Important Historical Events of the year 1988, Year 1988 in History

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List of 1988 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1988

What happened in the year 1988?

Date	Event
January 1, 1988	The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
January 2, 1988	Condor Flugdienst Flight 3782 crashes near Seferihisar, Turkey, killing 16 people.
January 13, 1988	Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.
January 18, 1988	China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 crashes near Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, killing all 98 passengers and 10 crew members.
January 28, 1988	In R v Morgentaler the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down all anti-abortion laws.
January 31, 1988	Doug Williams becomes the first African-American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl and leads the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.
February 5, 1988	Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
February 6, 1988	Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
February 12, 1988	Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage.
February 20, 1988	The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
February 23, 1988	Saddam Hussein begins the Anfal genocide against Kurds and Assyrians in northern Iraq.
February 27, 1988	Sumgait pogrom: The Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan is targeted in a violent pogrom.
February 29, 1988	South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
February 29, 1988	Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the House of Commons of Canada to come out as gay.
March 6, 1988	Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in Operation Flavius.
March 13, 1988	The Seikan Tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world with an undersea segment, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.
March 14, 1988	In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands.
March 16, 1988	Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
March 16, 1988	Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
March 16, 1988	The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.
March 17, 1988	A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.
March 17, 1988	Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.
March 20, 1988	Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
March 22, 1988	The United States Congress votes to override President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987.
March 23, 1988	Angolan and Cuban forces defeat South Africa in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
March 25, 1988	The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
April 4, 1988	Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
April 7, 1988	Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
April 10, 1988	The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.
April 18, 1988	The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
April 18, 1988	In Israel John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II, although the verdict is later overturned.
April 28, 1988	Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
May 4, 1988	The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
May 6, 1988	All thirty-six passengers and crew were killed when Widerøe Flight 710 crashed into Mt. Torghatten in Brønnøy.
May 8, 1988	A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".
May 9, 1988	New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.
May 14, 1988	Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.
May 15, 1988	Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.
May 16, 1988	A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
May 21, 1988	Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.[8]
May 24, 1988	Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
May 27, 1988	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.[8]
May 29, 1988	The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
June 1, 1988	European Central Bank is founded in Brussels.
June 1, 1988	The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty comes into effect.
June 4, 1988	Three cars on a train carrying hexogen to Kazakhstan explode in Arzamas, Gorky Oblast, USSR, killing 91 and injuring about 1,500.
June 12, 1988	Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.
June 19, 1988	Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
June 20, 1988	Haitian President Leslie Manigat is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant general Henri Namphy.
June 26, 1988	The first crash of an Airbus A320 occurs when Air France Flight 296Q crashes at Mulhouse–Habsheim Airfield in Habsheim, France, during an air show, killing three of the 136 people on board.
June 27, 1988	The Gare de Lyon rail accident in Paris, France, kills 56 people.
June 27, 1988	Villa Tunari massacre: Bolivian anti-narcotics police kill nine to 12 and injure over a hundred protesting coca-growing peasants.[5][6][7]
July 2, 1988	Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he consecrated were excommunicated by the Holy See.
July 3, 1988	United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
July 3, 1988	The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.
July 6, 1988	The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. One hundred sixty-seven oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life.
July 8, 1988	The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.
July 23, 1988	General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.
July 31, 1988	Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
August 1, 1988	A British soldier was killed in the Inglis Barracks bombing in London, England.
August 8, 1988	The 8888 Uprising begins in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar). Led by students, hundreds of thousands join in nationwide protests against the one-party regime. On September 18, the demonstrations end in a military crackdown, killing thousands.
August 8, 1988	The first night baseball game in the history of Chicago's Wrigley Field (game was rained out in the fourth inning).
August 10, 1988	Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.
August 11, 1988	A meeting between Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, and leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan culminates in the formation of Al-Qaeda.
August 17, 1988	President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
August 20, 1988	"Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
August 20, 1988	Iran
August 20, 1988	The Troubles: Eight British soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by an IRA roadside bomb in Ballygawley, County Tyrone.
August 21, 1988	The 6.9 Mw  Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal–India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured.
August 28, 1988	Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy-five are killed and 346 seriously injured.
August 31, 1988	Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashes during takeoff from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 14.
August 31, 1988	CAAC Flight 301 overshoots the runway at Kai Tak Airport and crashes into Kowloon Bay, killing seven people.
September 8, 1988	Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
September 12, 1988	Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.
September 13, 1988	Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).
September 18, 1988	The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar comes to an end.
September 18, 1988	General Henri Namphy, president of Haiti, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by General Prosper Avril.
September 27, 1988	The National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and others to fight dictatorship in Myanmar.
September 29, 1988	NASA launches STS-26, the first Space Shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster.
October 5, 1988	A Chilean opposition coalition defeats Augusto Pinochet in his re-election attempt.
October 7, 1988	A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.
October 12, 1988	Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down execution-style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.
October 17, 1988	Uganda Airlines Flight 775 crashes at Rome–Fiumicino International Airport, in Rome, Italy, killing 33 people.
October 19, 1988	The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.
October 27, 1988	Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure.
November 2, 1988	The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.
November 2, 1988	LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 crashes in Białobrzegi, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland, killing one person and injuring several more.
November 3, 1988	Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries attempt to overthrow the Maldivian government. At President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's request, the Indian military suppresses the rebellion within 24 hours.
November 6, 1988	Lancang–Gengma earthquakes: At least 938 are killed after two powerful earthquakes rock the China–Myanmar border in Yunnan Province.
November 8, 1988	U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush is elected as the 41st president.
November 15, 1988	In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
November 15, 1988	Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
November 15, 1988	The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.
November 16, 1988	The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence.
November 16, 1988	In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan.
November 19, 1988	Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia.
November 22, 1988	In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed.
December 1, 1988	World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states.
December 1, 1988	Benazir Bhutto, is named as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first female leader to lead a muslim nation.
December 2, 1988	Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority state.
December 7, 1988	The 6.8 Ms  Armenian earthquake shakes the northern part of the country with a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating), killing 25,000–50,000 and injuring 31,000–130,000.
December 8, 1988	A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing five people and injuring 50 others.
December 12, 1988	The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains—one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.
December 13, 1988	PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York.
December 21, 1988	A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
December 21, 1988	The first flight of Antonov An-225 Mriya, the largest aircraft in the world.