1. Time Magazine's Man of the Year is given for the first time to a non-human, the computer.
2. A blizzard unprecedented in size for April dumps 1–2 feet of snow on the northeastern United States.
3. Cal Ripken, Jr. plays the first of what eventually becomes his record-breaking streak of 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games.
4. Late night with David Letterman debuts.
5. President Ronald Reagan becomes the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
6. The first compact discs are released to the public in Germany.
7. The first emoticons are posted by Scott Fahlman.
8. The first U.S. execution by lethal injection is carried out in Texas.
9. Michael Jackson releases Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time.
10. Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat on stage, is arrested for urinating on the Alamo, his guitarist Randy Rhodes dies in a plane crash and he marries his wife Sharon.
