Read this year's headlines in our monthly calendar of events and discover snippets about everyday life with our FLASHBACK facts. It's time to go back to the i... It's time to go back to... 1984.
Timeline '84 Close All
January |
Sixteen seamen on the cargo ship Radiant Med die in 100mph gales off Guernsey |
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The pioneering "1984" advert for the Apple Macintosh airs during the Superbowl break in the US |
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Over 12,000 applicants respond to a single advert offering 60 positions at Birmingham Airport's new terminal |
 |
Celebrity tennis couple Chris Evert and John Lloyd announce they are separating |
 |
Simon Bates returns to host Radio 1's Top 40 countdown on Sunday evenings |
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Staff at the GCHQ security and intelligence centre are prohibited from joining a trade union |
 |
Echo And The Bunnymen release their Top 10 hit Killing Moon |
Unemployment averages 3.24M - the highest ever
February |
Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as Soviet Leader |
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Japanese car maker Nissan announces it will build a car factory in Britain - Sunderland is later confirmed as the location |
 |
"Pure Gold" (Daily Mirror) - Torvill and Dean win gold for the ice dancing at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo with a perfect score for artistic interpretation |
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Michael Jackson receives second degree burns to his scalp after his hair catches fire while filming a Pepsi advert |
 |
Chancellor Nigel Lawson announces that the halfpenny will be withdrawn from circulation |
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Elton John marries sound engineer and close friend Renate Blauel in Sydney |
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What Difference Does It Make is a Top 20 Hit for The Smiths |
Labour leader Neil Kinnock appears in the video for Tracey Ullman's My Guy
March |
Coal miners strike to protest against the government's reforms of the industry - the bitter industrial action will last over a year |
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An EEC summit fails to agree a British budget rebate with Margaret Thatcher |
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During a heated argument soul legend Marvin Gaye is shot dead by his father in Los Angeles |
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The CIA chief William Buckley is kidnapped in Beirut by Hezbollah and later dies in captivity |
 |
Roller-skating musical Starlight Express opens at Apollo Victoria Theatre in London |
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Scotland win the Five Nations ruby tournament with a Grand Slam |
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Jump is Van Halen's biggest UK chart hit of the 1980s |
Three Now That's What I Call Music albums are released this year
April |
WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy in London |
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During a live TV show comedian Tommy Cooper collapses and dies on stage from a heart attack |
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Police and striking miners clash at Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire collieries |
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Researchers in the US announce the discovery of the AIDS virus – a year after a French scientist claimed the same thing |
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Peace protesters are evicted from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp |
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UK unemployment reaches a record high - almost one in eight of the working population is without a job |
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I Want To Break Free is Queen's second consecutive Top 3 hit this year |
The average house price passes £30,000 for the first time
May |
"England, 1984" (Daily Mirror) - violence erupts between police and striking miners at Orgreave colliery near Sheffield leaving 64 injured |
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Eric Morecambe dies of a heart attack after leaving the stage at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury |
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Northern Ireland win the last-ever Home Championship on goal difference – fittingly all four teams are tied on three points |
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Luxembourg wins the Eurovision Song Contest - the UK entry Love Games by Belle and the Devotions finishes 7th |
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The first-ever video jukebox chart is compiled - Queen's I Want To Break Free is No. 1 |
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Liverpool complete the league and European Cup double |
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Love Wars is the first UK hit for Womack And Womack |
The mortgage rate is 12.5%
June |
The star-studded inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic uses a leased jumbo jet called Maiden Voyager |
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Bruce Springsteen releases Born In The USA - it is the first album to be manufactured on CD in the US |
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Indiana Jones And The Temple Doom - the sequel to Raiders Of The Last Ark - opens in UK cinemas |
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O-Levels will be replaced by GCSEs - the new exam will be sat by pupils in 1988 onwards |
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Radio 1 broadcasts The Summer of 84 Concert live from Wembley Stadium - the line-up includes Nik Kershaw, Paul Young and Elton John |
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The tall ship Marques - which had featured in episodes of Poldark and The Onedin Line – sinks during a storm in the Caribbean with the loss of 19 lives |
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Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood begins its nine week reign at No. 1 |
Vinyl single sales increase to 77M units
July |
Fire causes extensive damage to York Minster - the repair bill will run into the millions |
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"Massacre at Big Mac's" (Daily Mirror) - Twenty one people are shot dead by a sacked security guard at a McDonald's in San Diego. |
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Robert Maxwell buys the Daily Mirror for £113.4 million |
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Purple Rain - which showcases many songs by Prince - is showing at UK cinemas |
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John McEnroe defends his Wimbledon title beating Jimmy Connors in the final |
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The government announces the abolition of dog licences - the widely ignored permit costs 37p |
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When Doves Cry is Prince's first Top 10 hit in the UK |
TThe Woolwich 90-day account pays an eye-watering 14% interest
August |
Carl Lewis wins four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics equalling the feat of Jesse Owens |
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The Sun awards the first £1M prize for its newspaper bingo game - sign maker David Parsons scoops the jackpot |
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Richard Skinner is the new presenter of Radio 1's Top 40 show on Sunday evenings |
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The romantic adventure movie Romancing The Stone starring Michael Douglas hits the UK cinema screens |
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Actor Richard Burton dies from a brain haemorrhage aged 58 at his home in Switzerland |
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Britain wins five gold medals at the Olympics including Sebastian Coe who is the first man to successfully defend the 1500m title |
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Careless Whisper is George Michael's first solo No. 1 |
A record seven singles sell over a million copies this year
September |
Geneticist Alec Jeffreys of Leicester University develops DNA fingerprinting - it will revolutionise crime forensics |
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BBC2 airs the shocking nuclear survival drama Threads which shows the effects of a nuclear strike on Sheffield |
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A suicide bomber kills 23 people at the American Embassy in Beirut - British Ambassador David Miers who was in the building is injured |
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The BBC Evening News at 5:40pm is replaced by The Six O'clock News presented by Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell |
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A major outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in two Yorkshire hospitals claims 19 lives |
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The Princess of Wales gives birth to her second son Prince Harry |
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Laura Branigan's Self Control is a Top 5 hit |
UK cinema attendance slumps to 54M - the lowest since the advent of the talkie
October |
The IRA bomb the Grand Brighton Hotel in an attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher - five people die including MP Anthony Berry |
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Indian PM Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her two Sikh security guards in New Delhi |
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Michael Buerk reports on the Ethiopian famine - his powerful and moving footage shocks the nation and moves Bob Geldof to form Band Aid |
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The movie 1984 starring Richard Burton in his final screen role is released in the UK |
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Comic TV actor Leonard Rossiter dies off-stage at the Lyric Theatre where he was performing in Joe Orton’s Loot |
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Nikki Lauda wins his third and final F1 World Championship |
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Shout To The Top by The Style Council reaches No. 7 |
A Creda microwave oven costs £190 at Rumbelows (over £600 today)
November |
Ronald Reagan crushes rival Walter Mondale in the US presidential election winning the electoral college by 525 votes to 13 |
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To raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia Bob Geldolf shepherds 36 of Britain's top pop stars to form Band Aid and record Do They Know It's Christmas? |
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After a publicity blitz two million people buy shares in British Telecom in the biggest-ever public offering |
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Frankie Goes To Hollywood embark on a US tour in an attempt to replicate their phenomenal home success abroad |
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New TUC leader Norman Willis is shouted down when he condemns picket line violence in a speech to Welsh miners |
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Now 4 is the first of the series to be released on CD and the only one ever to be denied No. 1 - by The Hits Album |
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Blasphemous Rumours is Depeche Mode's third Top 20 hit of the year |
From the ad pages: "If you see Sid, tell him" (BT share offering)
December |
A toxic chemical leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant at Bhopal in India kills more than 8,000 people and injures over half a million |
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Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? enters the singles chart at No. 1 |
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ITV premieres Raiders Of The Lost Ark on Christmas Day and attracts 19M viewers – the largest TV audience of the year for a film |
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Mikhail Gorbachev - tipped to be the next leader of the Soviet Union - visits Britain |
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Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his left arm in a car accident but remarkably he continues to play with the group |
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Torvill And Dean are voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year |
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Private Dancer by Tina Turner scrapes into the Top 30 |
Trivial Pursuit is the year's best selling board game