Take a Byte (Jan. 22): During Super Bowl XVIII, Apple introduces its new computer, the Macintosh, and throws the home-computing revolution into high gear. Spurred by the rivalry and the increasing "user-friendliness" of the machines, the home-computer industry does a booming business in 1984.

Isolation (Feb. 22): A boy known only as David, and dubbed "the boy in the bubble" because he had spent virtually all of his life in sterile isolation because of a defective immune system, dies at age 12.

	Michael Jackson

Thrilling Music (Feb. 28): Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards for his album "Thriller," which goes on to become the best-selling pop album of all time.

Indian Unrest (June 6): Indian troops storm a temple held by Sikh extremists, killing about 1,000 people. The militants retaliate on Oct. 31, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 66, is assassinated. Rajiv Gandhi, her son, 48, takes her place amid continued violence.

Growing Clout (July 19): In a major victory for American women, Democrat Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman vice presidential candidate nominated by a major political party.

Close Call (Oct. 12): British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher barely escapes injury when a bomb explodes in a Brighton, England, hotel where she is staying during a political convention. The Irish Republican Army claims responsibility for the attack, which kills at least two people and injures 34.

A Primate's Heart (Oct. 26): A baboon heart transplant to a human, the first of its kind, is performed on a 15-day-old baby girl in California. Baby Fae, who was born with a heart defect, dies Nov. 15.

Toxic Killer (Dec. 3): Disaster strikes India when a toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide insecticide plant kills more than 3,000 people and prompts the evacuation of tens of thousands of nearby residents.

	Tutu

Blow to Apartheid (Dec. 10): Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for his nonviolent efforts to end apartheid in South Africa.

Self-Defense? (Dec. 22): A gunman later identified as Bernhard Goetz opens fire on four black youths on a New York subway, leaving them alive but injured. The gunman says that the youths were trying to rob him, but two of the youths say they were not trying to harass the gunman. A month later a grand jury indicts Goetz only on illegal-weapons charges; however, by March 1985 he will be indicted on four counts of attempted murder. He is later acquitted but loses a $43 million civil case to one of the shooting victims.