Nonsmokers can get cancer from inhaling the smoke of other people’s cigarettes, declares Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. The Compact Disk (CD) developed by the Dutch company Phillips and Japan’s Sony is hailed as the music recording medium of the future.

Also that year:

• President Reagan and Vice President Bush are re-elected.

• The Civil Rights Commission agrees to end the use of numerical quotas in employment promotions of African Americans.

• Great Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 when its 99-year lease on the crown colony runs out.

• Donald Duck, comic icon of children worldwide, marks his 50th birthday at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

• Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign, after nude photos of her are published in Penthouse magazine.

• The United States orders “passive restraint” airbags or automatic seatbelts on all new cars by 1989.