What Happened in 1984 — Events, Births & Deaths

The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is divested of its 22 Bell System companies as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T.

Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-establish full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning the United States Congress's 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.

A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.

Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique, eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so far recorded in the region.

Doctor John Buster and a research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the United States announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.

Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

Kenyan soldiers kill an estimated 5,000 ethnic Somali Kenyans in the Wagalla massacre.

Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Iran launches Operation Dawn 5, a major offensive during the Iran–Iraq War targeting the Basra–Baghdad highway, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.

A child and an adult man are killed and 12 others are injured in the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles.

Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.

William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity.

The Baltimore Colts load their possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer their operations to Indianapolis.

Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.

President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.

One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul.

Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.

The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.

The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.

Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.

The Danube–Black Sea Canal is opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s.

Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.

Operation Blue Star: Under orders from India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Army begins an invasion of the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion.

Homosexuality is decriminalized in the Australian state of New South Wales.

A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of striking miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984–85 UK miners' strike.

Virgin Atlantic launches with its first flight from London to Newark.

The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.

The United States Supreme Court gives its United States v. Leon decision providing a good-faith exception from the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule against use of evidence obtained through defective warrants in criminal trials.

McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people and injures 19 others before being shot dead by police.

Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.

Olympic Games: Games of the XXIII Olympiad: The summer Olympics were opened in Los Angeles.

Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England.

The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.

The Ariane 3 rocket is launched for the first time, carrying the Eutelsat I F-2 and Télécom 1A satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

A Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes on approach to Zia International Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing all 49 people on board.

"We begin bombing in five minutes": United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

An infamous brawl takes place at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium between the Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish Armed Forces with an attack on police and gendarmerie bases in Şemdinli and Eruh.

STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

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.

STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.

Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.

An explosion on board a Maltese patrol boat disposing of illegal fireworks at sea off Gozo kills seven soldiers and policemen.

Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.

Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.

Brunei joins the United Nations.

The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997.

Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space.

The popular children's television show Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends, based on The Railway Series by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, premieres on ITV.

Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds at least 31 others.

Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Niki Lauda claims his third and final Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by half a point ahead of McLaren team-mate Alain Prost at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and other cities and around 3,000 Sikhs are killed.

After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupt.

Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.

San Juanico disaster: A series of explosions at the Pemex petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City starts a major fire and kills about 500 people.

Thirty-six top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agrees to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty.

NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.

Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom later died from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 107–150 civilians in Mannar.

United Nations General Assembly recognizes the Convention against Torture.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997, is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.

Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."

"Subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz shoots four would-be muggers on a 2 express train in Manhattan section of New York, United States.

After experiencing an engine fire, Aeroflot Flight 3519 attempts to make an emergency landing at Krasnoyarsk International Airport but crashes, killing 110 of the 111 people on board.

Marouane Chamakh, Moroccan footballer

Justin Baldoni, American actor, director, and producer

Jay Briscoe, American wrestler (died 2023)

Stefan Kießling, German footballer

Robinho, Brazilian footballer

Elizabeth Holmes, American fraudster, founder of Theranos

Matthew Moy, American actor

Doug Fister, American baseball player

Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer

Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer

Brad Keselowski, American race car driver

Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer

Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer

Tommy Bowe, Irish rugby player

Branislav Ivanović, Serbian footballer

Emmanuel Adebayor, Togolese footballer

Beren Saat, Turkish actress

Darren Ambrose, English footballer

Rica Imai, Japanese model and actress

Cullen Jones, American swimmer

Nuria Martínez, Spanish basketball player

Lena Raine, American video game composer and producer

Steve Burtt Jr., American-Ukrainian basketball player

Mathieu Flamini, French footballer

Jacob Lillyman, Australian rugby league player

Brandon T. Jackson, American actor and comedian

Yoshihisa Hirano, Japanese baseball player

Ross Taylor, New Zealand cricketer

Anders Lindegaard, Danish footballer

Blake Costanzo, American football player

Charles Hamelin, Canadian speed skater

Harumafuji Kōhei, Mongolian sumo wrestler, the 70th Yokozuna

Tyler Thigpen, American football player

Antonio Cromartie, American football player

Cam Janssen, American ice hockey player

Daniel Paille, Canadian ice hockey player

Claire Foy, English actress

Tucker Fredricks, American speed skater

Paweł Kieszek, Polish footballer

Pablo Sebastián Álvarez, Argentinian footballer

Jed Lowrie, American baseball player

Raffaele Palladino, Italian footballer

America Ferrera, American actress

Harris Wittels, American comedian (died 2015)

Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player

Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby league player

Patrick Stump, American musician, singer, and songwriter

David Backes, American ice hockey player

Brad Maddox, American wrestler and referee

James Loney, American baseball player

Kevin Owens, Canadian wrestler

Prince Fielder, American baseball player

Edward Mujica, Venezuelan baseball player

Gary Ablett, Jr., Australian footballer

Olly Murs, English singer-songwriter

Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and businessman, co-founder of Facebook

Christian Bolaños, Costa Rican footballer

Christine Ohuruogu, English runner

Ivet Lalova, Bulgarian sprinter

Simon Pagenaud, French race car driver

Darius Šilinskis, Lithuanian basketball player

Joakim Soria, Mexican baseball player

Niki Terpstra, Dutch cyclist

Marcedes Lewis, American football player

Mauro Rafael da Silva, Brazilian footballer

Patrick Ewing Jr., American basketball player

Sham Kwok Fai, Hong Kong footballer

Andrew Bailey, American baseball player

Milorad Čavić, Serbian swimmer

Nate Robinson, American basketball player

Jean Beausejour, Chilean footballer

Olivier Tielemans, Dutch racing driver

Nikki Glaser, American comedian

Jack Afamasaga, New Zealand rugby league player

Feleti Mateo, Australian-Tongan rugby league player

Javier Mascherano, Argentine footballer and manager

Johanna Kedzierski, German sprinter

Dirk Van Tichelt, Belgian martial artist

Andy Lee, Irish boxer

Vágner Love, Brazilian footballer

James Kwalia, Kenyan-Qatari runner

Bruno Soriano, Spanish footballer

Luke Hodge, Australian footballer

Eva Hrdinová, Czech tennis player

Tim Lincecum, American baseball player

Edison Toloza, Colombian footballer

Paul Dano, American actor

Wieke Dijkstra, Dutch field hockey player

Andri Eleftheriou, Cypriot sport shooter

Dustin Johnson, American golfer

Rubén Iván Martínez, Spanish footballer

Jerome Taylor, Jamaican cricketer

Janko Tipsarević, Serbian tennis player

Duffy, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress

Takeshi Matsuda, Japanese swimmer

Levern Spencer, Saint Lucian high jumper

Aleksandr Shustov, Russian high jumper

Fantasia Barrino, American singer-songwriter and actress

Dax Harwood, American wrestler

Tunku Ismail Idris, Crown Prince of Johor, Malaysia

Thomas Kortegaard, Danish footballer

Elise Stefanik, American politician

Johnny Weir, American figure skater

Jin Akanishi, Japanese singer-songwriter

Zhang Hao, Chinese figure skater

Minas Alozidis, Greek hurdler

Alberto Aquilani, Italian footballer

Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladeshi cricketer

Chris Campoli, Canadian ice hockey player

Gianni Fabiano, Italian footballer

Jacob Hoggard, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Ave Pajo, Estonian footballer

Piia Suomalainen, Finnish tennis player

LA Tenorio, Filipino basketball player

Nikolaos Mitrou, Greek footballer

Dagbjört Hákonardóttir, Icelandic politician

Samir Handanović, Slovenian footballer

Hayanari Shimoda, Japanese racing driver

Attila Szabó, Hungarian decathlete

Ali Krieger, American soccer player

Zach Parise, American ice hockey player

DeMeco Ryans, American football player and coach

Oh Beom-seok, South Korean footballer

Terry Campese, Australian rugby league player

Mardy Collins, American basketball player

Vedad Ibišević, Bosnian footballer

Maja Ognjenović, Serbian volleyball player

Jesse Ryder, New Zealand cricketer

Eva Birnerová, Czech tennis player

Clay Buchholz, American baseball player

Giorgio Chiellini, Italian footballer

Josh Gorges, Canadian ice hockey player

Nick Grimshaw, English radio and television host

Nicola Slater, Scottish tennis player

Robin Söderling, Swedish tennis player

Jarrod Dyson, American baseball player

Emily Kinney, American actress and singer-songwriter

Matteo Anesi, Italian speed skater

Erin Molan, Australian journalist and sportscaster

Charlie Villanueva, Dominican-American basketball player

Florian Mohr, German footballer

Will Harris, American baseball player

Hamish McIntosh, Australian footballer

Kyle Mooney, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter

Nashat Akram, Iraqi footballer

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

Marshal Yanda, American football player

Anthony Gonzalez, American football player and politician

Travis Outlaw, American basketball player

Dizzee Rascal, British hip hop musician

Patrick Ehelechner, German ice hockey player

Bobby Brown, American basketball player

Cherine Anderson, Jamaican singer-songwriter and actress

Matt Carle, American ice hockey player

Nev Schulman, American photographer, television host, and producer

Per Mertesacker, German footballer

Marion Bartoli, French tennis player

Lena Katina, Russian singer-songwriter

Petri Kontiola, Finnish ice hockey player

Karolina Tymińska, Polish heptathlete

LaRon Landry, American football player

Alex Scott, English footballer

Robert Harting, German discus thrower

Jon Cornish, Canadian football player

Tobias Enström, Swedish ice hockey player

Baruto Kaito, Estonian sumo wrestler

Delta Goodrem, Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress

French Montana, Moroccan-American rapper

Seven, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor

Lucas Barrios, Paraguayan footballer

Kurt Morath, Tongan rugby player

Hilton Armstrong, American basketball player

Lucas Grabeel, American actor, singer, and songwriter

Amruta Khanvilkar, Indian actress and dancer

Justin Turner, American baseball player

David Booth, American ice hockey player

Maria Höfl-Riesch, German skier

Peter Siddle, Australian cricketer

Gaspard Ulliel, French actor (died 2022)

Leslie Dewan, American entrepreneur

Izumi Kitta, Japanese voice actress and singer

Domata Peko, American football player

Andrew Bogut, Australian basketball player

Marc-André Fleury, Canadian ice hockey player

Leighton Baines, English footballer

Sandra Echeverría, Mexican actress and singer

James Ellsworth, American wrestler

Xosha Roquemore, American actress

Daniel Agger, Danish footballer

Santi Cazorla, Spanish footballer

Hanna-Maria Seppälä, Finnish freestyle swimmer

Martin Škrtel, Slovak footballer

Theo James, English actor

Bob Morley, Australian actor

David Tavaré, Spanish singer and DJ

Dudu Aharon, Israeli singer-songwriter

Isaac De Gois, Australian rugby league player

Chris Cahill, Samoan footballer

Alastair Cook, English cricketer

Chris Richard, American basketball player

Ahmed Barusso, Ghanaian footballer

Leonardo Ghiraldini, Italian rugby player

Martin Kaymer, German golfer

Duane Solomon, American runner

Randall Azofeifa, Costa Rican footballer

Andra Day, American singer and songwriter

LeBron James, American basketball player, producer and businessman

Ludwik Starski, Polish screenwriter and songwriter (born 1903)

Estelle Winwood, English actress (born 1883)

Ernest Tidyman, American author and screenwriter; Academy Award winner for The French Connection (born 1928)

Philippe Wynne, American soul singer (The Spinners) (born 1941)