Events of 1984
| January 27: | Michael Jackson's hair catches on fire During shooting of Pepsi commercial, sparks from a special-effects mishap ignite Jackson's hair. |
| March 6: | Miner's Strike in the U.K. (1984-1985) |
| April 1: | Marvin Gaye is killed The Motown legend is shot by his father in a domestic dispute. |
| May 7: | Soviets boycott Los Angeles Summer Olympics Citing "undisguised threats" against their athletes, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and East Germany do not attend the Summer Games. |
| July 18: | McDonald's massacre After telling his wife he was going "hunting for humans", James Huberty shoots 40 people at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California. He kills 21 people before he was shot to death by police. |
| October 26: | Surgeons implant baboon heart into "Baby Fae" The 12 day old baby, born with a malformed heart, gets a baboon heart. She dies three weeks later. |
| October 31: | Indira Gandhi assassinated Prime Minister Gandhi is shot to death by two of her Sikh bodyguards, resulting in anti-Sikh riots that killed more than a thousand people. |
| November 25: | Band Aid Bob Geldof and 35 artists record "Do They Know It's Christmas" to raise money for famine relief. |
| December 22: | Bernhard Goetz opens fire The "subway vigilante", Goetz, shoots four young men on a New York City subway, after they allegedly threatened him. |