The special instruction Quincy Jones sent out to the several dozen pop stars invited to participate in the recording of “We Are the World” was this: “Check your egos at the door.” Jones was the producer of a record that would eventually go on to sell more than 7 million […]
Continue ReadingMonthly Archives: January 1985
Don DeLillo’s White Noise Wins The American Book Award
On this day in 1985, Don DeLillo wins the American Book Award for his breakthrough novel, White Noise. Although DeLillo had been publishing novels since 1971, his books had received little attention. White Noise, a semi-satire about a professor of Hitler Studies exposed to an “airborne toxic event,” established DeLillo […]
Continue ReadingCoen Brothers Release Debut Film, Blood Simple
CThe hard-boiled, often gruesome black comedy Blood Simple, the debut offering from the Minnesota-born brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, premieres on this day in 1985. The film told the story of Julian Marty (played by Dan Hedaya), a bar owner who hires a private detective (M. Emmett Walsh) to follow […]
Continue ReadingUnited States Walks Out Of World Court Case
For the first time since joining the World Court in 1946, the United States walks out of a case. The case that caused the dramatic walkout concerned U.S. paramilitary activities against the Nicaraguan government. For the Reagan administration, efforts to undermine the Sandinista government in Nicaragua had been a keystone […]
Continue Reading