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

Friday 08:

1985 Beirut Car Bombing is made in front of the mosque killing 45 people and injuring 175.

Saturday 16:

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

Sunday 17:

Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker", commits his first two murders in Los Angeles, California murder spree.

Monday 18:

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

Sunday 31:

The first ever WrestleMania is held in New York City's Madison Square Garden.

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.

Saturday 25:

Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.

Wednesday 29:

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

June 1985

Sunday 02:

R.J. Reynolds and Nabisco propose a merger

Thursday 06:

The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is exhumed in Embu, Brazil; the remains found are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death". Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.

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.

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

Sunday 04:

In one of the most exciting days in sports, Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox won his 300th game and Rod Carew of the California Angels picked up his 3000th hit. It marked the only day in which two men reached baseball's three biggest milestones in the same day.

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.

Wednesday 11:

Baseball: Pete Rose gets his 4,192nd career base hit, breaking Ty Cobb's record which stood for over 60 years.

Sunday 15:

Willie Nelson's Farm Aid concert begins.

Wednesday 18:

Steve Jobs resigns from Apple Computer.

Thursday 19:

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

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

Wednesday 06:

The Playboy Club in New York admits topless male "bunnies" for the first time.

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).

Tuesday 26:

US President Ronald Reagan signs over rights to his autobiography to Random House for a record US$3 million.

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.