1984
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years: 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 - 1984 - 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
Events
- January 1 - Brunei becomes a fully independent state.
- January 1 - AT&T is broken up into 22 independent units
- January 9 - Clara Peller is featured in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's for the first time.
- January 10 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
- January 22 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to use a computer mouse and GUI interface, is introduced.
- January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale
- February 3 - Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the tenth space shuttle mission.
- February 7 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
- March 6 - Twelve month long strike in British coal industry begins
- March 14 - Gerry Adams seriously wounded in an assassination attempt
- June 30 - John Turner becomes Canada's seventeenth prime minister.
- September 17 - Brian Mulroney becomes Canada's eighteenth prime minister.
- Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles California USA
- Apple Macintosh introduced by Apple Computer corporation in a Super Bowl commercial evoking images from George Orwell's book, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- October 5 - Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (41-6).
- October 12 - Brighton bombing (attempt to assassinate the British Cabinet)
- November - Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale in the U.S. presidential election
- December 19 - People's Republic of China and United Kingdom signs the Sino-British Joint Declaration which concerns with the future of Hong Kong.
- The influential rap group, the Ultramagnetic MCs, form in the Bronx.
- Ethiopian famine begins
Art, Culture & Fashion
- 1984 in film
- 1984 in literature
- 1984 in music
- 1984 in sports
- January 22 - Super Bowl XVIII Los Angeles Raiders (38) def. Washington Redskins (9)
- January 27 - Carl Lewis beats his own indoor world jumping record by 9-1/4 inches with a 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches jump.
- February 8 - 1984 Winter Olympics open in Saravejo
- Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California
- 1984 in television
- January 28 - singer Michael Jackson's hair catches fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial
- Jeopardy! makes it's debut on NBC.
- The Cosby Show debuts on NBC.
Births
Deaths
- January 20 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor. Most prominent as Tarzan.
- February 9 - Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- May 16 - Andy Kaufman, comedian
- June 26 - Michel Foucault, philosopher
- July 26 - Ed Gein, serial killer
- October 12 - Sir Anthony Berry, British politician, along with three of the other victims of the Brighton bombing
- October 20 - Paul Dirac, physicist
- October 21 - François Truffaut, French film director
- Physics - Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
- Chemistry - Robert Bruce Merrifield
- Medicine - Niels K Jerne, Georges JF Köhler, César Milstein
- Literature -Jaroslav Seifert
- Peace - Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu
- Economics - Richard Stone
Books
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a book by George Orwell, published in 1949, presenting a dystopian view of how life might be in the future.