World Events
Population: 4.769 billion
Nobel Peace Prize: Bishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa)
Syria frees captured US Navy pilot, Lieut. Robert C. Goodman, Jr. (Jan. 3).
US and Vatican exchange diplomats after 116-year hiatus (Jan. 10).
Reagan orders US Marines withdrawn from Beirut international peacekeeping force (Feb. 7).
Yuri V. Andropov dies at 69; Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72, named Soviet leader (Feb. 9).
Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533.
Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as state religion (Feb. 18).
Soviet Union withdraws from summer Olympic games in US, and other bloc nations follow (May 7 et seq.).
José Napoleón Duarte, moderate, elected president of El Salvador (May 11).
Three hundred slain as Indian Army occupies Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (June 6).
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 killed in anti-Sikh riots; son Rajiv succeeds her (Oct. 31).
Toxic gas leaks from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000 (Dec. 3).
U.S. Events
President: Ronald W. Reagan
Vice President: George Bush
Population: 235,824,902
Life expectancy: 74.7 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 50.3
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 44.9
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $3,902.40 billion
Federal spending: $851.85 billion
Federal debt: $1564.7 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars): $22,415
Consumer Price Index: 103.9
Unemployment: 7.5%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.20
Bell System broken up (Jan. 1).
Congress rebukes President Reagan on use of federal funds for mining Nicaraguan harbors (April 10).
Thirty-ninth Democratic National Convention, nominates Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine A. Ferraro (July 16–19).
Thirty-third Republican National Convention renominates President Reagan and Vice President Bush (Aug. 20-25).
President Reagan re-elected in landslide with 59% of vote (Nov. 7).
Sports
Super Bowl
LA Raiders d. Washington (38-9)
World Series
Detroit d. San Diego (4-1)
NBA Championship
Boston d. LA Lakers (4-3)
Stanley Cup
Edmonton d. NY Islanders (4-1)
Wimbledon
Women: Martina Navratilova d. C. Evert Lloyd (7-6 6-2)
Men: John McEnroe d. J. Connors (6-1 6-1 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Swale
NCAA Basketball Championship
Georgetown d. Houston (84-75)
NCAA Football Champions
BYU (13-0-0)
Entertainment
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Ironweed, William Kennedy
Music: Canti del Sole, Bernard Rands
Drama: Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet
Oscars awarded in 1984
Academy Award, Best Picture: Terms of Endearment, James L. Brooks, producer (Paramount)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Jaroslav Seifert (Czechoslovakia)
Grammys awarded in 1984
Record of the Year: Beat It - Michael Jackson
Album of the Year: Thriller - Michael Jackson (Epic/CBS)
Song of the Year: Every Breath You Take - Sting, songwriter
Miss America: Vanessa Williams (NY) / Suzette Charles (NJ)
The Cosby Show debuts on NBC. The sitcom is widely considered the most popular show of the 1980s.
The Supreme Court rules that taping television shows at home on VCRs does not violate copyright law.
Led by Bob Geldof, the band Band Aid releases "Do They Know It's Christmas," with proceeds of the single going to feed the starving in Africa.
Movies
Amadeus, The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, The Pope of Greenwich Village
Books
Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac
Alison Lurie, Foreign Affairs
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: R. Bruce Merrifield (US), for research that revolutionized the study of proteins.
Physics: Carlo Rubbia (Italy) and Simon van der Meer (Netherlands), for their role in discovering three subatomic particles, a step toward developing a single theory to account for all natural forces.
Physiology or Medicine: Cesar Milstein (UK/Argentina), Georges J. F. Kohler (West Germany), and Niels K. Jerne (UK/Denmark), for their work in immunology.
Joe W. Kittinger makes the first solo transatlantic balloon flight in the helium-filled Rosie O'Grady's Balloon of Peace. He travels 3,535 miles from Caribou, Maine to Savona, Italy. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
Apple introduces the user-friendly Macintosh personal computer. Background: Computers and Internet
Deaths
Indira Gandhi
Francois Truffaut
Truman Capote
Count Basie