Events, Verisoph

1984 1984: The Rise and Fall of Atari (McGraw-Hill, 1984); Henry Lowood... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story om Pong to Pokemon (Three Rivers, 2001); Scott Cohen, Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari (McGraw-Hill, 1984); Henry Lowood, “Videogames in Computer Space: The Complex History of Pong,” IEEE Annals , July ●●

1984 1984: Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley (Osbo... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story ’s interview with Bill Gates. 28. Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley (Osborne, 1984), 21; author’s interview with Bill Gates; Wallace and Erickson, Hard Drive , 35. 29. Allen, Idea ●●

1984 1984: by his head. The ovation lasted for five minutes. 110 The Macintosh la rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story by his head. The ovation lasted for five minutes. 110 The Macintosh launch was accompanied by a memorable ad, “1984,” that showed a young heroine outr ●●

1984 1984: he got bored and applied for a fellowship at CERN. In September 1984 h rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story he got bored and applied for a fellowship at CERN. In September 1984 he arrived back there to work with the group that was responsible for gathering t ●●

1984 1984: onian, Jan. 7, 1969. 48. Bloch oral history, Feb. 22, 1984, Charles Ba rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story onian, Jan. 7, 1969. 48. Bloch oral history, Feb. 22, 1984, Charles Babbage Institute. 49. Robert Slater, Portraits in Silicon (MIT Pre ●●

1984 1984: 11. Sources for this section include author’s interviews with Nolan Bu rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 11. Sources for this section include author’s interviews with Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn, Steve Jobs (for previous book), and Steve Wozniak; Tristan Do ●●

1984 1984: tes. 27. Author’s interview with Bill Gates. 28. Paul Freiberger and M rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story tes. 27. Author’s interview with Bill Gates. 28. Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley (Osborne, 1984), 21; author’s interview with B ●●

1984 Information history in 1984 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story ritual circumcision. Memes were seen through car windows when yellow diamond-shaped BABY ON BOARD signs appeared as if in an instant of mass panic in 1984, in the United States and then Europe and Jap ●●

1984 Good in “Turing and the Computer,” Nature 307 (February 1, 1 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Good in “Turing and the Computer,” Nature 307 (February 1, 1984): 663 ●●

1984 ent and held a press conference on July 2. That statement and the press conference proceedings were rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story ent and held a press conference on July 2. That statement and the press conference proceedings were released by the U.S. embassy in Guatemala City on July 18, 1984, and form the basis for the discussion below. Although Guatemala had been assailed by ●●

1984 nned Missionaries’ Deaths,” National Catholic Reporter, July 17, 1981. rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story nned Missionaries’ Deaths,” National Catholic Reporter, July 17, 1981. 61. Stephen Kinzer, “Ex-Aide in Salvador Accuses Colleagues on Death Squads,” March 3, 1984. Note the “soft” headline. An option forgone by the Times was a headline like: “Duarte ●●

1984 a model illustration of observer bias and foolishness, see appendix 1 on the findings of a U.S. off rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story a model illustration of observer bias and foolishness, see appendix 1 on the findings of a U.S. official-observer team at the Guatemalan election of July 1, 1984. 5. “The observer delegation’s mission was a simple one: to assess the fairness, hones ●●

1984 t at many places voting officials stamped the cedulas of those unable to vote because of crowding ju rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story t at many places voting officials stamped the cedulas of those unable to vote because of crowding just so they could leave (ibid., p. 6). 62. In the July 1, 1984, election for a constituent assembly, null and blank votes exceeded those of any party ●●

1984 103. Philip Taubman, “U.S. Role in Nicaragua Vote Disputed,” New York Times, October 21, 1984. Rober rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 103. Philip Taubman, “U.S. Role in Nicaragua Vote Disputed,” New York Times, October 21, 1984. Robert McCartney, in the Washington Post of June 30, 1984, stated that “Opposition leaders admitted in interviews that they never seriously considered runn ●●

1984 of terror and despair, of macabre rumour and grisly reality” (Pratap C. Chitnis, “Observing El Salv rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story of terror and despair, of macabre rumour and grisly reality” (Pratap C. Chitnis, “Observing El Salvador: The 1984 Elections,” Third World Quarterly [October 1984], pp. 971–73). Chitnis was never cited as a source anywhere in the U.S. mass media. 10 ●●

1984 e story of this encounter.) Among the newspapers, a propaganda conformity prevailed until the time t rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story e story of this encounter.) Among the newspapers, a propaganda conformity prevailed until the time that prosecutor Albano’s report was made public in June 1984, when Michael Dobbs, of the Washington Post, began to take a more critical view, along wit ●●

1984 detailed critique of this highly praised best-seller, see Noam Chomsky, “The Vietnam War in the Age rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story detailed critique of this highly praised best-seller, see Noam Chomsky, “The Vietnam War in the Age of Orwell,” Race & Class 4 (1984 [Boston Review, January 1984]). See Peter Biskind, “What Price Balance,” Race & Class 4 (1984 [parts in The Nation, ●●

1984 f their qualms, and how they resolved them, and similar concerns elsewhere, see Chomsky, Towards a N rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story f their qualms, and how they resolved them, and similar concerns elsewhere, see Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War, chapter 13. 90. Nayan Chanda, FEER, November 1, 1984; November 7, 1985, with minor modifications, their general position from early on i ●●

1984 2. In a letter of December 20, 1984, to one of his constituents who had complained of his gullibilit rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 2. In a letter of December 20, 1984, to one of his constituents who had complained of his gullibility as an observer, Brier asserted that his obligation was to report “observed election fraud, coercion of the voters, or denials of the right to vote . ●●

1984 Our prediction is that the victims of enemy states will be found “wort... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Our prediction is that the victims of enemy states will be found “worthy” and will be subject to more intense and indignant coverage than those victimized by the United States or its clients, who are ●●

1984 public that our intervention there was approved by the local populatio... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story public that our intervention there was approved by the local population; whereas when Nicaragua held an election in 1984, the Reagan administration tried to discredit it to prevent legitimation of a g ●●

1984 government’s urgent claims of a shipment of MIGs to Nicaragua on Novem... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story government’s urgent claims of a shipment of MIGs to Nicaragua on November 5, 1984, the media do not stop to ponder the bias that is inherent in the priority assigned to government-supplied raw materia ●●

1984 Polish police murder priest Jerzy Popieluszko ai_extracted 1 cit. no story JERZY POPIELUSZKO VERSUS A HUNDRED RELIGIOUS VICTIMS IN LATIN AMERICA A useful comparison can be made between the mass media’s treatment of Jerzy Popieluszko, a Polish priest murdered by the Polish p ●●

1984 The drama is there for the asking—only the press concern is missing.12... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The drama is there for the asking—only the press concern is missing.12 TABLE 2–2 The Savageries Inflicted on Worthy and Unworthy Victims, as Depicted in the New York Times WORTHY VICTIMS Jerzy Pop ●●

1984 Guatemalan Archbishop Monsignor Próspero Penados del Barrio asserted i... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Guatemalan Archbishop Monsignor Próspero Penados del Barrio asserted in 1984 that “It is impossible for a human rights office to exist in Guatemala at the present time.”97 “Disappearances” as an insti ●●

1984 The election held in Nicaragua in 1984, by contrast, was intended to l... candidate ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The election held in Nicaragua in 1984, by contrast, was intended to legitimize a government that the Reagan administration was striving to destabilize and overthrow. ●●

1984 Free speech and rights of assembly were constrained in Nicaragua in 19... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Free speech and rights of assembly were constrained in Nicaragua in 1984 by social pressures and threats and by a state of siege that had been terminated some six months prior to the November 1984 ele ●●

1984 In Nicaragua, in 1984, dissidents were able to speak freely without fe... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In Nicaragua, in 1984, dissidents were able to speak freely without fear of murder, and the LASA group noted that “Every member of our delegation was approached at least once by an irate citizen as we ●●

1984 client states: in 1984 its government was not murdering civilians.59 T... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story client states: in 1984 its government was not murdering civilians.59 The main fear of ordinary citizens in Nicaragua was of violence by the contras and the United States. ●●

1984 It was the consensus that the 1984 election for a constituent assembly... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story It was the consensus that the 1984 election for a constituent assembly was “encouraging” and an important first step, and that the 1985 presidential election “ended [emphasis added] more than 30 years ●●

1984 that a leftist insurgency “poses a permanent challenge to the regime,”... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 27, 1984) that a leftist insurgency “poses a permanent challenge to the regime,” but it did not inquire into the roots of this insurgency or suggest that its leaders constituted a “main opposition” wh ●●

1984 described in detail the elaborate electoral preparations in El Salvado... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 9, 1984) described in detail the elaborate electoral preparations in El Salvador, the “tamper-proof” procedures, the use of transparent Lucite ballot boxes, and the indelible-ink marking and stamping ●●

1984 The same problem occurred in the 1984 elections in El Salvador, where ... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The same problem occurred in the 1984 elections in El Salvador, where thin-paper ballots were deposited in transparent ballot boxes. ●●

1984 In Guatemala, 4,000 signatures were needed to qualify in 1984, a large... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In Guatemala, 4,000 signatures were needed to qualify in 1984, a large number and not easy for dissident parties to collect in a society with daily political murders. ●●

1984 and its news columns placed “main opposition” Cruz on center stage, fr... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 7, 1984), and its news columns placed “main opposition” Cruz on center stage, from which vantage point he could regularly denounce the proceedings as a “farce” or sham.102 The Times did have one good ●●

1984 LASA states that “No major political tendency in Nicaragua was denied ... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story LASA states that “No major political tendency in Nicaragua was denied access to the electoral process in 1984” (p. ●●

1984 He writes that “Ortega’s landslide victory was never in doubt,” becaus... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story He writes that “Ortega’s landslide victory was never in doubt,” because “the opposition was splintered” (and, as he fails to observe, had no popular base, in contrast to the well-organized Sandinista ●●

1984 This deceitful dismissal of the 1984 elections is one of Kinzer’s many... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story This deceitful dismissal of the 1984 elections is one of Kinzer’s many contributions to the media campaign to contrast the “elected presidents” of the four Central American “democracies” with the Sand ●●

1984 TABLE 3–2 Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times’s Covera... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story TABLE 3–2 Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times’s Coverage of the Nicaraguan Election Planned for November 4, 1984* TOPICS NUMBER OF ARTICLES DEALING WITH TOPIC PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES ●●

1984 TABLE 3–3 Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times ’s Cover... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story TABLE 3–3 Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times ’s Coverage of the Nicaraguan Election of November 4, 1984* TOPICS NUMBER OF ARTICLES DEALING WITH TOPIC PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ●●

1984 THE MIG CRISIS STAGED DURING NICARAGUA’S ELECTION WEEK As Newsweek po... candidate ai_extracted 1 cit. no story THE MIG CRISIS STAGED DURING NICARAGUA’S ELECTION WEEK As Newsweek pointed out on November 19, 1984, “The story of the freighter [to Nicaragua, allegedly carrying MIGs] first broke during the electio ●●

1984 CONCLUDING NOTE As we have seen, electoral conditions in Nicaragua in... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story CONCLUDING NOTE As we have seen, electoral conditions in Nicaragua in 1984 were far more favorable than in El Salvador and Guatemala, and the observer team of LASA found the election in Nicaragua to ●●

1984 His manipulative activities in Italy were on such a scale that in the ... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story His manipulative activities in Italy were on such a scale that in the summer of 1984 a newly appointed head of SISMI told the Italian parliament that Ledeen was a “meddler” and persona non grata in It ●●

1984 Event of 1984 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story r of a billion dol- lars for the largest international social science survey ever attempted: the “World Fertility Survey,” which began in 1972 and rea ●●

1984 lightened generation of men and women. Many entities rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story lightened generation of men and women. Many entities changed their names. For example, the Human Betterment League of North Carolina changed its name to the Human Genetics League of North Carolina in 1984. In Britain there were name changes as well. The Annals of Eugenics became the Annals of Human ●●

1984 Hans-Eberhard Mueller, Bureaucracy, Education, and Monopoly: Civil Service Reforms in Prussia and En rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Hans-Eberhard Mueller, Bureaucracy, Education, and Monopoly: Civil Service Reforms in Prussia and England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), pp. ●●

1984 It was at least possible that less motivated peo- ple might opt to limit the size of their famili... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story It was at least possible that less motivated peo- ple might opt to limit the size of their families if they were shown how easily they could have sex without having children.9 The need to find out ... ●●

1984 Foreign donors supported India’s tough new program with over $53 million in aid in 1984–85—about ... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Foreign donors supported India’s tough new program with over $53 million in aid in 1984–85—about $103 million in today’s dollars—a nearly fivefold increase over 1980–81.57 In the same period, South... ●●

1984 China directs softer enforcement of one-child policy ai_extracted 1 cit. no story medal, and in 1984 a new directive called for implementing China’s policy in a “fair and reasonable” way more “acceptable to the peasants.”66 At the same time, the IPPF European Regional Council be... ●●

1984 They wanted the IPPF to be audited (again) and demanded that population funds in- stead support “... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story They wanted the IPPF to be audited (again) and demanded that population funds in- stead support “natural family planning.” And for the second time, they called for sending a pro-life delegation to ... ●●

1984 “A United Pro-Life Movement,” January 1984, National Library of Medi- cine, History of Medicine D... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story “A United Pro-Life Movement,” January 1984, National Library of Medi- cine, History of Medicine Division, Bethesda, MD, C. ●●

1984 Policy Statement for the International Conference on Popu- lation,” Population and Development Re... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Policy Statement for the International Conference on Popu- lation,” Population and Development Review 10 (1984): 576–577. ●●

1984 Crane, “Ideology and Politics at Mexico City: The United States at the 1984 International Confere... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Crane, “Ideology and Politics at Mexico City: The United States at the 1984 International Conference on Population,” Population and Development Review 11 (1985): 12; Hartmann, Reproductive Rights a... ●●

1984 L., 104–105 McGhee, George, 198, 199 McGuire, Constantine, 75 McNamara, Robert, 238, 257, 263, 28... rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story L., 104–105 McGhee, George, 198, 199 McGuire, Constantine, 75 McNamara, Robert, 238, 257, 263, 281, 296, 297, 298–299, 304, 309, 323, 332, 335, 349, 354 McNeill, William H., 4, 83 McPherson, Peter,... ●●

1984 Herbert Blaize elected Grenada prime minister ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Postscript: At the end of 1984, former Premier Herbert Blaize was elected prime minister, his party capturing 14 of the ●●

1984 ” In November 1984, the Nicaraguan government announced rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story ” In November 1984, the Nicaraguan government announced that since 1981 the contras had assassinated 910 state officials ●●

1984 As it is, oil prices fluctuate on a rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story As it is, oil prices fluctuate on a regular basis, often sharply—between 1984 and 1986, for example, the price of a barr ●●

1984 ¢ 355 KILLING HOPE Seven years were to rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story ¢ 355 KILLING HOPE Seven years were to pass before Duarte, elected to the presidency in 1984, accused former army Major ●●

1984 34 The degree of overall control of the rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 34 The degree of overall control of the military operation by the United States is perhaps best captured by an excerpt f ●●

1984 Barnet, Allies: America, Europe and Japan since the rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Barnet, Allies: America, Europe and Japan since the War (London, 1984) pp ●●

1984 The Guardian (London) 2 January 1984, British Government rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Guardian (London) 2 January 1984, British Government papers of 1953, released 1 January 1984 ●●

1984 US presence: Hugh O’Shaughnessy, Grenada: Revolution, Invasion and rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story US presence: Hugh O’Shaughnessy, Grenada: Revolution, Invasion and Aftermath (London, 1984) p ●●

1984 Gilmore, The Grenada Intervention: Analysis and Documentation (London, rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gilmore, The Grenada Intervention: Analysis and Documentation (London, 1984) Part II, “The Grenada Intervention in Inter ●●

1984 Apple launches the Macintosh ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Macintosh shipped in January 1984, later than planned, accompanied by the famous '1984' television ad. ●●

1984 Stewart Brand helps launch The WELL ai_extracted 1 cit. no story As modems spread, Brand helped create the prototype online community known as The WELL. ●●

1984 Berners-Lee returns to CERN rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Tim Berners-Lee arrived back at CERN in September 1984 to work on gathering experimental results. ●●

June 1984 Saul Steinberg's Disney greenmail 0 cit. Saul Steinberg's Reliance Group bought a large stake in Walt Disney Productions and threatened a hostile takeover. Disney's board paid Steinberg roughly 60 million dollars more than the market price to buy back his shares and make him go away, a practice known as "greenmail." The episode was one of the most publicized greenmail deals of the decade and fueled the argument, made by shareholder advocates and later by Congress, that greenmail let raiders profit without ever having to run or fix the company. economy ●●

1984 T. Boone Pickens raids Gulf Oil 0 cit. Mesa Petroleum, led by T. Boone Pickens, built a large stake in Gulf Oil and pushed for a takeover, arguing the company's shares undervalued its oil reserves. Gulf's board responded by arranging a friendly merger with Chevron instead, then the sixth-largest corporate merger in US history at the time. Pickens did not gain control of Gulf but profited handsomely from the run-up in the stock, and the raid became a symbol of how takeover threats could force a target into a defensive sale regardless of the raider's original intent. economy ●●

1984 Bain Capital founded 0 cit. Bill Bain, Mitt Romney, and colleagues from the consulting firm Bain & Company founded Bain Capital to apply consulting-style analysis to buying and restructuring companies with borrowed money. Bain Capital grew into one of the largest private equity firms in the world over the following decades. Its deals, like those of its peers, drew a recurring debate: the firm argued its operational improvements created lasting value, while critics of specific deals pointed to layoffs, plant closures, and bankruptcies following heavy debt loads. economy ●●

November 1984 British Telecom privatized 0 cit. The Thatcher government sold shares in British Telecom to the public, the largest share offering in British history at the time and the first of the major British state utility privatizations. The sale was designed partly to raise cash for the Treasury and partly to create a wider shareholder-owning public. Supporters credited it with improving efficiency and investment in telecoms; critics argued the shares were sold below fair value and that the state gave up a valuable long-term asset for a one-off cash gain. economy / politics ●●

8 May 1984 The Soviet bloc retaliates with a boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics 0 cit. The Soviet Union and most of its allies boycott the Los Angeles Games, citing security concerns but widely understood as retaliation for the 1980 boycott. The tit-for-tat boycotts of 1980 and 1984 demonstrated how thoroughly the Olympics had become entangled with superpower rivalry. diplomacy / politics ●●

28 July 1984 1984 Los Angeles Olympics opening ceremony 0 cit. Staged by producer David Wolper, this ceremony featured a man flying into the stadium with an individual rocket pack, one of the most replayed images in Olympic opening history. The Soviet Union and most of the Eastern Bloc boycotted these Games in retaliation for the 1980 U.S.-led boycott, continuing the pattern of Cold War politics shaping Olympic spectacle. culture / politics ●●

1984 Stephen Knight publishes The Brotherhood 0 cit. Stephen Knight publishes "The Brotherhood: The Secret World of the Freemasons," drawing on interviews with over a hundred Freemasons. The book alleges Masonic networks in the police and judiciary enabled career advancement and shielded members from prosecution, citing court cases including a 1981 Knightsbridge Crown Court bribery case and testimony about a bullion-robbery tip-off. The book became a bestseller and is widely read as documented commentary, though its specific claims about how far Masonic influence extended remain disputed and were never tested in a court of law. culture ●●

10 February 1984 Wagalla Massacre 1 cit. Kenyan security forces, including police and army units, rounded up several thousand ethnic Somali men at Wagalla airstrip during a disarmament operation and killed a large number of them over several days. The government's own contemporaneous count put the toll at 57, but the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission's 2013 report and human rights researchers concluded the true number was far higher, with survivor and local estimates ranging into the hundreds or more; no one has been prosecuted. politics / society ●●●

c. 10 September 1984 Alec Jeffreys develops DNA fingerprinting 0 cit. Geneticist Alec Jeffreys discovered that certain repeating DNA sequences vary enough between individuals to serve as a unique identifier, a technique he called DNA fingerprinting. The discovery, made at the University of Leicester, gave forensic science its first method for identifying individuals from biological evidence with very high statistical confidence. Within two years it was applied to a criminal investigation for the first time. science ●●●

10 February 1984 Wagalla massacre in northern Kenya 3 cit. Kenyan security forces rounded up thousands of men of the Degodia Somali clan at Wagalla airstrip during a disarmament operation, detaining them without food or water for several days before many were killed. The government initially described it as an operation against armed bandits and for years gave an official death toll of 57, while survivors and rights groups said the true number was in the hundreds or low thousands. No commission of inquiry was published at the time; the government publicly acknowledged wrongdoing by security forces only in October 2000. politics / war ●●●

1984 United Brands becomes Chiquita 0 cit. The investor Carl Lindner takes control of United Brands and later renames it Chiquita Brands International, after its long-running banana label. The old United Fruit was gone in name, but its plantations, its markets, and its entanglement in Latin American politics carried on. The company remained one of the giants of the global banana trade. economy ●●

3 December 1984 The Bhopal gas disaster 0 cit. A leak of toxic gas from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killed thousands within days and injured hundreds of thousands, in one of the worst industrial disasters in history. Survivors spent decades seeking full compensation and accountability from the American parent company and its successors. Bhopal became a defining case of the gap between a multinational's global reach and its responsibility when things go wrong. economy / society ●●●

10 February 1984 Commission finds the state responsible for the Wagalla massacre 0 cit. Security forces rounded up ethnic Somali men at the Wagalla airstrip in Wajir, holding them without food or water and killing many; estimates of the dead range from hundreds to over a thousand. The final report treated it as one of the gravest state atrocities in Kenya's history and found the security forces responsible. The commission recorded survivor testimony describing torture, execution, and the dumping of bodies. politics / war ●●●

1984 Kuki Gallmann turns Ol ari Nyiro into a private conservancy 3 cit. The Italian-born author Kuki Gallmann founds the Gallmann Memorial Foundation and converts her family's Ol ari Nyiro ranch, roughly 100,000 acres on the edge of Laikipia, into the Laikipia Nature Conservancy. It is one of the best-known examples of a single foreign-linked family holding a very large block of northern Kenyan land under a conservation banner. environment / society ●●

c. 1984 Drought and food crises strain the country 0 cit. Kenya was hit by repeated droughts, including a severe one in 1984, that cut harvests and forced grain imports and food aid. The shortages were driven mainly by failed rains and weak management, not by any deliberate policy of starvation. Poor planning and corruption made the crises harder to weather. economy / society ●

c. 1984 NED's public grant-making model 0 cit. Unlike the covert funding it replaced, NED awards grants openly and lists them in a public database on its website. Each year it makes well over a thousand grants to civil society groups, media, and activists in more than 90 countries. Supporters point to this transparency as the core difference from CIA-era operations. politics ●●

c. 1984 NED funds Solidarity in Poland 0 cit. Through the 1980s NED and the AFL-CIO's Free Trade Union Institute channeled money, printing gear, and other support to Poland's banned Solidarity trade union. The aid helped Solidarity survive martial law and keep its underground press running. Its 1989 election win is often cited as an early success of open democracy assistance. politics / society ●●

1984 Casey tells Reagan the covert Afghan war is cost effective ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 1984 CIA director William Casey briefed Reagan that the mujahedin had killed or wounded about seventeen thousand Soviet soldiers and controlled 62 percent of the countryside. The war had cost Moscow roughly $12 billion, paid for with $200 million in U.S. money plus a matching $200 million from Saudi intelligence. ●●

1984 The British Virgin Islands mass-produce shell companies 0 cit. The 1984 International Business Companies Act, drafted with American lawyers, let people set up cheap, anonymous companies in the British Virgin Islands. The territory became the world's busiest maker of offshore shell firms, with hundreds of thousands on its register. A single owner can hide behind nominee directors, stand-ins whose names appear on paper while the real owner stays out of sight. economy / politics ●●

c. 1984 Archaeology overturns the foreign-founders myth 0 cit. Colonial-era writers credited the Swahili towns to Persian and Arab colonists, treating the coast's culture as an import. Excavations from the 1980s, led by Mark Horton at Shanga and studied by Chapurukha Kusimba, showed the towns grew from local African communities that adopted Islam and Indian Ocean trade. The Swahili are now understood as an African civilization, Bantu-speaking and Muslim, not a foreign colony. culture / society ●●●

January 1985 to December 1989 Japanese asset price bubble inflates ai_extracted 1 cit. From January 1985 to December 1989 Japanese stocks rose 240 percent and land prices 245 percent, driving land valuations to levels where the Imperial Palace grounds were notionally worth as much as all of California. ●●●●

1985 to 1987 Yen rises 106 percent ai_extracted 1 cit. Despite enormous Japanese capital outflows, the yen strengthened sharply, rising 106 percent from 1985 to 1987, which the author calls part of the Great Yen Illusion. ●●●

1985 Endaka recession ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1985 Japan's economy was in the endaka (strong yen) recession, leaving pent-up demand for money as loan officers began working to meet high window guidance quotas. ●●

31 October 1985 Nakasone forms the Maekawa advisory group ai_extracted 1 cit. Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone created the Advisory Group on Economic Structural Adjustment for International Harmony and appointed Haruo Maekawa to head it, charged with studying how Japan's economic and social structure should change. ●●●

October 1985 Deposit interest rate deregulation begins ai_extracted 1 cit. Gradual deregulation of Japanese deposit interest rates began in October 1985 as part of broader financial liberalization. ●●

8 December 1985 Founding of SAARC 0 cit. Seven South Asian states sign the charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation at a summit in Dhaka, creating a regional body for economic and cultural cooperation. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

1985 Founding of Reporters Without Borders 0 cit. Robert Ménard and three colleagues found Reporters Sans Frontières in Montpellier to defend press freedom and journalists worldwide, later known for its World Press Freedom Index. diplomacy / politics / society ●●

23 June 1985 Bombing of Air India Flight 182 0 cit. A bomb planted by Sikh separatists based in Canada destroyed Air India Flight 182 over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people on board. It was the deadliest aviation terrorist attack before 2001. politics / religion ●●●

13 July 1985 Live Aid 0 cit. Two linked concerts raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia and were beamed to a global television audience. Live Aid showed the reach of pop music as a worldwide event. culture / society ●●●

22 September 1985 Plaza Accord realigns the dollar 0 cit. The United States, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain agreed to act together to weaken the dollar against the yen and the mark. The accord showed coordinated state power over exchange rates. economy / politics ●●●

c. March 1985 to c. 1991 Glasnost and Perestroika 0 cit. New leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched policies of openness and restructuring to reform the stagnant Soviet system. The reforms loosened censorship and central control but also unleashed forces that the state could not contain. economy / politics / society ●●●●

22 September 1985 Plaza Accord 0 cit. Finance officials of five major economies agreed at the Plaza Hotel to weaken the US dollar against other currencies. It was a notable case of coordinated intervention in global currency markets. economy ●●

August 1985 Bolivia's shock therapy 0 cit. Facing hyperinflation, Bolivia adopted a sweeping stabilization program of spending cuts, price liberalization, and a wage freeze. Inflation fell sharply, but unemployment rose and the human cost was heavily disputed, a case Naomi Klein later cited in her critique of shock policies. economy / politics ●●●

1985 to 1993 The Narmada dam controversy 0 cit. World Bank funding for the Sardar Sarovar dam drew fierce protest over the displacement of tens of thousands of people and environmental harm. An independent review was damning, and the Bank withdrew, prompting new social and environmental safeguards. environment / society ●●●