This Year in History:
1989
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
After eight years as president of the United States, Ronald Reagan gives his farewell address to the American people. In his speech, President Reagan spoke with particular enthusiasm about the…
Salman Rushdie likely understood he would cause a controversy when he published a novel titled The Satanic Verses. The book mocked or at least contained mocking references to the Prophet…
At a meeting of the presidents of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador, the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua agrees to free a number of political prisoners and…
On March 11, 1989, Cops, a documentary‑style television series that follows police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they go about their jobs, debuts on Fox. Cops went on to become one of…
Cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo sacrifices another human victim at his remote Mexican desert compound Rancho Santa Elena. When the victim didn’t beg for mercy before dying, Constanzo sent his people…
March 24, 1989: One of the worst oil spills in U.S. history begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef…
On April 8, 1989, California Angels rookie pitcher Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand, makes his Major League Baseball debut in a 7‑0 loss to the Seattle…
Thousands of Chinese students continue to take to the streets in Beijing to protest government policies and issue a call for greater democracy in the communist People’s Republic of China…
On April 19, 1989, a 28‑year‑old female investment banker is beaten and sexually assaulted while jogging in New York City’s Central Park. Five teenagers from Harlem were wrongly convicted of…
Six days after the death of Hu Yaobang, the deposed reform‑minded leader of the Chinese Communist Party, some 100,000 students gather at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate Hu and voice…
James Richardson walks out of a Florida prison 21 years after being wrongfully convicted of killing his seven children. Special prosecutor Janet Reno agreed to the release after evidence showed…
A crowd of protesters, estimated to number more than one million, marches through the streets of Beijing calling for a more democratic political system. Just a few weeks later, the…
On May 20, 1989, Sunday Silence edges by Easy Goer to win the closest race in the 114‑year history of the Preakness Stakes by a nose. Sunday Silence had already…
Lori Ann Auker, a 19‑year‑old pet shop worker, disappears from Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. After failing to show up for work, her car was found the next day in the parking…
On June 2, 1989, the boys’ prep school drama Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams, is released in selected U.S. theaters. Set in 1959 at a fictional all‑male preparatory school…
With protests for democratic reforms entering their seventh week, the Chinese government authorizes its soldiers and tanks to reclaim Beijing’s Tiananmen Square at all costs. By nightfall on June 4,…
Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro‑democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and…
In the wake of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, China issues a warrant for a leading Chinese dissident who had taken refuge in the U.S. embassy in Beijing. The…
On June 23, 1989, Tim Burton’s noir spin on the well‑known story of the DC Comics hero Batman is released in theaters. Michael Keaton starred in the film as the…
On June 30, 1989, the writer‑director Spike Lee’s celebrated third feature film, Do the Right Thing—a provocative drama that takes place on one block in Brooklyn’s Bedford‑Stuyvesant neighborhood, on the…
