1985
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 - 1985 - 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
Events
- January 17 - British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes.
- February 6 - Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer
- February 7 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City.
- February 11 - Wasim Akram takes 10 wickets in his 2nd Test Cricket match, but New Zealand still wins.
- February 14 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
- February 19 - Artificial-heart patient William Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.
- March 3 - Censorship: Women Against Pornography award their "Pig Award" to Huggies Diapers for claiming that their television ads had "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."
- March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
- 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 women to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod dog sled race.
- May 8 - New Coke is released on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola. It will later become a major flop with consumers
- 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 29 - The Heysel Stadium disaster, 39 football fans die and hundreds are injured.
- 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 250 city residents in the resulting fire.
- May 25 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge which kills approximately 10,000 people.
- July - Wreckage from the Titanic is discovered by Dr. Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The wreckage is filmed with a robotic underwater camera.
- July 10 - The Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour by French DGSE agents.
- July 10 - After a storm of controversy surrounding a change in its cola's formula (see New Coke), Coca-Cola re-introduces the old formula as "Coca-Cola Classic."
- October 7 - The passenger ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestinians.
- December 27 - Palestinian guerrillas kill twenty people inside Rome and Vienna airports.
- December 27 - American naturalist Dian Fossey is found murdered in Rwanda.
- Buckyballs were invented by Buckminster Fuller
- First syndication of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
- GNU Manifesto first written by Richard Stallman
- Western Sahara is admitted to the Organization of African Unity; Morocco, which claims Western Sahara, leaves in protest
- Ethiopian famine continues -- Live Aid attempts to raise funds for famine relief
Art, Culture & Fashion
- 1985 in film
- 1985 in literature
- 1985 in music
- January 28 - "We Are The World" is recorded, by USA for Africa.
- July 13 - Live Aid benefit concert
- 1985 in sports
- January 14 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
- January 20 - Super Bowl XIX San Francisco 49ers (38) def. Miami Dolphins (16)
- January 23 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
- 1985 in television
- February 8 - After 6-1/2 years, the television series The Dukes of Hazzard goes off the air.
- August 19 - David Letterman interupts the Today Show with a megaphone while both shows are on the air. Letterman leaned out the window of his building and announced "My name is Larry Grossman (then president of NBC News) and I'm not wearing any pants!". The Today Show was taping an interview several stories below.
- NBC becomes the first commercial television network to use satellite interconnection for its stations.
Births
- March 2 - Robert Iler, actor
- August 24 - Galen Daniel Maly
Deaths
- February 8 - Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Motors
- February 11 - Heinz Eric Roemheld, composer.
- February 11 - Henry Hathaway actor/director.
- February 11 - Ulysses Simpson Kay, composer.
- February 20 - Clarence Nash, Disney voice actor
- February 27 - Henry Cabot Lodge, politician, candidate for Vice President of the United States
- March 10 - Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- May 8 - Theodore Sturgeon, science fiction writer
- May 9 - Edmond O'Brien, actor
- May 10 - Chester Gould, cartoonist
- May 16 - Margaret Hamilton, actress
- May 17 - Abe Burrows, songwriter, composer, writer
- August 12 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
- August 25 - Samantha Smith, U.S. activist
- September 6 - Little Brother Montgomery, musician
- October 2 - Rock Hudson, actor, died of AIDS
- October 11 - Orson Welles, movie director
- October 22 - Thomas Townsend Brown, scientist