1984
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:''For George Orwell's novel, see Nineteen Eighty-Four. For other uses, see 1984 (disambiguation).''
'''1984''' '''(MCMLXXXIV)''' is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January
January 1 - Brunei becomes a fully independent state.
January 1 - AT&T is broken up into 24 independent units.
January 5 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
January 7 - Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
January 9 - Clara Peller is featured in the "Where's the Beef?" television commercial|commercial campaign for Wendy's for the first time.
January 10 - The United States and the Vatican City|Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
January 23 - Hollywood Hulk Hogan defeats Khosrow Vaziri|The Iron Sheik to win the WWF Championship, thus beginning Hulkamania.
January 23 - Pop star Michael Jackson's scalp is seriously burned by pyrotechnics during filming of a Pepsi television commercial|commercial.
January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
February
February 1 - Medicare comes into effect in Australia.
February 2 - Melbourne newspaper ''The Age'' publishes phone taps incriminating an unknown judge.
February 3 - Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the tenth space shuttle mission.
February 6 - A bomb blast wrecks the Belrose, New South Wales|Belrose Sydney home of high court judge Richard Gee. High Court Judge, Justice Lionel Murphy is named in Parliament as the judge referred to in the ''Age'' tapes as published on February 2.
February 7 - Astronaut|Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
February 9 - Soviet leader Yuri Andropov dies.
February 13 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
February 18 - Vatican and Italian government sign new concordant changing Roman Catholic as the official religion.
February 26 - United States United States Marine Corps|Marines pull out of Beirut,Lebanon.
February 29 - Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement.
March
March 5 - Iran accuses Iraq of the use of chemical weapons - UN condemns the use on March 30.
March 5 - Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the Sikh holy spot.
March 6 - Twelve month long strike action|strike in British coal industry begins ''See'' UK Miners' Strike (1984-1985).
March 14 - Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and three others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the UVF.
March 16 - The Central Intelligence Agency|CIA station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley|William Buckley, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists Islamic Jihad and later dies in captivity.
March 22 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges were later dropped as completely unfounded.
March 23 - Sarah Tisdall, the young United Kingdom|British civil servant who told ''The Guardian'' newspaper that cruise missiles were coming to Britain, is sentenced to six months imprisonment.
March 24 - Wran Government re-elected in NSW for a 4th term.
April
April 4 - Ronald Reagan|President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapon|chemical weapons.
April 12 - Palestinian gunmen take Israeli bus number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus freeing the hostages (1 hostage, 2 hijackers killed). 2 other hijackers were captured and then killed in secret service interrogations, causing a major scandal and secret service upheaval (Kav 300 affair).
April 13 - India launches Operation Meghdoot, as most of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir comes under Indian control.
April 17 - WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot dead by a secluded gunman during a siege outside the Libyan Embassy in London in the event known as the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege.
April 19 - ''Advance Australia Fair'' is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
April 25 - End of term for Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah as the 7th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
April 26 - Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, Sultan of Johor becomes the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
May
May 2 - The Liverpool Garden Festival|Liverpool International Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
May 8 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
May 8 - Denis Lortie kills three government employees in the National Assembly of Quebec building.
May 11 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.
May 14 - The one dollar coin is introduced in Australia.
May 19 - Game show contestant Michael Larson takes $100,000 in winnings from the game show Press Your Luck. It is later revealed he won the money by focusing exclusively on two squares of the Press Your Luck "Big Board."
May 22 - Canadian heiress Helen Branch declared legally dead (she disappeared 1977)
May 27 - Fluminense Football Club|Fluminense wins the Brazilian soccer Campeonato Brasileiro|league, against the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama.
June
June 5 - The Indian government begins Operation Blue Star, the planned attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
June 6 - Indian troops storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikh's holiest shrine, killing an estimated 1000 people.
June 8 - A deadly F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.
June 8 - The film Ghostbusters is released into theaters -- becoming a summer blockbuster hit with the song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. becoming a Top 40 hit.
June 20 - The biggest exam shake-up in the United Kingdom|British education system in over 10 years is announced with O-level and CSE exams to be replaced by a new exam, the GCSE.
June 22 - The official name of the Turkey|Turkish city Urfa is changed into Sanliurfa.
June 22 - Inaugural flight of Virgin_Atlantic_Airways|Virgin Atlantic.
June 27 - France national football team|France beat Spain national football team|Spain 2-0 to win 1984 European Football Championship|Euro 84.
June 30 - John Napier Turner|John Turner becomes Canada's seventeenth Prime Minister of Canada|prime minister. Hurray!
July-August
July 9 - Lightning sets fire to York Minster.
July 10 - United Kingdom|British custom officials open a wooden crate of diplomatic post due to an unpleasant smell and find the body of Alhaji Umaru Dikko, former transportation minister of Nigeria
July 14 - New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon calls a snap election and is heavily defeated by opposition Labour leader David Lange.
July 18 - In San Ysidro, California, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty sprays a McDonald's restaurant with gunfire, killing 21 people before being shot dead.
July 18 - The National Crime Authority is estabished in Australia.
July 21 - In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in what is apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.
July 23 - Vanessa Lynn Williams |Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown, after nudity|nude photos of her appeared in "Penthouse magazine|Penthouse" magazine.
July 25 - Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
July 28 - Opening day of the 1984 Olympics
August 1 - Australia|Australian banks are deregulated.
August 4 - The Africa|African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
August 16 - John De Lorean is acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.
August 21 - Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
August 21 - The Australian Federal Budget|federal budget is first television|televised in Australia.
August 30 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery take off|takes off on its maiden voyage.
September-October
September 2 - 7 people are shot dead and 12 are wounded in a bikie shootout between rival gang|gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in the Sydney suburb of Milperra.
September 4 - The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney wins 211 seats in the House of Commons, forming the largest majority government in Canadian history
September 5 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery|Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' lands after its maiden voyage.
September 5 - Western Australia becomes the last Australia|Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
September 17 - Brian Mulroney becomes Canada|Canada's eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada|prime minister.
September 26 - United Kingdom and People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
September 4 - The Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends television series was first Broadcasting|broadcasted on ITV.
October 5 - Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian space program|Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (41-6).
October 11 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first United States|American woman to perform a space walk.
October 12 - The PIRA attempts to assassinate the United Kingdom|British Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
October 19 - Poland|Polish secret police arrests Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest, because of his support of the Solidarity movement. His dead body is found in a lake|reservoir 11 days later on October 30.
October 31 - India|Indian Prime Minister of India|Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. riot|Riots soon broke out in New Delhi, and some 2,700 innocent Sikhs were killed.
November
November 2 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
November 6 - Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale in the U.S. presidential election, 1984|U.S. presidential election with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states and Mondale manages to win only his home state of Minnesota by a mere 3,761 vote margin and the District of Columbia.
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.
November 25 - 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gathered in a Notting Hill studio to form ''Band Aid (band)|Band Aid'' and Sound recording|recorded the song "''Do They Know It's Christmas''" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
November 26 - Fmr NSW Corrective Services political minister|Minister Rex Jackson appears in court on conspiracy charges for the early release of prisoner|prisoners.
November 28 - Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.
November 30 - The Tamil Tigers begin the purge of the Sinhalese from North and East Sri Lanka, and 127 are killed.
December
December 1 - The first half of the Manila Light Rail Transit System|Manila LRT opens from Baclaran station|Baclaran to Central Terminal station|Central Terminal.
December 2 - Bob Hawke's government is re-elected in Australia with a reduced majority.
December 3 - Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 2,000 people outright and injures anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
December 3 - British Telecom privatised.
December 19 - The People's Republic of China and United Kingdom signs the Sino-British Joint Declaration which concerns the future of Hong Kong.
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 attempt to rob Bernhard Goetz|Bernhard Hugo Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime, which was a plague in 1980s United States|America.
December 22 - In Malta, prime minister Dom Mintoff resigns. Karmenu Mifsud-Bonnici succeeds him.
December 28 - A Soviet Union|Soviet cruise missile plunges into Inarinjärvi lake in Finland|Finnish Lapland. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985
December 31 - Rajiv Gandhi becomes prime minister of India.
Unknown dates
Ethiopian famine begins.
A peace agreement between Kenya and Somalia was signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo in December 1984. With this agreement, in which Somalia officially renounced its historical territorial claims, relations between the two countries began to improve.
Births
January-April
January 1 - Keyra Augustina, model
January 2 - Lauren Bush, model
January 3 - Maya Ababadjani, actress
January 3 - Charlotte Marshall, model
January 4 - Mey Vidal
January 5 - Tiffany Teen
January 12 - Chaunte Howard
January 13 - Eleni Ioannou, Greek martial artist (d. 2004)
January 15 - Reena Kumari
January 15 - Megan Quann, swimmer
January 19 - Zakia Mrisho Mohamed
January 25 - Ines Cudna, model
January 26 - Rebecca Ritters, actress
January 26 - Kelly Stables, actress
January 26 - Luo Xuejuan, swimmer
January 29 - Natalie du Toit, South African swimmer
January 30 - Tan Xue
January 31 - Ashley Blue
February 10 - Kim Hyo Jin, Korean actress
February 12 - Alexandra Dahlström, actress
February 25 - Xing Huina, Chinese athlete
February 28 - Karolina Kurkova, model
March 20 - Christy Carlson Romano, actress
March 20 - Marcus Vick, American football player
March 20 - Nomura Yuka, Japanese actress
March 28 - Nikki Sanderson, British actress
April 3 - Allana Slater, Australian gymnast
April 8 - Kirsten Storms, American actress
April 10 - Mandy Moore, American singer and actress
April 11 - Kelli Garner, American actress
April 13 - Kris Britt, Australian cricketer
April 17 - Rosanna Davison, Irish model
April 18 - America Ferrera, American actress
April 22 - Michelle Ryan, British actress
April 23 - Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian chess player
April 29 - Taylor Cole, American actress and model
April 29 - Lina Krasnoroutskaya, Russian tennis player and commentator
May-August
May 1 - Farah Fath, American actress
May 4 - Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
May 17 - Christine Robinson, Canadian water polo player
May 25 - Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir, Miss Iceland, crowned Miss World in 2005
May 29 - Carmelo Anthony, American basketball player
May 31 - Jason Smith (actor)|Jason Smith, Australian actor
June 11 - Vagner Love, Brazilian footballer
June 13 - Berangere Schuh, French archer
July 11 - Tanith Belbin, Canadian figure skater
August 12 - Sherone Simpson, Jamaican athlete
August 13 - Luke Thompson, American entrepreneurial failure
August 20 - Mirai Moriyama, Japanese actor
August 21 - Alizée Jacotey, French singer
September-December
September 7 - Vera Zvonareva, Russian tennis player
September 14 - Adam Lamberg, American actor
September 15 - Prince Harry of Wales
September 16 - Katie Melua, Georgian singer
September 19 - Kevin Zegers actor
September 23 - Anneliese van der Pol, Dutch actress
September 27 - Avril Lavigne, Canadian singer and songwriter
September 28 - Helen Oyeyemi, British novelist
September 30 - Megan Ewing, American model
October 3 - Ashlee Simpson, American singer and actress
October 10 - Chiaki Kuriyama, Japanese actress
October 14 - Santino Quaranta, American soccer player
October 17 - Michelle Ang, Australian actress
October 18 - Holly Dunaway, boxer
October 26 - Sasha Cohen, American figure skater
October 27 - Kelly Osbourne, English singer
November 7 - Amelia Vega, Dominican beauty queen
November 9 - Delta Goodrem, Australian actress and singer
November 21 - Jena Malone, American actress
November 22 - Scarlett Johansson, American actress
November 28 - Andrew Bogut, Australian basketball player
December 30 - LeBron James, American basketball player
Deaths
January-April
January 7 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
January 20 - Johnny Weissmuller, Austrian-born swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
January 21 - Jackie Wilson, American singer (b. 1934)
January 30 - Luke Kelly, Irish folk singer (b. 1940)
February 8 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (b. 1903)
February 9 - Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1914)
February 12 - Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
February 15 - Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)
February 21 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
February 22 - Jessamyn West (writer)|Jessamyn West, American writer (b. 1902)
March 1 - Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
March 5 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (b. 1915)
March 5 - William Powell, American actor (b. 1892)
March 12 - Arnold Ridley, English playright and actor (b. 1896)
March 16 - John Hoagland, American photographer (b. 1947)
March 21 - Sir Michael Redgrave, English actor (b. 1908)
March 24 - Sam Jaffe (actor)|Sam Jaffe, American actor (b. 1891)
April 1 - Marvin Gaye, American singer (b. 1939)
April 8 - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1894)
April 15 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician (b. 1921)
April 20 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer (b. 1943)
April 22 - Ansel Adams, American photographer (b. 1902)
April 26 - Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)
May-August
May 2 - Jack Barry (television)|Jack Barry, American television host and producer (b. 1918)
May 16 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
May 16 - Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
May 19 - John Betjeman, English poet (b. 1906)
May 28 - Eric Morecambe, British comedian (d. 1926)
June 26 - Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1926)
July 1 - Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainain founder of the Feldenkrais Method (b. 1904)
July 8 - Brassaï, Hungarian-born photographer (b. 1899)
July 14 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (b. 1941)
July 26 - Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
August 2 - Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (b. 1896)
August 5 - Richard Burton, Welsh actor (b. 1925)
August 11 - Alfred A. Knopf (person)|Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher (b. 1892)
August 13 - Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (b. 1929)
August 14 - J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (b. 1894)
August 25 - Waite Hoyt, baseball player (b. 1899)
September-December
September 25 - Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)
October 5 - Leonard Rossiter, British actor (b. 1926)
October 12 - Anthony Berry|Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (bombing) (b. 1925)
October 14 - Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1918)
October 20 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
October 20 - Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
October 21 - François Truffaut, French film director (b. 1932)
October 31 - Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (assassinated) (b. 1917)
November 6 - Gastón Suárez, Bolivian novelist and dramatist (b. 1929)
November 16 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (leukemia) (b. 1918)
December 8 - Luther Adler, American actor (b. 1903)
December 14 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
December 15 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
December 20 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)
December 28 - Sam Peckinpah, American film director (b. 1926)
Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics - Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry - Robert Bruce Merrifield
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine - Niels Kaj Jerne, Georges J.F. Köhler, César Milstein
Nobel Prize in literature|Literature - Jaroslav Seifert
Nobel Peace Prize|Peace - Bishop Desmond Tutu|Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Richard Stone
Michael Bourdeaux
Imane Khalifeh, SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association) / Ela Bhatt, Winefreda Geonzon / FREE LAVA (Free Legal Assistance Volunteers' Association) and Wangari Maathai / Green Belt Movement
Fictional references
The novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by George Orwell in the 1940's, presents a dystopian view of how life might be in the year the protagonist believes to be 1984.
In the movie ''The Terminator'' both the T-800|title character and Kyle Reese are sent back through time from 2029 to May 12, 1984.
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