1984

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

### January - June

- January 4 – Rapeye series by Paramount Pictures.
- January 27 – Michael Jackson's hair catches on fire during the filming of the Pepsi commercial.
- 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.
- March 28 - The 1984 Carolinas tornado outbreak causes many deaths in North and South Carolina.
- 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-  Her Highness The Queen Of North Last Heir Of The Great Stark Lineage Mellissa Elkin The Indestructible was born.
- 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 C.R. 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 movie _Ghostbusters_ and _Gremlins_ comes out in theaters. It becomes a summer blockbuster hit. The song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. became a Top 40 hit.

### July - December

- October 14 - Jose Kaimlett founds the _Heralds of Good News_
- October 26 - _The Terminator_ is first shown in movie theaters.
- October 26 - The 1984-85 NBA regular season begins.
- November 4 – Ronald Reagan defeats Walter Mondale in the largest landslide in United States History during the presidential elections.
- November 29 - West Hollywood, California, a predominantly gay community, was incorporated as a city.

### January - June

- Date unknown – Cigerxwîn, Kurdish polymath
- January 10 - Fernanda Gritzbach, Brazilian volleyball player
- January 17 – Calvin Harris, Scottish singer and songwriter
- January 23 – Lina Hahne, Miss Sweden 2007
- January 25 – Stefan Kießling, German footballer
- February 7 – Nadine Nassib Njeim, Lebanese actress (Miss Lebanon 2004)
- 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 27 - Patrick Stump, American singer, songwriter, actor, guitarist
- April 30 – Shawn Daivari, Iranian-American professional wrestler
- May 29 – Carmelo Anthony, NBA star
- June 30 – Fantasia Barrino, American singer

### July - December

- 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 25 - Katy Perry, American singer
- 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
- November 28 – Mary Elizabeth Winstead, American actress
- December 7 – Robert Kubica, Polish Formula 1 driver
- December 22 – Basshunter, Swedish singer, record producer and DJ
- December 31 – Roelof van der Merwe, Dutch-South African cricketer

### January

- January 7 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist (b. 1902)
- January 14 – Ray Kroc, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1902)
- January 20 – Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)

### February

- February 9 – Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1914)
- February 15 – Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)

### March

- March 26 – Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of Guinea (b. 1922)

### April

- April 1 – Marvin Gaye, American singer (b. 1939)
- April 15 – Tommy Cooper, British prop comedian and magician (b. 1921)

### May

- May 4 – Diana Dors, English actress (b. 1931)
- May 16 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)

### June

- June 11 – Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (b. 1922)

### July

- July 26 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
- July 27 – James Mason, English actor (b. 1909)

### August

- August 5 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (b. 1925)
- August 19 – Louis Lansana Beavogui, President of Guinea (b. 1923)
- August 28 - Mohamed Naguib, 1st President of Egypt (b. 1901)

### September

- September 25 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (b. 1897)

### October

- October 18 – Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor and model (b. 1957)
- October 20 – Paul Dirac, English theoretical physicist (b. 1902)
- October 21 – François Truffaut, French movie director (b. 1932)
- October 22 – Cigerxwîn, Kurdish polymath and nationalist (b. 1903)
- October 31 – Indira Gandhi, 3rd Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)

### November

- November 11 – Martin Luther King Sr., American Baptist preacher (b. 1899)

### December

- December 7 – Jeanne Cagney, American actress (b. 1919)
- December 24 – Peter Lawford, British-American actor (b. 1923)

## Movies released

- _Amadeus_
- _Beverly Hills Cop_
- _Splash_
- _Missing in Action_
- _Police Academy_
- _Red Dawn_
- _Revenge of the Nerds_
- _Ghostbusters_
- _The Terminator_

## Hit songs

- Van Halen – _Jump_
- Ray Parker, Jr. – _Ghostbusters_
- Phil Collins – _Against All Odds_

## New books

- _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