1985
This article is about the year. For the song by Bowling for Soup , see 1985 (song) . 1985 (MCMLXXXV) is a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar .Events January-February March March 2 - Government of John Cain reelected in Victoria for second consecutive term. March 3 - Women Against Pornography award their "Pig Award" to Kimberly-Clark Corporation 's Huggies diapers , claiming that their television commercials had "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn ." March 4 - The Food and Drug Administration approves a Blood test for AIDS , used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States. March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and De facto Soviet Union . March 11 - Mohammed Al Fayed buys the London-based department store company, Harrods . March 11 - The Prague Appeal by Jiří Dienstbier, Czech dissident. March 14 - Five lion esses at the Singapore Zoo are put on Birth control because the lion population had increased from two to 16. March 15 - José Sarney takes oath as acting president of Brazil , because the president-elect Tancredo Neves becomes severely ill. March 15 - The first .com symbolics.com , is registered by the Symbolics corporation. However, in this early stage of the rollout of domain names , .edu .com ones. March 16 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut . He would later be released on December 4 , 1991 . March 17 - Serial killer Richard Ramirez (the "Night Stalker") commits his first two murders in Los Angeles , California . March 20 - Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Dog sled race. March 31 - Wrestlemania I occurs at Madison Square Garden , New York . The Main Event features Hulk Hogan and Mr. T with Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff with Bob Orton, Jr. April May-June May 8 - New Coke is released on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola . It will later become a major flop with consumers. May 11 - The FBI brings charges against suspected heads of the five Mafia families in New York City May 11 - Fire breaks in Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England - 56 dead May 13 - Philadelphia 's mayor orders police to storm the radical group's MOVE 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 and leaving 250 people homeless. May 15 - Unabomber bomb injures John Hauser at UC Berkeley May 17 - United Airlines Pilots go on strike for 29 days. May 20 - Propaganda : Radio Marti begins broadcasting to Cuba . 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 - In the Heysel Stadium disaster at the European Cup final in Brussels , 39 Football (soccer) fans die and hundreds are injured. May 31 - The US-Canadian Outbreak : 41 tornadoes hit in Ohio , Pennsylvania , New York and Ontario . By its end, 76 perish. June 6 - The body of Josef Mengele is located and exhumed in Brazil . June 9 - Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he is not released until 1991 ). June 10 - Claus von Bulow is acquitted on charges of trying to kill his wife. June 13 - In Auburn, Washington , police defuses an Unabomber bomb sent to Boeing June 14 - TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah . 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. July August-September 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 . August 12 - Japan Airlines Flight 123 , a Boeing 747SR-46 plane en route from Tokyo to Osaka , crashed northwest of Tokyo, killing 520 of the 524 people on board. August 22 - 55 people killed at in the Manchester air disaster at Manchester International Airport when a British Airtours Boeing 737 burst into flames after the pilot aborts the takeoff. August 31 - Richard Ramirez arrested for the "Night Stalker" murders. 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 15 - U.S. hostage Benjamin Weir released in Lebanon . September 19 - 8.1 Richter scale Earthquake strikes Mexico City . More than 9,000 people are killed, a further 30,000 injured, and 95,000 lose their homes. October November November 6 - In Colombia , leftist guerrillas of the M-19 movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá . By the next day, 115 people are dead, including 11 Supreme court justices. November 15 - In separate events, mail bombs kill two people in Salt Lake City, Utah ; a third bomb explodes the next day, injuring Mark Hoffman . The ensuing police investigation leads to the arrest of Hoffman for these murders, as well as Forgery . November 16 - When 1,800 staff of Baragwanath hospital in Soweto , South Africa go on strike for better pay, they are dismissed and troops called in to help run the hospital. November 18 - First Calvin and Hobbes comic strip printed in a handful of newspapers; the strip is not carried in the hometown newspaper of its creator, Bill Watterson . November 19 - Cold War : In Geneva , U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time. November 19 - Pennzoil wins a $10.53 billion verdict from Texaco in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history (Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty). November 20 - Microsoft Corporation releases the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0. November 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). November 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). November 25 - Man wearing a chicken suit walks into the Australian House of Representatives and sits on the government front bench. He is later removed November 26 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs over rights to his Autobiography to Random House for a record US$3 million. November 28 - Gerard Hoarau, exile political leader from the Seychelles , assassinated in London December Environmental and weather change Unknown date Births February 5 - Cristiano Ronaldo , Portuguese footballer February 9 - Rachel Melvin , American actress February 10 - Anette Sagen , Norwegian ski jumper February 18 - Lee Boyd Malvo , American serial killer February 28 - Fefe Dobson , Canadian singer March 2 - Robert Iler , American actor March 13 - Emile Hirsch , American actor March 15 - Antti Autti , Finnish snowboarder March 24 - Haruka Ayase , Japanese actress and model March 26 - Keira Knightley , English actress May 2 - Sarah Hughes , American figure skater June 26 - Urgyen Trinley Dorje , Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader June 27 - Svetlana Kuznetsova , Russian tennis player June 28 - Phillip Bardsley , English footballer June 30 - Michael Phelps , American swimmer July 24 - Teagan Presley , American actress September 14 - Aya Ueto , Japanese actress October 11 - Michelle Trachtenberg , American actress October 22 - Zachary Hanson , American musician October 24 - Wayne Rooney , English footballer October 25 - Ciara , American singer November 8 - Jack Osbourne , English actor December 5 - Frankie Muniz , American actor December 10 - Raven Symone , American actress December 23 - Harry Judd , English drummer Deaths January 4 - Sir Brian Horrocks , British general (b. 1895 ) February 8 - Sir William Lyons , English automobile designer and entrepreneur (b. 1901 ) February 11 - Henry Hathaway American actor and director (b. 1898 ) February 11 - Heinz Eric Roemheld , American composer (b. 1901 ) February 20 - Clarence Nash , American voice actor (b. 1904 ) February 22 - Alexander Scourby , American actor (b. 1913 ) February 26 - Tjalling Koopmans , Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910 ) February 27 - Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. , American politician (b. 1902 ) February 27 - Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk , British genealogist (b. 1919 ) February 28 - Ray Ellington , British singer (b. 1916 ) March 10 - Konstantin Chernenko , Soviet politician (b. 1911 ) March 12 - Eugene Ormandy , Hungarian conductor (b. 1899 ) March 28 - Marc Chagall , Russian-born painter (b. 1887 ) April 11 - Enver Hoxha , Albanian dictator (b. 1908 ) May 5 - Sir Donald Bailey , British civil engineer (b. 1901 ) May 8 - Theodore Sturgeon , American science fiction writer (b. 1918 ) May 9 - Edmond O'Brien , American actor (b. 1915 ) May 10 - Chester Gould , American cartoonist (b. 1900 ) May 12 - Jean Dubuffet , French artist (b. 1901 ) May 16 - Margaret Hamilton , American actress (b. 1902 ) May 17 - Abe Burrows , songwriter, composer, and writer (b. 1910 ) June 11 - Karen Ann Quinlan , American right-to-die cause célèbre (b. 1954 ) June 15 - Andy Stanfield , American athlete (b. 1927 ) July 2 - David Purley , British race car driver (b. 1945 ) July 9 - Jimmy Kinnon , Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911 ) July 16 - Heinrich Böll , German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917 ) July 19 - Janusz A. Zajdel , Polish writer (b. 1938 ) July 23 - Johnny Wardle , English cricketer (b. 1923 ) August 12 - Manfred Winkelhock , German race car driver (b. 1951 ) August 25 - Samantha Smith , American schoolgirl activist (b. 1972 ) September 6 - Isabel Cox-Meighen , First Lady of Canada (b. 1882 ) September 6 - Little Brother Montgomery , American jazz musician September 9 - Paul Flory , American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910 ) September 11 - William Alwyn , English composer (b. 1905 ) September 19 - Italo Calvino , Italian writer (b. 1923 ) October 2 - Rock Hudson , American actor (b. 1925 ) October 6 - Nelson Riddle , American bandleader (b. 1921 ) October 10 - Yul Brynner , American actor (b. 1915 ) October 11 - Orson Welles , American film director (b. 1915 ) October 12 - Johnny Olson , American game show announcer (b. 1910 ) October 22 - Thomas Townsend Brown , American scientist (b. 1905 ) November 5 - Spencer W. Kimball , president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895 ) November 24 - Big Joe Turner , American blues singer (b. 1911 ) December 7 - Robert Graves , English writer (b. 1895 ) December 23 - Ferhat Abbas , Algerian nationalist (b. 1899 ) December 27 - Dian Fossey , American biologist (b. 1932 ) December 31 - Ricky Nelson , American singer and actor (b. 1940 ) Nobel Prizes Theo van Boven, Cary Fowler / Pat Mooney / Rural Advancement Fund International, Lokayan / Rajni Kothari and Duna Kör
