"Old times there are not forgotten"
All United States Marines in Lebanon were withdrawn. Corporate mergers created fewer but larger oil, publishing and food distribution entities. The economy showed marked improvement over the past few years fueling record profits for business and improved position for consumers with disposable income. However, these gains came at the expense of the foreign trade deficit. The Dow Jones average of common stocks closed 60 points below the level on the first day of the year, organized labor's membership dropped to 18.8 percent of salaried workers as jobs were moved overseas, 79 banks failed and farmland values dropped. The United States Embassy in Beirut was bombed for the second time in as many years resulting in two fatalities. The Television Academy Hall of Fame was established. Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Paddy Chayefsky, Norman Lear, Edward R. Murrow, William S. Paley and David Sarnoff were the inaugural inductees.
New book titles: The Aquitaine Progression, Him With His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories, Lives of the Poets, Iacocca and Walt Whitman.
At the movies: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Amadeus, A Pasage to India, All of Me, Places in the Heart, The Killing Fields and Sunday in the Country.
On stage: The Real Thing, Sunday in the Park With George and La Cage aux Folles.
Emmy Awards: Tom Selleck for Magnum, P.I., Tyne Daly for Cagney and Lacey, Sir Laurence Olivier for Laurence Olivier's King Lear and Jane Fonda for The Doll Maker.
January 10
Full diplomatic relations with the Vatican was announced. That relationship had last existed in 1867.
March 15
Classmate Mary Belle Lyons-Kennedy died in a car crash on West Virginia Route 3 at White Oak, West Virginia. Mary Belle was in the company of her oldest daughter, Mary Anna Kennedy-Christian (who also died in the crash) and enroute to Charlottesville, Virginia for treatment of throat cancer. A Cranberry girl, Mary Belle married classmate David Kennedy and started her family before graduation. She was employed as a Raleigh County deputy assessor at the time of her death and was survived by her mother, three sons and two daughters.
October 1
Classmate Richard William Highlander retired from the United States Army with 21 years, 3 months and 26 days active duty service.
October 5
Astronaut Jon McBride (Woodrow Wilson High School Class of 1960) was the pilot of STS 41G, launched aboard the Orbiter Challenger. During the course of this mission, Dr. Kathyn D. Sullivan became the first American female astronaut to walk in space.
December 31
West Virginia University defeated Texas Christian University by a score of 31-14 at the Bluebonnet Bowl played in Houston, Texas.