Ice skater Meagan Duhamel

Events in 1985 and 8-12

Events in the world in the birth year of Meagan Duhamel

• Soviet leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11). Under the slogans of glasnost and Perestroika, Gorbachev initiates a broad program of reform and liberalization. Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).
• PLO terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7); American, Leon Klinghoffer, killed (Oct. 8); Italian government toppled by political crisis over hijacking (Oct. 16).
• Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24).

Birthday Meagan Duhamel (8-12) in history

• Day 8-12 year 1854: Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
• Day 8-12 year 1886: The American Federation of Labor was founded at a convention of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio.
• Day 8-12 year 1941: Congress declared war on Japan and the U.S. entered World War II.
• Day 8-12 year 1949: Communist attacks forced the Chinese Nationalist government to flee to the island of Formosa (Taiwan).
• Day 8-12 year 1978: Former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir died.
• Day 8-12 year 1980: John Lennon, former member of the Beatles, was shot and killed in New York City by a deranged fan.
• Day 8-12 year 1987: President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the first treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers.
• Day 8-12 year 1993: President Bill Clinton signed The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law.