April 23 – Coca-Cola changes its recipe and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
Mayedit
May 5 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan joins West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl for a controversial funeral service at a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, which includes the graves of 59 elite S.S. troops from World War II.
May 13 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mayor Wilson Goode orders police to storm the radical black American resistance group MOVE's headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive device into the headquarters, killing eleven members of MOVE and destroying the homes of 61 city residents in the resulting fire.[5]
May 15 – An explosive device sent by the Unabomber injures John Hauser at UC Berkeley.
May 19 – John Anthony Walker Jr., is arrested by the FBI for passing classified Naval communications onto the Soviets.
June 27 – U.S. Route 66 is officially decommissioned.
Julyedit
July 1
Nick at Nite, a nighttime program service with an emphasis on classic television reruns, is launched in the United States, being broadcast on the same channel as Nickelodeon.
A&E, which previously shared Nickelodeon's channel, begins broadcasting as its own 24-hour cable channel in January of that year on a separate satellite transponder.
Walt Disney Feature Animation's 25th feature film, The Black Cauldron, is released. Considered one of the studio's darkest releases, it receives mixed reviews and results in a large revenue loss for Disney, putting the future of its animation department in jeopardy.
The cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked in the Mediterranean Sea by four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists. One passenger, American Leon Klinghoffer, is killed.
The Mameyes landslide in Puerto Rico kills close to 300 people in the worst ever landslide in North American history.
October 15 – In separate events, mail bombs kill two people in Salt Lake City, Utah; a third bomb explodes the next day, injuring career counterfeiterMark Hofmann. The ensuing police investigation leads to the arrest of Hofmann for the two murders.
^Reston, James (1985-02-06). "Opinion | WASHINGTON; REAGAN AT 74". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
^Kifner, John (1985-02-15). "U.S. TV Reporter Free In Lebanon". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
^"WHITNEY - The Singer - WWW.WHITNEY-INFO.COM". Archived from the original on 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
^"Milestones of the U.S. Archival Profession and the National Archives, 1800-2011". U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^Stevens, William K. (May 14, 1983). "Police Drop Bomb on Radicals' Home in Philadelphia". New York Times. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^Miki Vohryzek-Bolden; Gayle Olson-Raymer; Jeffrey O. Whamond (2001). Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management: Issues and Tactics. Charles C Thomas. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-398-07225-4.
^Robert Gearty (September 21, 2019), "Greek police arrest suspect in 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking", Fox News, retrieved September 21, 2019
^United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Communications (1989). Media Ownership: Diversity and Concentration : Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Communications of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred First Congress, First Session ... June 14, 21, and 22, 1989. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 218.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Urquhart, Janet (17 May 2005). "Smoky or smoke-free?".
^Spector, G (September 24, 1985). "Apple's Jobs Starts New Firm, Targets Education Market". PC Week. p. 109.