1988

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Template:Yearbox Template:C20YearInTopic 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

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Events

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January

January 1 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is established, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
January 2 - Georgia celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
January 13 - Chiang Ching-kuo died in Taipei, Vice-president Lee Teng-hui became president of Taiwan.
January 9 - Connecticut celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
January 26 - Australia celebrates its bicentennial.

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February

February 3 - The United States House of Representatives controlled by the Democratic Party rejects Republican President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to support Nicaraguan Contras.
February 6 - Massachusetts celebrates its bicentennial of its statehood.
February 11 - Anthony M. Kennedy is appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 13 - The 1988 Winter Olympics open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
February 17 - U.S. Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon, is kidnapped. (He is later killed by his captors.)
February 21 - In the taping of his own television program, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit. The "unspecified sin" was an affair with a prostitute.
February 24 - The Supreme Court of the United States sides with Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation. (Main article: Hustler Magazine v. Falwell)
February 28 - The 1988 Winter Olympics close.
February 29 - Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in WWII deportations.

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March

March 1 - Anthony M. Frank is appointed United States Postmaster General.
March 6 - Students at Gallaudet University go on strike for the selection of a deaf university president.
March 7 - Operation Flavius: The SAS fatally shoot three unarmed Irish Republican Army members in Gibraltar.
March 8 - Two U.S. Army helicopters collide in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, killing 17 servicemen.
March 16 - The Halabja poison gas attack was carried out by Iraqi government forces.
March 16 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
March 17 - A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border killing 143.
March 19 - British army Corporals Woods and Howes are killed by the IRA in the so-called "Corporals killings".
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) was the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
March 29 - Dulcie September is assassinated in Paris.

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April

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April 4 - Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
April 10 - The Great Seto Bridge opened to traffic in Japan.
April 11 - The Last Emperor directed by Bernardo Bertolucci wins 9 Oscars
April 12 - Former pop singer Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California.
April 14 - In the Geneva Agreement, Soviet Union commits itself to withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.
April 14 - USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf while deployed on Operation Earnest Will during the Tanker War phase of the Iran-Iraq War.
April 16 - Israeli commandos kill the PLO's Khalil Wazir (Abu Jihad) in Tunisia.
April 16 - In Forlì (Italy), Red Brigades kill Italian senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of Prime Minister Ciriaco de Mita.
April 18 - U.S. Navy forces retaliate for the Roberts mining with Operation Praying Mantis, in a day of strikes against Iranian oil platforms and naval vessels.
April 25 - In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. He was accused by survivors of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp known as "Ivan the Terrible". The conviction was later overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.
April 28 - Maryland celebrates its the bicentennial of its statehood.
April 28 - Aloha Flight 243 loses several yards of its upper fuselage while in flight. Extraordinarily, the craft lands with only one fatality.
April 30 - World Expo '88 opens in Brisbane Queensland, Australia. The exhibition runs for 6 months, hosting pavilions from over 70 countries and thrusting the city of Brisbane into the international spotlight.

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May

May 15 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdraw from Afghanistan.
May 16 - A report by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
May 16 - California v. Greenwood: In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage.
May 23 - South Carolina celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
May 24 - Section 28 (outlawing promotion of homosexuality in schools) is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.

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June

June 6 - Queen Elizabeth strips jockey Lester Piggott of his OBE
June 11 - The name of the General Public License (GPL) is mentioned first time.
June 21 - New Hampshire celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
June 25 - Virginia celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
June 25 - The Netherlands defeat the Soviet Union 2-0 to win Euro 88.
June 28 - Four workers asphyxiated at a metal-plating plant in Auburn, Indiana, in the worst confined-space industrial accident in US history. A fifth victim dies two days later.
June 29 - United States Supreme Court upholds the law allowing special prosecutor to investigate suspected crimes by executive branch officials.
June 30 - Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops at Ecône for his apostolate along with Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer without a Papal mandate.

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July

July 1 - Bologna, Italy: Quartetto Cetra's last concert after over forty years' musical career.
July 3 - Iran Air Flight 655 shot down by missiles launched from the USS Vincennes ship
July 6 - The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners.
July 26 - New York celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
July 31 - 32 people were killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapsed in Butterworth, Malaysia.

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August

August 5 - The 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis culminates in the sacking of the Lord President of Malaysia, Salleh Abas.
August 6–August 7 - "Police riot" in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
August 8 - Thousands of protestors in Burma (now Myanmar) are killed during demonstrations against the government.
August 9 - Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in hockey history.
August 17 - Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
August 18 - Pakistan's General Rahimuddin Khan resigns from his post as Governor of Sindh.
August 19 - Ceasefire begins in the Iran-Iraq war
August 20 - Iran-Iraq war ends, with an estimated 1 million lives lost.
August 26 - Merhan Karimi Nasseri ("The terminal man") is stuck in the De Gaulle Airport in Paris, where he continues to reside as of October 2005.
August 28 - A fire destroys part of Chiado quarter, in Lisbon's historical center.
August 29 - The first WWE (WWF at the time) SummerSlam main event — featuring Hulk "Hulkamania" Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage versus André the Giant and "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase — is held in Madison Square Gardens in New York City.

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September

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September 1- Acacia pycnantha proclaimed Australia's national floral emblem
September 3- Federal referendums on 4-year terms, recognition of local Government and other issues is defeated in Australia
September 5 - With US$2 billion in federal aid, the Robert M. Bass Group agrees to buy the United States's largest thrift, American Savings and Loan Association
September 12 - Hurricane Gilbert devastated Jamaica, it turns towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula two days later causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.
September 17 - Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea open
September 22 - Ocean Odyssey drilling rig suffers a blowout and fire in the North Sea. (See also July 6)
September 24-26 - Large, militant protests against the 1988 World Bank and IMF meetings in West Berlin
September 29 - NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster

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October

October 5 - Thousands riot in Algiers, Algeria against the government of National Liberation Front - by October 10 army has killed and tortured about 500 people in crushing the riots
October 5 - Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is defeated in a national plebiscite that sought to renew his mandate.
October 11 - Women are allowed to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge, for the first time. Male students wear black armbands and the porter flies a black flag
October 12 - two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings in Australia
October 19 - United Kingdom bans broadcast interviews with IRA members. BBC gets around this by using actors' voices.
October 28 - Abortion: 48 hours after announcing it was abandoning RU-486, French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it would resume distribution of the drug, bowing to pressure from the government of France
October 30 - Philip Morris buys Kraft Foods for US$13.1 billion.
October 30 - Expo '88 in Brisbane Australia draws to a close after a 6 month spectacular.
October 30 - Formula One: Ayrton Senna clinches his first World Championship with a phenomenal drive in the Japanese Grand Prix, recovering from 16th place on the first lap to win the race and beat rival Alain Prost into second place.