1984

January 1 - Bell System divestiture breaks AT&T into 24 independent units.

The Los Angeles Raiders win their third NFL Championship, defeating the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.

Pop star Michael Jackson's scalp is seriously burned by pyrotechnics during filming of a Pepsi television commercial.

Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.

United States Marines pull out of Beirut, Lebanon.

Teachers at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the schoolchildren (the charges are later dropped as completely unfounded).

U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

The longest game in Major League Baseball history begins at 7:30 PM between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox. The game will be played over the course of 2 days, lasting 25 innings, with a total time of 8 hours and 6 minutes.

Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure burns down, killing 8. In San Francisco, the Democratic National Convention nominates Walter F. Mondale for U.S. President, and Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President.

In San Ysidro, California, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty sprays a McDonald's restaurant with gunfire, killing 21 people before being shot and killed.

Vanessa Lynn Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown, after nude photos of her appear in "Penthouse" magazine.

The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.

John De Lorean is acquitted of all 8 charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush are renominated at the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas.

The first MTV Video Music Awards are held in Radio City Music Hall, New York City.

Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Dell Computers was founded.

The Cosby Show debuts on NBC. The sitcom is widely considered the most popular show of the 1980s.

The Supreme Court rules that taping television shows at home on VCRs does not violate copyright law

Deaths: Indira Gandhi, Francois Truffaut, Truman Capote and Count Basie