1984

Year 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar).

Events of 1984

January

• January 1 - Brunei became a fully independent state.
• January 1 - Bell System divestiture breaks AT&T into 24 independent units.
• January 3 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan meets with Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman and the Reverend Jesse Jackson at the White House, following Lieutenant Goodman's release from Syrian captivity.

• January 5 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
• January 7 - Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
• January 10 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
• January 18 - Mitsui Miike coal mine explosion at Omuta, Kyūshū, Japan, 83 killed.
• January 22 - The Oakland Raiders defeat the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
• January 23 - The Peace and Friendship Treaty is signed between Argentina and Chile in Vatican City.
• January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
• January 27 - Pop star Michael Jackson's scalp is seriously burned by pyrotechnics during filming of a Pepsi television commercial.

February

• February 1 - Medicare comes into effect in Australia.
• February 3 - STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th space shuttle mission.
• February 7 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
• February 8 - The 1984 Winter Olympics open in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
• February 9 - Disclosure of remarks by Jesse Jackson, considered anti-Semitic by some, hurt his presidential campaign.
• February 11 - STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger makes the first shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center
• February 13 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• February 14 - British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean score 12 perfect 6.0s for their interpretation of Ravel's Bolero in the 1984 Winter Olympics. They win the gold medal for ice dancing.
• February 19 - The 1984 Winter Olympics close in Sarajevo.
• February 26 - United States Marines pull out of Beirut, Lebanon.
• February 29 - Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement.

March

• March 5 - Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons; the United Nations condemns their use on March 30.
• March 5 - Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders Operation Blue Star to flush out separatist militants from Harimandir Sahib, the most sacred shrine of Sikhism.
• March 6 - A year-long strike action begins in the British coal industry (See UK Miners' Strike (1984-1985)).
• March 14 - Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and 3 others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the UVF.
• March 16 - The CIA station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley, is kidnapped by 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 schoolchildren (the charges are later dropped as completely unfounded).
• March 23 - General Rahimuddin Khan becomes the first man in Pakistan's history to rule over 2 of its provinces, after becoming interim Governor of Sindh.

April

• April 2 - Indian Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma is launched into space, aboard the Soyuz T-11.
• April 4 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
• April 6 - The 56th Academy Awards, hosted by Jack Lemmon, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with Terms of Endearment winning Best Picture.
• April 12 - Palestinian gunmen take Israeli Bus Number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus, freeing the hostages (1 hostage, 2 hijackers killed).
• April 13 - India launches Operation Meghdoot, as most of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir comes under Indian control.
• April 15 - British comedian Tommy Cooper suffers a massive heart attack while live on TV.
• April 17 - WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot and killed by a secluded gunman during a siege outside the Libyan Embassy in London.
• April 19 - Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
• April 25 - The term of Sultan Ahmad Shah as the 7th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia ends.
• April 26 - Sultan Iskandar, Sultan of Johor, becomes the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

May

• May 2 - The Liverpool International Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
• May 5 - The Herreys win the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 for Sweden, with the song Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley.

• May 8 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
• May 8 - Denis Lortie kills 3 government employees in the National Assembly of Quebec building.
• May 8 - The longest game in Major League Baseball history begins at 7:30 PM between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox. The game will be played over the course of 2 days, lasting 25 innings, with a total time of 8 hours and 6 minutes.
• May 11 - Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure burns down, killing 8.
• May 11 - A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.
• May 12 - The Louisiana World's Fair opens.
• May 14 - The one dollar coin is introduced in Australia.

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 Sikhs' holiest shrine, killing an estimated 2000 people.
• June 8 - A deadly F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing 9 people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.
• June 20 - The biggest exam shake-up in the 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 Turkish city Urfa is changed into Şanlıurfa.
• June 22 - Virgin Atlantic Airways makes its inaugural flight.
• June 27 - France beats Spain 2-0 to win the Euro 84.
• June 28 - Richard Ramírez, aka the "Night Stalker," murders his first confirmed victim.
• June 30 - John Napier Turner becomes Canada's 17th Prime Minister.

July

• July 4 - Richard Petty wins his 200th career NASCAR victory at the Firecracker 400 in Daytona, Florida.
• July 9 - Lightning sets fire to York Minster.
• July 12 - In San Francisco, the Democratic National Convention nominates Walter F. Mondale for U.S. President, and Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President.
• July 14 - New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon calls a snap election and is heavily defeated by opposition Labour leader David Lange.
• July 18 - The first Culver's opens in Sauk City, Wisconsin.
• 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 and killed.
• July 23 - Vanessa Lynn Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown, after nude photos of her appear in "Penthouse" magazine.
• July 25 - Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
• July 28-August 12 - The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.

August

• August 1 - Australian banks are deregulated.
• August 4 - The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
• August 11 - United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes".
• August 12 - Johnny Gamble was born.
• August 16 - John De Lorean is acquitted of all 8 charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.
• Hottest Day ever recorded in Kansas City, Missouri
• August 21 - Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
• August 23 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush are renominated at the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas.
• August 30 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

The launch of Shuttle Discovery on STS-41-D, its first mission.

September

• 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.
• 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 4 - The Nicaraguan general elections are held, Sandinista Front is the winner.
• September 5 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
• September 5 - Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
• September 14 - The first MTV Video Music Awards are held in Radio City Music Hall, New York City.
• September 20 - Hezbollah car bombs the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut, killing 22 people.
• September 26 - The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
• September 29 - Opening of the art exhibition: Von hier aus – Zwei Monate neue deutsche Kunst in Düsseldorf

October

• October 4 - Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer become the first Australians to summit Mount Everest.
• October 5 - STS-41-G: Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
• October 11 - Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
• October 12 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) attempts to assassinate the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
• October 19 - Polish secret police kidnap Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest who supports the Solidarity movement. His dead body is found in a reservoir 11 days later on October 30.
• October 25 - The last execution in Turkey takes place.
• October 31 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her 2 Sikh security guards . Riots soon break out in New Delhi, and some 2,700 Sikhs are killed.

November

• November 2 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• November 4 - Dell Computers was founded as PC's Limited.
• November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1984: Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% 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.
• November 9 - Cesar Chavez delivers his speech, "What The Future Holds For Farm Workers And Hispanics", at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
• November 14 - Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
• 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 - Thirty-six of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio to form Band Aid, and record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas", in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
• November 25 - An East Rail train derails between Sheung Shui and Fanling stations, Hong Kong.
• 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 29 - Band Aid release the song "Do They Know It's Christmas".
• November 30 - The Tamil Tigers begin the purge of the Sinhalese from North and East Sri Lanka; 127 are killed.

December

Controlled Impact Demonstration

• December 1 - Controlled Impact Demonstration NASA crashes remote controlled Boeing 720
• 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 15,000 to 22,000 others (some 6,000 of whom later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
• December 3 - British Telecom is privatised.
• December 4 - Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane and kill 4 passengers.
• December 19 - The People's Republic of China and United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration on 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, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime, which is a plague in 1980s America.
• December 22 - In Malta, Prime Minister Dom Mintoff resigns.
• December 28 - A Soviet cruise missile plunges into Inarinjärvi lake in Finnish Lapland. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985.
• December 31 - Rajiv Gandhi becomes prime minister of India.

Undated

• Famine in Ethiopia begins and kills a million people by the end of 1984. (1984 Famine in Ethiopia).
• Crack, a smokeable form of cocaine, is first introduced into the Los Angeles area and soon spreads across the United States in what came to be known as the Crack Epidemic.
• 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.
• Chatham Dockyard in Medway, England closed after being used a shipbuilding yard for over 400 years since the reign of King Henry VIII.
• Brothels legalized in Victoria.

Ongoing

• Cold War

Births

January-March

• January 1 - Michael Witt, Australian rugby league player
• January 3 - Maya Ababadjani, Danish adult film actress
• January 8 - Jeff Francoeur, American baseball player
• January 10 - Marouane Chamakh, Moroccan football player
• January 12 - Scott Olsen, American baseball player
• January 13 - Eleni Ioannou, Greek martial artist (d. 2004)
• January 15 - Megan Quann, American swimmer
• January 16 - Craig Beattie, Scottish footballer
• January 17 - Calvin Harris, Scottish electronic musician
• January 17 - Cassie Hager, American basketball player