Seattle
- Microsoft released Windows 1.0 on November 20.
- Microsoft Excel for the Mac shipped in September and became the company's first major hit application.
- Steve Largent continued to set NFL receiving records; Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker with Maurice Sendak designs cemented its national reputation.
- Sub Pop's role in cataloging the emerging Pacific Northwest rock underground continued through Pavitt's column in The Rocket.
The United States
- Live Aid played simultaneously at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and Wembley Stadium in London on July 13, raising about $127 million for African famine relief and watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people.
- Back to the Future dominated the summer box office; The Color Purple and Out of Africa defined the awards conversation.
- New Coke was launched in April and pulled three months later, one of the most famous marketing reversals in history.
- Rock Hudson died of AIDS-related illness on October 2, the first major American celebrity death openly attributed to AIDS, fundamentally shifting the public conversation.
- Reagan and Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva in November.
The World
- Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party on March 11, beginning glasnost and perestroika.
- The Mexico City earthquake on September 19 killed an estimated 10,000 people.
- French intelligence agents bombed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbor on July 10.
- The wreck of the Titanic was discovered on September 1 by a joint U.S.–French expedition led by Robert Ballard.
- The Achille Lauro cruise ship was hijacked in the Mediterranean.
