Directory

1988 CE

1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United States (National Science Foundation Network) and Europe (NORDUnet) as well as the first Internet-based chat protocol, the Internet Relay Chat. The concept of the World Wide Web was first discussed at CERN in 1988.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 25 – The constitution of the Sixth Republic of Korea comes into effect.source
  • April 14 – In the Geneva Accords, the Soviet Union commits itself to withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.source
  • May 8 – François Mitterrand is re-elected as President of France for 7 years.source
  • May 29–June 3 – The Moscow Summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev takes place, where the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was finalized.source
  • October 5 – Promulgation of the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil.source
  • October 5 – Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet loses a national plebiscite on his rule; he relinquishes power in 1990.source
  • 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 powers Rahimuddin had accumulated.source
  • November 8 – The United States Vice-president and Republican nominee George H. W. Bush defeats the Democratic nominee and Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, in the 1988 United States Presidential Election.source
  • November 15 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed at the Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253–46.source
  • November 16 – In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan choose populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister. Elections are held as planned despite head of state Zia-ul-Haq's death earlier in August.source
  • November 16 – Singing Revolution: The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopts the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in which the laws of the Estonian SSR are declared supreme over those of the Soviet Union. The USSR declares it unconstitutional on November 26. It is the first declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union of any Soviet or Eastern Bloc entity.source
  • November 23 – Former Korean president Chun Doo-hwan makes a formal apology for corruption during his presidency, announcing he will go into exile.source
  • December 1 – Carlos Salinas de Gortari takes office as President of Mexico.source
  • December 2 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.source
  • December 6 – The Australian Capital Territory is granted self-government by the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988.source
  • December 20 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 7–8 – In the Soviet-Afghan War, 39 men of the Soviet Airborne Troops from the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment fight off an attack by 200 to 250 Mujahideen in the Battle for Hill 3234, later dramatized in the Russian film The 9th Company.source
  • February 20 – The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic and join the Armenian SSR, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.source
  • February 23 – Start of Anfal campaign, a genocidal counterinsurgency operation within the Iran–Iraq War carried out by Ba'athist Iraqi forces led by Ali Hassan al-Majid on the orders of President Saddam Hussein that will kill between 50,000 and 182,000 Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan.source
  • February 27–29 – Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Sumgait pogrom of Armenians occurs in Sumqayit.source
  • March 6 – Operation Flavius: A Special Air Service team of the British Army shoots dead 3 unarmed members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Active service unit in Gibraltar.source
  • March 16 – The Halabja chemical attack is carried out by Iraqi government forces.source
  • March 16 – Milltown Cemetery attack: Three men are killed and 70 wounded in a gun and grenade attack by loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone on mourners at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the funerals of the 3 IRA members killed in Gibraltar.source
  • March 17 – Eritrean War of Independence – Battle of Afabet: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on 3 sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).source
  • March 19 – Corporals killings in Belfast: Two British Army corporals are abducted, beaten and shot dead by Irish republicans after driving into the funeral cortege of IRA members killed in the Milltown Cemetery attack.source
  • March 20 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the EPLF enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.source
  • April 10 – The Ojhri Camp Disaster occurs in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.source
  • April 14 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) strikes a naval mine in the Persian Gulf, while deployed on Operation Earnest Will, during the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War.source
  • May 15 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than 8 years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.source
  • May 16–18 – 1988 Gilgit massacre: A revolt by the Shias of Gilgit (in northern Pakistan) is ruthlessly suppressed by the Zia-ul Haq regime.source
  • May 27–29 – Somaliland War of Independence: Somali National Movement launches a major offensive against Somali government forces in Hargeisa and Burao, then second and third largest cities of Somalia.source
  • June 21 – The Poole explosion of 1988 caused 3,500 people to be evacuated out of the town centre in the biggest peacetime evacuation the United Kingdom had seen since the World War II.source
  • June 27 – Villa Tunari massacre: Bolivian anti-narcotics police kills 9 to 12 and injures over a hundred protesting coca-growing peasants.source
  • August 5 – The 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis culminates in the ousting of the Lord President of Malaysia, Salleh Abas.source
  • August 8 – 8888 Uprising: Thousands of protesters in Burma, now known as Myanmar, are killed during anti-government demonstrations.source
  • August 20 – A ceasefire effectively ends the Iran–Iraq War, with an estimated one million lives lost.source
  • September 11 – Singing Revolution: In the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 300,000 people gather to express their support for independence.source
  • October 12 – The Birchandra Manu massacre occurs in Tripura, India.source
  • October 30 – Jericho bus firebombing: Five Israelis are killed and five wounded in a Palestinian attack in the West Bank.source
  • November 3 – 1988 Maldives coup attempt: The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan Tamil militant group, attempts to overthrow the Maldivian government. At the request of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the Indian military suppresses the coup attempt within 24 hours.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 26 – A re-enactment of the First Fleet arrives in Sydney Harbour to mark the bicentenary of the First Fleet arriving in Australia in 1788.source
  • April 30 – World Expo 88 opens in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.source
  • Zebra mussels, a species originally native to the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, are found in the Great Lakes of North America.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 26 – Upon request of Hubert Michon, archbishop of Rabat, two Trappist monks come to Fez and start a community that will later become the Priory of Our Lady of the Atlas.source
  • June 30 – Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrates four bishops at Écône, Switzerland, for his apostolate, along with Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, without a papal mandate.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 16 – In the United States, the First Republic Bank of Texas fails and enters FDIC receivership, the largest FDIC assisted bank failure in history.source
  • March 24 – The first McDonald's restaurant in a country run by a Communist party opens in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. It was later followed by one in Budapest, and in 1990 in Moscow, and Shenzhen, China.source
  • November 15 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched by Nico Roozen, Frans van der Hoff and ecumenical development agency Solidaridad in the Netherlands.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 1 – The Soviet Union begins its program of economic restructuring (perestroika) with legislation initiated by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (though Gorbachev had begun minor restructuring in 1985).source
  • July 3 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.source
  • July 31 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.source
  • November – TAT-8, the first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fibers, is completed. This led to more robust connections between the American and European Internet.source
  • Near the end of the year, the first proper and official intercontinental Internet connection between North America (through the National Science Foundation Network) and Europe (through NORDUnet) is permanently established between Princeton, New Jersey, United States, and Stockholm, Sweden.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 12 – The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy intentionally rams USS Yorktown in Soviet territorial waters while Yorktown claims innocent passage. The accompanying US destroyer escapes damage.source
  • June 23 – NASA scientist James Hansen testifies to the U.S. Senate that human-made global warming has begun, becoming one of the first environmentalists to warn of the problem.source
  • September 29 – STS-26: NASA resumes Space Shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster, with Space Shuttle Discovery.source
  • 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.source
  • November 15 – In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran is launched by an Energia rocket on its maiden orbital spaceflight (the first and last space flight for the shuttle).source

Health & Medicine

  • 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.source
  • December 1 – The first World AIDS Day is held.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 17 – U.S. Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon, is kidnapped (and later killed by his captors).source
  • 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.source
  • April 16 – Israeli commandos kill the PLO's Abu Jihad in Tunisia.source
  • October 12 – Walsh Street police shootings: Two Victoria Police officers are gunned down, execution style, in Australia.source
  • December 16 – Perennial U.S. presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche is convicted of mail fraud.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January – The cargo ship Khian Sea deposits 4,000 tons of toxic waste in Haiti after wandering around the Atlantic for sixteen months.source
  • February 17 – 1988 Oshakati bomb blast: A bomb explodes outside the First National Bank in Oshakati, Namibia, killing 27 and injuring 70.source
  • March 17 – A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border, killing 143 people.source
  • April 1 – A bus carrying 54 passengers falls into the Han River in Seoul, South Korea killing 19 and injuring 35.source
  • April 5 – Kuwait Airways Flight 422 is hijacked while en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Kuwait. The hijackers demand the release of 17 Shiite Muslim prisoners held by Kuwait. Kuwait refuses to release the prisoners, leading to a 16-day siege across 3 continents. Two passengers are killed before the siege ends.source
  • April 20 – The world's longest skyjacking comes to an end when the remaining passengers of Kuwait Airways Flight 422 are released by their captors.source
  • April 28 – Aloha Airlines Flight 243 safely lands after losing its roof in midair, killing a flight attendant and injuring 65 people.source
  • June 27 – The Gare de Lyon rail accident occurs in Paris, France as a commuter train headed inbound to the terminal crashes into a stationary outbound train, killing 56 and injuring 57.source
  • July 3 – Iran Air Flight 655 is shot down by a missile launched from the , killing a total of 290 people on board.source
  • July 6 – The Piper Alpha production platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires, killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners. 61 workers survive.source
  • August 17 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel, are among those killed when a plane crashes and explodes near Bahawalpur.source
  • August 28 – Seventy people are killed and 346 injured in one of the worst air show 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.source
  • September 22 – The Ocean Odyssey drilling rig suffers a blowout and fire in the North Sea (see also July 6), resulting in one death.source
  • December 12 – The Clapham Junction rail crash in London kills 35 and injures 132.source
  • December 21 – Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270 people. Libya is suspected of involvement.source

Climate & Environment

  • February 29 – A Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in World War II deportations.source
  • August 21 – The 6.9 Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal–India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured.source
  • September 12 – Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula 2 days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.source
  • November 6 – The 1988 Lancang–Gengma earthquakes kills at least 938 people when it strikes the China–Myanmar border region in Yunnan.source
  • December 2 – A cyclone in Bangladesh leaves 5 million homeless and thousands dead.source
  • December 7 – In Soviet Armenia, the 6.8 Spitak earthquake kills nearly 25,000, injures 31,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.source

Culture & Society

  • February 13–28 – The 1988 Winter Olympics are held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.source
  • March 25 – The Candle demonstration in Bratislava, Slovakia, is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the socialist government in Czechoslovakia.source
  • June 10–14 – Spontaneous 100,000 strong mass night-singing demonstrations in Estonian SSR eventually give name to the Singing Revolution.source
  • June 10–25 – West Germany hosts the UEFA Euro 1988 football tournament, which is won by the Netherlands.source
  • July 1 – The Soviet Union votes to end the CPSU's monopoly on economic and other non-political power and to further economic changes towards a less rigidly Marxist-Leninist economy.source
  • September 15 – The International Olympic Committee awards Lillehammer the right to host the 1994 Winter Olympics.source
  • September 17–October 2 – The 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea.source
  • October 20 – The Los Angeles Dodgers won 4 games to 1 in the 1988 World Series against the Oakland Athletics.source

Births

  • February 7 – Matthew Stafford, American football playersource
  • February 20 – Rihanna, Barbadian pop singersource
  • March 4 – Valentina Shevchenko, Kyrgyz born-Peruvian mixed martial artistsource
  • March 14 – Stephen Curry, American basketball playersource
  • May 5 – Adele, British singer-songwritersource
  • June 2 – Sergio Agüero, Argentine footballersource
  • July 14 – Conor McGregor, Irish mixed martial artistsource
  • July 20 – Julianne Hough, American ballroom dancer, country music singer and actresssource
  • August 12 – Tyson Fury, British boxersource
  • August 18 – G-Dragon, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter and fashion iconsource
  • August 21 – Robert Lewandowski, Polish footballersource
  • September 26 – James Blake, English electronic music producer and singer-songwritersource
  • September 29 – Alexander Volkanovski, Australian mixed martial artist and boxersource
  • November 15 – B.o.B., American rapper, singer, record producer and conspiracy theoristsource

Deaths

  • January 13 – Vice-president Lee Teng-hui takes over as President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo.source