1985

• a-ha - “Take On Me”
• Bryan Adams - “Heaven”
• Dire Straits - “Money for Nothing”
• Duran Duran -“A View to Kill”
• Foreigner - “I Want to Know What Love Is”
• Huey Lewis & The News - “The Power of Love” 
• John Parr - “St Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)”
• Madonna - “Crazy for You”
• Madonna - “Like a Virgin”
• Mr. Mister - “Broken Wings”
• Paul Young - “Everytime You Go Away”
• Phil Collins - “One More Night”
• Phil Collins - “Sussudio”
• REO Speedwagon - “Can’t Fight This Feeling”
• Simple Minds - “Don’t You (Forget about Me)”
• Starship - “We Built This City” 
• Stevie Wonder - “Part Time Lover”
• Tears For Fears - “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”
• Tears For Fears - “Shout” 
• USA For Africa - “We Are the World”
• Wham! - “Careless Whisper”
• Wham! - “Everything She Wants”
• Whitney Houston - “Saving All My Love For You”

• Back to the Future
• Rambo 2
• Rocky 4
• The Color Purple
• Out of Africa
• Cocoon
• The Jewel of the Nile
• Witness
• Goonies
• Spies Like Us

• Moonlighting
• The Golden Girls
• MacGyver
• Growing Pains

• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Alice
• Three's a Crowd
• Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
• The Jeffersons

• The Cosby Show
• Family Ties
• Cheers
• Murder, She Wrote
• Dallas
• Dynasty
• Miami VIce
• The Golden Girls
• Night Court
• Growing Pains
• Moonlighting
• Who's the Boss?
• Dallas
• Matlock
• Kate & Allie
• Facts of Life
• The A-Team
• Alf

• Cristiano Ronaldo - one of the top soccer players in the world, starting with Real Madrid, then Manchester United
• Bruno Mars - pop singer, "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "Uptown Funk" 
• Anna Kendrick - movie actress, "Pitch Perfect"
• Raven-Symone - TV actress on "The Cosby Show", and "That's So Raven"
• Michael Phelps - swimmer, most decorated Olympic athlete of all-time with 28 total medals, including 23 golds
• Carly Rae Jepsen - pop singer, "Call Me Maybe"
• Ciara - R&B singer, "Goodies", "1, 2 Step"
• Gal Gadot - movie actress, plays Wonder Woman in the DC Universe
• Derek Hough - dancer and choreographer, on "Dancing with the Stars" 
• Amanda Seyfried - movie actress, in "Mama Mia" and "Mean Girls"
• Keira Knightley - British actress, in "Bend it Like Beckham", "Pride and Prejudice" and the Pirates of the Caribbean films
• Kaley Cuoco - TV actress, in "The Big Bang Theory"

• Coca-Cola introduces New Coke (overwhelmingly negative response, quickly disappeared)
• Calvin & Hobbes comic strip debuts in newspapers
• Nintendo released the NES in North America
• Michael Jordan named NBA's Rookie of the Year during his first season with the Chicago Bulls
• Boris Becker becomes youngest winner at 17 to win the men's Wimbledon championships
• First .com domain name registered (.edu domains predominated)
• Microsoft released first version of Windows (1.0)
• British scientists discover a hole in the earth's ozone layer

• anime
• baby monitor
• beatboxing
• boy band
• caller ID
• cool beans
• double-double
• drag-and-drop
• elephant in the room
• latte
• Paleo diet
• step aerobics
• tankini

"We Are the World" is an American charity song to help raise money for the famine in Ethiopia. The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. The historic event brought together some of the most famous artists in the music industry at the time. A worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history. 

November: The popular comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” followed the adventures of a young boy, Calvin, and his stuffed animal tiger, Hobbes, while also exploring social, scientific, and philosophical ideas and issues. The comic was originally shown in 250 newspapers but expanded to over 2,000 newspapers at its most popular point. The strip ended in December of 1995 but is still used in papers throughout the world.

June: Route 66 is officially removed from the US Highway system. Established in 1926, Route 66 was one of the first highways created in the United States. Immortalized in television, film, song, and literature, the iconic road spanned almost 2500 miles, from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. It fell into disrepair as it was replaced by the Interstate system.

October: The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in North American markets, after having been released in Japan in 1983. The system did not initially sell much as the market for video games had dropped, but, with Nintendo’s U.S. release of their breakout game “Super Mario Bros.” later that year, the NES soon caught on in the U.S. and was a popular item distributed throughout stores across the country in 1986.

July: Live Aid pop concerts in cities including London, Philadelphia, Sydney and Moscow, raised over $125 million for famine relief in Ethiopia. The concerts attracted an estimated one billion viewers in 110 countries who watched the concerts performed live by using satellite link-ups and TV broadcasts. 

April: Coca-Cola introduced “New Coke” in what many observers declared to be the worst marketing blunder in history. They created a sweeter version that had been preferred in taste tests, but fans of the brand protested the decision in an overwhelmingly negative response. Within three months Coca-Cola announced it would return to the old formula and tried to re-brand the drink as Coca-Cola “Classic” and New Coke quickly disappeared.

May: Legendary basketball player Michael Jordan was given the NBA’s “Rookie of the Year” award during his first season with the Chicago Bulls. He helped the Bull get into the playoffs for the first time in a few years and set several team records that season. Jordan would evolve into one of the most well-known, highest paid and accomplished basketball players of all time.

Boris Becker becomes youngest winner at 17 to win the men's Wimbledon championships. He was successful from the start of his career, winning six major singles titles, five year-end championships, 13 Masters Series titles, and an Olympic gold medal in doubles. Tennis magazine ranked him the 11th best male player of the period 1965–2005.

March 21 - Inspired by the dream of finding a cure for spinal cord injury, Rick Hansen set out on the Man In Motion World Tour. For 26 months, he and his team wheeled over 40,000 km through 34 countries raising awareness about the potential of people with disabilities, creating accessible and inclusive communities, and finding a cure. The tour ended in 1987 in Vancouver.

June 23 - Air India Flight 182 explodes en route from Montreal to London, crashing into the Atlantic while in Irish air space, killing 329 people. Sikh terrorists are blamed. It was the first bombing of a 747 jet. The incident was the largest mass murder in Canadian history, also the deadliest terrorist attack involving an airplane until the September 11 attacks.

The wreck of the RMS Titanic which sank in 1912 was not discovered for over 70 years. Numerous expeditions tried using sonar to map the sea bed in the hope of spotting it, but were unsuccessful. The wreck was finally located off the coast of Newfoundland by a joint French-American expedition. 

Scientists had theorized since the 1970s about the chemistry that could lead to ozone depletion. But in May 1985 scientists with the British Antarctic Survey shocked the world when they announced the discovery of a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.