Military and war:(Mar. 23) President Reagan an-
nounces his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a
proposal to develop technology that can inter-
cept enemy missiles; the media dub his proposal
“Star Wars.” (Apr. 18) The U.S. embassy in Beirut,
Lebanon, is bombed and sixty-three people are
killed. (Oct. 19) Maurice Bishop, the prime min-
ister of Grenada, and forty others are executed in
a military coup; the People’s Revolutionary Army
forms a military government to rule the country.
(Oct. 23) Suicide truck-bombings destroy both
the French and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks
in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen, 58
French paratroopers, and 6 Lebanese civilians.
(Oct. 25) U.S. troops invade Grenada at the be-
hest of Eugenia Charles of Dominica, a member
of the Organization of American States; after the
invasion, the prerevolutionary government is re-
stored to power.
Society:Cabbage Patch Kids mania takes off after
the soft-sculpture dolls are placed on the market;
by the end of the year, nearly three million dolls
will be sold, exceeding the previous record for
first-year doll sales by more than one million.
(Sept. 17) Vanessa Williams becomes the first Af-
rican American to be crowned Miss America.
(Oct. 4) The first Hooters restaurant opens in
Clearwater, Florida.
Business and economics:Mortgage interest rates,
which exceeded 16 percent in 1981, drop to 12
percent by the end of the year. The juice box be-
comes a new brown bag and lunch box option
after Ocean Spray begins to sell cranberry juice
in boxes. (Jun.) McDonald’s introduces Chicken
McNuggets, small pieces of breaded chicken deep-
fried in oil.
Transportation and communications:(Apr. 15)
American Public Radio is founded; the network
will become Public Radio International in 1994.
(Sept. 5) Tom Brokaw becomes lead anchor for
NBC Nightly News.
Science and technology:(Jan. 26) The Lotus 1-2-3
spreadsheet program is released for IBM-PC com-
patible computers. (Apr. 7) Space shuttleChal-
lengerastronauts F. Story Musgrave and Donald H.
Peterson perform the first space shuttle space
walk, which lasts four hours and ten minutes.
(Jun. 18) Sally Ride, a crew member aboardChal-
lenger, becomes the first American woman astro-
naut. (Aug. 30) Guion Bluford, the first African
American astronaut, is among the crew ofChal-
lenger. (Oct. 25) The first version of Microsoft
Word software is introduced under the name
Multi-Tool Word.
Environment and health:(Jan.) A scientist at the Pas-
teur Institute in Paris isolates a virus that he be-
lieves is the original infecting microorganism of
AIDS. (Feb. 23) The EPA announces that it will buy
out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated com-
munity of Times Beach, Missouri. (Mar. 9) Amid
scandal, Anne Burford resigns as head of the EPA.
Arts and literature:Return of the Jedi Stor ybookis the
year’s best-selling fiction book. (Jan. 2) The musi-
calAnnieis performed for the last time after 2,377
shows on Broadway. (Apr.) Alice Walker’s novel
The Color Purplereceives the Pulitzer Prize.
Popular culture:“Down Under” by Men at Work,
“Africa” by Toto, and “Baby, Come to Me” by Patti
Austin and James Ingram are among the year’s
most popular songs. (Feb. 28) The television se-
riesM*A*S*Hpresents its final episode, “Good-
bye, Farewell, and Amen”; it becomes the highest-
rated episode in television history. (Jul. 21) Diana
Ross stages a free concert in Central Park for
800,000 people, enduring the severe weather;
she vows to return the next day—and keeps her
promise.
Sports:(Jan. 22) Björn Borg retires from tennis after
winning five consecutive Wimbledon champion-
ships. (Jul. 24) George Brett, third baseman for
the Kansas City Royals, is expelled from a baseball
game in Yankee Stadium after charging an um-
pire who called him out for having more pine tar
on his bat than is technically allowed. (Dec. 13)
The Denver Nuggets and the visiting Detroit Pis-
tons combine for a National Basketball Associa-
tion (NBA) record 370 points, with Detroit win-
ning in triple overtime, 186-184.
Crime:(Feb. 18) Thirteen people are killed in an at-
tempted robbery in Seattle, Washington.1984
International events:(Jun. 6) Indian troops storm
the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holi-
est shrine, killing about three hundred people.
(Aug. 21) Half a million people in Manila, Philip-
pines, demonstrate against the government of
Ferdinand Marcos. (Sept. 26) The United King-
dom and the People’s Republic of China sign an
initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China1148 Time Line The Eighties in America