February1984 Calendar
- Feb 1 American lawyer and businessman David Stern becomes NBA Commissioner, succeeding Larry O'Brien; stays in position until 2014
Medicare
Feb 1 Bob Hawke's Australian Labor government re-instates universal healthcare as Medicare [1]
- Feb 1 China & Netherlands regain diplomatic relations
- Feb 1 Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre kidnapped and murdered by Kashmiri terrorists in Birmingham, England
- Feb 2 1st Soap Opera Digest Awards - "Days of Our Lives" wins
- Feb 2 Lebanese army fights in Beirut
- Feb 3 10th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41B): Challenger 4 launches
- Feb 4 "9" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 739 performances
- Feb 4 "Backstage Magic" opens at CommuniCore
- Feb 4 Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168m) Las Vegas
- Feb 5 NZ beat England (82 & 93) by an innings in 3 days
- Feb 6 Muslim militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese army
- Feb 7 American astronaut Bruce McCandless makes 1st untethered space walk
- Feb 7 David (born without immunity system) touches his mother for 1st time at age 12
- Feb 8 A's take Yankees pitcher Tim Belcher as Type A free agent compensation
- Feb 8 For the 1st time eight people are in space
- Feb 8 Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of 3 to Salyut 7
- Feb 8 XIV Winter Olympic Games open in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
- Feb 9 East German ski jumper Jens Weißflog wins first of 3 career Olympic gold medals in the Normal Hill individual event at the Sarajevo Winter Games
- Feb 9 East German speed skater Karin Enke wins the 1,500m in world record 2:03.42 at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 1,000m gold
- Feb 9 Finnish cross-country skier Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen wins the 10k gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; first of 3 individual medal sweep, also winning 5k and 20k events
The Rink
Feb 9 John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "The Rink", based on Terrence McNally's novel, and starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, opens at Martin Beck Theater, NYC; runs for 204 performances, winning a Tony Award
Zimyatov's Fourth Gold
Feb 10 Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins a career 4th Olympic gold medal when he takes out the 30k event in Sarajevo; 3 gold in Lake Placid 1980
- Feb 11 10th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41B): Challenger 4 returns to Earth
- Feb 12 12 years after winning the doubles in Sapporo (1972), Italian Paul Hildgarten wins the men's luge singles at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics
- Feb 12 East German luger Steffi Martin wins the first of 2 consecutive women's singles gold medals at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins in Calgary (1988)
- Feb 12 Finnish cross-country skier Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen wins the 5k gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; 2nd of 3 individual medal sweep, also winning 10k and 20k events
- Feb 12 West Indies beat Australia 2-1 to win cricket's World Series Cup after going undefeated in the qualifying rounds
- Feb 12 William Grant Still's Symphony No. 3 ("The Sunday Symphony"), composed in 1958, receives premiere performance, by the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carlton Woodsi
- Feb 13 6-year-old Texan Stormie Jones gets 1st heart and liver transplant
- Feb 13 Karin Enke of East Germany wins her 2nd gold medal of the Sarajevo Winter Games, winning the women's 1,000m in Olympic record 1:21.61; also wins 1,500m gold
- Feb 13 Swedish cross country skier Gunde Svan wins 15k event, the first of 2 gold medals at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 4 x 10k relay gold
Torvill and Dean's Perfect Score
Feb 14 Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously dominate the ice dancing at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; perform to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" in free dance routine; record 9-of-9 perfect scores for artistic impression [1]
- Feb 14 Canadian speed skater Gaétan Boucher takes out the 1,000m gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 1,500m; narrowly beats Soviet skater Sergey Khlebnikov in both events
- Feb 15 500,000 Iranian soldiers move into Iraq
- Feb 15 An East German sweep of the medals in the women's 3,000m speed skating at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; Andrea Schöne takes gold ahead of teammates Karin Enke and Gabi Zange
Olympic Gold
Feb 16 3-time men's figure skating world champion Scott Hamilton of the US wins the gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics from Brian Orser of Canada and Jozef Sabovčík of Czechoslovakia
- Feb 16 Bill Johnson becomes first American to win an Olympic downhill skiing gold at the Sarajevo Games; beats Swiss Peter Müller by 0.27s
- Feb 16 Canadian speed skater Gaétan Boucher takes out the 1,500m at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, his second gold medal of the Games; also wins the 1,000m
- Feb 16 NJ Devils 1st OT goal, Jan Ludvig beats Hartford Whalers 6-5
- Feb 16 Swedish cross country skier Gunde Svan takes his 2nd gold medal of the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in the 4 x 10k relay; also wins 15k gold
- Feb 16 Swedish cross country skier Thomas Wassberg wins 2nd career gold medal in 4 x 10k relay at Sarajevo Winter Olympics; 2nd of 4 career gold; 15k Lake Placid (1980), 50k Sarajevo, relay Calgary (1988)
- Feb 17 34th Berlin International Film Festival: "Love Streams" wins the Golden Bear
- Feb 17 Biathletes Eirik Kvalfoss of Norway and West German Peter Angerer finish 2nd & 3rd respectively in the relay at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; both have complete sets of medals from biathlon events at the Games
- Feb 18 East German figure skater Katarina Witt wins first of 2 consecutive women's singles gold medals at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins gold in Calgary (1988)
- Feb 18 Finnish cross-country skier Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen wins the 20k gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; sweeps all 3 individual events, also winning 5k and 10k events
Olympic Gold
Feb 18 Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen wins first of 4 career Olympic gold medals in the Large Hill individual event at the Sarajevo Winter Games
- Feb 18 Revised concordat between Italy & Vatican signed
- Feb 19 "Doonesbury" closes at Biltmore Theater, NYC, after 104 performances
- Feb 19 1st brother combo to win Gold & Silver in same event at Olympics (Phil & Steve Mahre-Slalom)
- Feb 19 26th Daytona 500: Cale Yarborough wins for 2nd consecutive year and 4th time in career; last-lap pass to beat Darrell Waltrip
- Feb 19 Soviet Union wins its 6th Olympic ice hockey gold medal with a 2-0 win over silver medallists Czechoslovakia at the Sarajevo Winter Games
- Feb 19 Swedish cross country skier Thomas Wassberg wins 50k event at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; his second gold of the Games (4 x 10k relay) and 3rd of his career (15k Lake Placid 1980)
- Feb 19 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Feb 19 XIV Winter Olympic Games close in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
- Feb 24 Iraq resumes air attack on Iran
- Feb 25 Oil fire in Cubatao Brazil kills 500
- Feb 26 Last US marines in multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon left Beirut
- Feb 26 Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Penn Warren is named the 1st US poet laureate
- Feb 26 Reverend Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he called NYC "Hymietown"
- Feb 27 Worker's union leader Billy Nair (55) freed from Robben Island Prison in South Africa after 20 years as a political prisoner
- Feb 27 WRC-AM in Washington, D.C. changes call letters to WWRC
- Feb 28 26th Grammy Awards: Michael Jackson wins 8 Grammys
- Feb 28 British satirical puppet show "Spitting Image" premieres on ITV
Event of Interest
Feb 29 Pierre Trudeau announces he is stepping down after 15 years as Canadian Prime Minister
- Feb 29 Swedish center Patrik Sundström scores a goal and adds 6 assists as Vancouver Canucks beat the Penguins 9-5 in Pittsburgh; just the 3rd player in NHL history to record 6 assists in a road game
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