1984 @ Nostalgia Central

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01 - Brunei becomes independent of Britain. The Sultan of Brunei appoints himself Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Home Affairs Minister

01 - Alexis Korner, godfather of British blues, dies of cancer aged 55 (b. April 19 1928)

03 - A US airman shot down over Lebanon is freed following an appeal from the Reverend Jesse Jackson

06 - Texaco buys Getty Oil for $10 billion

17 - US Supreme Court rules 5-4 that it is legal to record television broadcasts with a videocassette recorder

18 - Gunmen in Beirut murder Malcolm Kerr, the head of the American University

20 - Olympic gold medal winner and movie actor Johnny Weissmuller, best-remembered for his film portrayal of Tarzan, dies from lung blockage at the age of 79

21 - Soul singer Jackie Wilson dies after 8 years in a coma. Wilson collapsed on stage in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on September 25, 1975 with a heart attack that led to the irreversible coma

24 - 17 die after abandoning the stricken freighter Radiant Med in a gale off Guernsey

25 - President Reagan's State of the Union address refers to "renewed energy and optimism throughout the land"

26 - Singer Michael Jackson receives second-degree burns to his head and neck when a flare ignites his hairspray while filming a Pepsi TV commercial

26 - Alan Bond is awarded the Order of Australia

31 - A gunman who took 10 hostages during a bank robbery is shot dead at the Spit Bridge after a car and helicopter chase in Sydney, Australia

01 - Medicare comes into operation in Australia

07 - US Astronauts complete un-tethered space walk

07 - Reagan orders US Marines withdrawn from Beirut international peacekeeping force

09 - Soviet leader Yuri Andropov dies after 15 months as general secretary

11 - The 40-month old war between Iran and Iraq escalates as Iran launches a major offensive; 500,000 troops are engaged in battle.

13 - Konstantin Chernenko becomes Soviet leader after sudden death of Yuri Andropov

14 - Jayne Torvil and Christopher Dean win Olympic gold for ice dancing with a brilliant display to Ravel's Bolero

14 - Elton John weds Renata Blauel in Sydney, Australia

15 - American actress/singer Ethel Merman (b. 1909) dies

26 - The last US Marines leave Beirut

29 - Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau resigns

01 - US actor Jackie Coogan (b. 1914) dies

12 - Miners begin a strike in over 100 UK collieries which is to last a year

14 - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is shot and seriously wounded by Loyalist gunmen in Northern Ireland

18 - Gymnast Mary Lou Retton scores a perfect 10 in the vault at a pre-Olympic meeting in New York

20 - A Soviet tanker hits mine off the coast of Nicaragua, and it is discovered that the CIA had assisted rebels in mining the country's harbours.

23 - American Civil Servant Sarah Tisdall is jailed for six months for passing on classified information about US Cruise missiles to a daily newspaper

24 - The Wran government is returned in NSW, Australia, with a reduced majority

26 - Australian $100 note goes into circulation

28 - Diplomat Kenneth Whitty shot dead in Athens

30 - Reagan ends US role in Beirut by relieving 6th Fleet from peacekeeping force

31 - 'Hello Dandy' wins the Grand National

01 - US singer Marvin Gaye shot dead by his father in LA

04 - 59 women are arrested as police clear anti-nuclear protesters from their camp outside Greenham Common in Britain

09 - 100 arrested at Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire pits in some of the worst violence of the British miners strike

10 - World's first birth from a frozen embryo at Monash University, Australia

11 - Advance Australia Fair proclaimed as Australia's official national anthem ending the long standing reign of God Save The Queen

17 - Policewoman Yvonne Fletcher is killed and 11 others injured when a gunman fires from inside the Libyan embassy in St James's Square, London

26 - President Reagan arrives in the People's Republic of China for a six-day visit

26 - US bandleader Count Basie (b. 1904) dies

04 - British actress Diana Dors (b. 1931) dies

05 - Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders marries Jim Kerr of Simple Minds in New York's Central Park

07 - Dow Chemical and six other chemical companies announce the establishment of the Agent Orange Victims Fund, an endowment of $180 million to provide assistance to Vietnam veterans suffering from exposure to the herbicide which was used to defoliate Vietnamese jungles

08 - Soviets decide to boycott LA Olympics

10 - The US federal government promises $4.5 billion in loan guarantees after the biggest run on an American bank since the Great Depression threatens to sink the Continental Illinois Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Co. will take 80% of the bank's stock and buy up $4.5 billion in bad loans.

14 - Australian $1 coin goes into circulation

18 - A US judge orders Disneyland to stop enforcing a policy against same sex dancing. A gay couple was removed from the Tomorrowland Terrace in 1980 and challenged the park’s policies

19 - Everton beat Watford 2-0 in the FA Cup Final

24 - In El Salvador, five former soldiers are found guilty of murdering three US nuns and a missionary in 1980

28 - British comedian Eric Morecambe dies of a heart attack after six curtain calls in a theatre. He was 58

29 - 41 policemen and 28 picketing miners are injured in South Yorkshire, in pitched battles outside the Orgreave coking

30 - Miners union president Arthur Scargill is arrested and charged with obstruction at Orgreave Colliery

30 - Liverpool win the European Cup, beating A S Roma in Italy

02 - Virgin Atlantic, the airline owned by Virgin Records boss Richard Branson, makes its first flight - from London to New Jersey - for a bargain £99

06 - 'Secreto' wins the Derby

06 - Hundreds of Sikh extremists in India die when troops storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar

16 - Queensland (Australia) premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen is knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours

22 - A massive explosion destroys a Soviet naval arsenal near Murmansk in Northern Russia

26 - Fidel Castro frees 22 jailed Americans in Cuba after talks with Reverend Jesse Jackson

30 - After 16 years in office, Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau resigns.

05 - India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sends in troops to oust Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple at Amritsar; between 600-1,200 people are slain in the takeover.

07 - Martina Navratilova beats Chris Evert Lloyd to take her fifth women's singles title at Wimbledon

08 - John McEnroe beats Jimmy Connors to win the men's singles final at Wimbledon

12 - In Britain, Robert Maxwell buys The Mirror newspaper for £113.4 million

14 - Labour's David Lange wins office in New Zealand

16 - The Democratic National Convention nominates Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro for President and Vice-President. Ferraro is the first woman ever chosen to run for Vice President by either party

17 - Reagan signs a bill giving states until October 1 to raise the legal drinking age to 21, or else suffer a 5% cut in Federal highway funds

18 - 20 killed during a shooting rampage by James Huberty at a McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro, California

21 - James F Fixx, author of the famous Complete Guide To Running, dies of a heart attack while jogging in Vermont (b. 1941)

23 - Vanessa Williams resigns from her position as Miss America due to nude pictures in Penthouse. It is the first resignation in the history of the pageant

23 - Israel's parliamentary elections result in the Labor party, headed by Shimon Peres, winning 44 seats in the Knesset while Prime Minister's Yitzhak Shamir's Likud party wins 41 seats. The Knesset will vote September 14 for a coalition government in which Peres and then Shamir will serve as prime minister.

27 - British actor James Mason (b. 1909) dies

28 - 23rd Olympic Games open in Los Angeles. The USSR and 15 other nations withdraw from the games citing doubts about security measures

30 - 11-day-old Holly Roffey becomes the world's youngest heart transplant patient

01 - Australian banks deregulated

05 - Actor Richard Burton (b. 1925) dies of a stroke in Geneva

08 - Sprinter Carl Lewis wins four gold medals at the LA Olympics, matching Jesse Owens 1936 feat in Berlin

11 - In a microphone check before a broadcast, President Reagan said "I am pleased to announce I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes." The sound clip was accidentally heard by the world as the audio went live to air

18 - Month-old heart transplant patient Holly Roffey dies

20/23 - Republican National Convention re-nominates Reagan and Bush

21 - Almost one million demonstrators march in Manila a year after Aquino's murder to protest against president Ferdinand Marcos

25 - US author Truman Capote dies aged 59

30 - Space Shuttle Discovery makes maiden flight

31 - Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres agree to form a government of national unity and alternate the post of prime minister

02 - Seven people are shot dead and at least 17 injured in Sydney, Australia, when a Fathers Day barbecue meeting of Bandito and Comanchero bike gang members erupts into a gun battle at the Viking Hotel, Milperra

03 - 14 die in South Africa during rioting in Sharpeville and other black townships around Johannesburg. The Sharpeville Mayor is hacked to death

04 - US Embassy hit by Beirut bombers

04 - Brian Mulroney (Conservative) becomes prime minister of Canada

07 - 22 people die from salmonella poisoning at a hospital in Wakefield, UK

15 - Prince Henry Charles Albert David (Harry), second son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, is born in London

17 - The first South African multiracial cabinet is sworn in with prime minister Botha as president

23 - Canterbury Bankstown beat Parramatta 6-4 in the Australian Rugby League Grand Final

26 - Britain and China sign a draft agreement for the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997

29 - Essendon 14.21 (105) beat Hawthorn 12.9 (81) in the Australian VFL Final

29 - Massive IRA arms haul is seized aboard an Irish trawler

02 - Robert W. Miller becomes the first FBI agent in history to be charged with espionage; in 1986 he will be sentenced to two concurrent life sentences plus 50 years for spying for the Soviet Union.

02 - Three Soviet cosmonauts conclude a record 237-day stay in space.

03 - Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer are the first Australians to reach the summit of Mt Everest

07 - Walter Mondale wins his first presidential debate with Ronald Reagan, who seems disoriented and unclear on certain facts. A better-prepared Reagan performs more effectively in the second debate on October 21

10 - The British High Court fine the miners union £200,000 and Arthur Scargill £1,000 for contempt of court

11 - Dr Kathryn D Sullivan becomes the first US woman astronaut to walk in space

12 - IRA bomb blasts Tory Conference HQ at Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. Five people are killed but Margaret Thatcher escapes injury

26 - A baboon's heart is transplanted into 15-day-old 'Baby Fae'. She dies on November 15 from heart and kidney failure

28 - Chinese communist party announces economic reforms allowing a measure of free enterprise

30 - In Poland, pro-solidarity priest Fr. Popieluszko is found murdered after being kidnapped by the police

31 - Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi is shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards. Her son Rajiv Gandhi is sworn in as her successor following her murder

05 - 800 British miners return to work

06 - President Reagan is re-elected by nearly 17 million votes in a landslide

19 - A gas plant explosion in Mexico City kills over 260

19 - 2,282 British miners return to work

23 - Fire breaks out at Oxford Circus tube station in London. Hundreds flee smoke-filled tunnels

01 - Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke wins close poll

03 - Fatal gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India - More than 2,000 die and over 200,000 people suffer serious side-effects

10 - Bishop Desmond Tutu given Nobel Peace Prize

14 - Band Aid, organiszed by Bob Geldof, produces a chart-topping single, Do They Know It's Christmas?, to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia

17 - 76,000 square kilometres of desert at Maralinga in Australia is formally returned to Aborigines

19 - Great Britain guarantees the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, when its 99-year lease on the territory expires.

21 - Three gunmen seize two Merrill Lynch Canada couriers in Montreal and make off with over $51 million in securities.

22 - Bernhard Goetz, a self-employed engineer, shoots four black teenagers on a New York subway. Goetz who had been brutally mugged in 1981 claims that they demanded money from him

28 - Film director Sam Peckinpah (b.1926) dies

31 - Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen is involved in a serious motor accident that tears off his left arm

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