| 1985-05-31
1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
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| 1985-11-06
In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the April 19 Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, eventually killing 115 people, 11 of them Supreme Court justices.
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| 1985-06-23
A terrorist bomb aboard Air India flight 182 brings the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.
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| 1985-03-04
The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
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| 1985-05-25
Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
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| 1985-03-15
The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
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| 1985-02-16
Hezbollah is founded.
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| 1985-12-16
Mafia: In New York City, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.
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| 1985-04-07
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.
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| 1985-06-30
Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.
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| 1985-01-29
Final recording session of We Are The World, by the supergroup USA for Africa.
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| 1985-03-21
Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
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| 1985-03-03
Arthur Scargill declares that the National Union of Mineworkers national executive voted to end the longest-running industrial dispute in Great Britain without any peace deal over pit closures.
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| 1985-07-13
United States Vice President George H.W. Bush becomes the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan undergoes surgery to remove polyps from his colon.
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| 1985-09-19
A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
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| 1985-10-07
The Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestine Liberation Organization.
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| 1985-06-15
Rembrandt's painting Danaë is attacked by a man (later judged insane) who throws sulfuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife.
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| 1985-04-20
ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
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| 1985-11-20
Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
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| 1985-08-07
Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
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| 1985-10-10
United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
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| 1985-01-21
The inauguration of President Ronald Reagan to a second term, already postponed a day because Jan. 20 fell on a Sunday, becomes the second inauguration in history moved indoors because of freezing temperatures and high winds. The parade is cancelled altogether.
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| 1985-05-11
Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.
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| 1985-04-19
FBI siege on the compound of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSAL) in Arkansas
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| 1985-02-28
The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
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| 1985-08-12
Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
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| 1985-06-09
Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he will not be released until 1991).
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| 1985-03-31
The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York
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| 1985-03-16
Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
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| 1985-06-06
The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is exhumed in Embu, Brazil; the remains found are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death". Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February, 1979.
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| 1985-04-23
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.
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| 1985-03-17
Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles, California murder spree.
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| 1985-09-01
A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
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| 1985-07-10
Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland, New Zealand harbor by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira.
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| 1985-06-14
TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens, Greece.
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| 1985-03-11
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the Soviet Union's leader.
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| 1985-08-27
The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
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| 1985-03-07
The song "We Are the World" had its international release.
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| 1985-10-30
Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
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| 1985-11-15
The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
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| 1985-10-04
Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.
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| 1985-06-24
STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completes its mission, best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist.
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| 1985-02-19
Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.
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| 1985-07-19
The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
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| 1985-07-13
The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow.
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| 1985-10-26
The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
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| 1985-04-08
Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
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| 1985-01-01
The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
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| 1985-05-13
Police storm MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
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| 1985-07-07
Boris Becker becomes the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17
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| 1985-10-01
The Israeli air force bombs PLO Headquarters in Tunis.
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| 1985-09-06
Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
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| 1985-11-06
The Iran-Contra Affair: The American press reveals that U.S. President Ronald Reagan had authorized the shipment of arms to Iran.
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| 1985-04-19
U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk.
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| 1985-05-29
Heysel Stadium disaster: At the European Cup final in Brussels, Belgium, 39 football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses after Liverpool F.C. fans breach a fence separating them from Juventus F.C. fans.
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| 1985-11-13
Xavier Suarez is sworn in as Miami, Florida's first Cuban-born mayor.
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| 1985-11-19
Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
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| 1985-10-29
Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia.
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| 1985-12-27
Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside Rome and Vienna airports.
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| 1985-11-21
United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
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| 1985-11-13
The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.
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| 1985-08-02
Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport killing 137.
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| 1985-05-29
Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
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| 1985-01-28
Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
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| 1985-01-13
A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
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| 1985-07-20
The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
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| 1985-11-19
Pennzoil wins a $10.53 billion USD judgment against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in the history of the United States, stemming from Texaco executing a contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.
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| 1985-11-23
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.
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| 1985-10-28
Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.
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| 1985-11-15
A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.
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| 1985-09-22
The Plaza Accord is signed in New York City.
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| 1985-03-20
Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
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| 1985-11-09
Garry Kasparov 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.
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| 1985-01-01
The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
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| 1985-09-19
Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.
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| 1985-10-03
The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J)
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| 1985-01-23
O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
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| 1985-03-08
A failed assassination attempt on Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least 45 and injures 175 others.
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| 1985-10-06
PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.
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| 1985-02-19
Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
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| 1985-08-23
Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
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| 1985-05-20
Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
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| 1985-12-12
Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland killing 256, including 248 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
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