Timeline of the history of the United States (1970-1990)
List of years in the United States
1984 in U.S. states and territories
States
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Territories
American Samoa
Guam
Puerto Rico
United States Virgin Islands
Washington, D.C.
List of years in the United States by state or territory
Events from the year 1984 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Ronald Reagan (R-California)
Vice President: George H. W. Bush (R-Texas)
Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Virginia)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tip O'Neill (D-Massachusetts)
Senate Majority Leader: Howard Baker (R-Tennessee)
Congress: 98th
Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors
Governor of Alabama: George Wallace (Democratic)
Governor of Alaska: Bill Sheffield (Democratic)
Governor of Arizona: Bruce Babbitt (Democratic)
Governor of Arkansas: Bill Clinton (Democratic)
Governor of California: George Deukmejian (Republican)
Governor of Colorado: Richard Lamm (Democratic)
Governor of Connecticut: William A. O'Neill (Democratic)
Governor of Delaware: Pierre S. du Pont, IV (Republican)
Governor of Florida: Bob Graham (Democratic)
Governor of Georgia: Joe Frank Harris (Democratic)
Governor of Hawaii: George Ariyoshi (Democratic)
Governor of Idaho: John V. Evans (Democratic)
Governor of Illinois: James R. Thompson (Republican)
Governor of Indiana: Robert D. Orr (Republican)
Governor of Iowa: Terry E. Branstad (Republican)
Governor of Kansas: John W. Carlin (Democratic)
Governor of Kentucky: Martha Layne Collins (Democratic)
Governor of Louisiana: David C. Treen (Republican) (until March 12), Edwin W. Edwards (Democratic) (starting March 12)
Governor of Maine: Joseph E. Brennan (Democratic)
Governor of Maryland: Harry R. Hughes (Democratic)
Governor of Massachusetts: Michael Dukakis (Democratic)
Governor of Michigan: James Blanchard (Democratic)
Governor of Minnesota: Rudy Perpich (Democratic)
Governor of Mississippi: William Winter (Democratic) (until January 10), William Allain (Democratic) (starting January 10)
Governor of Missouri: Kit Bond (Republican)
Governor of Montana: Ted Schwinden (Democratic)
Governor of Nebraska: Bob Kerrey (Democratic)
Governor of Nevada: Richard Bryan (Democratic)
Governor of New Hampshire: John H. Sununu (Republican)
Governor of New Jersey: Thomas Kean (Republican)
Governor of New Mexico: Toney Anaya (Democratic)
Governor of New York: Mario Cuomo (Democratic)
Governor of North Carolina: Jim Hunt (Democratic)
Governor of North Dakota: Allen I. Olson (Republican)
Governor of Ohio: Dick Celeste (Democratic)
Governor of Oklahoma: George Nigh (Democratic)
Governor of Oregon: Victor G. Atiyeh (Republican)
Governor of Pennsylvania: Dick Thornburgh (Republican)
Governor of Rhode Island: J. Joseph Garrahy (Democratic)
Governor of South Carolina: Richard Riley (Democratic)
Governor of South Dakota: William J. Janklow (Republican)
Governor of Tennessee: Lamar Alexander (Republican)
Governor of Texas: Mark White (Democratic)
Governor of Utah: Scott M. Matheson (Democratic)
Governor of Vermont: Richard A. Snelling (Republican)
Governor of Virginia: Chuck Robb (Democratic)
Governor of Washington: John Spellman (Republican)
Governor of West Virginia: Jay Rockefeller (Democratic)
Governor of Wisconsin: Tony Earl (Democratic)
Governor of Wyoming: Edgar J. Herschler (Democratic)
Lieutenant governors
Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Bill Baxley (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Alaska: Stephen McAlpine (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Winston Bryant (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of California: Leo T. McCarthy (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Nancy E. Dick (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Joseph J. Fauliso (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Michael N. Castle (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Wayne Mixson (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: Zell Miller (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii: John D. Waihee III (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: David H. Leroy (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: George H. Ryan (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: John Mutz (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Robert T. Anderson (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Thomas R. Docking (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Steve Beshear (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Robert "Bobby" Freeman (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: J. Joseph Curran (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Kerry (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Martha W. Griffiths (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Marlene Johnson (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Brad Dye (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Kenneth Rothman (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Montana: George Turman (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Donald F. McGinley (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Bob Cashell (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Mike Runnels (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of New York: Alfred DelBello (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: James C. Green (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Ernest Sands (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Myrl H. Shoemaker (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Spencer Bernard (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: William Scranton, III (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas R. DiLuglio (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Michael R. Daniel (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Lowell C. Hansen II (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: John S. Wilder (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Texas: William P. Hobby Jr. (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Utah: David Smith Monson (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Peter Plympton Smith (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Richard Joseph Davis (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Cherberg (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: James Flynn (Democratic)
Events
January
January 1 – US Bell System is broken up.
January 3 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan meets with Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman and the Reverend Jesse Jackson at the White House, following Lieutenant Goodman's release from Syrian captivity.
January 10 – The United States and the Vatican re-establish full diplomatic relations.[1]
January 25 – President Ronald Reagan announces in his State of the Union Address that the United States will begin development of a permanently crewed space station and invite international space agencies to the project – a concept initially known as Space Station Freedom, later evolved into the International Space Station.[2]
January 27 – Michael Jackson's hair catches fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial.
February
February 3
Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission.
February 11 – STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger makes the first shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center.
February 24 – Tyrone Mitchell kills two people at 49th Street Elementary School in South Central Los Angeles, California.
February 26 – United States Marines pull out of Beirut, Lebanon.
February 28 – Michael Jackson wins a record of eight Grammy Awards.
March
March 16
The CIA station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley, is kidnapped by Islamic Jihad and later dies in captivity.
Gary Plauché fatally shoots his son Jody's sexual abuser, Jeff Doucet, at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Louisiana.
March 22 – Teachers at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the schoolchildren (the charges are later dropped as completely unfounded).
April
April 4 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
April 9 – The 56th Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, with James L. Brooks' Terms of Endearment winning Best Picture and Best Director, as well as three other awards out of 11 nominations.
April 23 – Margaret Heckler of the U.S. Public Health Service announces the identity of HTLV-III as the virus that causes AIDS.
April 24 – The 6.2 Mw Morgan Hill earthquake shook central California and the South Bay area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing 21–27 injuries and $7.5–8 million in losses.
May
May 8
1984 Summer Olympics boycott: The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
Forces veteran Denis Lortie shoots and kills three government employees in the National Assembly of Quebec building in Quebec City. The National Assembly's sergeant-at-arms, René Jalbert, talks Lortie into surrendering.[3]
The longest game in Major League Baseball history begins at 7:30 PM between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox. The game is played over the course of 2 days, lasting 25 innings, with a total time of 8 hours and 6 minutes.
May 12 – The 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, a World's fair, opens in New Orleans.
May 17 – Michael Silka kills nine people near Manley Hot Springs, Alaska.
May 19 – The Edmonton Oilers defeat the New York Islanders to win their first Stanley Cup.
May 27 – An overnight flash flood rages through neighborhoods in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nearly 15 inches of rain falls in some areas over a four-hour period. Fourteen people are killed.
May 31 – Six death row inmates at Mecklenburg Correctional Center in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, including James and Linwood Briley, escape, the only occasion this has ever happened in the US. All are eventually recaptured and executed.
June
June 1 – William M. Gibbons is released as receiver and trustee of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, after all of its debts and creditors are paid off by order of a federal bankruptcy court.
June 3 – Ronald Reagan visits his ancestral home in Ballyporeen, the Republic of Ireland.
June 4 – Bruce Springsteen releases his 7th album Born in the U.S.A.. The CD of the album is the first CD to be manufactured in the U.S.
June 8
1984 Barneveld, Wisconsin tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.
Ghostbusters and Gremlins are released.
June 16 – Ricky Kasso murders Gary Lauwers in Northport, Long Island, New York.
June 22 – The Karate Kid is released.
June 25 – Purple Rain, the sixth studio album by recording artist Prince, is released by Warner Bros. Records. The soundtrack to the film of the same name, it is the first album where his band The Revolution is billed.
June 28 – Richard Ramírez (the "Night Stalker") murders his first confirmed victim.
July
July 13 – Terry Wallis, a 19-year-old living in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, falls into a deep coma after a severe automobile accident; he will eventually awaken 19 years later on June 13, 2003.
July 18
Beverly Burns becomes the first female Boeing 747 captain in the world.
In San Ysidro, California, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty sprays a McDonald's restaurant with gunfire, killing 21 people before being shot and killed.
July 23 – Vanessa L. Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign, when she surrenders her crown after nude photos of her appear in Penthouse magazine.
July 27 – Metallica releases a second studio album, Ride the Lightning.
July 28–August 12 – The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.
August
August 30–September 5: Space Shuttle Discovery's maiden voyage
August 11 – United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
August 30 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
September
September 5 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
September 16 – Miami Vice premieres on the NBC television network with the episode, "Brother's Keeper".
September 17 – The Transformers debuts in syndication.
September 10 – Jeopardy! begins its syndicated version, with host Alex Trebek.
September 20 – Hezbollah car-bombs the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people.
October
October 1 – American Movie Classics is initiated.
October 2 – John Schnatter opens the first Papa John's Pizza in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
October 5 – STS-41-G: Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
October 6 – Out of Control debuts on Nickelodeon.[4]
October 7 – Barbara Walters hosts the first presidential debate between Walter Mondale and President Reagan in Kentucky.
October 11
Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
Geraldine Ferraro and George H. W. Bush participate in the 1984 vice presidential debate.
October 14 – World Series: The Detroit Tigers defeat the San Diego Padres to win in 5 games.
October 21 – The final presidential debate of the 1984 election takes place in Kansas.
November
November 6: Reagan reelected president
November – The unemployment rate drops to 7.2%, the same rate it was when the early 1980s recession started in June 1981.
November 2 – Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1965, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
November 6 – 1984 United States presidential election: Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states in the electoral college; Mondale wins only his home state of Minnesota by a mere 3,761 vote margin and the District of Columbia.
November 9 – Cesar Chavez delivers his speech, "What The Future Holds For Farm Workers And Hispanics", at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
November 28 – Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.
December
December 1 – Controlled Impact Demonstration: NASA intentionally crashes a remote controlled Boeing 720.
December 8 – White supremacist and Order leader Robert Jay Mathews is killed in a gun battle and fire during an FBI siege on Whidbey Island.
December 22 – Four African-American youths (Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey) board an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City. They attempt to rob Bernhard Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime, which is a plague in 1980s America.
Undated
Arlene Violet, until recently a religious sister, becomes Attorney General of Rhode Island, the first female Attorney General elected in the U.S.[5]
Ryan White, a student who contracted AIDS, is expelled from Western High School in Russiaville, Indiana because of his disease.
Crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, becomes widely used in the Los Angeles area and soon spreads across the United States in what becomes known as the Crack epidemic.
Babbage's, a video game retailer is founded in Dallas.