istoryworld
All Events
Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is killed in a Stockholm street in an unsolved murder
Simultaneous acts passed in Canberra and Westminster give Australia full judicial independence, ending appeals to the UK Privy Council
The drug AZT (azidothymidine) offers hope as a way of inhibiting the progression from HIV to AIDS
A terrible fire destroys much of the King's State Appartments, third floor and roof of the South Front of Hampton Court
President Reagan launches an air strike against Libya, accusing Gaddafi of involvement in international terrorism
Tony Cragg's Raleigh is unveiled outside the Tate Gallery in his home town of Liverpool
Western nations finally impose sanctions on South Africa in response to apartheid
A Soviet nuclear power station explodes at Chernobyl, scattering radioactive material over a wide area
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is formed, by a group of exiles, to bring about the downfall of Habyarimana's regime in Rwanda
Harrison Birtwistle's second opera, The Mask of Orpheus, brings him an international reputation
Nikolai Tolstoy publishes The Minister and the Massacres, charging Harold Macmillan with responsibility for the 'victims of Yalta'
Desmond Tutu is the first black African to be archbishop of Cape Town
Argentina wins the World Cup quarter final against England with help from Maradona and 'the hand of God'
20-year-old US boxer Mike Tyson knocks out Trevor Berbick to become the youngest ever world heavyweight champion
Yves Montand and Gérard Depardieu star in Jean De Florette, adapted from a novel by Marcel Pagnol
Mad Cow Disease (BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy ) is identified and described in Britain
Details of the Iran-Contra affair spark a Washington scandal and the criminal prosecution of Oliver North
Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki's opera The Black Mask is premiered in Salzburg
The Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill becomes the first rap (or hip hop) album to top the US chart
Pope's Villa becomes St James Independent School for Boys.
Most of the currency in circulation in Burma becomes worthless when Ne Win replaces it with new 45 and 90 kyat notes (he says 9 is is his lucky number)
Mugabe and Nkomo merge their two parties as ZANU-PF, making Zimbabwe effectively a one-party state
The Zimbabwean constitution is changed to make Mugabe executive president (with Nkomo vice-president, until his death in 1999)
English poets John Fuller and James Fenton collaborate in a volume of satirical poems, Partingtime Hall
18-year-old German tennis player Steffi Graf deposes Martina Navratilova as world no. 1
