| |
|
1989 |
| January 7th |
 |
Emperor
Hirohito of Japan died. His death ended the Showa period. Akihito
became the new Emperor of Japan, and signalled the beginning
of the Heisei period. |
|
| January 8th |
|
In
England, a British Midland Boeing 737 crashed on the approach
to the East Midlands Airport . Known as 'the Kegworth Air Disaster',
the accident claimed the lives of 44 people. |
|
| January
10th |
|
Valentin
Petrovich Glushko died. Engines developed under Glushko
were installed on all early Soviet launch vehicles including
all variants of the R-7, which launched the Sputnik and
Vostok missions. |
|
| January 20th |
|
Vice
President George Herbert Walker Bush succeeded Ronald Wilson
Reagan as President of the United States of America. |
|
| January 23rd |
|
The
Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali died. |
|
| January 24th |
|
American
serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by the electric chair in
Florida. |
|
| February
2nd |
|
The
last of the Soviet troops left Afghanistan, when an armoured
column pulled out of the Afghan capital, Kabul. It ended nine
years of military occupation by the Soviet Union. |
|
| February
3rd |
|
President
P.W. Botha of South Africa resigned his position of party leadership
and President due to suffering a stroke. |
|
| February
14th |
|
Union
Carbide agreed to pay US$470 million to the Indian government
for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster. |
|
| February
14th |
|
Iranian
leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared a fatwa on the British
author Salman Rushdie, which encouraged Muslims around the world
to kill the writer of 'The Satanic Verses'. |
|
| February
14th |
|
The
first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System was
placed into orbit. |
|
| February
15th |
|
The
Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had
left Afghanistan, ending the Soviet war in Afghanistan. |
|
| February
16th |
|
Pan
Am flight 103 Investigators announced that the cause of the
crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player. |
|
| February
24th |
|
Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini placed a US$3million bounty for the death
of British author of 'The Satanic Verses' Salman Rushdie. |
|
| March 2nd |
|
Twelve
European Community nations agreed to ban the production of all
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end century. |
|
| March 4th |
|
In
Surrey, England, 'The Purley Rail Crash' claimed the lives of
5 people and 94 injured. |
|
| March 7th |
|
Iran
broke off diplomatic relations with United Kingdom over the
book "The Satanic Verses" by British author Salman
Rushdie. |
|
| March 14th |
|
President
George H. W. Bush Snr. banned the importation into the United
States of certain guns deemed as assault weapons. |
|
| March 14th |
|
Christian
General Michel Aoun declared a 'War of Liberation' to rid Lebanon
of Syrian forces and their allies. |
|
| March 18th |
|
In
Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy was found in the Great Pyramid
of Giza. |
|
| March 20th |
|
Australian
Prime Minister Bob Hawke wept on national television as he admited
his marital infidelity. |
|
| March 23rd |
|
Martin
Fleischmann and Stanley Pons announced cold fusion at the University
of Utah, but their results could not be substantiated.. |
|
| March
23rd |
|
A near Earth impact from an asteroid 300m (1,000 ft) diameter
missed the Earth by only 500,000 km (400,000 miles). |
|
| March 24th |
|
In
Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000
barrels (11 million gallons) of oil after running aground, which
caused an environmental disaster. |
|
| March 27th |
|
The
first free elections for the Soviet parliament go against the
Communist Party. |
|
| April 7th |
|
The
Soviet submarine Komsomolets sank and killed 41 Soviet sailors
in the Barents Sea. |
|
| April 9th |
|
Massacre
of Georgian demonstrators by Soviet troops in Tbilisi's central
square at a rally. 20 people were killed and many injured. It
was alleged that the Soviet troops used toxic gas on the crowd. |
|
| April 15th |
|
In
Sheffield, England, during the FA cup semi-final between Liverpool
and Nottingham Forest, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death.
The 'Hillsborough Disaster' was one of the biggest tragedies
in European football. |
|
| April 20th |
|
NATO
debated modernising its short range missiles, the US and Great
Britain are in favour, but West German chancellor Helmut Kohl
obtained a concession defering a decision. |
|
| April 19th |
|
A
gun turret on the US battleship Iowa exploded and killed 47
US servicemen. |
|
| April 21st |
|
In
China students in Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Nanjing started
to strike. |
|
| April. |
|
Nikita
Khrushchev's 'Secret Speech' denounced Stalin, made in February
1956, was published for the first time. |
|
| May 2nd |
|
In
Eastern Europe Hungary dismantled 150 miles of barbed wire fencing,
opening its border to Western Europe. |
|
| May 14th |
|
Mikhail
Gorbachev visited China, Gorbachev was the first Soviet leader
to visit China since the 1960s. |
|
| May 15th |
|
Jackie
Mann, a 74-year-old former Battle of Britain pilot, was abducted
in Beirut, Lebanon. |
|
| May 19th |
|
Chinese
leader Zhao Ziyang met the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. |
|
| May 20th |
|
Due
to the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square the Chinese government
declared martial law in Beijing. |
|
| May 30th |
|
In
Tiananmen Square, China, student demonstrators unveiled a 10
m (33 ft) high statue named the "Goddess of Democracy". |
|
| June 3rd. |
|
Chinese
student protests were violently crushed by Chinese troops, and
over a 1000 massacred in Tiananmen Square, Beijing in China.
The students were protesting for greater feedom and democracy. |
|
| June 3rd |
|
The
Iranian revolutionary leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
died. |
|
| June 4th |
|
The
Tiananmen Square massacre took place in Beijing and was covered
live on television. |
|
| June 4th |
|
Solidarity's
victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in
post-war Poland, this event was first of anti-communist revolutions
in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. |
|
| June 4th |
|
A
natural gas explosion caused a train disaster near Ufa, Russia.
The explosion killed 645 people as two trains passed each other
and sparks ignited nearby a leaky gas pipeline. |
|
| June
8th |
|
In
Austria, Kurt Waldheim was elected the new President of Austria.
Waldheim was the former Secretary-General of the United Nations
from 1972 to 1981. |
|
| June
13th |
|
The
wreck of the German battleship 'Bismarck', which was sunk by
the British Royal Navy in 1941 during WWII, was located 600
miles west of Brest, France. |
|
| June 21st |
|
British
police arrested 250 citizens for celebrating the summer solstice
in disturbances at Stonehenge, England. |
|
| July 20th |
|
The
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under
house arrest. |
|
| July 26th |
|
A
federal grand jury indicted Cornell University student Robert
Tappan Morris, Jr. for releasing a computer virus, making him
the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act. |
|
| July. |
|
Voyager
II sent back to Earth detailed pictures of the planet Neptune. |
|
| August
8th |
|
The
NASA Space Shuttle 'Columbia' launched on a secret five-day
military operation, mission 'STS-28'. |
|
| August
9th |
|
The
asteroid 4769 Castalia was the first asteroid directly imaged
by radar from Arecibo. |
|
| August 19th |
|
Polish
president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominated Solidarity activist
Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be Prime Minister, and so became the first
non-communist in power in Poland for 42 years. |
|
| August 20th |
|
In
Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shot dead
their wealthy parents at their home. |
|
| August 20th |
|
In
London, England the Marchioness pleasure boat collided with
a barge on the River Thames and killed 51 people. |
|
| August 23rd |
|
Two
million people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, then still
occupied by the Soviet Union, joined hands and created an uninterrupted
600 kilometre human chain to demand freedom and independence. |
|
| August 23rd |
|
Hungary
removed its border restrictions with Austria. The first chinks
in the 'Iron Curtain' started to appear in Hungary when Hungarian
soldiers removed the barbed wire fences bordering on Austria
on May 2nd. |
|
| August
25th |
|
Voyager
II passed the planet Neptune and its moon Triton. |
|
| September
5th |
|
The
United States President George Bush Snr. held up a bag of cocaine
purchased across the street at Lafayette Park in his first televised
speech to the American people. |
|
| September
10th |
|
The
Hungarian government opened its country's western borders to
refugees from the German Democratic Republic. |
|
| September
22nd |
|
In
Kent, England, Deal Army barracks was attacked when an IRA bomb
exploded at the Royal Marine School of Music. 11 people were
killed and 22 others injured. |
|
| October 5th |
|
US
TV Evangelist John Nunes was found guilty of embezzlement of
$158 million. |
|
| October 9th |
|
An
official news agency in the Soviet Union reported the landing
of a UFO in Voronezh. |
|
| October 9th |
|
In
Leipzig, East Germany protesters demanded the legalisation of
opposition groups and democratic reforms. |
|
| October 19th |
|
In
England, 'The Guildford Four' were released from prison after
serving 14 years, wrongly convicted in October 1975 for the
Provisional IRA's Guildford pub bombing, which killed 5 and
injured 65 people. |
|
| November
7th |
|
The
Communist government of East Germany resigned, although SED
leader Egon Krenz remained the head of state. |
|
| November
7th |
|
In
California, USA, convicted murderer Richard Ramirez (the "Night
Stalker") was sentenced to death. |
|
| November
9th |
|
East
Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its
citizens to freely travel to West Berlin for the first time
in decades. Thousands of Germans from both sides gather at the
Berlin Wall. |
|
| November
10th |
|
The
Berlin Wall became the focus of attention as celebrating Germans
began to tear the wall down. |
|
| November
10th |
|
45
years of Communist rule in Bulgaria was ended when Bulgarian
Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov was replaced by the Foreign
Minister Petar Mladenov, who then changed the party's name to
the Bulgarian Socialist Party. |
|
| November
16th |
|
The
South African President FW de Klerk announced the scrapping
of the 'Separate Amenities Act'. |
|
| November
17th |
|
In
Czechoslovakia a peaceful student demonstration in Prague was
severely beaten back by riot police. This sparked 'The Velvet
Revolution' aimed at overthrowing the Communist government. |
|
| November
20th |
|
In
Czechoslovakia the number of peaceful protesters assembled in
Prague increased from 200,000 the previous days to an estimated
half-million people. |
|
| November
22nd |
|
In
west Beirut, Lebanon, a bomb was detonated near the Presidential
motorcade. The explosion from the bomb killed the Lebanese President
Rene Moawad. |
|
| November
28th |
|
Due
to the 'Wind of Change' throughout Eastern Europe and the growing
support on the streets of Prague, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
announced they will give up their monopoly on political power. |
|
| December
1st |
|
East
Germany's parliament abolished the constitutional provision
granting the Communist-dominated SED its monopoly on power.
Egon Krenz, the Politburo and the Central Committee resigned
two days later. |
|
December
1st - 3rd |
|
The
Malta Summit between US President George Bush Snr. and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev released statements indicating that
the 'Cold War' between their nations were coming to an end. |
|
| December
6th |
|
In
Canada, Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murdered
fourteen women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal. |
|
| December
15th |
|
Drug
baron Jose Gonzalo Rodriquez Gacha was killed by Colombian police
in a shootout. |
|
| December
17th |
|
In
Timisoara, western Romania, demonstrators prevented the arrest
of a popular Protestant minister, which soon led to prodemocracy
rallies that started the uprising against Ceausesau's dictatorship. |
|
| December
20th |
|
United
States intervention in Panama as US troops invaded Panama in
'Operation Just Cause' to overthrow and arrest Manuel Noriega.
Noriega took refuge in the Vatican mission until January 3rd
1990. |
|
| December
22nd |
|
Revolution
in Romania. Romanian leader Niolae Ceausesau gave a speech from
the balcony of his Presidential palace. Due to the crowd reaction
he decided to flee. Ion Iliescu became the new President which
ended Ceausesau's dictatorship. |
|
| December
23rd |
|
Deposed
Romanian leader Niolae Ceausesau and his wife Elena were captured.
They faced a trial and were found guilty. |
|
| December
25th |
|
Niolae
Ceausesau and his wife Elena were executed on Christmas Day.
Images of their bodies were televised around the world. |
|
| December
29th |
|
Elections
in Czechoslovakia saw a huge victory of the Velvet Revolution
as Czech dramatist, politician and human rights activist Václav
Havel was elected the new President of Czechoslovakia. |
|
| |
|
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