This article is about the year. For Anthony Burgess's novel, see Nineteen Eighty-Five. For the song by Bowling for Soup, see 1985 (song). For the album by Rufio, see MCMLXXXV.

Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years:	1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988

1985 by topic:

Arts

Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video

Science and technology

Archaeology - Aviation Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science

By country

Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Pakistan Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe

Other topics

Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders - Video gaming

Birth and death categories

Births - Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments - Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.
It was declared International Youth Year by the United Nations.

[edit] Events

[edit] January

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• January 1 - The first British mobile phone call is made (by Ernie Wise to Vodafone).
• January 3 - Ethiopian Jews settle in Israel.
• January 17 - British Telecom announces it is going to phase out its famous red telephone boxes.
• January 20 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan is sworn in for a second term in office.
• January 28 - In Hollywood, California, We Are the World, a 1985 song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced and conducted by Quincy Jones, is recorded by a supergroup of popular musicians billed as USA for Africa. The charity single is intended to raise funds to help famine relief efforts in Ethiopia. In all, 45 musicians attend the recording session, including Bob Geldof, who had arranged the Band Aid effort in the United Kingdom, and would later help organise the Live 8 effort. Lead vocals rotate among 21 of the performers, including Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Steve Perry, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

[edit] February

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• February 1 - AM stereo broadcasting starts in Australia.
• February 5 - Australia cancels its involvement in U.S.-led MX missile tests.
• February 7 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City.
• February 10 - Nelson Mandela rejects an offer of freedom from the South African government.
• February 11 - Pakistani bowler Wasim Akram takes 10 wickets in his second Test cricket match, but New Zealand still wins.
• February 14 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
• February 16 - Israel begins withdrawing troops from Lebanon.
• February 19 - William J. Schroeder becomes the first artificial heart patient to leave the hospital.

[edit] March

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• March 4 - The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then to screen all blood donations in the United States.
• March 6 - Mike Tyson makes his professional debut in Albany, New York, a match which he wins by a first round knockout.
• March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union.
• March 11 - Mohammed Al Fayed buys the London-based department store company Harrods.
• March 14 - Five lionesses at the Singapore Zoo are put on birth control after the lion population increases from 2 to 16.
• March 16 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He will be released on December 4, 1991.
• March 24 - Norwich City FC wins the English League Cup at Wembley Stadium, beating Sunderland 1-0 in the final.
• March 31- The first Wrestlemania is held, with Muhammad Ali as special guest referee.

[edit] April

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• April 15 - South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages.
• April 19 - The U.S.S.R performs a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan.
• April 23 - Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. (The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than 3 months.)
• April 28 - The Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) splits.

[edit] May

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• May 5 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan joins German Chancellor Helmut Kohl for a controversial funeral service at a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, which includes the graves of 59 elite S.S. troops from World War II.
• May 11 - The FBI brings charges against the suspected heads of the 5 Mafia families in New York City.
• May 11 - Fire engulfs a wooden stand in the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England during a football match, killing 56.
• May 13 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mayor Wilson Goode orders police to storm the radical group MOVE's headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive device into the headquarters, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 61 city residents in the resulting fire.
• May 15 - An explosive device sent by the Unabomber injures John Hauser at UC Berkeley.
• 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 - Heysel Disaster: 38 spectators are killed in rioting on the terraces during the European Cup final between Liverpool F.C. and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.
• May 31 - Forty-one tornadoes hit in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.

[edit] June

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• June 13 - In Auburn, Washington, police defuse a Unabomber bomb sent to Boeing.
• June 14 - TWA Flight 847, carrying 153 passengers from Athens to Rome, is hijacked by a Hezbollah fringe group. One passenger, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Robert Stethem, is killed.
• June 23 - Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, blows up 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
• June 25 - Irish police foil an Irish Republican Army-sponsored 'mainland bombing campaign' which targeted luxury vacationing resorts, arresting 13 suspects.

[edit] July

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• July 4 - Ruth Lawrence, 13, achieves a first in mathematics at Oxford University, becoming the youngest British person ever to earn a first-class degree and the youngest known graduate of Oxford University.
• July 10 - The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland harbour by French DGSE agents.
• July 13 - Live Aid pop concerts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and London raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
• July 19 - U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush announces that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the 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 begin to excavate $400 million in coins and silver.
• July 24 - Commodore launches the Amiga personal computer at the Lincoln Center in New York.

[edit] August

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• August 2 - Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes in Dallas, Texas, killing 137 people.
• August 6 - In Hiroshima, tens of thousands mark the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
• August 7 - Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.

[edit] September

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• September 1 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
• September 5 - John Howard replaces Andrew Peacock as Australian Federal Opposition Leader.
• September 6 - Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9, crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
• September 19 - An 8.1 Richter scale earthquake strikes Mexico City. More than 9,000 people are killed, 30,000 injured, and 95,000 left homeless.

[edit] October

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• October 1 - The Israeli air force bombs PLO Headquarters in Tunis.
• October 7 - The cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked in the Mediterranean Sea by 4 heavily armed Palestinian terrorists. One passenger, American Leon Klinghoffer, is killed.

[edit] November

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