1984

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

 Events 
 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.

 Births 

 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

 Deaths 

 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