Events 1 - 200 of 767
Bush Declared President
Jan 4 George H. W. Bush is 1st sitting Vice President since Millard Filmore (in 1850) to declare himself President of the United States
- Jan 4 US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean
- Jan 5 2 French TV newsmen arrested for trying to plant fake bombs on 3 airlines at JFK airport in security test
- Jan 5 Baseball signs $400M with ESPN, showing 175 games in 1990
- Jan 7 Cleveland Cavaliers block 21 NY Knicks shots tying NBA regulation game record
- Jan 7 International Conference on Limitation of Chemical Weapons opens in Paris
- Jan 7 NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers then longest winning streak (11 games)
- Jan 8 Beginning of Japanese Heisei era.
- Jan 8 Boeing 737-400 crashes at Kegworth, England, 46 die
- Jan 8 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
Bench and Yastrzemski Elected
Jan 9 Johnny Bench & Carl Yastrzemski elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Gretzky Leading Scorer
Jan 10 LA Kings center Wayne Gretzky becomes NHL’s all-time leading scorer in combined regular season & playoff points; 4 assists in 5-4 home win over Edmonton brings his total to 2,011, 1 more than Gordie Howe
- Jan 11 140 nations agree to ban chemical weapons (poison gas, etc)
- Jan 11 Denver Nuggets' rookie Jerome Lane misses 7 free throws in a game against Milwaukee, one missed by 2 feet
- Jan 11 Kindergarten student caught with loaded handgun at Bronx school
- Jan 12 6 claim to survive in rubble, 35 days after Armenian quake (hoax)
- Jan 13 "Ryan's Hope" ends 13½ year run on ABC-TV
"A Bit of Fry and Laurie"
Jan 13 British comedy sketch show series "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debuts on BBC1
- Jan 13 Computers across Britain hit by "Friday the 13th"/Jerusalem virus
- Jan 13 Jerry Parks, Oklahoma defensive back, charged with shooting a teammate
- Jan 13 Ruins of Mashkan-shapir (occupied 2050-1720 BC) found in Iraq
- Jan 13 Subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz begins 1-year jail sentence
"Satanic Verses" Burnt
Jan 14 1,000 muslims burn Salman Rushdies' "Satanic Verses" in Bradford, England
- Jan 17 Gunman opens fire in California schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded
- Jan 17 Murden & Metz are 1st women to reach South Pole overland (on skis)
- Jan 17 Phoenix Suns cancel game at Miami Heat, due to racial unrest in Miami
4th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jan 18 4th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Dion; Otis Redding; The Rolling Stones; The Temptations; Stevie Wonder; The Ink Spots; Bessie Smith; The Soul Stirrers; and Phil Spector
- Jan 18 Astronomers discover pulsar in remnants of Supernova 1987A (LMC)
- Jan 18 IBM announces earnings up 10.4% in 1988
Reagan Pardons Steinbrenner
Jan 19 US President Ronald Reagan pardons NY Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for supplying illegal funds for Nixon's re-election campaign
- Jan 20 George H. W. Bush inaugurated as 41st US President, Dan Quayle becomes 44th Vice President
Lemieux's 50 Goals
Jan 20 Pittsburgh center Mario Lemieux becomes just the 2nd player in NHL history to score 50 goals in less than 50 games; #50 in 44th game as the Penguins lose 7-3 to the Jets in Winnipeg
- Jan 21 A woman is assaulted and raped in room of an Oklahoma football player
- Jan 21 Wayne Gretzky passes Marcel Dionne to become NHL's 2nd all time scorer
Bill Walsh Retires
Jan 22 After winning his third Super Bowl as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Bill Walsh retires
Super Bowl XXIII
Jan 22 Super Bowl XXIII, Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami, FL: San Francisco 49ers beat Cincinnati Bengals, 20-16; MVP: Jerry Rice, SF, WR
- Jan 22 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Jan 23 100s feared dead after a powerful earthquake strikes the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan
- Jan 23 Challenge to "who is a Jew" law filed in Israeli Supreme Court
- Jan 23 NBA New Jersey Nets begin a 32+ game road losing streak
- Jan 24 1st reported case of AIDS transmitted by heterosexual oral sex
- Jan 25 Augusto Alcalde, 1st South American Zen teacher, receives Dharma Transmission
- Jan 25 Mario Lemieux scores a goal and 3 assists in Penguins' 5-4 win over Winnipeg in Pittsburgh; sets NHL record by picking up a point in 14 consecutive games; record stands for 10 years
Jordan's 10,000th Point
Jan 25 Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th season
- Jan 25 NY Yankees owner George Steinbrenner meets with Pope John Paul II
Border's 7-46
Jan 26 Allan Border takes 7-46 against the West Indies at the SCG
- Jan 26 AT&T reports 1st loss in 103 years; $1.67 B in 1988
- Jan 26 Madison Square Garden announces 2-year $100m renovation plan
- Jan 26 Test debut of Mark Taylor, Australia v West Indies, Sydney
- Jan 26 US computer security expert warns of catastrophic virus
Yzerman Records 100 Points
Jan 27 Detroit Red Wings center Steve Yzerman becomes the 4th NHL player to record 100 points in 50 games or less with a goal and 2 assists as Red Wings beat Toronto, 8-1
- Jan 27 German war criminals Fischer & Aus der Funten freed
- Jan 27 Kevin Johnson (Phoenix) begins NBA free throw streak of 57 games
- Jan 27 Oklahoma linebacker Mark VanKeirsblilck assaults an Oklahoma grad student
Boon Scores 149
Jan 28 David Boon completes 7th Test century, 149 v WI at SCG
- Jan 29 Cleveland's Chris Dudley misses 5 free throws during 1 foul attempt
- Jan 29 Dow jumps 38.06 recoups 508-pt loss since Oct 1987; index at 2,256.43
- Jan 29 Episcopal Church of the United States, Diocese of Massachusetts elects Barbara Harris as its first female bishop
RBI Dropped
Jan 29 Game-winning RBI, official statistic dropped after 9 years of use NY Mets Keith Hernandez is the all-time leader with 129
- Jan 29 L I preacher Gene Profeta pleads guilty to tax-evasion
- Jan 29 Orlando Arena opens in Orlando, Florida
- Jan 29 USSR's Phobos II enters Martian orbit
- Jan 30 American Olympic diving silver medallist Bruce Kimball, is sentenced to 17 years in prison for killing 2 teenagers in a drunk driving accident; serves 4 years
- Jan 30 Five Pharaoh sculptures from 1470 BC found at temple of Luxor
- Jan 30 Joel Steinberg found guilty of 1st degree manslaughter of daughter
- Jan 30 Last day of 1st class cricket for Dav Whatmore
- Jan 30 The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
- Feb 1 Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 at perihelion
Princess of Wales in NYC
Feb 1 Diana, Princess of Wales visits New York City
- Feb 1 The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
- Feb 2 0°F (-18°C) or below in 15 US states
De Klerk Succeeds Botha
Feb 2 F. W. de Klerk replaces P. W. Botha as South Africa's National Party leader
- Feb 3 Baseball's National League announces Yanks' broadcaster Bill White will its 1st African American President
Coup Overthrows Stroessner
Feb 3 Military coup overthrows Paraguayan Dictator Alfredo Stroessner who flees to Brazil
Wałęsa Starts Negotiations
Feb 6 Poland’s Communist government begins “Round Table” talks with the Solidarity trade union and it’s leader Lech Wałęsa in an attempt to ease growing social unrest
Borg's Suicide Attempt
Feb 7 Tennis superstar Björn Borg apparently attempts suicide in Milan
- Feb 8 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles
- Feb 8 American jockey Chris Antley begins record 64-day consecutive winning streak; ends 1 May and includes 147 winners from 486 mounts
- Feb 8 US Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain, 145 die
- Feb 9 Kevin Johnson (Phoenix) ends NBA free throw streak of 57 games
- Feb 9 Michael Manley's Socialist Party wins Jamaica parliamentary election
NBA Hall of Fame
Feb 10 Celtic KC Jones & Cavalier Lenny Wilkens elected to NBA Hall of Fame
Miami Vice's 100th
Feb 10 Miami Vice's 100th episode seen on TV
- Feb 10 Minor League Football System opens organizational meeting, St Louis
- Feb 10 Ron Brown chosen 1st African American chairman of a major US party (Democrats)
- Feb 10 Test Cricket debut of Aaqib Javed, Pak v NZ age 16 years 189 days
- Feb 10 To gain deregulation WWF admits pro wrestling is an exhibition & not a sport, in a NJ court
- Feb 10 Tony Robinson of Jamaica becomes Nottingham's 1st black sheriff
- Feb 10 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 11 Barbara Clementine Harris consecrated 1st female bishop (Episcopalian)
- Feb 11 US Episcopal Church Diocese of Massachusetts installs Barbara Harris (59) as 1st female bishop of a US Episcopal church
- Feb 12 5 Pakistani Muslim rioters killed protesting "Satanic Verses" novel
Event of Interest
Feb 12 Loyalist paramilitary group kill Pat Finucane, a Belfast lawyer who represented republican hunger striker Bobby Sands, while he is having dinner with family
- Feb 12 Thursday's Child sets sailing record, NY-Cape Horn-SF, 80 d 20 h
- Feb 12 Wayne Gretzky sets 2 records, his 45th hat trick & 10th 40+ goal season
- Feb 13 Kidnapped Belgian Premier Vanden Boeynants freed
- Feb 13 Oklahoma football player Charles Thompson is charged with selling cocaine; he is later sentenced to 2 years in prison
- Feb 13 Salvadoran army attacks Encuentros hospital, rapes, kills patients
- Feb 14 African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam
Satanic Verses
Feb 14 Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his publishers due to his novel "Satanic Verses". A bounty is also placed on his head.
- Feb 14 The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit.
- Feb 14 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 mill damages for Bhopol disaster
- Feb 14 World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens
- Feb 15 Israel attacks border strip Taba near Egypt
Soviet Union Leaves Afghanistan
Feb 15 Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan ends as the last Soviet troops cross the Soviet-Afghan border
Contract of Interest
Feb 16 Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser signs $7.9M-3 year contract
- Feb 16 Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & North Yemen form common market
Contract of Interest
Feb 16 Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens signs $7.5M-3 year contract
- Feb 16 William Hayden becomes Governor-General of Australia
- Feb 17 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole"
Sports History
Feb 17 Former baseball player and manager Leo Durocher injured in a car crash
- Feb 17 Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya form common market
- Feb 17 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
A Better Man
Feb 18 "A Better Man" single released by Clint Black (Billboard Song of the Year 1989)
Daytona 500
Feb 19 31st Daytona 500: Darrell Waltrip wins when Hendrick Racing team decides to use fuel strategy, being the only car not to pit in the closing laps
- Feb 19 Edgar Bowers wins Bollingen Prize
- Feb 20 An IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England
- Feb 20 Members of 1949 Oklahoma football team cancel an April reunion because of the deplorable conduct of Oklahoma players
- Feb 21 US bust Chinese drug smuggling ring, capturing a record 820 lbs of heroin worth $1 billion at street value
- Feb 22 1st Spanish commercial on network TV (Pepsi-Cola-CBS Grammy Award)
Grammy Awards
Feb 22 31st Grammy Awards: "Don't Worry Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin; "Faith"by George Michael; and Tracy Chapman win
- Feb 22 Finish ministry of Public health installs sex vacation to thwart stress
- Feb 22 NY Lotto pays $26.9 million to one winner (#s are 1-5-12-19-44-50)
Strategic Defense Initiative
Feb 22 UK physicist Stephen Hawking calls the proposed missile defense system known as Star Wars a "deliberate fraud"
- Feb 22 US authors demonstrate against Iranian death threats against Salman Rushdee, author of "The Satanic Verses"
- Feb 24 150 million year old fossil egg found in Utah with a fossilized dinosaur embryo inside, the oldest dinosaur egg yet found in the Northern Hemisphere
- Feb 24 Harold E Ballard sells CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats to David Braley
Sports History
Feb 24 Panamanian boxing legend Roberto Durán wins 4th world title in different weight divisions when he beats Iran Barkley in a 12 round split decision in Atlantic City; 37-year-old Durán wins WBC middleweight title
Film & TV History
Feb 24 Stalker Margaret Ray found in David Letterman's home, claims to be his wife
- Feb 24 US Boeing 747 loses parts of roof over Pacific, 9 die
- Feb 24 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 25 1st independent blue-collar labor union in Communist Hungary forms
- Feb 25 Javed Miandad scores 271 v NZ at Eden Park
- Feb 25 Lowest baramotric pressure in Netherlands (956.7 mbar at De Bilt)
Boxing Title Fight
Feb 25 Mike Tyson TKOs Frank Bruno in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
Contract of Interest
Feb 26 California court throws out most of Margo Adams's $12 million breach-of-contract suit against Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs
- Feb 26 Lowest barometric pressure in Netherlands (95.5 hPa)
Sports History
Feb 26 NFL Dallas Cowboys fire coach Tom Landry after a 29-year career
Sports History
Feb 26 NY Yankees announce that Tom Seaver is their new TV sportscaster
- Feb 27 German war criminals Aus der Funten and Fischer freed in Holland
- Feb 27 Venezuela is rocked by the riots of Caracazo
- Feb 28 10-time All Star second baseman and manager Red Schoendienst and umpire Al Barlick are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Feb 28 Memo by Brian Gumbel criticizing Today Show co-workers becomes public
- Feb 28 Nevada-Semipalatinsk anti-nuclear movement founded by Olzhas Suleimenov in Kazakhstan, initially aiming to close Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (closed 1991) [1]
- Mar 1 Charlie Francis, coach of disqualified sprinter Ben Johnson tells federal inquiry into Canada's greatest sports scandal Johnson knowingly used steroids since 1981; Johnson first across line Olympic 100m 1988
- Mar 1 Comet du Toit at perihelion
- Mar 1 The United States becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- Mar 2 12 European nations agree to ban chlorofluorocarbon production by 2000
- Mar 2 GreenLeft (GroenLinks) political party forms from merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals, and the Evangelical People's Party in the Netherlands
Sports History
Mar 2 NY Mets stars Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry famously nearly come to blows in front of reporters and TV crews at spring training
- Mar 2 Tanker Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil
- Mar 3 Eastern Airlines machinists union goes on strike; pilots respect picket lines
Event of Interest
Mar 3 Robert McFarlane gets a $20,000 fine and two years probation for pleading guilty to withholding information from Congress in the Iran-Contra illegal arms-for-hostages scandal
Sports History
Mar 7 Dino Ciccarelli is traded by the Minnesota North Stars to the Washington Capitals
- Mar 7 Iran drops diplomatic relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses"
- Mar 7 Partial eclipse of the Sun (Hawaii, NW North America, Greenland)
- Mar 8 Roger Kingdom runs indoor world record 60m hurdles (7.37 secs)
- Mar 9 Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy
- Mar 9 Roger Kingdom runs world record 60m hurdles indoor (7.36 sec)
- Mar 9 Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of the World Court
- Mar 9 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Mar 9 US Senate rejects President George H. W. Bush's nomination of John Tower as Defense Secretary
- Mar 12 2 cyanide-contaminated Chilean grapes found (Philadelphia)
Event of Interest
Mar 12 Computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee submits his first proposal for an "information management system" to his boss at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) who finds it “vague, but exciting”
- Mar 12 Madagascar AREMA party wins parliamentary election
- Mar 13 27th shuttle, Discovery 8, launched, 1st woman to do the countdown
- Mar 13 FDA orders recall of all Chilean fruit in US
- Mar 13 US space shuttle STS-29 launched
- Mar 15 NY Rangers retire goalie Eddie Giacomin's #1 uniform
- Mar 15 US Department of Veterans Affairs officially established as a Cabinet position
- Mar 17 Dorothy Cudahy is 1st female grand marshal of St. Patrick Day Parade
- Mar 18 27th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Discovery 8 (STS-29), returns to Earth
- Mar 18 California Quake amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
- Mar 18 Dino Ciccarelli sets Washington Capital record of 7 pts in a game
- Mar 18 In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops
- Mar 19 Boeing V-22 Osprey VTOL aircraft makes maiden flight
Authors
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