1985 in Wales

Incumbents

Prince of Wales – Charles

Princess of Wales – Diana

Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards

Archbishop of Wales – Derrick Childs, Bishop of Monmouth

Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Elerydd

Events

May 16 - Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland are convicted of murder at Cardiff Crown Court and jailed for life. The previous November, at the height of the miners' strike, they caused the death of a taxi driver by dropping a concrete block onto his car as it passed under a bridge.

June 29 - A55 Colwyn Bay Bypass completed.

July 4 - At the Brecon and Radnor by-election caused by the death of sitting Conservative MP Tom Ellis Hooson, local farmer Richard Livsey takes the seat for the Liberals.

December 20 - Swansea City, struggling in the English Third Division just three years after being in the First, are issued with a winding-up order in the High Court and are at risk of closure and being forced out of the Football League.

Terry Matthews sells his stake in Mitel to British Telecom.

Cefn is founded to campaign for the civil rights of Welsh speakers.

The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies is founded at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Seventeen women are prosecuted on conspiracy charges after the occupation of a nuclear bunker near Carmarthen.

Arts and literature

Robat Powell becomes the first Welsh learner to win the Chair at the National Eisteddfod (see below).

Awards

National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Rhyl)

National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Robat Powell

National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - John Roderick Rees

National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Margaret Dafydd

English language

Alice Thomas Ellis - Unexplained Laughter

Lady Olwen Carey Evans - Lloyd George Was My Father

David Hughes - The Pork Butcher

Christopher Meredith - This

Robert Minhinnick - The Dinosaur Park

John Powell Ward - The Clearing

Ivor Wilks - South Wales and the Rising of 1839

Welsh language

Geraint Bowen - Cerddi

Bryan Martin Davies - Lleoedd

Glanmor Williams

Harri Tudur a Chymru

Grym Tafodau Tân

Eluned Phillips - Cerddi Glyn-y-Mêl

Music

Downtown Julie Brown makes her debut on Club MTV.

"Dwylo Dros y Môr", performed by various artists, is the Welsh charity song released in coordination with Band Aid.

Aled Jones - Aled Jones With The BBC Welsh Chorus (album)

Living Legends - Better Dead Than Wed

Film

Jonathan Pryce stars in Brazil.

Richard Marquand directs Jagged Edge.

Welsh-language films

None

Welsh-language television

Sam Tân (Fireman Sam)

Sport

Horse racing - Hywel Davies wins the Grand National on "Last Suspect".

BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year - Steve Jones, marathon runner

Births

8 April - Gareth Rees, cricketer

16 April - Mark Baker, historian and author

13 May - Danny Thomas, footballer

16 June - Craig Morgan, footballer

17 July - Tom Cullen, actor

11 September - Danny Parslow, footballer

10 October - Marina Lambrini Diamandis, singer

14 December - Alex Pennie, musician

15 November - Simon Spender, footballer

25 December

Leon Pisani, pop singer

Perdita Weeks, actress

Deaths

26 January - David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, 66 (car accident)

4 April - Kate Roberts, author, 94

22 April – Sir Thomas Parry, academic, 80

8 May - Tom Hooson, politician, 52

9 June - Clifford Evans, actor, 73

1 September - Saunders Lewis, writer, 91

17 September - Laura Ashley, designer, 60 (brain haemorrhage)

28 October - Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek, politician, 81

1 November - Bruce Dargavel, singer

17 December - Gwyn Richards, dual-code rugby player, 79