1st January » The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
10th January » Sandinista National Liberation Front named Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their
13th January » A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
28th January » Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single 'We Are the World', to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
5th February » Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
19th February » William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.
19th February » Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 Iberia Airlines Flight 610 e.g crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
28th February » The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a 1985 Newry mortar attack called mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
3rd March » Arthur Scargill declares that the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) called National Union of Mineworkers national executive voted to end the longest-running industrial dispute in Great Britain without any peace deal over pit closures.
3rd March » A 1985 Santiago earthquake or magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck the Valparaíso Region of Chile, killing 177 and leaving nearly a million people homeless.
4th March » The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
7th March » The song "We Are the World" receives its international release.
8th March » A 1985 Beirut Car Bombing named failed assassination attempt on Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least 45 and injures 175 others.
13th March » The Kenilworth Road riot takes place at an association football match at Kenilworth Road in Luton, England with disturbances before, during and after an F.A. Cup 6th Round tie between Luton Town F.C. and Millwall F.C..
15th March » The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
15th March » Brazilian military dictatorship ends.
16th March » Associated Press newsman Terry A. Anderson known as Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
17th March » Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles, California murder spree.
18th March » First episode of Neighbours broadcast.
20th March » Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
20th March » Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
31st March » The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York.
7th April » Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.
19th April » FBI siege on the compound of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSAL) in Arkansas.
19th April » Soviet Union or U.S.S.R performs nuclear weapon called nuclear tests at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk.
20th April » The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms or ATF raids The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
23rd April » Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
11th May » Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade association football known as football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.
13th May » Police release a bomb on MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania known as Philadelphia to end a impasse e.g stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
20th May » Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
25th May » Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
29th May » Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
29th May » Amputation named Amputee Steve Fonyo completes Canada or cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
31st May » 1985 United States–Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
9th June » Thomas Sutherland (academic) named Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon. He will not be released until 1991.
14th June » TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Lebanon named Lebanese Islamist organization Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens, Greece.
17th June » STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery launches carrying Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist.
19th June » Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as El Salvador or Salvadoran soldiers, 1985 Zona Rosa attacks known as attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador.
23rd June » A terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brings the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.
27th June » U.S. Route 66 is officially removed from the United States Highway System.
30th June » Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.
7th July » Boris Becker becomes the youngest player ever to win The Championships, Wimbledon known as Wimbledon at age 17
10th July » The Greenpeace vessel 'Rainbow Warrior (1978) Rainbow Warrior' is Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior bombed and sunk in Auckland, New Zealand Auckland harbour by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira.
13th July » The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London London, England, United Kingdom and Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as other venues such as Sydney Sydney, Australia and Moscow Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
13th July » Vice President of the United States Vice President George H. W. Bush George Bush becomes the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution Acting President George H. W. Bush (1985) Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan under
17th July » Founding of the EUREKA Network by former head of states François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (Germany).
19th July » The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
20th July » The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
2nd August » Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport killing 137.
12th August » Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Mount Osutaka e.g Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
22nd August » British Airtours Flight 28M or Manchester Air Disaster sees 55 people killed when a fire breaks out on a commercial aircraft at Manchester Airport.
23rd August » Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
27th August » The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
1st September » A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS called Titanic.
4th September » The discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, the first fullerene molecule of carbon.
6th September » Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
13th September » 'Super Mario Bros.' is released in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System called NES, which starts the 'Super Mario (series) called Super Mario' series of platforming games.
14th September » Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in Malaysia, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opens to traffic.
19th September » 1985 Mexico City earthquake or A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
19th September » Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa and other musicians testify at United States Congress or U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.
20th September » Capital gains tax is introduced in Australia, one of a number of tax reforms by the Hawke/Keating government.
1st October » The Israeli Air Force bombs Palestine Liberation Organization Headquarters in Tunis.
3rd October » The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J).
4th October » The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.
6th October » PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.
7th October » The 'MS Achille Lauro called Achille Lauro' is hijacked by Palestine Liberation Organization.
7th October » The Mameyes landslide kills close to 300 in the worst landslide in North American history.
10th October » United States Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the wiktionary:Hijacking hijackers of the 'MS Achille Lauro Achille Lauro' cruise ship, and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are a
26th October » The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara people or Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
29th October » Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia.
30th October » Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
6th November » In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the 19th of April Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice siege e.g Palace of Justice in Bogotá, eventually killing 115 people, 11 of them Supreme Court justices.
9th November » Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.
13th November » The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.
15th November » A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.
15th November » The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough, County Down or Hillsborough Castle by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom e.g British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
19th November » Cold War: In Geneva, President of the United States e.g U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev Geneva Summit (1985) known as meet for the first time.
19th November » Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion judgment against Texaco, in the Pennzoil Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil, Co. called largest civil verdict in the history of the United States, stemming from Texaco executing a contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered
19th November » Police in Baling, Malaysia, Memali Incident or lay siege to houses occupied by an Islamic sect of about 400 people led by Ibrahim Mahmud.
21st November » United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for espionage known as spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
23rd November » Gunmen Aircraft hijacking e.g hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
13th December » Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, killing all 256 passengers and crew.
20th December » Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
27th December » Palestinian people known as Palestinian guerrillas Rome and Vienna airport attacks e.g kill eighteen people inside the airports of Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria.