| |
|
1985 |
| January 3rd |
 |
In
Finland, the Finnish government announced that a Soviet cruise
missile has fallen into Inarinjärvi lake in Finnish Lapland. |
|
| January 17th |
|
In
Britain, British Telecom (BT) announced it was going to phase
out its famous red telephone boxes. |
|
| January 21st |
|
U.S.
President Ronald Reagan was sworn in for a second term in office
as President of the United States. |
|
| January 23rd |
|
In
Britain, a debate in the British House of Lords was televised
for the first time. |
|
| February
5th |
|
Australia
cancelled its involvement in U.S. led MX missile tests. |
|
| February
14th |
|
In
Lebanon, the CNN reporter Jeremy Levin was freed from captivity. |
|
| February
19th |
|
William
Schroeder became the first artificial heart patient to leave
hospital. |
|
| March 4th |
|
In
the United States, the Food and Drug Administration approved
a blood test for AIDS, used since then for all screening blood
donations in the United States. |
|
| March 10th |
|
In
Russia, the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party
and leader of the Soviet Union, Konstantin Chernenko died. |
|
| March 11th |
|
Mikhail
Gorbachev became the new General Secretary of the Soviet Communist
Party and leader of the Soviet Union. |
|
| March 11th |
|
In
London, Egyptian businessman Mohammed Al Fayed bought the London-based
department store company, Harrods in Knightsbridge. |
|
| March 15th |
|
In
Brazil, José Sarney took an oath as acting President
of Brazil, due to the president-elect Tancredo Neves who became
severely ill. |
|
| March 15th |
|
In
the United States, the first .com domain name, symbolics.com,
was registered by the Symbolics corporation. |
|
| March 16th |
|
In
Lebanon, Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson was taken hostage
in Beirut. He would be released on December 4th 1991. |
|
| March 17th |
|
In
the United States, the serial killer Richard Ramirez (the 'Night
Stalker') committed his first two murders in Los Angeles, California. |
|
| April 15th |
|
South
Africa ended its ban on interracial marriages. |
|
| April 21st |
|
In
Brazil, the President-elect of Brazil, Tancredo Neves, died
after 38 days of illness, one day before he was scheduled to
take the oath of office. |
|
| May 11th |
|
In
the United States, the FBI brought charges against the suspected
heads of the five Mafia families in New York City. |
|
| May 11th |
|
In
Britain, a fire engulfed a wooden stand during a football match
at Bradford City's home ground, Valley Parade, in Bradford,
during a football match. The fire killed 56 people. |
|
| May 15th |
|
In
the United States, a 'Unabomber' bomb injured John Hauser at
UC Berkeley. |
|
| May 20th |
|
Propaganda
station, Radio Marti, began broadcasting to Cuba. |
|
| May 23rd |
|
In
the United States, Thomas Patrick Cavanagh was sentenced to
a life sentence in prison. Cavanagh attempted to sell stealth
bomber secrets to the Soviet Union. |
|
| May 25th |
|
Bangladesh
was hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge which killed approximately
10,000 people. |
|
| May 29th |
|
In
Belguim, during the European Cup final of Liverpool and Juventus
in Brussels, at the Heysel Stadium, 39 football fans were killed
and hundreds were injured. |
|
| June 6th |
|
In
Brazil, the body of the infamous Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele,
was located and exhumed. |
|
| June 9th |
|
In
Lebanon, Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped. He would not be released
until 1991. |
|
| June 10th |
|
In
the United States, Claus von Bulow was acquitted of the charges
of trying to kill his wife. |
|
| June 13th |
|
In
the United States, police defused a 'Unabomber' bomb sent to
Boeing, in Auburn, Washington. |
|
| June 14th |
|
TWA
Flight 847 was hijacked by Hezbollah. |
|
| June 23rd |
|
In
Ireland, Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, blew up at 31,000
feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland. The
blast killed all 329 passengers and crew. |
|
| July 10th |
|
In
New Zealand, the Greenpeace vessel the 'Rainbow Warrior' was
bombed and sank in Auckland harbour by French DGSE agents. |
|
| July 13th |
|
In
Britain, the 'Live Aid' rock concert took place at Wembley Stadium
in London and raised over £50 million for famine relief
in Ethiopia. The another show was performed in Philadelphia,
USA. |
|
| July 19th |
|
In
the United States, Vice President George H. W. Bush Snr. announced
that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe would become the
first schoolteacher to ride on board the Space Shuttle. |
|
| August 2nd |
|
In
the United States, a Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed in Dallas,
Texas and killed 137 people. |
|
| August 6th |
|
In
Hiroshima, Japan, tens of thousands of people marked the 40th
anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city. |
|
| August 7th |
|
Takao
Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai were chosen to be Japan's
first astronauts. |
|
| August 12th |
|
In
Japan, a Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747SR-46 plane
from Tokyo to Osaka, crashed northwest of Tokyo. 520 people
were killed and 4 survived. |
|
| August 22nd |
|
In
Britain, 55 people were killed in the Manchester air disaster
at Manchester International Airport, when a British Airtours
Boeing 737 burst into flames after the pilot aborted the takeoff. |
|
| August 31st |
|
In
the United States, Richard Ramirez was arrested for the 'Night
Stalker' murders. |
|
| September
1st |
|
A
joint American-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS
Titanic. The ship collided with an iceberg off the Grand Banks
of Newfoundland with the lost of 1,517 lives, on 15th April
1912. |
|
| September
15th |
|
In
Lebanon, American hostage Benjamin Weir was released. |
|
| September
19th |
|
In
central America, Mexico City was struck by a earthquake measuring
8.1. The quake killed 9,000 and injured 30,000 people. Nearly
100,000 people were made homeless. |
|
| October 1st |
|
The
Israeli air force attacked and bombed the PLO headquarters in
Tunis, north Africa. |
|
| October 6th |
|
In
Britain, policeman PC Keith Blakelock was killed during the
Broadwater Farm Riot in Tottenham, north London. |
|
| October 10th |
|
American
actor, writer and film director Orson Welles died. Welles caused
havoc when his Mercury Theater broadcasted the H.G. Wells' classic
of 'War of the Worlds' on the radio on October 30th 1938. |
|
| November
6th |
|
In
Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the M-19 movement seized control
of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. 115 people were killed,
which included 11 Supreme Court justices. |
|
| November
19th |
|
The
Geneva Summit, Switerzerland. The first meeting of President
Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The first
meeting since Carter and Brezhnev in Vienna 15th - 17th June
1979. |
|
| November 21st |
|
United
States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested
for spying. Pollard was caught giving classified information
on Arab nations to Israel. Pollard was sentenced to life in
prison. |
|
| November
23rd |
|
EgyptAir
Flight 648 from Athens to Cairo was hijacked by gunmen. The
plane landed in Malta and was stormed by Egyptian commandos.
The raid was considered a failure as 60 people were killed. |
|
| December
16th |
|
In
the United States, Mafia bosses Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti
were shot dead in front of the Sparks Steak House in New York
City. The double killing was organised by the leader of the
Gambino crime family, John Gotti. |
|
| December
23rd |
|
In
Russia, Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov returned to Moscow
after being in internal exile for 7 years. |
|
| December
27th |
|
In
Italy and Austria, members of the group Abu Nidal opened fire
in the airports of Rome and Vienna. The attacks killed 18 and
injured 120. |
|
| |
|
Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced 'Perestroika' (Russian for
"Restructuring"), a policy of economic and political
reforms. |
|
| |
|
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