Operation Blue Star: the Indian army assaulted the Golden Temple in Amritsar which left the temple heavily damaged. Sikh Times
The AIDS-virus is identified at the Pasteur Institute by isolating a virus from the swollen lymph gland of an AIDS patient. Wikimedia Commons
Speed-skatering Gaétan Boucher won three medals at the Winter Olympics hosted by Sarajevo, then in Yugoslavia. Wikimedia Commons
A miners’ strike picket took place in South Yorkshire between 1984 and 1985. Wikimedia Commons
Joan Benoit, had a stunning victory at the first women’s Olympic marathon, in Los Angeles. Wikimedia Commons
Indira Gandhi, the 3rd Prime Minister of India, was assassinated on 31 October at her home in New Delhi by two of her bodyguards in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star. Wikimedia Commons
The world learns from BBC News television reports presented by Michael Buerk of the famine in Ethiopia, where thousands of people have already died of starvation due to a famine, and as many as 10,000,000 more lives are at risk. His reporting inspired the Band Aid charity record and subsequently, the Live Aid concert. Wikimedia Commons
Brunei becomes a fully independent state. Wikimedia Commons
Apple’s ‘1984’ television ad, set in a dystopian future modelled after the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, set the tone for the introduction of the Macintosh personal computer. Wikimedia Commons