Events of 1985
People Magazine announced its 25 Most Intriguing People of 1985 with a year-end double issue. Here is the 25 for the annual issue:
Corazon Aquino
Uli Derickson
Mel Fisher
Michael J. Fox
Bob Geldof
Bernhard Goetz
Whoopi Goldberg
Dwight Gooden
Hulk Hogan
Rock Hudson
William Hurt
Don Johnson
Joe Kennedy
Akira Kurosawa
Madonna
Nelson Mandela
Gracie Mansion
Josef Mengele
Rupert Murdoch
William "The Refrigerator" Perry
Princess Diana
Rambo
Dr. Steven Rosenberg
Bruce and Juliann Springsteen
Cathleen Webb
Fashion of '85: Fake nails were all the rage in 1985, I'm told. Here is a 1985 commercial for the queen of fake nails at the time, Lee Press-On Nails. I bet Diahann Carroll, below, wore them.
Dec. 31: The cover of Jet magazine on this date.
Dec. 31: Here is a photograph of Julio Iglesias and Angie Dickinson partying it up on New Year's Eve, 1985.
Dec. 31: The final Calvin & Hobbes comic strip of 1985, the first year it was published in newspapers.
Names of '85: Here is a list of the most popular girls and boys names in 1985:
Girls: 1. Ashley, 2. Jennifer, 3. Amanda, 4. Sarah, 5. Stephanie, 6. Nicole, 7. Heather
Boys: 1. Michael, 2. Christopher, 3. Matthew, 4. Joshua, 5. Daniel, 6. David, 7. James
Dec. 30: The cover of Newsweek on this date.
Dec. 30: The publisher of Dr. Ruth Westheimer's book, "First Love: A Young People's Guide to Sexual Information" issues a recall because a sentence in the book erroneously tells girls they are the least fertile when they are the most fertile.
Dec. 29: The Oakland Raiders' Marcus Allen is named the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press.
Dec. 29: Model Christie Brinkley and wife of singer Billy Joel gives birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, who would be named Alexa Ray.
Books of '85: The above ad appeared in final edition of Billboard Magazine for 1985. I HAD THIS BOOK. I loved it as it featured stories about every No. 1 song up to that time. I recall my car breaking down once and spending my time reading the book in the car as I waited for someone to tow my car (this was long before cell phones). I think I bought the book in the middle of 1986.
Dec. 28: Billboard magazine ranks the top 10 videocassette sales of 1985: 1. Jane Fonda's Workout; 2. Jane Fonda's Prime Time Workout; 3. Star Trek II: The Search For Spock; 4. Purple Rain; 5. Gone With The Wind; 6. The Jane Fonda Workout Challenge; 7. Raiders Of The Lost Ark; 8. Raquel, Total Beauty and Fitness; 9. We Are The World -- Video Event; 10. Wham! The Video.
Dec. 28: Billboard magazine ranks the top new pop artists of 1985 according to their charted recordings. The top five are: Whitney Houston, The Power Station, Sade, Freddie Jackson and Katrina and the Waves.
Dec. 28: The top five videocassette rentals on this date: 1. Beverly Hills Cop; 2. Ghostbusters; 3. Gremlins; 4. Code of Silence; 5. Brewster's Millions
Dec. 28: Continuing with the Billboard magazine issue from this date, an ad appears for the breakout pop group of late 1985, Mr. Mister.
Dec. 28: An ad that appeared in Billboard magazine, dated Dec. 28, 1985, when the cassette tape was king.
Dec. 27: NHL player Paul Stastny, son of Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, is born.
Dec. 23: "Diff'rent Strokes actor Gary Coleman, 17, is announced to be in good condition after being fitted with a dialysis pack for his second transplanted kidney.
Dec. 23: Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year issue is released, showing award-winner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the cover (see below).
Dec. 21: Former Detroit Tigers teammates Kirk Gibson and Dave Rozema marry sisters in a ceremony in Grosse Point Farms, Michigan. Gibson marries JoAnn Sklarski and Rozema, now with the Texas Rangers, marries Sandy Sklarski.
Dec. 21: Madonna wins seven Billboard Awards, for top pop artist, top album artist-female, top pop singles artist, top pop singles artist-female, top dance club play artist, top dance sales artist and top music video ("Madonna -- the Videos").
Dec. 20: Baseball Players' Union executive director Donald Fehr announces that the union will address baseball's drug problem with an educational program directed toward children that includes a coloring book. The coloring book features a number of major leaguers including Dave Winfield, Dale Murphy, Dwight Gooden, Cal Ripken Jr., Paul Molitor, Steve Garvey, Chris Chambliss, Ted Simmons, Fernando Valenzuela, Alan Trammell, Bruce Sutter, Wade Boggs and Jerry Reuss. The book is released in 1986.
Dec. 20: Country singer Johnny Paycheck, known for the 1977 hit, "Take This Job and Shove It," is charged with shooting a man in a tavern dispute. Despite claiming the act was in self-defense, Paycheck was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail. He would serve 22 months beginning in 1989.
Dec. 19: Rolling Stone releases its end-of-the-year double issue. (I loved end-of-the-year double issues).
Dec. 18: A federal court jury takes just 35 minutes to determine that Dolly Parton did not copy the work of a songwriting team for the 1981 hit song "9 to 5". Neil and Jan Goldberg claimed she had copied their 1976 song "Money World".
Dec. 18: The movie "The Color Purple" is released.
Dec. 17: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. It's just the second time in SI history that an NBA player is named for the honor, which shows you how ignored the NBA was before the Michael Jordan era.
Dec. 15: Actor Sylvester Stallone and Danish model-actress Brigitte Nielsen get married. The wedding of the two Rocky IV stars is attended by several celebrities, including Olympian Bruce Jenner.
Dec. 15: It's reported that Ian Stewart, who helped form the Rolling Stones and considered "the sixth Rolling Stone," has died of a heart attack at age 47. Stewart played keyboards in the version of the band. He was replaced by singer Mick Jagger.
Dec. 15: The seventh Youth In Film Awards (now known as the Young Artists Awards) take place in Los Angeles. The host is 10-year-old Drew Berrymore. Winners included: Corey Haim, River Phoenix, Emmanuel Lewis, Lisa Bonet, Soleil Moon Frye, Alyssa Milano and Kirk Cameron.
Dec. 15: The Queen Ann Cottage in Arcadia, Calif., regularly pictured in the opening to the TV show "Fantasy Island" that aired from 1978-84, is open to the public for the first time for the 100th anniversary of the Victorian-era house.
Dec. 13: Tonight Show side-kick, Ed McMahon and his wife, Victoria, adopt a baby girl. McMahon's age at the time is 62, which becomes a source of amusement for Tonight Show host Johnny Carson.
Toys of '85: Pound puppies, the droopy-eared stuffed animals that came with their own adoption papers, reached their peak in popularity when a cartoon TV special based on the toys was released in October 1985. The toys were first created in 1984 and introduced to the U.S. by Tonka.
Dec. 12: Oscar-winning actress Anne Baxter dies at age 62. Baxter won Best Supporting Actress in 1947 for her role in "The Razor's Edge". She was also nominated for Best Actress in "All About Eve".
Dec. 10: NFL running back Matt Forte is born.
Dec. 10: Actress Raven-Symone is born.
Dec. 9: Sports Illustrated's cover addresses what would become to be known as owner collusion.
Dec. 8: NBA All-Star center Dwight Howard is born.
Dec. 8: 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson is born.
Dec. 7: Robert Graves, writer of "I, Claudius," dies at age 90.
Dec. 7: Pro wrestler Dean Ambrose is born.
Dec. 5: Former "Malcolm in the Middle" co-star Frankie Muniz is born.
Dec. 4: Major League outfielder Carlos Gomez is born.
Dec. 3: Singer Connie Francis is released from custody after being arrested for refusing to put out a cigarette while aboard a jet airliner. Francis was charged with criminal trespass and simple battery on a police officer after kicking the officer, according to a police spokesman.
Dec. 3: Actress Amanda Seyfried is born.
Dec. 3: The Peanuts comic strip published on this date.
Dec. 3: The Chicago Bears record "The Super Bowl Shuffle" video, which becomes a national sensation and reaches No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Dec. 2: The Sports Illustrated cover suggests that perhaps the smart choice for the Heisman Trophy is someone named Joe Dudek. It seems even more ludicrous now than it did then. (Dudek did finish ninth in the voting, the highest for a non-Division I player).
Nov. 30: "Big Bang Theory" TV actress Kaley Cuoco is born.
Nov. 29: Bill Scott, the voice of cartoon characters Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right and head writer and co-producer of "Rocky and His Friends," dies of a heart attack at age 65.
Nov. 28: The Betty Boop balloon makes its debut in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Nov. 27: Bob Geldof, fresh off his Live-Aid campaign raising millions for Ethiopian famine victims, is dropped from his record label, Columbia.
Nov. 27: R-Donuts, the first topless doughnut shop in the South opens in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to much publicity and some protestors. The shop lasts for just under four years before closing in 1990.
Nov. 27: The Los Angeles Times film critic pans the just released "Rocky IV," saying it is "hopelessly overinflated" and has "broken its tether to float overhead, blotting out the sun."
Nov. 26: Twenty-three tons of potatoes from North Dakota are deposited on the front lawn of Yogi Berra's New Jersey home. It marked the culmination of a joke after Berra visited North Dakota and he was told that the state was one of the nation's top growers of potatoes. Berra, fond of potatoes, allegedly said, "you don't have enough potatoes to fill my front lawn."
Nov. 25: The talk of the NFL, the Chicago Bears keep rolling and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated again.
Nov. 23: NFL Pro Bowl fullback Mike Tolbert is born.
Nov. 21: The toy industry journal, Toy & Hobby World, reports that the top-selling toys for the upcoming Christmas season are Transformers and Cabbage Patch Dolls. The highest-selling new toy is a talking bear called "Teddy Ruxpin". Also on the top 10 list are Pound Puppies and Voltron toy robots.
Nov. 21: The Peanuts comic strip on this date.
Nov. 21: Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits appears on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Nov. 21: Carly Rae Jepsen, of "Call Me Maybe" fame, is born.
Nov. 19: NFL Pro Bowl center Alex Mack is born.
Nov. 18: U.S. Olympic track and field multi-medalist Allyson Felix is born.
Nov. 18: The Scottish band, Jesus and Mary Chain, releases its debut album, "Psychocandy". It's considered a milestone album that helped usher in the alternative rock wave that flourished in the late '80s and early '90s.
Nov. 18: The first published "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip appears in newspapers.
Nov. 18: Disc jockey Howard Stern begins working at New York rock radio station WXRK (after getting fired by WNBC) where he would remain for 20 years and gain nationwide fame.
Nov. 15: The Los Angeles Times reports that actor Mark Harmon's character on the NBC hospital drama "St. Elsewhere" will contract AIDS. Harmon had decided to leave the show, and his last episode was scheduled for Feb. 5, 1986.
Nov. 11: Marc Christian, who says he is the late actor Rock Hudson's lover, files a $10 million claim against his estate after convincing a jury he was unknowingly exposed to AIDS. Christian would win a multi-million dollar settlement in 1991.
Nov. 11: The U.S. visit by Prince Charles and Princess Diana is covered by Time magazine.
Nov. 6: "Dynasty" actress Joan Collins marries Swedish businessman Peter Holm. It's Collins' fourth marriage. They would divorce two years later.
Nov. 4: The Kansas City Royals' World Series title graces the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Nov. 4: Garrison Keillor, the host of the hugely popular public radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," appears on the cover of Time magazine. a rarity for a public radio figure.
Nov. 3: All-time ACC leading scorer and NBA player Tyler Hansbrough was born.
Nov. 2: TV guide features the ABC miniseries "North and South," which would begin that week and starred, among others, an up-and-coming Patrick Swayze and Kirstie Alley.
Cable shows of '85: "The History of White People in America" began airing on HBO and Cinemax in the spring of 1985. Considered a pioneer in "mockumentaries," it chronicled a stereotypical white family from Ohio, with the parents played by Fred Willard and Mary Kay Place. The movie, written by Martin Mull and directed by Harry Shearer, was released on video in the fall of 1985 and spawned a couple of sequels.
Oct. 28: The week's Sports Illustrated is published with a cover praising the St. Louis Cardinals, one day after the Cardinals' opponent, the Kansas City Royals, win the World Series.
Oct. 28: People releases its best- and worst-dressed list. Bruce Springsteen, Princess Stephanie of Monaco and David Byrne are mentioned as best dressed and Prince, Madonna and Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas are considered worst dressed.
Oct. 26: Indiana Pacers' player Monta Ellis is born.
Oct. 26: The NBA's No. 1 overall draft pick in 2006, Andrea Bargnani, is born.
Oct. 25: Famed Irish tenor from the 1920s and 1930s, Morton Downey, dies. Downey's son, Morton Downey Jr., would rise to prominence just a couple of years later with his inflammatory talk show.
Oct. 25: R&B/hip-hop singer Ciara is born.
Oct. 21: Diane Thomas, who wrote the screenplay for the hit movie "Romancing the Stone" while working as a waitress, is killed in a car crash six weeks before the sequel to the movie, "Jewel of the Nile," is released.
Oct. 21: Bears quarterback Jim McMahon appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The Bears beat the Packers to go to 7-0 that same day.
Oct. 20: In their first television interview since they were married in 1981, Prince Charles dispels rumors that he contacts dead relatives with a Ouija board, and Princess Diana refuted claims that she is a domineering and shallow wife only interested in fashion.
Oct. 19: The first Blockbuster video-rental store opens in Dallas.
Oct. 18: The Nintendo Entertainment System launches with 17 game titles, including Duck Hunt, Baseball, Gyromite, Ice Climber and Donkey Kong Jr. Math. Super Mario Brothers was not yet available in the U.S., but had been released in Japan a month earlier.
Oct. 16: Actor Sean Penn pleads no contest and is fined $50 and receives a 90-day suspended sentence on each of two charges of assaulting two British journalists, who were attempting to photograph him and his future bride, Madonna, outside a Nashville hotel in June.
Oct. 14: Walmart founder Sam Walton is named the richest person in America by Forbes magazine, knocking Gordon Getty from the top spot.
Oct. 14: Arnold Schwarzenegger's relationship with Maria Shriver makes the cover of People magazine.
Oct. 14: The Los Angeles Times documents a new trend in exercise: personal fitness trainers.
Oct. 12: Ricky Wilson, the original guitarist for the B-52s and the brother of band singer Cindy Wilson, dies of AIDS at age 32.
Oct. 11: Famed country/swing singer Tex Williams dies at age 68. His most famous song was "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)," which was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 16 weeks in 1947.
Oct. 10: Howard Cosell is bumped from the ABC broadcasting team for the World Series. There's speculation that his criticism of ABC colleagues in his new book, "I Never Played The Game," led to the move. And he is dismissed from ABC soon afterward.
Oct. 10: Actor and director Orson Welles, known for "Citizen Kane" and "War Of The Worlds," dies at age 70.
Oct. 9: "Strawberry Fields," a 2.5-acre section of Central Park in New York, is dedicated to the memory of John Lennon, on what would have been his 45th birthday.
Oct. 8: 1980s couple Grace Jones and Dolph Lundgren are caught in some sort of mating ritual by a photographer at a New York restaurant.
Oct. 8: Pop singer/songwriter Bruno Mars is born.
Oct. 8: Famed '50s singer Little Richard is seriously injured when he drives his rented vehicle into a telephone pole, fracturing his right leg.
Oct. 7: Miami Vice fever is at epidemic proportions as show star Don Johnson makes the cover of People.
Oct. 7: Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria is born.
Oct. 6: Composer, arranger and band leader Nelson Riddle dies at age 64.
Technology of '85: The videocassette recorder broke out into the mainstream in a big way in 1985. First mass-marketed in 1979, just 10 percent of households owned a VCR in 1982, but that percentage reached over 30 percent in 1985. By the end of the decade it was in well over half of households. Speaking from personal experience, 1985 was the first time I owned a VCR. Watching movies was never the same.
Oct. 2: Peanuts creator Charles Schultz celebrates the 35th anniversary of the first Peanuts comic strip.
Sept. 30: Olivia Newton-John appears on the cover of People magazine ahead of the birth of her first child, Chloe, who is now a popular topic in the British tabloids for her partying ways and issues with drugs.
Sept. 30: Rapper and record producer T-Pain is born.
Sept. 27: Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" tour, believed to be the biggest tour in pop music history at the time, makes its final stop for four nights of concerts in Los Angeles.
Sept. 25: Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson, a.k.a., "Megatron", is born.
Sept. 23: People magazine covers Hollywood's reaction to the AIDS epidemic.
Sept. 23: Former Yankees sensation Joba Chamberlain is born.
Trends of '85: So-called "phone sex" lines were advertised on late-night television repeatedly in 1985, as the "dial-a-porn" industry set new records for numbers of calls and income earned. The 1-900 adult entertainment lines, most often using the "976" prefix, thrived through the rest of the decade before disappearing in the early '90s.
Sept. 17: 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych is born.
Sept. 17: Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin is born.
Sept. 16: Time magazine features Crockett and Tubbs on the cover.
Sept. 16: Actress Madeline Zima, perhaps best known as playing the youngest child in the sitcom "The Nanny," is born.
Sept. 16: The People magazine cover implying that Madonna, David Lee Roth and Prince helped lead to a mass murder spree.
Sept. 15: The first version of the Air Jordan sneaker is released to the public. The later iconic footwear would be famously banned from NBA courts a month later because it didn't match the jerseys of Michael Jordan's team, the Chicago Bulls. That prompted sales to skyrocket.
Sept. 14: Radio show host Casey Kasem's famous profanity-filled blow-up over a long-distance dedication introduction about a dog named "Snuggles" occurs on this date during a taping of American Top 40.
Sept. 13: The first Super Mario Bros. game is released in Japan. It would be released later in the year in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sept. 12: Prince appears on the cover and is the subject of an interview in Rolling Stone magazine.
Sept. 10: Up-and-coming actress Alexa Kenin, 23, is found dead in her apartment in Manhattan. Kenin appeared with Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal in the movie "Little Darlings" and in the Clint Eastwood movie "Honkytonk Man," as well as sitcoms "The Facts Of Life" and "Gimme a Break!" She was "Jena" in "Pretty In Pink," which appeared after her death. Her death certificate said she died from complications of asthma, although other sources say she was murdered by a boyfriend.
Sept. 9: Ringo Starr, 45, is the first Beatle to become a grandfather when his daughter-in-law gives birth to a girl, Tatia.
Sept. 9: Priscilla Presley appears on People magazine as her autobiography "Elvis and Me" is released.
Sept. 9: New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith is born.
Sept. 8: It is announced that actor Rock Hudson will write his autobiography, called "My Story", and proceeds will go to fight AIDS. The book is released in 1986, after his death.
Sept. 8: The first issue of USA Today's USA Weekend magazine appears in newspapers across the country. The issue features Miss America hopeful, Lisa Davenport, on the cover.
Sept. 3: Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov meet a second time for the world chess championship after the first meeting in 1984 was terminated.
Sept. 3: Johnny Marks, the songwriter who wrote "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," and "Holly Jolly Christmas," dies at age 75.
Sept. 2: People magazine fawns over Madonna and Sean Penn on its cover.
Sept. 2: The Mets' Dwight Gooden appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated after becoming the youngest pitcher to win 20 games.
Aug. 28: Mick Jagger's model girlfriend Jerry Hall gives birth to the couple's second child, son James.
Aug. 28: Actress Ruth Gordon, known for roles in the movies "Rosemary's Baby," "Harold and Maude" and "Every Which Way But Loose" dies at age 88.
Aug. 26: Sports Illustrated features new Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar on the cover. The Browns landed Kosar after a prolonged controversy over his eligibility and he and the Browns arranging it so he could play for his hometown team.
Aug. 26: Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price is born.
Addictions of '85: The scourge of crack cocaine first became known to the masses in 1985. Born out of poor neighborhoods in New York and Miami, it is the freebase form of cocaine and known for providing an intense high and being highly addictive. The drug became an epidemic in the mid-to-late 1980s with cocaine-related hospital emergencies increasing by 110 percent in 1986. The drug became ingrained in some aspects of hip-hop culture, particularly gangster rap. It's such a known element by the general public today that people who are perceived as not thinking straight are jokingly accused of being "on crack."
Aug. 20: Former Dodger, Cub and Brave Blake DeWitt is born.
Aug. 19: Pete Rose's chase of Ty Cobb's career hit record is featured in Sports Illustrated.
Aug. 16: Singer and actress Madonna and actor Sean Penn get married.
Aug. 15: Rolling Stone magazine commemorates the previous month's Live Aid concert.
Aug. 14: Michael Jackson purchases the publishing rights to the Beatles music catalog for $47 million, outbidding former Beatle Paul McCartney. The move caused a falling out between the two, who had collaborated on the No. 1 song "Say, Say, Say" less than two years prior.
Aug. 14: Nashville Predators defenseman and captain Shea Weber is born.
Aug. 13: Police front man Sting kicks off his first solo concert tour in the U.S. in San Diego.
Aug. 13: Veteran Washington Redskins running back John Riggins holds a training camp press conference and discusses his image in light of the previous months, which have included an arrest for being drunk in public and telling Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to "loosen up, Sandy baby" during a salute to Congress in January.
Aug. 12: The relatively new disease AIDS hits the cover of Time magazine.
Aug. 9: Members of the PMRC (the Parents Music Resource Center) react positively to the music industries decision to put warning labels albums to warn people about potentially offensive material.
Aug. 9: The movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" makes its wide-release debut in the U.S.
Aug. 9: Former Oakland Raider quarterback and NFL first-round pick JaMarcus Russell is born.
Aug. 8: NASA officials confirm that Coke was the first soft drink consumed in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Coke beat Pepsi by a few hours thanks to Coca-Cola officials being the first to submit an application to have their drink tested on the shuttle.
Aug. 5: Organizers announce that they are forming a Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame
Aug. 5: The Dodgers' Pedro Guerrero is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Aug. 1: Goodness gracious, it's Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr. on this date in 1985.
July 30: It is revealed in a lawsuit filed by pop singer Madonna that she starred in a pornographic movie in 1980. She was seeking to bar the release of the film.
Hair of '85: The "Big Hair" phenomenon of the 1980s probably began in the 1970s with celebrities like Farrah Fawcett. But by the time I was in high school in the early '80s, it was obvious that girls were trying to get their hair to heaven. When I hit college in 1985, that's when the "Big Hair" exploded -- literally. Not only was it all over music television with the so-called "hair bands" but it was with me every day, in the cafeteria, in the dorm hallways, at the parties. I don't know those girls up there, but I DO know those girls' hairstyles. Below are the hairstyles of some of the girls I knew in college. Well, I sort of knew them. Their hair got in the way.
July 25: The exploitation/documentary film "Faces Of Death" is reported as a big rental and sales hit in stores across the country. The videocassette, originally manufactured in the late '70s for an overseas market, depicts a wide variety of death scenes, both staged and real.
July 24: Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron is born.
July 24: 49ers, Bucs, Browns and Lions cornerback Eric Wright is born.
July 20: General Mills choose Pete Rose to appear on boxes of Wheaties cereal as he approaches the all-time hit record.
July 19: A free-lance photographer files a $1 million lawsuit against actor Sean Penn and his fiancee Madonna after he says he was attacked by Penn with a rock and his own camera during a incident in a car park in Nashville, Tenn.
July 19: The New York Daily News reports that actor Sylvester Stallone will marry Danish model Brigitte Nielsen.
July 14: Bob Geldof is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for creating and heading the Live Aid concert to raise money for famine relief.
July 14: Former Jets and current Buccaneers cornerback Darrelle Revis is born.
July 13: "Live Aid," the massively ambitious dual all-day concerts in London and Philadelphia for the purpose of raising funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, takes place. An estimated 1.9 billion watch the concerts, which are broadcast live. Approximately 70 acts performed on stage and around $150 million was raised as a result of the concerts. I remember getting up early in the morning to listen to the London concert on the radio, then turned to TV to watch the concert in Philly.
July 10: Coca-Cola, Co., officials announce the return of original formula Coke, in the form of "Coca-Cola Classic," after the furor in the wake of the announcement of "New Coke" back in April. "The passion for original Coke ... was something that just flat caught us by surprise," the company's president said.
July 8: The Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Sneakers of '85: The first Air Jordan, now known as "Air Jordan 1," were released in 1985 after Michael Jordan's sensational rookie season of 1984. Jordan wore the sneakers in '84 and a version was created for the public in 1985. The sneakers are considered to have forever changed sneaker design and spawned many subsequent versions of Air Jordans. Jordan was barred by the NBA from wearing the first version because there was no white in the design. In a famous discussion on "Late Night With David Letterman" at the time, Jordan explained the sneakers couldn't be worn in an NBA game because "it doesn't have any white in it," to which Letterman responded, "well, neither does the NBA." (*rimshot*).
July 5: U.S. Olympic team women's soccer player Megan Rapinoe is born.
June 27: Russian tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova is born.
June 25: Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard is born.
June 23: The New York Post reports that singer and actress Madonna will marry actor Sean Penn in August.
June 20: Former NBA player Darko Milicic is born.
June 17: Tennis player Marcos Baghdatis, runner-up in 2006 Australian Open and semifinalist in Wimbledon in 2006, is born.
June 16: Chicago Bears linebacker Nick Roach is born.
June 12: Kendra Wilkinson, known as one of Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends and part of the reality show "The Girls Next Door," is born.
June 10: The National Association of Broadcasters warns radio stations against airing so-called porn rock, after an organization called Parents Music Research Group -- whose members included the spouses of Sen. Al Gore and Treasury Secretary James Baker -- cite certain songs as being "pornographic," specifically noting Prince's "Darling Nikki" and Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls."
June 10: Coca-Cola announces it will bring back its 99-year-old formula under the name "Classic Coke," after the "New Coke" introduced in April is roundly criticized.
June 9: NBA player Sebastian Telfair is born.
June 6: Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steve Adler perform for the first time as Guns n' Roses at the Troubadour in Hollywood, Calif.
June 5: A Baseball Prospectus writer concludes that June 5, 1985 is the day in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" that Ferris Bueller uses to skip school, attend a Cubs game and gallivant all over Chicago. The movie was released in June of 1986.
June 4: Israeli model Bar Refaeli, cover subject for the 2009 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, is born.
June 4: American figure skater and 2010 Winter Olympic champion Evan Lysacek is born.
June 3: Sportswriter Rick Reilly makes his debut for Sports Illustrated with a feature on Braves slugger Dale Murphy.
May 28: Pop singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat is born.
May 27: Singer Madonna appears on the cover of Time.
May 25: English pop group Wham! becomes the first musical act to hit No. 1 with three songs from the same album since the Bee Gees as "Everything She Wants" hits the top of the Billboard charts.
May 17: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is born.
May 16: Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the "Wizard Of Oz" movie, dies at age 82.
May 15: Pop group the Go-Go's announce they are breaking up, less than four years after hitting it big with "Our Lips Are Sealed."
May 14: "Airwolf" actor Jan-Michael Vincent is found not guilty of a misdemeanor battery charge related to a brawl in a cocktail lounge.
May 13: Rock singer Bruce Springsteen marries actress Julianne Phillips in a "very private" ceremony in Lake Oswego, near Portland, Ore.
May 13: Singer Rod Stewart is charged with drunk driving.
May 12: Belinda Carlisle, lead singer for the all-female pop group the Go-Gos, announces that they are breaking up.
May 11: Chester Gould, the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, dies at age 84.
May 10: Anaheim Mighty Ducks center and captain Ryan Getzlaf is born.
May 6: Billy Martin is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the playful photo and headline, "Billy's Back."
May 6: L.A. Clippers guard Chris Paul is born.
April 29: Hulk Hogan appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the popularity of pro wrestling grows to record heights.
April 28: Prince Charles and Princess Diana meet with Pope John Paul II at The Vatican.
April 26: U.S. tennis player John Isner is born.
April 25: Nashville Predators right wing Brandon Yip is born.
April 23: Panned as one of the worst marketing moves in history, Coca-Cola introduces "New Coke" to the public. The new taste of Coke was sweeter, in response to the popularity of Pepsi. But Coke drinkers hated it and the old formula returned to store shelves, alongside the new formula, under the name "Classic Coke." Eventually "New Coke" was renamed "Coke II," and "Classic Coke" became, simply, "Coca-Cola." Finally, "Coke II" disappeared from the U.S. market.
April 22: "Around the World in a Day," Prince and the Revolution's first album after the groundbreaking and multi-platinum-selling "Purple Rain," is released. A single from the album is not released until a full month after the album had been out.
April 17: Actress Rooney Mara is born.
April 17: French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is born.
April 15: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, host of a nationally syndicated sex advice radio show, appears on the cover of People magazine.
April 12: San Francisco 49ers receiver Ted Ginn Jr. is born.
April 10: "Hear 'N Aid," heavy metal music's answer to USA for Africa, announces plans to form a supergroup that will record a song in May and use the proceeds for famine relief. Several heavy metal acts -- Ratt, Quiet Riot, Judas Priest, the Scorpions and Black Sabbath -- were miffed that they weren't invited to the USA for Africa recording and say they will join Hear 'N Aid.
April 10: Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf is born.
April 5: The USA for Africa single "We Are the World" is broadcast on thousands of radio stations all over the world at 10:50 a.m. EST in a Good Friday show of support for the anti-famine project.
April 5: Chicago Cubs infielder Ian Stewart is born.
April 3: "Bleeding Love" singer Leona Lewis is born.
March 31: Wrestlemania debuts with the ambitiously named "Wrestlemania I." Presented before more than 19,000 fans at Madison Square Garden in New York, it changes pro wrestling forever.
March 26: Very well-paid actress Keira Knightley is born.
People Magazine announced its 25 Most Intriguing People of 1985 with a year-end double issue. Here is the 25 for the annual issue:
Corazon Aquino
Uli Derickson
Mel Fisher
Michael J. Fox
Bob Geldof
Bernhard Goetz
Whoopi Goldberg
Dwight Gooden
Hulk Hogan
Rock Hudson
William Hurt
Don Johnson
Joe Kennedy
Akira Kurosawa
Madonna
Nelson Mandela
Gracie Mansion
Josef Mengele
Rupert Murdoch
William "The Refrigerator" Perry
Princess Diana
Rambo
Dr. Steven Rosenberg
Bruce and Juliann Springsteen
Cathleen Webb
Fashion of '85: Fake nails were all the rage in 1985, I'm told. Here is a 1985 commercial for the queen of fake nails at the time, Lee Press-On Nails. I bet Diahann Carroll, below, wore them.
Dec. 31: The cover of Jet magazine on this date.
Dec. 31: Here is a photograph of Julio Iglesias and Angie Dickinson partying it up on New Year's Eve, 1985.
Dec. 31: The final Calvin & Hobbes comic strip of 1985, the first year it was published in newspapers.
Names of '85: Here is a list of the most popular girls and boys names in 1985:
Girls: 1. Ashley, 2. Jennifer, 3. Amanda, 4. Sarah, 5. Stephanie, 6. Nicole, 7. Heather
Boys: 1. Michael, 2. Christopher, 3. Matthew, 4. Joshua, 5. Daniel, 6. David, 7. James
Dec. 30: The cover of Newsweek on this date.
Dec. 30: The publisher of Dr. Ruth Westheimer's book, "First Love: A Young People's Guide to Sexual Information" issues a recall because a sentence in the book erroneously tells girls they are the least fertile when they are the most fertile.
Dec. 29: The Oakland Raiders' Marcus Allen is named the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press.
Dec. 29: Model Christie Brinkley and wife of singer Billy Joel gives birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, who would be named Alexa Ray.
Books of '85: The above ad appeared in final edition of Billboard Magazine for 1985. I HAD THIS BOOK. I loved it as it featured stories about every No. 1 song up to that time. I recall my car breaking down once and spending my time reading the book in the car as I waited for someone to tow my car (this was long before cell phones). I think I bought the book in the middle of 1986.
Dec. 28: Billboard magazine ranks the top 10 videocassette sales of 1985: 1. Jane Fonda's Workout; 2. Jane Fonda's Prime Time Workout; 3. Star Trek II: The Search For Spock; 4. Purple Rain; 5. Gone With The Wind; 6. The Jane Fonda Workout Challenge; 7. Raiders Of The Lost Ark; 8. Raquel, Total Beauty and Fitness; 9. We Are The World -- Video Event; 10. Wham! The Video.
Dec. 28: Billboard magazine ranks the top new pop artists of 1985 according to their charted recordings. The top five are: Whitney Houston, The Power Station, Sade, Freddie Jackson and Katrina and the Waves.
Dec. 28: The top five videocassette rentals on this date: 1. Beverly Hills Cop; 2. Ghostbusters; 3. Gremlins; 4. Code of Silence; 5. Brewster's Millions
Dec. 28: Continuing with the Billboard magazine issue from this date, an ad appears for the breakout pop group of late 1985, Mr. Mister.
Dec. 28: An ad that appeared in Billboard magazine, dated Dec. 28, 1985, when the cassette tape was king.
Dec. 27: NHL player Paul Stastny, son of Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, is born.
Dec. 23: "Diff'rent Strokes actor Gary Coleman, 17, is announced to be in good condition after being fitted with a dialysis pack for his second transplanted kidney.
Dec. 23: Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year issue is released, showing award-winner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the cover (see below).
Dec. 21: Former Detroit Tigers teammates Kirk Gibson and Dave Rozema marry sisters in a ceremony in Grosse Point Farms, Michigan. Gibson marries JoAnn Sklarski and Rozema, now with the Texas Rangers, marries Sandy Sklarski.
Dec. 21: Madonna wins seven Billboard Awards, for top pop artist, top album artist-female, top pop singles artist, top pop singles artist-female, top dance club play artist, top dance sales artist and top music video ("Madonna -- the Videos").
Dec. 20: Baseball Players' Union executive director Donald Fehr announces that the union will address baseball's drug problem with an educational program directed toward children that includes a coloring book. The coloring book features a number of major leaguers including Dave Winfield, Dale Murphy, Dwight Gooden, Cal Ripken Jr., Paul Molitor, Steve Garvey, Chris Chambliss, Ted Simmons, Fernando Valenzuela, Alan Trammell, Bruce Sutter, Wade Boggs and Jerry Reuss. The book is released in 1986.
Dec. 20: Country singer Johnny Paycheck, known for the 1977 hit, "Take This Job and Shove It," is charged with shooting a man in a tavern dispute. Despite claiming the act was in self-defense, Paycheck was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail. He would serve 22 months beginning in 1989.
Dec. 19: Rolling Stone releases its end-of-the-year double issue. (I loved end-of-the-year double issues).
Dec. 18: A federal court jury takes just 35 minutes to determine that Dolly Parton did not copy the work of a songwriting team for the 1981 hit song "9 to 5". Neil and Jan Goldberg claimed she had copied their 1976 song "Money World".
Dec. 18: The movie "The Color Purple" is released.
Dec. 17: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. It's just the second time in SI history that an NBA player is named for the honor, which shows you how ignored the NBA was before the Michael Jordan era.
Dec. 15: Actor Sylvester Stallone and Danish model-actress Brigitte Nielsen get married. The wedding of the two Rocky IV stars is attended by several celebrities, including Olympian Bruce Jenner.
Dec. 15: It's reported that Ian Stewart, who helped form the Rolling Stones and considered "the sixth Rolling Stone," has died of a heart attack at age 47. Stewart played keyboards in the version of the band. He was replaced by singer Mick Jagger.
Dec. 15: The seventh Youth In Film Awards (now known as the Young Artists Awards) take place in Los Angeles. The host is 10-year-old Drew Berrymore. Winners included: Corey Haim, River Phoenix, Emmanuel Lewis, Lisa Bonet, Soleil Moon Frye, Alyssa Milano and Kirk Cameron.
Dec. 15: The Queen Ann Cottage in Arcadia, Calif., regularly pictured in the opening to the TV show "Fantasy Island" that aired from 1978-84, is open to the public for the first time for the 100th anniversary of the Victorian-era house.
Dec. 13: Tonight Show side-kick, Ed McMahon and his wife, Victoria, adopt a baby girl. McMahon's age at the time is 62, which becomes a source of amusement for Tonight Show host Johnny Carson.
Toys of '85: Pound puppies, the droopy-eared stuffed animals that came with their own adoption papers, reached their peak in popularity when a cartoon TV special based on the toys was released in October 1985. The toys were first created in 1984 and introduced to the U.S. by Tonka.
Dec. 12: Oscar-winning actress Anne Baxter dies at age 62. Baxter won Best Supporting Actress in 1947 for her role in "The Razor's Edge". She was also nominated for Best Actress in "All About Eve".
Dec. 10: NFL running back Matt Forte is born.
Dec. 10: Actress Raven-Symone is born.
Dec. 9: Sports Illustrated's cover addresses what would become to be known as owner collusion.
Dec. 8: NBA All-Star center Dwight Howard is born.
Dec. 8: 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson is born.
Dec. 7: Robert Graves, writer of "I, Claudius," dies at age 90.
Dec. 7: Pro wrestler Dean Ambrose is born.
Dec. 5: Former "Malcolm in the Middle" co-star Frankie Muniz is born.
Dec. 4: Major League outfielder Carlos Gomez is born.
Dec. 3: Singer Connie Francis is released from custody after being arrested for refusing to put out a cigarette while aboard a jet airliner. Francis was charged with criminal trespass and simple battery on a police officer after kicking the officer, according to a police spokesman.
Dec. 3: Actress Amanda Seyfried is born.
Dec. 3: The Peanuts comic strip published on this date.
Dec. 3: The Chicago Bears record "The Super Bowl Shuffle" video, which becomes a national sensation and reaches No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Dec. 2: The Sports Illustrated cover suggests that perhaps the smart choice for the Heisman Trophy is someone named Joe Dudek. It seems even more ludicrous now than it did then. (Dudek did finish ninth in the voting, the highest for a non-Division I player).
Nov. 30: "Big Bang Theory" TV actress Kaley Cuoco is born.
Nov. 29: Bill Scott, the voice of cartoon characters Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right and head writer and co-producer of "Rocky and His Friends," dies of a heart attack at age 65.
Nov. 28: The Betty Boop balloon makes its debut in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Nov. 27: Bob Geldof, fresh off his Live-Aid campaign raising millions for Ethiopian famine victims, is dropped from his record label, Columbia.
Nov. 27: R-Donuts, the first topless doughnut shop in the South opens in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to much publicity and some protestors. The shop lasts for just under four years before closing in 1990.
Nov. 27: The Los Angeles Times film critic pans the just released "Rocky IV," saying it is "hopelessly overinflated" and has "broken its tether to float overhead, blotting out the sun."
Nov. 26: Twenty-three tons of potatoes from North Dakota are deposited on the front lawn of Yogi Berra's New Jersey home. It marked the culmination of a joke after Berra visited North Dakota and he was told that the state was one of the nation's top growers of potatoes. Berra, fond of potatoes, allegedly said, "you don't have enough potatoes to fill my front lawn."
Nov. 25: The talk of the NFL, the Chicago Bears keep rolling and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated again.
Nov. 23: NFL Pro Bowl fullback Mike Tolbert is born.
Nov. 21: The toy industry journal, Toy & Hobby World, reports that the top-selling toys for the upcoming Christmas season are Transformers and Cabbage Patch Dolls. The highest-selling new toy is a talking bear called "Teddy Ruxpin". Also on the top 10 list are Pound Puppies and Voltron toy robots.
Nov. 21: The Peanuts comic strip on this date.
Nov. 21: Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits appears on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Nov. 21: Carly Rae Jepsen, of "Call Me Maybe" fame, is born.
Nov. 19: NFL Pro Bowl center Alex Mack is born.
Nov. 18: U.S. Olympic track and field multi-medalist Allyson Felix is born.
Nov. 18: The Scottish band, Jesus and Mary Chain, releases its debut album, "Psychocandy". It's considered a milestone album that helped usher in the alternative rock wave that flourished in the late '80s and early '90s.
Nov. 18: The first published "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip appears in newspapers.
Nov. 18: Disc jockey Howard Stern begins working at New York rock radio station WXRK (after getting fired by WNBC) where he would remain for 20 years and gain nationwide fame.
Nov. 15: The Los Angeles Times reports that actor Mark Harmon's character on the NBC hospital drama "St. Elsewhere" will contract AIDS. Harmon had decided to leave the show, and his last episode was scheduled for Feb. 5, 1986.
Nov. 11: Marc Christian, who says he is the late actor Rock Hudson's lover, files a $10 million claim against his estate after convincing a jury he was unknowingly exposed to AIDS. Christian would win a multi-million dollar settlement in 1991.
Nov. 11: The U.S. visit by Prince Charles and Princess Diana is covered by Time magazine.
Nov. 6: "Dynasty" actress Joan Collins marries Swedish businessman Peter Holm. It's Collins' fourth marriage. They would divorce two years later.
Nov. 4: The Kansas City Royals' World Series title graces the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Nov. 4: Garrison Keillor, the host of the hugely popular public radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," appears on the cover of Time magazine. a rarity for a public radio figure.
Nov. 3: All-time ACC leading scorer and NBA player Tyler Hansbrough was born.
Nov. 2: TV guide features the ABC miniseries "North and South," which would begin that week and starred, among others, an up-and-coming Patrick Swayze and Kirstie Alley.
Cable shows of '85: "The History of White People in America" began airing on HBO and Cinemax in the spring of 1985. Considered a pioneer in "mockumentaries," it chronicled a stereotypical white family from Ohio, with the parents played by Fred Willard and Mary Kay Place. The movie, written by Martin Mull and directed by Harry Shearer, was released on video in the fall of 1985 and spawned a couple of sequels.
Oct. 28: The week's Sports Illustrated is published with a cover praising the St. Louis Cardinals, one day after the Cardinals' opponent, the Kansas City Royals, win the World Series.
Oct. 28: People releases its best- and worst-dressed list. Bruce Springsteen, Princess Stephanie of Monaco and David Byrne are mentioned as best dressed and Prince, Madonna and Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas are considered worst dressed.
Oct. 26: Indiana Pacers' player Monta Ellis is born.
Oct. 26: The NBA's No. 1 overall draft pick in 2006, Andrea Bargnani, is born.
Oct. 25: Famed Irish tenor from the 1920s and 1930s, Morton Downey, dies. Downey's son, Morton Downey Jr., would rise to prominence just a couple of years later with his inflammatory talk show.
Oct. 25: R&B/hip-hop singer Ciara is born.
Oct. 21: Diane Thomas, who wrote the screenplay for the hit movie "Romancing the Stone" while working as a waitress, is killed in a car crash six weeks before the sequel to the movie, "Jewel of the Nile," is released.
Oct. 21: Bears quarterback Jim McMahon appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The Bears beat the Packers to go to 7-0 that same day.
Oct. 20: In their first television interview since they were married in 1981, Prince Charles dispels rumors that he contacts dead relatives with a Ouija board, and Princess Diana refuted claims that she is a domineering and shallow wife only interested in fashion.
Oct. 19: The first Blockbuster video-rental store opens in Dallas.
Oct. 18: The Nintendo Entertainment System launches with 17 game titles, including Duck Hunt, Baseball, Gyromite, Ice Climber and Donkey Kong Jr. Math. Super Mario Brothers was not yet available in the U.S., but had been released in Japan a month earlier.
Oct. 16: Actor Sean Penn pleads no contest and is fined $50 and receives a 90-day suspended sentence on each of two charges of assaulting two British journalists, who were attempting to photograph him and his future bride, Madonna, outside a Nashville hotel in June.
Oct. 14: Walmart founder Sam Walton is named the richest person in America by Forbes magazine, knocking Gordon Getty from the top spot.
Oct. 14: Arnold Schwarzenegger's relationship with Maria Shriver makes the cover of People magazine.
Oct. 14: The Los Angeles Times documents a new trend in exercise: personal fitness trainers.
Oct. 12: Ricky Wilson, the original guitarist for the B-52s and the brother of band singer Cindy Wilson, dies of AIDS at age 32.
Oct. 11: Famed country/swing singer Tex Williams dies at age 68. His most famous song was "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)," which was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 16 weeks in 1947.
Oct. 10: Howard Cosell is bumped from the ABC broadcasting team for the World Series. There's speculation that his criticism of ABC colleagues in his new book, "I Never Played The Game," led to the move. And he is dismissed from ABC soon afterward.
Oct. 10: Actor and director Orson Welles, known for "Citizen Kane" and "War Of The Worlds," dies at age 70.
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| Associated Press |
Oct. 10: Yul Brynner, best known for his performance in "The King And I," both on stage and film, as well as in the movie "The Ten Commandments," dies at age 65.
Oct. 9: "Strawberry Fields," a 2.5-acre section of Central Park in New York, is dedicated to the memory of John Lennon, on what would have been his 45th birthday.
Oct. 8: 1980s couple Grace Jones and Dolph Lundgren are caught in some sort of mating ritual by a photographer at a New York restaurant.
Oct. 8: Pop singer/songwriter Bruno Mars is born.
Oct. 8: Famed '50s singer Little Richard is seriously injured when he drives his rented vehicle into a telephone pole, fracturing his right leg.
Oct. 7: Miami Vice fever is at epidemic proportions as show star Don Johnson makes the cover of People.
Oct. 7: Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria is born.
Oct. 6: Composer, arranger and band leader Nelson Riddle dies at age 64.
Technology of '85: The videocassette recorder broke out into the mainstream in a big way in 1985. First mass-marketed in 1979, just 10 percent of households owned a VCR in 1982, but that percentage reached over 30 percent in 1985. By the end of the decade it was in well over half of households. Speaking from personal experience, 1985 was the first time I owned a VCR. Watching movies was never the same.
Oct. 2: Peanuts creator Charles Schultz celebrates the 35th anniversary of the first Peanuts comic strip.
Sept. 30: Olivia Newton-John appears on the cover of People magazine ahead of the birth of her first child, Chloe, who is now a popular topic in the British tabloids for her partying ways and issues with drugs.
Sept. 30: Rapper and record producer T-Pain is born.
Sept. 27: Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" tour, believed to be the biggest tour in pop music history at the time, makes its final stop for four nights of concerts in Los Angeles.
Sept. 25: Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson, a.k.a., "Megatron", is born.
Sept. 23: People magazine covers Hollywood's reaction to the AIDS epidemic.
Sept. 23: Former Yankees sensation Joba Chamberlain is born.
Trends of '85: So-called "phone sex" lines were advertised on late-night television repeatedly in 1985, as the "dial-a-porn" industry set new records for numbers of calls and income earned. The 1-900 adult entertainment lines, most often using the "976" prefix, thrived through the rest of the decade before disappearing in the early '90s.
Sept. 17: 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych is born.
Sept. 17: Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin is born.
Sept. 16: Time magazine features Crockett and Tubbs on the cover.
Sept. 16: Actress Madeline Zima, perhaps best known as playing the youngest child in the sitcom "The Nanny," is born.
Sept. 16: The People magazine cover implying that Madonna, David Lee Roth and Prince helped lead to a mass murder spree.
Sept. 15: The first version of the Air Jordan sneaker is released to the public. The later iconic footwear would be famously banned from NBA courts a month later because it didn't match the jerseys of Michael Jordan's team, the Chicago Bulls. That prompted sales to skyrocket.
Sept. 14: Radio show host Casey Kasem's famous profanity-filled blow-up over a long-distance dedication introduction about a dog named "Snuggles" occurs on this date during a taping of American Top 40.
Sept. 13: The first Super Mario Bros. game is released in Japan. It would be released later in the year in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sept. 12: Prince appears on the cover and is the subject of an interview in Rolling Stone magazine.
Sept. 10: Up-and-coming actress Alexa Kenin, 23, is found dead in her apartment in Manhattan. Kenin appeared with Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal in the movie "Little Darlings" and in the Clint Eastwood movie "Honkytonk Man," as well as sitcoms "The Facts Of Life" and "Gimme a Break!" She was "Jena" in "Pretty In Pink," which appeared after her death. Her death certificate said she died from complications of asthma, although other sources say she was murdered by a boyfriend.
Sept. 9: Ringo Starr, 45, is the first Beatle to become a grandfather when his daughter-in-law gives birth to a girl, Tatia.
Sept. 9: Priscilla Presley appears on People magazine as her autobiography "Elvis and Me" is released.
Sept. 9: New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith is born.
Sept. 8: It is announced that actor Rock Hudson will write his autobiography, called "My Story", and proceeds will go to fight AIDS. The book is released in 1986, after his death.
Sept. 8: The first issue of USA Today's USA Weekend magazine appears in newspapers across the country. The issue features Miss America hopeful, Lisa Davenport, on the cover.
Sept. 3: Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov meet a second time for the world chess championship after the first meeting in 1984 was terminated.
Sept. 3: Johnny Marks, the songwriter who wrote "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," and "Holly Jolly Christmas," dies at age 75.
Sept. 2: People magazine fawns over Madonna and Sean Penn on its cover.
Sept. 2: The Mets' Dwight Gooden appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated after becoming the youngest pitcher to win 20 games.
Aug. 28: Mick Jagger's model girlfriend Jerry Hall gives birth to the couple's second child, son James.
Aug. 28: Actress Ruth Gordon, known for roles in the movies "Rosemary's Baby," "Harold and Maude" and "Every Which Way But Loose" dies at age 88.
Aug. 26: Sports Illustrated features new Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar on the cover. The Browns landed Kosar after a prolonged controversy over his eligibility and he and the Browns arranging it so he could play for his hometown team.
Aug. 26: Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price is born.
Addictions of '85: The scourge of crack cocaine first became known to the masses in 1985. Born out of poor neighborhoods in New York and Miami, it is the freebase form of cocaine and known for providing an intense high and being highly addictive. The drug became an epidemic in the mid-to-late 1980s with cocaine-related hospital emergencies increasing by 110 percent in 1986. The drug became ingrained in some aspects of hip-hop culture, particularly gangster rap. It's such a known element by the general public today that people who are perceived as not thinking straight are jokingly accused of being "on crack."
Aug. 20: Former Dodger, Cub and Brave Blake DeWitt is born.
Aug. 19: Pete Rose's chase of Ty Cobb's career hit record is featured in Sports Illustrated.
Aug. 16: Singer and actress Madonna and actor Sean Penn get married.
Aug. 15: Rolling Stone magazine commemorates the previous month's Live Aid concert.
Aug. 14: Michael Jackson purchases the publishing rights to the Beatles music catalog for $47 million, outbidding former Beatle Paul McCartney. The move caused a falling out between the two, who had collaborated on the No. 1 song "Say, Say, Say" less than two years prior.
Aug. 14: Nashville Predators defenseman and captain Shea Weber is born.
Aug. 13: Police front man Sting kicks off his first solo concert tour in the U.S. in San Diego.
Aug. 13: Veteran Washington Redskins running back John Riggins holds a training camp press conference and discusses his image in light of the previous months, which have included an arrest for being drunk in public and telling Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to "loosen up, Sandy baby" during a salute to Congress in January.
Aug. 12: The relatively new disease AIDS hits the cover of Time magazine.
Aug. 9: Members of the PMRC (the Parents Music Resource Center) react positively to the music industries decision to put warning labels albums to warn people about potentially offensive material.
Aug. 9: The movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" makes its wide-release debut in the U.S.
Aug. 9: Former Oakland Raider quarterback and NFL first-round pick JaMarcus Russell is born.
Aug. 8: NASA officials confirm that Coke was the first soft drink consumed in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Coke beat Pepsi by a few hours thanks to Coca-Cola officials being the first to submit an application to have their drink tested on the shuttle.
Aug. 5: Organizers announce that they are forming a Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame
Aug. 5: The Dodgers' Pedro Guerrero is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Aug. 1: Goodness gracious, it's Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey Jr. on this date in 1985.
July 30: It is revealed in a lawsuit filed by pop singer Madonna that she starred in a pornographic movie in 1980. She was seeking to bar the release of the film.
Hair of '85: The "Big Hair" phenomenon of the 1980s probably began in the 1970s with celebrities like Farrah Fawcett. But by the time I was in high school in the early '80s, it was obvious that girls were trying to get their hair to heaven. When I hit college in 1985, that's when the "Big Hair" exploded -- literally. Not only was it all over music television with the so-called "hair bands" but it was with me every day, in the cafeteria, in the dorm hallways, at the parties. I don't know those girls up there, but I DO know those girls' hairstyles. Below are the hairstyles of some of the girls I knew in college. Well, I sort of knew them. Their hair got in the way.
July 25: The exploitation/documentary film "Faces Of Death" is reported as a big rental and sales hit in stores across the country. The videocassette, originally manufactured in the late '70s for an overseas market, depicts a wide variety of death scenes, both staged and real.
July 24: Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron is born.
July 24: 49ers, Bucs, Browns and Lions cornerback Eric Wright is born.
July 20: General Mills choose Pete Rose to appear on boxes of Wheaties cereal as he approaches the all-time hit record.
July 19: A free-lance photographer files a $1 million lawsuit against actor Sean Penn and his fiancee Madonna after he says he was attacked by Penn with a rock and his own camera during a incident in a car park in Nashville, Tenn.
July 19: The New York Daily News reports that actor Sylvester Stallone will marry Danish model Brigitte Nielsen.
July 14: Bob Geldof is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for creating and heading the Live Aid concert to raise money for famine relief.
July 14: Former Jets and current Buccaneers cornerback Darrelle Revis is born.
July 13: "Live Aid," the massively ambitious dual all-day concerts in London and Philadelphia for the purpose of raising funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, takes place. An estimated 1.9 billion watch the concerts, which are broadcast live. Approximately 70 acts performed on stage and around $150 million was raised as a result of the concerts. I remember getting up early in the morning to listen to the London concert on the radio, then turned to TV to watch the concert in Philly.
July 10: Coca-Cola, Co., officials announce the return of original formula Coke, in the form of "Coca-Cola Classic," after the furor in the wake of the announcement of "New Coke" back in April. "The passion for original Coke ... was something that just flat caught us by surprise," the company's president said.
July 8: The Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Sneakers of '85: The first Air Jordan, now known as "Air Jordan 1," were released in 1985 after Michael Jordan's sensational rookie season of 1984. Jordan wore the sneakers in '84 and a version was created for the public in 1985. The sneakers are considered to have forever changed sneaker design and spawned many subsequent versions of Air Jordans. Jordan was barred by the NBA from wearing the first version because there was no white in the design. In a famous discussion on "Late Night With David Letterman" at the time, Jordan explained the sneakers couldn't be worn in an NBA game because "it doesn't have any white in it," to which Letterman responded, "well, neither does the NBA." (*rimshot*).
July 5: U.S. Olympic team women's soccer player Megan Rapinoe is born.
July 3: The action-comedy movie "Back To The Future," directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox, is released in theaters in the U.S.
July 2: NFL quarterback Chad Henne is born.
July 2: NFL quarterback Chad Henne is born.
July 2: "High School Musical" actress Ashley Tisdale is born.
July 1: Actor Sean Penn is arrested for allegedly attacking two freelance journalists with a large rock while his fiancee, Madonna, looked on.
July 1: Actor Sean Penn is arrested for allegedly attacking two freelance journalists with a large rock while his fiancee, Madonna, looked on.
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| AP |
June 30: American swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete in history, is born.
June 30: James Dewar, the inventor of the Twinkie snack cake, dies.
June 30: James Dewar, the inventor of the Twinkie snack cake, dies.
June 27: Russian tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova is born.
June 25: Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard is born.
June 23: The New York Post reports that singer and actress Madonna will marry actor Sean Penn in August.
June 20: Former NBA player Darko Milicic is born.
June 17: Tennis player Marcos Baghdatis, runner-up in 2006 Australian Open and semifinalist in Wimbledon in 2006, is born.
June 16: Chicago Bears linebacker Nick Roach is born.
June 12: Kendra Wilkinson, known as one of Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends and part of the reality show "The Girls Next Door," is born.
June 10: The National Association of Broadcasters warns radio stations against airing so-called porn rock, after an organization called Parents Music Research Group -- whose members included the spouses of Sen. Al Gore and Treasury Secretary James Baker -- cite certain songs as being "pornographic," specifically noting Prince's "Darling Nikki" and Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls."
June 10: Coca-Cola announces it will bring back its 99-year-old formula under the name "Classic Coke," after the "New Coke" introduced in April is roundly criticized.
June 9: NBA player Sebastian Telfair is born.
June 6: Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steve Adler perform for the first time as Guns n' Roses at the Troubadour in Hollywood, Calif.
June 5: A Baseball Prospectus writer concludes that June 5, 1985 is the day in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" that Ferris Bueller uses to skip school, attend a Cubs game and gallivant all over Chicago. The movie was released in June of 1986.
June 4: Israeli model Bar Refaeli, cover subject for the 2009 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, is born.
June 4: American figure skater and 2010 Winter Olympic champion Evan Lysacek is born.
June 3: Sportswriter Rick Reilly makes his debut for Sports Illustrated with a feature on Braves slugger Dale Murphy.
May 28: Pop singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat is born.
May 27: Singer Madonna appears on the cover of Time.
May 25: English pop group Wham! becomes the first musical act to hit No. 1 with three songs from the same album since the Bee Gees as "Everything She Wants" hits the top of the Billboard charts.
May 20: Time magazine examines the perceived trend that Americans are drinking less in the mid-1980s. Later, the cover is deemed by Time as one of the worst covers it ever produced.
Trends of '85: The practice of placing the faces of missing children on milk cartons is believed to have begun at some point in 1984. But it didn't catch hold with the national public until 1985, and it spread rapidly among dairy companies that year. As many as 700 of the 1,800 independent dairies in the United States had adopted the practice by 1985, with a number of children found.
May 17: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is born.
May 16: Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the "Wizard Of Oz" movie, dies at age 82.
May 15: Pop group the Go-Go's announce they are breaking up, less than four years after hitting it big with "Our Lips Are Sealed."
May 14: "Airwolf" actor Jan-Michael Vincent is found not guilty of a misdemeanor battery charge related to a brawl in a cocktail lounge.
May 13: Rock singer Bruce Springsteen marries actress Julianne Phillips in a "very private" ceremony in Lake Oswego, near Portland, Ore.
May 13: Singer Rod Stewart is charged with drunk driving.
May 12: Belinda Carlisle, lead singer for the all-female pop group the Go-Gos, announces that they are breaking up.
May 11: Chester Gould, the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, dies at age 84.
May 10: Anaheim Mighty Ducks center and captain Ryan Getzlaf is born.
May 9: Model and actress Audrina Patridge is born.
May 6: Billy Martin is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the playful photo and headline, "Billy's Back."
May 6: L.A. Clippers guard Chris Paul is born.
May 2: A popular birthdate for famous people. The following folks were born on this date in 1985:
British singer Lily Allen
NASCAR driver Kyle Busch
U.S. tennis player Ashley Harkleroad
U.S. tennis player Ashley Harkleroad
U.S. figure skater Sarah Hughes
Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia
April 29: Hulk Hogan appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the popularity of pro wrestling grows to record heights.
April 28: Prince Charles and Princess Diana meet with Pope John Paul II at The Vatican.
April 26: U.S. tennis player John Isner is born.
April 25: Nashville Predators right wing Brandon Yip is born.
April 23: Panned as one of the worst marketing moves in history, Coca-Cola introduces "New Coke" to the public. The new taste of Coke was sweeter, in response to the popularity of Pepsi. But Coke drinkers hated it and the old formula returned to store shelves, alongside the new formula, under the name "Classic Coke." Eventually "New Coke" was renamed "Coke II," and "Classic Coke" became, simply, "Coca-Cola." Finally, "Coke II" disappeared from the U.S. market.
Here is one of several commercials that appeared in 1985. featuring Bill Cosby hawking New Coke.
April 22: "Around the World in a Day," Prince and the Revolution's first album after the groundbreaking and multi-platinum-selling "Purple Rain," is released. A single from the album is not released until a full month after the album had been out.
April 17: Actress Rooney Mara is born.
April 17: French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is born.
April 15: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, host of a nationally syndicated sex advice radio show, appears on the cover of People magazine.
April 12: San Francisco 49ers receiver Ted Ginn Jr. is born.
April 10: "Hear 'N Aid," heavy metal music's answer to USA for Africa, announces plans to form a supergroup that will record a song in May and use the proceeds for famine relief. Several heavy metal acts -- Ratt, Quiet Riot, Judas Priest, the Scorpions and Black Sabbath -- were miffed that they weren't invited to the USA for Africa recording and say they will join Hear 'N Aid.
April 10: Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf is born.
April 5: The USA for Africa single "We Are the World" is broadcast on thousands of radio stations all over the world at 10:50 a.m. EST in a Good Friday show of support for the anti-famine project.
April 5: Chicago Cubs infielder Ian Stewart is born.
April 3: "Bleeding Love" singer Leona Lewis is born.
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April 1: "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch," an April Fool's Day hoax written by George Plimpton, appears in Sports Illustrated. The story, about an eccentric trying out for the New York Mets who could throw 168 miles an hour and wore one boot when he pitched, fooled many (including myself). Mets fans thought their team had a real superstar. But the Mets were in on the hoax, too.
March 31: Wrestlemania debuts with the ambitiously named "Wrestlemania I." Presented before more than 19,000 fans at Madison Square Garden in New York, it changes pro wrestling forever.
March 26: Very well-paid actress Keira Knightley is born.
March 25:
The 57th annual Academy Awards are held and "Amadeus" wins best picture. F. Murray Abraham wins best actor for his role in Amadeus. Sally Field wins best actress for her role in "Places in the Heart."
March 24:
The fifth annual Golden Raspberrry Awards, recognizing movie-making non-excellence, are presented in Hollywood, Calif. The Bo Derek movie "Bolero" is named worst picture and Derek worst actress. Sylvester Stallone is named worst actor for his performance in "Rhinestone."
March 23: Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew is born.
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March 23: Singer Billy Joel and model Christie Brinkley get married.
March 21: Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is born.
March 21: New York Rangers forward and captain Ryan Callahan is born.
March 20: Chicago Bulls guard Ronnie Brewer is born.
March 18: Larry Bird and Wayne Gretzky appear on the cover of Time magazine.
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Shirts of '85: Among the more popular T-shirts to wear in 1985 were a) so-called "message T-shirts" popularized by British pop groups Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Wham; b) day-glo T-shirts with a variety of neon colors; and c) Ocean Pacific T-shirts, based on California surfer fashions. I admit I had an OP shirt, an aqua green version with a pink "OP." I also had a day-glo shirt, although it was actually another fashion of the time, a day-glo Hawaiian shirt -- black with all kinds of neon colors. ... But you could never get me in one of those Frankie Say T-shirts.
March 9: San Jose Sharks defenseman Brent Burns is born.
March 7: The song "We Are The World" by USA for Africa is released as a single.
March 4: The latest edition of Sports Illustrated lists major league baseball's millionaires. They'd have to make the type a lot smaller to create a list for today's baseball millionaires.
March 2: Ex-Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush (he relinquished the award), now a running back for the Miami Dolphins, is born.
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February 28: Former world No. 1 tennis player Jelena Jankovic is born.
February 27: Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn is born.
February 26: U.S. track Olympic medalist Sanya Richards-Ross is born.
February 25: The latest issue of People magazine hails the recording session for "We Are the World."
February 25: The Chicago Bulls' Joakim Noah is born. Former Dodgers outfielder and current Washington National Xavier Paul is born.
February 23: Detroit Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew is born.
February 20: Current Red Sox outfielder Ryan Sweeney is born.
February 19: Cherry Coke is first introduced to the public. Check out this very mid-1980s commercial. Outrageous!
February 19: Actress and singer Haylie Duff, older sister to Hilary Duff, is born.
February 17: British group Tears for Fears releases their most successful album, "Songs From the Big Chair." Singles from the album, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," "Shout" and "Mothers Talk" would become U.S. and worldwide hits.
February 13: New York Islanders goalie Al Montoya is born.
February 11: Paulina Porizkova appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue.
February 8: Former Cub and Oriole and current Cleveland Indians outfielder, Felix Pie, is born.
February 7: The movie "Witness," starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis makes its world premiere in Amish country in Lancaster, Pa. The movie is about a detective investigating a murder witnessed by a young Amish boy.
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February 4: Los Angeles Kings center Brad Richardson is born.
January 31: Houston Texans linebacker (now Buffalo Bills linebacker) Mario Williams is born.
January 30: "Material Girl," by Madonna is released as a single. The song would reach No. 2 on the charts, but received more notice for its video, which featured Madonna copying the famous Marilyn Monroe performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." "Material Girl" also become the media's nickname for Madonna.
January 29: Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and company wrap up the final recording session for the "We Are the World" single to be released later this spring.
January 25: New England Patriots running back Danny Woodhead is born.
January 23: Victoria's Secret Angel and Dutch supermodel Doutzen Kroes is born.
Games of '85: The game Jenga was invented in the 1970s, but it didn't come into national prominence until it was marketed under the Milton Bradley banner in 1985. Jenga, which was promoted through constant television commercials, involved removing blocks from a wooden tower and returning them to the top of the stack without making the tower fall over. Over 50 million Jenga games have been sold and there are several different versions of Jenga, including a video game version.
January 20: Super Bowl XIX between the Dolphins and the 49ers takes place in Stanford, Calif. One of the cheerleaders on the 49ers at the time is Teri Hatcher, who would go on to become a famous television actress. She can be seen in several closeups during the game.
January 16: Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco is born.
January 16: Playboy announces it will no longer staple in the centerfolds into the magazine, ending the complaint that the centerfold subjects had a staple in their belly button.
January 13: Carol Wayne, the busty blonde who appeared in more than a hundred skits on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson -- including "the Matinee Lady" in Carson's popular "Art Fern Tea Time Movie" sketches -- dies at age 42 in Mexico. Her body is found in a shallow bay, but her death is ruled accidental. Wayne also appeared in several TV shows, game shows and movies, including Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Love American Style, Emergency!, The Fall Guy and The Red Skeleton Show. Wayne also posed nude for Playboy in 1984 and declared bankruptcy that same year. Her final on-screen appearance was a nude scene in the movie "Heartbreakers."
January 13: The best-selling book in the country on this date is "The Talisman" by Stephen King and Peter Straub. It recounts the story of a young boy who can travel between two parallel worlds.
January 8: Cleveland Indians first baseman/outfielder Matt LaPorta is born.
Cereals of '85: Kellogg's introduced a cereal called "OJ's" in 1985. The new cereal, which boasted "10 percent real orange juice and natural flavors," lasted only to 1986 before being discontinued, but has been the subject of an online petition to bring it back. (As someone addicted to orange flavor, I regret not being able to sample this cereal). Although in hindsight, if the cereal was still around in 1994, with its name unchanged, things would have been messy for Kellogg's. Here is a commercial from OJ's heyday.
January 7: Time magazine's 1984 Man of the Year issue hits newsstands. The issue names Peter Ueberroth for its annual honor. Ueberroth was recognized for being the organizer of the highly popular and successful Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He would go on to be the commissioner of Major League Baseball.
January 4: The Boston Celtics retire the No. 2 in honor of legendary coach, president and general manager Red Auerbach (AP photo at right). The number symbolizes that Auerbach is second only to Walter Brown in terms of the most significant person in the history of the Celtics.
January 4: Current Utah Jazz forward Al Jefferson, formerly of the Celtics and Timberwolves, is born. Current Oakland Athletics third baseman Scott Sizemore is born.
January 3: Former USC quarterback John David Booty is born.
January 2: U.S. national team women's soccer player Heather O'Reilly is born.
January 1: Former Philadelphia Flyer and current Columbus Blue Jacket center Jeff Carter is born.