1985

I was born October 10th, 1985. Here are some fun facts about this year.

- USA for Africa was formed in January of 1985, and We Are the World hit top charts for weeks on a row. Several Live Aid concerts around the USA to fight hunger in Ethiopia.
- Guns N' Roses was formed as a band in 1985, as well as Radiohead.
- A comprehensive analysis of the top albums of 1985 shows people were listening to pretty good shit in the year I was born. Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen was on high, shoulder to shoulder with the Dire Straits, Price and the Revolution and Phil Collins... and this.
- Uzumaki Naruto, from Naruto, shares his birthday with me - believe it!
- For those of you who love mecha, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam made its debut on Japanese TV in 1985 as well, and ran all through to 1986.
- Cinema in 1985 also had its shining moments. Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, Day of the Dead, King Solomon's Mines, The Jewel of the Nile, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Red Sonja, Runaway Train all came out in 1985 and I would recommend every one of them.
- Yul Brynner died in 1985... and if you didn't grow up with cowboy movies, this means nothing to you, but he was one of The Magnificient Seven.
- Amadeus wins the Academy Award - pretty good flick, though historically inaccurate.
- In 1985 Nintendo was on the run, Super Mario Brothers having been released on September of this year, the NES coming to international knowledge. Atari was still on the race but losing it fast for the NES, and Commodore had just released the Amiga computer.
- Everyone is bouncing back from the videogame crash of 1983 - games are getting popular again by now, thank crow.
- A few good books also saw their release in 1985. Namely, Isaac Asimov published Robots and Empire, Clive Barker spawned The Damnation Game and Stephen King leaked The Skeleton Crew. The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, both by H.P. Lovecraft, were also published in the same year.
- In 1985 Marvel is doing crossovers like crazy. One of the joined pairs is Wolverine and the Fantastic Four. The clawed canuck was also put against Dazzler the very same year, a combination most Marvel fans claim to be hideous and barf-inducing.
- The Wolverine and Kitty Pryde miniseries, however, is running at this time, prettily in fact. Ogun is still alive and Wolverine wants his head (do check it out, it's rather interesting...)
- Several comics for several previously mentioned teams paralel to the X-Men began in the 1980's - Alpha Flight has its own airing time in 1985, but groups such as Excalibur, X-Factor and the New Mutants begin in the same decade. Psylocke, Forge and Rogue join the X-Men officially.
- Nobody gives a shit for Batman in 1985 - sales hit an all-time low, after which the hero is revised from the Adam West-esque thing it started off as, to the dark hero we know today.
- Mikhail Gorbachev becomes de facto leader of the Soviet Union in this year.
- Worldwide testing for AIDS is approved, once and for all, to try and gain a better control of the disease.
- This is also the year of the New Coke (or rather, Coca-Cola as we know it, since the formula was altered, for the dismay of many).
- The Unabomber makes the news in May by blowing up a lot of shit.
- First airing of the Discovery channel: June 17, 1985 - although we're still far from series like Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs.
- 40th birthday of the nuke that sent Hiroshima to the Moon.
- The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes debuts in November 18 of this year.
- Tetris is also created in 1985, for the delight of many, myself included just 6 years ahead.
- Graphic novel Watchmen is set in 1985 as well - an alternative 1985, but still...
- The world counts 4.830.919.000 inhabitants at this point. The actual count is almost twice as much.
- Some people also born in 1985: porno actress Eva Angelina, actress Keira Knightley, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo. I could make a thousand jokes from these three names alone.
- 1985 in other calendars: 2529 in the Buddhist calendar; 4621 in the Chinese calendar; 1405 in the Islamic calendar; Showa 60 in the Japanese calendar; 5745 in the Hebrew calendar; 473385600 - 504921599 in Unix time; MCMLXXXV for Romans.
- In chinese astrology, this is a Yin Wood year. Wood is associated with the liver in Chinese medicine, the East, Springtime, the planet Jupiter and the color green. Those born in it are under the sign of the Ox. Their motto is "I Persevere".