December 1985 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Dec 4 French President François Mitterrand receives Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski

21st President of France François Mitterrand

General and 1st President of Poland Wojciech Jaruzelski

Event of Interest

Dec 4 President Reagan appoints Vice Admiral John Poindexter as security adviser

Dec 5 Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 level for 1st time
Dec 5 Great Britain performs nuclear test
Dec 5 Sam Shepard's "Lie of the Mind" premieres in NYC
Dec 7 Atlantis (61-B) returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
Dec 8 Ken O'Brien's 96 yard TD pass (NY Jet record) to Wesley Walker

Event of Interest

Dec 9 Argentinian Junta leaders Jorge Rafael Videla and Emilio Eduardo Massera sentenced to life imprisonment for human rights violations in Buenos Aires

Dictator and President of Argentina Jorge Rafael Videla

Dec 9 Phoenix, Arizona, gets 3" of snow
Dec 10 Bill to balance the federal budget passed by US Congress
Dec 11 Computer store owner in Sacramento California killed by package bomb
Dec 11 Dow Jones closes above 1,500 for 1st time (1,511.70)
Dec 12 248 US soldiers & 8 crew members die in Arrow Air charter crash
Dec 12 DC-8 crashes near Gander, Newfoundland; 258 die
Dec 12 NASA launches space vehicle S-207

Event of Interest

Dec 14 US Secretary of State George P. Shultz arrives in West Berlin

Dec 16 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating of STS 51-L mission

Event of Interest

Dec 16 John Gotti assumes leadership of New York's Gambino crime family after ordering the executions of Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti

Dec 18 UN Security Council unanimously condemns "acts of hostage-taking"
Dec 19 Mary Lund is 1st woman to receive a Jarvik VII artificial heart at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis
Dec 19 STS 61-C scrubbed at T -13s because of SRB auxiliary power problem
Dec 20 Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st)
Dec 21 ARCO Anchorage runs aground near Port Angeles, WA
Dec 22 STS 51-L vehicle moves to Launch Pad 39B

Event of Interest

Dec 27 Terrorists kill 20 and wound 110 attacking El Al at Rome and Vienna airports. President Reagan blames Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Libyan Revolutionary and Dictator Muammar Gaddafi

Dec 28 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Dec 28 Warring Lebanese Muslim & Christian leaders sign peace agreement
Dec 30 IBM-PC DOS Version 3.2 released
Dec 30 Pakistan restores constitution

Birthdays in History

Dec 14 Paul Rabil, Lebanese-American professional lacrosse player, born in Gaithersburg, Maryland
Dec 16 Keita Tachibana, member of Japanese boy band w-inds.
Dec 17 Ryuichi Ogata, member of Japanese boy band w-inds.
Dec 28 Kamani Hill, American footballer, born in Berkeley, California
Dec 30 Lars Boom, Dutch cyclist

Weddings in History

Lee Hsien Loong

Dec 17 Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong (33) weds Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching

Deaths in History

Dec 2 Aniello Dellacroce, American gangster (b. 1914)
Dec 2 Philip Larkin, English poet and writer (North Ship, Jill), dies at 63
Dec 4 Frederick Boland, Irish diplomat (President of the UN General Assembly), dies at 81
Dec 6 Burr Tillstrom, American puppeteer (Kukla, Fran & Ollie), dies at 68
Dec 7 Potter Stewart, 94th Supreme Court Justice (1958-81), dies in NH at 70
Dec 7 Robert Graves, English writer and poet (King Jesus), dies at 90
Dec 14 Catherine Doherty, Russian-born Canadian activist, dies at 89
Dec 15 Forrest C. Shaklee, American chiropractor and founder (Shaklee Products), dies at 91
Dec 16 Paul Castellano, American organized-crime chief, shot dead at a NYC restaurant at 70
Dec 16 Thomas Bilotti, American mafioso (b. 1940)
Dec 17 Otto Gotsche, writer, dies
Dec 18 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet (b. 1916)
Dec 24 Ferhat Abbas, Algerian politician and President of the National Constituent Assembly of Algeria (1962-63), dies at 86
Dec 26 Dian Fossey, American zoologist (Gorillas in the Mist), murdered in Rwanda at 53