I was taking a closer look at those years because of Chris Knowles' post at The Secret Sun blog about those anniversary years from the perspective of this year -
The Present Can Only Be Viewed from the Past
But some years like 1984 stand alone when it comes to key years in real and pop cultural terms.
Although 1984 is more of an idea than an actual fixed point in time thanks to George Orwell's novel of the same name.
"Happy Days is an American television sitcom that aired first-run from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning over eleven seasons. The show was originally based on a segment from ABC's Love, American Style titled Love and the Television Set, later retitled Love and the Happy Days for syndication, featuring future cast members Ron Howard, Marion Ross and Anson Williams.
Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s United States.
Happy Days was one of the highest-rated shows of the 1970s."Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s United States.
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| Erin Moran (October 18, 1960 – April 22, 2017) |
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| John Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) |
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| Mark Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) |
"The tech industry has a duty to design products in a way that won't result in a dystopian future, says the Microsoft CEO.
Between the disclosures about the NSA, CIA and FBI's hacking tools, and the increasingly detailed ways advertisers track us on the internet, you'd be forgiven for feeling the world's descending into a weird dystopian sci-fi version of itself.You also wouldn't be alone.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said during a speech Wednesday at Microsoft's Build developer conference in Seattle that he believed it's the tech industry's job to keep a truly terrible future, as imagined in George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," from happening.
"What Orwell prophesied in '1984,' where technology was being used to monitor, control, dictate," Nadella said.
"Or what Huxley imagined we may do just by distracting ourselves without any meaning or purpose. Neither of these futures is something that we want."
So, he asked, what are we going to do?"
"1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (dominical letter AG) of the Gregorian calendar, the 1984th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 984th year of the 2nd millennium, the 84th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1980s decade."
So, he asked, what are we going to do?"
And it certainly was a "key" year it seems;-)
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| Vatican City |
""1984" is an American television commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer.
It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat\Day, produced by New York production company Fairbanks Films, and directed by Ridley Scott.
English athlete Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother.
It was aired only twice on American television, first in 10 local outlets, including Twin Falls, Idaho, where Chiat\Day ran the ad on December 31, 1983, at the last possible break before midnight on KMVT, so that the advertisement qualified for 1983 advertising awards.
Its second televised airing, and only national airing, was on January 22, 1984, during a break in the third quarter of the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII by CBS.
In one interpretation of the commercial, "1984" used the unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by her white tank top with a stylized line drawing of Apple’s Macintosh computer on it) as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" (Big Brother).
These images were an allusion to George Orwell's noted novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother".
The estate of George Orwell and the television rightsholder to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four considered the commercial to be a copyright infringement and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and Chiat\Day in April 1984.
Originally a subject of contention within Apple, it has subsequently been called a watershed event and a masterpiece in advertising.
In 1995, The Clio Awards added it to its Hall of Fame, and Advertising Age placed it on the top of its list of 50 greatest commercials"
January 24, 1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.
November 19, 1984 – A series of explosions at the Pemex Petroleum Storage Facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec, in Mexico City, ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people.
Crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, is first introduced into Los Angeles and soon spreads across the United States in what becomes known as the crack epidemic.
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| Released 1984 |
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| The first Macintosh (1984) |
Trump dumps Obamacare, salutes Medicare
"Donald Trump has praised Australia's universal public health care system just moments after celebrating the passage of a bill that could leave millions of Americans without health coverage.
"We have a failing health care - I shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do," Donald Trump said during a meeting in New York with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull."
"Donald Trump has praised Australia's universal public health care system just moments after celebrating the passage of a bill that could leave millions of Americans without health coverage.
"We have a failing health care - I shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do," Donald Trump said during a meeting in New York with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull."
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| 8-cell embryo for transfer 3 days after fertilization |
February 3, 1984 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 and STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission.
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| Released 1984 |
February 7, 1984 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
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| Released 1984 |
March 5, 1984 – Iran accuses Iraq of using chemical weapons; the United Nations condemns their use on March 30.
March 6, 1984 – A year-long strike action begins in the British coal industry (see UK miners' strike (1984–85)).
March 16, 1984 The United States Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley, is kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad Organization and later dies in captivity and Gary Plauche fatally shoots his son Jody's sexual abuser, Jeff Doucet, at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Louisiana.
March 16, 1984 The United States Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley, is kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad Organization and later dies in captivity and Gary Plauche fatally shoots his son Jody's sexual abuser, Jeff Doucet, at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Louisiana.
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| Released 1984 |
March 22, 1984 – Teachers at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the school children; the charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
March 25, 1984 Pope John Paul II consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in FΓ‘tima, Portugal and the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) is founded under Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela.
April 1, 1984 – Death of Marvin Gaye: Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father, a day before his 45th birthday.
April 4, 1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
April 4, 1984 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
April 9, 1984 – The 56th Academy Awards, hosted by Johnny Carson, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
April 15, 1984 Welsh comedian Tommy Cooper suffers a massive heart attack and dies while live on TV.
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| Tancredo Neves in BrasΓlia, 1984 |
April 16, 1984 – More than one million people, led by Tancredo Neves, occupy the streets of SΓ£o Paulo to demand direct presidential elections during the Brazilian military government of JoΓ£o Figueiredo.
It is the largest protest during the Diretas JΓ‘ civil unrest, as well as the largest public demonstration in the history of Brazil. The elections are granted in 1989.
April 19, 1984 – "Advance Australia Fair" is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem replacing 'God Save the Queen', and green and gold as the national colours.
May 8, 1984 The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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| Released 1984 |
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| Severomorsk Naval Base in July, 1992 |
May 13, 1984 – Severomorsk Disaster: an explosion at the Soviets’ Severomorsk Naval Base destroys two-thirds of all the missiles stockpiled for the Soviets’ Northern Fleet. The blast also destroys workshops needed to maintain the missiles as well as hundreds of technicians.
Western military experts called it the worst naval disaster the Soviet Navy has suffered since WWII.
May 31, 1984 – Six inmates, including James and Linwood Briley, escape from a death row facility at Mecklenburg Correctional Center, the only occasion this has ever happened in the United States.
June 4 – Bruce Springsteen releases his 7th album Born in the U.S.A.
June 8, 1984 A deadly F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage and Ghostbusters is released.
"Neuromancer's release was not greeted with fanfare, but it hit a cultural nerve, quickly becoming an underground word-of-mouth hit.
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| Released 1984 |
June 16, 1984 – The world-renowned, critically acclaimed Canadian entertainment company, Cirque du Soleil is founded.
June 30, 1984 – Elton John plays the famous Night and Day Concert at Wembley Stadium. |
| Elton John born 25 March 1947 (age 70) |
July 1, 1984 Liechtenstein becomes the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote and 'Neuromancer' is published.
It became the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award for paperback original, an unprecedented achievement described by the Mail & Guardian as "the sci-fi writer's version of winning the Goncourt, Booker and Pulitzer prizes in the same year".
The novel thereby legitimized cyberpunk as a mainstream branch of science fiction literature.
It is among the most-honored works of science fiction in recent history, and appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923.
The novel was also nominated for a British Science Fiction Award in 1984"
July 13, 1984 – 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.
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| Beverly Lynn Burns, first woman to captain the Boeing 747 airliner |
July 18, 1984 Beverly Burns becomes the first woman Boeing 747 captain in the world and in San Ysidro, San Diego, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty sprays a McDonald's restaurant with gunfire, killing 21 people before being shot and killed himself.
July 19 – 1984 LlΕ·n Peninsula earthquake. The largest instrumentally recorded inland earthquake ever to take place in The British Isles is felt in Ireland and each of the four British nations.
July 23, 1984 – 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 25, 1984 – Salyut 7: cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
July 28, 1984 – August 12 – The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.
August 1, 1984 – Australian banks are deregulated.
August 1, 1984 – Australian banks are deregulated.
August 11, 1984 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.
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| DeLorean and the prototype of the DMC-12, 1980 |
August 16, 1984 – John DeLorean is acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.
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| Released 1984 |
August 21, 1984 – Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
September 23, 1984 – The television drama Threads, a documentary of nuclear war, broadcasts on BBC Two.
September 26, 1984 – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
October 12, 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
October 19, 1984 – Polish secret police kidnap Jerzy PopieΕuszko, a Catholic priest who supports the Solidarity movement. His dead body is found in a reservoir 11 days later on October 30.
October 12, 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
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| Released 1984 |
October 23, 1984 – The world learns from moving BBC News television reports presented by Michael Buerk of the famine in Ethiopia, where thousands of people have already died of starvation due to a famine, and as many as 10,000,000 more lives are at risk
October 31, 1984 – Assassination of Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her two Sikh security guards in New Delhi. Anti-Sikh riots break out, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 Sikhs dead in Delhi and surrounding areas with majority populations of Hindus. Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.
October 31, 1984 – Assassination of Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her two Sikh security guards in New Delhi. Anti-Sikh riots break out, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 Sikhs dead in Delhi and surrounding areas with majority populations of Hindus. Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.
October 31, 1984 – Galileo forgiven by Vatican for work on the Earth orbit 368 years after being condemned.
November 9, 1984 – Cesar Chavez delivers his speech, "What The Future Holds For Farm Workers and Hispanics", at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
November 14, 1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
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| Released 1984 |
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| Released 1984 |
November 25, 1984 Band Aid (assembled by Bob Geldof) records the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in London to raise money to combat the famine in Ethiopia.
It is released on December 3
It is released on December 3
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| Released 1984 |
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| The controlled impact demonstration |
December 1, 1984 – Controlled Impact Demonstration: NASA and the FAA crashes a remote controlled Boeing 720.
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| Released 1984 |
December 3, 1984 Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 8,000 people outright and injures over half a million (with more later dying from their injuries the death toll reaches 23,000+) in the worst industrial disaster in history and
British Telecom is privatised.
December 8, 1984 – White supremacist and Order leader Robert Jay Mathews is killed in a gun battle and fire during an FBI siege on Whidbey Island.
December 10, 1984 – Cisco Systems is founded.
British Telecom is privatised.
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| The BT Tower, originally the Post Office Tower |
December 22, 1984 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 in the United States.
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| Released 1984 |
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| Released 1984 |
December 28, 1984 – A Soviet cruise missile plunges into InarinjΓ€rvi lake in Finnish Lapland. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985.
SO ARE WE LIVING IN 1984?
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| Kim Jong-un born 8 January 1984 or 5 July 1984 |
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| Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry |
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| Released 1984 |
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| Released 1984 |
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| Released 1984 |
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