1988
1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year that started on a Friday, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It was also the 1988th year of the Common Era, the 988th year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1980s. In the 20th century, the year 1988 has the most Roman numeral digits (11).
Events
January
February
March
- March 7 – Operation Flavius: The Special Air Service fatally shoots 3 unarmed Provisional Irish Republican Army members in Gibraltar.
- March 8
- Two U.S. Army helicopters collide in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, killing 17 servicemen.
- U.S. presidential candidate George Herbert Walker Bush defeats Robert Dole in numerous Republican primaries and caucuses on "Super Tuesday". The bipartisan primary/caucus calendar, designed by Democrats to help solidify their own nominee early, backfires when none of the 6 competing candidates are able to break out of the pack in the day's Democratic contests. Jesse Jackson, however, wins several Southern state primaries.
- March 13 – Gallaudet University, a Deaf university in Washington D.C. elects Dr. I King Jordan as the first deaf president in its history. This event is a turning point in the deaf civil rights movement.
- March 16
- March 17
- March 19 – Corporals killings: In Belfast, Northern Ireland, British Army Corporals Woods and Howes were murdered after driving straight into a funeral for the victims of the Milltown Cemetery Attack just three days earlier, after they were mistakenly thought to be carrying out a similar attack to the one by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member Michael Stone, in which he killed three Catholics attending the funeral.
- March 20 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the EPLF enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
- March 24 – An Israeli court sentences Mordechai Vanunu to 18 years in prison for disclosing Israel's nuclear program to The Sunday Times.
- March 25 – The Candle Demonstration in Bratislava, Slovakia is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
- March 26 – U.S. presidential candidate Jesse Jackson defeats Michael Dukakis in the Michigan Democratic caucuses, becoming the temporary front-runner for the party's nomination. Richard Gephardt withdraws his candidacy after his campaign speeches against imported automobiles fail to earn him much support in Detroit.
- March 29 – African National Congress representative Dulcie September is assassinated in Paris.
April
May
- May 4 – PEPCON disaster in Henderson, Nevada: A major explosion at an industrial solid-fuel rocket plant causes damage extending up to 10 miles (16 km) away, including Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport.
- May 14 – Bus collision near Carrollton, Kentucky: A drunk driver going the wrong way on Interstate 71, hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group from Radcliff, Kentucky. The resulting fire kills 27, making it tied for 1st in the U.S. for most fatalities involving 2 vehicles to the present day. Coincidentally, the other 2-vehicle accident involving a bus that also killed 27 occurred in Prestonburg, Kentucky on February 28, 1958.
- May 15 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than 8 years of fighting, the Red Army begins withdrawing from Afghanistan.
- May 16
- May 24 – Section 28 (outlawing promotion of homosexuality in schools) is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.
- May 27 – Microsoft releases Windows 2.1
- May 31 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses 600 Moscow State University students, during his visit to the Soviet Union.
June
- June 5 – The first National Cancer Survivors Day is held.
- June 6 – Elizabeth II strips jockey Lester Piggott of his OBE, following his jailing for tax irregularities.
- June 10 – Spontaneous 100,000 strong mass night-singing demonstrations in Estonia, that eventually give name to the Singing Revolution.
- June 11
- The name of the General Public License (GPL) is mentioned for the first time.
- Wembley Stadium hosts a concert featuring stars from the fields of music, comedy and film, in celebration of the 70th birthday of imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela.
- June 14 – A small wildfire starts in Montana just north of the boundary for Yellowstone National Park. The Storm Creek fire expands into the park, then merges with dozens of other drought-inspired fires. Eventually, over 750,000 acres (3,000 km2) of Yellowstone - 36% of the park's area - burns before firefighters gain control in late September.
- June 25 – The Netherlands defeats the Soviet Union 2–0 to win Euro 88.
- June 26 – Air France Flight 296 crashes into the tops of trees beyond the runway on a demonstration flight at Habsheim, France; three passengers are killed.
- June 28 – Four workers are asphyxiated at a metal-plating plant in Auburn, Indiana, in the worst confined-space industrial accident in U.S. history. (A fifth victim dies two days later).
- June 29 – Morrison v. Olson: The United States Supreme Court upholds the law allowing special prosecutors to investigate suspected crimes by executive branch officials.
- June 30 – Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrates four bishops at Ecône, Switzerland for his apostolate, along with Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, without a papal mandate.
July
August
- August 5
- August 6–August 7 – Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City: A riot erupts in Tompkins Square Park when police attempt to enforce a newly passed curfew for the park. Bystanders, artists, residents, homeless people and political activists are caught up in the police action which takes place during the night of August 6 and into the early morning of August 7.
- August 8 – 8888 Uprising: Thousands of protesters in Burma, now known as Myanmar, are killed during anti-government demonstrations.
- August 14 – Enzo Ferrari, founder of the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari, dies at the age of 90, after a long illness.
- August 17 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphel, are killed in a plane crash near Bhawalpur.
- August 18 – The Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana nominates George H.W. Bush for President and Dan Quayle for Vice President of the United States of America.
- August 19 – A truce begins in the Iran–Iraq War.
- August 20 – The Iran–Iraq War ends, with an estimated one million lives lost.
- August 21 – Major earthquake of magnitude 6.6 hits the Nepal-India Border. Estimated 1,004 people killed and more than 16,000 injured
- August 25 – A fire destroys part of Chiado quarter, in Lisbon's historical center.
- August 26 – Mehran Karimi Nasseri, "The terminal man", is stuck in the De Gaulle Airport in Paris, where he will continue to reside until August 1, 2006.
- August 28 – Seventy-five people are killed and 346 injured in one of the worst airshow disasters in history at Germany's Ramstein Air Base, when three jets from the Italian air demonstration team, Frecce Tricolori, collide, sending one of the aircraft crashing into the crowd of spectators.
September
October
- October 5
- Thousands riot in Algiers, Algeria against the National Liberation Front government; by October 10 the army has killed and tortured about 500 people in crushing the riots.
- Chilean president Augusto Pinochet is defeated in a national plebiscite which sought to renew his mandate.
- In Omaha, Nebraska, in the only vice presidential debate of the 1988 U.S. presidential election, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, insists he has as much experience in government as John F. Kennedy did when he sought the presidency in 1960. His Democratic opponent, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, replies, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
- October 12 – Walsh Street police shootings: Two Victoria Police officers are gunned down, execution style, in Australia.
- October 13 – In the second U.S. presidential debate, held by U.C.L.A., the Democratic party nominee, Michael Dukakis, is asked by journalist Bernard Shaw of CNN if he would support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were to be raped and murdered. Gov. Dukakis' reply, voicing his opposition to capital punishment in any and all circumstances, is later said to have been a major reason for the eventual failure of his campaign for the White House.
- October 19 – The United Kingdom bans broadcast interviews with IRA members. The BBC gets around this stricture through the use of professional actors.
- October 23 – Super Mario Bros. 3 is released in Japan.
- October 27 – Ronald Reagan decides to tear down the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow because of Soviet listening devices in the building structure.
- October 28 – Abortion: 48 hours after announcing it was abandoning RU-486, French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it will resume distribution of the drug.
- October 29 – Pakistan's General Rahimuddin Khan resigns from his post as the governor of Sindh, following attempts by the President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, to limit the vast powers Gen. Rahimuddin had accumulated.
- October 30
November
- November 1 – In the Israeli election, Likud wins 47 seats, Labour wins 49, but Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir remains in office.
- November 2 – The Morris worm, the first computer worm distributed via the Internet, written by Robert Tappan Morris, is launched from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S.
- November 3–November 5 – Thousands of South Korean students demonstrate against former president Chun Doo Hwan.
- November 8 – United States presidential election, 1988: George H. W. Bush is elected over Michael Dukakis.
- November 11 – In Sacramento, California, police find a body buried in the lawn of 60-year-old boardinghouse landlady Dorothea Puente (7 bodies are eventually found and Puente is convicted of 3 murders and sentenced to life in prison).
- November 13 – Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian law student in Portland, Oregon is beaten to death by members of the Neo-Nazi group East Side White Pride.
- November 15
- November 16
- November 18 – War on Drugs: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.
- November 21
- November 22 – In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed.
- November 23 – Former Korean president Chun Doo Hwan publicly apologizes for corruption during his presidency, announcing he will go into exile.
- November 24 – The popular American cult television comedy Mystery Science Theater 3000 makes its debut on KTMA.
- November 30 – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for US$25.07 billion in the biggest leveraged buyout deal of all time.
December
Date unknown
Births
January
- January 2 – Jonny Evans, Northern Irish footballer
- January 5 – Pauline (singer), French composer, songwriter and singer
- January 7
- January 8
- January 9 – Alexey Vorobyov, Russian singer and actor
- January 15 – Skrillex, American musician and DJ
- January 16 – Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
- January 19 – JaVale McGee, American professional basketball player
- January 20 – Benjamin Ulrich, German international rugby union player
- January 22 – Greg Oden, American basketball player
- January 24 – Jade Ewen, English singer
- January 25 – Tatiana Golovin, French tennis player
- January 26 – Mia Rose, Portuguese and British singer-songwriter notable for her popularity on YouTube.
- January 27 – Kerlon, Brazilian footballer
- January 29 – Tatyana Chernova, Russian heptathlete
February
- February 3
- February 4 – Carly Patterson, American gymnast
- February 7 – Ai Kago, Japanese singer
- February 9 – Lotte Friis, Danish swimmer
- February 11 – Li Chun, Chinese singer
- February 12
- February 14
- February 15 – Denílson Pereira Neves, Brazilian footballer
- February 17 – Natascha Kampusch, Austrian television hostess
- February 18
- February 20 – Rihanna, Barbadian pop singer
- February 21 – Matthias de Zordo, German javelin thrower
- February 22
- February 24 – Rodrigue Beaubois, French basketball player
- February 28 – Markéta Irglová, Czech songwriter
March
April
May
June
- June 1
- June 2 – Sergio Agüero, Argentine footballer
- June 7
- June 9 – Mae Whitman, American actress
- June 14 – Kevin McHale, American actor, dancer and singer
- June 17 – Stephanie Rice, Australian swimmer
- June 20 – Shefali Chowdhury, British actress
- June 22 – Omri Casspi, Israeli professional basketball player
- June 23 – Isabella Leong, Hong Kong singer, actress and model
- June 24 – Micah Richards, English footballer
- June 28 – Kanon Wakeshima, Japanese singer and cellist
July
August
September
- September 1 – Simona de Silvestro, Swiss race car driver from Thun, Switzerland
- September 5 – Nuri Şahin, Turkish footballer
- September 6 – Max George, British singer
- September 7 – Kevin Love, American basketball player
- September 8 – Gustav Schäfer, Drummer of Tokio Hotel
- September 9 – McKey Sullivan, American fashion model
- September 10
- September 15 – Chelsea Kane, American actress and singer
- September 23 – Juan Martin del Potro, Argentine tennis player
- September 26 – Kiira Korpi, Finnish figure skater
- September 28 – Esmée Denters, Dutch singer
- September 29 – Kevin Durant, American basketball player
October
November
- November 3 – Angus McLaren, Australian actor
- November 6 – Emma Stone, American actress
- November 7
- November 8 – Jessica Lowndes, Canadian actress and singer
- November 9 – Nikki Blonsky, American actress and singer
- November 12 – Russell Westbrook, American professional basketball
- November 15 – B.o.B, American rapper, singer and record producer
- November 19 – Patrick Kane, American professional hockey player
- November 21 – Len Väljas, Canadian cross-country skier
- November 22 – Jamie Campbell Bower, English actor
- November 25 – Jay Spearing, English footballer
December
- December 1 – Zoë Kravitz, American actress
- December 2 – Alfred Enoch, British actor
- December 4 – Mario Maurer, Thai model and actor
- December 6 – Sandra Nurmsalu, Estonian musician
- December 7 – Emily Browning, Australian actress
- December 14
- December 16
- December 19
- December 23 – Eri Kamei, Japanese singer
- December 25 – Eric Gordon, American professional basketball player
- December 27 – Hayley Williams, American singer (Paramore)
- December 29 – Ágnes Szávay, Hungarian tennis player
- December 30 – Leon Jackson, Scottish singer and X Factor winner 2007
Deaths
January
- January 1 – Margot Bryant, British actress (b. 1897)
- January 2 – Edmund Brisco Ford, British geneticist (b. 1901)
- January 5 – Pete Maravich, American basketball player (b. 1947)
- January 6 – L. P. Davies, English novelist (b. 1914)
- January 7 – Trevor Howard, British actor (b. 1913)
- January 11 – Pappy Boyington, American pilot (b. 1912)
- January 12 – Hiram Bingham IV, American diplomat (b. 1903)
- January 13 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
- January 14 – Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)
- January 15 – Seán MacBride, Irish Republican Army leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1904)
- January 16 – Ballard Berkeley, British actor (b. 1904)
- January 20 – Philippe de Rothschild, French vineyard owner (b. 1902)
- January 22 – Parker Fennelly, American comedian and actor (b. 1891)
- January 25 – Colleen Moore, American actress (b. 1900)
- January 28 – Klaus Fuchs, German-British physicist and spy (b. 1911)
February
March
April
- April 1 – Jim Jordan, American actor (b. 1896)
- April 3 – Milt Caniff, American cartoonist (b. 1907)
- April 6 – John Clements, British actor (b. 1910)
- April 11
- April 12
- April 15 – Kenneth Williams, British actor and raconteur (b. 1926)
- April 17
- April 18 – Pierre Desproges, French humorist (b. 1939)
- April 21 – I. A. L. Diamond, American screenwriter (b. 1920)
- April 22 – Irene Rich, American actress (b. 1891)
- April 23 – Michael Ramsey, British bishop, 100th Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1904)
- April 26
- April 27 – David Scarboro, British actor (b. 1968)
May
- May 3 – Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
- May 5 – George Rose, English actor (b. 1920)
- May 8 – Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction author (b. 1907)
- May 10
- May 11 – Kim Philby, British spy (b. 1912)
- May 12 – Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1929)
- May 14 – Willem Drees, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1948 until 1958 (b. 1886)
- May 15
- May 16 – Charles Keeping, British illustrator (b. 1924)
- May 18 – Daws Butler, voice actor (b. 1916)
- May 21 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
- May 23 – Aya Kitō, Japanese Writer (b. 1962)
- May 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- May 27 – Florida Friebus, American actor (b. 1909)
- May 30 – Ella Raines, American actress (b. 1920)
June
July
- July 3 – Gabriel Dell, American actor (b. 1919)
- July 4 – Adrian Adonis, American wrestler (b. 1954)
- July 8 – Ray Barbuti, American athlete (b. 1905)
- July 12 – Joshua Logan, American stage and film director (b. 1908)
- July 17 – Bruiser Brody, American professional wrestler (b. 1946)
- July 18 – Nico, singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress and Warhol socialite (b. 1938)
- July 21 – Jack Clark, American television personality and game show host (b. 1921)
- July 25 – Judith Barsi, American child actress (b. 1978)
- July 27 – Frank Zamboni, American inventor (b. 1901)
- July 31 – Trinidad Silva, American actor (b. 1950)
August
- August 1 – Florence Eldridge, American actress (b. 1901)
- August 2 – Raymond Carver, American short-story writer & poet (b. 1938)
- August 5
- August 8
- August 9
- August 10 – Adela Rogers St. Johns, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1893)
- August 11 – Anne Ramsey, American actress (b. 1929)
- August 12 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American musician/graffiti painter (b. 1960)
- August 14
- August 17
- August 21 – Ray Eames, American artist, designer, and filmmaker (b. 1912)
- August 24 – Leonard Frey, American actor (b. 1938)
- August 27
- August 28 – Hazel Dawn, American actress (b. 1891)
September
October
- October 1
- October 2 – Alec Issigonis, Greek-British engineer (b. 1906)
- October 7 – Billy Daniels, American singer (b. 1915)
- October 9 – Jackie Milburn, English footballer (b. 1924)
- October 11
- October 12
- October 13 – Melvin Frank, American screenwriter and director (b. 1913)
- October 15 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English composer and pianist (b. 1892)
- October 18 – Frederick Ashton, English dancer and choreographer (b. 1904)
- October 19 – Son House, American musician (b. 1902)
- October 22 – Henry Armstrong, American boxer (b. 1912)
- October 27 – Charles Hawtrey, English actor (b. 1914)
- October 31 – John Houseman, Romanian-American actor and producer (b. 1902)
November
- November 1 – George J. Folsey, American cinematographer (b. 1898)
- November 7 – Sy Mah, Canadian marathoner (b. 1926)
- November 9 – John N. Mitchell, American lawyer, 67th United States Attorney General (b. 1913)
- November 11 – William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor & organist (b. 1900)
- November 12
- November 13 – Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (b. 1906)
- November 14 – Takeo Miki, Japanese politician, 41st Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1909)
- November 15 – Mona Washbourne, British actress (b. 1903)
- November 17 – Sheilah Graham, English-born gossip columnist (b. 1904)
- November 19 – Christina Onassis, American shipping magnate (b. 1950)
- November 21 – Carl Hubbell, American baseball player (b. 1903)
- November 22 – Luis Barragán, Mexican architect (b. 1902)
- November 27 – John Carradine, American actor (b. 1906)
December
- December 2 – Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra) (b. 1922)
- December 4 – Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist (b. 1899)
- December 6
- December 10 – Richard S. Castellano, American actor (b. 1933)
- December 16 – Sylvester James, American R&B singer, disco performer (b. 1948)
- December 17 – Jerry Hopper, American film and television director (b. 1907)
- December 20 – Max Robinson, American broadcast journalist, and ABC News World News Tonight co-anchor (b. 1939)
- December 21
- December 22 – Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, Brazilian environmental activist (b. 1944)
- December 26
- December 27
- December 30 – Isamu Noguchi, Japanese-American artist (b. 1904)
Nobel Prizes
Templeton Prize
Right Livelihood Award
References