Can You Answer These Questions About the Year 1985?

By: Zoe Samuel
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Can You Answer These Questions About the Year 1985?
Image: A&M Films

About This Quiz

The 1980s were a grand time in American history. The excessive corruption and stagflation of the 1970s were tackled with new laissez-faire policy that, while it sowed the seeds of all sorts of terrible problems later, created an initial boom that lasted some years and propelled plenty of people to prosperity. The looming specter of climate change was something you could still pretend wasn't happening, and while the first big backlashes against civil rights, feminism and so on were still underway, they hadn't made many major pushes or rolled back too many gains. The Cold War was still cause for concern, but the Soviet Union was clearly tottering and ready to fall. America was a shining city on a hill, and it was a time to be enormously optimistic (unless you were a gay man, of course, in which case it was a time of gross neglect and terror).

Culturally speaking, the 1980s are now regarded by many as, to some extent, a decade that taste forgot. Just about everyone had a perm and the neons were blinding. Shoulder pads worthy of a footballer were de rigeur, and it was still acceptable to smoke basically anywhere. Exciting advances in technology brought computers into homes, and all sorts of fabulous gadgets like the cellular phone were launched.

How well do you remember the middle year of the decade? Let's find out!

What software program that is now on hundreds of millions of computers was released in its earliest iteration?
Windows 1.0
Windows 3.1
Norton AntiVirus
Clippy the annoying paperclip
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Do you remember DOS? Of course not, nobody does. That's because Windows came along and saved us from having to type in all sorts of codes.

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What was the average price of a new home in the USA, in thousands of dollars?
150
89
40
222
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The number is a lot higher now, relative to ... well, just about everything. If you wanted to buy a house in the USA, the '80s was the last time it was genuinely easy to do for a middle-class family on a single income.

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What controversial border was finally reopened?
Spain and France
Spain and Gibraltar
India and Pakistan
China and Tibet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gibraltar is British but Spain wants it back. The people of Gibraltar don't want to go back, hence the issue. Things have been a lot better since 1985, though.

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What popular comic strip made its debut in 1985?
Peanuts
Calvin and Hobbes
South Park
Garfield
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Calvin and Hobbes made their debut in November. At its peak the comic was in over 2,000 newspapers!

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What was the name of the Greenpeace ship blown up by French intelligence?
Planet Blue
Rainbow Warrior
The Dolphin
Le Monde, C'est Tout
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It sounds hard to believe, but the DGSE (French CIA) literally sent an agent undercover onto the Rainbow Warrior. They put limpet mines on the hull and blew it up!

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What road in the US highway system was shut forever?
Route 99
Route 66
Route 95
Route 101
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Spanning 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, Route 66 was iconic. It featured in thousands and thousands of songs.

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Who became leader of the Soviet Union?
Leon Trotsky
Mikhail Gorbachev
Nikita Krushchev
Josef Stalin
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Mikhail Gorbachev was the new Soviet leader, replacing Konstantin Chernenko. Only four years later, the Soviet Union fell and the Cold War was over.

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What wondrous game device launched and changed every American kid's life?
Nintendo
Playstation
XBox
Gameboy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Nintendo was just glorious to those who had never had videogames at home before. The first homes to get them could guarantee popularity for their child no matter what his or her personality - until the price came down enough for everyone else to get one.

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For what mission were a group of Japanese heroes selected?
Going into space
Climbing Mount Fuji naked
Swimming to China
Kayaking to America
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Japan did not have its own space capacity, but it was working with allies using its NASDA agency. By 1992, Japanese astronauts were in space!

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What disastrous product nearly sank a very large beverage company?
Crystal Pepsi
New Coke
Tab
Heineken Extra Creepy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Coca Cola made a terrible mistake with this horrible stuff. It was undrinkable and awful, and swiftly withdrawn.

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What movie received the dubious honor of eleven Oscar nominations with no wins?
"Back to the Future"
"The Color Purple"
"The Accused"
"Rain Man"
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This movie based on Alice Walker's book was heavily accoladed but did not win the Oscar. However, it was the fourth highest grossing movie of the year!

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What basketball player was the NBA's Rookie of the Year?
Shaquille O'Neal
LeBron James
Michael Jordan
Stephen Curry
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Michael Jordan was the first true megastar in basketball. His endorsement deals set a new precedent for what top athletes could earn.

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What tragedy in Mexico City killed 9,000 people?
Hurricane
Flood
Quake
Volcano
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A monster 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico City. Mexico is a vastly wealthier nation now than it was then, and building codes are greatly improved, but at the time it was not very able to cope and thus 9,000 people died.

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Who won men's Wimbledon?
Boris Becker
Roger Federer
Andre Agassi
John McEnroe
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Becker was only 17 when he won Wimbledon. That made him the youngest player ever to clinch the men's title and launched a star.

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What operation was launched to rescue Jewish Ethiopians in Sudan?
Operation Airlift
Operation Ninja
Operation Moses
Operation Savior
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Many members of the Ethiopian Jewish minority were in Sudan when civil war broke out and caused a famine. Israel sent an airlift to rescue them and bring them to Israel for a safer life.

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What happened in the Colombian town of Armero that killed many people?
Volcano
Flood
War
Famine
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A volcano erupted and killed 25,000 people. The volcano had been dormant 69 years and people assumed it would never go off again, resulting in them not heeding warnings that it was looking more active.

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What tragedy happened to EgyptAir Flight 648?
Hijacking
Crashed into a mountain
Disappeared
Longest delay in history
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This hijacking resulted in 56 deaths during a commando raid to rescue passengers. The policy of non-negotiation was adopted, hence the raid.

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What British labor dispute came to a sad end?
Coal miners' strike.
Bankers weren't getting the most enormous bonuses any more and it was super sad.
Sewage workers' walkout over unsafe conditions.
Air traffic safety walkout over long shifts.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The miners' strike was a very sad interlude. While the mines were doomed in the long run anyway, the government was heavy-handed and heartless, and it resulted in a generation of lost opportunity. The long term result was good for the climate and overall economy, but terrible for the economy of many northern towns.

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What did Brit Ernie Wise become known for?
Mooning the Queen.
Making the first mobile phone call.
Going into space.
Killing 100 people.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ernie Wise made the first mobile telephone call in the UK. The United Kingdom was a very fast adopter of cellphone technology, installing it considerably quicker than their US counterparts.

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What missing ship was found?
Titanic
Beagle
Mary Rose
Victory
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

An American and French expedition located the wreck of the Titanic. The supposedly unsinkable ship had been on the bottom of the ocean undisturbed since 1912.

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What serial killer claimed his first victim?
Dennis Rader
Ted Kaczynski
John Wayne Gacy
Ted Bundy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ted Kaczynski was the Unabomber, an anarchist and serial killer. He murdered people by sending out bombs, rather unusual for a serial killer.

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What did Philadelphia police do in 1985 that was generally considered to be a horrendous mistake?
Bombed a residential neighborhood.
Shot an unarmed man.
Started hiring women.
Changed to all pink uniforms.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Philly police wanted to get into a house occupied by MOVE, a Black Power group. They decided the best way was to drop a bomb onto the house from a helicopter. The resulting fire burned 53 houses.

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What did US health insurance companies do that caused civil rights groups to sue?
Deny coverage to people who had previously had a C-section.
Deny coverage to cancer survivors.
Deny coverage to people with HIV.
Deny coverage to people with lupus.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Insurance companies bought into the myths going around about HIV at the time and started screening for it. It is worth noting that they have denied coverage to millions of people for all the above conditions and more (they are not currently permitted to do this, or charge those people more, though this law may change).

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On whose orders was mob boss Paul Castellano shot?
John Gotti
Al Capone
Guiseppe Morello
Fat Tony Salerno
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gotti was a very famous mobster, which is an odd thing for a criminal to be, but he was. He wound up in prison for whacking a lot of people.

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What nation did South Africa invade?
Namibia
Angola
Swaziland
Zimbabwe
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This was part of the generation-long (1966-1990) South African Border War. Angola, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa were involved and it resulted in the largest battles in Africa since World War Two.

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What did Michael Jackson buy for $47m?
Neverland ranch
Rights to his own catalog.
Beatles catalog
A plane
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jackson bought the Beatles catalog for $47m. Given what it has generated since, this was an amazingly good investment.

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What Bond movie starring Christopher Walken came out?
A View To A Kill
Goldfinger
Thunderball
Skyfall
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A View To A Kill starred Walken as well as the supermodel Grace Jones. It was one of Roger Moore's highest grossing outings as Bond.

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What song was a massive hit for Dire Straits?
Crazy For You
Money for Nothing
Karma Chameleon
Don't You Want Me
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Dire Straits were a huge 1980s band. This song on their album Brothers in Arms is from the perspective of two working class men watching music videos.

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What very common thing was the first of its type registered this year?
Electric car
.com domain
.net domain
Private plane
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The first .com was symbolics.com. This way of finding websites is now so common it bears little notice, but it was a huge step for the internet.

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What famous redhead was born that year?
Prince Harry
Jessica Chastain
Lily Cole
Emma Stone
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Prince Harry was born in 1985. He was the naughty prince for much of his youth until he grew up, joined the military, served honorably, then began doing philanthropy and married the incredibly popular and beautiful actress and fellow philanthropist, Meghan Markle.

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Where was a hole discovered that alarmed many people?
Hoover Dam
Ozone layer
In President Reagan (because he was shot).
In the space-time continuum.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The hole was caused by an industrial chemical called chloro-fluoro-carbons or CFCs. They were banned and it just recently healed up. This is good, because if the ozone layer goes away, so does our protection from being burned to death by the sun!

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What new data storage technology was introduced to consumers?
Betamax
Compact disc
VHS
Floppy disc
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The CD was arguably better than the cassette, which came before it. However, it was fragile and it skipped and it was super expensive. Streaming is better, trust us.

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What space shuttle was launched?
Discovery
Atlantis
Columbia
Challenger
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Atlantis was launched in 1985 and flew into our hearts. It cost $196 billion and it was clearly cheap at the price!

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What anti-pollution technology was made compulsory in Swiss cars?
Windshield wiper
Catalytic converters
Air filter in the cabin
Low-VOC materials
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The catalytic converter is a splendid device that stops a lot of grit getting out of the car and into the air. Before it came along, asthma, cancer and other diseases were much worse in areas with a lot of cars.

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What song came out to raise money for people affected by famine in Africa?
"They Are Hungry"
"They're Just Africans, Man"
"We Are The World"
"We Don't Need All That Food (We're Too Fat Anyway)"
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This song was a huge hit and featured basically every major star of the decade. Nowadays it is seen as a smidge patronizing, but it did raise a lot of money to help people.

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You Got:
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A&M Films