1985 - Definition and Overview

1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.
For information pertaining to the Bowling for Soup song, see 1985 (song)

Events

January

• January 1 - Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System.
• January 1 - First British mobile phone call made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
• January 17 - British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes.
• January 20 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan is sworn in for his second term in office.
• January 23 - A debate in the House of Lords is televised for the first time.

February

• 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

• 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 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

• 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

• 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.
• May 23 - 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

• 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 trying 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

• July 10 - The Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour by French DGSE agents.
• July 10 - After a storm of controversy surrounding a change in its cola's formula (see New Coke), Coca-Cola re-introduces the old formula as "Coca-Cola Classic".
• July 13 - Live Aid pop concerts in both the United States and United Kingdom raise 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 (see Space Shuttle Challenger).
• 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

• 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

• 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.

October

• 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 where they are arrested.
• October 29 - Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multiparty election in Liberia.

November

• 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 including 11 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

• 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 date

• 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.
• Solarquest, space age real estate game, first published by Golden.

Year in topic

• 1985 in film
  • February 8 - Witness starring Harrison Ford
  • February 15 - The Breakfast Club
  • July 3 - Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox
  • December 18 - Brazil
  • December 18 - Out of Africa
  • December 20 - The Color Purple
• 1985 in literature
• 1985 in music
  • January 28 - We Are The World is recorded, by USA for Africa.
  • May - Megadeth releases their first album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!
  • July 13 - Live Aid benefit concert
• 1985 in rail transport
• 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 interrupts 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

February

• 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

• March 2 - Robert Iler, actor
• March 26 - Keira Knightley, actress

May

• May 2 - Sarah Hughes, figure skater
• May 18 - Ali Haeri, Musician

June

• June 8 - Alexandre Despatie, Canadian diver
• June 30 - Michael Phelps, American swimmer

October

• October 11 - Michelle Trachtenberg, actress
• October 22 - Zachary Hanson, musician
• October 24 - Wayne Rooney, English football star

November

• November 10 - Giovonnie Samuels, television actress

December

• December 2 - Liene Buldure, streaker
• December 5 - Frankie Muniz, actor

Deaths

February

• February 8 - Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Motors
• February 11 - Henry Hathaway actor/director
• February 11 - Ulysses Simpson Kay, composer
• February 11 - Heinz Eric Roemheld, composer
• 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

• March 10 - Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• March 12 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (b. 1899)

April

• April 11 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania

May

• 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

• June 15 - Andy Stanfield, American athlete

July

• July 9 - Jimmy Kinnon, founder of Narcotics Anonymous
• July 19 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish science fiction writer

August

• August 12 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
• August 25 - Samantha Smith, U.S. activist

September

• September 6 - Isabel Cox-Meighen, First Lady of Canada (b. 1882)
• September 6 - Little Brother Montgomery, jazz musician
• September 11 - William Alwyn, Engish composer (b. 1905)

October

• 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

• November 5 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895)
• November 24 - Big Joe Turner, blues singer (b. 1911)

December

• December 31 - Ricky Nelson, pop rock singer, actor (b. 1940)

Nobel Prizes

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

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

• Franco Modigliani

Right Livelihood Award

• Theo van Boven, Cary Fowler / Pat Mooney / Rural Advancement Fund International, Lokayan / Rajni Kothari and Duna Kör