On this day

July 13, 1985

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

Historical Context for July 13, 1985

In 1985, the world population was approximately 4,868,943,465 people[†]

Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of July 10, 1985, covering July 13, 1985.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Songs From The Big Chair by Tears for Fears

    Songs From The Big Chair

    Tears for Fears

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    15
  2. 2
    Album cover for No Jacket Required by Phil Collins

    No Jacket Required

    Phil Collins

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    19
  3. 3
    Album cover for Around The World In A Day by Prince And The Revolution

    Around The World In A Day

    Prince And The Revolution

    Last week
    4
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    10
  4. 4
    Album cover for Reckless by Bryan Adams

    Reckless

    Bryan Adams

    Last week
    5
    Peak
    4
    Weeks
    34
  5. 5
    Album cover for Beverly Hills Cop by Soundtrack

    Beverly Hills Cop

    Soundtrack

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    27
  6. 6
    Album cover for Born In The U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

    Born In The U.S.A.

    Bruce Springsteen

    Last week
    6
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    56
  7. 7
    Album cover for The Power Station by The Power Station

    The Power Station

    The Power Station

    Last week
    8
    Peak
    7
    Weeks
    14
  8. 8
    Album cover for Make It Big by Wham!

    Make It Big

    Wham!

    Last week
    7
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    36
  9. 9
    Album cover for Like A Virgin by Madonna

    Like A Virgin

    Madonna

    Last week
    9
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    33
  10. 10
    Album cover for Be Yourself Tonight by Eurythmics

    Be Yourself Tonight

    Eurythmics

    Last week
    10
    Peak
    10
    Weeks
    8

Notable Births

Trell Kimmons

1985Trell Kimmons, American sprinter[†]

David Pretrell "Trell" Kimmons is an American sprinter.

Guillermo Ochoa

1985Guillermo Ochoa, Mexican footballer[†]

Francisco Guillermo Ochoa Magaña, commonly known as "Memo Ochoa", is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Primeira Liga club AVS and the Mexico national team.

Charlotte Dujardin

1985Charlotte Dujardin, English equestrian[†]

Charlotte Susan Jane Dujardin is a British dressage rider, equestrian, and writer. A multiple World and Olympic champion, Dujardin has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era. In 2014 she held the complete set of available individual elite dressage titles: the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle, and Grand Prix Special titles. Dujardin was the first rider to hold this complete set of titles at the same time.

Abdallah El Said

1985Abdallah El Said, Egyptian footballer[†]

Abdallah Mahmoud Said Bekhit is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Egyptian Premier League club Zamalek

Historical Events

Live Aid

1985The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Moscow and Sydney.[†]

Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

Vice President of the United States

1985Vice President George H. W. Bush becomes the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan undergoes surgery to remove polyps from his colon.[†]

The vice president of the United States is the second-highest ranking office in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice president is also an officer in the legislative branch, as the president of the Senate. In this capacity, the vice president is empowered to preside over the United States Senate, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The vice president is indirectly elected at the same time as the president to a four-year term of office by the people of the United States through the Electoral College, but the electoral votes are cast separately for these two offices. Following the passage in 1967 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, a vacancy in the office of vice president may be filled by presidential nomination and confirmation by a majority vote in both houses of Congress.

Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device

Filter by:

Headlines from July 13, 1985

FOREIGN AID BILL MAY BE VETOED OVER STRICTURES

By Bernard Gwertzman, Special To the New York Times

Senior Administration officials said today that there was a strong chance of a Presidential veto if Congressional conferees did not drastically change the foreign aid authorization bill that was passed by the House on Thursday. A high-ranking State Department official said the foreign aid authorization bills - another version was approved by the Senate in May - provided about $1 billion less than what the President sought. The House bill authorizes $12.6 billion in each of the fiscal years 1986 and 1987; the Senate version authorizes $12.8 billion for 1986. Restrictions on President The officials made it clear that the Administration considered the House bill particularly objectionable because of several amendments limiting the President's power in foreign affairs.

Foreign Desk829 words

HOPES FOR MORE TAXIS IN THE CITY STALL AGAIN IN POLITICAL GRIDLOCK

By Suzanne Daley

Mayor Koch opened 1985 with a proposal to double the number of yellow medallion taxis in the city. Four months later, facing a wave of opposition from cabdrivers, he pulled back and called for a 10 percent increase. Now even that plan, those most involved with it say, seems headed for oblivion. To New Yorkers who feel that finding a cab during rush hours sometimes seems as likely as winning the lottery, this year's proposals are just the latest in a long series of taxi plans that have begun life with a burst of publicity and then died a quiet death. Some Council members say the Mayor has not made the issue a major priority. Even the Mayor says he is not set on having it his way.

Metropolitan Desk1307 words

TURK IN ROME CASE DETAILS SMUGGLING

By John Tagliabue, Special To the New York Times

A Turk who Mehmet Ali Agca says was a key figure in a plot to shoot Pope John Paul II has given the Turkish police a detailed account of his involvement in arms and drug-smuggling operations that he says were based in Bulgaria, according to transcripts of a four-day interrogation here. But according to the documents, the Turk, Bekir Celenk, consistently denied that he ever knew Mr. Agca, the convicted assailant of the Pope. Mr. Agca has said Mr. Celenk acted as intermediary for a Soviet diplomat in Bulgaria and offered Mr. Agca $1.2 million to assassinate the Pope. Being Tried in Rome Mr. Agca, who is serving a life sentence in Italy for his crime, is the key witness in the trial of eight people, including Mr. Celenk, accused of conspiring to murder the Pope.

Foreign Desk822 words

No Headline

By Lawrence K. Altman, Special To the New York Times

The polyp found in President Reagan's large intestine is of a type that statistically has a substantial chance of proving to be malignant. The operation to remove it, scheduled for Saturday, is classified as major surgery. Under normal circumstances, most physicians would not describe such an abdominal operation as life-threatening. But there is always a slim chance of complications affecting the heart and lungs, even a chance of death, when a person of Mr. Reagan's age undergoes general anesthesia and major surgery.

National Desk1185 words

G.O.P. RIFT WIDENS AS DOLE CRITICIZES REAGAN AND HOUSE

By Jonathan Fuerbringer, Special To the New York Times

The crack in Republican unity widened today as the Senate majority leader, Bob Dole, accused President Reagan and both parties in the House of ''surrendering to the deficit.'' Mr. Dole also said White House officials were backing away from tough decisions on spending cuts and said the President's chief of staff was none too eager to deal with the budget. The sharp remarks by Mr. Dole, a Kansas Republican, reflect the anger in Senate Republican ranks that developed this week after the President dropped his support for the Senate's plan to freeze Social Security benefits for one year and did not insist on specific spending cuts in return. House Democrats, led by Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., and House Republicans had insisted that no change be made in the cost-of-living adjustment. The President, in turn, continued to insist that there be no inrease in taxes.

National Desk969 words

OPERATION TODAY

By Gerald M. Boyd, Special To the New York Times

President Reagan will undergo surgery Saturday to remove a large polyp that was discovered today in his large intestine, the White House said. The new polyp was described by doctors as precancerous, meaning it has a higher chance of becoming cancerous than other types of polyps. Mr. Reagan had gone to the Bethesda Naval Medical Center for removal of a benign, or noncancerous, growth that was detected in an examination March 8. The Navy doctors removed a piece of the new, larger polyp in a procedure known as a biopsy. Pathologists were examining it to determine its type and whether it is cancerous. Those results are expected to be known before the operation starts Saturday.

National Desk1031 words

IN DROUGHT-RAVAGED SUDAN, SUDDEN DOWNPOURS SLOW AID

By Clifford D. May, Special To the New York Times

Heavy rains, an extraordinary phenomenon in the drought-ravaged western Sudan, are seriously hindering efforts to deliver food to hundreds of thousands of famine victims, according to relief workers who have recently returned from the region. Unless washed-out bridges and roads can be repaired and normal food supplies quickly resumed, relief workers say, deaths from starvation and disease are likely to increase sharply. Sudanese officials say 450,000 people are most seriously at risk in the region of Darfur, an area roughly the size of France. #7 Dry Years Darfur, which is home to three million people, has been in the grip of drought for the last three years; some parts have been without significant rainfall for as long as seven years.

Foreign Desk1140 words

SALVADOR REBEL CHIEF: A MILITARIST WITHOUT DOUBTS

By James Lemoyne, Special To the New York Times

As a student revolutionary, he helped ignite the war in the streets that shook El Salvador in 1979. Today, as the senior commander of leftist guerrilla forces, he directs a military campaign that has forced the United States to make a major military commitment to this small country. His name is Joaquin Villalobos, a man well known to the Salvadoran Army and the Central Intelligence Agency, but almost never seen publicly in El Salvador and virtually unheard of in the outside world. If records are accurate, he has just celebrated his 34th birthday. Of all the rebel commanders, Mr. Villalobos appears the most militaristic, relying heavily on force of arms.

Foreign Desk999 words

RUSSIANS SAID TO RETURN 'BOAT PEOPLE' TO VIETNAM

By Special to the New York Times

Thirty-seven Vietnamese, believed to be ''boat people'' fleeing their homeland, have been returned to Vietnam by a Soviet freighter that plucked them from the South China Sea, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said today. Officials of the United Nations commission said it was the first time to their knowledge that Vietnamese refugees had been returned home in all the years since the end of the Vietnam War 10 years ago began a mass exodus from the Southeast Asian nation. More than 555,000 Vietnamese have fled since the fall of Saigon, many of them in rickety, often unseaworthy craft or private boats. Thousands have died in the South China Sea of starvation, dehydration, accidents and pirate attacks.

Foreign Desk543 words

India Gives to Africa Fund

By AP

India has donated $9.6 million to a fund that enables famine-stricken African countries to buy Indian wheat. Salman Haidar, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said today that the fund would be administered by the Organization of African Unity. India has already contributed 100,000 tons of wheat for African relief.

Foreign Desk57 words