1984

Events

January

• January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
• January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
• January 9 – Van Halen releases their sixth studio album 1984, which debuts at number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and will go to sell over 10 million copies in the United States.
• January 10
• * The United States and the Vatican restore full diplomatic relations.
• * The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission.
• January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States.
• January 27 – American singer Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire during the making of the Pepsi commercial.

  February

• February 3
• * John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth.
• * STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission.
• February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
• February 8–19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
• February 13 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• February 22 – President of Bangladesh, H M Ershad upgrades South Sylhet's sub-division status to a district and renames it back to Moulvibazar.
• February 23 – TED is founded.
• February 29 – Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement.

  March

• March 5 – Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons; the United Nations condemns their use on March 30.
• March 12 – The National Union of Mineworkers strikes as tens of thousands of miners in the United Kingdom stop working in protest over colliery closures, starting the United Kingdom miners' strike that lasts a year.
• March 16
• * The United States Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley, is kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad Organization and later dies in captivity.
• * Gary Plauché shoots his son's rapist at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport
• March 23 – General Rahimuddin Khan becomes the first man in Pakistan's history to rule over two of its provinces, after becoming interim Governor of Sindh.

  April

• April 2 – Indian Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma is launched into space, aboard the Soyuz T-11.
• April 12 – Palestinian gunmen take Israeli bus number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus, freeing the hostages.
• April 13 – India launches Operation Meghdoot, bringing most of the disputed Siachen Glacier region of Kashmir under Indian control and triggering the Siachen conflict with Pakistan.
• April 15
• * The first World Youth Day gathering is held in Rome, Italy.
• * Pittsburgh Light Rail opens to the public.

• April 16 – More than one million people, led by Tancredo Neves, occupy the streets of São Paulo to demand direct presidential elections during the Brazilian military government of João Figueiredo. It is the largest protest during the Diretas Já civil unrest, as well as the largest public demonstration in the history of Brazil. The elections are granted in 1989.
• April 17 – Metropolitan Police officer Yvonne Fletcher was fatally shot, during a demonstration outside the Libyan embassy in London, leading to an eleven-day siege of the embassy, and the severing of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya.
• April 19 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
• April 24 – An X-class solar flare erupts on the Sun.
• April 26 – Sultan Iskandar of Johor becomes Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, in succession to Sultan Ahmad Shah, whose term ended the previous day.

  May

• May 2 – South Africa, Mozambique and Portugal sign an agreement on electricity supply from the Cahora Bassa dam.
• May 5
• * The Herreys' song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in Luxembourg. It subsequently becomes a top-ten hit in five European countries.
• * The Itaipu Dam, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay after nine years of construction, begins generating power; it is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world at the time.
• May 8 – The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
• May 11 – A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.
• May 12 – The Louisiana World Exposition, also known as the 1984 World's Fair, opens.
• May 13 – Severomorsk Disaster: an explosion at the Soviets' Severomorsk Naval Base destroys two-thirds of all the missiles stockpiled for the Soviets' Northern Fleet. The blast also destroys workshops needed to maintain the missiles as well as hundreds of technicians. Western military experts called it the worst naval disaster the Soviet Navy has suffered since WWII.
• May 14 – The one-dollar coin is introduced in Australia.
• May 23 – A methane gas explosion at Abbeystead water treatment works in Lancashire, UK, kills 16 people.
• May 30 – Liverpool beat Roma 5–2 after penalties in the final of the 1984 European Cup football tournament.

  June

• June 5 – The Indian government begins Operation Blue Star, the planned attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
• June 8 – A F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.
• June 14–16 – voting days for the European Parliament election
• June 16 – The Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil is founded.
• June 19 – 17-year-old Ricky Kasso murders Gary Lauwers in Northport, New York, contributing to the Satanic panic association of heavy metal music and satanism.
• June 22 – Virgin Atlantic makes its inaugural flight.
• June 25 – Hayim Association is founded by Prof. Rina Zaizov Marx and parents of children with cancer as paediatric oncology department in Israel.
• June 27 – France beats Spain 2–0 to win Euro 84.
• June 30 – John Turner becomes the 17th Prime Minister of Canada.

  July

• July 1
• * Liechtenstein becomes the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote.
• * Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona is sold by FC Barcelona to S.S.C. Napoli for a world record fee at this date of $10.48M.
• July 14 – New Zealand Prime Minister Rob Muldoon calls a snap election and is defeated by opposition Labour leader David Lange.
• July 18 – San Ysidro McDonald's massacre: 41-year-old James Huberty walks into a McDonald's in the San Ysidro district of San Diego, resulting in 21 deaths, with Huberty being killed by a sniper 77 minutes after the ordeal begins.
• July 25 – Salyut 7: cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
• July 28–August 12 – The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.

  August

• August 1 – Australian banks are deregulated.
• August 4
• * The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
• * reaches a record submergence depth of 1,020 meters.
• August 11 – Barefoot South African runner Zola Budd and Mary Decker of the U.S. collide in the Olympic 3000 meters final, neither finishing as medallists.
• August 16 – John DeLorean is acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.
• August 21 – Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

• August 30 – STS-41-D: the Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

  September

• September 2 – Seven people are shot and killed and 12 wounded in the Milperra massacre, a shootout between the rival motorcycle gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney, Australia.
• September 4 – The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney, wins 211 seats in the House of Commons of Canada, forming the largest majority government in Canadian history.
• September 5
• * STS-41-D: the Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• * Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
• September 7 – An explosion on board a Maltese patrol boat disposing illegal fireworks at sea off Gozo kills seven soldiers and policemen.
• September 14
• * P. W. Botha is inaugurated as the first executive State President of South Africa.
• * Joe Kittinger begins his attempt to become the first person to fly a gas balloon solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
• September 16 – Edgar Reitz's film series Heimat begins release in Germany.
• September 17 – Brian Mulroney is sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada.
• September 18 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic, solo, in a hot air balloon.
• September 20 – Hezbollah car-bombs the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people.
• September 26 – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
• September 29 – In the early morning, police in Sicily apprehend 366 people they suspect to be involved in the activities of Cosa Nostra.

  October

• October 2 - John Schnatter founded Papa John's in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.
• October 4 – Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer become the first Australians to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• October 5 – STS-41-G: Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
• October 9 – Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends by Britt Allcroft broadcasts its first two episodes in the United Kingdom.
• October 11
• * Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
• * Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashes at Omsk Airport into maintenance vehicles on the runway, killing 174 people on board and 4 on the ground.
• October 12 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing with an explosive device planted nearly a month earlier in their conference hotel. The terror attack kills five people and injures 31.
• October 14 – The Detroit Tigers defeat the San Diego Padres in game five of the 1984 World Series to win the franchise's 4th championship.
• October 19
• * Polish secret police kidnapped and assassinated Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest who supports the Solidarity movement. His body is found in a reservoir 11 days later on October 30.
• * Wapiti Aviation Flight 402 crashes into terrain southeast of High Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Six are killed including leader of the Alberta NDP, Grant Notley, while the four survivors are later rescued the next day.
• October 20 – Monterey Bay Aquarium is opened to the public after seven years of development and construction.
• October 23 – The world learns from moving BBC News television reports presented by Michael Buerk of the famine in Ethiopia, where thousands of people have already died of starvation due to a famine, and as many as 10,000,000 more lives are at risk.
• October 25 – The European Economic Community makes £1.8 million available to help combat the famine in Ethiopia.
• October 26 – The science fiction action film The Terminator premieres. It is the third film directed by James Cameron, and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn.
• October 31 – Assassination of Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her two Sikh security guards in New Delhi. Anti-Sikh riots break out, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 Sikhs dead in Delhi and surrounding areas with the majority populations of Hindus. Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.