Top News Stories from 1984

World Events

• Syria frees captured US Navy pilot, Lieut. Robert C. Goodman, Jr. (Jan. 3).
• US and Vatican exchange diplomats after 116-year hiatus (Jan. 10).
• Reagan orders US Marines withdrawn from Beirut international peacekeeping force (Feb. 7).
• Yuri V. Andropov dies at 69; Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72, named Soviet leader (Feb. 9). Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as state religion (Feb. 18).
• Soviet Union withdraws from summer Olympic games in US, and other bloc nations follow (May 7 et seq.).
• José Napoleón Duarte, moderate, elected president of El Salvador (May 11).
• Three hundred slain as Indian Army occupies Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (June 6).
• Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 killed in anti-Sikh riots; son Rajiv succeeds her (Oct. 31).
• Toxic gas leaks from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000 (Dec. 3).

U.S. Events

• Bell System broken up (Jan. 1).
• Congress rebukes President Reagan on use of federal funds for mining Nicaraguan harbors (April 10).
• Thirty-ninth Democratic National Convention, nominates Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine A. Ferraro (July 16–19).
• Thirty-third Republican National Convention renominates President Reagan and Vice President Bush (Aug. 20-25).
• President Reagan re-elected in landslide with 59% of vote (Nov. 7).

Economics

Sports

Super Bowl

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• The Cosby Show debuts on NBC. The sitcom is widely considered the most popular show of the 1980s.
• The Supreme Court rules that taping television shows at home on VCRs does not violate copyright law.
• Led by Bob Geldof, the band Band Aid releases "Do They Know It's Christmas," with proceeds of the single going to feed the starving in Africa.

Movies

• Amadeus, The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, The Pope of Greenwich Village

Books

• Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac, Alison Lurie, Foreign Affairs

Science

• Joe W. Kittinger makes the first solo transatlantic balloon flight in the helium-filled Rosie O'Grady's Balloon of Peace. He travels 3,535 miles from Caribou, Maine to Savona, Italy. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
• Apple introduces the user-friendly Macintosh personal computer. Background: Computers and Internet

Death

• Indira Gandhi
• Francois Truffaut
• Truman Capote
• Count Basie

Previous Year | Next Year

or enter a year:

Enter a year:

Year by Year: 1900-2014