Flashback: The Year is 1984

President: Ronald W. Reagan
Vice President: George Bush
Population: 235,824,902
Life expectancy: 74.7 years
Unemployment: 9.6%
Cost of a new home: $97,600
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.20
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $1.21
Cost of a dozen eggs: $1.01
Cost of a gallon of milk: $1.94
Cost of a loaf of bread: $0.71
Cost of a car: $6,294
Average Income: $12,497

Music

• MTV launches its first video awards show.
• Barbara Mandrell is involved in a near-fatal car accident.
• Marvin Gaye is shot to death during an altercation with his father.
• Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album is released and becomes the best-selling album of all time.
• The Police disband after 9 years and The Who and The Go-Gos call it quits.
• Michael Jackson and his brothers reunite for one of the biggest tours in history (The Victory Tour).
• Michael Jackson is hospitalized with burns after his hair catches fire during the taping of a Pepsi commercial (01/28/1984) and earns $1.5 million.
• Madonna's "Like A Virgin" goes to #1 and stays there for six weeks.
• Bob Geldof organizes Band Aid and records "Do They Know It's Christmastime" to help famine victims in Ethiopia
• The first all rap radio format is introduced at LA's KDAY.
• Run-D.M.C. are the first ever rap group to have an album certified gold.
• The First Video Music Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall
• Break dancing was a huge fan - inspiring the film Breakin'.

Billboard Top 10 Buy it now!

1. Owner Of A Lonely Heart - Yes
2. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
3. Talking In Your Sleep - Romantics
4. Jump (For My Love) - Pointer Sisters
5. Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) - Billy Ocean
6. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
7. Let's Hear It For The Boy - Deniece Williams
8. Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
9. Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
10. What's Love Got To Do With It - Tina Turner

Top Albums

• 1984 - Van Halen (CD)
• An Innocent Man - Billy Joel (CD)
• Colour by Numbers - Culture Club
• Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution (CD)
• Seven and the Ragged Tiger - Duran Duran (CD)
• She's So Unusual - Cindy Lauper (CD)
• Sports - Huey Lewis and the News (CD)

Grammy Awards

• Album of the Year: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie)
• Best New Artist: Cyndi Lauper
• Best Pop Duo or Group: Jump (For My Love) - (Pointer Sisters)
• Best Pop Female Vocal: What's Love Got to Do With It (Tina Turner)
• Best Pop Male Vocal: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) - (Phil Collins)
• Best Rock Duo or Group: Purple Rain— the Motion Picture (Prince and the Revolution)
• Best Rock Female Vocal: Better Be Good to Me (Tina Turner)
• Best Rock Male Vocal: Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen)
• Record of the Year: What's Love Got to Do With It (Tina Turner)
• Song of the Year: What's Love Got to Do With It (Tina Turner)

Television

• The first infomercials appear on television due to de-regulation by the FCC.
• The daytime soap, "The Edge of Night" ends its 28-year run.
• The Cosby show premiers.
• "The Cosby Show", "Miami Vice", "Night Court", "TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes", "Highway To Heaven" and the Lifetime cable channel premiere.
• Popular shows: Dynasty, Dallas, Family Ties, Falcon Crest, Simon & Simon, Hill Street Blues, Facts of Life, Magnum PI, The A Team, Remington Steele, Trapper John MD, Alice, Murder She Wrote, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, 60 Minutes

Emmy Awards

Drama

• Best Drama: Cagney and Lacey
• Best Actor: William Daniels (St. Elsewhere)
• Best Actress: Tyne Daly (Cagney and Lacey)
• Supporting Actor: Edward James Olmos (Miami Vice)
• Supporting Actress: Betty Thomas (Hill Street Blues)

Comedy

• Best Comedy: The Cosby Show
• Best Actor: Robert Guillaume (Benson)
• Best Actress: Jane Curtin (Kate and Allie)
• Supporting Actor: John Larroquette (Night Court)
• Supporting Actress: Rhea Perlman (Cheers)
• Best Variety: Motown Returns to the Apollo

Movies

• The Motion Picture Association of America introduces the PG-13 rating

Academy Awards

• Best Picture Winner: Amadeus (VHS) (DVD)
• Best Actor Winner: F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) (VHS) (DVD)
• Best Actress Winner: Sally Field (Places in the Heart)
• Best Supporting Actor Winner: Haing Ngor (The Killing Fields) (VHS) (DVD)
• Best Supporting Actress Winner: Peggy Ashcroft (A Passage to India) (VHS)
• Best Director: Milos Forman (Amadeus) (VHS) (DVD)

Popular movies: Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, This Is Spinal Tap, The Breakfast Club, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Splash, The Natural, Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom, Purple Rain, Beverly Hills Cop, Police Academy, Terms of Endearment

Entertainment

• Vanessa Williams, the first African American Miss America, is forced to relinquish her crown when it is discovered that she posed for nude photos years earlier.
• Disney World celebrates the 50th birthday of Donald Duck.

Sports

• Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, US. The Soviets boycott.
• Mary Lou Retton wins two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke the NBA scoring record, hitting 31,419 points.
• The Los Angeles Raiders defeat the Washington Redskins (38-9) in Super Bowl XVIII.
• Braves pitcher Pascual Perez is arrested for cocaine possession.
• Walter Paton breaks Jim Browns life time rushing record of 12,213 yards.

Politics

• Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman to run for Vice-President on a major party ticket.
• Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi is assassinated.
• President Ronald Reagen is re-elected by a landslide, carrying 49 of the 50 states. Walter Mondale is never heard from again.
• President Ronald Reagen authorizes the "Star Wars" program to develop space-age weapons capable of destroying incoming nuclear missiles.
• Reagan makes famous joke: "My fellow Americans, I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." He supposedly didn't know the mic was on.
• Calling themselves the PMRC (Parents' Music Resource Coalition), concerned parents, including Tipper Gore, wife of then-Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker, Georgie Packwood, wife of Oregon Senator Robert Packwood, and Nancy Thurmond, wife of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, construct a campaign designed to 'educate' parents about certain alarming new trends in rock music.

News Headlines

• Jesse Jackson Gains Release Of Navy Pilot From Syria.
• $180 Billion Deficit Is Projected.
• US Diplomat William Buckley Is Kidnapped In Beirut.
• Gunman Kills 22 In San Ysido CA McDonalds.
• FBI Agent Richard Miller Is Arrested For Spying.
• Indira Gandi, Indian PM , Is Assassinated By Sikh Bodyguards.
• NYC Subway "Vigilante" Bernhard Goetz Surrenders In Shooting Of 4 Youths.
• Reagan orders Marines offshore in Lebanon.
• Senate Resolution Opposes CIA Mining of Nicaraguan Harbors.
• Russia Announces Boycott of Los Angeles games.
• 22 American prisoners freed when Jesse Jackson meets Castro.
• British agree to leave Hong Kong in 1997.
• Challanger astranaughts make two free-flying space walks.
• Gas leak kills 2,000 at Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal India.
• Hit songs, "Ghostbusters", "Uptown Girl.
• "Discovery" becomes the third space shuttle.

Miscellaneous

• 1984 was a Leap Year.
• The megabit memory chip is introduced at Bell Labs .
• Apple Computer releases the Macintosh personal computer.
• Trivial pursuit, lottery sweepstakes and guess clothes are in.
• Discovery becomes the third space shuttle.
• Quote from John McEnroe to a British tennis umpire: "Over a thousand officials to choose from, and I get a moron like you."
• Reports from Harvard and Stanford indicate that inactivity increases heart and lung disease.
• A pizza parlor customer keeps a promise when he splits his $6 million lottery winnings with a waitress.
• The term "cyberspace" is coined by William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer".
• Clara Peller first asks "Where's the beef?"
• Stone-washed jeans are introduced.
• The AIDS virus is discovered.
• 15-day old "Baby Fae" gets a baboon heart transplant, but dies 20 days later.
• Vietnam Memorial opens in Washington D.C.
• A toxic gas leak kills 2,100 people in India.
• NBC News anchor and correspondent, Jessica Savitch, dies in a car accident.
• The Senate rejects a constitutional amendment to permit organized spoken prayer in public schools.
• The first baby conceived by embryo transplant is born in California.
• The hepatitis virus is identified, a medical breakthrough.
• Sikhs occupy Golden Temple in Amritsar, India.
• Indira Gandhi is assassinated.
• Chemical disaster in Bhopal, India, December 3rd.
• Congress cuts off aid to Nicaragua, illegal guns sales start to fund the contras.
• The term cyberspace is coined by William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer".
• Fashionable foods: iced cappuccinos, wine spritzer, sushi, bagel dogs, and Tofutti.
• L'Oreal introduces "Free Hold Styling" mousse to the world.
• Guess? Jeans send young girls into a spending frenzy making a question mark on the back pocket of your jeans a necessary fashion statement.

Deaths

• Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's (01/14/1984) at the age of 81
• Johnny Weismuller, Olympic swimmer & Tarzan actor (01/20/1984) at the age of 79
• Ethyl Merman, singer (02/15/1984) at the age of 75
• Jackie Coogan, actor (03/01/1984) at the age of 69
• Marvin Gaye, singer (04/01/1984) at the age of 41
• Ansel Adams, photographer (04/26/1984) at the age of 82
• William "Count" Basie, jazz pianist/band leader (04/26/1984) at the age of 79
• Truman Capote, author (08/25/1984) at the age of 59
• Peter Lawford, actor (12/24/1984) at the age of 61
• Andy Kaufman, comedian (05/16/1984) at the age of 35
• Richard Burton, actor (08/05/1984) at the age of 91
  

** To the best of our knowledge these facts are all correct. If not then please let us know so that we can correct them.