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Adjusted to 2014 dollars: The median U.S. household income in 1985 was $51,963, with families spending 16.1% of their income on public university ($8,427 sticker price, annually) or 37.2% on private university ($19,342 sticker price, annually).
Also in 1985…
- WrestleMania debuts at Madison Square Garden
- Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke
- British Antarctic Survey scientists announce discovery of a hole in the ozone layer
- Live Aid pop concerts in London and Philadelphia raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia
- The first smoking ban in restaurants in the US is passed in Aspen, Colorado
- The wreck of the RMS Titanic is discovered
- Steve Jobs resigns from Apple Computer in order to found NeXT
- The comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” debuts in 35 newspapers in the US.
- In Geneva, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time
- Microsoft releases the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0
- “Amadeus” wins best picture
- “Like a Virgin” by Madonna stayed at #1 for four weeks
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