1984 Trivia, History, and Fun Facts
Quick Facts from 1984
- World-Changing Event: Apple Computer unveiled the Macintosh personal computer on January 24, 1984, introduced by one of the most celebrated commercials in advertising history and priced at $1,995. Nearly 250,000 were sold that year. Personal computing had a face.
- Top Song: Like a Virgin by Madonna, which launched at the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards with a performance in a wedding dress that people are still talking about
- Must-See Movies: Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Footloose, Purple Rain, This Is Spinal Tap, Red Dawn, and Amadeus
- The Most Famous Person in the World: Bob Geldof, who organized Band Aid and Do They Know It’s Christmas? in six weeks, mobilizing the biggest names in British pop music to address the Ethiopian famine
- Notable Books: You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay and What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Arlene Eisenberg and Heidi Murkoff
- Panasonic VCR: $419-$499; 120-minute JVC videotape: $9.99; health club membership: $99/year; gallon of gas: $1.27; postage stamp: 20 cents
- Super Bowl ad (30 seconds): $368,000
- U.S. Life Expectancy: Males 71.1 years, Females 78.2 years
- The Funny Band: Spinal Tap; The Funny Musician: Weird Al Yankovic; The Funny Lady: Joan Rivers
- Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Rat, associated with intelligence, adaptability, and resourcefulness
- The Conversation: Have you seen the new Mac? And did you hear what Reagan said on the radio?
Top Ten Baby Names of 1984
Girls: Jennifer, Jessica, Ashley, Amanda, Sarah Boys: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, David
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols
Loni Anderson, Catherine Bach, Kim Basinger, Jacqueline Bisset, Linda Blair, Christie Brinkley, Phoebe Cates, Joan Collins, Lydia Cornell, Sybil Danning, Bo Derek, Farrah Fawcett, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Ireland, Grace Jones, Nastassja Kinski, Jessica Lange, Heather Langenkamp, Kelly LeBrock, Heather Locklear, Madonna, Kelli Maroney, Dolly Parton, Paulina Porizkova, Victoria Principal, Helen Slater, Suzanne Somers, Brinke Stevens, Catherine Mary Stewart, Heather Thomas, Mary Woronov
Leading Men and Hollywood Heartthrobs
Mel Gibson, Michael Hutchence, Christopher Reeve, Patrick Swayze, Robert Redford
The Quotes
“Where’s the beef?” — Clara Peller, Wendy’s commercial. The director had asked her to say “Where is all the beef?” Her emphysema shortened it naturally. The shortened version worked considerably better.
“I’ll be back.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator
“My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” — President Ronald Reagan, August 11, 1984, as a radio soundcheck, apparently unaware the microphone was live. The Soviet military went on brief alert. The White House called it a joke.
Time Magazine’s Man of the Year
Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, is recognized for turning the 1984 Summer Olympics into a financial success after years of Olympic Games running massive deficits. His model of corporate sponsorship permanently changed how the Olympics operated.
Miss America and Miss USA
Miss America: Vanessa Williams, Millwood, NJ (September 17, 1983 – July 23, 1984); Suzette Charles, Mays Landing, NJ (July 23 – September 15, 1984)
Miss USA: Mai Shanley, New Mexico
Vanessa Williams was the first Black woman to win Miss America. She was asked to resign in July 1984 after Penthouse magazine published nude photographs taken before her reign. Suzette Charles, the first runner-up, completed the term. Williams went on to a highly successful career in music and acting, making her one of the most accomplished Miss Americas in the title’s history. The circumstances of her resignation are now widely regarded as deeply unfair.
We Lost in 1984
Marvin Gaye, the soul and R&B legend behind What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On, and Sexual Healing, died April 1, 1984, the day before his 45th birthday, shot by his father Marvin Gay Sr. after Gaye intervened in a fight between his parents. His father was charged with first-degree murder; the charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter after a brain tumor was found during his medical evaluation. He was sentenced to probation.
Richard Burton, the Welsh actor considered one of the greatest Shakespeareans of his generation and one of the most charismatic screen presences of the 1950s and 60s, died August 5, 1984, at age 58, of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, one of the most celebrated American writers of the 20th century, died August 25, 1984, at age 59.
Tommy Cooper, the beloved British comedian and magician, died on live television on April 15, 1984, during a performance on Live from Her Majesty’s. He collapsed on stage in front of millions of viewers. The audience, accustomed to his deliberate pratfalls and comic stumbles, laughed and applauded during his final moments. He died of a heart attack before reaching the hospital. He was 63.
Andy Kaufman — the performance artist and comedian, known for Taxi and his deeply committed anti-comedy persona- died May 16, 1984, at age 35, from lung cancer, surprising for a non-smoker. Because Kaufman had so thoroughly blurred the line between performance and reality throughout his career, a persistent rumor held that his death was an elaborate stunt. It was not, but the question has never fully gone away.
Born in 1984
Mark Zuckerberg — May 14, 1984.
Scarlett Johansson — November 22, 1984.
LeBron James — December 30, 1984.
Katy Perry — October 25, 1984.
Prince Harry — September 15, 1984.
America in 1984 — The Context
Ronald Reagan was running for reelection against Democratic challenger Walter Mondale of Minnesota. The campaign was not particularly competitive. Reagan won 49 states, 525 electoral votes — the most in American presidential election history — and missed winning all 50 states by 3,761 votes in Minnesota. Mondale carried his home state by that margin. It was the most lopsided electoral college result in modern history.
The Cold War was at its most frigid point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union and its allies boycotted the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in retaliation for the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. The Doomsday Clock was set at three minutes to midnight. Reagan joked on a live radio feed about bombing Russia. Orwell’s 1984 — set in the year the book was set — was selling briskly.
In the middle of all this, a computer with a mouse launched. A movie about ghosts topped the box office. Prince released an album and a film in the same year. And Bob Geldof organized the most famous charity pop record ever made in approximately six weeks.
The Macintosh
The Apple Macintosh was unveiled on January 24, 1984, at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, introduced by a now-legendary television commercial directed by Ridley Scott that aired during Super Bowl XVIII. The 60-second spot, set in a dystopian world clearly evoking Orwell’s 1984, showed a woman athlete hurling a sledgehammer at a screen displaying a Big Brother figure. It aired nationally once during the Super Bowl and never again in its original broadcast form — though it had already been aired once before that on a local Idaho television station in December 1983 to qualify for advertising awards.
The Mac was priced at $1,995, had a 9-inch screen and 128 kilobytes of RAM, and came with a mouse that most computer users had never seen before. It sold 70,000 units in 100 days. Nearly 250,000 were sold by the end of 1984. The graphical user interface it demonstrated — icons, windows, a pointer — became the template for virtually every personal computer operating system that followed.
The 1984 Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles from July 28 to August 12, 1984. The Soviet Union, East Germany, and thirteen other countries boycotted in retaliation for the American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. With the powerhouse Soviet team absent, the United States won 83 gold medals and 174 total — its highest totals ever.
Carl Lewis won four gold medals: the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100m relay — matching Jesse Owens’ 1936 feat. Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman to win the all-around gold medal in gymnastics and the face of American Olympic triumph that summer. Peter Ueberroth’s organizing committee turned a projected deficit into a $225 million surplus through corporate sponsorship, completely redesigning the Olympic financing model.
McDonald’s ran a promotion offering free food for every American medal. The Soviet boycott meant the U.S. won far more medals than anticipated. It became McDonald’s most expensive promotional campaign in company history.
Do They Know It’s Christmas?
In early November 1984, Bob Geldof watched BBC news coverage of the Ethiopian famine and decided to do something about it. He called Midge Ure of Ultravox. Within days they had written a song and begun calling every major British and Irish pop star they could reach. On November 25, 1984, roughly 40 of the biggest names in British music gathered at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill and recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas? in a single day.
The song was released in the UK on December 3, 1984. It sold a million copies in its first week. Three million by the end of 1984. It raised over $8 million for Ethiopian famine relief. Wham! simultaneously donated all royalties from their holiday single Last Christmas to the same cause.
The recording session’s participants included: Adam Clayton and Bono (U2), Phil Collins (Genesis), Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats), Steve Norman and Tony Hadley and Martin Kemp and Gary Kemp and John Keeble (Spandau Ballet), Chris Cross (Ultravox), John Taylor and Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes and Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), Paul Young, Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), Marilyn, Keren Woodward and Sarah Dallin and Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama), Jody Watley (Shalamar), Paul Weller (The Style Council), James Taylor (Kool and the Gang), George Michael (Wham!), Midge Ure (Ultravox), Simon Crowe and Pete Briquette and Johnny Fingers (The Boomtown Rats), Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt (Status Quo), Robert Bell and Dennis Thomas (Kool and the Gang), Jon Moss (Culture Club), Sting (The Police), David Bowie, Boy George (Culture Club), Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), Paul McCartney, Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson and Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki (Big Country).
Pop Culture Facts and History
The Terminator, directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was released on October 26, 1984, on a budget of $6.4 million. It grossed over $78 million worldwide and launched one of the most durable science fiction franchises in film history. Schwarzenegger reportedly had only 74 lines of dialogue in the entire film.
Purple Rain, Prince’s semi-autobiographical film, was released on July 27, 1984. The accompanying album spent 24 consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and produced When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy, Purple Rain, and I Would Die 4 U — four songs that define the decade. Prince wrote, produced, and performed the entire soundtrack himself.
This Is Spinal Tap invented the mockumentary format as a cinematic genre. Released March 2, 1984, the film was improvised almost entirely by its cast and presented with such deadpan sincerity that some audiences initially believed it was a real documentary. The “these go to eleven” scene has been cited in academic discussions of logic ever since.
Amadeus, directed by Milos Forman, won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture at the 1985 ceremony, and was one of the most celebrated films of the decade.
Red Dawn, released August 1, 1984, was the first film to receive the newly created PG-13 rating from the MPAA, introduced in part in response to parental complaints about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins. Both of those films were rated PG. The new PG-13 rating acknowledged a middle ground between PG and R. Red Dawn and Dreamscape were both released on the same day, and both carried the new rating; Red Dawn is typically credited as first because of its wider release.
Michael Jackson’s hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial on January 27, 1984, when a pyrotechnic effect ignited sparks onto his heavily gelled hair during the sixth take. The burns were significant. The incident is widely believed to have begun his reliance on painkillers, which became a major factor in his later life and death. The commercial also featured a young, then-unknown Alfonso Ribeiro, later Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Tetris was created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in June 1984. The game was almost immediately bootlegged across the Soviet Union and then worldwide. Because Pajitnov worked for the Soviet government, all rights to the game belonged to the state. He did not receive any royalties for 12 years.
Madonna performed Like a Virgin at the first MTV Video Music Awards on September 14, 1984, in a wedding dress, writhing on the stage floor. The performance was considered scandalous at the time. It launched both the VMAs and Madonna’s persona as a pop provocateur simultaneously.
Hulk Hogan defeated The Iron Sheik for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on January 23, 1984, at Madison Square Garden, beginning his dominant run as the face of American professional wrestling. WrestleMania was announced a month later.
Bruce McCandless became the first person to conduct an untethered spacewalk on February 7, 1984, floating 320 feet from the Space Shuttle Challenger using only a nitrogen-propelled jetpack called the Manned Maneuvering Unit. The photograph of him floating alone against the blackness of space, with Earth below, is one of the most reproduced NASA images in history.
The Bhopal disaster began on the night of December 2-3, 1984, when a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking methyl isocyanate gas. When the leak was detected at 11:45 p.m., it was decided to address it after the 12:15 a.m. tea break. By morning, the gas had spread through nearby residential areas. An estimated 3,800 people died in the immediate disaster. Long-term health complications attributed to the leak have been linked to an estimated 16,000 to 20,000 additional deaths. It remains the worst industrial accident in history. Union Carbide’s liability was eventually settled for $470 million.
DNA fingerprinting was developed by British molecular biologist Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester in 1984. He published his findings in 1985. Within two years, the technique was used to convict Colin Pitchfork of murder in the first criminal case to use DNA evidence. The technology has since been used in hundreds of thousands of criminal cases and hundreds of exonerations.
Fantasy Records sued John Fogerty in 1984 for copyright infringement, claiming his song The Old Man Down the Road sounded too much like CCR’s Run Through the Jungle. The catch: Fogerty had written Run Through the Jungle himself. He was sued for plagiarizing his own work. The case went to trial, and Fogerty won, with a verdict that established an important precedent for songwriters’ rights.
The “keyboard cat” video — one of the internet’s earliest viral sensations — was actually filmed in 1984. The cat, named Fatso, played the keyboard for owner Charlie Schmidt. Fatso died in 1987. The video sat in a box for 22 years before being posted to YouTube in 2007, where it launched a meme format that is still in use.
The term “EGOT” — an acronym for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony — was coined in 1984 by Miami Vice actor Philip Michael Thomas, who announced his intention to achieve all four within five years. He has never been nominated for any of the four awards. The acronym is now commonly used to refer to a small group of performers who have achieved it, including Rita Moreno, John Legend, and Audrey Hepburn.
Bill Murray ad-libbed the phrase “you’re toast” while filming Ghostbusters in 1984, coining the modern idiomatic use of the expression. Prior to that scene, “toast” in this sense is not documented in common use.
The 1984 World Chess Championship between defending champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Garry Kasparov was abandoned after 48 games over five months, with no winner declared. Karpov had a 5-0 lead early in the match, but Kasparov rallied. The match was called off by FIDE president Florencio Campomanes, citing the players’ health. Kasparov and many observers believed Campomanes had intervened to prevent Kasparov from winning. The controversy has never been fully resolved.
Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein, was appointed Chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and the Iraqi Football Association in 1984 at age 20. Athletes who failed to meet his expectations were subject to torture, imprisonment, and abuse. He was killed in 2003 by U.S. forces.
The name Madison for girls was essentially unheard of before 1984. In the film Splash, Daryl Hannah’s mermaid character names herself Madison after seeing a street sign in New York. Tom Hanks’ character tells her that Madison is not a real name. It became one of the most popular girls’ names in America within a decade.
The US Federal minimum drinking age was established at 21 by the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of July 1984. States that did not comply faced a reduction in federal highway funding. All states complied within a few years.
Donald Duck received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army in 1984, formally recognizing his service in World War II training films and as a mascot for combat units. The discharge was signed by the Secretary of the Army. It is framed somewhere in the Disney archives.
English grandmother Jane Snowball placed a grocery order in 1984 using her television remote control and a telephone line to transmit the order to her local store, becoming the first person to shop online. The system was called Videotex. It did not immediately transform retail.
Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream was invented by Ben and Jerry’s in 1984 after an anonymous customer suggestion appeared on their flavor suggestion board in their Burlington, Vermont shop. It is now one of the best-selling ice cream flavors in the United States.
McDonald’s introduced the McDLT in 1984 — a burger sold in a two-compartment polystyrene container that kept the hot and cold components separate until assembly. It was discontinued in the early 1990s when McDonald’s phased out polystyrene packaging in response to environmental concerns. Jason Alexander, before he was George Costanza, starred in the McDLT commercial.
The Doomsday Clock
Setting: 3 minutes to midnight
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists cited the complete breakdown of U.S.-Soviet dialogue. Arms control negotiations had stalled entirely. The Strategic Defense Initiative — “Star Wars” — was raising fears of a new space-based arms race. The Bulletin wrote that every channel of communication between the superpowers had been “constricted or shut down.” It was the closest the clock had been to midnight since the early 1950s.
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics — Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer for the discovery of the W and Z particles, the carriers of the weak nuclear force, confirming a key prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics
Chemistry — Robert Bruce Merrifield for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix, a technique that transformed biochemistry and pharmaceutical research
Medicine — Niels Kaj Jerne, Georges Kohler, and Cesar Milstein for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for the production of monoclonal antibodies
Literature — Jaroslav Seifert, a Czech poet, the first Czech to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, for poetry which is endowed with freshness, sensuality, and rich inventiveness, provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man
Peace — Desmond Tutu, a South African Anglican bishop and anti-apartheid activist, for his role as a unifying leader figure in the nonviolent campaign against apartheid
Economics — Richard Stone for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts
Broadway in 1984
La Cage aux Folles won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1984, becoming the first Broadway musical with openly gay lead characters to win the top prize.
Sunday in the Park with George opened May 2, 1984, at the Booth Theatre, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It was inspired by Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Best Film Oscar Winner
Terms of Endearment, directed by James L. Brooks and starring Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, and Debra Winger, won Best Picture at the 56th Academy Awards in March 1984, presented for the 1983 film year. Shirley MacLaine won Best Actress; Jack Nicholson won Best Supporting Actor. It swept five of the eleven categories it was nominated for.
Top Movies of 1984
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Ghostbusters
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Gremlins
- The Karate Kid
- Police Academy
- Footloose
- Romancing the Stone
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- Splash
Most Popular TV Shows of 1984
- Dynasty (ABC)
- Dallas (CBS)
- The Cosby Show (NBC)
- 60 Minutes (CBS)
- Family Ties (NBC)
- The A-Team (NBC)
- Simon and Simon (CBS)
- Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
- Knots Landing (CBS)
- Falcon Crest (CBS)
The Cosby Show premiered on September 20, 1984, and immediately became the most-watched new program of the season. Miami Vice also premiered in 1984, introducing a visual aesthetic — pastel suits, no socks, synthesizer score — that came to define the decade’s look. Murder, She Wrote debuted to strong ratings and would run for 12 seasons. Cheers was beginning to find its audience. 1984 was a strong year to own a television.
1984 Billboard Number One Songs
December 10, 1983 – January 20, 1984: Say Say Say — Paul McCartney featuring Michael Jackson
January 21 – February 3: Owner of a Lonely Heart — Yes
February 4 – February 24: Karma Chameleon — Culture Club
February 25 – March 23: Jump — Van Halen
March 24 – April 20: Footloose — Kenny Loggins
April 21 – May 11: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) — Phil Collins
May 12 – May 25: Hello — Lionel Richie
May 26 – June 8: Let’s Hear It for the Boy — Deniece Williams
June 9 – June 22: Time After Time — Cyndi Lauper
June 23 – July 6: The Reflex — Duran Duran
July 7 – August 10: When Doves Cry — Prince
August 11 – August 31: Ghostbusters — Ray Parker Jr.
September 1 – September 21: What’s Love Got to Do with It — Tina Turner
September 22 – September 28: Missing You — John Waite
September 29 – October 12: Let’s Go Crazy — Prince and the Revolution
October 13 – November 2: I Just Called to Say I Love You — Stevie Wonder
November 3 – November 16: Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) — Billy Ocean
November 17 – December 7: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go — Wham!
December 8 – December 21: Out of Touch — Hall and Oates
December 22, 1984 – February 1, 1985: Like a Virgin — Madonna
Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got to Do with It was her first #1 single. She was 44 years old. Prince had two separate #1 singles in 1984 — When Doves Cry and Let’s Go Crazy — and released Purple Rain as both a film and soundtrack album. 1984 is regularly cited as one of the two or three greatest years for pop music in the rock era.
Biggest Pop Artists of 1984
Prince, Madonna, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Wham!, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Van Halen, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Yes, Bruce Springsteen, Hall and Oates, Kenny Loggins, Billy Ocean, Stevie Wonder, Deniece Williams, Huey Lewis and the News, John Waite, Ray Parker Jr., Paul McCartney, Weird Al Yankovic
Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1984
“…And Ladies of the Club” — Helen Hooven Santmyer
The Aquitaine Progression — Robert Ludlum
The Butter Battle Book — Dr. Seuss First
Among Equals — Jeffrey Archer
Full Circle — Danielle Steel
Heretics of Dune — Frank Herbert
The House on Mango Street — Sandra Cisneros
Iacocca: An Autobiography — Lee Iacocca with William Novak
In Search of Excellence — Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.
Lincoln — Gore Vidal
Love and War — John Jakes
Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession — Erma Bombeck
Neuromancer — William Gibson
The Sicilian — Mario Puzo
The Talisman — Stephen King and Peter Straub
Thinner — Stephen King
The Unbearable Lightness of Being — Milan Kundera
You Can Heal Your Life — Louise Hay
The Habits
Playing Trivial Pursuit; listening to Dr. Ruth Westheimer on the radio; watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with Robin Leach; wearing parachute pants and fingerless gloves; buying Cabbage Patch Kids for Christmas; debating whether Spinal Tap was real; and going to see Ghostbusters a second time because it was worth it.
Sports Champions of 1984
World Series: Detroit Tigers won 104 games during the regular season and swept through the playoffs and Series; defeated the San Diego Padres 4-1
Super Bowl XVIII: Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9; one of the most lopsided Super Bowl victories to that point
NBA Champions: Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 4-3 in one of the most celebrated Finals matchups of the era, the first of three Bird vs. Magic Finals meetings
Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers, Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers began their dynasty, defeating the New York Islanders 4-1; it was their first of five championships in seven years
U.S. Open Golf: Fuzzy Zoeller
U.S. Open Tennis: Men/Women: John McEnroe / Martina Navratilova
Wimbledon: Men/Women: John McEnroe / Martina Navratilova
NCAA Football Champions: BYU
NCAA Basketball Champions: Georgetown
Kentucky Derby: Swale — who died of a heart attack eleven days after winning the Belmont Stakes, one of the most sudden and shocking deaths in American Thoroughbred history
Sports Highlight: Carl Lewis won four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics, equaling Jesse Owens’ 1936 achievement. Javelin thrower Uwe Hohn set an “eternal world record” on July 20, 1984, throwing 104.80 meters — the first and only athlete ever to break the 100-meter barrier. The IAAF subsequently redesigned the javelin to reduce distances after the record was set, making his mark impossible to beat under current equipment rules. Hohn’s record will stand forever.
FAQs — 1984 Trivia, Fun Facts, and Pop Culture History
Q: What was the Apple Macintosh commercial, and why is it famous?
A: Directed by Ridley Scott and aired during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, the 60-second commercial depicted a woman smashing a screen showing a Big Brother figure. It introduced the Macintosh as a liberating alternative to conformity, specifically evoking George Orwell’s novel set in the same year. It is regularly cited as the greatest television commercial ever made.
Q: Who was Bob Geldof and what did he do in 1984?
A: Bob Geldof was the lead singer of The Boomtown Rats, who, after seeing BBC footage of the Ethiopian famine, organized Band Aid and recruited approximately 40 of Britain and Ireland’s biggest pop stars to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? in a single November day. The song sold 3 million copies in 1984 and raised over $8 million for famine relief, making Geldof the most famous humanitarian in the music world that year.
Q: What was special about the 1984 Summer Olympics?
A: Held in Los Angeles, the Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union and thirteen allied nations in retaliation for the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. With the Soviet team absent, the U.S. won 83 gold medals and 174 total. Carl Lewis won four golds. Mary Lou Retton won the gymnastics all-around. McDonald’s promotional offer of free food for each U.S. medal became the company’s most expensive promotion ever.
Q: What was the Bhopal disaster?
A: On the night of December 2-3, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, leaked methyl isocyanate gas into surrounding residential areas. An estimated 3,800 people died immediately, with long-term estimates of 16,000 to 20,000 total deaths from related health effects. It remains the worst industrial accident in history.
Q: What was the first PG-13-rated film?
A: Red Dawn, released August 1, 1984. The PG-13 rating was created by the MPAA, in part, in response to parental complaints about content in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins, both rated PG.
Q: What happened when Reagan’s radio soundcheck went live?
A: On August 11, 1984, while preparing for his weekly radio address, Reagan said into a microphone he believed was off: “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The recording leaked. The Soviet military went on brief alert. The White House called it a joke. The Kremlin was not amused.
Q: What records did Prince set for 1984?
A: Prince released Purple Rain as both a film and a soundtrack album in 1984. The album spent 24 consecutive weeks at #1, produced four major hits, and is widely considered one of the greatest albums in pop history. He had two separate #1 singles — When Doves Cry and Let’s Go Crazy — and wrote, produced, and performed the entire soundtrack himself.
Q: What was unusual about the John Fogerty lawsuit in 1984?
A: Fantasy Records sued Fogerty for making The Old Man Down the Road sound too similar to CCR’s Run Through the Jungle, a song Fogerty had himself written and produced. He was being sued for plagiarizing his own work. The jury found in Fogerty’s favor after he demonstrated in court, by playing guitar, that the songs shared only common blues conventions.
More 1984 Facts and History Resources:
Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1984X
1984 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Everything 80s Podcast 1984
Fact Monster
Back In Time 1980s Timeline Thoughtco.com
1980s, Infoplease.com World History
Millennial Generation (1981-1996)
1984 in Movies (according to IMDB)
1984 Top Movies (according to BoxOfficeMojo)
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
80s Facts About the 80s(Mental Floss)
1980s Slang
1984 Events BestlifeOnline
Wikipedia 1984
