1984

This article is about the year. For the book by George Orwell, see Nineteen Eighty-Four

1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1950s  1960s  1970s  – 1980s –  1990s  2000s  2010s
Years:	1981 1982 1983 – 1984 – 1985 1986 1987

Events

• March 22 – People said the teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California were abusing the children in the school. The police found out that this was not true.
• March 23 – Sarah Tisdall, who told The Guardian newspaper that cruise missiles were coming to Britain, was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
• March 24 – The Wran Government was chosen in NSW for a 4th term.
• April 4 – President Ronald Reagan said that no one should use chemical weapons.
• April 12 – Four young Palestinians took an Israeli bus hostage. Israeli special forces got onto the bus and freed the hostages. They killed 1 hostage and two of the hijackers. Two other hijackers were captured and killed by Ehud Yatom. He crushed their skulls while they were tied up. Shin Bet chief Abraham Shalom told them to do this. It caused a major scandal (Kav 300 affair).
• April 13 – India started Operation Meghdoot. They took control of most of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir.
• April 17 – WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead by a hidden gunman outside the Libyan Embassy in London during the event known as the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege.
• April 19 – Advance Australia Fair was named as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
• April 25 – The end of Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah's as the 7th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• April 26 – Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, the Sultan of Johor becomes the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• May 2 – The Liverpool Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
• May 8 – The Soviet Union announced that it was not going to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
• May 8 – Denis Lortie killed three people who worked for the government in the National Assembly of Quebec building.
• May 11 – A transit of Earth from Mars takes place.
• May 14 – The one dollar coin is introduced in Australia.
• May 19 – Game show contestant Michael Larson won $100,000 on the game show Press Your Luck. Later, people found out that he won the money by mainly using only two squares of the Press Your Luck "Big Board."
• May 22 – Helen Branch was declared legally dead (she disappeared 1977)
• May 27 – Fluminense won the Brazilian soccer league, against the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama.
• June 5 – The Indian government began Operation Blue Star. It was a planned attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
• June 6 – Indian troops attack the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikh's holiest shrine. They killed about 10,000 people.
• June 8 – A deadly tornado almost destroyed Barneveld, Wisconsin. It killed nine people, injured almost 200 people, and caused over $25,000,000 in damage.
• June 8 – The film Ghostbusters comes out in theaters. It becomes a summer blockbuster hit. The song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. became a Top 40 hit.
• November 29 - West Hollywood, California, a predominantly gay community, was incorporated as a city

Births

• Date unknown – Cigerxwîn, Kurdish polymath
• January 17 – Calvin Harris, Scottish singer and songwriter
• January 23 – Lina Hahne, Miss Sweden 2007
• January 25 – Stefan Kießling, German footballer
• February 9 – Anna Jurkiewicz, Polish figure skater
• February 12 – Alexandra Dahlström, Swedish actress
• February 21 – David Odonkor, German footballer
• March 25 – Katharine McPhee, American singer
• April 10 – Mandy Moore, American actress and singer
• April 30 – Shawn Daivari, Iranian-American professional wrestler
• May 29 – Carmelo Anthony, NBA star
• June 30 – Fantasia Barrino, American singer
• July 2 – Johnny Weir, American figure skater
• July 11 – Tanith Belbin, American figure skater
• August 1 – Bastian Schweinsteiger, German footballer
• August 21 – Alizée, French singer
• September 2 – Jack Peñate, English singer-songwriter and musician
• September 27 – Angela Haynes, American tennis player
• September 27 – Avril Lavigne, Canadian singer-songwriter
• September 29 – Per Mertesacker, German footballer
• October 2 – Marion Bartoli, French tennis player
• October 3 – Ashlee Simpson, American singer and actress
• October 26 – Sasha Cohen, American figure skater
• October 27 – Kelly Osbourne, English singer
• November 14 – Marija Šerifović, Serbian singer
• November 23 – Lucas Grabeel, American actor, singer and songwriter
• November 25 – Hồ Ngọc Hà, Vietnamese singer, model and actress
• December 7 – Robert Kubica, Polish Formula 1 driver

Deaths

• January 20 – Johnny Weissmuller
• April 1 – Marvin Gaye
• May 16 – Andy Kaufman
• July 26 – Ed Gein, serial killer (b. 1906)

Films released

• Amadeus
• Splash
• Missing in Action
• Revenge of the Nerds
• Ghostbusters

Hit songs

• Van Halen – Jump
• Ray Parker, Jr. – Ghostbusters (Los Cazafantasmas)
• Phil Collins – Against All Odds

New books

• L'Amant – Marguerite Duras
• The Aquitaine Progression – Robert Ludlum
• The Big U – Neal Stephenson (debut novel)
• Brother in the Land – Robert Swindells
• The Butter Battle Book – Dr. Seuss
• Empire of the Sun – James Ballard
• First Among Equals – Jeffrey Archer
• The Fourth Protocol – Frederick Forsyth
• Full Circle – Danielle Steel
• Lincoln: A Novel – Gore Vidal
• Love and War – John Jakes
• Hotel du Lac – Anita Brookner
• The Lover – Marguerite Duras
• Money – Martin Amis
• Neuromancer – William Gibson
• The Outsider – Howard Fast
• The Practice Effect – David Brin
• Random Hearts – Warren Adler
• Role of Honour – John Gardner
• A Shock to the System – Simon Brett
• The Sicilian – Mario Puzo
• Slow Learner: Early Stories – Thomas Pynchon
• Stanley and the Women – Kingsley Amis
• The Talisman – Stephen King, Peter Straub
• Thinner – Richard Bachman (nom de plume for Stephen King)
• The Tie That Binds – Kent Haruf
• The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
• White Noise – Don DeLillo
• The Witches of Eastwick – John Updike