Chronology year 1984

5 min read

Brunei becomes independent from the United Kingdom, after being a British protectorate since 1888.
Apple airs its famous Macintosh computer ad during Super Bowl XVIII.
Apple's Macintosh computer goes on sale for US$2,495.
Michael Jackson suffers second-degree burns while filming a Pepsi commercial.
83 workers die in explosion at the Mitsui Miike coal mine, in Fukuoka, Japan.

Culture Club's Karma Chameleon hits #1 on the US Billboard chart.
First untethered spacewalk: astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert Stewart use jetpacks during mission STS-41-B.
Opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
Torvill and Dean win gold medal in figure skating with perfect score — historic milestone.
American troops withdraw from Beirut, after a failed attempt at pacification in Lebanon.

Iraq is accused of using chemical weapons against Iran, with evidence of mustard gas being used on Majnoon Island.
British coal miners begin a year-long strike against the closure of mines by the Thatcher government.
CIA agent William Francis Buckley is kidnapped by Hezbollah in Beirut; dies in captivity.
Lionel Richie's single Hello reaches the top of the UK charts for six weeks.
The UN investigates the use of chemical weapons by Iraq and confirms the evidence.

Marvin Gaye is murdered by his own father, one day before his 45th birthday, on April 1st.
The Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission takes the first Indian citizen into space, squadron leader Rakesh Sharma.
President Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
British comedian Tommy Cooper dies live on TV, during a performance, from a heart attack.
Bomb explosion in the baggage area of Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport injures 22 people.

$180 million out-of-court settlement is awarded to American veterans exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The Thames Barrier in London is officially opened, protecting the city against flooding.
The Soviet Union announces a boycott of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics, in retaliation for the 1980 American boycott.
Nelson Mandela, imprisoned in South Africa, sees his wife for the first time in 22 years.
Methane gas explosion in Lancashire, England, kills 16 people.

Bruce Springsteen's album Born in the U.S.A. is released in the USA — the artist's seventh album.
Soviet programmer Alexei Pajitnov creates the game Tetris, initially available for Electronika 60.
F5 tornado hits Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing 9 people.
Confrontation between striking miners and British police in Orgreave, South Yorkshire — called the Battle of Orgreave.
Prince's album Purple Rain is released, becoming one of the biggest hits of the decade.

When Doves Cry, by Prince, tops the American charts for five weeks.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Law is approved in the USA, establishing 21 years as the legal age throughout the country.
Beverly Burns becomes the first female captain of a Boeing 747.
Massacre at the San Ysidro McDonald's, in San Diego: James Huberty kills 21 people before being shot by police.
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a spacewalk, during the Salyut 7 mission.

Opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, boycotted by the USSR and allies.
Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast, wins gold medal with a perfect score on vault — the first American woman to win Olympic gold in gymnastics.
President Reagan jokes about "bombing Russia" during a microphone test — the recording is leaked and generates international repercussions.
NASA's space shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage, on mission STS-41-D.

British geneticist Alec Jeffreys develops genetic fingerprinting (DNA fingerprinting).
Princess Diana gives birth to her second child with Prince Charles, Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David).
A Hezbollah member drives a car bomb into the US Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people.

Astronaut Kathryn Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a spacewalk, during the STS-41-G mission.
IRA attack on Margaret Thatcher in Brighton: bomb in hotel kills five people; the prime minister escapes.
I Just Called to Say I Love You, by Stevie Wonder, tops the American charts for three weeks.
The film The Terminator, by James Cameron, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, is released in the USA.
Assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31.

Anti-Sikh riots break out across India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi; thousands of Sikhs are killed.
Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the USA since 1962, in North Carolina.
Ronald Reagan is re-elected US president in a landslide victory over Walter Mondale, winning 49 of the 50 states.
Explosions at LP gas storage facility in San Juanico, Mexico, kill about 500 people.
36 musicians record Do They Know It's Christmas? in London, to raise funds for famine victims in Ethiopia.

NASA and FAA conduct controlled collision of a Boeing 720 in the Mojave Desert to collect data on plane crashes.
Beverly Hills Cop (Beverly Hills Cop), with Eddie Murphy, premieres in Los Angeles.
Chemical leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, exposes more than 500,000 people to methyl isocyanate — considered the worst industrial disaster in history.
Margaret Thatcher signs the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Madonna's single Like a Virgin tops the American charts for six weeks.
Bernhard Goetz shoots and wounds four robbers on the New York subway, sparking debate about self-defense.
Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard, loses his left arm in a car accident in England.