The year in history
1985
Someone born in 1985 turns 41 in 2026
1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1985th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 985th year of the 2nd millennium, the 85th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1980s decade. The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
What happened in 1985
The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
Lebanon hostage crisis: CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
After a 12-year-long dictatorship, Julio María Sanguinetti is sworn in as the first democratically elected President of Uruguay.
Australia's longest-running soap opera, Neighbours, debuts on Seven Network.
South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages.
Philadelphia police drop bombs on a row home occupied MOVE during a gun battle between police and MOVE, killing six adults and five children
Studio Ghibli, an animation studio, is founded in Tokyo.
Live Aid benefit concerts in London and Philadelphia raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
The wreck of the RMS Titanic is located by a joint American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard (WHOI) and Jean-Louis Michel (IFREMER) using side-scan sonar from RV Knorr.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight.
Armero tragedy: The Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts, killing an estimated 23,000 people, including 21,000 killed by lahars, in the town of Armero, Colombia.
Hugh Scrutton is killed outside his Sacramento, California, computer rental store by a Unabomber explosive, becoming the first fatality of the bombing campaign.