WORLD HISTORY · 1984 日本語
Events of 1984Showa 59 (Japan) · Year of the Rat
What happened in 1984?
In 1984, Japan issued new banknotes, including a 10,000-yen bill featuring Fukuzawa Yukichi, and the Glico-Morinaga extortion case began. Around the world, the Macintosh went on sale and China and Britain agreed on the return of Hong Kong.
- Underground fire at Miike Ariake coal mineAsia
- Apple launches the MacintoshNorth America
- Threat letters sent in Glico-Morinaga caseAsia
- Los Angeles Olympics openNorth America
- Western Nagano earthquake strikesAsia
- China, Britain initial deal returning Hong KongAsia
- India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinatedAsia
- New banknotes issued, including Fukuzawa 10,000-yen billAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1984 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 59 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Rat |
| Age of people born in 1984 | Turn 42 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1983 (Showa 58) ／ 1985 (Showa 60) |
| Events | 75 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 1984
Our birthday pages list 943 people born in 1984. Here are some of them.
- Scarlett JohanssonBorn November 22 · turns 42 this year · American actress known for Lost in Translation, Marriage Story, and playing Bla…
- LeBron JamesBorn December 30 · turns 42 this year · American basketball star who is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a four-ti…
- Mark ZuckerbergBorn May 14 · turns 42 this year · American tech entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook and leads its parent company…
- Carmelo AnthonyBorn May 29 · turns 42 this year · American basketball star, 10-time NBA All-Star, and three-time Olympic gold med…
- Katy PerryBorn October 25 · turns 42 this year · American pop singer known for hits such as "I Kissed a Girl," "Firework," and "…
- Toma IkutaBorn October 7 · turns 42 this year
- Max ScherzerBorn July 27 · turns 42 this year
- Jin AkanishiBorn July 4 · turns 42 this year
- Kim Jong UnBorn January 8 · turns 42 this year
- JD VanceBorn August 2 · turns 42 this year
- Makoto HasebeBorn January 18 · turns 42 this year
- Mokomichi HayamiBorn August 10 · turns 42 this year
Show 28 more
- Olivia WildeBorn March 10 · turns 42 this year
- Milo YiannopoulosBorn October 18 · turns 42 this year
- Aubrey PlazaBorn June 26 · turns 42 this year
- Fernando San EmeterioBorn January 1 · turns 42 this year
- Michael WittBorn January 1 · turns 42 this year
- Paolo GuerreroBorn January 1 · turns 42 this year
- Billy MehmetBorn January 3 · turns 42 this year
- Javi FuegoBorn January 4 · turns 42 this year
- Jiří HudlerBorn January 4 · turns 42 this year
- Bronx GoodwinBorn January 5 · turns 42 this year
- Derrick AtkinsBorn January 5 · turns 42 this year
- Matt BallinBorn January 5 · turns 42 this year
- A. J. HawkBorn January 6 · turns 42 this year
- Eric TrumpBorn January 6 · turns 42 this year
- Kate McKinnonBorn January 6 · turns 42 this year
- Jon LesterBorn January 7 · turns 42 this year
- Jeff FrancoeurBorn January 8 · turns 42 this year
- Ariane FriedrichBorn January 10 · turns 42 this year
- Kalki KoechlinBorn January 10 · turns 42 this year
- Marouane ChamakhBorn January 10 · turns 42 this year
- Dario KrešićBorn January 11 · turns 42 this year
- Glenn StewartBorn January 11 · turns 42 this year
- Kevin BossBorn January 11 · turns 42 this year
- Matt MullenwegBorn January 11 · turns 42 this year
- Stijn SchaarsBorn January 11 · turns 42 this year
- Jonathan ZydkoBorn January 12 · turns 42 this year
- Kamghe GabaBorn January 13 · turns 42 this year
- Matteo CavagnaBorn January 13 · turns 42 this year
Events of 1984 (timeline · 75)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is divested of its 22 Bell System companies as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T.
Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-establish full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning the United States Congress's 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.
A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.
Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique, eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so far recorded in the region.
Doctor John Buster and a research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the United States announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
Kenyan soldiers kill an estimated 5,000 ethnic Somali Kenyans in the Wagalla massacre.
Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Iran launches Operation Dawn 5, a major offensive during the Iran–Iraq War targeting the Basra–Baghdad highway, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.
A child and an adult man are killed and 12 others are injured in the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles.
Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.
William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity.
The Baltimore Colts load their possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer their operations to Indianapolis.
Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.
Members of Cameroon's Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul.
Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.
The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.
The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.
Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
The Danube–Black Sea Canal is opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s.
Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.
Operation Blue Star: Under orders from India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Army begins an invasion of the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion.
A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of striking miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984–85 UK miners' strike.
The United States Supreme Court gives its United States v. Leon decision providing a good-faith exception from the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule against use of evidence obtained through defective warrants in criminal trials.
McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people and injures 19 others before being shot dead by police.
Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
Olympic Games: Games of the XXIII Olympiad: The summer Olympics were opened in Los Angeles.
Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England.
The Ariane 3 rocket is launched for the first time, carrying the Eutelsat I F-2 and Télécom 1A satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
A Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes on approach to Zia International Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing all 49 people on board.
"We begin bombing in five minutes": United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.
An infamous brawl takes place at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium between the Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish Armed Forces with an attack on police and gendarmerie bases in Şemdinli and Eruh.
Seven people are shot and killed and 12 wounded in the Milperra massacre, a shootout between the rival motorcycle gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney, Australia.
Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
An explosion on board a Maltese patrol boat disposing of illegal fireworks at sea off Gozo kills seven soldiers and policemen.
Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.
Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.
The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997.
The popular children's television show Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends, based on The Railway Series by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, premieres on ITV.
Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds at least 31 others.
Niki Lauda claims his third and final Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by half a point ahead of McLaren team-mate Alain Prost at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and other cities and around 3,000 Sikhs are killed.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupt.
Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
San Juanico disaster: A series of explosions at the Pemex petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City starts a major fire and kills about 500 people.
Thirty-six top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agrees to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty.
NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.
Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom later died from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997, is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.
The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.
Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."
"Subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz shoots four would-be muggers on a 2 express train in Manhattan section of New York, United States.
After experiencing an engine fire, Aeroflot Flight 3519 attempts to make an emergency landing at Krasnoyarsk International Airport but crashes, killing 110 of the 111 people on board.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1984 in the Japanese calendar?
1984 was Showa 59 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1984?
1984 is the Year of the Rat.
How old is someone born in 1984?
They turn 42 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1984?
In 1984, Japan issued new banknotes, including a 10,000-yen bill featuring Fukuzawa Yukichi, and the Glico-Morinaga extortion case began. Around the world, the Macintosh went on sale and China and Britain agreed on the return of Hong Kong.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.