February 13, 1984. Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

February 26, 1984. United States Marines and other peacekeeping forces leave Beirut, Lebanon to be policed by local militias.

June 6, 1984. In response to militant Sikh extremists demanding their own state, Indian troops storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, killing an estimated 2,000 people.

August 21, 1984. Half a million people in Manila, the Philippines demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

September, 1984. After two years of negotiations, agreement is reached for Great Britain to return Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997.

October 23, 1984. The world learns from moving BBC News TV reports that a famine is plaguing Ethiopia, where thousands of people have already died of starvation and as many as 10,000,000 more lives are at risk.

October 31, 1984. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is ambushed and assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards. Anti-Sikh riots break out. Rajiv Gandhi, Indira’s son, becomes prime minister of India

December 8, 1984. At least 2000 people die in the Indian city of Bhopal after the US-owned Union Carbide chemical plant there has a chemical leak, releasing a huge cloud of toxic methyl isocyanate gas. Thousands more are blinded or injured.

December 10, 1984. Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent struggle against apartheid. He says, “I have just got to believe God is around. If He is not, we in South Africa have had it.”