Other meanings of
1984:
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years: 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 - 1984 - 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
- January 1 - Brunei becomes a fully independent state.
- January 1 - AT&T is broken up into 22 independent units
- January 9 - Clara Peller is featured in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's for the first time.
- January 10 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
- January 22 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to use a computer mouse and GUI interface, is introduced by Apple Computer corporation in a Super Bowl commercial evoking images from George Orwell's book, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale
- February 3 - Space Shuttle Challenger is launched on the tenth space shuttle mission.
- February 7 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II[?] and Robert L. Stewart[?] make the first untethered space walk.
- February 13 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- March 6 - Twelve month long strike in British coal industry begins See UK Miners' Strike (1984-1985)
- March 14 - Gerry Adams seriously wounded in an assassination attempt
- March 16 - CIA station chief stationed in Beirut, William Buckley[?], is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in captivity.
- March 22 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool[?] in Manhattan Beach, California at charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges were later dropped as completely unfounded.
- April 4 - President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
- May 8 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
- June 30 - John Turner becomes Canada's seventeenth prime minister.
- September 17 - Brian Mulroney becomes Canada's eighteenth prime minister.
- October 5 - Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (41-6).
- October 12 - Brighton bombing (attempt to assassinate the British Cabinet)
- November - Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale in the U.S. presidential election
- December 19 - People's Republic of China and United Kingdom signs the Sino-British Joint Declaration which concerns with the future of Hong Kong.
- Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles California USA
- The influential rap group, the Ultramagnetic MCs, form in the Bronx.
- Ethiopian famine begins.
- The New International Version of the Bible is published.
- January 20 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor. Most prominent as Tarzan.
- February 9 - Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- February 15 - Ethel Merman, singer, actress
- February 22 - Jessamyn West[?], writer
- March 1 - Jackie Coogan, actor
- March 5 - William Powell, actor
- March 21 - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor
- April 1 - Marvin Gaye, singer
- April 22 - Ansel Adams, American photographer
- April 26 - Count Basie, musician, composer
- May 16 - Andy Kaufman, comedian
- May 16 - Irwin Shaw[?], author
- June 26 - Michel Foucault, philosopher
- July 26 - Ed Gein, serial killer
- September 25 - Walter Pidgeon, actor
- October 12 - Sir Anthony Berry, British politician, along with three of the other victims of the Brighton bombing
- October 20 - Paul Dirac, physicist
- October 21 - François Truffaut, French film director