RETURN TO INDEX
Top Song(s)
• Irene Cara - Flashdance... What a Feeling
• The Police - Every Breath You Take
• Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
• David Bowie - Let's Dance
• Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
Top Film(s)
• Return of the Jedi
• Scarface
• Videodrome
• The Right Stuff
• A Christmas Story
Best Selling Book(s)
• The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett
• Pet Sematary - Stephen King
• Christine - Stephen King
• The Witches - Roald Dahl
• Alanna: The First - Tamora Pierce
Famous Deaths
• January 18 – Arturo Umberto Illia, Argentine politician and physician, 34th President of Argentina
• January 28 - Frank Forde, Australian politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia
• March 9 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 17 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 2 - Pridi Banomyong, Thai politician and professor, 7th Prime Minister of Thailand
• May 19 – Jean Rey, 2nd President of the European Commission
• July 16 - Michel Micombero, 8th Prime Minister and 1st President of Burundi
• August 10 - José Baptista Pinheiro de Azevedo, 104th Prime Minister of Portugal
• September 8 – Ibrahim Abboud, 3rd Prime Minister and 1st President of Sudan
• October 7 - Christophe Soglo, 3rd President of Dahomey
Medical/Science/Technology
• Pioneer 10 passes the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to travel this far.
• Kary Mullis discovers polymerase chain reaction.
• First reports of HIV as a possible cause of AIDS, by independent virology team.
• First report of using a monoclonal antibody as a medical test.
• The ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
• Word processor software Multi-Tool Word, soon to become Microsoft Word, is released.
• World's first dedicated hospital ward for HIV/AIDS patients opens at San Francisco General Hospital.
• Fred Cohen demonstrates a self-replicating source code.
• The suffix automaton data structure is introduced.
• First skeleton of Baryonyx discovered in the Weald Clay formation of Surrey, England.
Political
• January 25 – President Reagan delivers his second State of the Union Address to the 98th Congress.
• February 24 – The Congress of the United States releases a report critical of the Japanese internment during World War II.
• March 9 – Anne Burford resigns as head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency amid scandal.
• March 23 – President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
• May 17 – Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
• May 25 - National Missing Children's Day is proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan.
• September 16 – President Ronald Reagan announces that the Global Positioning System (GPS) will be made available for civilian use.
• November 2 - President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr.
• November 3 – The Reverend Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the 1984 Democratic Party presidential nomination.
• November 11 – Ronald Reagan becomes the first U.S. president to address the Diet, Japan's national legislature.
National
• January 1 – The New Jersey Transit Police Department is created in the state of New Jersey.
• February 18 – Wah Mee massacre: 13 people are killed in an attempted robbery in Seattle, Washington.
• April 18 - The Disney Channel is initiated on American cable TV.
• May 28 – The 9th G7 summit begins in Williamsburg, Virginia.
• June 13 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the Solar System.
• June 18 – STS-7: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
• August 18 – Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$3.8 billion dollars in damage.
• September 17 - Vanessa Lynn Williams becomes the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• October 25 - United States troops invade Grenada at the behest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica.
• December 27 – A propane explosion in Buffalo, New York kills five firefighters and two civilians.
Worldwide
• January 24 – 25 members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1978 murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro.
• February 2 – Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial on charges of polygamy involving 105 women.
• February 16 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 75 people.
• March 21 – Yamoussoukro officially becomes the Ivorian political capital after transfer from Abidjan.
• April 18 - The 1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63 people.
• May 27 – An explosion at an unlicensed and illegal fireworks operation near Benton, Tennessee, kills 11 and injures 1.
• June 5 – The Second Sudanese Civil War begins in Sudan.
• July 15 - The Orly Airport attack in Paris leaves eight dead and 55 injured.
• August 21 – Benigno Aquino Jr., Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile.
• November 3 – Commencement of the battle of Tripoli between Arafat loyalists and PLO dissidents.