- May 11
- Fire engulfs a wooden stand in the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England during a football match, killing 56. [85] [867.36]
- Booby trap bomb kills 86 people in India. [1]
- The FBI brings charges against the suspected heads of the five Mafia families in New York City. [85]
- May 13
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mayor Wilson Goode orders police to storm the radical group MOVE's headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive device into the headquarters, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 61 city residents in the resulting fire. [1] [85]
- May 14
- Mohammed Munir, Indonesian worker's union leader, executed. [1]
- Northwest of Madagascar, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake occurs. [53]
- May 15
- An explosive device sent by the Unabomber injures John Hauser at University of California in Berkeley. [85]
- May 20
- FBI arrests John A Walker Junior, convicted of spying for USSR. [1]
- Israel exchanges 1150 Lebanese/Palestinian prisoners for three Israeli soldiers. [1]
- US begins broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti. [1]
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- May 22
- US sailor Michael L Walker arrested for spying for USSR. [1]
- May 23
- Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union. [85]
- May 25
- Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people. [1] [85]
- May 26
- Explosions destroy two tankers off of Gibraltar, 30 die. [1]
- May 27
- Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997. [1]
- May 28
- David Jacobsen taken hostage in Beirut, Lebanon. [1]
- May 29
- At Heysel Stadium, Liverpool, England, 39 die and 500 are injured in rioting between British and Italians at European Cup soccer match in Brussels, Belgium; English clubs banned from playing in European competition for five years. [85] [867.36]
- May 31
- 41 Tornados in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Ontario, Canada kill 41 and injure more than 1,000. [1] [85]
- Guatemala adopts constitution. [1]
- June 6
- The body of Dr. Joseph Mengele is exhumed from a grave in South America to confirm his identity. [1] [37]
- June 9
- American Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped and held hostage in Lebanon. [1]
- June 10
- Claus von Bulow acquitted on charges he tried to murder his wife. [1]
- Coca-Cola announces they would bring back their 99-year-old formula. [1]
- June 14
- TWA Flight 847, carrying 153 passengers from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy, is hijacked by a Hezbollah fringe group. One passenger, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Robert Stethem, is killed. [1] [85]
- June 21
- It is confirmed by American, German, and Brazilian forensic pathologists that the body exhumed in Brazil on June 6 is that of the German Doctor, Josef Mengele. [1] [37]
- June 23
- Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, blows up 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, 110 miles southwest of Ireland, killing all 329 passengers and crew aboard. [85] [884.42]
- June 24
- 18th Space Shuttle Mission (51-G) - Discovery 5 - returns to Earth. Payload Specialist Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud completes being the first Arab and first Muslim in space. [1] [5] [85]
- June 25
- Irish police foil an Irish Republican Army-sponsored 'mainland bombing campaign' which targeted luxury vacationing resorts, arresting 13 suspects. [85]
- Fireworks factory near Hallett, Oklahoma explodes (21 die). [1]
- June 26
- In Hartford, Connecticut, USA a 1,500-pound slab of ice, six feet long and eight inches thick, falls from the sky flattening a picket fence, shaking the ground with the impact. [521]
- July 2
- European Space Agency launches Giotto to Halley's Comet. [1]
- Proto launched to Halley's Comet. [1]
- July 3
- Universal releases the film Back to the Future to theaters. (Total world gross ticket sales: $381 million (1st for 1985).) [950]
- In the New Britian region, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurs. [53]
- July 10
- French DGSE agents sink Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship in Auckland harbor, New Zealand, with explosive devices attached to the ships hull. [85] [906.8g]
- July 13
- U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush serves as Acting President for eight hours, while President Ronald W. Reagan undergoes colon cancer surgery. [85]
- Live Aid rock concert is staged in London, Philadelphia, Moscow, and Sydney. An estimated 1.5 billion television viewers in 169 countries watch 16 hours of performances by 180 pop musicians. Over US$110 million (£50 million) is raised for the Band Aid Trust, for African famine relief efforts. [85] [457] [850.12a]
- July 16
- F-86 Sabre sets world aircraft speed record of 1152 kph (716 mph). [1]
- July 19
- The Val di Stava Dam in Italy collapses. [85]
- July 20
- Walt Disney World welcomes its 200-millionth guest, Virgil Waytes, Junior. [6]
- The main shipwreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha (which sank in 1622) is found 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida by treasure hunters who begin to excavate US$400 million in coins and silver. [1] [85]
- July 23
- Commodore International introduces the Amiga 1000 computer. It features a Motorola 68000 processor, custom color graphics and stereo sound processors, a multitasking, windowing operating system, 256 kB RAM, and 880 kB 3.5-inch disk drive. Price is US$1300. [4] (July 24 [85])
- July 24
- Gandhi signs peace contract with Sikh leader Harchand Singh Longowai. [1]
- Buena Vista releases the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature film The Black Cauldron to theaters. It cost over US$40 million to make. It is the first Disney animated feature film to be given a "PG" rating. It also marks the studio's first use of computer-generated images in a feature film. It is the first film to use Animation Photo Transfer process. The film is based on The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. (North American theater gross receipts: US$21.5 million.) [6]
- July 29
- In Hindu Kush Region, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurs. [53]
- August 2
- Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes near Dallas, Texas, killing 137 people. [85]
- Five die in a train crash in Westminster Colorado. [1]
- August 5
- Flexible-wing glider altitude record (214,250 feet) set by Larry Tudor. [1]
- August 6
- In Bolivia, Víctor Paz Estenssoro is sworn in as president. [46.173]
- August 7
- Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts. [85]
- August 8
- Japan launches Planet A, a probe to Halley's comet. [1]
- August 12
- Japan Airlines Flight 123 Boeing 747-SR crashes on Mount Osutaka in Japan, killing 520 people. This is the worst single-aircraft disaster in history. [85] [879.12a]
- August 15
- In Hungary, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake occurs. [53]
- August 17
- Rajiv Gandhi announces Punjab state elections in India. [1]
- August 19
- Japan launches its second probe of Halley's Comet, Suisei. [1]
- August 20
- Hanspeter Beck of South Australia finishes a 3,875-mile, 51-day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle. [1]
- Harchand Singh Longowai, Sikh leader, shot by Sikh extremists. [1]
- Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of the US. [1]
- August 21
- Near the coast of Northern Peru, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurs. At least 100 people injured, 60 homes destroyed and damage to other buildings in the Chimbote area. Felt along the coast of Peru from Chiclayo to Chincha. [53]
- August 22
- Microsoft and IBM sign a joint-development agreement to work together on future operating systems and environments. [4]
- August 23
- In Southern Xinjiang, China, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurs. At least 71 people killed, 162 injured, about 15,000 homeless and about 85 percent of the buildings destroyed in the Wuqia-Shufu area. [53]
- August 25
- Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA welcomes three-year old Brooks Arthur Charles Burr as the park's 250-millionth visitor. [6]
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