1985 Jan 3, Soprano Leontyne Price, part of the Met since
1961, bid adieu to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the title
role of Aida.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1985 Jan 3, President Reagan condemned a rash of arsons
on abortion clinics.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1985 Jan 3, The Israel government confirmed the resettlement
of 10,000 Ethiopian Jews.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1985 Jan 7, Vietnam seized the Khmer National Liberation Front
headquarters near the Thai border.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1985 Jan 13, An express train derailed in Ethiopia and killed
at least 428.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1985 Jan 15, Tancredo Neves became the 1st elected president of
Brazil in 21 years.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1985 Jan 16, "Playboy" announced the end of stapling centerfolds.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1985 Jan 17, A jury in New Jersey ruled that terminally ill patients
have the right to starve themselves.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1985 Jan 18, President Reagan declared that the U.S. would not
take part in the World Court ruling on Nicaraguan charges.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1985 Jan 19, "Born In The USA" by Bruce Springsteen peaked at
#9.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1985 Jan 21, 19F (-28C) was recorded at Caesar's Head, South Carolina,
a state record.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1985 Jan 21, 34F (-37C) was recorded at Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina,
a state record.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1985 Jan 22, A cold wave damaged 90% of Florida's citrus crop.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1985 Jan 23, A debate in Britain's House of Lords was carried
live on television for the first time.
(AP, 1/23/00)
1985 Jan 25, "We are the World" was recorded.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1985 Jan 27, Pope John Paul said mass to one million in Venezuela.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1985 Jan, National Geographic published pictures and the story
of Koko the gorilla and her kitten.
(NG, May 1985, members forum)
1985 Jan, Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco (1935-1996), the director
of Catholic Relief Services, was kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad in Beirut.
He was freed in July 1986 after negotiations involving the Reagan administration,
Shiite radicals and Anglican envoy Terry White. In 1995 he wrote “Bound
To Forgive- the Pilgrimage to Reconciliation of a Beirut Hostage.” He shared
captivity with Terry Anderson, AP correspondent, David Jacobsen, administrator
of Beirut’s American Univ., and Thomas Sutherland, the Univ.'s acting dean
of agriculture.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A19)(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A3)
1985 Jan, The SF 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in the Super
Bowl played at Stanford Stadium.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A1)
1985 Jan, Israel pulled back to a security zone in southern Lebanon
to protect its border.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1985 Feb 5, U.S. halted a loan to Chile in protest over human
rights abuses.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1985 Feb 7, "New York, New York" became the official anthem of
NYC.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1985 Feb 7, US drug agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was tortured
and killed at a house in Guadalajara in the presence of a half-dozen top
Mexican officials. In 1992 Ruben Zuno Arce, the brother-in-law of former
president Luis Echeverria, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1989 Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested for complicity in the
murder along with drug charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison. In
2000 Gallardo received a 2nd 40-year sentence for smuggling and bribery.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A10)(SFC, 8/12/00, p.A11)
1985 Feb 9, Madonna's "Like a Virgin," album went #1 for 3 weeks.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1985 Feb 9, Seoul admitted using force against opposition leader
Kim Dae Jung.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1985 Feb 11, Jordan’s King Hussein and PLO leader Arafat signed
an accord.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1985 Feb 13, Polish police arrested 7 Solidarity leaders.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1985 Feb 14, Hanoi troops surrounded the main Khmer Rouge base
at Phnom Malai.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1985 Feb 14, Cable News Network reporter Jeremy Levin, who was
being held hostage by extremists in Lebanon, was freed.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1985 Feb 15, The STS 51-E vehicle was moved to the launch pad.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1985 Feb 15, World chess championship match abandoned-Karpov
25, Kasparov 23.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1985 Feb 17, Murray Haydon became the third person to receive
an artificial heart.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1985 Feb 19, William Schroeder was the 1st artificial heart patient
to leave hospital. He spent 15 minutes outside Humana Hospital in Louisville,
Ky.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1985 Feb 19, Mickey Mouse was welcomed in China.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1985 Feb 19, 150 were killed when a Spanish jetliner crashed
approaching Bilbao, Spain.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1985 Feb 20, Clarence Nash (80), voice of Donald Duck, died of
leukemia, in Calif.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1985 Feb 23, Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight threw a chair
during a game.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1985 Feb 23, US Senate confirmed Edwin Meese III as attorney
general.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1985 Feb 26, 27th Grammy Awards “What's Love Got to Do With It”
and Cyndi Lauper won.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1985 Feb, In Pakistan Mohammed Khan was elected prime minister
in the first elections since imposition of martial law in 1977. Benazir
Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party boycotted the elections
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1985 Mar 1, The Pentagon accepted the theory that an atomic
war would block the sun, causing a "nuclear winter".
(HN, 3/1/98)
1985 Mar 1, Milwaukee businessman Herb Kohl purchased the Milwaukee
Bucks basketball team.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1985 Mar 2, Country singer, Gary Morris hit #1 on the country
charts for the first time with "Baby Bye Bye" from his album, "Faded Blue".
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1985 Mar 2, The government approved a screening test for AIDS
that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood
to be excluded from the blood supply.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1985 Mar 3, "Moonlighting" with Cybill Shepard and Bruce Willis,
premiered.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1985 Mar 3, "My One and Only" closed at St. James Theater in
NYC after 767 performances.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1985 Mar 3, Kevin McHale of Memphis State University set a Boston
Celtics scoring record this night as he poured in 56 points in a 138-129
win over the Detroit Pistons.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1985 Mar 3, The group, Women Against Pornography awarded one
of its dubious "Pig Awards" to HUGGIES DIAPERS! The activists said that
the diaper TV ads have "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1985 Mar 3, National Union of Mine Workers in England ended a
51 week strike.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1985 Mar 6, Yul Brynner appeared in his 4,500th performance of
"King & I."
(MC, 3/6/02)
1985 Mar 6, Mexican authorities found the body of US drug agent
Enrique C. Salazar.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1985 Mar 7, Victor W. Farris, inventor of paper milk carton, etc,
died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1985 Mar 7, George Schick (76), Czech conductor (Chicago Symphony),
died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1985 Mar 7, Robert W. Woodruff (95), CEO (Coca-Cola), died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1985 Mar 8, Thomas Creighton (33) died after having three heart
transplants in a 46-hour period.
(HN, 3/8/98)(MC, 3/8/02)
1985 Mar 10, Konstantin U. Chernenko (73), Soviet leader for just
13 months (1984-1985), died.
(AP, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)
1985 Mar 11, The Soviet Union announced the death the day before
of its leader, Konstantin U. Chernenko. Politburo member Mikhail S. Gorbachev
was chosen to succeed him and became general-secretary of the Communist
party and the Premier of the Soviet Union. He liberated the Soviet Union
from old Communist structures and opened the door for Russian democracy.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)(SFEC, 12/22/96, BR p.7)(AP, 3/11/98)(HN,
3/11/98)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)
1985 Mar 11, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Lithuania.
(LHC, 3/11/03)
1985 Mar 12, The U.S. and the USSR began arms control talks in
Geneva.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1985 Mar 13, Konstantin Chernenko was buried near the Kremlin
Wall in Moscow. Mikhail Gorbachev became the new leader of the Soviet Union.
He oversaw the dismantling of the Soviet nuclear arms stockpile and the
end of the Soviet Union itself.
(HN, 3/13/99)
1985 Mar 15, Two decades of military rule in Brazil ended with
the installation of a civilian government.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1985 Mar 16, Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for
The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December
1991.
(AP, 3/16/97)(HN, 3/16/98)
1985 Mar 17, President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada
on acid rain.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1985 Mar 18, Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstated
Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1985 Mar 19, In a legislative victory for President Reagan, the
Senate voted, 55-45, to authorize production of the MX missile.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1985 Mar 19, "Spin Magazine" began publishing.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1985 Mar 20, In Alaska Libby Riddles won the Iditarod.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1985 Mar 21, Police in Langa (Uitenhage), South Africa, opened
fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville
shootings, killing at least 21 demonstrators.
(AP, 3/21/97)(MC, 3/21/02)
1985 Mar 24, Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO
presence in Spain.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1985 Mar 25, 57th Academy Awards "Amadeus," F Murray Abraham and
Sally Field won.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1985 Mar 25, Edwin Meese III became US Attorney General.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1985 Mar 28, Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1985 Mar 28, Marc Chagall (97), French painter, died.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1985 Mar 31, In San Diego 2 white police officers stopped a pickup
truck driven by Sagon Penn (d.2002). A scuffle ensued and Penn killed officer
Thomas Riggs with the officer’s gun. Penn was acquitted under allegations
of police brutality and racism.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A24)
1985 Mar, Ann Getty and Lord Weidenfeld bought Grove Press for
$2 million.
(SFC, 1/8/95, p.7)
1985 Mar, The Well Online conferencing service went live from
Sausalito, Ca., with a VAX computer, 6 modems and 6 phone lines.
(Wired, 5/97, p.106)
1985 Mar, Nick Blake, a free lance US journalist, and photographer
Griff Davis were shot and killed by Guatemalan civil militia. Their remains
were found in 1992.
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A23)
1985 Apr 3, The landmark Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood closed
after 56 years in business.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1985 Apr 4, A coup in Sudan ousted President Nimeiry and replaced
him with Gen. Dahab.
(HN, 4/4/99)
1985 Apr 6, William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart
recipient to be discharged from the hospital as he moved into an apartment
in Louisville, Ky.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1985 Apr 8, India filed suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal
disaster.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1985 Apr 12, US Olympic Committee endorsed a boycott of Moscow
games.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1985 Apr 12, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator
to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral,
Fla.
(AP, 4/12/97)
1985 Apr 15, Jenia Hamley, a medical assistant, was stuck in the
left index finger while recapping a Becton Dickinson needle. Hamley was
pregnant and 5 months later she tested positive for hepatitis B. She sued
BD and claimed that the infection caused brain damage to her newborn son.
BD settled the case confidentially and denied liability.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A8)
1985 Apr 15, South Africa planned to repeal sex and marriage
laws against whites and non-whites.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1985 Apr 21, Rudi Gernreich (62), US designer (miniskirt), died.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1985 Apr 23, The Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret
formula for Coke. Negative public reaction forced the company to resume
selling the original version.
(AP, 4/23/97)
1985 Apr 23, Sam J Ervin Jr (88), (Sen-D-NC, leader of Watergate
Hearings that led to Nixon's resignation), died.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1985 Apr 25, Richard Haydn (80), British actor, died.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1985 Apr 25, Murray Matheson (72), actor (Felix-Banacek), died.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1985 May 1, US president Reagan ended embargo against Nicaragua.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1985 May 9, Laurent Fabius, head of the French Socialist government,
blocked the sale of an AIDS virus detection test made by Abbott Laboratories.
Fabius and others were later charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter
in the deaths of hundreds who died from transfusions of tainted blood.
In 1999 Fabius and Georgina Dufoix were cleared of the charges. Edmond
Herve, the health minister under Dufoix, was convicted of negligence in
2 cases.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1985 May 11, More than 50 people died when a flash fire swept
a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1985 May 13, Carlton Fisk becomes the 5th catcher to steal
100 bases.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1985 May 13, Police in Philadelphia dropped a bomb on the headquarters
of the radical group MOVE. A fire resulted that killed 11 people, 5 of
them children. Ramona Africa and her 13 year old son were the only two
people to escape the inferno at 6221 Osage St. Africa was charged with
rioting and conspiracy, was convicted and served 7 years in state prison.
No charges have ever been filed against any city officials or employee.
The lawsuit was re-opened in 1996. On Jun 24, 1996, a jury in Philadelphia
awarded $1.5 mil to the survivors of the MOVE cult.
(SFC, 4/3/96, p.A-4)(USAT, 6/25/96, p.3A)(AP, 5/13/97)(SS, Internet,
5/13/97)
1985 May 15, A booby-trapped book detonated in the hands of graduate
student John Hauser at UC Berkeley. He was severely injured, lost partial
vision in his left eye and four fingers of his left hand. It was later
attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1985 May 16, Michael Jordan was named NBA Rookie of Year.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1985 May 16, Margaret Hamilton (82), actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard
of Oz), died.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1985 May 18, "One Night In Bangkok" by Murray Head hit #3.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1985 May 18, In the 111th Preakness: Pat Day aboard Tank's Prospect
won in 1:53.4.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1985 May 18, 1st remote location for "Nightline" was in South
Africa.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1985 May 18, Tex Terry (82) actor (Apache Rose, Timberjack),
died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1985 May 20, US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1985 May 20, FBI arrested John A. Walker. US Navy Chief Petty
Officer Walker began spying for the Soviet Union in 1968 for $1,000 per
week. Walker’s ex-wife turned him into the FBI.
(MC, 5/20/02)(http://www.cia.gov/)
1985 May 20, Israel exchanged over 1,100 Arab prisoners for 3
Israeli soldiers.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1985 May 21, Patricia Frustaci gave birth to septuplets in California.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1985 May 22, Baseball player Pete Rose passed Hank Aaron as the
National League run scoring leader with 2,108.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1985 May 22, US sailor Michael L. Walker (22), member of Walker
family spy ring, was arrested for spying for USSR.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1985 May 25, Cyclone ravaged Bangladesh and some 11,000 were killed.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1985 May 25, Harold Hecht (77), choreographer, died of cancer.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1985 May 25, Robert Nathan (91), US writer, poet (Portrait of
Jennie), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1985 May 27, In a brief ceremony in Beijing, representatives of
Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning
Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.
(AP, 5/27/97)
1985 May 28, David Jacobsen, director of the American University
Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He
was freed 17 months later.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1985 May 29, At Heysel Stadium 35 people were killed in rioting
that erupted between British and Italian spectators at the European Cup
soccer final in Brussels, Belgium. A crowd stamped killed 39 supporters
of the Italian team. This led to a 5-year ban on English clubs playing
on the Continent.
(AP, 5/29/97)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A28)
1985 May 29, Madge West (93) actress (Grandma-McLean Stevenson
Show), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1985 May 31, 41 tornadoes hit the Northeast US, killing 88.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer peaked at #3
on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" by David
Lee Roth peaked at #12 on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Say You're Young" by Julian Lennon peaked
at #21 on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Invisible" by Alison Moyet peaked at #31 on
the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Show Some Respect" by Tina Turner peaked at
#37 on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Lucky In Love" by Mick Jagger peaked at #38
on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Ways To Be Wicked" by Lone Justice peaked
at #71 on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, R.C., "Square Rooms" by Al Corley peaked at #80 on
the pop singles chart.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 1, In his Saturday radio address, President Reagan,
saying special interests in Washington were trying to "pick apart" his
tax overhaul plan, asked for Americans' support.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1985 Jun 4, The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking
down an Alabama law providing for a daily "moment of silence" in public
schools.
(AP, 6/4/97)(MC, 6/4/02)
1985 Jun 6, Authorities in Brazil exhumed a body later identified
as the remains of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious "Angel of Death" of
the Nazi Holocaust near Sao Paolo, Brazil.
(AP, 6//97)(HN, 6/6/98)
1985 Jun 9, American educator Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped
in Lebanon. He was released in November 1991 along with fellow hostage
Terry Waite.
(AP, 6/9/97)
1985 Jun 10, Socialite Claus von Bulow was acquitted by a jury
in Providence, Rhode Island, at his retrial on charges he’d tried to murder
his heiress wife, Martha “Sunny” von Bulow.
(AP, 6/10/00)
1985 Jun 10, Coca Cola announced they would bring back their
99-year-old formula.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1985 Jun 10, The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099
days of occupation
(HN, 6/10/98)
1985 Jun 11, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case
prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains,
N.J., at age 31.
(AP, 6/11/97)
1985 Jun 12, The U.S. House of Representatives approved $27 million
in aid to the Nicaraguan contras.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1985 Jun 12, The town of Xintan on the Yangtze was obliterated
by a landslide that sent a 128-foot surge wave down the river. It had been
evacuated a few days earlier.
(NH, 7/96, p.32)
1985 Jun 13, Aldrich Ames handed over the names of 20 Soviets
working for the CIA, to a Soviet agent, several of whom were later executed.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.A3)
1985 Jun 13, A parcel mailed from Oakland, Ca., to Boeing Co.
in Washington state was found to be a bomb and defused. It was later attributed
to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1985 Jun 14, The 17-day hijack ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began
as a pair of Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremists seized the plane with 104
Americans shortly after takeoff from Athens, Greece. The hijackers killed
Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem and dumped his body on the tarmac in
Beirut. In 2002 Stethem’s family was awarded $21.4 million in compensatory
damages from the US Treasury.
(AP, 6/14/97)(HN, 6/14/98)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A9)
1985 Jun 15, In St. Petersburg, Russia, a middle-aged Lithuanian
man pulled out a knife and slashed the stomach and thigh of the nude woman,
Danaë, depicted in the Rembrandt masterpiece “Danae.” He then hurled
a jar of acid at the picture and splashed a militiaman in the face. He
was overpowered by guards who found explosives strapped to his legs and
trousers. The painted was restored and put back on exhibit in 1997.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B5)
1985 Jun 16, The Grateful Dead performed in a 20th anniversary
concert in Berkeley, Ca.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.E4)
1985 Jun 19, The MPAA self-imposed the new rating of PG-13.
(DT, 6/19/97)
1985 Jun 19, On day six of the hijacking of TWA 847, an ABC News
reporter was able to briefly interview the plane's pilot, John L. Testrake,
who said from his cockpit window, "We're OK."
(DT, 6/19/97)
1985 Jun 21, American, Brazilian and West German scientists announced
that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were those of Nazi war criminal
Josef Mengele. Strong doubts persisted.
(AP, 6/21/97)(MC, 6/21/02)
1985 Jun 23, All 329 people aboard an Air-India Boeing 747 were
killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, apparently
because of a bomb. In 2000 Canadian police arrested 2 men of Sikh origin
for the bombing of Flight 182. In 2001 Canadian prosecutors filed murder
charges against Inderjit Singh Reyat. 2 baggage handlers were killed the
same day in a 2nd bombing attempt. In 2003 Reyat was sentenced to 5 years
for his role in making the bomb.
(AP, 6/23/97)(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A13)(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C3)(AP, 2/11/03)
1985 Jun 27, The legendary Route 66, which originally stretched
from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., passed into history as officials
decertified the road.
(AP 6/27/97)
1985 Jun 27, The U.S. House of Representatives voted to limit
the use of combat troops in Nicaragua.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1985 Jun 27, The 1st hotel strike in NYC took place.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1985 Jun 30, 39 American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner
were freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.
(AP 6/30/97)
1985 Jun 30, James A. Dewar, creator of the Twinkie (1930), died.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1985 Summer, The Wall Street firm Drexel Burnham Lambert and Maxxam
Corp. hired a timber consultant to fly over the holdings of Pacific Lumber
and estimate their worth. In Oct. Charles Hurwitz announced his intention
to acquire Pacific Lumber and had Michael Millken arrange junk bond financing.
Control of Pacific Lumber passed to Charles Hurwitz of Texas-based Maxxam
by the end of the year. The bonds were sold to United Savings Association,
a Texas S&L whose parent corporation was owned by Charles Hurwitz.
The thrift failed in 1988 and taxpayers were stuck with a $1.6 billion
bailout.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A4-5)
1985 Jul 2, European Space Agency launched the Giotto space probe
for a close-up of Halley’s Comet.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(SC, 7/2/02)
1985 Jul 2, Proto was launched to Halley's Comet.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1985 Jul 10, Bowing to pressure from irate customers, the Coca-Cola
Company said it would resume selling old-formula Coke, while continuing
to sell New Coke.
(AP, 7/10/00)
1985 Jul 10, French security forces sank the Rainbow Warrior,
a ship operated by Greenpeace near NZ. Fernando Pereira, Dutch photographer
was killed in the sinking.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A14)(Internet)
1985 Jul 11, Houston Astro's Nolan Ryan became the first pitcher
to strike out 4000 batters as he fanned Danny Heep of the New York Mets.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1985 Jul 12, Doctors discovered what turned out to be a cancerous
growth in President Reagan’s large intestine, prompting surgery the following
day.
(AP, 7/12/00)
1985 Jul 13, "Live Aid," an international rock concert in London,
Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, Australia, took place to raise money for
Africa's starving people.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP 7/13/97)
1985 Jul 15, A gaunt-looking Rock Hudson appeared at a news conference
with actress Doris Day to promote her cable television program. It was
later revealed Hudson was suffering from AIDS.
(AP, 7/15/99)
1985 Jul 19, Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to
be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. McAuliffe
and six other crew members died (1/28/96) when the Challenger exploded
shortly after liftoff. Black astronaut Robert McNair was one of the dead.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A3)(TMC, 1994, p.1986)(AP 7/19/97)(SFC,11/12/97,
p.A3)
1985 Jul 23, Bandleader Kay Kyser, known for his “Kollege of Musical
Knowledge,” died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at age 79.
(AP, 7/23/00)
1985 Jul 25, A spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirmed that the
actor, hospitalized in Paris, was suffering from “AIDS.” Hudson died the
following October.
(AP, 7/25/00)
1985 Aug 1, The French government began to require the testing
of all donated blood for AIDS following the launch of a test by Diagnostic
Pasteur. By this time some 1,300 hemophiliacs were contaminated with AIDS-tainted
blood. By 1997 over 500 had died, most of them children. Four health officials
were charged and convicted in the case.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)
1985 Aug 2, 137 people were killed when a Delta Air Lines jumbo
jet crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport.
(AP, 8/2/97)
1985 Aug 9, A federal judge in Norfolk, Va., found retired Navy
officer Arthur J. Walker guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet
Union.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1985 Aug 12, The world's worst single-aircraft disaster occurred
as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into
Mount Otsuka, seventy miles northwest of Tokyo, killing 520 of 524 people
onboard.
(AP, 8/12/97)(MC, 8/12/02)
1985 Aug 25, Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri
V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, was
killed with her father in an airplane crash in Maine.
(AP, 8/25/97)
1985 Aug 28, Ruth Gordon (88), actress (Big Bus), died of a stroke
in her sleep.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1985 Aug 31, Richard Ramirez, later convicted of California's
"Night Stalker" killings, was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles
neighborhood.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1985 Sep 1, A US-French expedition located the wreckage of Titanic,
sunk off Newfoundland in 1912. [see Sep 2]
(SC, 9/1/02)
1985 Sep 2, It was announced that a U.S.-French expedition had
located the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, sunk in 1915, about 560
miles off Newfoundland.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.16)(AP, 9/2/97)
1985 Sep 8, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds tied Ty Cobb's career
record for hits with a single for No. 4,191 during a game against the Cubs
in Chicago.
(AP, 9/8/99)
1985 Sep 9, President Reagan ordered sanctions against South Africa.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1985 Sep 9, In Birmingham, England, race riots took place.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1985 Sep 11, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds made his career
hit 4,192 off Eric Show of San Diego Padres, eclipsing Ty Cobb's record.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1985 Sep 15, The US Senate judiciary committee began Robert Bork
confirmation hearings.
(MC, 9/15/01)
1985 Sep 15, In Sweden Olof Palme formed minority government.
(MC, 9/15/01)
1985 Sep 18, An earthquake collapsed hundreds of buildings and
killed seven-thousand people in Mexico City's worst disaster. [see Sep
19]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1985 Sep 19, The Mexico City area was struck by the first of two
devastating quakes that claimed some 6,000 lives. [see Sep 18]
(HFA, '96, p.38)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.C9)(AP, 9/19/97)
1985 Sep 22, In the 37th Emmy Awards the winners included Cagney
& Lacey, Cosby Show and Tyne Daly.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1985 Sep 22, In France the premier confessed to the June 10 attack
of Green Peace's Rainbow Warrior.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1985 Sep 22, Axel Springer, German newspaper magnate (Bild Zeitung),
died at 73.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1985 Sep 22, Earthquake struck Mexico, 2,000 killed. [see Sep
18,19]
(MC, 9/22/01)
1985 Sep 25, The Tyrell Museum of Paleontology was opened to the
public. It is located 140 km. northeast of Calgary at Drumheller, Alberta.
(CFA, '96, p.63)
1985 Sep 26, Shamu, the killer whale, was born in Orlando, Florida.
She was the first killer whale born in captivity to survive.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1985 Sep 27, Hurricane Gloria, having come ashore at North Carolina
with winds of 130 mph, proceeded to head up the Atlantic coast toward New
England.
(AP, 9/27/97)
1985 Sep 28, There was a race riot in the London area of Brixton.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1985 Sep 30, Simone Signoret, German-French actress (Room at Top,
Gina), died at 64.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1985 Sep, Edward Lee Howard, CIA officer, vanished from Santa
Fe, NM. He fled the US to Russia while under FBI investigation for spying
for the Soviet Union. He was accused of disclosing CIA agents in Moscow.
Howard died in 2002 of a broken neck from an accident at his residence
outside Moscow. In 1995 Howard’s memoir “Safe House” was ghost written
by Richard Cote.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A6)
1985 Sep, In Texas Patrick Rogers shot a killed police officer
David Roberts (23) after a robbery. Rogers, a black man, was convicted
and sentenced to death. His story was made into a 1997 Dateline NBC documentary.
(WSJ, 1/5/98, p.20)
1985 Oct 1, Israeli forces staged an air raid on PLO-headquarter
at Tunis and 68 people were killed.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1985 Oct 1, E. B. White (Elwyn Brooks White, b.1899), writer,
author of “Charlotte's Web” and “The Elements of Style,” died.
(HN, 7/11/98)(PGA, 12/9/98)(MC, 7/11/02)
1985 Oct 2, Rock Hudson, film star, died at his home in Beverly
Hills, Calif., at age 59 after a battle with AIDS. Upon his death it was
publicly made known that he had been a closet homosexual.
(SFC, 11/28/96, p.C14)(AP, 10/2/97)
1985 Oct 3, Charles Collingwood, newscaster (Chronicles), died
at 68.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1985 Oct 4, Islamic Jihad issued a statement saying it had killed
American hostage William Buckley. (Fellow hostage David Jacobsen, however,
later said he believed Buckley had died of torture injuries four months
earlier).
(AP, 10/4/97)
1985 Oct 7, The United States announced it would no longer automatically
comply with World Court decisions. This was in response to a June 25, 1985,
World Court ruling that U.S. involvement in Nicaragua violated international
law. The ruling stemmed from a suit brought in April 1984 after revelations
that the CIA had directed the mining of Nicaraguan ports. The U.S. later
vetoed two U.N. resolutions calling for compliance to the World Court ruling.
(HNQ, 6/9/99)
1985 Oct 7, Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) gunmen
hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean and
demanded the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel. 413 people were
held hostage for 2 days in the seizure that was masterminded by Mohammed
Abul Abbas. American Leon Klinghoffer was shot while sitting in his wheelchair
and thrown overboard. A case was filed against the PLO and settled in 1997.
The hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and were turned over
to Italy which let Abbas slip out of the country. Abbas was captured in
Baghdad in 2003.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A4)(AP, 10/7/97)(HN, 10/7/98)(SFC, 4/16/03,
p.A16)
1985 Oct 7, A mudslide in Ponce, Puerto Rico, kills an estimated
500 people in the island's worst disaster this century.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1985 Oct 8, The hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro
killed American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, dumping his body and wheelchair
overboard. A case was filed against the PLO and settled in 1997. The hijackers
surrendered to Egyptian authorities and were turned over to Italy which
let Abbas slip out of the country.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A4)(AP, 10/8/97)
1985 Oct 9, Central Park's Strawberry Fields was dedicated.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1985 Oct 9, The hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner surrendered
after the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt.
(AP, 10/9/97)
1985 Oct 10, U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying
the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy,
where the gunmen were taken into custody.
(AP, 10/10/98)
1985 Oct 10, Actor Yul Brynner died of lung cancer in New York
at age 65.
(AP, 10/10/97)(MC, 10/10/01)
1985 Oct 10, Actor-director Orson Welles died of a heart attack
in Los Angeles at age 70. In 1972 Joseph McBride authored “Orson Welles,”
in 1989 Frank Brady authored “Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles.”
(AP, 10/10/97)(MC, 10/10/01)(ON, 10/02, p.6)
1985 Oct 11, President Reagan banned importation of South African
Krugerrands.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1985 Oct 11, Arab-American activist Alex Odeh was killed by a
bomb blast in Santa Ana, Calif.
(AP, 10/11/97)
1985 Oct 15, Shelley Taylor of Australia made the fastest swim
ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1985 Oct 16, Intel introduced its 32-bit 80386 microcomputer chip.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1985 Oct 18, Benjamin Moloisi (30), South African poet, was hanged.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1985 Oct 21, Ex-Supervisor Dan White committed suicide by carbon
monoxide in his wife’s car. He killed Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey
Milk in 1978, for which he served barely 5 years after a diminished capacity
defense called the “Twinkie defense.”
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)
1985 Oct 25, Morton Downey (83), singer (Star of the Family),
died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1985 Oct 27, Billy Martin was fired by Yankees for the 4th time.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1985 Oct 27, Hurricane Juan ravaged US Gulf states and east coast
and 49 died.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1985 Oct 27, Thieves stole 9 paintings, including 5 Monets &
2 Renoirs.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1985 Oct 28, The leader of the so-called "Walker family spy ring,"
John Walker, pleaded guilty to giving U-S Navy secrets to the Soviet Union.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1985 Oct 30, The launch of the space shuttle “Challenger” was
witnessed by schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was fated to die when
the spacecraft exploded after liftoff the following January.
(AP, 10/30/00)
1985 Oct 30, American Brands was removed as a component of the
Dow Jones. It had begun as American Tobacco in 1890.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1985 Oct, A bomb killed Arab-American activist Alex M. Odeh. He
was the West Coast director of the American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee.
In 1996 federal authorities offered a $1 million reward for info leading
to his killer.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.C2)
1985 Nov 1, Phil Silvers (73), comedic actor (Sgt. Bilko), died
in his sleep.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1985 Nov 6, An exploratory well at Ranger, Tx., exploded and spilled
6.3 million gallons of oil.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1985 Nov 6, In Colombia some 35 leftist M-19 rebels took over
the Palace of Justice. A military raid to liberate hostages held by M-19
guerrillas at the Supreme Court followed and cost more than 100 lives,
including 11 Supreme Court justices and all 30 guerrillas.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 1/8/97, p.A12)(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8)
1985 Nov 9, Gary Kasparov became the world chess champion.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1985 Nov 11, Yonkers was found guilty of segregating schools and
housing.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1985 Nov 12, The Unabomber mailed a pipe bomb to Prof. James V.
McConnell of Ann Arbor, Mich. Two people were injured 3 days later when
the package was opened, but not McConnell. McConnell and research ass’t.
Nick Suing were injured when the bomb exploded.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A3)(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1985 Nov 13, Some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when
a mudslide, triggered by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, buried the city under
30 feet of mud.
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.27)(AP, 11/13/97)(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.A22)
1985 Nov 15, Britain and Ireland signed an accord giving Dublin
an official consultative role in governing Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/15/97)
1985 Nov 19, Herb Gardner's "I'm Not Rappaport," premiered in
NYC.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1985 Nov 19, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev
met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
(AP, 11/19/97)
1985 Nov 19, Stepin Fetchit (83), [Lincoln Penny], 1st black
film star, died of pneumonia.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1985 Nov 21, Former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay
Pollard was arrested, and accused of spying for Israel. Pollard was sentenced
to life in prison in 1987.
(AP, 11/21/97)(WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A18)(SFC, 3/1/00, p.A23)
1985 Nov 22, The largest US swearing-in ceremony took place as
38,648 immigrants become US citizens.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1985 Nov 23, Retired CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin was arrested
and accused of spying for China. He committed suicide a year after his
conviction.
(AP, 11/23/97)
1985 Nov 23, Egypt Air flight 648 was hijacked to Malta by Palestinian
militant Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq, a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist group.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A6)(SFEC, 10/8/96, D1)(MC, 11/23/01)
1985 Nov 24, The hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the
ground in Malta ended violently as Egyptian commandos stormed the plane.
Fifty-eight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by
the hijackers. Ali Rezaq of the Abu Nidal terrorist group was imprisoned
in Malta for 7 years and then released. The US FBI apprehended him in Nigeria
in 1993 and he was convicted by a US federal jury in 1996 and sentenced
to life in prison.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A6)(SFEC, 10/8/96, D1)(AP, 11/24/97)
1985 Nov 26, Random House bought Richard Nixon's memoirs for $3,000,000.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1985 Nov 27, The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish
accord giving Dublin a consultative role in the governing of British-ruled
Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1985 Nov 28, Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis celebrated
Thanksgiving with a dinner of irradiated turkey and freeze-dried vegetables,
and launched a satellite from the cargo bay.
(DT, 11/28/97)
1985 Nov, In Peru Rebels took over a Lima newspaper. Nestor Cerpa
revealed himself as the leader.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A12)
1985 Dec 4, Robert McFarland resigned as National Security Advisor.
Admiral John Poindexter was named to succeed.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1985 Dec 7, Retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart died
in Hanover, N.H., at age 70.
(AP 12/7/97)
1985 Dec 11, A mail bomb killed Sacramento computer store owner
Hugh Scrutton. The murder was attributed to the Unabomber. He had picked
up a piece of nail-riddled wood that was impact a bomb.
(SFC, 4/4/96, p.A-16)(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1985 Dec 12, 248 American soldiers and eight crew members were
killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland.
(AP 12/12/97)
1985 Dec 13, France sued the U.S. over the discovery of an AIDS
serum.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1985 Dec 14, Roger Maris (51), HR hitter (61 in 61, NY Yankees),
died of cancer.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1985 Dec 14, Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a
major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
(AP 12/14/97)
1985 Dec 16, Reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was
shot to death outside a New York City restaurant on orders from John Gotti
(d.2002). Gotti seized power in the Mafia after he had Paul Castellano
killed.
(AP 12/16/97)(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A2)(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.5)
1985 Dec 18, UN Security Council unanimously condemned "acts of
hostage-taking."
(MC, 12/18/01)
1985 Dec 20, Position of American Poet Laureate was established
with Robert Warren as the 1st.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1985 Dec 20, Howard Cosell retired from television sports after
20 years with ABC.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1985 Dec 23, James Vance (20) & Raymond Belknap (18), committed
suicide, sparking their families to sue rock group Judas Priest for subliminal
messages.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1985 Dec 26, Dian Fossey (53), zoologist (Gorillas in the Mist),
was murdered in Rwanda. [see Dec 27]
(MC, 12/26/01)
1985 Dec 27, American naturalist Dian Fossey, who had studied
gorillas in the wild, was found hacked to death at a research station in
Rwanda.
(AP, 12/27/01)
1985 Dec 27, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome
and Vienna airports; a total of twenty people were killed, including five
of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel. Abu
Nidal was considered responsible. President Reagan blamed Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi.
(AP, 12/27/97)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A6)(MC, 12/26/01)
1985 Dec 28, Warring Lebanese Moslem and Christian leaders signed
a peace agreement.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1985 Dec 30, IBM-PC DOS Version 3.2 released.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1985 Dec 31, Singer Rick Nelson, 45, and six other people were
killed when fire broke out aboard a DC-3 that was taking the group to a
New Year's Eve performance in Dallas.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1985 Rodrigo Betancur of SF made his clay and copper sculpture
“Movement,” a part of his Movimento series.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.18)
1985 British Petroleum of America, headquartered in Cleveland,
Ohio, commissioned Claes Oldenburg to do one of his famous oversized sculptures.
They were not happy with the result, a 70,000 lb. rubber stamp with the
word FREE, and donated it to the city. It was parked near City Hall on
Nov 15, 1991.
(SFC, 6/2/96, T10)(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.80)
1985 The 90-foot Lady of the Rockies statue, located on the Continental
Divide east of Butte, Mont., was erected.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A4)
1985 The 1st Cowboy Poetry Gathering was held in Elko, Nevada.
Baxter Black and Waddie Mitchell were among the performing poets.
(WSJ, 3/5/00, p.A1)
1985 Herb Gardner wrote his play “I’m Not Rappaport.” In 1997
it was released as a film with Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, DB p.34)
1985 Wallace Shawn, playwright, wrote “Aunt Dan and Lemon.”
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1985 Sam Shepard wrote his play “Lie of the Mind.”
(SFC, 7/10/97, p.E3)
1985 Leatrice Gilbert Fountain wrote an autobiography of her father
and silent film star John Gilbert: “Dark Star.”
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.B3)
1985 David Brin published his novel “The Postman.” It was made
into a Kevin Costner post-apocalyptic film in 1997.
(SFEC, 8/24/97, DB p.65)
1985 Seymour Chatman wrote "Antonioni, or, the Surface of the
World" about the Italian film director.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, DB p.42)
1985 Deepak Chopra self-published his first book: “Creating Health.”
(SFEC, 1/5/97, BR p.4)
1985 Richard Feynman, physicist, published: “Surely You’re Joking,
Mr. Feynman.”
(SFEC, 8/3/97, BR p.3)
1985 William Gaddis (d.1998 at 75) published his novel “Carpenter’s
Gothic.”
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.A38)
1985 Mark Gruenwald (d.1996), the editor of Marvel Comics issued
a 12-comic series, “Squadron Supreme,” as an homage parody to DC Books
Justice League of America featuring Superman and Wonder Woman. The squadron
included the superheroes Zarda and Nuke.
(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A15)
1985 Kathy Keeton Guccione (d.1997 at 58), associate founder of
Penthouse Magazine, wrote “Women of Tomorrow.”
(SFC, 9/25/97, p.B2)
1985 J. Anthony Lukas (d.1997) published “Common Ground,” a exploration
of school desegregation through the experiences of three Boston families.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1)
1985 Marc Orkrand, linguist, convinced Pocket Books to publish
“The Klingon Dictionary.”
(Wired, 8/96, p.90)
1985 R.J. Schoenberg published “Geneen,” a book on Harold Geneen,
who probably did more than any other business leader to establish the modern
system of corporate financial accountability.
(I&I, Penzias, p.80)
1985 “Look at My Ugly Face: Myths & Musings on Beauty &
Other Perilous Obsessions with Women’s Appearance” by Sara Halprin was
published.
(SFEM, 7/14/96, p.31)
1985 “Making It in America” was published by Barry Minkow. It
was the ghost written story of an entrepreneur whiz kid who started a carpet
cleaning business called ZZZZ Best at age 14 and became a millionaire while
still a teenager. In 1987 he was convicted of fraud and served 7 years
in Lompoc, Ca. He then published Clean Sweep, his confessions from prison.
His latest gig was as a radio talk show host and star of a self-help video
series “Fraud-Dynamics.” He was working to repay $26 million lost by stockholders
when ZZZZ Best collapsed.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.D1)
1985 Stanley J. Olsen, anthropologist, wrote the “Origins of the
Domestic Dog.”
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.36)
1985 Rosemarie Rogers (d.1996 at 61) wrote “Guests Come to Stay:
The Effects of European Labor Migration on Sending and Receiving Countries.”
(SFC,12/15/97, p.A20)
1985 Don DeLillo won the National Book Award for his novel “White
Noise.”
(SFC,10/16/97, p.E3)
1985 Ned Gilette (d.1998 at 53) and Jan Reynolds published “Everest
Grand Circle: A Climbing and Skiing Adventure Through Nepal and Tibet.”
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A24)
1985 John Irving wrote his novel “The Cider House Rules.” It was
dramatized in 2 parts in 1996 and 1997 at the Seattle Repertory Co.
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)
1985 Suzanne Lipsett (1944-1996) published “Coming Back Up.” Her
2nd novel was “Out of Danger” (1987). Her final work included “Remember
Me” (1991) and “Surviving a Writer’s Life” (1993).
(SFC, 9/11/96, p.C2)
1985 Larry McMurtry published his novel “Lonesome Dove.”
(SFEC, 11/10/96, zone 1 p.2)
1985 James Michener wrote his novel “Texas.”
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A7)
1985 Anne Rice published her gothic tale: “The Vampire Lestat.”
(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.W1)
1985 Kim Stanely published her novel “A Green Mars.” It described
the “terraforming” of Mars into an Earthlike environment.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1985 Bernard Williams (1930-2003), English moral philosopher,
authored "Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy" (1985).
(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A27)
1985 The Broadway show Tango Argentino introduced the music of
Astor Piazzolla to North American audiences.
(WSJ, 2/18/97, p.A18)
1985 The Broadway show "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn" was adopted by William Hauptman from the Mark Twain novel.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.E4)
1985 Mark Morris choreographed the dance piece “One Charming Night,”
based on music by Purcell.
(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.11)
1985 Edison Denisov (1929-1996), Russian composer, had the premiere
of his opera “L’Ecume des Jours” in Paris.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.B2)
1985 Flip Wilson (d.1998) and Gladys Knight co-starred in the
TV sitcom “Charlie & Company.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B9)
1985 Leon Kirchner composed his “Music for Twelve” with 12-tone
leaps and oddball chords.
(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1985 The song “We Are the World” was recorded to raise money for
African famine relief.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.E4)
1985 Ann Phillips wrote: “Bending Towards the Light: A Jazz Nativity.”
(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A20)
1985 The group “X,” an advocate of the rockabilly hybrid sometimes
called “cowpunk,” forged on following the departure of guitarist Billy
Zoom. The band reunited in 1998. The group included D.J. Bonebrake, Exene
Cervenka and John Doe.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.E1)
1985 “Rockin” Sidney Simien (d.1998 at 59) had a Zydeco hit with
his song “My Toot Toot.”
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D8)
1985 The first Farm Aid concert was held to support problems facing
US farmers and their families.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A9)
1985 David Lee Roth left the Van Halen rock-n-roll band. In 1997
he published: “Crazy From the Heat,” a history of the band.
(SFEC,11/2/97, DB p.50)
1985 Cleveland’s 45-story BP Building was completed. In 1996 it
sold for $145 million, 45% below what it cost to build.
(WSJ, 10/11/96, p.B1)
1985 In Dallas the three 18-story building complex named the Crescent
was completed. The architects were Philip Johnson and John Burgee.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.B10)
1985 In Dallas developer Trammel Crow built the massive Infomart,
modeled after the London’s famous Crystal Palace that burned down in 1936.
(WSJ, 12/2/97, p.B12)
1985 Pope John Paul II visited Morocco and issued his first major
plea for Christian-Islamic solidarity against secular materialism.
(SFC, 4/15/96,A-8)
1985 Frances Lear (1923-1996) divorced Norman Lear and received
a $25 million settlement. She used the money to start Lear’s Magazine aimed
at “the woman who wasn’t born yesterday.”
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.A24)
1985 Anthony Corallo (d.2000 at 87), aka Tony Ducks, Luchese family
member of the Mafia politburo, was arrested and later convicted for racketeering.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A23)
1985 Crack cocaine was first discovered in use in New York City.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A5)
1985 AIDS made the cover of Time Mag.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)
1985 SF General opened the nation’s first full AIDS ward.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A8)
1985 Cleve Jones and Mike Smith formed the Names Project to remember
those who died of AIDS. The project went on to develop the AIDS Memorial
Quilt.
(SFEC, 9/15/96, C8)
1985 In San Francisco Larry Harvey and friends began the Burning
Man festival with a torching of an 8-foot wooden figure on Baker Beach.
It was to celebrate the summer solstice and exorcise the sadness of a lost
love affair.
(SFC, 7/19/96, p.D1,12)
1985 The Barbara and Robert K. Strauss (1906-1997) Thinking and
Learning Center was founded at the Manhattan campus of Pace Univ. His father
was Isador Straus, founder of R.H. Macy & Co., who died on the Titanic
in 1912.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A24)
1985 Howard Junker founded ZYZZYVA, a journal of West Coast Writers
and artists.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A21)
1985 Ronald Hoeflin founded the Mega Society, an organization
whose members purport to have an IQ of at least 176. The organization was
in violation of a California code, section 2903 of the state Business and
Professions Code, that requires a psychology license to construct, administer
and interpret tests of mental abilities.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.B1)
1985 Actor Paul Newman founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
in Connecticut for children afflicted with cancer and other serious diseases.
(Hem., 10/97, p.24)
1985 Dr. William F. Gibson (d.2002) was elected head of the NAACP.
He had led the South Carolina chapter for 18 years. His tenure ended in
1995 under accusations of abusing his expense account.
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)
1985 National Geographic Research, a scientific Journal, began
publication.
(NG, May 1985, Pres. Letter)
1985 Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney (d.1998 at 89) donated $8
million to Yale Medical School for the Harvey Cushing-John Hay Whitney
Medical Library.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B4)
1985 In Pensacola, Florida, Jimmy Louis Howard began the Mullet
Toss competition. The winning throw in 1996 was 177 ft. and the event drew
50,000 people.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A12)
1985 Anatoly Karpov held the world chess title for 10 years until
he was defeated this year by Garry Kasparov.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.A8)
1985 Robert Erickson (d.1997 at 80), composer, won the Friedham
award for chamber music for his string quartet “Solstice.” He wrote “The
Structure of Music: A Listener’s Guide” in 1957 and “Sound Pictures in
Music” in 1975. In 1996 there were 2 biographies published by John McKay
and Charles Shere.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A20)
1985 J. Anthony Lukas (d.1997 at 64) won a 2nd Pulitzer Prize
for his book “Common Ground.” It was an examination of the furor over court-ordered
school bussing in Boston during the 1970s. He also won an American Book
Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book
Award for the work.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A19)
1985 The EU instituted the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought
as a tribute to the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.
(SFC, 10/25/96, p.A17)
1985 Dorothy Chandler (1901-1997), wife of Norman Chandler -3rd
publisher of the Los Angeles Times, was one of 11 of the first recipients
of the new National Medal of Arts called for by Pres. Reagan for her work
in establishing the Los Angeles County Music Center in 1964.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A16)
1985 The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Physicians
for the prevention of Nuclear War. Dr. Bernard Lown, a Harvard cardiologist,
accepted the prize on behalf of the physicians.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(SFEC, 12/8/96, zone 1 p.3)(SFC, 12/3/97,
p.D3)
1985 A US-China Agreement on Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation was
reached.
(WSJ, 10/29/97, p.A22)
1985 US ambassador Winston Lord and his wife Bette Bao were posted
to Beijing. They served there through mid-April 1989.
(CJ, Legacies, 1991)
1985 The US Postal Service announced a 22 cent rate for first-class
postage.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, zone 1 p.2)
1985 The US Navy and John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory launched
Geosat, a satellite carrying a radar altimeter designed to make precise
measurements of sea surface “topography,” which roughly reflects major
features on the ocean bottom.
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.28)
1985 Treasury Sec. James Baker encouraged a steep decline in the
value of the US dollar and US manufacturers cheered.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1985 The US B-1 bomber made by Rockwell entered military service.
It did not get used in combat until 1998 in a mission over Iraq.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A4)
1985 The US defense budget was $343 billion.
(SFC, 6/23/96, zone 1 p.6)
1985 Peter H. Lee (45), a scientist at Los Alamos, visited China
and turned over information about US national security laser programs.
He confessed in Dec 1997 and was sentenced in Mar 1998 to one year in a
halfway house, $20,000 in fines, and 3,000 hours of community work.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A13)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A3)
1985 The US Army transferred much of San Francisco Fort Baker’s
open space to the National Park Service. The base would be formally decommissioned
in 1998-99 and become part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A15)
1985 Four off-duty US Marines and 9 others were killed at sidewalk
restaurants in the Zona Rosa section of San Salvador. Pedro Antonio Andrade
Martinez (aka Mario Gonzalez), a Marxist guerrilla, was one of the reputed
masterminds of the massacre. Andrade later became an informant for the
CIA and sought US asylum. Andrade was deported from the US in 1997.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A21)(SFC,11/6/97, p.C3)
1985 CIA clerk in Ghana Sharon Scranage pleaded guilty to disclosing
the names of US agents to her Ghanaian boyfriend.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)
1985 The United States leased buildings in Moscow for a US embassy
under a twenty-year contract valued at 72,500 rubles a year, about $60,000
at the time. In 1999 the United States proposed writing off the WW II “lend-lease
debt” in exchange for buildings used by the U.S. embassy, including an
elegant residence for the ambassador. An unnamed official said the United
States should pay $870,000 a year for the buildings.
http://www.russiajournal.com/start/news/article.cgi?ind=1637
1985 The American CIA rewrote its 1983 training manual for security
forces after public uproar over another manual that taught Nicaraguan contra
rebels about neutralizing enemies and holding demonstrations that could
provoke violence.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A3)
1985 The Kemp-Kasten amendment authorized the US Sec. of State
to determine whether certain int’l. programs receiving US funds are involved
in programs that entail coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations.
(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A3)
1985 National guidelines for prenuptial agreements were set. Each
spouse was instructed to have separate legal council.
(SFC, 4/13/99, p.A13)
1985 In Seattle 10 members of a white supremacist group called
the Order were convicted of racketeering and other charges. They were linked
to the ideas of William Pierce in West Virginia and his book “The Turner
Diaries.”
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.A26)
1985 Dr. Michael Swango was convicted of the non-lethal poisoning
by arsenic of co-workers. He was later accused of murdering as many as
35 patients. In 2000 James B. Stewart authored “Blind Eye: The Terrifying
Story of a Doctor Who got Away With Murder.” In 2000 Swango was sentenced
to life in prison.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A22)(SFC, 9/6/00, p.A5)
1985 Major Koch of New York designated 11 acres of New York's
Central Park as Strawberry Fields in honor of John Lennon.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-12)
1985 Norman Harry Hollow (1920-1996), Sioux tribal chairman from
1973-1985, helped negotiate a water rights agreement between the tribes
of the Fort Peck reservation and the state of Montana.
(SFC, 4/9/96, p.A17)
1985 Bernard Arnault bought Dior and took the company out of bankruptcy
court.
(WSJ, 1/20/03, p.B1)
1985 Ford introduced the Taurus.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1985 GM started its Saturn Division. GM also bought Hughes Aircraft
Co. from Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 6/4/01, p.A22)
1985 Honda passed AMC as the 4th largest US auto manufacturer.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1985 Montgomery Ward catalog operations shut down along with 300
stores.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A12)
1985 Uniroyal Inc. spent $950 million to fight a takeover bid.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1985 Dick Rutan and Jenna Yeager made a nonstop circumnavigation
of the globe in their specially designed, twin-engined Voyager. Since they
took off and landed at the same airfield it was technically a local flight.
(Hem. 7/96, p.13)
1985 Coca-Cola tried changing its 99-year-old basic formula.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)(SFEC, 11/10/96, zone 1 p.2)
1985 Texas-based Enron Corp. was formed when Houston Natural Gas
combined with InterNorth Inc., a gas-pipeline company. Kenneth Lay was
named chairman and CEO in 1986. Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
(NW, 12/10/01, p.50)(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.A19)
1985 The Levi Strauss Co. was taken private in a $1.7 billion
leveraged buyout. Pres. Thomas Tusher was granted options in 1987 to buy
404,750 shares of stock at $3.50 per share. He sold them back to the company
in 1996 at $265 per share.
(SFC,11/12/97, p.A10)
1985 The Swiss Nestle S.A. corporation bought the SF based Hills
Bros. Coffee and MJB.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)
1985 Intel Corp. introduced the 386 microprocessor. It had a 32-bit
design platform that allowed a graphical operating environment. It increased
memory access to 4 million bytes.
(TAR, 1996, p.26)(WSJ, 11/16/98, p.R10)
1985 Steven Jobs left Apple Computer Corp. after a losing control
over the Macintosh division to Jean-Louis Gasee, appointed by John Sculley.
(I&I, Penzias, p.185)
1985 Ted Waitt co-founded Gateway Computer in an Iowa farmhouse.
(WSJ, 3/1/00, p.A1)
1985 Microsoft released its first version on the Windows computer
operating system.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R55)
1985 Navigation Technologies (NavTech) was started by Russell
Shields. It grew to become one of the premier suppliers of digital-map
databases in the world.
(Wired, Dec., '95, p.96)
1985 The New Yorker Magazine, edited since 1952 by Ben Shawn (b.1927)
was sold to the Newhouse publishing empire. The magazine was founded by
Harold Ross and edited by Mr. Ross until Shawn assumed his duties.
(SFEM, 4/12/98, p.10)
1985 Nintendo Co. of Japan launched its first home video game
console: the Nintendo Entertainment System.
(Hem, 4/96, p.29)
1985 Parametric Technology, an industrial design software firm,
was founded by Samuel Geisberg, a former mathematics professor at Leningrad
State Univ.
(WSJ, 5/27/97, pB6)
1985 Steve Case founded Quantum Computer Services, the predecessor
to America ON Line (AOL).
(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.B1)
1985 Chuck Watson, former Conoco executive, led Natural Gas Clearinghouse
in a joint venture that grew to become Dynegy Corp. In 1995 the company
began trading electricity and acquired a listing on the NY stock exchange.
Watson stepped down in 2002 in the wake of the Enron scandal.
(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)
1985 Victor Posner (d.2002 at 83) was named the top-paid chief
executive by Business Week. Posner pleaded no contest to tax evasion charges
in 1987 and was found guilty with his son in 1994 of violating federal
securities law by failing to disclose a scheme with Michael Milken and
Ivan Boesky.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A24)
1985 A drug to treat leprosy was invented.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A18)
1985 At the Mayo Clinic a liver transplant program was begun.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1985 Gary Litman’s team at All Children’s Hosp. in St. Petersburg,
Fla., reported that they had cloned an antibody gene from a horned shark.
(NH, 9/96, p.42)
1985 Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn, researchers at UC
Berkeley, discovered telomerase, a protein that repaired telomeres.
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.B1)
1985 Dr. Richard F. Marsh (d.1997 at 58) observed that the disease
mink spongiform encephalopathy was very similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(mad cow disease), and that food supplement made from cattle and fed to
the minks was probably the route of disease transmission.
(SFC, 3/28/97, p.D2)
1985 Fred Mattson, a chemist with Proctor & Gamble, produced
data that showed that substituting monounsaturated fats like olive oil
for saturated fats in the diet will reduced the concentration of bad cholesterol
in the blood without reducing the amount of good cholesterol, which protects
the blood vessels.
(SFEC, 6/8/97, p.D1)
1985 Hollow molecules of carbon called “buckyballs” after Buckminster
Fuller were first proposed by Richard Smalley. It took 5 years to confirm
their existence. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.B18)
1985 The thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica was first
reported.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.5)
1985 Louis A. Frank, Univ. of Iowa physicist, proposed that small,
comet-like objects rain steadily on Earth at a rate of up to 20 per minute
and that each might weigh as much as 20 40 tons. His statement was based
on data from the Dynamic Explorer satellite. In 1997 more data from the
1996 NASA Polar satellite agreed with Frank’s proposal.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A15)
1985 CFC-11 measured 220 ppt. and CFC-12 measures 380 ppt. in
the atmosphere. These molecules trap 17,500 and 20,000 times more heat
than does a molecule of carbon dioxide.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.47)
1985 The Asian cockroach (Blattella asahinai) first reached central
Florida. In 2 years they extended their range 500 miles north.
(PacDis, Spring/'94, p. 46)
1985 The Ministry of Fisheries in Peru estimated that 9,700 dolphins
were killed and sold as “chancho marino” i.e. sea pig.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.36)
1985 In SF Bill Graham’s offices were fire bombed after he took
out adds protesting Pres. Reagan’s visit to Bitburg cemetery, where Nazis
were buried.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1985 Brenda O’Connor (20), her husband Lonnie Bond and their baby
son disappeared. A video made by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng later showed
her bound to a chair at his hideaway near Wilseyville in Calaveras Ct.,
Ca.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A1)
1985 Charles Ng was arrested in Canada for killing a dozen people
in a hideaway in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 1984-1985. He fought extradition
for 6 years but was finally returned to California by a Canadian Supreme
Court order.
(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A23)
1985 Coleman Dowell (b.1925), fiction writer, died. His work included
“Island People” and “Jabez.”
(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.D8)
1985 Wayne Dumond, while waiting trial for rape, was castrated
with fishing line by 2 men in stocking masks. He had been sentenced to
a prison term for the rape and kidnap of a 17-year old girl. While in prison
St. Francis County Sheriff, Coolidge Conlee, removed Dumond's testicles
from his home and preserved them in formaldehyde and displayed them on
his desk. Later DNA evidence showed that Dumond’s semen did not match that
found on the victim’s pants and Governor Huckabee of Arkansas said he should
be freed.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A4)
1985 In Baltimore Flint Gregory Hunt murdered policeman Vincent
Adolfo after he was stopped in a stolen car. He first chose the gas chamber
for his execution, but as it approached in 1997 he changed his mind to
lethal injection.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A2)
1985 In Florida Daniel Remeta killed an Ocala convenience store
clerk and went on a four state crime and murder spree in which 5 people
were killed. He was electrocuted in 1998. Remeta had the mental age of
a child and ordered snow cones for his final meal.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A3)
1985 In Texas John Kilheffer was killed by two hitchhikers. In
1997 Irineo Tristan Montoya was executed for holding Kilheffer down while
Juan Villavicencio stabbed him 22 times. Villavicencio testified against
Montoya and avoided the death sentence.
(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A3)
1985 In Virginia Helen Schartner was murdered. Joseph O'Dell III
was tried and convicted for the murder and was executed in 1997. He pleaded
innocence right to the moment of death and married Lori Urs just before
his execution.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A3)
1985 Terrorists seized an Egyptian airliner.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)
1985 A US airbase in Frankfurt, Germany, was bombed and Airman
1st Class Frank Scarton and Becky Jo Bristol were killed. Edward Pimentel
was killed before the bombing in order to get his ID card. In 1996 Birgit
Hogefeld, a member of the far-left RAF, was convicted of involvement and
jailed for life.
(SFC, 11/6/96, p.A25)
1985 Italo Calvino (b.1923), Italian writer, died. A collection
of his essays was soon published titled "The Literature Machine."
In 1999 the original 11 essays and 25 others were published under the title:
"Why Read the Classics," translated by Martin McLaughlin. In 2003 McLaughlin
published “Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings By Italo Calvino.”
(SFEC, 10/24/99, BR p.5)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M4)
1985 Rudi Gernreich (b.1922), fashion designer, died. His creations
included the “monokini” topless swimsuit, thetransparent “no-bra bra,”
and the introduction of the thong.
(WSJ, 9/18/01, p.A20)
1985 Lt. Cmdr. Michael Gershon, a Navy Blue Angel pilot, was killed
when 2 planes collided during an air show at Niagara Falls, NY.
(SFC, 10/29/99, p.A3)
1985 Robert Graves, British author, died. He was the author of
historical novels that included "I, Claudius" and "Collected Poems" (1966).
His book "The White Goddess" (1948) purported to prove that the affairs
of men have been controlled since the dawn of civilization by an all-destroying,
all-creating goddess who manifests herself in living women for the purpose
of inspiring poets. A new biography on Graves was written by Miranda Seymour
and titled "Robert Graves: Life on the Edge."
(WSJ, 10/24/95, p.A-20)
1985 Violinist Jascha Heifetz died.
(WSJ, 1/24/96, p.A-12)
1985 Germaine Krull (b.1897), Polish born German photographer,
died.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.4)
1985 Henry Moore (b.1898), British sculptor, died a few days shy
of his 90th birthday.
(WSJ, 5/1/01, p.A24)
1985 Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, died.
(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A5)
1985 In Albania Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha died. He was succeeded
by Ramiz Alia.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.A1)(SFC,10/21/97, p.A13)(www, Albania, 1998)
1985 Army commander Jorge Rafael Videla was sentenced to life
imprisonment for his role in the death squads during a 7-year dictatorship.
He was pardoned by Pres. Menem in 1990. He was arrested and indicted again
in 1998 for covering up the identities of abducted children.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.A10)(SFC, 7/15/98, p.C12)
1985 In Bolivia hyperinflation and a hostile Congress cut short
the term of Pres. Hernan Siles Zuazo and early elections were called. The
price of tin crashed and 23,000 miners lost their jobs.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(NH, 11/96, p.38)
1985 In Bolivia Roberto Suarez, drug dealer, was sentenced to
a 15-year prison term.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)
1985 In Bolivia drug traffickers gunned down naturalist Noel Kempf
Mercado and a colleague while the pair visited a remote area to record
bird calls.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)
1985 Military rule ended in Brazil.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.1)
1985 Canada: UNESCO declared Old Quebec a World Heritage Site.
It was the first city in North America to attain the status.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T4)
1985 Canadian Auto Workers broke away from the US-based United
Auto Workers to form their own union.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R27)
1985 China gave in to free market prices.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)
1985 In Colombia a FARC faction agreed to disarm and form a political
party, but in the ensuing decade 3,000 party activists and 2 presidential
candidates were assassinated by right-wing death squads.
(SFC, 1/8/99, p.A13)
1985 In Cuba Castro gave a series of interviews to Frei Betto,
a Brazilian friar, that were later published as “Fidel and Religion.”
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B3)
1985 In Egypt Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the minister of state
for foreign affairs and warned that the next war in the Middle East would
be fought over water.
(NG, 5/93, p.53)
1985 The European Union began its "Culture Capital" program to
promote European integration.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)
1985 In France Magdalena Kopp, the wife of Carlos the Jackal,
aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was freed after a series of bloody attacks against
France.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)
1985 In Greece a socialist government forced Constantine Karamanlis
from the presidency.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1985 In Greece the Anti-State Struggle, a left wing terrorist
group, killed a public prosecutor. In another attack 3 police officers
and 2 security guards were killed. Avraam Lesperoglou, a suspected member
of the group, was arrested in 1999.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A14)
1985 Free elections in Guatemala gave a decisive majority of almost
70% to the centrist Christian Democratic Party candidate, Vinicio Cerezo.
The army still held much behind-the-scenes power.
(NG, 6/1988, p.779)
1985 India built up its nuclear capabilities and refused Pakistan’s
offers of mutual inspections and nonproliferation pledges.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A15)
1985 Iraq placed its biological weapons program under the president's
authority and based it primarily at Salman Pak, a research facility south
of Baghdad.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A18)
1985 Mary Robinson resigned from the Labor Party of Ireland after
her party supported the Anglo-Irish Agreement of this year. She opposed
it on the grounds that it was unfair to Ulster Unionists.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-12)
1985 In Italy journalist Giancarlo Siani was killed after he ran
investigative reports on the Mafia in the Naples daily Il Mattino. In 1997
6 Naples gangsters were sentenced to life terms for the murder.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A9)
1985 Israel established a 440 sq. mile security zone in southern
Lebanon. The 9-mile wide zone was abandoned by some 400,000 inhabitants
and by 2000 only 100,000 remained.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-14)(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A12)
1985 Charles Taylor escaped from a Plymouth County jail in Massachusetts
while awaiting extradition to Liberia, where he was accused of embezzling
money as an official in the dictatorship of Samuel Doe. He went to Libya
received military training as a guest of Col. Moammar Khadafy. Taylor met
Foday Sankoh, a corporal from Sierra Leone while training in Libya.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A10)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B5)(AP, 12/16/02)
1985 In Liberia national elections were held and Samuel Doe was
elected president.
(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A9)(AP, 7/1/03)
1985 The Mali town of Sanankoroba established a sister-town relationship
with Sainte-Elizabeth, Quebec.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D2)
1985 In Mexico Samuel Joaquin Flores succeeded in getting his
Light of the World evangelical church affiliated with the National Confederation
of Popular Organizations, an umbrella body for PRI-linked political groups.
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A10)
1985 The Mexican environmental organization Group of 100 was founded.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A14)
1985 In Mexico Albert Radelat (32) and John Walker (36), US tourists,
were tortured and killed by drug traffickers in Guadalajara. In 2001 Ernesto
Fonseca Carrillo was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the torture slayings.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D2)
1985 In Nicaragua the Contras fought for power against the established
Sandinistas.
(TMC, 1994, p.1985)
1985 In Nicaragua a photographer captured the execution of a peasant
ordered by Contra Commandante Mack, who in 1996 accompanied Daniel Ortega
on a campaign for the presidency.
(WSJ, 10/9/96, p.A15)
1985 In Nicaragua the 3,000 acre cotton ranch of Enrique Bolanos
was expropriated by the Sandinistas.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A12)
1985 In Panama Manuel Antonio Noriega overthrew Pres. Barletta.
(SFEC, 6/8/97, Z1 p.3)
1985 In Peru Nestor Cerpa, aka Comrade Evaristo, began a series
of attacks, takeovers and kidnappings.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A12)
1985 In Russia Alexander Pajitnov, a computer programmer, invented
the game “Tetris” on an old Electronica 60 computer. He gave up the rights
to the game to the State for ten years.
(SFC, 7/7/96, C5)
1985 In Russia in the military town of Bolshoy Kamen near Vladivostok
a nuclear explosion at the Zvesda nuclear submarine factory occurred and
was hushed up. Waste from the area has tainted an old landfill and the
Primorye state government forced the military to close the area in 1988.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A12)
1985 In South Africa 2 ANC activists and 8 others were killed
in a raid into Lesotho. A government assassin told a court in 1996 that
plans for the raid were approved by the highest levels of Pres. Botha’s
apartheid regime.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A1)
1985 In South Africa three Port Elizabeth activists, the Pepco
3, were beaten and strangled at an unused police station.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A19)
1985 In South Africa Eugene de Kock took over the Vlaakplaas counter-insurgency
unit and ran it until 1993. The existence of the unit was only made public
in 1989 and the full extent of its activities were not revealed until the
Truth Commission in 1994.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A18)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A19)
1985 In Spain the Socialist government approved pensions for 60,000
soldiers or their dependents who supported the losing Republican side in
the Civil War.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A18)
1985 In the Sudan Christian Col. John Garang and Muslim leader
Sadiq el-Mahdi helped to restore democracy, but soon grew at odds.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A14)
1985 Syria began manufacturing chemical warheads for missiles.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A11)
1985 In Tanzania Mr. Nyerere retired and left his chosen successor,
Hassan Mwinyi, winner of a one party election, to open the economy.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A6)
1985 A Soviet Tu-154 crashed in Uzbekistan and all 200 people
aboard were killed.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A10)
1985 In Zaire Mahele Lieko Bokoungo fought back Laurent Kabila,
who had set up a rebel republic on the shores of Lake Tanganyika near Moba.
The rebels under Kabila were mainly Tutsis and used militaristic and autocratic
methods.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A14)
1985 In Zimbabwe the Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous
Resources was begun. It was a community based conservation program to give
villagers a stake in wildlife conservation and its costs.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A22)
1985-1986 The Christian Broadcasting Network gave the Freedom Council,
a group orchestrating the presidential campaign of Pat Robertson, $250,000
a month. In 1998 the IRS imposed a tax penalty on the CBN and retroactive
loss of tax-exempt status for 1986-1987.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A3)
1985-1986 Soviet soldiers failed to subdue the rebels. An alliance of
7 factions received US arms. Moscow installed a new leader, Dr. Najibullah.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)
1985-1986 Celerino Castillo III, a US agent for the DEA, reported Contra
drug flights from Nicaragua to the US to US Embassy officials. His testimony
in 1996 followed reports that the CIA was involved in smuggling drugs to
southern California with the proceeds going to support Contra forces at
war with the Sandinista government.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A7)
1985-1987 The Group of Seven, major industrial countries, struggle to
control capital exchange-rate movements. Led by the US Treasury's Sec.
James Baker. It is the first effort to restore some semblance of order
to the monetary system since the collapse of the postwar Breton Woods gold-anchored
finance systems in the early 1970s.
(WSJ, 8/3/95, p.A-8)
1985-1988 The Bill Cosby Show is the top ranking network show on television
for three seasons with rankings of 33.8, 34.9, and 27.8%.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1985-1989 Jack Scanlon served as the US ambassador in Belgrade, Serbia.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A14)
1985-1992 In Sierra Leone Pres. Joseph Saidu Momoh presided over a one-party
state. In 1998 he was convicted of a 1997 conspiracy to commit treason.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A14)
1985-1994 Aldrich H. Ames, a CIA counterintelligence official, passed
over this time information to the Soviet Union that included the names
of US agents. The deaths of at least 9 agents were blamed on his disclosures.
In 1994 Ames and his wife, Rosario, pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet
Union.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)
1985-1994 Premier Robert Bourassa led the province of Quebec for his
2nd term.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)
1985-1997 In Niger some 60 million trees were planted over this period
to stave off the encroaching Sahara Desert that expands by 500,000 acres
each year. About half the trees have survived.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A12)