[MUSIC PLAYING] 1985, it was the
middle of the decade. And you could feel the '80s
finding itself, growing up before our very eyes and
becoming its own era. In fact, the '80s was when many
of our own viewers grew up. And learning to grow up,
it's a universal process. First, there's the
lack of dignity. You develop a little attitude. You just watch
your mouth, mister. And as you get
older and wiser, you realize not to take
crap from anyone. It's over. Enough. Enough. Today, we're going to talk
about the news, culture, sports, and entertainment and all
that was weird in the '80s. This is Timeline. Today, the future is going
back to the year 1985. But before we get moving, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel and let
us know a story from '85 you would like to
see a full video on. Now, how alive was your '85? I feel tremendous. I'm ready to take on the world. This is 1985. 1985 started off on a
seemingly positive note, when National
Geographic published a cover story of
Koko the Gorilla, who learned sign language. Koko got a brand
new kitten, which she named All Ball,
because she thought her new pet looked like a ball. Compared to what my friends
have named their pets, she is not the worst name giver. Sadly, All Ball was hit by a
car after the kitten escaped Koko's cage the month
before, in December of '84. When Koko was informed, she
signed the words bad, sad, bad. Frown, cry, frown, sad, trouble. It wasn't all sad for Koko
though, a few months later, Francine Patterson, Koko's
instructor and caregiver, allowed her to pick out two more
kittens, which she did, calling them Lipstick and Smoky. In her time, Koko the Gorilla
became quite the star, meeting celebrities like Robin
Williams, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mr. Rogers. On January 20th, Ronald
Reagan began his second term as the President of
the United States. If you think Reagan was
busy during the first half of the '80s, wait til
you see when he does during the next four years. [THUNDERCATS THEME] Thunder, thunder,
thunder, Thundercats. What's that? Sushi. You won't accept a guy's
tongue in your mouth and you're going to eat that? Can I eat? I don't know. Give it a try. Moving into early February, the
World Chess Championship match in Moscow between Anatoly
Karpov and Gary Kasparov ended in controversy when
the finals were postponed due to psychological strain. Fast forward to September 3rd
when the Championship matches were resumed and Kasparov
stunned Karpov in the 13 to 11 defeat. Mickey Mouse made a
surprise visit to China on February 19th in honor of
Disneyland's 30th anniversary. China became the first stop on
Mickey's 30-city goodwill tour. Fast forward 31 years
later to June 16th, 2016, when Shanghai gets a Disneyland
of its very own, Shanghai Disneyland Park. For scale, the cost of two
adults and one child visiting the park on two-day
weekend tickets would cost the average Chinese
adult one month's wages. Speaking of children, we
go to Bloomington, Indiana, where Hoosier
basketball coach Bobby Knight took his childlike temper
tantrums to the next level. On Saturday, February
23rd, just 5 minutes into the game against Purdue,
Knight lost his [BLEEP] on a loose ball foul
call and proceeded to throw a chair onto the court. The refs rang Knight up with
two technical fouls, which ejected him from the game. The Big Ten gave Knight
a one game suspension, with two years probation. So how did she get stuck
with a guy like this? It's you and me, kid. It's a romantic comedy. I'm really looking forward
to working with you, kid. Moonlighting, premiering
Sunday, March 3rd. It doesn't get any
weirder than this. Huggies Diapers were awarded
the infamous Pig Award on March 3rd, given to them
by Women Against Pornography. The feminist group stated
that Huggies' television ads crossed the line between
eye-catching and porn. The Women Against Pornography
called out Huggies for its gratuitous creep
shot of a mother picking up her newborn baby. Mom leans in and exposes
her underwear to the world. Yeah. Moving on. Three days later, on March
6th, in Albany, New York, Michael Gerard Tyson made his
boxing professional debut. He was only 18 years old when
he stepped into the ring. Tyson's first opponent? It was Hector Mercedes. And with a vicious body
shot, Tyson quickly wrecked Mercedes with
a first round TKO. Tyson would go on to win
26 of his first 28 fights by KO or TKO, 16 of those
coming in the first round. In fact, Tyson's
quickest knockout was a year later
on July 26th, 1986, when Tyson met Joe
Frazier's son Marvis. Tyson KO-ed Frazier
in 30 seconds. Uppercut and Marvis is hurt. Frazier is down. We'll see more of Iron
Mike in the coming years. Back to '85, on March
7th, "We Are the World," the charity single for
Ethiopian Famine Relief, written by Lionel Richie and
Michael Jackson, was released. It ride the number one
spot for four weeks. The song was famously
recorded at The Gambler, Kenny Rogers' Lion Share
Recording Studio in Hollywood. All of the decade's
most iconic voices participated, Stevie Wonder,
Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, and Dan Aykroyd? The only person who overshadowed
this all-star recording session didn't even show up to
the recording studio. Prince, who was at the
peak of his popularity, spent the night hanging out at
Carlos 'n Charlie's, the Sunset Strip nightclub at the time. Prince's night out would
make headlines the next day when his bodyguard
beat up a paparazzi as he tried to exit the club. [ROBOTECH THEME] Robotech. Three days later, the Soviet
Union's General Secretary, Konstantin Chernenko, died after
a long fight with emphysema and associated lung and
heart damage on March 10th. He led the Soviets
for just over a year, from February 13th, 1984. Mikhail Gorbachev
then took the helm as the Soviets'
General Secretary. We'll see a bit more
from Mr. Gorbachev later. Going from Russia across
the Bering Sea to Alaska, Libby Riddles made history
when she became the first woman to win the prestigious
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 31st. At 29 years old, Riddles
mushed her 14 huskies through 938 miles of snowy,
cross-country terrain, with a time of 18 days, 20
minutes, and 17 seconds. On the very same day, we go to a
sold out Madison Square Garden, where the very first
Wrestlemania was seen by one million rabid fans. The event consisted
of nine matches, including the Iron Sheik and
Nikolai Volkoff versus the US Express with Captain Lou Albano,
Andre the Giant versus Big John Stud, and somehow Cyndi
Lauper became a manager. The main event was a
battle for the ages, featuring hulk Hogan and
Mr. T, who doubled up to defeat Mr. Wonderful Paul
Orndorff and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Patterson, he got [INAUDIBLE]. He got him. And of course, who could forget
the honorary guest timekeeper that night, Liberace? From New York to
China, on April 7th, when George Michael and Andrew
Ridgeley, the duo better known as Wham!,
performed in China, being the first band from
the west to ever do so. The gig was actually
supposed to go to Queen. Freddie Mercury wanted to be
the first ever to play China. When Wham!'s manager
heard this, he sent a video of Mercury's
flamboyant performances to Chinese authorities. When the event
organizers saw Mercury, they opted for Wham1,
who was presented far more conservatively. Arriving in mid-April, we would
see boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler go toe to toe
with Tommy the Hitman Hearns at Caesar's Palace. Hagler won in the
third round by knockout and, despite only going
such a short distance, is still considered to be
one of the best fights ever. [INAUDIBLE] On April 23rd, New Coke was
introduced to the public. And the public was not OK
with a newer, sweeter flavor. After an initial
7% boost in sales the first few days on the
market, consumers revolted. And Pepsi gained 14% of
Coca Cola's market share. Fast forward to July,
when Coca-Cola executives announced a return to
their original formula. Despite the negative press, New
Coke stuck around until 2002. On the same day as
New Coke, we go back to the USSR, when
Mikhail Gorbachev sought to decentralize the economic
decisions to improve efficiency by making economic reforms
known as perestroika. The literal meaning
of perestroika is restructuring, referring
to the restructuring of the Soviet political
and economic system. Fast forward to
October 1990, when Gorbachev was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize, in part for his pivotal
role in ending the Cold War. We go to mid-May. And with an average of 28.2
points per game and magically turning the crappy Bulls
into playoff contenders, Michael Jordan was awarded
the NBA's Rookie of the Year. Also, in 1985, Nike
introduced Air Jordans. The shoes were $65 a
pair, well over the cost of an average high-top at
the time and, at first, banned by the NBA. Air Jordans created
a shoe-crazed nation and with the coolest high-top
and three-fourth cut shoes of the decade, and
maybe still are. Today, the Jordan brand
is worth over $3 billion. On May 20th, the FBI arrested
John Anthony Walker, a United States Navy Chief Warrant
Officer and Communication Specialist who had been spying
for the Soviet Union since 1968 for $1,000 a week. Walker's ex-wife
turned him into the FBI after years of pleading
with him to stop. Fast forward to August when
Walker was tried and sentenced to life in prison. Walker died in 2014,
one year before he was eligible for parole. No law, no war can stop him. Sylvester Stallone
is back, as Rambo. First Blood, Part II. A notable culinary
first, Bagel Bites were invented by tennis
partners Bob Mosher and Stanley Garkzynski, both from
Fort Myers, Florida. The two invested $20,000 into
the company and sold $1 million worth of their Bites
in the first year. On June 1st, when Harold
Faltermeyer's "Axel F" Beverly Hills Cops theme
song, hit number three on the billboard charts. Faltermeyer later said
the film's producers originally disliked
the direction he was taking the score and
wanted to throw the music out. It wasn't until Martin
Brest voiced his approval that the studio execs showed
enthusiasm about the music. Later, in June, Larry McMurty's
Western novel Lonesome Dove was released on the 13th. The story of the relationships
between retired Texas Rangers and their old west
adventures was so well-received it inspired
a coveted mini series. Fast forward to
February 5th, 1989, when heavy hitters like Robert
Duvall, Angelica Houston, and Tommy Lee Jones starred
in a television adaptation. But really, who could
forget water moccasins? Water moccasins? On June 15th,
Danae was attacked. Rembrandt's life sized
depiction of the character Danae from Greek mythology,
the mother of Perseus. Bronius Maigys, a
Soviet-Lithuanian national, later judged insane, threw
sulfuric acid on the canvas and cut it twice with a knife. Maigys claimed that
destroying the painting was his way to champion
Lithuania's independence from the USSR. Later, he said he was
generally against nude art. So yeah, thanks, Bronius. In late June, we go to the road,
where you could no longer get your kicks, because Route
66, the highway which spanned 2,200 miles
from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica,
California, was officially removed from the United
States highway system after it had been
replaced in its entirety by segments of the
Interstate Highway System. At the end of June, James
Dower, baker and inventor of the Twinkie, died
after a lifetime of working for Hostess
Brands' bakery. He started as one of the
company's delivery boys in 1920 in a horse-drawn
cart, retiring in 1972 as the company's Vice President. Dower became a hero
on April 6th, 1930 in the snack cake industry, when
he filled a tube of shortcake with banana cream and
called it the Twinkie. During World War II,
bananas were rationed and the company was forced
to switch to vanilla cream, the flavor we enjoy today. [ELECTRIC GUITAR RIFF] In Houston, Nolan Ryan
became the first pitcher to strike out 4,000
batters on July 11th, when the 38-year-old hurler fanned
New York Mets' outfielder Danny Heep during the
bottom of the sixth. Breaking ball, and that's it. Strike out number
4,000 for Nolan Ryan. Considered one of the
greatest pitchers ever, Ryan is known for three things. He has the current MLB record
for most career strikeouts, with 5,714. Ryan could hit 100 miles
per hour on the radar gun, until he retired at 46 and
this pummeling of Robin Ventura on August 4th, 1993. Watch out. Back to '85. And on July 13th,
the music industry from England and America hosted
simultaneous music festivals at Wembley Stadium in London
and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. It was a joint
effort to raise funds for relief of the
ongoing Ethiopian famine. While musicians like David
Bowie, U2, Paul McCartney, and Queen headlined
Wembley, the Philly crowd saw a shaky Led Zeppelin
reunion, peak Madonna, Mick Jagger with Tina
Turner, and Tom Petty. Of course, you also
have the show-off. After his set at
Wembley Stadium, Phil Collins caught the Concorde
and landed in Philadelphia in time to do a
second set at JFK. The next month, on August
26th, 13-year-old Ryan White began attending classes
at Western Military School in Kokomo, Indiana via
a telephone hookup at his home. Ryan became a national poster
child for AIDS in the US after his school
administrators barred him from attending classes
in person once he acquired the disease from a
contaminated blood transfusion. Fast forward a year later
to August 31st, 1986, when Ryan enrolled at Hamilton
Heights High School in Arcadia, Indiana, after the kids and
parents of Western Middle School ran him out of town. Southern Californians were
able to sleep a little better on August 31st. That was the day Richard
Ramirez was caught, beaten, and handed over to the LAPD by
a group of neighborhood locals who spotted the serial
killer wandering the streets of East LA. Flash forward to
September 20th, 1989, when the night
stalker was convicted of all charges, 13
counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual
assaults, and 14 burglaries. Moments after being sentenced
to death by gas chamber, Ramirez said, big deal. Death always went
with the territory. See you in Disneyland. Moving into the
1st of September, after decades of disappointing
searches and salvage expeditions, the RMS Titanic
was finally found off the coast of Newfoundland. While the ship's wreckage
is too unstable and delicate to salvage, divers
recovered thousands of items, which have
been conserved and put on public display. Of course, the
Titanic's popularity didn't peak until
we fast forward to November 1997, when James
Cameron's Titanic set sail. It's been 84 years. [SMALL WONDER THEME] (SINGING) Made of plastic,
microchips here and there. She's the small wonder. Now, you're always a bit ornery,
unpleasant, impolite, even downright mean. That's part of your charm. Thank you, you
bed hopping relic. To Silicon Valley, where
Steve Jobs resigned from Apple on September 16th
after losing a battle for control of the company
then CEO John Sculley. The corker is that Jobs poached
Sculley from Pepsi, because of his marketing genius. The pair ran Apple as co-CEOs. But when Jobs wanted more
say in which direction the company would
go, Apple's board told Jobs he was too volatile
to hold a leadership role. On the same day, Jobs
submitted paperwork to the California
Secretary of State for the name of his new
company, Next Computer. Fast forward to 1997, when Apple
would buy Next for $429 million and give Jobs an advisory
role back at Apple HQ. Now, when music and
politics collide. September 21st, Dee Snider,
lead singer of Twisted Sister, testified before the US Senate
in defense of music censorship. The Washington Wives, a
small group of high ranking government officials' wives,
wanted to give albums ratings, the same way the
MPAA rated movies. Hoping he'd embarrass
himself, everyone was shocked when Snider,
dressed like an '80s rock star Halloween costume,
eloquently made a case for uncensored music. As the creator of
"Under the Blade," I can say categorically that
the only sadomasochism, bondage, and rape in this song is
in the mind of Ms. Gore. The Oregon Trail was first
released for the Apple II. It was no Burger Time
or Mario Brothers. But as far as personal
computer games went, it was OK. Plus, kids learned about the
realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon
Trail and the many ways to die. Dysentery again? Pacman never taught
us anything like that. Spurred by a controversial,
off-the-cuff remark from Bob Dylan in
July, during his set for Live Aid in Philadelphia,
Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young took
it upon themselves to organize Farm Aid. A wide variety of
musicians, like Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Loretta
Lynn, Sammy Hagar, with Eddie Van Halen,
and 50 other A-listers arrived in Champaign,
Illinois on September 22nd to help raise over
nine million dollars for America's independent
farmers and their families. From the heartland USA
to the Soviet Bloc, the USSR suffered from a
national economic crash during September,
when Saudia Arabia started rapidly increasing
its petroleum extraction. Saudi Arabia's increase in oil
production led to a collapse in the price of a
barrel of oil, which fell as low as seven dollars. Fast forward to
December 26th, 1991, when the Supreme Soviet
voted the USSR itself out of existence. Five years after the Saudis'
change in oil exporting paved the road for the
Soviet Union's collapse. All right, hot shot, so
you got a golden Palomino between your knees and no rings. Now, what? To video games. It was on October 18th
Nintendo Entertainment Systems made its North American debut to
a small test market in New York City. The first NES gaming system
cost your parents $149.99. And it came complete with Super
Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, a light gun attachment for Duck
Hunt, and an extra controller. And let's not forget, you
needed extra lung capacity for blowing on a cartridge
just to get a game to work. By 1990, 30% of all
American households owned Nintendo, compared
to 23% for homes that had a personal computer. Three days later,
on October 21st, former San Francisco
Supervisor Dan White was found in his home's
garage, dead behind the wheel of his wife's car, less than
six years after he assassinated San Francisco Mayor George
Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Both Mayor Moscone and
Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. Jesus Christ. You may also remember
White as the man who defended the murders with
what's now mockingly known as the Twinkie Defense. White's legal team claimed that
white killed Moscone in milk, because the former
health nut had become addicted to junk food. The jury didn't buy
White's Twinkie excuse. And White served five years
on a soft seven-year sentence. New York Yankees management
fired Billy Martin on October 27th, officially
ending the Billy IV era of Yankees baseball. It was the fourth
time Martin had been fired as the Yankees manager. He never admitted it,
but the call most likely came from Steinbrenner, who
dealt with Martin's fights on and off the field
and unpaid debts. Fast forward to 1988,
when the Yankees would sign Martin as
the season's manager for the fifth time. The 60-year-old manager was
fired before the season ended. But while he was
in the pinstripes during the '88 season,
he never lost his fury. And there he is. Not going to go quietly. Crack made its first appearance
in The New York Times on November 17th, when the paper
described it as a super drug. This wasn't your
daddy's cocaine. It was addictive,
cheap, and lethal. In the '80s, the drug would
devastate black communities. And with tough on crime
policies, as well as the War on Drugs, harsh
mandatory drug sentencing would be the catalyst for
the prison population boom. The nation's response to crack? Fast forward to 1992,
when Pee Wee Herman filmed this David Lynch-ian
PSA about the dangers of crack. Look, everybody wants to be
cool, but doing it with crack isn't just wrong. It could be dead wrong. [HEARTBEAT RACING] We're not going to show
it, but November 18th marks the day the New
York Giants' Lawrence Taylor broke Joe
Theismann's s leg in three during a Monday
Night Football game. It was the live,
uncensored, graphic rawness that would stick in any viewer's
traumatized memory decades after it happened. That day would be Theismann's
last day as a football player. Theismann would move on
to announcing NFL games. But his big broadcasting
moment came when he hosted American Gladiators. Fast forward and to the date of
Theismann's injury on November 18th, 2018, when JJ Watt
and Kareem Jackson inflicted the same injury to another
Washington quarterback, Alex Smith. Worth noting, as of the
making of this video, Alex Smith is
returning to the NFL. Yeah. Now, he's worried. You cut him. You hurt him. You see? You see? He's not a machine. He's a man. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Moving into December,
the Chicago Bears released the Super Bowl
Shuffle on the 3rd. Fast forward to
February 1st, 1986, when the Super Bowl
Shuffle peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. For a decade filled with great
music, how did that happen? Two days later, on December
5th, Christopher Forbes, Vice President of
Forbes magazine Bought a 1787 Chateau
Lafite Claret for $157,000. The rare 198-year-old
bottle of wine was said to have once been
owned by Thomas Jefferson. [GLUGGING] Mhm. Fancy. Fast forward to 2005, when
billionaire wine collector Bill Koch, yes that Koch of
the shadowy Coke brothers, bought four bottles
of 1787 Chateau Lafite from the same batch
Forbes bought his bottle. Coke staff began the process
of certifying the four bottles and soon found out
the entire batch, including Forbes'
bottle, were fakes. [GLUGGING] Mhm. Fakes. On December 23rd, in Reno,
Nevada, 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Ray
Belknap shot themselves in an apparent suicide pact. Vance's parents lawyered
up and sued Judas Priest, alleging the boys were
told to shoot themselves in a subliminal message in
an 8-year-old Priest song, "Better By You, Better Than Me." July 1990, when Vance and
Belknap's lawyers finally got Priest in court, the parents
were asking for $6.2 million in damages. Lead singer Rob Halford
said, if he was ever going to put a subliminal
message in his songs, it would be to buy more albums. The judge ultimately decided
that the group was not responsible. Turning to true
crime, Dian Fossey, one of the foremost
primatologists in the world, best known for her
study of the mountain gorillas, was found murdered on
December 27th in the bedroom of her cabin in Rwanda. Three years later, Fossey's
story would hit the screen. Universal Pictures
and Warner Brothers present Sigourney
Weaver, Bryan Brown, in the true story of one
woman's incredible courage. Finally, on the last
day of the year, which would end on a somber
note, on his way to headline a big New
Year's Eve gig in Texas, Rick Nelson died when his
plane crashed in a pasture, less than two miles
from a landing strip. Nelson, his girlfriend,
and his band died. The two pilots escaped
the burning wreckage from their cockpit windows. After a year-long investigation,
the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that
a definite cause of the crash was unknown. Nelson was 45. 1986 was just around
the corner, when America would get the
need, the need for speed, a human chain would
form across the country, and a future media giant's
show would make its debut. But you're just going to
have to wait until next year. Coming up next, 1986. So what do you think? What year from the '80s
was your favorite year? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're
at it, check out some of these only
about the 1980s videos from our Weird History.
