* 1985 – Clarke MacArthur, Canadian hockey player

* 1985 – Al Mukadam, Canadian director, producer, screenwriter and actor

* 1985 – Frank Ongfiang, Italian footballer

* 1985 – James Alexandrou, English actor

* 1985 – Brennan Boesch, American baseball player

* 1985 – Jeísa Chiminazzo, Brazilian model

* 1985 – Ted Ginn, Jr., American football player

* 1985 – Anna-Katharina Samsel, German actress

* 1985 – Olga Seryabkina, Russian singer-songwriter ( Serebro )

* 1985 – Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer ( Morning Musume and Hangry & Angry )

* 1901 – Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian economist, Nobel laureate ( d. 1985 )

* 1985 – Ashley Alexandra Dupré, American call girl, columnist, and singer

* 1985 – Gal Gadot, Israeli actress and model

* 1985 – The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.

* 1908 – Kurt Wegner, German artist ( d. 1985 )

* 1985 – Nikica Jelavić, Croatian footballer

* 1985 – Alexandra Nechita, Romanian-American painter

* 1985 – Mickaël Delage, French cyclist

* 1985 – Bafétimbi Gomis, French footballer

* 1985 – Garrett Weber-Gale, American swimmer

* 1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet ( d. 1985 )

* 1985 – Luca Filippi, Italian race car driver

* 1985 – Anna Kendrick, American actress

* 1985 – Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer

* 1985 – JaMarcus Russell, American football player

However, since the contras failed to win widespread popular support or military victories within Nicaragua, since opinion polls indicated that a majority of the U. S. public was not supportive of the contras, since the Reagan administration lost much of its support regarding its contra policy within Congress after disclosure of CIA mining of Nicaraguan ports, and since a report of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research commissioned by the State Department found Reagan's allegations about Soviet influence in Nicaragua " exaggerated ", Congress cut off all funds for the contras in 1985 by the third Boland Amendment.

The dramatic drop of the price of oil in 1985 and 1986, and consequent lack of foreign exchange reserves in following years to purchase grain profoundly influenced actions of the Soviet leadership.

Fighting in Afghanistan also intensified, but in the late autumn of 1984 the United States and the Soviet Union did agree to resume arms control talks in early 1985.

Following the death of terminally ill Konstantin Chernenko, the Politburo elected Mikhail Gorbachev to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) in March 1985, marking the rise of a new generation of leadership.

Soviet authorities published Mažoji lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija ( 3 volumes, 1966 – 1971 ), Lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija ( 12 volumes, 1976 – 1985 ), and Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedija ( 4 volumes, 1985 – 1988 ).

Only after the ascendancy of Mikhail Gorbachev to Soviet leadership in 1985 did mass media in Finland gradually begin to criticize the Soviet Union more.

* 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union and begins reforms which inadvertently lead to the collapse of Communism and USSR.

* 1985 – The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London, England, United Kingdom and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as other venues such as Sydney, Australia and Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

* 1985 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.

* 1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba ; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

On 11 March 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen by the Politburo as the new General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( 24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985 ) was a Soviet politician and the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984 until his death thirteen months later, on 10 March 1985.

However, in late autumn of 1984, the U. S. and the Soviet Union did agree to resume arms control talks in early 1985.

Chernenko's illness was first acknowledged publicly on 22nd February 1985 during a televised election rally in Kuibyshev Borough of northeast Moscow, where the General Secretary stood as candidate for the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, when Politburo member Viktor Grishin revealed that the General Secretary was absent in accordance with doctors ' advice.

" Soviet Policy: From Chernenko to Gorbachev ," Aussenpolitik, 36, No. 4, April 1985, 357 – 75.

Soviet assistance, at its height one-third of GDP, disappeared almost overnight in 1990 – 91, at the time of the Collapse of the Soviet Union ( 1985 – 1991 ).

* 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union and began policies of radical political reform involving political liberalization, called Perestroika and Glasnost.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, or Gorbachov ( more accurately reflecting the pronunciation of his name ) (; born 2 March 1931 ), is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the Soviet Union, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991.