1984 in science

The year 1984 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy and space exploration

* February 7 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
* The NRAO converts the 36-foot Radio Telescope on Kitt Peak (originally built in 1967) to a 12 Meter Telescope.

Computer science

* January 5 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
* January 22 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to use a computer mouse and GUI interface, is introduced by Apple Computer corporation

Technology

* July 21 - In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.

Awards

* Nobel Prizes
** Physics - Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
** Chemistry - Robert Bruce Merrifield
** Medicine - Niels K. Jerne, Georges J. F. Köhler, César Milstein
* Turing Award - Niklaus Wirth

Births

Deaths

* May 13 - Stanisław Marcin Ulam (b. 1909), mathematician.
* October 20 - Paul Dirac (b. 1902), physicist.