1985 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1985?
- January 28, 1985 – 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.
- February 16, 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
- February 20, 1985 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Wood Ox in Chinese astrology.
- March 11, 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- March 20, 1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
- April 8, 1985 – Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
- April 20, 1985 – The ATF raids The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
- April 23, 1985 – 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.
- May 31, 1985 – 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
- June 14, 1985 – TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens, Greece.
- June 24, 1985 – 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.
- July 7, 1985 – Boris Becker becomes the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17
- July 13, 1985 – The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow.
- July 15, 1985 – The Nintendo Entertainment System, the best-selling game console of its time, is released in Japan.
- July 19, 1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
- August 12, 1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
- August 27, 1985 – The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
- September 6, 1985 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
- November 23, 1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
- December 12, 1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, including 236 members of the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
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