Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). The year is considered a historical turning point for the wave of revolutions that swept the Eastern Bloc, starting in Poland. Collectively known as the Revolutions of 1989, they heralded the end of the Soviet Union two years later and the beginning of the post-Cold War era of United States dominance in world affairs.
Events of 1989
January
February
- February 1 - Joan Kirner becomes Victoria's first female Deputy Premier, after the resignation of Robert Fordham over the VEDC (Victorian Economic Development Co-operation) Crisis.
- February 2 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul, ending 9 years of military occupation.
- February 2 - Satellite television service Sky Television plc is launched in Europe.
- February 3 - A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
- February 3 - After a stroke, Pieter Willem Botha resigns his party's leadership and the presidency of South Africa.
- February 7 - The Los Angeles, California City Council bans the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons.
- February 10 - Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major United States political party.
- February 11 - Barbara Clementine Harris is consecrated as the first female bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
- February 14 - Union Carbide agrees to pay USD $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster.
- February 14 - Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini encourages Muslims to kill The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
- February 14 - The first of 24 Global Positioning System satellites is placed into orbit.
- February 15 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
- February 16 - Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.
- February 23 - After protracted testimony, the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee rejects, 11–9, President Bush's nomination of John Tower for Secretary of Defense.
- February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US $3-million bounty on the head of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
- February 24 - United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747 bound to New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, sucking 9 passengers and crew out of the first class section.
- February 24 - After 44 years, Estonian flag is raised to the Pikk Hermann castle tower.
- February 27 - Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo, a wave of protests and looting.
March
- March 1 - The Berne Convention, an international treaty on copyrights, is ratified by the United States.
- March 1 - A curfew is imposed in Kosovo, where protests continue over the alleged intimidation of the Serb minority.
- March 1 - Louis Wade Sullivan starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
- March 1 - James D. Watkins starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Energy.
- March 1 - The Politieke Partij Radicalen, Pacifistisch Socialistische Partij, Communistische Partij Nederland and the Evangelische Volks Partij amalgamate to form Netherlands political party the GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft).
- March 2 - Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
- March 3 - Jammu Siltavuori abducts and murders two 8 year old girls in Myllypuro suburb in Helsinki, Finland
- March 3 - Portugal wins the FIFA U-20 World Cup defeating Nigeria on the final by 2–0 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
- March 4 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner.
- March 4 - The Purley Station rail crash in London leaves 5 dead and 94 injured.
- March 4 - The first ACT (Australian Capital Territory) elections are held.
- March 7 - Iran breaks off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom over Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.
- March 9 - A strike forces financially troubled Eastern Air Lines into bankruptcy.
- March 13 - A geomagnetic storm caused the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid. Six million people were left without power for nine hours. Some areas in the northeastern U.S. and in Sweden also lost power, and auroras seen as far as Texas.
- March 14 - Gun control: U.S. President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of certain guns deemed assault weapons into the United States.
- March 14 - Christian General Michel Aoun declares a 'War of Liberation' to rid Lebanon of Syrian forces and their allies.
- March 18 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- March 20 - Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television as he admits marital infidelity.
- March 22 - Clint Malarchuk of the NHL Buffalo Sabres suffers an almost fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
- March 22 - Asteroid 4581 Asclepius approaches the Earth at a distance of 700,000 kilometers.
- March 23 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce that they have achieved cold fusion at the University of Utah.
April
- April 1 - Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Poll tax, is introduced in Scotland.
- April 4 - In Brussels, Belgium, NATO celebrates its 40th anniversary.
- April 6 - National Safety Council of Australia chief executive John Friedrich is arrested after defrauding investors to the tune of $235 million.
- April 7 - The Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea, killing 41.
- April 9 - Georgian demonstrators are massacred by Red Army soldiers in Tbilisi's central square during a peaceful rally; 20 citizens are killed , many injured.
- April 14 US government seizes Irving, CA Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, eventually sends Charles Keating (for whom the Keating Five were named -- John McCain among them) to jail. Part of the massive 80s Savings and Loan Crisis which cost US taxpayers nearly $200 billion in bailouts, and many people their life savings.[1]
- April 15 - The Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies in European football, claims the life of 96 Liverpool supporters.
- April 19 - Trisha Meili is attacked while jogging in New York City's Central Park; as her identity remains secret for years, she becomes known as the "Central Park Jogger."
- April 19 - Forty-seven crew members die after a gun turret explodes on the U.S. battleship Iowa.
- April 20 - NATO debates modernising short range missiles; although the U.S. and UK are in favour, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl obtains a concession deferring a decision.
- April 21 - Students from Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, and Nanjing begin protesting in Tiananmen Square.
- April 25 - The term of Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail as the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia ends.
- April 25 - Motorola introduces the Motorola MicroTAC Personal Cellular Telephone, then the world's smallest mobile phone.
- April 26 - Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, Sultan of Perak, becomes the 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
May
June
July
August
- August 23 - Two million indigenous people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, then still occupied by the Soviet Union, join hands to demand freedom and independence, forming an uninterrupted 600 km human chain called the Baltic Way.
- August 23 - Hungary removes border restrictions with Austria.
- August 23 - All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign over an airline's move to sack and sue them over a dispute.
- August 23 - Yusef Hawkins is shot in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, sparking racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans.
- August 24 - Record-setting baseball player Pete Rose agrees to a lifetime ban from the sport following allegations of illegal gambling, thereby preventing his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- August 24 - Indonesia's first privately owned television station, Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia, (RCTI) begins broadcasting.
- August 25 - Voyager II passes the planet Neptune and its moon Triton.
September
October
October 23: Phillips Disaster
- October 4 - Python member Graham Chapman passes away of a rare spinal cancer.
- October 5 - U.S. televangelist John Nunes is found guilty of embezzling $158 million.
- October 9 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
- October 9 - In Leipzig, East Germany, protesters demand the legalization of opposition groups and democratic reforms.
- October 13 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 190.58 points, or 6.91 percent, to close at 2,569.26 most likely after the junk bond market collapsed. This mini-crash became known as the Friday the 13th mini-crash.
- October 17 - The Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, strikes the San Francisco-Oakland region of Northern California, killing 63.
- October 18 - The Communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, is forced to step down as leader of the country after a series of health problems.
- October 19 - The Guildford Four are freed after 14 years.
- October 19- The Wonders of Life pavilion opens at Epcot
- October 21 - The Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations issue the Langkawi Declaration on the Environment, making environmental sustainability one of the Commonwealth's main priorities.
- October 23 - The Hungarian Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös (replacing the Hungarian People's Republic).
- October 23 - Phillips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas killed 23 and injured 314 others.
- October 30 - The qualification for the 1990 Football World Cup ends.
November
- ("November 1989" – Cold War: East Germany Nov 7, 9; Bulgaria Nov 10; Czechoslovakia Nov 17, 20, 28)
- November 2 - North Dakota and South Dakota celebrate their One Hundredth Birthdays.
- November 4 - Typhoon Gay devastates the Thai province of Chumphon.
- November 7 - Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.
- November 7 - David Dinkins becomes the first African American mayor of New York City.
- November 7 - Cold War: The Communist government of East Germany resigns, although SED leader Egon Krenz remains head of state.
- November 9 - Cold War: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time in decades (the next day celebrating Germans began tearing the wall down).
- November 10 - After 45 years of Communist rule in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov is replaced by Foreign Minister Petar Mladenov, who changes the party's name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
- November 10 - Gaby Kennard becomes the first Australian woman to fly non-stop around the world.
- November 10 - CKO a Canadian national all-news radio network suddenly terminated all broadcasting during the newscast at noon (Eastern time), due to financial losses. The station began broadcasting on July 1, 1977.
- November 12 - Brazil holds its first free presidential election since 1960. This marked the first time that all Ibero-American nations, excepting Cuba, had elected constitutional governments simultaneously.
- November 16 - Six Jesuit priests — among them Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, and Ignacio Martín-Baró — their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter, are murdered by U.S. trained Salvadoran soldiers.
- November 16 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announces the scrapping of the Separate Amenities Act.
- November 16 - UNESCO adopts the Seville Statement on Violence at the twenty-fifth session of its General Conference.
- November 17 - Cold War: The Velvet Revolution begins - In Czechoslovakia a peaceful student demonstration in Prague is severely beaten back by riot police. This sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the Communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
- November 20 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - The number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
- November 21 - North Carolina celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- November 22 - In West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President Rene Moawad and kills him.
- November 28 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power (elections held in December bring the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years).
- November 30 - Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a bomb (the Red Army Faction claims responsibility for the murder).
December
A crane lifting out a chunk of the Berlin Wall, December 1989
- December 1 - Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist-dominated SED its monopoly on power. Egon Krenz, the Politburo and the Central Committee resign 2 days later.
- December 3 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
- December 6 - The École Polytechnique Massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
- December 10 - Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia's democratic movement, that peacefully changes the second oldest communist country into a democratic society.
- December 14 - Chile holds its first free election in 16 years.
- December 15 - Drug baron José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha is killed by Colombian police.
- December 17 - In Timişoara, Romania, an uprising begins against the communist regime, sparking the Romanian Revolution.
- December 17 - Brazil holds its first free election in 29 years; Fernando Collor de Mello wins the election.
- December 17 - The first full length episode of The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", premieres on FOX.
- December 20 - Operation Just Cause is launched in an attempt to overthrow Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
- December 22 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's communist dictatorship, who flees his palace in a helicopter to escape inevitable execution.
- December 22 - Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific highway north of Kempsey, Australia, killing 35.
- December 25 - Romanian leader Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena are executed after their unsuccessful escape attempt.
- December 25 - Bank of Japan governors announce a major interest rate hike, eventually leading to the peak and fall of the bubble economy.
- December 28 - A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13.
- December 29 - Václav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia.
- December 29 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
Undated
Ongoing
Fictional
The following are references to year 1989 in fiction:
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