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Historical Context for April 18, 1984

In 1984, the world population was approximately 4,782,175,519 people[†]

In 1984, the average yearly tuition was $1,148 for public universities and $5,093 for private universities. Today, these costs have risen to $9,750 and $35,248 respectively[†]

Notable Births

1984America Ferrera, American actress[†]

America Georgina Ferrera is an American actress, director and television producer. She has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2007 and 2024, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world and in 2023, she was named in BBC's 100 Women list.

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Headlines from April 18, 1984

BUSINESS DIGEST

By Unknown Author

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1984 The Economy Housing construction starts fell 26.5 percent in March, the steepest one-month decline since the Government began compiling figures in 1959. Analysts said bad weather and higher interest rates caused the decline. (Page D1.)

Financial Desk603 words

EASTER FEASTS AROUND THE MEDITERREAN

By Nancy Jenkins

EASTER in the Mediterranean region is the most exciting festival of the year, an explosion of vitality after the cold and dreary rains of winter, a reawakening of earth's abundance that calls to mind the ancient myths on which the Mediterranean imagination has always fed. The breaking of the long, meatless Lenten fast, still taken more seriously in this area than in other parts of the modern Christian world, is the occasion for feasting and gaiety on a scale rivaled only by Christmas. It does not diminish Easter's sacramental nature to recall that the festival has its origins deep in the old pre- Christian celebrations of spring. In both a real and a symbolic sense, Easter is a link with those ancient festivities, Recipes are on page C8. interpreted through Christianity. Many of the foods that are traditionally a part of the festival, like the roast lamb that is the centerpiece of the Sunday feast, or eggs as a symbol of new life, or the grains of wheat that are an integral part of the Neapolitan pastiera di grana, can be traced back to the ancient celebration of spring.

Living Desk1309 words

WANG TEAMS UP IN PBX'S

By David E. Sanger

Wang Laboratories said yesterday that it had agreed to buy as much as 30 percent of Intecom, a maker of communications and switching equipment, in an effort to increase Wang's telecommunications offerings for the office market. Analysts said the transaction, which includes joint research and development efforts, was likely to hasten a shakeout under way among the more than 50 companies that make private branch exchange, or PBX, equipment. Last June, the International Business Machines Corporation made a similar investment in the Rolm Corporation, a major PBX manufacturer in Santa Clara, Calif.

Financial Desk528 words

CUOMO AND KOCH FACE OFF IN A WAR OF PRINTED WORD

By Unknown Author

Mayor Koch got to the printer first and parlayed a personal account of his administration and his 1982 gubernatorial campaign against Mario M. Cuomo into a best-seller. Most versions of history that have endured, however, have been recorded by the victors. And, with the publication by Random House of ''Diaries of Mario M. Cuomo: The Campaign for Governor,'' the victor's version of that contest is now available. Mr. Koch, especially, dwells primarily on his accomplishments, which is why he devotes only one chapter to his campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and calls his memoir ''Mayor.'' But even so, the contrasts with Mr. Cuomo's more-complete chronicle are striking and instructive. Here, for purposes of comparison, are excerpts from both books. Side by side, the two volumes demonstrate how different perspectives can color interpretations of the same event. Threading through both are hints of how their religious heritages and other personal factors influenced their policies and political outlooks.

Metropolitan Desk3577 words

American Express Net Off 28%

By Pamela G. Hollie

The American Express Company, which operates Shearson/American Express, and three major securities firms, the E.F. Hutton Group Inc., First Boston Inc. and Paine Webber Inc., all reported sharply lower earnings yesterday for the quarter ended March 31. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc., with the help of a strong performance from its investment management and institutional equities/options divisions, reported an increase of 9.4 percent. All of the companies said that earnings were hampered by slow underwriting activity resulting from rising interest rates and the continued sluggishness in the retail markets. ''The results are not surprising,'' said Joseph Spivack, senior analyst of the Value Line. ''It's been the same story since July.''

Financial Desk711 words

HIGH COURT BACKS FACTORY SEARCHES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

By Linda Greenhouse, Special To the New York Times

The Supreme Court ruled today, 7 to 2, that immigration officials may conduct unannounced raids on factories and businesses to look for illegal aliens. The decision, overturning a lower court's ruling, validated one of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's most widely used and effective techniques for finding illegal aliens. Under this technique, immigration officials enter a factory after obtaining either the owner's permission or a search warrant. While some agents stand at the doors, others walk through the factory, questioning workers about their immigration status.

National Desk1142 words

Despite Dip in Citicorp Net, Plaudits for Wriston

By Robert A. Bennett

Citicorp's earnings dropped a bit in the first quarter, and some shareholders were complaining that their dividends were not big enough. Despite that, the annual meeting broke into warm applause yesterday after the company's chairman, Walter B. Wriston, reported the quarterly results. Indeed, the fact that net income dropped 2.2 percent from the first quarter of 1983, and that per-share net income dropped 5.7 percent, seemed unimportant. Even those who generally dote on quarterly returns seemed a lot more willing than usual to take a longer-range view of Citicorp's progress.

Financial Desk668 words

AFTER 5,000 YEARS, A DICTIONARY OF SUMERIAN

By Colin Campbell, Special To the New York Times

They were tireless writers, as every school pupil knows. Setting to work 5,000 years ago in the lower Tigris and Euphrates Valleys of what is now Iraq, the Sumerians applied their reedy writing instruments to countless tablets of moist clay, created the world's first written language, wrote the first history books, the first epics, the first medical prescriptions, the first receipts - and the first tales of creation. Indeed, among the few words in English derived from Sumerian are ''abyss,'' the primordial sea that the Sumerians called the Abzu, and ''Eden,'' the lost paradise. What is less well known is that modern scholars, who discovered a century ago that Sumerian was a totally separate language from later Babylonian and Assyrian, have never had a Sumerian dictionary.

National Desk1149 words

GLEN COVE IS EXPECTED TO LIFT ITS CURB ON SOVIET DIPLOMATS

By John T. McQuiston, Special To the New York Times

The Mayor and the City Council majority leader agreed today to lift Glen Cove's two-year ban on the use of municipal recreational areas by Soviet diplomatic personnel and their families. If, as expected, the full Council follows their recommendation at a meeting next Tuesday, it would bring an end to a local dispute that had taken on national and international significance. It pitted this city of 24,000 against the State Department and the Justice Department, and led to similar restrictions on United States diplomatic personnel living in the Soviet Union. 'They Want to Be Good Neighbors' Fewer than a dozen Soviet diplomats and other personnel live permanently at Killenworth, a 36- acre estate here, but the number swells on weekends.

Metropolitan Desk719 words

SIX NEW BOUTIQUES WITH DISTINCT FLAIR

By Anne-Marie Schiro

HOPE springs eternal in the hearts of entrepreneurs. New shops of all descriptions seem to open their doors nearly every day in New York. Lately, most of them seem to be branches of Benetton, the Italian sportswear chain, or Labels for Less, the discounters. Both of them are turning up all over town, from Park Avenue to SoHo. Then there are the expensive foreign boutiques such as Missoni, Versace, Sonia Rykiel and Kenzo. The latest of these to appear is Giorgio Armani, which opens its doors today at 815 Madison Avenue (68th Street).

Living Desk1169 words

CARTER HAWLEY'S COVETED UNIT

By Alex S. Jones

For Waldenbooks, one of the nation's giant booksellers, with stores in nearly 850 shopping malls throughout the country, the problem is persuading more people to buy more books. The solution: everything from a company-sponsored Romance Book Club to carefully designed, turnstile racks that pack more books into a limited space. Last Monday, the company, known in the trade as a masterful mass merchandiser, became a key bargaining chip in the struggle of its parent, Carter Hawley Hale Stores, to fend off an unwelcome takeover by The Limited Inc., an Ohio retail chain. Waldenbooks' canny marketing skills earned it an estimated $27 million operating profit in 1983, according to Monroe H. Greenstein, a senior analyst at Bear, Stearns & Company. The company describes itself as the nation's largest bookseller, with more outlets than any other chain. But B. Dalton Booksellers, its close competitor, ranks first in sales, according to industry analysts.

Financial Desk1259 words

I was wondering if anything interesting on the news was going on when I was born, and decided to create this website for fun. The purpose is to show people what was going on when they were born. With this website I've found out that it was a pretty slow news day on my birthday, but I bet it would feel cool to know a historical event happened on your birthday.

The data used in this project is provided by the New York Times API. They have by far the best API I was able to find, with articles dating back to the 1950s. There weren't any other major newspapers that had an API with close to as much data. The closest was the Guardian API, but theirs only went back to the 1990s. I decided to only use articles from the New York Times because their API was by far the best. This tool works if you have a birthday after the 1950s or so.

Some important dates in history I'd recommend looking up on this website are:

  • 9/11/2001: The September 11 Attacks happened on this day, the news articles from this date provide great context to the tragedy our nation suffered and the immediate response from the American people. The headlines capture the shock, confusion, and unity that emerged in the aftermath of this devastating event.
  • 7/20/1969: The historic Apollo 11 moon landing, when humans first set foot on another celestial body. The articles from this date showcase humanity's greatest achievement in space exploration and the culmination of the space race.
  • 11/9/1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The coverage provides fascinating insights into this pivotal moment in world history and the emotions of people as decades of division came to an end.
  • 1/20/2009: Barack Obama's inauguration as the first African American President of the United States, a watershed moment in American history that represented a major milestone in the ongoing journey toward racial equality.
  • 8/15/1969: The Woodstock Music Festival began, marking a defining moment in American counterculture and music history. The coverage captures the spirit of the era and the unprecedented gathering of young people.

These historical events are just a few examples of the fascinating moments in history you can explore through this tool. Whether you're interested in your own birthday, significant historical dates, or just curious about what was making headlines on any given day, this website offers a unique window into the past through the lens of contemporary news coverage.

You can read more on our blog.