WHAT ALL HAPPENED AUGUST TO DECEMBER 1984
Find out what all happened August to December 1984

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing, China by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher. (19. December 1984)

STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage. (30. August 1984)

The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England in the Pennines. (20. December 1984)

An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178. (11. October 1984)

The Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military with an attack on police and gendarmerie bases in Şemdinli and Eruh (15. August 1984)

"We begin bombing in five minutes" – United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio. (11. August 1984)

The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso. (4. August 1984)

Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history. (3. December 1984)

A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people. (20. September 1984)

Bernhard Goetz shoots four African American would-be muggers on an express train in Manhattan section of New York, New York. (22. December 1984)

Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, northwest England (1. August 1984)

PC Brian Bishop was a British police officer who was shot in the head by an armed robber in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. He died from his injuries five days later. (22. August 1984)

Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (16. October 1984)

STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage. (5. September 1984)

Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya becomes the third president of Mauritania after a coup d'état against Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla while the latter is attending a summit. (12. December 1984)

"Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon. (26. October 1984)

Under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agreed to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty. (27. November 1984)

The Bill debuted on ITV, eventually becoming the longest-running police procedural in British television history. (16. October 1984)

NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes. (1. December 1984)

Thirty-six top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. (25. November 1984)