April 4 - Richard M. Daley elected mayor of Chicago
April 6 - National Safety Council of Australia chief executive John Friedrich is arrested after defrauding investors to the tune of $235 million
April 7 - Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea - more than 40 dead
April 9 - Massacre of Georgian demonstrators by Red Army soldiers in Tbilisi's central square during a peaceful rally; 20 citizens are killed (most of them young women), many injured. The use of toxic gas by the Soviets was alleged. [1] (http://www.phrusa.org/research/health_effects/humsov.html)
April 15 - Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies of Europe football, takes place
April 19 - Gun turret explodes on the US battleship Iowa - 47 dead
April 20 - NATO debates modernising short range missiles; although the US and UK are in favour, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl obtains a concession defering a decision.
April 25 - End of term for Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail as the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
April 26 - Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, Sultan of Perak, becomes the 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
May 2 - Hungary dismantles 150 miles of barbed wire fencing, opening its border to Western Europe.
May 9 - Andrew Peacock Deposes John Howard as Federal Opposition Leader
May 11 - ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Legislative Assembly meets for 1st time
May 12 - a Southern Pacific Railroad freight train crashes on Duffy Street in San Bernadino, California
May 15 Australia's 1st Private tertiary institution Bond University Opens On the Gold Coast
May 15 - Jackie Mann, a 74-year-old former Battle of Britain pilot, is abducted in Beirut
May 30 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators
May 30 Ananda Marga Member Tim Anderson is arrested on charges related to the 1978 Hilton Bombing

[edit]

June

The Unknown Rebel holds up a column of Chinese tanks sent to crush the student rebellion in Tiananmen Square
Jeff Widener (The Associated Press)

June 1 - The SkyDome stadium is opened in Toronto
June 3 - The Ayatollah Khomeini dies
June 4 - Suppression of the Tiananmen Square massacre takes place in Beijing and is covered live on television
June 4 - Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland spark off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe.
June 4 - Train disaster: A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia kills 645 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline
June 7 - At 01:23:45 AM the time and date by US reckoning was 01:23:45 6/7/89. This was also true 12 hours later excepting 24-hour time.
June 13 - The wreck of the German battleship Bismarck, which was sunk in 1941, is located 600 miles west of Brest, France
June 14 - Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is arrested in Beverly Hills, California after slapping a motorcycle police officer. [2] (http://www.mugshots.net/zsa_zsa_gabor/)
June 21 - British police arrest 250 citizens for celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge
June 22 - Ireland's first universities established since independence in 1922 are set up:Dublin City University and University of Limerick

[edit]

July

July 2 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece resigns. New government formed under Tzannis Tzannetakis
July 6 - At 01:23:45 AM the time and date by British reckoning was 01:23:45 6/7/89. This was also true 12 hours later excepting 24-hour time.
July 19 - A Douglas DC-10 carrying United Airlines flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 but due to extraordinary efforts by the pilot and his crew, 184 on board survive
July 19 - The BBC programme "Panorama" accuses Lady Porter Tory Leader of Westminster City Council of "gerrymandering"
July 20 - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi placed under house arrest
July 26 - A federal grand jury indicts 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

[edit]

August

The asteroid 4769 Castalia is the first asteroid directly imaged, by radar from Arecibo
August 6 - The comic strip Bloom County ends.
August 7 - US Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX), and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia
August 8 - STS-28: The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
August 18 - Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
August 19 - Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be Prime Minister, thus becoming the first non-communist in power in 42 years.
August 20 - In Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their wealthy parents to death in their family's den
August 20 - 51 people die when the Marchioness pleasure boat collides with a barge on the River Thames adjacent to Southwark Bridge
August 23 - Baltic Way, uninterrupted 600 kilometre human chain, in which two million indigenous people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, then still occupied by the Soviet Union, joined hands to demand freedom and independence
August 23 - Hungary removes border restrictions with Austria
August 23 - All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign over an airline's move to sack and sue them over a dispute
August 25 - Voyager II passes the planet Neptune and its moon Triton
August 29 - Yusef Hawkins shot in Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, sparking racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans.

[edit]

September-October

September 10 - The Hungarian government opens the country's western borders to refugees from the German Democratic Republic.
September 19 - Hurricane Hugo makes landfall in South Carolina, causing 7 billion dollars in damage.
September 22 - Deal barracks bombing: IRA bomb explodes at the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, United Kingdom - 11 dead, 22 injured
October 5 - US TV Evangelist Jim Bakker is found guilty of embezzlement of $158 million
October 9 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
October 9 - In Leipzig, East Germany protesters demand the legalization of opposition groups and democratic reforms
October 17 - An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the richter scale strikes the San Francisco / Oakland area in the United States, killing 63.
October 19 - The Guildford Four are freed after 14 years

[edit]

November

The Berlin Wall

November 4 - Typhoon Gay devastates the Thai province of Chumphon.
November 7 - Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia and becomes the first elected African American governor in the United States.
November 7 - David Dinkins becomes the first African American mayor of New York City.
November 7 - In California, convicted murderer Richard Ramirez (the "Night Stalker") is sentenced to death.
November 9 - Cold War: Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to freely travel to West Germany for the first time in decades (the next day celebrating Germans began to tear the wall down).
November 10 - After 45 years of communist rule in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov is replaced by Prime Minister Petar Mladenov, who changes the party's name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
November 10 - Gaby Kennard becomes the first Australian woman to fly non-stop around the world.
November 12 - Brazil holds its first free presidential election since 1960
November 16 - Six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter are shot in San Salvador, El Salvador
November 16 - South African President FW de Klerk announces scrapping of Separate Amenities Act
November 17 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins - In Czechoslovakia a peaceful student demonstration in Prague is severely beaten back by the communist riot police. This sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeded on December 29)
November 20 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - The number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
Tuesday, November 21, 1989 - North Carolina celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
November 22 - In west Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President Rene Moawad and kills him.
November 28 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - With other communist regimes falling all around it and with growing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power (elections held in December brought the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years)
November 30 - Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a terrorist's bomb (the Red Army Faction claimed responsibility of the murder)
November 30 - A storeowner in Palm Harbor, Florida named Richard Mallory takes a ride with Aileen Wuornos and is seen for the last time. Mallory became the first of seven people killed by the female serial killer over the next year.

[edit]

December

December 1 - Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the communist party the leading role in the state (Egon Krenz, the Politburo and the Central Committee resigned two days later).
December 3 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George Herbert Walker Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerated the wording and independently declared the Cold War over).
December 6 - The École Polytechnique Massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders fourteen young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
December 14 - Chile holds its first free election in 16 years.
December 17 - Brazil holds its first free election in 29 years. Fernando Collor de Mello wins the election.
December 20 - United States invades Panama (Operation Just Cause) to overthrow Manuel Noriega - he takes refuge in the Vatican mission until January 3 1990
December 22 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's communist dictatorship.
December 22 - Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific highway north of Kempsey, Australia, 35 killed + 39 injured
December 25 - Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena are executed.
December 25 - Bank of Japan governors announce a major interest rate hike, eventually leading to the peak and fall of the "bubble economy."
December 28 - A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.
December 29 - Václav Havel elected the president of Czechoslovakia - a big victory of the Velvet Revolution.
December 29 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.

[edit]

Unknown Dates

Alan Bond's Bond Corporation goes into receivership with the largest debt in Australian history
Homosexual Acts between concenting adults decriminlized in Western Australia
Rice University celebrates the demisesquicentennial anniversary of its founding
Kamchatka opened to Russian civilian visitors
Retirement of the Alize propeller-driven anti-submarine planes from carrier service in the French Navy
The first national park, in Schiermonnikoog, is established in The Netherlands
Soviet submarine 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 girls in Myllypuro suburb in Helsinki
Richard C. Duncan introduces the Olduvai theory, a theory about the collapse of the Industrial Civilization
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, is founded in Culver City, California by David and Diana Wilson

[edit]

Year in topic

1989 in film
- April 21 - Field of Dreams
- May 24 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- June 2 - Dead Poets Society
- June 14 - Do the Right Thing
- June 23 - Batman
- July 12 - When Harry Met Sally
- August 9 - The Abyss
- November 22 - Back to the Future Part II
- December 13 - Driving Miss Daisy
- December 16 - Godzilla vs Biollante (Japanese release date)
- December 20 - Born on the Fourth of July
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!
- Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon
1989 in music
- Amon (later Deicide) releases Sacrificial
- Bad Religion releases their popular Epitaph Records album No Control
- Nirvana releases their debut album "Bleach"
- The Band are inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame
- De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising helps invent the field of alternative rap
- Country music legend Garth Brooks releases his first album, the selftitled Garth Brooks on Capitol records.
- N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton is the first hip hop album to achieve widespread mainstream success
- The Presidents of the United States of America form
1989 in rail transport
1989 in sports
- Sunday, January 22, 1989 - Super Bowl XXIII San Francisco 49ers (20) def. Cincinnati Bengals (16)
- Saturday, February 11, 1989 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Jill Trenary
- Tuesday, March 21, 1989 - Sports Illustrated reports allegations that tie Pete Rose to baseball gambling
- Thursday, August 24, 1989 - 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
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 has it's cable premiere on Comedy Central, starring series creator Joel Hodgson. The show began a year earlier on a small UHF station in Minneapolis, MN.
- December - The Simpsons premieres on FOX. The characters had first appeared two years earlier as a segment on the Tracey Ullman Show
- Comedy Shows Fast Forward, Acropolis Now + The Big Gig Debut (Australia)
1989 in video gaming and computing
- January 9 - The SEGA Genesis is released in New York and Los Angeles.
- September 15 - The SEGA Genesis is released in the rest of North America.
- Nintendo released its popular handheld video game player, Game Boy

[edit]

Births

Hussam Abdo, Palestinian newsmaker
Marina Golbahari, Afghani actress
January 29 - Charlotte and Margaret Baughman, American twin actresses
February 2 - Anna Sundstrand, Swedish singer
February 4 - Nkosi Johnson, South African HIV-AIDS icon (d. 2001)
February 5 - Jeremy Sumpter, American actor
March 5 - Jake Lloyd, American actor
March 17 - Spot Fetcher, presidential pet of George H.W. Bush (d. 2004)
April 23 - Nicole Vaidisova, Czech tennis player
May 29 - Riley Keough, American model, daughter of Lisa Marie Presley
June 2 - Freddy Adu, Ghanaian-American soccer prodigy
June 13 - Sayumi Michishige, Japanese singer
June 27 - Madeline Mann, famous premature infant
July 23 - Daniel Radcliffe, British actor (Harry Potter series)
August 15 - Belinda Peregrin, Mexican entertainer
August 19 - Percy Romeo Miller ("Lil' Romeo"), American entertainer
October 11 - Michelle Wie, American golf prodigy
November 11 - Reina Tanaka, Japanses singer
December 7 - Damilola Taylor, Nigerian cause célèbre (d. 2000)
December 27 - Kateryna Lahno, Ukrainian chess player

[edit]

Deaths

[edit]

January to April

January 3 - Robert Banks, American chemist (b. 1921)
January 6 - Chris Gueffroy, last person killed crossing the Berlin Wall (b. 1968)
January 7 - Frank Adams, British mathematician (b. 1930)
January 7 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
January 21 - Billy Tipton, jazz musician (b. 1914)
January 23 - Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (b. 1904)
January 24 - Ted Bundy, American serial killer (executed)
February 1 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (b. 1919)
February 3 - John Cassavetes, American actor and author
February 6 - Roy Eldridge, American jazz musician (b. 1911)
February 6 - Barbara W. Tuchman, historian
February 9 - Osamu Tezuka, Japanese artist
February 11 - George O'Hanlon, actor and director
February 24 - Sparky Adams, American baseball player (b. 1894)
February 27 - Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (b. 1897)
February 27 - Konrad Lorenz, behavioral scientist
March 6 - Harry Andrews, British actor (b. 1911)
March 9 - Robert Mapplethorpe, artist
March 14 - Edward Abbey, American author, environmentalist, and rural issues champion (b. 1927)
March 14 - Stephen D. Bechtel, Sr., American businessman (b. 1900)
March 19 - Alan Civil, English musician (b. 1929)
March 27 - Malcolm Cowley, American author (b. 1898)
April 1 - Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (b. 1903)
April 16 - Jocko Conlan, Major League Baseball player and umpire (b. 1899)
April 21 - Princess Dukhye of Korea (b. 1912)
April 26 - Lucille Ball, American entertainer (b. 1911)
April 30 - Yi, Bang-ja, Crown Princess of Korea (b. 1901)
April 30 - Sergio Leone, Italian film director (b. 1929)

[edit]

May to August

May 14 - E.P. Taylor, Canadian business tycoon
May 19 - C.L.R. James, English writer, journalist, and socialist (b. 1901)
May 20 - Gilda Radner, American comedian and actress (b. 1946)
May 29 - John Cipollina, American musician, Quicksilver Messenger Service (b. August 24, 1943)
June 3 - Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian ayatollah and political figure (b. 1900)
June 4 - Dik Browne, American cartoonist
June 7 - Don the Beachcomber, restaurateur (b. 1907)
June 9 - George Wells Beadle, American geneticist (b. 1903)
June 15 - Victor French, actor, director (b. 1934)
June 20 - Hilmar Baunsgaard, Danish politician (b. 1920)
June 27 - Alfred Ayer, British philosopher (b. 1910)
June 28 - Joris Ivens, Dutch filmmaker and communist (b. 1898)
July 3 - Jim Backus, American actor (b. 1913)
July 10 - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (b. 1908)
July 11 - Laurence Olivier, English actor and director (b. 1907)
July 16 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (b. 1908)
July 20 - Forrest H. Anderson, American politician (b. 1913)
July 22 - Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (b. 1935)
July 23 - Donald Barthelme, American writer (b. 1931)
August 1 - John Ogdon, English pianist (b. 1937)
August 4 - Maurice Colbourne, British actor (b. 1939)
August 13 - Tim Richmond, American race car driver (b. 1955)
August 14 - Robert Bernard Anderson, American political figure (b. 1910)
August 16 - Jean-Hilaire Aubame, French-Gabonese politician (b. 1912)
August 16 - Amanda Blake, American actress (b. 1929)
August 20 - George Adamson, Indian-Kenyan conservationist (assassinated) (b. 1906)
August 22 - John Clyne, Canadian jurist (b. 1902)
August 22 - Diana Vreeland, American fashion editor (b. 1929)
August 29 - Peter Scott, English naturalist, artist, and explorer (b. 1909)
August 30 - Joe Collins, Major League Baseball player (b. 1922)

[edit]

September to December

September 1 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale University and Major League Baseball commissioner (b. 1938)
September 4 - Ronald Syme, classicist and historian
September 14 - Dámaso Pérez Prado, Cuban musician (b. 1916)
September 17 - Hugh Quincy Alexander, American politician (b. 1911)
September 22 - Irving Berlin, American composer (b. 1888)
September 28 - Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines
September 30 -