This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1985

	February 5th	Portuguese footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, was born in Funchal, Madeira.
	February 6th	Steve Wozniak left Apple Computer. Along with Steve Jobs he was one of the two founders of the Apple Computer company. Although he left the company he remains one of the principal stock holders and has since then been employed as a grade school teacher.
	February 16th	The Lebanese Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, was founded.
	March 10th	Soviet politician, Konstantin Chernenko, died at the age of 74. He was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who died only 13 months after his ascent to the leadership of the Soviet Union.
	March 11th	Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union.
	March 16th	Associated Press reporter, Terry Anderson, was taken hostage in Beirut. He was released on December 4, 1991, after more than six years of captivity.
	March 28th	Russian painter, Marc Chagall, died at the age of 97 in France. He was one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century.
	April 11th	Albanian politician, Enver Hoxha, died at the age of 77. He was the leader of Albania from the end of the second world war, up until 1981 and was one of the last remaining believers of Stalinism, a belief which led to Albania's international isolation for many decades.
	April 21st	Formula 1 race driver, Ayrton Senna, won his first Formula One championship race at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril. He won 41 races before his death cut short his career.
	April 23th	The Coca-Cola company announced it was planning to change the formula for its popular Coke soft drink. Negative reactions from the public forced the company to stick with the original formula.
	May 29th	During the European Cup final match between Liverpool FC and Juventus fighting between English and Italian hooligans resulted in the death of 39 people. As a result all English teams were banned from European tournaments for 5 years.
	June 9th	American, Thomas Sutherland, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was released from captivity 6 years later. He was the dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
	June 14th	Members of the Hezbollah terrorist group, hijacked TWA Flight 847 was hijacked while flying from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy. It was one of the most publicized hijackings of the 20th century which coursed through several countries and lasted more than 2 weeks. One passenger, an American citizen, was executed and various countries agreed to release prisoners in exchange for hostages.
	June 23th	A bomb exploded aboard an Air India passenger jet while it was flying over the Atlantic Ocean, South of Ireland. The explosion cost the lives of all 329 people aboard.
	June 30th	American swimmer, Michael Phelps, was born in Baltimore. In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney he was the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Games in 68 years. In the 2004 Olympics of Athens he won 6 gold and 2 bronze medals.
	July 7th	Boris Becker won the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, becoming at 17, the youngest player to ever win the singles tournament.
	July 10th	French foreign intelligence personnel bombed and sank the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior while it was located in the harbour of Auckland, New Zealand.
	July 19th	A dam collapsed in Val di Stava, Italy, resulting in the death of 268 people.
	August 2nd	A Delta Air Lines passenger flight crashed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, 137 passengers died in the crash.
	August 12th	A Japan Airlines passenger flight crashed into Mount Ogura, Japan, resulting in the death of 520 of the 524 passengers. To this day (2007) it remains the world's worst single-plane air disaster.
	September 1st	The wreck of the RMS Titanic was discovered by a joint American-French expedition.
	September 18th	Steve Jobs resigned from Apple Computer.
	September 19th	A massive earthquake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, hit Mexico City, killing thousands of people and destroying hundreds of buildings.
	October 2nd	American actor, Rock Hudson, died at the age of 59. While he was a fairly successful actor, he is most remembered as being the first major celebrity to die from the AIDS virus.
	October 7th	Palestinian militants hijacked an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, in the Mediterranean sea. After killing one American tourist the terrorists were given safe passage by Egypt in exchange for the rest of the hostages. The terrorists then boarded a chartered Egyptian jet, however US Fighter jets intercepted the aircraft, forcing it to land in Italy. The terrorists were tried and convicted to long prison terms.
	October 18th	Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States. It is considered as the most successful entertainment console ever created and was the catalyst in establishing Nintento as the dominant company in the gaming console market over arch rival company, SEGA.
	October 19th	The first Blockbuster Video store opened in Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest video-dvd rental enterprise which in 1994 was sold to Viacom at a price of $8.4 billion.
	October 24th	English footballer, Wayne Rooney, was born in Liverpool.
	November 6th	American newspapers revealed for the first time that US President Ronald Reagan had authorized the shipment of arms to the country of Iran. It developed into one of the biggest worldwide scandals of the 1980's into what has been known as the Iran-Contra Matter and Irangate.
	November 13th	In Colombia, the volcano Nevado del Ruiz's eruption melted a glacier which caused volcanic mudslide that buried the town of Armero, killing an estimated 23,000 people.
	November 18th	The Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was first published by Bill Watterson.
	November 23th	Terrorists hijacked and Egypt Air passenger flight heading from Athens to Cairo. After the plane landed in Malta, it was stormed by Egyptian commandos. 59 innocent people died in the gunfight that ensued.
	December 12th	An Arrow Air passenger jet crashed right after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland. 256 people died in the crash.

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