April 24 – The 6.2 MwMorgan Hill earthquake shook central California and the South Bay area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing 21–27 injuries and $7.5–8 million in losses.
Forces veteran Denis Lortie shoots and kills three government employees in the National Assembly of Quebec building in Quebec City. The National Assembly's sergeant-at-arms, René Jalbert, talks Lortie into surrendering.[3]
The longest game in Major League Baseball history begins at 7:30 PM between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox. The game is played over the course of 2 days, lasting 25 innings, with a total time of 8 hours and 6 minutes.
May 27 – An overnight flash flood rages through neighborhoods in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nearly 15 inches of rain falls in some areas over a four-hour period. Fourteen people are killed.
June 28 – Richard Ramírez (the "Night Stalker") murders his first confirmed victim.
Julyedit
July 13 – Terry Wallis, a 19-year-old living in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, falls into a deep coma after a severe automobile accident; he will eventually awaken 19 years later on June 13, 2003.
July 18
Beverly Burns becomes the first female Boeing 747 captain in the world.
August 11 – United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
December 22 – Four African-American youths (Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey) board an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City. They attempt to rob Bernhard Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime, which is a plague in 1980s America.
Crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, becomes widely used in the Los Angeles area and soon spreads across the United States in what becomes known as the Crack epidemic.