Information for the Year 1989

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  • Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19). More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.). Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4)
  • Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet President (May 25).
  • P. W. Botha quits as South Africa's President (Aug. 14).
  • Deng Xiaoping resigns from China's leadership (Nov. 9).
  • After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).
  • US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of General Manuel Noriega (Dec. 20).
  • Population:   5.190 billion
  • Nobel Peace Prize:  Dalai Lama (Tibet)
  • George Herbert Walker Bush inaugurated as 41st US President (Jan. 20).
  • Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound (March 24).
  • US jury convicts Oliver North in Iran-Contra affair (May 4).
  • Army Gen. Colin R. Powell is first black Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (Aug. 9).
  • A San Francisco Bay area earthquake measuring 7.1 in magnitude, killed 67 and injured over 3,000. Over 100,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. (Oct. 17)
  • President:  George Bush
  • Vice President:  J. Danforth Quayle
  • Population:  246,819,230
  • Life expectancy:  75.1 years
  • US GDP (1998 dollars):   $5,438.70 billion
  • Federal spending:   $1143.17 billion
  • Federal debt:   $2868.0 billion
  • Median Household Income(current dollars): $28,906
  • Consumer Price Index:   124
  • Unemployment:   5.3%
  • Cost of a first-class stamp:  $0.25
  • Super Bowl  San Francisco 49ers defeated Cincinnati Bengals (SCORE 20-16)
  • World Series of Baseball  Oakland A's defeated San Francisco Giants
  • National Basketball Association Championship  Detroit Pistons defeat Los Angles Lakers
  • National Hockey League Stanley Cup  Calgary Flames defeated Montreal Canadiens
  • Women Wimbledon Tennis  Steffi Graf defeats Martina Navratilova(6-2 6-7 6-1)
  • Men Wimbledon Tennis   Boris Becker defeated Stefan Edberg (6-0 7-6 6-4)
  • Kentucky Derby Horse Race Champion   Sunday Silence
  • National College Athletic Association Basketball Championship  Michigan defeated Seton Hall (SCORE 80-79 in Over Time)
  • National College Athletic Association Football Champions  Miami-FL (RECORD 11-1-0)
  • America's beloved comedienne Lucille Ball dies at age 87.
  • Visionary Jaron Lanier coins the term virtual reality and produces the equipment to experience it.
  • Academy Award, Best Picture:  Rain Man
  • Grammy Award - Record of the Year  Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin
  • Emmy Award - Best Television Comedy  CHEERS - NBC
  • Miss America:  Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson (Minnesota)
  • First World Wide Web server and browser developed by Tim Berners-Lee (England) while working at CERN.
  • Peter Deutsch of McGill University who devlops Archie, an archive of FTP sites, the first effort to index the Internet.
  • Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.
  • Voyager 2 speeds by Neptune after making startling discoveries about the planet and its moons (Aug. 29)

 

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