istoryworld
All Events
17-year-old German tennis-player Boris Becker becomes the youngest ever to win the men's singles at Wimbledon
Gabriel García Márquez publishes Love in a Time of Cholera, a novel about love rekindled after five decades
French agents blow up Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour
Live Aid, an all-day concert for famine relief in Africa, is held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia
US artist Christo tightly binds Paris's Pont Neuf in fabric, as one of his international series of wrapped iconic buildings
The first Oprah Winfrey Show is broadcast in the USA, beginning a very long open-ended series
Milton Obote, toppled in a bloodless Uganda coup, escapes to Zambia
Seven groups of Afghan mujaheddin form a united front against the Soviet army
Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid publishes her first novel, Annie John
French racing driver Alain Prost wins the first of his four Formula One titles
Ayers Rock is returned to the Mutitjulu people and given its Aboriginal name, Uluru
The Human Genome Project begins in the US Department of Energy, with the aim of sequencing the whole of human DNA
Julius Nyerere, long-serving president of Tanzania, relinquishes power voluntarily
22-year-old Gary Kasparov defeats Anatoly Karpov and becomes the youngest-ever world champion in chess
Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Ireland's Garret FitzGerald sign an Anglo-Irish Agreement to tackle shared problems
British Rasta poet Benjamin Zephaniah publishes his second collection as The Dread Affair
Harold Macmillan dies and is buried in the churchyard of St Giles in Horsted Keynes
Hirox, a lens company in Tokyo, launches the first digital microscope
The US Space shuttle Challenger explodes with seven on board less than two minutes after lift-off
The guerrilla leader Yoweri Museveni takes Kampala and becomes president of Uganda
Baby Doc Duvalier escapes from Haiti in a US airforce jet and goes into exile in France
Corazón Aquino, widow of the assassinated Benigno Aquino, stands against Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines presidential election
The Marble Hill estate transfers to English Heritage
The Soviets launch the first module (the living quarters) of their Mir Space Station
After attempting to rig the presidential election to defeat Corazón Aquino, Ferdinand Marcos flees from the Philippines to exile in Hawaii
