Rock Hudson Announces He Has AIDS

On this day in 1985, Rock Hudson, a quintessential tall, dark and handsome Hollywood leading man of the 1950s and 1960s who made more than 60 films during his career, announces through a press release that he is suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). With that announcement, Hudson became […]

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Reagan’s Doctors Discover Possibly Cancerous Colon Polyp

On this day in 1985, while President Ronald Reagan is undergoing surgery to remove a benign polyp in his large intestine, doctors discover a second polyp and perform a biopsy to determine whether or not it is cancerous. Reagan’s 1985 surgery was performed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland. […]

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Live Aid Is Held Simultaneously In London And Philadelphia And Broadcast Live Throughout The World

“This is your Woodstock, and it’s long overdue.” That was the introduction offered by 1960s folk icon Joan Baez at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the opening of the North American portion of Live Aid on this day in 1985. The biggest rock concert and charity event in the […]

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Live Aid Concert

On July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially open Live Aid, a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans. Continued at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and at other arenas around the world, the 16-hour “superconcert” was globally […]

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The Sinking Of The Rainbow Warrior

In Auckland harbor in New Zealand, Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior sinks after French agents in diving gear plant a bomb on the hull of the vessel. One person, Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira, was killed. The Rainbow Warrior, the flagship of international conservation group Greenpeace, had been preparing for a protest voyage […]

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“Back To The Future” Released, Features 1981 DeLorean DMC-12

On this day in 1985, the blockbuster action-comedy “Back to the Future”–in which John DeLorean’s iconic concept car is memorably transformed into a time-travel device–is released in theaters across the United States. “Back to the Future,” directed by Robert Zemeckis, starred Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a teenager who […]

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