a million people homeless. March 8 – A Beirut car bomb, planted in an attempt to assassinate Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, kills more than 80 people and injures 200 more. March 11 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union. Mohamed Al-Fayed buys the London-based department store company Harrods. March 15 – Vice-president José Sarney, upon becoming vice president, assumes the duties of president of Brazil, as the new president Tancredo Neves had become severely ill the day before. Sarney would later become Brazil's first civilian president in 21 years, upon Neves' death on April 21. March 16 – Lebanon hostage crisis: US journalist Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he remains a prisoner until December 4, 1991. March 17 – Expo '85, an international exhibition, opens in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, running until September 16. March 18 – Australia's longest-running soap opera, Neighbours, debuts on Seven Network. March 21 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and activist Rick Hansen sets out on his , 26-month Man in Motion tour which raises US$26 million for spinal cord research and quality of life initiatives. March 25 The 57th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with Amadeus winning Best Picture. The Organization Commune Africaine et Malgache is officially dissolved. March 31 – The inaugural WrestleMania is held in Madison Square Garden, New York, and is main-“evented by Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper in a tag-team match. April Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union begins to transfer the burden of fighting the mujahideen to the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, a cause of the Revolutions of 1989. April 1 – Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, and Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation, are privatized and change their names to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and Japan Tobacco. April 12 – El Descanso bombing: A terrorist bombing attributed to the Islamic Jihad Organization in the El Descanso restaurant near Madrid, Spain, mostly attended by U.S. personnel from the Torrejón Air Base, causes 18 deaths (all Spaniards) and 82 injuries. April 15 – South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages. April 19 – The Soviet Union performs a nuclear weapon test in eastern Kazakhstan. April 23 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative and the original formula is back