See:
Wikipedia.
Events:
January 1 - Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System.
January 17 - British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the
famous red telephone boxes.
January 23 - A debate in the House of Lords is televised for the first time.
February 6 - Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer.
February 7 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem
of New York City.
February 11 - Wasim Akram takes 10 wickets in his 2nd Test Cricket match,
but New Zealand still wins.
February 14 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
February 19 - Artificial heart patient William Schroeder becomes the first
such patient to leave hospital.
March 3 - Censorship: Women Against Pornography award their "Pig Award"
to Huggies Diapers for claiming that their television ads had "crossed the line between
eye-catching and porn."
March 4 - U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a blood
test for AIDS infection, used since then on blood supply.
March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
March 11 - Mohammed Al Fayed buys the London department store Harrods.
March 11 - the Prague Appeal by Jiri Dienstbier, Czech dissident.
March 14 - Five lionesses at Singapore Zoo are put on birth control because the lion
population had increased from two to 16.
March 16 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in
Beirut. He would later be released on Wednesday, December 4, 1991.
March 17 - Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker", commits his
first two murders in Los Angeles, California.
March 20 - Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile
Iditarod dog sled race.
April 1 - Sports Illustrated publishes an article about non-existent baseball prodigy Sidd Finch.
April 15 - South Africa ends the ban on mixed marriages.
May 8 - New Coke is released on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola. It
will later become a major flop with consumers.
May 11 - The FBI brings charges against suspected heads of the five Mafia families in
New York City.
May 13 - Philadelphia's mayor orders police to storm the radical
group's MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive device
into the headquarters killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city
residents in the resulting fire.
May 20 - Propaganda: Radio Marti begins broadcasting to Cuba.
Thursday, May 23, 1985 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for
attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
May 25 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge
which kills approximately 10,000 people.
May 29 - The Heysel Stadium disaster, 39 football fans die
and hundreds are injured.
May 31 - The US-Canadian Outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit in
Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario. By its end, 76 perish.
June:
Alexey Pajitnov develops Tetris in Moscow Academy of Science, Moscow for Electronica 60 -computer.
June 2 - Serial killer Leonard Lake is arrested near San Francisco,
California for shoplifting.
June 6 - The body of Josef Mengele is located and exhumed in Brazil.
June 9 - Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he was not released until 1991).
June 10 - Claus von Bulow acquitted on charges of tring to kill his wife.
June 14 - TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah.
June 23 - A Boeing 747 carrying Air India Flight 182 blew-up 31,000 feet
(9500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, South of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
July 10 - The Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior is bombed and
sunk in Auckland Harbour by French DGSE agents.
July 10 - After a storm of controversy surrounding a change in
its cola's formula, Coca-Cola re-introduces the old formula as "Coca-Cola Classic."
July 13 - Live Aid pop concerts in both the United States and United Kingdom rais
over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
July 19 - US Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush announces that
New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher to ride
aboard the Space Shuttle.
July 20 - The main ship wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora
de Atocha (which sank in 1622) is found 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida by
treasure hunters who soon begin to raise $400 million in coins and silver.
August 6 - In Hiroshima, tens of thousands mark the 40th anniversary
of the atomic bombing of the city.
August 12 - Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747SR-46 plane en route
from Tokyo to Osaka, crashed northwest of Tokyo, killing 520 of the 524 people on board.
August 22 - 55 people killed at Manchester airport when a British Airtours Boeing 737
burst into flames after the pilot aborts the takeoff.
August 31 - Richard Ramirez arrested for 'Night Stalker' murders.
September 1 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck
of the RMS Titanic.
September 6 - A Douglas DC-9 carrying Midwest Express Airlines
Flight 105 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin killing 31.
September 15? - US hostage Benjamin Weir released in Iran.
September 19 - 8.1 Richter scale earthquake strikes Mexico City - more
than 9000 dead, 30.000 injured, 95.000 lose their homes and/or swimming pools.
October 3 - Walter Polovchak, an immigrant from Ukraine who had been
fighting for citizenship, is awarded a U.S. citizenship.
October 7 - The passenger ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestinians.
October 10 - United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian
plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base
in Sigonella, Sicily were they are arrested.
October 29 - Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner
of the first multiparty election in Liberia.
November 6 - In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the April 19 Movement
seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. By the next day 115 people are dead,
11 of them Supreme Court justices.
November 13 - The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts in Colombia,
killing an estimated 23,000 people.
November 15 - In separate events, mail bombs kill two people in Salt Lake
City, Utah; a third bomb explodes the next day, injuring Mark Hoffman. The ensuing
police investigation leads to the arrest of Mark Hoffman for these murders, as well as forgery.
November 16 - When 1800 staff of Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa go on
strike for better pay, they are dismissed and troops called in to help run the hospital.
November 19 - Cold War: In Geneva, US President Ronald Wilson
Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
November 19 - Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion verdict from Texaco
in the largest civil verdict in US history (Texaco established a signed contract to buy
Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty).
November 21 - United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay
Pollard is arrested for spying (he was caught giving Israel classified information on Arab
nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison).
November 23 - Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from
Athens to Cairo (when the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked
jetliner but 60 people die in the raid).
November 26 - US President Ronald Wilson Reagan signs over rights
to his autobiography to Random House for a record US$3 million.
December 12 - An Arrow Air DC-8 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland - 256 dead.
December 16 - In New York City, mafia bosses Paul Castellano and
Thomas Bilotti are shot dead while exiting Sparks Steak House, making hit organizer,
John Gotti the leader of the powerful Gambino organized crime family.
December 27 - Palestinian guerrillas kill twenty people inside Rome and
Vienna airports.
December 27 - American naturalist Dian Fossey is found murdered in Rwanda.
Unknown dates:
Buckyballs discovered by Harold Kroto, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley.
First syndication of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson.
GNU Manifesto first written by Richard Stallman.
Western Sahara is admitted to the Organization of African Unity; Morocco, which
claims Western Sahara, leaves in protest.
Ethiopian famine continues -- Live Aid attempts to raise funds for famine relief.
Year in topic:
1985 in
film:
February 15 - The Breakfast Club.
July 3 - Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox.
Out of Africa.
The Color Purple.
Witness starring Harrison Ford.
1985 in
music:
January 28 - "We Are The World" is recorded, by USA for Africa.
May 1985 - Megadeth releases their first album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!
July 13 - Live Aid benefit concert.
1985 in
sports:
January 14 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
January 20 - Super Bowl XIX San Francisco 49ers (38) def. Miami Dolphins (16).
January 23 - O. J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner
elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
1985 in
television:
February 8 - After 5-1/2 years, the television series The Dukes of
Hazzard goes off the air.
August 19 - David Letterman interupts the Today Show with a megaphone
while both shows are on the air. Letterman leaned out the window of his building and
announced "My name is Larry Grossman (then president of NBC News) and I'm not
wearing any pants!". The Today Show was taping an interview several stories below.
NBC becomes the first commercial television network to use satellite
interconnection for its stations.
Births:
January 18 -
Fredrik Kristensen.
January 23 -
Peter Gerard van den Houten.
February 5 -
Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese football star.
February 18 -
Lee Boyd Malvo, convicted Beltway sniper.
February 20 -
Yulia Volkova, member of t.A.T.u.
March 2 -
Robert Iler, actor.
March 26 -
Keira Knightley, actress.
March 30 -
Dan Williams, founder of MIT Investment Club.
May 2 -
Sarah Hughes, figure skater.
May 29 -
Peter Van Den Houten.
June 5 -
Elisabeth Louise (Els) van den Houten.
June 8 -
Alexandre Despatie, Canadian diver.
June 30 -
Michael Phelps, American swimmer.
September 14 -
Gerrit Robertus (Robbin) van den Houten.
October 11 -
Michelle Trachtenberg, actress (Harriet the Spy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
October 22 -
Zachary Hanson, musician.
October 24 -
Wayne Rooney, English football star.
November 10 -
Giovonnie Samuels, television actress.
Deaths:
January 23 -
Cornelis van Dam.
February 8 - Sir
William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Motors.
February 11 -
Heinz Eric Roemheld, composer.
February 11 -
Henry Hathaway, actor, director.
February 11 -
Ulysses Simpson Kay, composer.
February 15 -
Leendert Jacob van den Houten.
February 20 -
Clarence Nash, Disney voice actor.
February 27 -
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., politician, candidate for Vice President of the United States.
February 27 - Sir
Iain Moncreiffe, of that Ilk, British genealogist.
March 5 -
Paulus Johannes Morijn.
March 6 -
G.A. (Arthur) Bretzler.
March 10 -
Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
April 11 -
Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania.
May 8 -
Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer.
May 9 -
Edmond O'Brien, actor.
May 10 -
Chester Gould, cartoonist.
May 12 -
Jean Dubuffet, painter.
May 16 -
Margaret Hamilton, actress.
May 17 -
Abe Burrows, songwriter, composer, writer.
June 15 -
Andy Stanfield, American athlete.
July 9 -
Jimmy Kinnon, founder of Narcotics Anonymous.
July 19 -
Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish science fiction writer.
August 12 -
Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver.
August 25 -
Samantha Smith, U.S. activist.
September 6 -
Isabel Cox-Meighen, First Lady of Canada.
September 6 -
Little Brother Montgomery, musician.
October 2 -
Rock Hudson, actor, died of AIDS.
October 6 - Murder of
PC Keith Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm Riot, London.
October 6 -
Nelson Riddle, bandleader (b. 1921).
October 11 -
Orson Welles, movie director.
October 12 -
Johnny Olson, game show announcer.
October 22 -
Thomas Townsend Brown, scientist.
November 24 -
Big Joe Turner, blues singer (b. 1911).
December 31 -
Ricky Nelson, pop rock singer, actor (b. 1940).
To my Homepage.
