1985 - What happened in 1985 ?

January 1985

Tuesday 01:

The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.

Monday 14:

Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.

Thursday 17:

British Telecom announces the retirement of Britain's famous red telephone boxes.

Wednesday 23:

O. J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.

February 1985

Wednesday 06:

Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer

Thursday 07:

"New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City.

Friday 08:

After 6-1/2 years, the television series The Dukes of Hazzard goes off the air.

Thursday 14:

CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.

Tuesday 19:

EastEnders first airs on televisions across the United Kingdom, on the first night of a major ident change for BBC1.

March 1985

Monday 11:

Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.

Saturday 16:

Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He would be released on December 4, 1991.

Monday 18:

The first episode of popular soap Neighbours airs on Australian TV.

Wednesday 20:

1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod dog sled race.

Friday 29:

The first Care Bears Movie, produced by Canadian animation studio Nelvana Limited, is released in US theatres by The Samuel Goldwyn Company.

April 1985

Monday 08:

Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.

Saturday 13:

Enver Hoxha is succeeded by Ramiz Alia as the leader of Albania

Monday 15:

Marvin Hagler defeats Thomas Hearns by a knockout in round three to retain boxing's world Middleweight championship in a fight nicknamed The War.

Sunday 21:

Ayrton Senna wins the first of 41 Formula One championship races at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril.

Tuesday 23:

New Coke, a marketing disaster is introduced.

May 1985

Saturday 11:

56 spectators die when a flash fire strikes a football ground during a match in Bradford, England.

Tuesday 14:

Popular Hong Kong actress Barbara Yung Mei-ling was found unconscious from gas inhalation in her apartment at Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. She was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.

Monday 20:

Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.

Wednesday 29:

Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia after 14 months.

Friday 31:

The US-Canadian Outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.

June 1985

Sunday 02:

R.J. Reynolds and Nabisco propose a merger

Sunday 09:

Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he was not released until 1991).

Tuesday 11:

A Fabergé Egg was sold for £1,375,00 in New York.

Friday 14:

TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah.

Sunday 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 1985

Tuesday 02:

Andrei Gromyko is appointed the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

Wednesday 10:

In response to market demand, Coca-Cola re-introduces it's old formula cola as "Coca-Cola Classic" (see New Coke).

Saturday 13:

The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow.

Friday 19:

US Vice President George H. W. Bush announces that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the Space Shuttle (see Space Shuttle Challenger). 268 people are killed after an artificial lake broke up in Val di Stava in Italy

August 1985

Friday 02:

A Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, killing 137.

Wednesday 07:

Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.

Monday 12:

Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture Japan killing 520 in the world's worst single-plane air disaster. Four people miraculously survive.

Friday 23:

Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.

Saturday 31:

Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California.

September 1985

Sunday 01:

A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

Friday 06:

Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.

Friday 13:

The Super Mario Bros. video game is released by Nintendo.

Thursday 19:

Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center.

Sunday 22:

The Plaza Accord was signed in New York City.

October 1985

Tuesday 01:

The Israeli air force bombs PLO Headquarters in Tunis.

Monday 07:

The "Achille Lauro" is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

Monday 14:

U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese says in U.S. News & World Report, "If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect."

Saturday 19:

The first Blockbuster Video store opens in Dallas, Texas.

Tuesday 29:

Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multiparty election in Liberia.

November 1985

Saturday 09:

Louis Papaloizou is born in Co. Durham, England.

Monday 18:

Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, was first published.

Tuesday 19:

Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion verdict against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history, stemming from Texaco establishing a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.)

Thursday 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).

Saturday 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.

December 1985

Thursday 12:

Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland killing 256, including 248 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division

Monday 16:

In New York City, Mafia bosses Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead , making hit organizer John Gotti the leader of the Gambino family.

Tuesday 24:

A black bull blocks the Cross Harbour Tunnel in Hong Kong for three hours.

Friday 27:

American naturalist Dian Fossey is found murdered in Rwanda.