A Year of Terrorism and Tragedy: Earthquake, volcano, cyclone, mudslides, storm surge–altogether they kill over 30,000 people during the year 1985. The terrorists, mostly Palestinian, kill far fewer people, but create havoc nevertheless, hijacking airplanes and a ship in their ongoing mission to turn the world’s attention toward the Palestinian cause.

March 11, 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the new leader of the USSR after the death of Konstantin Chernenko.

May 25, 1985. Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.

June 30, 1985. Thirty-nine U.S. hostages are released in Beirut, Lebanon after their TWA flight was hijacked seventeen days earlier by Islamic Jihad terrorists. The hijackers murdered one passenger, a U.S. navy diver, and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails as a condition for the release of the hostages. The U.S. and Israel insist that no deal has been struck with the terrorists, but Israel plans to release 700 prisoners in the next few days.

September 19, 1985. An 8.1 Richter scale earthquake strikes Mexico City. Around 10,000 people are killed, 30,000 injured, and 95,000 left homeless.

October 1, 1985. The Israeli air force bombs Palestinian Liberation Organization headquarters near Tunis in Tunisia.

October 7, 1985. The cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked in the Mediterranean Sea by four Palestinian terrorists. One passenger, American Leon Klinghoffer, is killed.

November 13, 1985. Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts, killing an estimated 23,000 people in Columbia.

November 20, 1985. Microsoft Corporation releases the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0.

November 23, 1985. EgyptAir Flight 648 is hijacked by the Abu Nidal group and flown to Malta, where Egyptian commandos storm the plane; 60 are killed by gunfire and explosions.

November 21, 1985. U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time in a summit in Geneva, Switzerland. The two leaders discuss nuclear arms control and reductions and human rights.