1989

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s

Years: 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 - 1989 - 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

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Events

• January 7 - Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan
• January 10 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola
• January 24 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair.
• January 30 - The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is closed and evacuated.
• February 2 - Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul ending nine years of military occupation.
• February 3 - After a stroke, P.W. Botha resigns party leadership and the presidency of South Africa.
• February 10 - Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
• February 11 - Barbara Clementine Harris is consecrated 1st female bishop in the Episcopalian Church.
• February 14 - Union Carbide agrees to pay $470,000,000 to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Tragedy.
• February 14 - Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini encourages Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.
• February 14 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit.
• February 15 - Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops had left Afghanistan.
• February 16 - Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.
• February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a three-million-US dollar bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
• February 24 - A United Airlines Boeing 747 bound to New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii rips open during flight, sucking 9 passenger and crew out of the first class section. Luckily most passengers and crew were still belted to their seats at the time.
• March 1 - The Berne Convention is ratified and enters into force with regard to the United States.
• March 2 - 12 European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end century.
• March 4 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger forming Time-Warner.
• March 9 - A strike forces financially-troubled Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy.
• March 14 - Gun control: President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of assault rifles into the United States.
• March 18 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
• March 23 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah.
• March 23 - A 1,000-foot diameter Near-Earth asteroid misses the Earth by 400,000 miles.
• March 24 - The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska
• April 7 - Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea
• April 15 - Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies of European football, takes place
• May 30 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
• June 1 - The SkyDome stadium is opened in Toronto
• June 4 - Tiananmen Square massacre takes place in Beijing and is covered live on television.
• June 4 - Solidarity wins first free Polish election since WWII, inspiring a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe.
• August - the asteroid 4769 Castalia is the first asteroid directly imaged, by radar from Arecibo
• November 9 - The Berlin Wall comes down.
• November 10 - The communist regime in Bulgaria is overthrown.
• November 17 - Participants of peaceful student demonstration in Prague are severely beaten by the communist riot police. This date marks the commencement of the Velvet Revolution which saw the overthrow of the Communist government.
• December 6 - The Ecole Polytechnique Massacre: an anti-feminist gunman murders fourteen young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
• December 22 - After a week bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's communist dictatorship.
• December 29 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
• George H. W. Bush succeeds Ronald Reagan as President of the United States of America.
• Rice University celebrates the demisesquicentennial anniversary of its founding.
• Fernando Collor de Mello wins the first elections in Brazil in 29 years.
• Kamchatka opened to Russian civilian visitors.
• Richard M. Daley elected mayor of Chicago.
• Time and Warner companies merge to become Time Warner Inc.
• Retirement of the Alize propeller-driven anti-submarine planes from carrier service in the British Royal Navy
• The first national park, in Schiermonnikoog, is established in The Netherlands.
• Soviet sub K-173, Chelyabinsk, commissioned.
• The wreck of the Lady Elgin discovered off Highland Park, Illinois by Harry Zych.
• Margaret Rey establishes the Curious George Foundation to help creative children and prevent cruelty to animals.
• The most known child murder in Finland was done by Veikko "Jammu" Siltavuori, who abducted and murdered two 8 year old girl in Myllypuro suburb in Helsinki.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1989 in film
  • May 24 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • Batman, directed by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger.
  • Driving Miss Daisy
  • Born on the Fourth of July
  • Dead Poets Society
  • Field of Dreams
  • Godzilla vs Biollante
• 1989 in literature
  • A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
  • Stephen R. Lawhead writes Arthur part of the Pendragon Cycle.
  • Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye is published.
  • Bill Watterson publishes Yukon Ho!.
• 1989 in music
  • De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising helps invent the field of alternative rap
  • The Band are inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
  • Amon (later Deicide releases Sacrificial.
• 1989 in sports
  • January 22 - Super Bowl XXIII San Francisco 49ers (20) def. Cincinnati Bengals (16)
  • February 11 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Jill Trenary.
  • March 21 - Sports Illustrated reports allegations that tie Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
  • August 24 - Following allegations that he gambled on baseball, Baseball player Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life by commissioner Bart Giamatti
• 1989 in television
  • The Seinfeld Chronicles premieres on NBC. The show would later be retitled Seinfeld and become one of the most popular sitcoms in television history.
  • The Simpsons premieres on FOX. The characters had first appeared two years earlier as a segment on the Tracey Ullman Show

Births

• January 3 - Alex D. Linz, actor
• July 23 - Daniel Radcliffe, actor

Deaths

• January 7 - Emperor Hirohito of Japan
• January 23 - Salvador Dalí, artist
• January 24 - Ted Bundy, serial killer (electrocuted)
• February 3 - John Cassavetes, actor, director, writer
• February 6 - Barbara W. Tuchman, historian
• February 11 - George O'Hanlon, actor/director.
• February 27 - Konrad Lorenz
• March 9 - Robert Mapplethorpe, artist
• April 26 - Lucille Ball, actress, comedienne
• May 20 - Gilda Radner, comedian, actress
• June 28 - Joris Ivens, filmmaker
• July 10 - Mel Blanc, voice actor
• October 4 - Graham Chapman, comedian
• November 5 - Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
• November 11 - Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr., former minister, former librarian and founder of the Kenneth M. Glazier Canadian Authors Collection at the University of Calgary, former Secretary of the Liberal Party in Alberta
• December 22 - Samuel Beckett, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1969
• December 25 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, former ruler of Romania is executed

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Norman F. Ramsey, Hans G. Dehmelt, Wolfgang Paul
• Chemistry - Sidney Altman, Thomas R Cech
• Medicine - J Michael Bishop, Harold E Varmus
• Literature - Camilo José Cela
• Peace - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.
• Economics - Trygve Haavelmo