What historical events happened the year you were born?

Hmmm. I could have fun with this. I must admit I haven’t paid much attention to what happened that year, other than my birth, but Wikipedia (as ever) is a wonderful source of information that I can depend on to be at least semi accurate.

I’m not going to take you through everything I’ve found, but you can visit the wiki for more information on what happened in 1984. For the purposes of this blog, I think I’ll stick with what I consider to be the highlights, or coolest bits, from each month.

January
The Apple Macintosh is introduced. Wows… if I have to share my birthday with those damn things, is it any wonder I hate them so much? :p

February
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. Pretty freaking cool, eh?

March
A year-long strike action begins in the British coal industry. Wow, how long has it been since anybody talked about coal?!

April
British comedian Tommy Cooper suffers a massive heart attack and dies while live on TV. 😦

May
I was born… d’uh!!! ^_^

June
A deadly F5 tornado nearly destroys the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin, killing 9 people, injuring nearly 200, and causing over $25,000,000 in damage.

July
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.

August
Josef Fritzl drugs and incarcerates his daughter Elisabeth in a secret cellar, in Amstetten, Austria; she was released only after 24 years of sexual abuse and mental ordeal. Good grief, how awful; I remember this story as well, when she was released I mean.

September
Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic, solo, in a hot air balloon.

October
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.

November
Band Aid records the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to raise money to combat the famine in Ethiopia. This song still haunts me -______-

December
Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace prize.

~all facts lifted from Wikipedia….
So a pretty eventful year, all told. With good things and bad happening. I must admit, its quite nice to know a little more about the year I came into the world.

Oh and before I go, I have to mention 1984 by George Orwell. Yes, it was published in 1949, but its an incredible book that I’m honoured to share a birth year with. If you haven’t read it, do! Its where the ‘big brother’ idea comes from before it was hacked up and turned into a TV show.

 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.