istoryworld
All Events
Talking Heads, a series of dramatic monologues by English author Alan Bennett, is broadcast on British TV
The US Congress begins an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair, eventually clearing President Reagan of direct involvement
Timberlake Wertenbaker bases her play Our Country's Good on Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker
Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire dance in the Paris premiere of William Forsythe's In the middle somewhat elevated
US author Toni Morrison publishes her novel Beloved, loosely based on a real incident among freed slaves after the Civil War
Designed by Gordon Wilson, and replacing 26 individual glasshouses, the Princess of Wales Conservatory is opened by Diana, Princess of Wales.
US architect Daniel Libeskind designs the City Edge project in Berlin, building it up from startlingly fragmented forms
British golfer Nick Faldo wins the first of three victories in six years in the British Open
The film Cry Freedom, directed by Richard Attenborough, tells the story of Steve Biko, killed in police custody in South Africa
US author Tom Wolfe gives a bleak view of contemporary New York in his novel The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Dow-Jones index loses 30% in a dramatic US stock-market collapse
John Adams' opera Nixon in China is performed in Houston
Robert Hughes describes the penal system of colonial Australia in The Fatal Shore
An Intifada begins against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land
Hamas (acronym in Arabic for 'Movement for Islamic Resistance') is founded in the occupied territories to lead armed resistance against Israel
It is estimated that during this year the population of the world reached five billion
A protest against the new Burmese currency escalates after the military kill a student activist, Maung Phone Maw, on the campus of Rangoon university
Students demonstrating in Rangoon are joined by civilians and monks in what becomes known as the 8888 Uprising (from the date, 8/8/88)
General Saw Maung seizes power in Burma and crushes the 8888 Uprising, by now nation-wide, with probably about 3000 deaths
Saw Maung calls his new regime the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) but promises to hold a free election in 1990
A new party, the National League for Democracy, is formed in Burma with Aung San Suu Kyi soon becoming its leader
Ayatollah Khomeini declares a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his Satanic Verses
Barry Levinson directs Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the film Rain Man
The Liberals and the SDP merge in Britain to form a single political party, the Liberal Democrats
A cease-fire withdraws Cuban troops from Angola and South African forces from Angola and Namibia
