January 9 – Van Halen releases their sixth studio album 1984 (MCMLXXXIV), which debuts at number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and will go to sell over 10 million copies in the United States.
March 23 – General Rahimuddin Khan becomes the first man in Pakistan's history to rule over two of its provinces, after becoming interim Governor of Sindh.
April 12 – Palestinian gunmen take Israeli bus number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus, freeing the hostages (one hostage, two hijackers killed).
May 13 – 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 14 – The one-dollar coin is introduced in Australia.
May 23 – A methane gas explosion at Abbeystead water treatment works in Lancashire, UK, kills 16 people.
June 8 – A F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing nine people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.
August 11 – Barefoot South African runner Zola Budd and Mary Decker of the U.S. collide in the Olympic 3,000 meters final, neither finishing as medallists.[15]
November 11 – The Louisiana World Exposition, also known as The 1984 World's Fair, and also the New Orleans World's Fair, and, to the locals, simply as "The Fair" or "Expo 84", closes.
December 1 – A peace agreement between Kenya and Somalia is signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo. With this agreement, in which Somalia officially renounces its historical territorial claims, relations between the two countries begin to improve.
December 3 – 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.
1983–85 famine in Ethiopia intensifies with renewed drought by mid-year, killing a million people by the end of this year.
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.
^Country Papers: Brunei Darussalam. Asian and Pacific Development Centre. 1998. p. 37.
^Background notes, Brunei Darussalam. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of Public Communication, Editorial Division. 1985. p. 6.
^"United States-Vatican Diplomatic Relations: The Past and The Future". The Ambassadors REVIEW. Council of American Ambassadors. Spring 2001. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2011. On January 10, 1984, when President Reagan announced the establishment of formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See, he appointed William A. Wilson, who had been serving as his personal representative to the Pope, as the first US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Holy See.
^"36 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Unveiled the First Macintosh". MacRumors. January 24, 2020. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
^Polk, Jeff Gottlieb (May 9, 2013). "Pepsi fire left Michael Jackson with no hair, migraines: witness". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
^"Zila". Moulvibazar.com. January 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
^"1984: Miners strike over threatened pit closures". BBC News.
^"Australian National Anthem – History". Australian Government. July 10, 2007. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2007.
^"Features and Events". astro.hopkinsschools.org. Archived from the original on May 9, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
^The Europa Year Book: A World Survey (1984), page xiv
^The Economist. Economist Newspaper Limited. 2005. p. 57.
^Energy Economist. Financial Times Business Information Limited. 1999. p. 12.
^Liversedge, Stan (1991). Liverpool: The Official Centenary History. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group. p. 195. ISBN 0-600-57308-7.
^"Snapshot: Maradona is toast of the town after signing for Napoli". The Times. London. February 20, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
^"1984: Zola Budd in race trip controversy". On This Day. BBC. August 11, 1984. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
^David Dale (1997). The 100 Things Everyone Needs to Know about Australia. Pan Macmillan. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-330-36054-8.
^"1984: Extent of Ethiopia famine revealed". BBC News. October 23, 1984. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
^"1984: Europe grants emergency aid for Ethiopia". On This Day. BBC. October 25, 1984. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
^"12 November 1984: When Morocco withdrew from the Organization of African Unity". Sahara Question. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
^"Operation Moses". History of War. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
^Band Aid – Do They Know It's Christmas? Retrieved November 17, 2011.
^Detective Robert Cash (July 25, 2019). "Remains Found in Weld County Identified". Greeley Police Department. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
^Kieran Nicholson (July 25, 2019). "Remains of Jonelle Matthews dug up by work crew 34 years after she vanished, Greeley police say—Then 12-year-old disappeared after middle school Christmas concert". The Denver Post. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
^Bryan Pietsch (October 13, 2020). "Man Charged With Murder in 1984 Killing of Colorado Girl Taken From Home". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2020.