1989

President:  George Bush
Vice President:  Dan Quayle

 

Cost of Living

 

 

 

How Much things cost in 1989
Yearly Inflation Rate U.S.A. 4.83%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 2753
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 10.50%
Average Cost of new house $120,000.00
Average Income per year $27,450.00
Average Monthly Rent $420.00
Average Price for new car $15,3500.00
1 gallon of gas 97 cents
US Postage Stamp 25 cents

Popular Culture

• The first episodes of the Simpsons are shown

Popular Films

• Batman
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Lethal Weapon 2
• Twins
• Back to the Future Part II
• Ghostbusters II
• The Little Mermaid
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Parenthood
• Dead Poets Society
• License to Kill
• Honey, I Shrunk The Kids
• My Left Foot
• When Harry Met Sally

 

Popular Musicians

• Duran Duran
• Paul McCartney
• Phil Collins
• Prince
• Madonna
• Erasure
• The Bangles
• Madonna
• New Kids On The Block
• Cher
• R.E.M
• Depeche Mode
• Paula Abdul
• Garth Brooks
• Elvis Costello

 

 

What Events Happened in 1989

• USSR pulls out of Afghanistan

• PLO and Israel begin preliminary talks

• Pro democracy protestors clash with Chinese Security Forces

• The Registered Partnership law is passed in Denmark which grants same sex couples many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage

• Free Elections in Poland bring Solidarity to power

• 200,000 protesters in Prague, Czechoslovakia call for the resignation of the country's communist government in the "Velvet Revolution".

• Following the protests free elections are held in Czechoslovakia

• Partial elections in USSR

• Massive protests and either side of the Berlin Wall bring about the collapse of the East German Government and the Berlin Wall is breached and eventually dismantled and The Brandenburg Gate opened

• Thousands of Students occupy Tiananmen Square in Beijing China protesting for democracy , Chinese Government Declares martial law and Hundreds of Demonstrators are killed

• Following the Tiananmen Square incident the US and other countries around the world place sanctions on China

• George Bush Sr. becomes president of the United States

• The United States Supreme Court ruled that flag burning as a form of political protest is an act of protected speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

• The Phillips 66 Chemical Complex in Houston, Texas has a series of explosions and fires killing 23 employees.

• One of the deadliest tornadoes in modern times strikes Saturia, Bangladesh Tornado killing as many as 1,300

• Toyota launches its luxury brand the Lexus

• Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair

• The Mirage Hotel and Casino opens in Las Vegas as the first huge resort hotel

• 12 European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end century

• United States provide assistance to Columbia Government to Battle Drug Lords

• In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Great Pyramid of Giza

• A UK 747 crashes on the M1 Motorway

• Sky TV Launched In UK

• In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil after running aground

• Leona Helmsley the billionaire hotel operator is convicted on Tax Fraud Charges

• Marchioness pleasure boat collides with a barge on the River Thames adjacent to Southwark Bridge and 51 die.

• The Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, strikes San Francisco Bay Area in California, killing 63

• Hurricane Hugo ( Category 5 ) strikes Puerto Rico, St. Croix, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, South Carolina and North Carolina, the hurricane claimed over 80 lives and in 1989 was the costliest hurricane in financial terms up the that date.

• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issues a ( FATWA ) death sentence on British writer Salman Rushdie for the Satanic Verses

• Yugo Cars go bankrupt

• Ford buys Jaguar

• After 30 years the Cold War between East and West ends following the Malta conference and the Berlin Wall comes down

• Civil War in Lebanon increases between Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists

• The US Government provides a $150 billion bailout for hundreds of saving and loan associations

 

Technology

        

The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit.

Nintendo begins selling the Game Boy in Japan.

Voyager II passes the planet Neptune and its moon Triton and sends pictures back to earth.

The 486 series of microprocessor introduced by Intel.

Scientists pronounce 1989 as the warmest on record possibly a sign of the greenhouse effect.

Florida and Virginia allow use of DNA genetic fingerprinting evidence as admissible.

First release of Microsoft Office. which was a bundle of Microsoft's office applications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel , Dependent on the Version you purchased would depend on which applications were included.

 

 

Some occurrences you may (or may not!) remember -

* Cold fusion is announced in March and then denounced at the end of summer as clumsy science.
* Arsenio Hall becomes first African-American to host a nightly talk show January 3rd.
* Kim Basinger buys Braselton, Georgia for $20 million.
* Lucille Ball dies April 26.
* Worldwide ban of ivory
* The Fourteenth Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989
* The stealth bomber is finished.
* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles become an over night sensation
* Time and Warner combine to become Time Warner Inc.
* Panama invasion, loud rock music drives Manuel Noreiga from his asylum.
* Rob Lowe is spotted in a soft porn video with an underage girl.
* The parents of the Menendez brothers are found murdered, Lyle and Erik are later accused of the murders.
* Milli Vanilli gets Best New Artist Grammy which is later stripped when it's learned they were lip synching for another (much uglier) duo.
* Geraldo Riveria gets his nose broken on his show by a violent guest
* Pete Rose is banned from baseball for betting on games, August 24.
* Collin Powell is appointed Joint Cheifs of Staff, highest army post to ever be held by a black officier.
* October 17th quake disrupts the third game of the world series between San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics.
* TV Guide releases a picture of a newly slim Oprah Winfrey which turns out to be her head on Ann-Margret's body.
* Princess Anne anounces her seperation from her husband.
* Michael Milken is indicted on 98 fraud and racketering charges.
* Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia, September 26, after almost 11 years of occupation.
* Pan Am files chapter 11
* Burma changes it's name to Myanmar
* Earthquake hits Newcastle, N.S.W. Australia in December. Several people died with more injured. Millions of dollars of damage.
* Soviet Union begins fully withdraws from Afghanistan after 10 years of fighting with Afghan mujihadeen forces.
* December 6, 1989 deemed the Montreal Massacre. At approximately 5 o'clock pm, 25 year old women hater walks into Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and kills 14 women, injuring 13 others before turning the shot gun on himself. This day is remembered as the worst single-day massacre in Canadian history. Attached to his suicide note was a list of 19 women in Montreal who had succeeded in non-traditional female employment - firefighters, police officer, journalist but said "The lack of time (because I started too late) has allowed these radical feminists to survive." Ironically, everyone remembers the murderer but only their survivors remember the women murdered because they were female.
* Vance vs. Judas Priest: Parents of two teenaged Judas Priest fans who attempted suicide in December 1985 sue the band, claiming that a subliminal message in the song "Better by You, Better than Me" influenced their actions. (Justice Jerry Carr Whitehead will rule in favor of the band in 1993.)

 

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