Democrat Walter Mondale selected Ferraro as his running mate, but they were defeated in the general election by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush.

After being trapped 22 feet underground for three days, "Baby Jessica"--as she was known by the end of the week--was finally rescued on October 16, 1987. When Jessica turned 25 on March 26, 2011, she received a trust fund, composed of donations from around the world, which she used to purchase a home less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from the well into which she fell.

The Iran-Contra affair occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo, with the administration hoping to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. On 4 March 1987, Reagan made a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for the affair and stating that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."

On September 2, 1985, a team of American and French researchers discovered the wreckage of the Titanic south of Newfoundland, more than 12,000 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean. One of the most famous shipwrecks of all time, the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 15, 1912, and sank, leading to the deaths of 1,500 passengers.

Recorded by a supergroup of stars such as Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Willie Nelson, "We Are the World" went on to sell more than 20 million copies.

Though the Soviet Union's ice hockey team was a four-time defending gold medalist and heavily favored, the United States upset them 4-3.

The shooter, John Hinckley Jr., was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. Public outcry over the verdict led to the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984, which altered the rules for consideration of mental illness of defendants in Federal Criminal Court proceedings in the United States.

On 8 December 1980, John Lennon autographed a copy of his recently released album Double Fantasy for fan Mark David Chapman. When Lennon returned to his Manhattan apartment building a few hours later, Chapman shot and killed him. In the weeks following the murder, Double Fantasy topped the charts in the UK and the US.

Simon & Garfunkel hadn't performed together for a decade when they reunited on the Great Lawn in Central Park, attracting more than 500,000 people for one of the largest concerts in history. Proceeds went toward the redevelopment and maintenance of the park, which had deteriorated due to lack of municipal funding.

Close to 8 million Ethiopians became famine victims during the drought of 1984, and over 1 million died. A BBC news crew was the first to document the famine, describing "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth".