text: January 10 – The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Sultan Iskandar of Johor becomes Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, in succession to Sultan Ahmad Shah, whose term ended the previous day.


date: June 14

text: June 14–16 – voting days for the European Parliament election


date: June 27

text: June 27 – France beats Spain 2–0 to win Euro 84.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – John Turner becomes the 17th Prime Minister of Canada.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Liechtenstein becomes the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney, wins 211 seats in the House of Commons of Canada, forming the largest majority government in Canadian history.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – P. W. Botha is inaugurated as the first executive State President of South Africa.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Brian Mulroney is sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The Sandinista Front wins the Nicaraguan general elections.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 1984 United States presidential election: Republican President Ronald Reagan defeats Democratic former Vice President Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% popular vote victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states in the electoral College; Mondale wins only his home state of Minnesota (by a mere 3,761 vote margin) and the District of Columbia.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – 1984 Uruguayan presidential election: Julio María Sanguinetti is democratically elected President of Uruguay after 12 years of military dictatorship.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – A peace agreement between Kenya and Somalia is signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo. With this agreement, in which Somalia officially renounces its historical territorial claims, relations between the two countries begin to improve.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – 1984 Australian federal election: Bob Hawke's Labor government is re-elected with a reduced majority, defeating the Liberal/National Coalition led by Andrew Peacock.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – The People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – In Malta, Prime Minister Dom Mintoff resigns.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons; the United Nations condemns their use on March 30.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – General Rahimuddin Khan becomes the first man in Pakistan's history to rule over two of its provinces, after becoming interim Governor of Sindh.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – India launches Operation Meghdoot, bringing most of the disputed Siachen Glacier region of Kashmir under Indian control and triggering the Siachen conflict with Pakistan.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – More than one million people, led by Tancredo Neves, occupy the streets of São Paulo to demand direct presidential elections during the Brazilian military government of João Figueiredo. It is the largest protest during the Diretas Já civil unrest, as well as the largest public demonstration in the history of Brazil. The elections are granted in 1989.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Metropolitan Police officer Yvonne Fletcher was fatally shot, during a demonstration outside the Libyan embassy in London, leading to an eleven-day siege of the embassy, and the severing of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The Indian government begins Operation Blue Star, the planned attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – A Soviet soldier defects to West Germany across the inner German border, the first such defection since 1976.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Seven people are shot and killed and 12 wounded in the Milperra massacre, a shootout between the rival motorcycle gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney, Australia.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – An explosion on board a Maltese patrol boat disposing illegal fireworks at sea off Gozo kills seven soldiers and policemen.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Hezbollah car-bombs the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing with an explosive device planted nearly a month earlier in their conference hotel. The terror attack kills five people and injures 31.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Assassination of Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her two Sikh security guards in New Delhi. Anti-Sikh riots break out, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 Sikhs dead in Delhi and surrounding areas with the majority populations of Hindus. Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.


date: November 1

text: November 1–4 – Anti-Sikh mass murder takes place in Delhi and various parts of India following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – 600,000 to 1 million people were attending the funeral of Father Jerzy at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Żoliborz following his assassination.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Western Sahara conflict: Morocco leaves the Organization of African Unity in protest at the admission of Western Sahara as a member.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Start of Operation Moses, the evacuation of refugee Beta Israel Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel via Brussels.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Sri Lankan Civil War, Kent and Dollar Farm massacres: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam begin their first massacres of the Sinhalese people, in North and East Sri Lanka. 127 are killed.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Sri Lankan Civil War, 1984 Mannar massacre: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill over 200 civilians in the town of Mannar.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – President of Bangladesh, H M Ershad upgrades South Sylhet's sub-division status to a district and renames it back to Moulvibazar.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – reaches a record submergence depth of 1,020 meters.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic, solo, in a hot air balloon.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer become the first Australians to reach the summit of Mount Everest.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – New Zealand Prime Minister Rob Muldoon calls a snap election and is defeated by opposition Labour leader David Lange.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Australian banks are deregulated.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Pittsburgh Light Rail opens to the public.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – South Africa, Mozambique and Portugal sign an agreement on electricity supply from the Cahora Bassa dam.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The Itaipu Dam, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay after nine years of construction, begins generating power; it is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world at the time.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The one-dollar coin is introduced in Australia.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Virgin Atlantic makes its inaugural flight.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends by Britt Allcroft broadcasts its first two episodes in the United Kingdom.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Monterey Bay Aquarium is opened to the public after seven years of development and construction.


date: November 9

text: November 9–11 – The first Hackers Conference is held.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Light Rail Transit in Manila begins service with the opening of its southern segment, as the first rapid transit service in Southeast Asia.


text: The Chrysler Corporation introduces the first vehicles to be officially labeled as "minivans". They are branded as the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, and Plymouth Voyager.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Indian Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma is launched into space, aboard the Soyuz T-11.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The Louisiana World Exposition, also known as the 1984 World's Fair, opens.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Salyut 7: cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – STS-41-D: the Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – STS-41-D: the Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage at Edwards Air Force Base in California.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Joe Kittinger begins his attempt to become the first person to fly a gas balloon solo across the Atlantic Ocean.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – STS-41-G: Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.


text: February 3 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Hayim Association is founded by Rina Zaizov Marx and parents of children with cancer as paediatric oncology department in Israel.


text: Crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, is first introduced into Los Angeles and soon spreads across the United States in what becomes known as the crack epidemic.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Gary Plauché shoots his son's rapist at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Palestinian gunmen take Israeli bus number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus, freeing the hostages (one hostage, two hijackers killed).


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Liverpool beat Roma 5–2 after penalties in the final of the 1984 European Cup football tournament.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – 17-year-old Ricky Kasso murders Gary Lauwers in Northport, New York, contributing to the Satanic panic association of heavy metal music and satanism.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona is sold by FC Barcelona (Spain) to S.S.C. Napoli (Italy) for a world record fee at this date of $10.48M (£6.9M).


date: July 18

text: July 18 – San Ysidro McDonald's massacre: 41-year-old James Huberty walks into a McDonald's in the San Ysidro district of San Diego, resulting in 21 deaths, with Huberty being killed by a sniper 77 minutes after the ordeal begins.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – John DeLorean is acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Edgar Reitz's film series Heimat begins release in Germany.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – In the early morning, police in Sicily apprehend 366 people they suspect to be involved in the activities of Cosa Nostra.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Polish secret police kidnapped and assassinated Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest who supported the Solidarity movement. His body was found in a reservoir 11 days later on October 30.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on 23 July 2019, located about 15 mi southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head".


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Four African-American youths (Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey) board an express train in the Bronx borough of New York City. They demand five dollars from Bernhard Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime in the United States.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The National Union of Mineworkers strikes as tens of thousands of miners in the United Kingdom stop working in protest over colliery closures, starting the United Kingdom miners' strike that lasts a year.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Severomorsk Disaster: an explosion at the Soviets' Severomorsk Naval Base destroys two-thirds of all the missiles stockpiled for the Soviets' Northern Fleet. The blast also destroys workshops needed to maintain the missiles as well as hundreds of technicians. Western military experts called it the worst naval disaster the Soviet Navy has suffered since WWII.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – A methane gas explosion at Abbeystead water treatment works in Lancashire, UK, kills 16 people.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Barefoot South African runner Zola Budd and Mary Decker of the U.S. collide in the Olympic 3000 meters final, neither finishing as medallists.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashes at Omsk Airport into maintenance vehicles on the runway, killing 174 people on board and 4 on the ground.


text: October 19 – Wapiti Aviation Flight 402 crashes into terrain 40 km mi southeast of High Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Six are killed including leader of the Alberta NDP, Grant Notley, while the four survivors are later rescued the next day.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – A series of explosions at the Pemex Petroleum Storage Facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec, in Mexico City, ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 8,000 people outright and injures over half a million (with more later dying from their injuries the death toll reaches 23,000+) in the worst industrial disaster in history.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane and kill 4 passengers.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – A Soviet cruise missile plunges into Lake Inari in Finnish Lapland, known as the Lake Inari missile incident. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – An X-class solar flare erupts on the Sun.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – An F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The European Economic Community makes £1.8 million available to help combat the famine in Ethiopia.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The Louisiana World Exposition, also known as The 1984 World's Fair, and also the New Orleans World's Fair, and, to the locals, simply as "The Fair" or "Expo 84", closes.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Band Aid (assembled by Bob Geldof) records the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in London to raise money to combat the famine in Ethiopia. It is released on December 3.


text: 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia intensifies with renewed drought by mid-year, killing a million people by the end of this year.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Van Halen releases their sixth studio album 1984 (MCMLXXXIV), which debuts at number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and will go to sell over 10 million copies in the United States.


date: February 8

text: February 8–19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – TED (conference) is founded.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The first World Youth Day gathering is held in Rome, Italy.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The Herreys' song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in Luxembourg. It subsequently becomes a top-ten hit in five European countries.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – The Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil is founded.


date: July 28

text: July 28–August 12 – The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.


date: October 2

text: October 2 - John Schnatter founded Papa John's in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – The Detroit Tigers defeat the San Diego Padres in game five of the 1984 World Series to win the franchise's 4th championship.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The science fiction action film The Terminator premieres. It is the third film directed by James Cameron, and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.


date: March 16

section: Deaths

text: March 16 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley, is kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad Organization and later dies in captivity.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The world learns from moving BBC News television reports presented by Michael Buerk of the famine in Ethiopia, where thousands of people have already died of starvation due to a famine, and as many as 10,000,000 more lives are at risk.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Tancredo Neves is elected president of Brazil by the Congress, ending the 21-year military rule.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is formed, in Tehran.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – After a 12-year-long dictatorship, Julio María Sanguinetti is sworn in as the first democratically elected President of Uruguay.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou instigated a constitutional crisis to divert voter's attention from the deterioration of the Greek economy, by suddenly not supporting Konstantinos Karamanlis for a second term as President of Greece and violating constitutional voting protocol to get his presidential candidate to power. At the same time, he proposed a constitutional reforms to remove constitutional checks and balances constraining his position.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Vice-president José Sarney, upon becoming vice president, assumes the duties of president of Brazil, as the new president Tancredo Neves had become severely ill the day before. Sarney would later become Brazil's first civilian president in 21 years, upon Neves' death on April 21.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) splits.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Argentine President Raúl Alfonsín terminates Argentine administration of the Falkland Islands but does not relinquish Argentina's claim to the islands.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The Schengen Agreement is signed between certain member states of the European Economic Community, creating the Schengen Area, a bloc of (at the time) 5 states with no internal border controls.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The iconic U.S. Route 66 is officially decommissioned.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The Plaza Accord is signed by five nations.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is established.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – The charity single record "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Lebanon hostage crisis: CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Israel begins withdrawing troops from Lebanon.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry in Northern Ireland. With nine officers dead, it is the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – A Beirut car bomb, planted in an attempt to assassinate Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, kills more than 80 people and injures 200 more.


date: March 29

text: March 29 - two Lockheed CC-130H Hercules of the RCAF collided mid-air above the Canadian Forces base in Edmonton killing 10 servicemen.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – El Descanso bombing: A terrorist bombing attributed to the Islamic Jihad Organization in the El Descanso restaurant near Madrid, Spain, mostly attended by U.S. personnel from the Torrejón Air Base, causes 18 deaths (all Spaniards) and 82 injuries.


date: April

text: Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union begins to transfer the burden of fighting the mujahideen to the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, a cause of the Revolutions of 1989.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan joins West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl for a controversial funeral service at a cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany, which includes the graves of 59 elite S.S. troops from World War II.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – The 3rd total Victory Day Parade (the first being in 1945 and the next in 1965) is held on Red Square in Moscow in the Soviet Union. It features T-34-85 tanks, veterans of World War II from Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, and is the first parade to be held during the reign of Mikhail Gorbachev.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Philadelphia police drop bombs on a row home occupied MOVE during a gun battle between police and MOVE, killing six adults and five children


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine spectators are killed in rioting on the terraces during the European Cup final between Liverpool F.C. and Juventus (0–1) at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – British and Irish police foil a "mainland bombing campaign" sponsored by the Provisional Irish Republican Army which targets luxury vacation resorts.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Apartheid: State President of South Africa, P. W. Botha, declares a state of emergency in 36 magisterial districts of South Africa amid growing civil unrest in black townships.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Accomarca massacre takes place in Ayacucho, Peru.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Operation Wooden Leg: The Israeli air force bombs Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters near Tunis.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Palace of Justice siege: Members of the 19th of April Movement (M-19) Marxist guerrilla group take over the Palace of Justice of Colombia in Bogotá and hold the Supreme Court hostage. Hours later, after a military raid, the incident leaves almost half of the 25 Supreme Court Justices dead.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Gérard Hoarau, exiled political leader from the Seychelles, is assassinated in London.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spain reopens for the first time since Francisco Franco closed it in 1969.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Expo '85, an international exhibition, opens in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, running until September 16.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and activist Rick Hansen sets out on his 26-month, 40,000 km mi Man in Motion tour, which raises US$26 million for spinal cord research and quality-of-life initiatives.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The wreck of the RMS Titanic is located by a joint American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard (WHOI) and Jean-Louis Michel (IFREMER) using side-scan sonar from RV Knorr.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The ideology of Hezbollah is declared in a program issued in Beirut.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The Organization Commune Africaine et Malgache is officially dissolved.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day for Catholic youths.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Mohamed Al-Fayed buys the London-based department store company Harrods.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The capital gains tax is introduced to Australia.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Internet's Domain Name System is created.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, and Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation, are privatized and change their names to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and Japan Tobacco, respectively.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Super Mario Bros by Nintendo, the start of the Mario series, officially comes out.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, for two weeks (22 Sep. – 5 Oct. 1985). The Pont Neuf Wrapped attracts three million visitors.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – The Nintendo Entertainment System is released in North America, helping revitalize the home video game industry after the video game crash of 1983.


date: October 19

text: October 19 - The first Blockbuster store opened in Dallas, Texas.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The airline Emirates is established in Dubai and makes its first flight, to Karachi, Pakistan.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The Argentine tourist village of Villa Epecuén is permanently flooded through the collapse of a dam and dyke.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Microsoft Corporation releases the first U.S. release of Windows 1.0, as version 1.01. International support comes with the release of Windows 1.02 in Europe in May 1986.


text: The fullerene Buckminsterfullerene (C 60 ) is first intentionally prepared by Harold Kroto, James R. Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University in the US.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Australia cancels its involvement in U.S.-led MX missile tests.


date: March

text: March – The GNU Manifesto, written by Richard Stallman, is first published.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The Soviet Union performs a nuclear weapon test in eastern Kazakhstan.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey announce the discovery of the ozone hole.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – STS-51-G: Space Shuttle Discovery completes its mission, best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe is selected as the first person to go into space under the Teacher in Space Project, and designated to ride aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – A total solar eclipse occurs over Antarctica at 14:11:22 UTC.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable are released for sale to the public in the US.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first patient with an artificial heart to leave the hospital.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Approximately 10,000 people are killed when Bangladesh is affected by the storm surge from Tropical Storm One (1B).


text: Africa has a population growth of 3.2 percent per year.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – U.S. drug agent Kiki Camarena is kidnapped and murdered in Mexico by drug traffickers; his body is later discovered on March 5.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Lebanon hostage crisis: US journalist Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he remains a prisoner until December 4, 1991.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – The FBI brings charges against the suspected heads of the five Mafia families in New York City.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Young driver Danny Sullivan beats veteran Mario Andretti to win the 1985 Indianapolis 500.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The remains of Josef Mengele, the physician notorious for Nazi human experimentation on inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp, buried in 1979 under the name of Wolfgang Gerhard, are exhumed in Embu das Artes, Brazil.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons enters into force.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Italian crime reporter Giancarlo Siani is killed by the Camorra.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked in the Mediterranean Sea by four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists. One passenger, American Leon Klinghoffer, is killed.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – American naturalist Dian Fossey is found brutally murdered in Rwanda.


text: DNA is first used in a criminal case.


text: February 19 – China Airlines Flight 006 is involved in a mid-air incident; while there are 22 minor injuries and 2 serious injuries, no one is killed.


text: February 19 – Iberia Airlines Flight 610 crashes, killing all 148 on board.


text: May 11 – Bradford City stadium fire: A fire engulfs a wooden stand at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England, during an Association football match, killing 56 people.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – TWA Flight 847, carrying 153 passengers from Athens to Rome, is hijacked by a Hezbollah fringe group. One passenger, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Robert Stethem, is killed. Greek police arrest a 65-year-old Lebanese suspect on September 21, 2019.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, is blown up by a terrorist bomb 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, on a Montreal–London–Delhi flight, killing all 329 aboard.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour by French DGSE agents.


text: July 10 – Aeroflot Flight 5143 crashes near Uchquduq, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, killing all 200 people on board.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – The Val di Stava dam collapses in Italy, killing 268 people, destroying 63 buildings, and demolishing eight bridges.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes near Dallas, Texas, United States, killing 137 people.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashes in Japan, killing 520 people, including Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto; it is the worst single-aircraft disaster in aviation history. There were only 4 survivors.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – British Airtours Flight 28M: The 737's left engine catches fire while on its takeoff roll at Manchester Airport in the UK and 55 people are killed while trying to evacuate the aircraft.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes in the United States, killing all 8 on board, including thirteen-year-old American celebrity schoolgirl Samantha Smith.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, killing all 31 on board.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The Finnish dry cargo ship MS Hanna-Marjut, on its way from Mariehamn to Naantali, sinks in hard sea on the open water of Kihti between the Kökar and Sottunga islands of Åland, leading to the drowning of four people.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – EgyptAir Flight 648 is hijacked by the Abu Nidal group and flown to Malta, where Egyptian commandos storm the plane; 60 are killed by gunfire and explosions.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – 1985 Aeroflot Antonov An-12 shoot-down: A Soviet Aeroflot Antonov An-12 cargo airplane, en route from Cuito Cuanavale to Luanda, is shot down by South African Special Forces and crashes approximately 43 km mi east of Menongue, the provincial center of the Cuando Cubango Province, Angola, killing 8 crew members and 13 passengers on board.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Hugh Scrutton is killed outside his Sacramento, California, computer rental store by a Unabomber explosive, becoming the first fatality of the bombing campaign.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Arrow Air Flight 1285R, a Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256 people – 248 of whom were U.S. servicemen returning to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, after overseeing a peacekeeping force in the Sinai Peninsula.


text: December 27 – Rome and Vienna airport attacks: Abu Nidal terrorists open fire in the airports of Rome and Vienna, leaving 18 dead and 120 injured.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The 8.0 Algarrobo earthquake hits Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile, leaving 177 dead, 2,575 injured, 142,489 houses destroyed, and approximately a million people homeless.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Forty-four tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, including a rare and powerful F5. In total, the event kills 90 people.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – 1985 Nepal bombings: A series of bomb blasts occurs in Kathmandu and other cities of Nepal.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Live Aid benefit concerts in London and Philadelphia raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – An 8.0 earthquake strikes Mexico City, killing between 5,000 and 45,000 people and injuring 30,000 more.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Armero tragedy: The Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts, killing an estimated 23,000 people, including 21,000 killed by lahars, in the town of Armero, Colombia.


text: The 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia continues; USA for Africa (We Are the World) and Live Aid raise funds for famine relief.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Tears for Fears release their second studio album, Songs from the Big Chair, which includes the hit singles "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Australia's longest-running soap opera, Neighbours, debuts on Seven Network.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The 57th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with Amadeus winning Best Picture.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The inaugural WrestleMania is held in Madison Square Garden, New York, and is "main-evented" by Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper in a tag-team match.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The 30th Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden and is won by the Bobbysocks! song La det swinge for Norway.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Studio Ghibli, an animation studio, is founded in Tokyo.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – In an all-Soviet match, 22-year-old Garry Kasparov defeats Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest-ever undisputed winner of the World Chess Championship.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (Spanish: Organización e Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación la Ciencia y la Cultura; OEI) is created.


text: The Union for Aromanian Language and Culture, an Aromanian cultural organization, is founded in Freiburg im Breisgau by the Aromanian professor Vasile Barba.


text: January 1 – Spain and Portugal enter the European Community, which becomes the European Union in 1993.


text: January 1 – Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as President of Uganda.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Mário Soares wins the second round of the Portuguese presidential election.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – The Single European Act is signed.


text: February 25 – People Power Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines is ousted from power and goes into exile in Hawaii after 20 years of dictatorial rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president and forms an interim government with Salvador Laurel becoming her Vice-president and Prime Minister.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Olof Palme's deputy Ingvar Carlsson becomes acting Prime Minister of Sweden. He is elected Prime Minister by the Swedish Riksdag on March 15.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Full independence of Australia - Australia Act 1986: This law formally severed all legal ties between Australia and the United Kingdom.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The United Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Netherlands sign a peace treaty, thus ending the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War, one of the longest wars in human history.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace, bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have existed.


date: April

text: April – The government of Ivory Coast requests international diplomatic use of the French form of its name, Côte d'Ivoire.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Óscar Arias is inaugurated into his first term as President of Costa Rica.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The Statue of Liberty is reopened to the public after celebrating its centennial and an extensive refurbishment.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Australian Democrats leader Don Chipp retires from federal parliament and is succeeded by Janine Haines, the first woman to lead a political party in Australia.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – The Democratic Progressive Party is founded. It was part of the Tangwai movement in the new generation to challenge Kuomintang in Taiwan's one-party politics, and is currently one of only two parties to win presidential elections in Taiwan.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Goldwater–Nichols Act into law, making official the largest reorganization of the United States Department of Defense since the Air Force was made a separate branch of service in 1947.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – United States District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne becomes the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.


date: October 11

text: October 11–12 – Cold War: Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe, which end in failure.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – The Marshall Islands became an associated state under the Compact of Free Association.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The state funeral of President Samora Machel of Mozambique takes place in Maputo.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Queensland, Australia: Joh Bjelke-Petersen wins his final election as Premier of Queensland with 38.6% of the vote. He resigns on December 1, 1987, following revelations of his involvement with corruption released in the Fitzgerald Inquiry.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Northern Mariana Islands enter in a political union with the United States. The island's government adopted its own constitution in 1977, and the constitutional government took office in January 1978. The covenant was fully implemented November 3, 1986, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation no. 5564, which conferred United States citizenship on legally qualified island residents.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Alex Ferguson is appointed as the new manager of Manchester United.


date: January 13

text: January 13–24 – South Yemen Civil War.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army Rebel group takes over Uganda after leading a five-year guerrilla war in which up to half a million people are believed to have been killed. They will later use January 26 as the official date to avoid a coincidence of dates with Dictator Idi Amin's 1971 coup.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The snap presidential election in the Philippines earlier announced by President Ferdinand Marcos is held amidst controversy, that paves the way for a chain of protests, culminating in the People Power Revolution.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Ouadi Doum air raid: The French Air Force raids the Libyan Ouadi Doum airbase in northern Chad.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – The People Power Revolution begins in the Philippines to remove President Ferdinand Marcos from office.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Sector Kanda: Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing: The West Berlin discothèque La Belle, a known hangout for United States soldiers, is bombed, killing three and injuring 230; Libya is held responsible.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The Hindawi affair begins when an Irish woman is found carrying explosives onto an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Somali President Siad Barre is injured in a car accident in Mogadishu and taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment. Somali opposition groups see this as an opportunity to try to remove Barre, beginning the Somali Civil War.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – In Istanbul, two Abu Nidal terrorists kill 22 and wound 6 inside the Neve Shalom Synagogue during Shabbat services.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet survives an assassination attempt by the FPMR; 5 of Pinochet's bodyguards are killed.


text: November 3 – Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been selling weapons to Iran in secret, in order to secure the release of 7 American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, start shredding documents implicating them in selling weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – 29 people are killed in the Pozzetto massacre


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Jeltoqsan, mass anti-government protests, break out across the Kazakh SSR, resulting in the massacre of over 165 protesters.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov is permitted to return to Moscow after six years of internal exile.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Expo 86, the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, a World's fair, opens in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher officially opens the M25 Motorway, which encircles Greater London, in a ceremony on the carriageway near Potters Bar. It became Europe's second longest orbital road upon completion, and provides the first and only full bypass of London.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Rutan Voyager completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.


text: Cadbury Dairy Milk range adopts separate wrappers for different countries until 1992.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Pope John Paul II officially visits the Great Synagogue of Rome, the first time a modern Pope has visited a synagogue.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – In London, the then Prince Andrew, Duke of York (later Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.


text: September 7 – Desmond Tutu becomes the first black Anglican Church bishop in South Africa.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Pixar is founded by John Lasseter along with Steve Jobs.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Microsoft Corporation holds its initial public offering of stock shares.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Eusko Alkartasuna, the Basque Social Democratic Party, is created in Vitoria-Gasteiz.


text: September 6 – The Big Mac Index is introduced in The Economist newspaper as a semi-humorous international measure of purchasing power parity.


text: Average per capita income in Japan exceeds that in the United States.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at this time the world's longest prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge, is opened.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union opens in Moscow. The General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the keywords of his mandate to the audience: Glasnost and Perestroika.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Lorimar-Telepictures launches as a mass media company.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Paramount Pictures releases Top Gun.


date: June 7

text: June 7 - Washington DC metro opens Falls Church, Vienna, and Dunn Loring train stations on the Orange line.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – A low-pressure system moving from South Australia and redeveloping off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 mm in of rain in a day on Sydney.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron, officially opens at Chalk River Laboratories.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – News Corporation completes its acquisition of the Metromedia group of companies, thereby launching the Fox Broadcasting Company.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The National Park Passport Stamps program begins in the United States.


text: The first commercially available 3D printer is sold.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – The Voyager 2 space probe makes its first encounter with Uranus.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Halley's Comet reaches its perihelion, the closest point to the Sun, during its second visit to the Solar System in the 20th century (the first was in 1910).


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Human rights activist Natan Sharansky is released by Soviet authorities and leaves the country for Israel.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The Beechcraft Starship makes its maiden flight.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Japanese Suisei probe flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – In a Black Sea incident, American cruiser USS Yorktown and the destroyer USS Caron, claiming the right of innocent passage, enter the Soviet territorial waters near the southern Crimean Peninsula.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The first child born to a non-related surrogate mother is born.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Titan 34D-9 explodes just after launch while carrying the final KH-9 satellite.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – NBC unveils its current peacock logo at the finale of its 60th anniversary special.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Walt Disney Pictures releases the company's 26th animated film, The Great Mouse Detective.


text: August 6 – Metroid is released by Nintendo for the Famicom Disk System.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The cargo ship Khian Sea departs from the docks of Philadelphia, carrying 14,000 tons of toxic waste. It wanders the seas for the next 16 months trying to find a place to dump its cargo. The waste is later dumped in Haiti.


text: October 3 – A hybrid solar eclipse was visible off the coast of Iceland, and was the 53rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 124.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Rutan Voyager, an experimental aircraft designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, begins its flight around the world from Edwards Air Force Base in the United States.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Soviet submarine Krasnoyarsk (K-173) is commissioned.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Anti-Duvalier protest movement: President Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") flees Haiti, ending 28 years of family rule.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Hands Across America: At least 5,000,000 people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California, to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – South Africa declares a nationwide state of emergency.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, United States Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his coworkers before committing suicide.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Bus deregulation goes into effect in the United Kingdom, except Greater London and Northern Ireland.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Sandoz chemical spill: A major environmental disaster near Basel, Switzerland pollutes the Rhine, when an agrochemical storehouse catches on fire.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Maxi Trial (Italian: Maxiprocesso) begins in the bunker room of the Ucciardone prison (Palermo). It will be the largest trial against the Sicilian Mafia.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is shot to death on his way home from the cinema in Stockholm, Sweden.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – An article in The New York Times charges that Kurt Waldheim, former United Nations Secretary-General and candidate for president of Austria, may have been involved in Nazi war crimes during World War II.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Lebanon hostage crisis: British journalist John McCarthy is kidnapped in Beirut (he is released in August 1991) and three others are killed in retaliation for the bombing of Libya.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Islamic scholars Isma'il and Lois Lamya al-Faruqi are murdered in their home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, drawing attention due to their academic prominence and the brutality of the attack.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Australian drug smugglers Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers are executed in Malaysia.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Two weeks after it was stolen, the Picasso painting The Weeping Woman is found in a locker at the Spencer Street Station in Melbourne, Australia.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Greater Manchester Police announce that they will search for the bodies of 2 missing children (who both vanished more than 20 years ago) after the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley confess to 2 more murders.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Three African Americans are assaulted by a group of white teens in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York. One of the victims, Michael Griffith, is run over and killed by a motorist while attempting to flee the attackers.


text: Opus Pro, a Latvian hard rock group, is established.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Space Shuttle Challenger disaster – STS-51-L: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch from the United States, killing the crew of seven astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Hinton train collision: A Canadian National train heading westbound collides with a Via Rail train in Hinton, Alberta; 23 people are killed and 71 injured in the accident.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Soviet liner sinks in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger; the bodies of all seven astronauts are still inside.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Hotel New World collapses; 33 were killed and 17 rescued from rubble.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Russell Street Bombing: A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police Headquarters in Russell Street, Melbourne, killing a woman constable, the first Australian policewoman to be killed in the line of duty.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Mexicana Flight 940 crashes near Maravatío, Mexico, killing 167.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – A bomb explodes on a Trans World Airlines flight from Rome to Athens, killing 4 people.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Hailstones weighing 1 kg lb fall on Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, killing 92.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Operation El Dorado Canyon: At least 15 people die after United States planes bomb targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property". Radioactive fallout from the accident is concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000 people are forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident, "traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere".


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The Bangladeshi double-decked ferry Shamia capsizes in the Meghna River, southern Barisal, Bangladesh, killing more than 500 by some estimates.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Fantasyland's Mindbender derails and kills three people.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Soviet passenger liner collides with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Black Sea and sinks almost immediately, killing 398.


text: August 31 – Aeroméxico Flight 498, a Douglas DC-9, collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 82 (67 on both aircraft and 15 on the ground).


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Pan Am Flight 73, with 358 people on board, is hijacked at Karachi International Airport by four Abu Nidal terrorists.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Mozambican President Samora Machel's plane crashes in South Africa, killing him and 33 and others.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – In New York City, WNBC Radio's traffic helicopter crashes into the Hudson River, killing traffic reporter Jane Dornacker. The last words heard on-the-air are Dornacker's screams of terror, "Hit the water! Hit the water! Hit the water!"


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 45 people are killed in the 1986 British International Helicopters Chinook crash.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The MV Amazon Venture oil tanker begins leaking oil while at the port of Savannah in the United States, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 500,000 gal L.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Dupont Plaza Hotel arson: A hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.


date: June

text: June – Construction of the Oosterscheldekering, the world's largest openable storm surge flood barrier, is completed in the Netherlands.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Typhoon Wayne formed over the South China Sea, going on to become one of the longest-lived tropical cyclones at 21 days, and kill 490.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – The Lake Nyos disaster, a limnic eruption, occurs in Cameroon, killing nearly 2,000 people.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – The 6.0 Kalamata earthquake shook southern Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The shock left at least 20 dead, 300 injured, and caused $5 million in damage.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The 5.7 San Salvador earthquake shook San Salvador, El Salvador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to 1,500 people were killed.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – A magnitude 5.7 earthquake destroys most of the Bulgarian town of Strajica, killing 2 people.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Conservative protestors attacked a mock shanty town that had been erected on the Green at Dartmouth College as part of anti-apartheid protests.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The first paper is published describing the atomic force microscope invented the previous year by Gerd Binnig, Calvin Quate and Christopher Berger.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – The 58th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with Out of Africa winning Best Picture.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – The diamond jubilee of Hirohito is held at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Swedish rock band Europe releases its third studio album, The Final Countdown. The title track would become one of the band's most notable works, achieving global success.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – In one of the most famous FIFA World Cup matches, Argentinian football player Diego Maradona scores one handball goal (nicknamed the "Hand of God") and then dribbles past the entire English football team to score a second goal (nicknamed "The Goal of the Century") with Argentina winning 2–1 against England.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Argentina defeats West Germany 3–2 in the final to win the 1986 World Cup at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – 20 – The inaugural Goodwill Games are held in Moscow, marking the first international event in a decade for competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Act decriminalizes consensual sex between men from the age of 16.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Jordan University of Science and Technology is established in Jordan.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Phantom of the Opera, the longest running Broadway show in history, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The International Olympic Committee chooses Albertville, France to be the host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics and Barcelona, Spain to be the host city of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The IOC also announces that the summer and winter games will separate with the winter games on every even, common year; and the summer games on every leap year starting from 1992.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – A routine slow roller slips through Bill Buckner's legs, allowing the New York Mets to complete a stunning comeback in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets won 6–5 in 10 innings.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – The New York Mets win 4 games to 3 in the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Johnny Hallyday released his 35th album Gang.


text: The band Sweet Children (now known as Green Day) was formed by the lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong.


date: February 10

section: Births

text: February 10 – Radamel Falcao, Colombian footballer

source_section: Births › February


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Gabriel Boric, President of Chile


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Bowe Bergdahl, American soldier and deserter captured by the Taliban

source_section: Births › March


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Ryan Coogler, American film director, producer, and screenwriter

source_section: Births › May


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Shia LaBeouf, American actor, performance artist, and filmmaker

source_section: Births › June


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Drake Bell, American actor, voice actor, singer, songwriter, and musician


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Charlotte Casiraghi, Monegasque heiress, royal and socialite

source_section: Births › August


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Demetrious Johnson, American mixed martial artist and former 11-time UFC Flyweight World Champion, and also the current ONE Flyweight World Champion


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Sebastian Kurz, Austrian politician, 25th Chancellor of Austria


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Hajime Isayama, Japanese manga artist, and creator of Attack on Titan


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Lindsey Stirling, American violinist, dancer, performance artist, and composer

source_section: Births › September


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Nong-O Gaiyanghadao, Thai Muay Thai kickboxer and former ONE Bantamweight Muymay Thai World Champion

source_section: Births › November


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Oliver Sykes, English musician and vocalist of Bring Me the Horizon


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Andrew Tate, American-British Internet personality and former professional kickboxer

source_section: Births › December


date: February 25

text: February 25 – A three-day riot begins in Cairo, Egypt when around 25,000 conscripts of the Central Security Forces (CSF), staged protests in and around the city. Three luxury hotels, several nightclubs, restaurants and cars were looted and burned in the tourist districts near the Pyramids over several days. The riot became known as the Egyptian Conscripts Riot. At least 25 people died during the first day in Cairo, and an estimated 8,000 people, mostly conscripts in regions outside the city, were killed in total.

source_section: Events › February


date: April 11

text: April 11 – The infamous FBI shootout in Miami results in the death of two FBI agents and the wounding of five others.

source_section: Events › April


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, is forced into retirement by political conservatives.

source_section: Events › January


text: February 11 – The new Constitution of the Philippines goes into effect. This new constitution adds Spanish and Arabic as optional languages of the Philippines.


text: February 25 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. Paradise that affirmative action is lawful if the organization in question has a history of pervasive racial discrimination in hiring practices; in this case, police departments in the state of Alabama. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. rules that the government is "justified by a compelling governmental interest in eradicating the Department's pervasive, systematic, and obstinate discriminatory exclusion of blacks."


date: March 4

text: March 4 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses the American people on the Iran–Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The governments of the Portuguese Republic and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau will be returned to China in 1999.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The United States Department of Justice declares incumbent Austrian president Kurt Waldheim an "undesirable alien".


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the Provincial Premiers agree in principle to the Meech Lake Accord which would bring Quebec into the constitution.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, led by Margaret Thatcher, is re-elected for a third term at the 1987 general election.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Single European Act is passed by the European Community.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 11

text: July 11 – 1987 Australian federal election: Bob Hawke's Labor government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating the Liberal Party led by John Howard and the National Party led by Ian Sinclair.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Martial law in Taiwan ends after 38 years.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The Parliament of Zimbabwe votes to eliminate the 20 seats reserved for the white minority.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 23

text: August 23 – The Hirvepark meeting is organized as the first unsanctioned political meeting in Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, in commemoration of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The United States and Poland agree to exchange ambassadors after a four-year break in relations.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Sikh nationalists declare the independence of Khalistan from India.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Gaddafi announces that Algeria and Libya have "agreed in principle" to a proposed union of the two states, which Gaddafi suggests should be named "Algibya."


date: October 23

text: October 23 – On a vote of 58–42, the United States Senate rejects President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumes the Presidency of Tunisia.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The Parlatino Treaty of Institutionalization is signed.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It expired in 2019.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 9

text: December 9 – General Rahimuddin Khan retires from the Pakistan Army, along with the cabinet of the country's military dictatorship.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Gustáv Husák resigns as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Turgut Özal of ANAP forms the new government of Turkey (46th government).


date: December 22

text: December 22 – In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah says that Afghanistan's 1978 Communist revolution is "not reversible," and that any opposition parties will have to align with Communist goals.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – 1987 Forsyth County protests: About 20,000 protestors marched in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Beginning of the Phosphorite War protest movement in the Estonian SSR.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes U.S. President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his National Security Council staff.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – 1987 Lieyu massacre: The Republic of China Army execute 19 unarmed Vietnamese refugees on Donggang beach, Lieyu, Kinmen off Mainland China.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 15

text: April 15 – An insurrection in Sri Lanka by the Marxist–Leninist group, JVP, begins.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Iran–Iraq War: is hit by two Iraqi-owned Exocet AM39 air-to-surface missiles killing 37 sailors.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – During a visit to Berlin, Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Hipercor bombing: the Basque terrorist group ETA perpetrate a car-bomb attack at an Hipercor market in Barcelona, killing 21 and wounding 45.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Four hundred pilgrims are killed in clashes between demonstrating Iranian pilgrims and Saudi Arabian security forces in Mecca.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Hoddle Street massacre in Australia: Julian Knight, 19, goes on a shooting rampage in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, Victoria, killing 7 people and injuring 19 before surrendering to police.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Angolan Civil War: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale begins in Angola and further intensifies the South African Border War.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Hungerford massacre: Sixteen people die in an apparently motiveless mass shooting in the United Kingdom, carried out by Michael Ryan.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Mozert v. Hawkins decision: The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the class readings assigned by public schools in Hawkins County, Tennessee do not violate Christian students' First Amendment rights.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – In Moscow, USSR, the trial begins for 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Erich Honecker makes a visit to Bonn, the first (and last) visit by an East German head of state to West Germany.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Chadian–Libyan War: Chad and Libya sign a ceasefire under supervision of the Organisation of African Unity, officially ending the 14-year territorial conflict. Sporadic fighting will continue.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – In Burkina Faso, a military coup is orchestrated by Blaise Compaoré against incumbent President Thomas Sankara.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Operation Earnest Will: US warships destroy two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mainland China opens in Beijing, near Tiananmen Square.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime led by Nicolae Ceaușescu.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.


text: June 19 – Teddy Seymour is officially designated the first black man to sail around the world, when he completes his solo sailing circumnavigation in Frederiksted, St. Croix, of the United States Virgin Islands.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – American Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim the Bering Strait, crossing from Little Diomede Island to Big Diomede in 2 hours and 5 minutes.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County decision: The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturns the earlier ruling of a lower court which found that certain public school textbooks promoted the "religion" of secular humanism; in this final ruling, the court finds that the plaintiffs have not proven that the state is presenting secular humanism as a religious ideology.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Pope John Paul II issues the encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis (On Social Concern).


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – British Airways is privatised and listed on the London Stock Exchange.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Michael Eisner, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and French Prime Minister and future President of France, Jacques Chirac, sign an agreement to construct the 4,800 acre km2 Euro Disney Resort (now called Disneyland Paris) and to develop the Val d'Europe area of the new town Marne-la-Vallée in Paris, France.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – The Vanuatu Labour Party is founded.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time, at 2,510.04.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement is reached but still requires ratification. This agreement would be a precursor to NAFTA.


text: October 19 – Black Monday: Stock market levels fall sharply on Wall Street and around the world.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Production I.G is founded by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Takayuki Goto.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Televangelist Oral Roberts announces to his viewers that unless they donate $8 million to his ministry by March 31, God will "call [him] home."


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, conducts a 45-minute interview on Soviet television.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The Simpsons cartoon first appears as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – In one of the densest concentrations of humanity in history, a crowd of 800,000+ packed shoulder-to-shoulder onto the Golden Gate Bridge and its approaches for its 50th Anniversary celebration.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – At the Paris Air Show, Boeing announces the sale of their 1,842nd Boeing 737, making the 737 the best-selling airliner of all time.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – The East Lancashire Railway, a heritage railway in the North West of England, is opened between Bury and Ramsbottom.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Docklands Light Railway in London, the first driverless railway in Great Britain, is formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to present alternative views on controversial issues.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Apple introduces Hypercard, a precursor to the World Wide Web.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Great Basin National Park is dedicated; it is the 49th national park in the United States and the first in the state of Nevada.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Honda announces plans to build a second U.S. assembly plant, the East Liberty Auto Plant.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The InterCity 125 breaks the world speed record for a diesel-powered train, reaching 238 km/h (147.88 mph).


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore opens for passenger service.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion – unknown perpetrators hijack the signal of WGN-TV for about 20 seconds, and WTTW for about 90 seconds, and displays a video of a man in a Max Headroom mask.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – NASA announces the names of 4 companies awarded contracts to help build Space Station Freedom: Boeing Aerospace, General Electric's Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas, and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – SN 1987A, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604, is observed.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The first Starbucks outside of the US is opened in Vancouver, Canada.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Woodstock of physics: A marathon session of the American Physical Society's meeting features 51 presentations concerning the science of high-temperature superconductors.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – A hybrid solar eclipse is the second hybrid solar eclipse in less than one year, the first being on October 3, 1986. It is annular visible in southern Argentina, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Sudan (part of the path of annularity crossed today's South Sudan), Ethiopia, Djibouti and northern Somalia and totally visible in Atlantic Ocean, lasting just 7.57 seconds.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Eighteen-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defenses and lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained (released on August 3, 1988).


date: June 8

text: June 8 – The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act is passed, the first of its kind in the world.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Edwards v. Aguillard: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools whenever evolution is taught is unconstitutional.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Canada introduces a one-dollar coin, nicknamed the "Loonie".


text: August 4 – The World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, publishes its report, Our Common Future.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The followers of the Harmonic Convergence claim it is observed around the world.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – A Rüppell's vulture chick is hatched at the Milwaukee County Zoo, the first time the animal has been successfully bred in North America.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – AZT is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – In Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Central Bus Station Bombing kills 113 civilians.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – World population is estimated to have reached five billion people, according to the United Nations.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The United States Census Bureau reports the biggest population gains in metropolitan U.S. areas of over 1 million people since 1980: Phoenix (population increase of 26%); Dallas-Fort Worth (+25%); Atlanta (+20%); San Antonio (+19%) Tampa-Saint Petersburg (+19%); San Diego (+18%); Sacramento (+17%); and Houston (+17%). The largest population losses were in Rust Belt cities: Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.