This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1989

	January 4th	Two Libyan MiG-23 were shot down by a pair of American Navy F-14's during an aerial confrontation.
	January 7th	Emperor Hirohito of Japan died at the age of 87. He was the emperor of Japan during World War II.
	January 23th	Spanish artist, Salvador Dali, died at the age of 85. He is universally accepted one of the most important painters of the 20th century. He was heavily criticized as being a supporter of General Franco's fascist regime.
	January 24th	American serial killer, Ted Bundy, was executed at the age of 42. He was one of the most active serial killers ever to be captured.
	February 3rd	A military coup in Paraguay overthrew dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, who had been in office for more than 35 years.
	February 3rd	American actor and director, John Cassavetes, died at the age of 68. Although he was a highly successful actor he was geared far more towards directing. He was considered as one of the great directors of the 1970's.
	February 14th	Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa that called for Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie as well as all others involved with its publication. The Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death in 1991 and the Italian and Norwegian publishers of the book were both the victims of assassination attempts.
	February 14th	The first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite was launched into orbit.
	February 15th	The Soviet Union announced that all of its troops had left Afghanistan. The failed invasion had began on Christmas day 1979.
	February 24th	The hull of a United Airlines passenger flight, travelling to New Zealand, ripped open while in flight. 9 passengers were sucked out when the plane depressurized.
	February 27th	Massive rioting took place in the capital city of Venezuela, Caracas and surrounding cities. The riots had come as a response to President Carlos Andres Perez's proposed economic reforms and resulted in the death of more than 3000 people.
	March 4th	Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announced their planned merger that would form the Time-Warner company.
	March 7th	Iran and the United Kingdom broke off all diplomatic relations after a row over the controversial novel of writter Salman Rushdie.
	March 9th	American photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, died at hte age of 42.
	March 9th	A major strike forced the already financially troubled, Eastern Air Lines, to declare bankruptcy. The company had been operating in the United States since 1926.
	March 23th	An asteroid measuring over 300 meters in diameter missed the Earth by 640,000 kilometres.
	March 24th	Exxon's, Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground, causing a spill of over 30 million gallons of petroleum in the sea area of Prince William, Alaska. This is considered as one of the worst ecological disasters of the 20th century.
	April 12th	American boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson, died at the age of 68. He was five times middleweight champion of the world who held an incredible record of 175 wins, 19 losses, 6 draws and 2 no contests in 202 professional fights.
	April 15th	A human stampede occurred at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England. 96 people died as a result and more than 700 were injured. The match which was stopped was between Liverpool FC and Sheffield Wednesday FC.
	April 15th	The Tiananmen Square protests began in the People's Republic of China. The protests lasted until June 4th, at which time they were ended by the use of military force, resulting in the death of over 700 protesters.
	April 25th	American, James Richardson, was released after spending 21 years in prison for the murder of his seven children. The murder was actually committed by the children's babysitter, who later confessed to the crime.
	June 3rd	Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died at the age of 89. He was the leader of Iranian revolution which deposed the Shah in 1979 and the founder of the Islamic republic of Iran.
	June 4th	A natural gas explosion occurs near Ufa, Russia, resulting in the death of 575 people. The explosion occurred when two trains passed close enough from each other to cause sparks to form, which in turn ignited a leaking natural gas pipe.
	June 4th	The Solidarity party wins the first free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland. This victory sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe.
	June 7th	A Surinam Airways passenger jet crashed near Paramaribo Airport, Surinam, resulting in the death of 168 people.
	June 21st	The US Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected under the US constitution.
	July 5th	The first episode of the sitcom, Seinfeld, was aired on the NBC channel. It run until 1998 and was one of the most popular television shows of the 1990's in America and many other parts of the world.
	July 10th	American actor, Mel Blanc, died at the age of 80. He was a voice actor who provided the voices for hundreds of cartoon characters in for Warner Bros's and Hana Barbera's animated shorts. Most notably he provided the voices for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Barney Rubble.
	July 11th	British actor, Laurence Olivier, was born in Surrey. He is regarded by many as the greatest English-speaking actor of the 20th century.
	July 16th	Austrian conductor, Herbert von Karajan, died at the age of 80. He was the most famous conductor of classical music in the 20th century, who was the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for 35 years.
	July 19th	A United Airlines passenger flight crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, resulting in the death of 112 of its 296 passengers.
	July 26th	Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. was found guilty of releasing what has been known as the Morris worm. He was the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and his worm was the first recorded internet worm in the history of the internet.
	August 22nd	American activist, Huey P. Newton, died at the age of 46. He was the co-founder as well as inspirational leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defence, most commonly known simply as The Black Panthers.
	August 23th	More than two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a living chain on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, in support of the independence of the Baltic states.
	September 11th	The iron curtain fell between the countries of communist Hungary and Austria. Thousands migrate to Austria and West Germany.
	September 20th	The hit musical, Miss Saigon, made its world premiere in London.
	September 28th	President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, died at the age of 82. He served as president from 1965 to 1986. While he was elected in 1965, in 1972 he declared martial law which he didn't lift until 1981. He was, however, re-elected, the same year and served another term as president until the next elections were marred by tampering scandals which eventually led to his downfall.
	October 17th	An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale hit San Francisco Bay.
	October 19th	The Guildford four convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeals. The four persons were wrongly convicted in the United Kingdom in October 1975 for the Provisional IRA's Guildford pub bombing and had spent 15 years in prison.
	October 23th	The Hungarian Republic was officially declared, in effect replacing the Hungarian People's Republic. Hungary was the first of the eastern block countries to shift towards democracy.
	November 5th	Russian pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, died at the age of 86. He is considered by many as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.
	November 9th	East Germany opens checkpoints along the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany for the first time.
	November 17th	The Velvet Revolution began in Czechoslovakia when a student demonstration in Prague was broken up by the police. The actions of the police sparked a chain of events which led to the overthrow of the communist government in Czechoslovakia.
	November 22nd	Lebanese President Rene Moawad was assassinated after a bomb exploded near the motorcade that was transporting him.
	December 1st	A coup attempt took place in the Philippines against the authority of President Corazon Aquino.
	December 14th	Russian physicist, Andrei D. Sakharov, died at the age of 68. He was one of Soviet Russia's most prominent nuclear physicists and an outspoken pro democracy activist. He was exiled (within Russia) for his political views and in 1975 was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts in promoting human rights in Soviet Russia. The Soviet government did nor allow him to collect it.
	December 17th	The first episode of the animated series, The Simpsons, premiered on the FOX channel. Still running today (2006), it is one of the most successful television shows ever produced.
	December 20th	The United States invaded Panama in an effort to overthrow the government of Manuel Noriega.
	December 22nd	After a series of violent demonstrations, Ion Iliescu became the president of Romania, effectively ending the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu's communist regime.
	December 22nd	The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened after almost 30 years of division in the German city.
	December 22nd	Irish writer, Samuel Beckett, died at the age of 83. He is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest Irish writers of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969.
	December 23th	Deposed Romanian President, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were apprehended while fleeing the country.
	December 25th	Former communist ruler of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena, were condemned to death and executed after their capture two days earlier.
	December 29th	Vaclav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia.

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