Events 1 - 200 of 382
Coup d'état
Jan 2 Major-General Muhammadu Buhari is declared Head of State in Nigeria, following a military coup
Muhammadu Buhari
- Jan 3 Syria frees captured US pilot after appeal from Jesse Jackson
- Jan 6 Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 41 B mission
- Jan 7 Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
- Jan 8 Wash Caps Bengt Gustafsson scores 5 goals to beat Philadelphia 7-1
- Jan 9 EAA moves operations to Oshkosh
- Jan 10 Argentine ex-president and general Reynaldo Bignone arrested
- Jan 10 Bulgarian Tupolev 134 crashes at Sofia airport in Bulgaria, 50 die
- Jan 10 Clara Peller 1st asks, "Where's the Beef?" in commercial for Wendy's hamburger chain
- Jan 10 US re-establishes full diplomatic relations with Vatican after almost 117 years
- Jan 11 NASA space shuttle STS 41-B moves to launch pad
- Jan 11 Supreme Court reinstated $10M award to Karen Silkwood's family
- Jan 13 TV anchor Christine Craft wins $325,000 in her case against KMBC-TV
- Jan 15 Schonbrun skates world record 5 km (7:39.44)
- Jan 15 Tony Benn, described as a “leftwing rebel” wins Labour's nomination for the by-election in Chesterfield, UK
- Jan 18 80th Islander & 3rd dual hat trick (Carroll & Bossy) 9-1 win
- Jan 19 California Supreme Court rejects the request of quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia's to starve herself to death in a public hospital
- Jan 20 US female Figure Skating championship won by Rosalynn Sumners
- Jan 22 Hilbert van de Thumb becomes European all-round skates
- Jan 24 Apple Computer Inc unveils its revolutionary Macintosh personal computer
- Jan 26 US navy exhibits Piasecki helistat-4 helicopters & a blimp able to lift 26 tons-Lakehurst, New Jersey
- Jan 28 Record 295,000 dominoes toppled in Fuerth, West Germany
Event of Interest
Jan 29 President Reagan formally announces he will seek a 2nd term
Ronald Reagan
- Jan 31 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 1 China & Netherlands regain diplomatic relations
- Feb 1 Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre kidnapped and murdered by Kashmiri terrorists in Birmingham, England
- Feb 2 Lebanese army fights in Beirut
- Feb 3 10th Space Shuttle Mission (41B)-Challenger 4 launched
- Feb 4 Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168m) Las Vegas
- Feb 5 NZ beat England (82 & 93) by an innings in 3 days
- Feb 6 Muslim militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese army
- Feb 7 American astronaut Bruce McCandless makes 1st untethered space walk
- Feb 7 David (born without immunity system) touches his mother for 1st time at age 12
- Feb 8 1st time 8 people in space
- Feb 8 Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of 3 to Salyut 7
- Feb 11 10th space shuttle mission (41-B)-Challenger 4-returns to Earth
- Feb 13 6 year old Texan Stormie Jones gets 1st heart & liver transplant
Event of Interest
Feb 13 Konstantin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as leader of the Soviet Union
Konstantin Chernenko
Yuri Andropov
- Feb 15 500,000 Iranian soldiers move into Iraq
- Feb 18 Revised concordat between Italy & Vatican signed
- Feb 19 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Feb 24 Iraq resumes air attack on Iran
- Feb 25 Oil fire in Cubatao Brazil kills 500
- Feb 26 Last US marines in multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon left Beirut
- Feb 26 Reverend Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called NYC "Hymietown"
- Feb 26 Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize winner, named 1st US poet laureate
- Feb 27 WRC-AM in Washington, D.C. changes call letters to WWRC
- Feb 27 Worker's union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa
Event of Interest
Feb 29 Pierre Trudeau announces he is stepping down after 15 years as Canadian Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau
- Mar 1 Landsat 5 & ham satellite Oscar 11 launched into polar orbit
- Mar 1 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR #3931 Batten, #4529 Webern, #4530 Smoluchowski, #4818 Elgar, #5502 Brashear & #5943 Lovi
- Mar 2 Iran offensive against Iraq fails
- Mar 5 Supreme Court (5-4): city may use public money for Nativity scene
- Mar 5 US accuse Iraq of using poison gas
- Mar 6 Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
- Mar 7 The United States attacks San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua.
- Mar 9 Emile Gumbs' Anguilla National Alliance wins elections
- Mar 9 The Competitive Enterprise Institute is founded in Washington, D.C.
- Mar 12 British National Union of Mine Workers headed by Arthur Scargill supports regional strikes, calls for national action
- Mar 14 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida), for mating of STS 41-C mission
- Mar 14 Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast
- Mar 15 Tanzania adopts constitution
- Mar 16 Gunmen kidnap William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut
- Mar 16 South Africa & Mozambique sign non attack treaty
- Mar 19 John J O'Connor named 8th archbishop of New York
- Mar 19 KSD-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KUSA
- Mar 19 Mobil oil tanker spills 200,000 gallons into Columbia River
- Mar 19 STS 41-C vehicle moves to launch pad
- Mar 20 Andy Kaufman & Fred Blassie's "My Breakfast With Blassie" premieres
- Mar 20 Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools
- Mar 20 Nigerian Major-General Babatunde Idiagbon launches a campaign on ‘National Consciousness and Enlightenment’
- Mar 21 Soviet sub crashes into USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off Japan
- Mar 22 Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- Mar 23 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 3 km (4:20.91)
- Mar 23 Ice Pairs Championship at Ottawa won by Underhill & Paul Martini (CAN)
- Mar 24 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 5 km (7:34.52)
- Mar 24 Igor Malkov skates world record 10 km (14:21.51)
- Mar 27 Beginning of "tanker war": over the next 9 months, 44 ships, including Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti tankers, are attacked by Iraqi or Iranian warplanes or damaged by mines
- Mar 29 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Mar 30 US ends participation in multinational Lebanon peace force
- Mar 30 World's most valuable tip - New York police detective Robert Cunningham offers waitress Phyllis Penzo half of $1 lottery ticket, next day they win $6 million
- Mar 31 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Apr 1 14th Easter Seal Telethon raises $24,600,000
- Apr 1 8 men record longest distance (13 miles) rowed in 24 hours
- Apr 3 Bombay beat Delhi on 1st innings to win Ranji Trophy
- Apr 3 Guinea suspends constitution after coup
- Apr 3 Soyuz T-11 carries 3 cosmonauts (1 Indian-Rakesh Sharma) to Salyut 7
- Apr 4 Michael Frayn's "Benefactors" premieres in London
Event of Interest
Apr 4 Winston Smith in Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" begins his secret diary in defiance of the totalitarian government of Oceania
George Orwell
- Apr 6 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41-C)-Challenger 5 is launched
- Apr 6 1st time 11 people in space
- Apr 6 Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
- Apr 10 Damaged Solar Max satellite snared by Challenger shuttle
- Apr 10 US Senate condemns CIA mining of Nicaraguan harbors
- Apr 11 Challenger astronauts complete 1st in space satellite repair
- Apr 11 Chinese troops invade Vietnam
- Apr 11 General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko named President of the Soviet Union
- Apr 11 Soyuz T-11 returns to Earth
- Apr 13 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41C)-Challenger 5-returns to Earth
- Apr 15 Extremist Sikhs plunder 40 stations in Punjab India
- Apr 15 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Apr 16 Pulitzer prize awarded to Mary Oliver for "American Primitive"
- Apr 17 During Libyan Embassy demonstration in London, British police officer Yvonne Fletcher shot dead
- Apr 18 Space Shuttle Challenger flies back to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly Air Force Base
- Apr 19 Nemesis, death star of dinosaurs 1st appears in print (Nature magazine)
- Apr 20 Russian offensive in Panshirvallei Afghanistan
- Apr 21 Centers for Disease Cont says virus discovered in France causes AIDS
- Apr 21 Franz Weber of Austria skis downhill at a record 209.8 kph
- Apr 21 Montreal Expo David Palmer no-hits St Louis Cards, 4-0 in a perfect 5 inn game
- Apr 23 AIDS-virus identified as HTLV-III (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)
- Apr 25 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Apr 26 Liverpool's Cavern Club reopens
- Apr 26 President Reagan visits China
- Apr 27 Over 70 inches of snow falls on Red Lake Montana
- Apr 30 1,700 skiers participate in an alpine event at Are, Sweden
- May 1 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Historic Publication
May 1 Danielle Steel’s romance novel “Full Circle” is published
Danielle Steel
Event of Interest
May 9 Alexander Calder's "Big Crinkly" sells for $852,000
Alexander Calder
- May 10 Intl Court of Justice rules on US blockade of Nicaragua
- May 11 Tigers set best 30 game start record (26-4)
- May 11 Transit of Earth as seen on Mars
- May 12 Discovery moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 41-D
- May 12 France performs nuclear test
- May 12 Joe Lucius scores his 13th hole-in-one on same hole
Event of Interest
May 12 South African prisoner Nelson Mandela sees his wife for 1st time in 22 years
Nelson Mandela
Event of Interest
May 17 Prince Charles calls proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend," sparking controversy on the role of the Royal Family and course of modern architecture.
Prince Charles
- May 17 Marvin Creamer becomes 1st known person to sail around the world without navigational instruments, arriving back in Cape May, New Jersey, after 513 days
- May 19 STS 41-D vehicle moves to launch pad
- May 26 Floods kill 14 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
- May 26 US President Ronald Reagan rules out US military intervention in Iran-Iraq war
- May 27 Beth Henley's "Miss Firecracker contest" premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
May 28 George Soros founds the Soros Foundation Budapest to help countries free themselves from communism
George Soros
- May 30 Bomb explodes in rebel leader Eden Pastora's headquarters in Nicaragua
- May 31 57th National Spelling Bee: Daniel Greenblatt wins spelling luge
- May 31 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Jun 1 KWK-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KGLD
- Jun 1 Netherlands' Lubbers government gives 48 sites for cruise missiles
- Jun 2 Flight readiness firing of Discovery's main engines
- Jun 3 38th Tony Awards: Real Thing & La Cage Aux Folles win
- Jun 4 DNA is successfully cloned from an extinct animal
Event of Interest
Jun 5 Indira Gandhi orders an attack on Sikh's holiest site, the Golden Temple in Amritsar
Indira Gandhi
- Jun 6 1,200 die in Sikh "Golden Temple" uprising India
- Jun 6 Video game Tetris is first released in the Soviet Union by Alexey Pajitnov
- Jun 8 Homosexuality is declared legal in the state of New South Wales, Australia
- Jun 9 Cyndi Lauper gets her first US #1 hit with "Time After Time"
- Jun 9 "Laserphonic Fantasy" premieres
- Jun 9 NASA suffers a launch vehicle failure launching Intelsat 509
- Jun 9 Polygram's Hanover Germany plant produces its 10 millionth CD
- Jun 10 US missile shoots down an incoming missile in space for first time
- Jun 11 Funeral for S Nakagawa & burial of half of his ashes
- Jun 11 US Supreme Court declares illegally obtained evidence may be admitted at trial if it could be proved that it would have been discovered legally
- Jun 14 Southern Baptist convention decide on no women clergy members
- Jun 15 "Thicke Of The Night" TV Talk Show last airs in syndication
- Jun 16 Matt de Waal finishes 14,290-mi round trip from Salt Lake City (106d)
Event of Interest
Jun 17 John Turner succeeds Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
John Turner
Pierre Trudeau
Event of Interest
Jun 22 Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways commences operations with flight from Gatwick to Newark
Richard Branson
- Jun 25 Lydia Garrett, 24, crowned 17th Miss Black America
- Jun 25 STS 41-D launch attempt scrubbed because of computer problem
- Jun 26 1st flight of Shuttle Discovery (41-D) scrubbed at T -4
- Jun 27 Fire destroys a set in "A View to a Kill"
- Jun 27 Late Night's 1st Tower Drop
- Jun 28 Former member of South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), Jeannette Schoon, and her six-year-old daughter, Katryn, are killed by a letter bomb at Lubango, in northern Angola
- Jun 29 USSR offers to start talking about banning SDI
- Jun 30 Failed coup by cocaine growers in Bolivia
- Jun 30 Longest pro football game, LA Express beats Mich Panthers 27-21 in USFL playoffs, games lasts 93 minutes 33 seconds
- Jun 30 Pierre Trudeau officially steps down as Prime Minister of Canada after serving two separate terms for a total of 15 years
- Jul 1 The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA
- Jul 3 Dolphin rocket launched off San Clemente Island
- Jul 3 Supreme Court rules Jaycees may be forced to admit women as members
- Jul 4 Funeral for S Nakagawa and burial of half his ashes next to N Senzaki
- Jul 4 Yuri Sedykh of USSR throws hammer a record 86.33 m
- Jul 5 Supreme Court weakens 70-year-old "exclusionary rule"-evidence seized with defective court warrants can now be used in criminal trials
- Jul 7 5 die in a train crash in Williston, Vermont
- Jul 9 12th Century York Minster damaged in lightning storm
- Jul 11 Government orders air bags or seat belts would be required in cars by 1989
- Jul 11 Lucas Mangope re-elected president of Bophuthatswana
Appointment of Interest
Jul 12 Geraldine Ferraro becomes the 1st US female major-party vice-presidential candidate, after Walter Mondale selects her as his Democratic Party running mate
Geraldine Ferraro
Walter Mondale
- Jul 12 A car bomb set off by the military wing of the ANC, explodes in Durban South Africa killing 5 and injuring 27 people
- Jul 13 Jeff Beck quits Rod Stewart's tour after 7 shows
- Jul 13 The last sitting of an all-white Parliament in South Africa
- Jul 14 STS 41-D vehicle moves to Vandenberg AFB for remanifest of payloads