Czechs Defeat Australia
Jan 1 1st Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Helena Suková & Miloslav Mečíř win inaugural event for Czechoslovakia; beat Australian pair Hana Mandlíková & Pat Cash 6-2, 6-4 for 2-0 victory
- Jan 1 NYC transit fare rises from $1.00 to $1.15
- Jan 1 Year of the Young Reader begins
- Jan 2 "Superwoman" single released by Karyn White (Billboard Song of the Year 1989)
- Jan 2 18th Fiesta Bowl: #1 Notre Dame beats #3 West Virginia, 34-21 for the national title
- Jan 2 55th Orange Bowl: #2 Miami (FL) beats #6 Nebraska, 23-3
- Jan 2 55th Sugar Bowl: #4 Florida State beats #7 Auburn, 13-7
- Jan 2 75th Rose Bowl: #11 Michigan beats #5 Southern California, 22-14
- Jan 2 UCLA beats Arkansas Razorbacks, 17-3 to win the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas; record 7th consecutive football bowl game victory for the Bruins
- Jan 3 Russian newspaper Izvestia gets its 1st commercial advertisement
- Jan 4 Comet Tempel 1 at perihelion
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 "42nd Street" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 3,486 performances
- Jan 8 "Starlight Express" closes at Gershwin Theater in NYC after 761 performances
- Jan 8 AFC Championship, Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati: Cincinnati Bengals beat Buffalo Bills, 21-10
- Jan 8 Beginning of Japanese Heisei era.
- Jan 8 Boeing 737-400 crashes at Kegworth, England, 46 die
- Jan 8 NFC Championship, Soldier Field, Chicago: San Francisco 49ers beat Chicago Bears, 28-3
- 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
- Jan 14 "Romance/Romance" closes at Helen Hayes Theater NYC after 297 performances
"Satanic Verses" Burnt
Jan 14 1,000 muslims burn Salman Rushdies' "Satanic Verses" in Bradford, England
- Jan 14 29-year-old French woman gives birth to sextuplets in Paris
- Jan 14 Former Belgian premier Paul Vanden Boeynants kidnapped
- Jan 15 10th ACE Cable Awards: HBO wins the Golden CableACE for "Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam"
- Jan 15 Big John Studd wins WWF's 2nd Royal Rumble
- Jan 15 Cerebral Palsy telethon raises $22.6 million
"Ain't Misbehavin'"
Jan 15 Revival of musical revue "Ain't Misbehavin'", highlighting songs of Fats Waller, closes at Ambassador Theater NYC after 176 performances
- Jan 16 5th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Lives wins
- Jan 16 USSR announces plan for 2-yr manned mission to Mars
- 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
- Jan 18 West Indies beat Australia in a rain-affected 3rd final in Sydney to win cricket's World Series Cup Tri-Series, 2-1; match reduced to 18 overs
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
- Jan 26 "Black & Blue" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 829 performances
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
46th Golden Globes
Jan 28 46th Golden Globes: "Rain Man", Dustin Hoffman, & Jodie Foster win
Graf's 6th Grand Slam
Jan 28 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Steffi Graf of Germany beats Czech Helena Suková 6-4, 6-4 for her 6th career Grand Slam title and her 2nd Australian singles crown
Boon Scores 149
Jan 28 David Boon completes 7th Test century, 149 v WI at SCG
- Jan 29 5th Sundance Film Festival: "True Love" wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
Lendl Defeats Mecii
Jan 29 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Ivan Lendl wins his first Australian title; beats fellow Czech Miloslav Mecii 6-2, 6-2, 6-2
- 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 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 34-3; MVP: Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia Eagles, QB
- Jan 29 Orlando Arena opens in Orlando, Florida
- Jan 29 USSR's Phobos II enters Martian orbit
16th American Music Awards
Jan 30 16th American Music Awards: Randy Travis and George Michael win
- 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.
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