The largest dinosaur fossil is found. American palaeontologist Sue Hendrickson found the fossilised remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex in the state of South Dakota. Sue, as the dinosaur are now informally called after its discoverer, is thought to have been 14 feet tall when alive.

The IBM Personal Computer is stocked in stores for the first time. Known as the IBM PC or the IBM 5150, the computer had no disk drives and sold for about $1500.

About 3000 refugees are killed during a massacre at a Palestinian refugee camp. The UN-run Tel al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp in the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon had been sieged by members of a right-wing extremist group called the Phalange during the Lebanese civil war.

The last quagga dies in captivity at the Natura Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam. A native of South Africa, quaggas were a kind of zebra that had stripes only in the front part of their bodies. They were driven into extinction through human activity and excessive hunting for their skin and meat.

Mars' moon Deimos is discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. The discovery took place at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Deimos is one of two natural satellites of Mars. The other moon, Phobos was also discovered by Hall and is the bigger satellite of the two. Phobos is also closer to Mars than Deimos is.