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Portugal and Spain become members European Community on 1st January.

Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy dies from a drug-related heart failure on Saturday, 4th January. He had been in a coma for eight days.

Christopher Isherwood, author of Christopher and His Kind and A Single Man, also dies on 4th January, aged 81.

The Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, resigns from the UK government on Thursday, 9th January, following disagreements over official policy towards the Westland helicopter company. On 24th January the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Leon Brittan, also resigns.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is launched at a gala event at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York on 23rd January. The first 11 inductees are: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis Presley.

On 25th January production of the News of the World and the Sunday Times is transferred to the new News International plant at Wapping.

On Tuesday, 28th January the US space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after take-off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The seven astronauts on board are all killed, among them the first school teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, who had been selected as part of NASA's teacher in space project.

President 'Baby Doc' Duvalier is exiled from Haiti on 7th February.

On 10th February one of the trade unions involved in the News International dispute, Sogat '82, is fined £25,000 for contempt of Court. The other union involved in the dispute, the National Graphical Association (NGA), is fined the same amount four days later. Both unions, whose members were refusing to handle News International titles, had continued their industrial action despite a court injunction ordering them to desist.

The Anglo-French Treaty on the Channel Tunnel, the Treaty of Canterbury, is signed on 12th February in Canterbury Cathedral by the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, French President François Mitterrand and Minister of Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas.

The President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, is deposed on Tuesday, 25th February following three days of public demonstrations against his dictatorship. He flees Manila for exile in Hawaii. Cory Aquino is sworn in as the newly-elected President.

On 27th February fifteen women are ordained at Canterbury Cathedral, becoming the first officially recognised female deacons in the Church of England.

The Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, is assassinated on 28th February as he and his wife Lisbeth leave a cinema in Stockholm. Stefan Petterson, a drug addict, is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder in 1989.

Queen Elizabeth II signs the Australia Bill on 2nd March, severing constitutional ties with Britain.

Today, a new colour tabloid, is published in the UK for the first time on Tuesday, 4th March.

On Thursday, 13th March rival tabloid The Sun appears on news stands with the bizarre front-page headline: 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster!' In the accompanying story model Lea La Salle claims that the comedian had put her pet hamster 'Supersonic' between two slices of bread and then eaten it. Her boyfriend Vince McCaffrey, coincidentally Lyn Paul's first husband, is quoted as saying: "It's hard to believe the guy actually did this." Freddie Starr's response: "You said it, Vince!" (Freddie Starr, Unwrapped, page 232)

Out Of Africa wins the Oscar for Best Picture at the 58th Academy Awards ceremony on 24th March.

James Cagney dies on 30th March, aged 86.

The Greater London Council (GLC) is abolished on Monday, 31st March, along with six other Metropolitan County Councils. Flags fly at half mast at County Hall as a huge fireworks display takes place on the South Bank.

The Prince and Princess of Wales open Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 4 on 1st April.

A bomb explodes on board a TWA Boeing 727 on 2nd April as the plane flies over Greece on its way to Athens. Four people, including a baby, are killed when they are sucked through a hole in the side of the plane.

A bomb explodes at the La Belle disco in Berlin on 5th April, killing three people and injuring more than 200 others. Two of the dead and many of the injured are American soldiers.

After losing millions when the Sinclair C5 electronic tricycle flopped, Sir Clive Sinclair announces on Monday, 7th April that he is selling his computing business to Amstrad.

Clint Eastwood is elected Mayor of the Californian town of Carmel on 8th April.

Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan on 10th April after eight years in exile.

A new London Underground station is opened on the Piccadilly Line at Heathrow Terminal 4 on 12th April.

Simone de Beauvoir dies on Monday, 14th April, aged 78.

At 1.00am on the same day the USA launches an air strike against Libya in retaliation for alleged Libyan terrorist attacks on American targets, including the bomb attack at the La Belle disco in Berlin.

The British World Wide Television News (WWTN) journalist, John McCarthy, is abducted in Beirut on Thursday, 17th April.

Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her sixtieth birthday on 21st April.

The Duchess of Windsor, formerly Mrs. Wallis Simpson, dies on 24th April, aged 89. On 29th April her body is buried next to her husband, the abdicated King Edward VIII, at Frogmore in Windsor.

On Saturday, 26th April there is an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, north of Kiev. Four hundred times more radiation is released into the atmosphere than at Hiroshima. The Soviet Union admits to the disaster two days later.

Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one injured in Sri Lanka on Saturday, 3rd May, when a bomb explodes on board an Air Lanka Tristar at Colombo Airport.

On the same day the News International dispute turns nasty. Around 300 people (including 175 police officers) are injured when violence erupts on the picket lines at Wapping.

At the Eurovision Song Contest (held in Bergen on 3rd May) Sandra Kim wins for Belgium with J'aime La Vie. The UK entry, Runner In The Night by Ryder, finishes in seventh place.

In Argentina on 16th May the former President, General Galtieri, is sentenced to 12 years in prison for his part in the Falklands War.

In the USA on the same day, television viewers of the soap opera Dallas are shocked when Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy) returns from the dead to discover that the previous episodes have just been a bad dream!

On Saturday, 24th May Margaret Thatcher becomes the first British Prime Minister to visit Israel.

Limmie Snell of Limmie & Family Cookin’ dies on 27th May, aged 41.

On 29th May the new EEC flag (a circle of 12 gold stars on a blue background) is raised for the first time at the offices of the European Commission in Brussels.

Former SS officer Dr. Kurt Waldheim is elected President of Austria on 8th June.

On Tuesday, 10th June Patrick Magee is found guilty of planting the bomb which exploded at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the 1984 Conservative Party Conference.

Derek Hatton, the Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council, is expelled from the Labour Party on Thursday, 12th June for being a member of Militant Tendency.

Faced by growing unrest in South Africa, President P.W. Botha declares a state of emergency. On 16th June black South Africans mark the 10th anniversary of the Soweto uprising by staying away from work.

Dolly Parton opens her Dollywood theme park in Tennessee on Wednesday, 16th July.

On Tuesday, 22nd July UK MPs vote by 231 votes to 230 to abolish corporal punishment in state schools.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson get married at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday, 23rd July.

On 24th July, in recognition of his work to raise funds for famine relief in Africa, Bob Geldorf receives a Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

Suzy Lamplugh, a 25-year-old estate agent, disappears on Monday, 28th July, after meeting an unknown client, "Mr. Kipper", outside a property in Fulham.

On 29th July Boy George is found guilty of possessing heroin. He is fined £250.

Michael Rudetsky, who played keyboards for Culture Club, is found dead at Boy George's home in Hampstead on 5th August.

On 11th August 152 Sri Lankan refugees are found drifting in two lifeboats off the coast of Newfoundland, having been cast adrift from a ship carrying them from West Germany,

A limnic eruption occurs at Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon on 21st August. The dissolved carbon dioxide emerging from the volcanic lake forms a cloud of gas that kills 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock.

On 27th August South African police open fire on rioting crowds in Soweto.

A collision on 31st August between a cargo ship and a passenger liner in the Black Sea leads to the loss of at least 319 lives.

Sculptor Henry Moore dies on the same day, aged 88.

Prince Charles admits on TV that he talks to his plants.

Desmond Tutu is enthroned as the Lord Archbishop of Cape Town on Sunday, 7th September.

On 8th September the President of Chile, General Augusto Pinochet, describes to reporters how he survived an attack upon his motorcade by rebel fighters armed with machine-guns, rifles, bazookas and grenades.

On the same day Margaret Thatcher opens a new Nissan car factory in Sunderland.

On 16th September 177 miners are killed in an underground fire at the Kinross gold mine, near Johannesburg.

Nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu is abducted in Rome on 30th September, after revealing details of Israel's nuclear weapons programme. He is taken back to Israel to face treason charges.

The Independent newspaper is launched in the UK on 7th October. The editor, Andreas Whittam Smith, receives a wreath from Max Hastings, the editor of the Daily Telegraph. In its first month the new paper achieves an average daily circulation of 332,957.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom Of The Opera opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on 9th October.

El Salvador is hit by an earthquake just before noon on 10th October. 1,500 people are killed.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit China between 12th-18th October. While in Beijing Prince Philip tells a group of British students: "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed."

President Samora Machel of Mozambique is killed on Sunday, 19th October when the plane flying him back from an international meeting in Zambia crashes in the Lebombo mountains. 24 members of his staff are also killed in the crash.

Jeffrey Archer resigns as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party on 26th October following newspaper allegations that he had been seeing a prostitute. He subsequently sues the Daily Star newspaper for libel and wins.

The London Stock Exchange's rules are changed on 27th October. The so-called "Big Bang" abolishes fixed commission charges and removes the distinction between stockbrokers and stockjobbers.

24-year-old Jeremy Bamber is jailed for life on 28th October for killing five members of his family at their farmhouse in Essex.

Margaret Thatcher opens the final section of the M25 motorway on Wednesday, 29th October.

TV presenter Esther Rantzen launches Childline on 30th October, a new telephone helpline for children.

The "Irangate" scandal breaks on 3rd November when it emerges that a US hostage in Iran had been freed in exchange for arms.

On 5th November the High Court rules that a ban on News International newspapers by public libraries in three London Boroughs is illegal.

A Chinook helicopter carrying workers from the Brent oilfield crashes east of Sumburgh Airport on 6th November, killing 45 of the 47 people on board.

The UK government sets up a Cabinet Committee on AIDS, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, William Whitelaw. It meets for the first time on 11th November.

The head of the Renault car company, Georges Besse, is shot dead outside his home in Paris on Monday, 17th November.

On 20th November, after receiving new information from Myra Hindley, police begin a search of Saddleworth Moor, near Oldham, for more victims of the Moors murderers.

Gilbert & George win the Turner Prize. The artists are presented with their award by the author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg at a reception at the Tate Gallery on 25th November.

On the same day, after a Justice Department investigation had revealed that money from arms sales to Iran had been used to provide financial support to Contra rebels in Nicaragua, US President Ronald Reagan accepts the resignation of his National Security Advisor John Poindexter. The President also dismisses one of Poindexter's aides, Lt. Col. Oliver North.

Cary Grant dies on 29th November, aged 82.

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris, housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, is officially opened by the French president François Mitterrand on 9th December.

On Thursday, 11th December Anglican and Catholic bishops condemned the BBC's 'Play safe" campaign, which recommended the use of condoms to combat AIDS.

Murderer Myra Hindley returns to Saddleworth Moor on 16th December to assist police in their search for the bodies of missing children.

On 17th December Davina Thompson becomes the first person in the world to undergo a heart, lung and liver transplant. The ground-breaking surgery is carried out at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge by Professors Roy Calne and John Wallwork.

On 21st December student demonstrators in Shanghai call for democracy in China.

Dick Rutan and Jena Yeager complete the first non-stop flight around the world on Tuesday, 23rd December. Their plane Voyager touches down at Edwards Air Force Base in California, having flown 25,000 miles around the world without stopping to refuel. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet Union's most prominent dissident, returns to Moscow on Tuesday, 23rd December, after almost seven years of internal exile in the closed city of Gorky.

Lord Stockton, the former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, dies on Monday, 29th December, aged 92.

On Tuesday, 30th December the UK government announces that the use of canaries to detect harmful gasses in coal mines is to be brought to an end. The birds are replaced by modern hand-held gas detectors.

• Blow Monkeys
  
• The Housemartins
  
• Iggy Pop
  
• Janet Jackson
  
• Run D.M.C.
  
  

• Gregory Abbott
  Shake You Down
  
• A-ha
  The Sun Always Shines On TV
  
• Amazulu
  Too Good To Be Forgotten
  
• Bangles
  Manic Monday
  
• Berlin
  Take My Breath Away
  
• Nick Berry
  Every Loser Wins
  
• Big Audio Dynamite
  E = MC2
  
• Blow Monkeys
  Digging Your Scene
  
• Bon Jovi
  Livin' On A Prayer
  
• David Bowie
  Absolute Beginners
  
• James Brown
  Living In America
  
• Bucks Fizz
  New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)
  
• Communards
  Don't Leave Me This Way
  
• Curiosity Killed The Cat
  Down To Earth
  
• Cutting Crew
  (I Just) Died In Your Arms
  
• Chris de Burgh
  The Lady In Red
  
• Jim Diamond
  Hi Ho Silver
  
• Dire Straits
  Walk Of Life
  
• Anita Dobson
  Anyone Can Fall In Love
  
• Dr. and The Medics
  Spirit In The Sky
  
• Europe
  The Final Countdown
  
• Falco
  Rock Me Amadeus
  
• Five Star
  System Addict
  
• Five Star
  Rain Or Shine
  
• Samantha Fox
  Touch Me (I Want Your Body)
  
• Boris Gardiner
  I Want To Wake Up With You
  
• Bruce Hornsby and The Range
  The Way It Is
  
• The Housemartins
  Caravan Of Love
  
• The Housemartins
  Happy Hour
  
• Iggy Pop
  Real Wild Child (Wild One)
  
• It Bites
  Calling All The Heroes
  
• Janet Jackson
  What Have You Done For Me Lately
  
• Grace Jones
  Poll Up To The Bumper / La Vie En Rose (re-issue)
  
• Nick Kamen
  Each Time You Break My Heart
  
• Patti LaBelle and Malcolm McDonald
  On My Own
  
• Level 42
  Lessons In Love
  
• Huey Lewis & The News
  The Power Of Love / Do You Believe In Love (re-issue)
  
• Huey Lewis & The News
  Stuck With You
  
• Madonna
  Papa Don't Preach
  
• Madonna
  True Blue
  
• Man To Man
  Male Stripper
  
• George Michael
  A Different Corner
  
• Mr. Mister
  Broken Wings
  
• Modern Talking
  Brother Louie
  
• Nana Mouskouri
  Only Love
  
• Alison Moyet
  Is This Love?
  
• Robbie Nevil
  C'est La Vie
  
• Billy Ocean
  When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going
  
• Pet Shop Boys
  West End Girls
  
• Prince
  Kiss
  
• Psychedelic Furs
  Pretty In Pink (re-recording)
  
• Queen
  A Kind Of Magic
  
• Cliff Richard and The Young Ones
  Living Doll
  
• Diana Ross
  Chain Reaction
  
• Run D.M.C.
  Walk This Way
  
• Simply Red
  Holding Back The Years
  
• Frank Sinatra
  Theme from 'New York, New York'
  
• Spitting Image
  The Chicken Song
  
• Status Quo
  In The Army Now
  
• Taffy
  I Love My Radio
  
• Marti Webb
  Always There
  
• Wham!
  The Edge Of Heaven
  
• Kim Wilde
  You Keep Me Hangin' On
  
• Jackie Wilson
  Reet Petite
  
  

• Cock Robin
  The Promise You Made
  
• Double
  The Captain Of Her Heart
  
• Furniture
  Brilliant Mind
  
• Grange Hill Cast
  Just Say No
  
• Steve 'Silk' Hurley
  Jack Your Body
  
• Stan Ridgway
  Camouflage
  
• Sly Fox
  Let's Go All The Way
  
• Mark Snow
  The X-Files
  
  

• Bangles
  Different Light
  
• Jackson Browne
  Lives In The Balance
  
• Eric Clapton
  August
  
• Communards
  Communards
  
• Culture Club
  From Luxury To Heartache
  
• Cutting Crew
  Broadcast
  
• Eurythmics
  Revenge
  
• Peter Gabriel
  So
  
• Genesis
  Invisible Touch
  
• Nanci Griffith
  Last Of The True Believers
  
• Bruce Hornsby and The Range
  The Way It Is
  
• Madonna
  True Blue
  
• Pet Shop Boys
  Please
  
• Queen
  A Kind Of Magic
  
• Chris Rea
  On The Beach
  
• Paul Simon
  Graceland
  
• The Smiths
  Queen Elizabeth II Is Dead
  
• Talking Heads
  True Stories
  
• Ruby Turner
  Women Hold Up Half the Sky
  
• Steve Winwood
  Back In The High Life
  

• Absolute Beginners
  
• Beadle's About
  
• Betty Blue
  
• Brighton Beach Memoirs
  
• Caravaggio
  
• Clockwise
  
• The Color Purple
  
• Crocodile Dundee
  
• Death In A French Garden
  
• Down And Out In Beverly Hills
  
• Hannah And Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
  
• Heartburn
  
• Jagged Edge
  
• The Jewel Of The Nile
  
• Kiss Of The Spiderwoman
  
• Manon des Sources
  
• The Mission
  
• Mona Lisa
  
• Out Of Africa
  
• Parting Glances
  
• Pretty In Pink
  
• Rocky IV
  
• A Room With A View
  
• Ruthless People
  
• Top Gun
  
  

Tony Award for Best Musical:
The Mystery Of Edwin Drood

Laurence Olivier
Award for Musical of the Year:
The Phantom Of The Opera

• Alas, Smith And Jones
  (Series 3)
  
• 'Allo 'Allo
  (Series 3)
  
• Blackadder Parte The Seconde
  
• Boon
  
• Bread
  (Series 1)
  
• Casualty
  
• Comic Relief
  
• Doctor Who (Season 23)
  
• The Golden Girls
  (USA: Series 2)
  
• Hi-de-Hi
  (Series 6 and 7)
  
• In Sickness And In Health
  (Series 2)
  
• LA Law
  (USA)
  
• The Life and Loves Of A She Devil
  
• Lovejoy
  
• Neighbours
  
• Only Fools And Horses
  (Series 5)
  
• The Singing Detective
  
• Spitting Image
  (Series 4, 5 and 6)
  
• Three Up Two Down
  (Series 2)
  
• Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV
  (Series 2)
  
• Yes, Prime Minister
  (Series 1)
  
  

Darts: Eric Bristow wins the British Darts Organisation (BDO) World Darts Championship for the fifth time.

Rugby Union: France and Scotland share victory in the Five Nations Championship.

Rowing: the University of Cambridge crew wins the annual Boat Race against Oxford for the first time in 11 years.

Horse Racing: West Tip, ridden by jockey Richard Dunwoody, wins the 140th Grand National.

Snooker: Joe Johnson beats Steve Davis in the final of the World Snooker Championship (18-12). Davis wins the UK Championship for the third year in a row, beating Neil Foulds 16-7 in the final.

Golf: Jack Nicklaus wins his sixth US Masters, having trailed Seve Ballesteros by six shots with ten holes to play.
Raymond Floyd wins the US Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, New York.
Greg Norman wins the Open Championship at Turnberry.

Football: Liverpool win the Football League First Division and the FA Cup, beating hometown rivals Everton 3-1 in the final.
Argentina beat England in the World Cup Quarter-Finals in Mexico (with a little help from Diego Maradona's controversial "hand of God" goal).
Alex Ferguson is appointed manager of Manchester United.

Cycling: Greg LeMond wins the Tour de France.

Sailing: Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Challenger II breaks the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic on 29th June, completing the voyage in 3 days, 8 hours and 31 minutes.

Tennis: Martina Navratilova wins her seventh women's singles title at Wimbledon, beating Hana Mandlikova in the final (7-6, 6-3). She wins the US Open for the third time, beating Helena Sukova in the final (6-3, 6-2).
Boris Becker proves that his surprise win in the 1985 men's singles final was no fluke. He retains his title with a three sets win over Ivan Lendl (6-4, 6-3, 7-5).

Cricket: England's cricket tour of Bangladesh is canceled at the last minute in a row over ties with South Africa.
Ian Botham is banned from first class cricket for two months, following his admission in a newspaper interview that he had smoked cannabis. Upon his return he sets a new world record of 356 Test wickets and equals the batting record of 24 runs in one over.

Boxing: At the age of 20 years and four months Mike Tyson beats Trevor Berbick in two rounds in Las Vegas to become the youngest world heavyweight boxing champion in history.

Motor Racing: Alain Prost wins the Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship for the second year in a row.