THE YEAR 1988

Cost Of Living

Yearly Inflation Rate ― 4.08%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average ― 2168
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve ― 10.50%
Average Cost of new house ― $91,600
Median Price Of and Existing Home ― $90,600
Average Income per year ― $24,450
Average Monthly Rent ― $420
Average Price for new car ― $10,400
1 gallon of gas ― 91 cents
Movie Ticket ― $3.50
US Postage Stamp ― 24 cents
Dozen Eggs ― 65 cents
Gallon 2% Milk ― $1.89
Amiga Computer With Color Monitor ― $849
IBM PC with 30Mb Hard Disk, Mono Monitor and 512K Memory ― $1249
Ford Taurus ― $9,996


Events of 1988

Construction on the Faith Sultan Mehmet Bridge, also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge, is completed during July. Located in Istanbul, Turkey, the bridge was the fifth largest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its construction. It spans a total of 1,510 meters and is eight lanes across. It is one of three bridges that connect Europe to Asia located in Istanbul. At the time of its opening, the Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal became the first person to drive across.

The US Senate ratified the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union in May with a vote of 93-5. Formal talks began in 1981 and had stalled in 1983 and did not resume until 1985. The treaty was negotiated between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev and was eventually signed by the leaders in December of 1987. The treaty mandated that the USSR and United States eliminate all short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles.


The 8888 uprising takes place in Burma (Myanmar) during August. A nationwide pro-democracy demonstration was held in opposition to the military rule that had made the nation an authoritarian one-party state since 1962. Students planned the uprising and it was centered around the capital of Rangoon (Yangon), with estimates of up to 1 million participants in the capital and more than 100,000 more in other large cities. Protests persisted throughout the month and after a coup took place restoring military power, they enacted martial law and ended the demonstrations with violence. During the protests, Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as an opposition leader and became a symbol of non-violent resistance for the pro-democracy movement in Burma.

The XV Olympic Winter Games, were held in Calgary, Canada from February 13th to February 28th. There were 46 events that 1,423 athletes from 57 countries participated in during the games. This was the first time Canada hosted the Winter Games. The Soviet Union, East Germany, and Switzerland won the most medals with 29, 25, and 15 respectively. Notable moments during these Olympics include the debut of the Jamaican bobsled team that inspired the popular film “Cool Runnings” and the self-taught “Eddie the Eagle” who became the first British ski jumper to compete in the event in 60 years.

• After 8 years and 1.5 million dead the Iran War ends.
• Iraq carries out Poison Gas Attack On Kurds.
• Earthquake in Armenia Kills 60,000Scotland
• Suspected Libyan terrorist bomb explodes on Pan Am jet over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21st killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
• Australia celebrates its bicentennial.
• A new drug Crack appears ( A derivative of Cocaine ) and is increasingly found in US Cities.
• UK SAS kill suspected IRA bombers in Gibraltar.
• The English Pound Note ceases to be legal Tender.
• Ben Johnson wins the 100m gold at the Seoul Olympics and is then disqualified for taking the anabolic steroid, Stanozol.

During March 1988 Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord, and Albert Hakim are indicted by a Grand Jury on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States government for their involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair. The Iran-Contra Affair was a scandal that involved the illegal sales of arms to Iran in exchange for U.S. hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian terrorists. The money from the Iranian arms sales was then used to illegally fund and aid the Contras, a Nicaraguan rebel group by CIA operatives. The illegal activities were exposed and several top Reagan administration officials were implicated in the scandal. Secord and Hakim decided to plead guilty and received probation, while Poindexter and North were convicted and sentenced but eventually had their convictions overturned during the appeals process.

• Widespread strikes in Poland by Solidarity Supporter.
• Archaeologists uncover the original Globe Theatre in London.
• Benazir Bhutto is elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• More Information for Benazir Bhutto.
• Benazir Bhutto is chosen as Pakistan’s Prime Minister in December of 1988 becoming the first female leader of a Muslim country. Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. Bhutto, the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had been the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan in the 1970s, pushed for economic reforms and deregulation during her terms but was removed from power due to corruption charges. She later went into exile and returned in 2007 but was assassinated not long after her return.

Soviet Red Army withdraws from Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan after signing the Geneva Accords in April of 1988. The 1988 Accords were officially known as the “Agreements on the Settlement of the Situation Relating to Afghanistan.” These agreements were the result of talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the USSR, and the United States, which ended on April 8, 1988. The accords were signed by all four countries on April 14 and led to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the settlement of conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The USSR became involved in the conflict in 1979 and their troops did not leave until February of 1989.

• Panama leader General Manual Antonio Noriega, is charged with drug smuggling and money laundering.
• Yasser Arafat is invited to adress the U.N. General Assembly.
• Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners.
• The Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea
• Students and Buddhist monks protest against military rule in Burma leading to multiple arrests and murder by the Military government.
• The USS Vincennes shoots down Iranian passenger jet Flight 655.
• Over 1/3 of Yellowstone National Park is destroyed when a a series of more than 250 small different fires combined with the 1988 Drought destroys 793,880 acres of the park.

US Space Shuttle program resumes 2 1/2 years after Challenger disaster.

NASA resumed the Space Shuttle program during September of 1988, with the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-26 mission. The program had been halted after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster for about two and a half years. The STS-26 mission became known as the “Return to Flight” mission and was an important factor in whether or not and to what capacity the Space Shuttle program would resume if successful. Besides the initial purpose of returning to flight, the STS-26 mission also had the purpose of launching a NASA satellite, which it did as planned. The flight was also the first Space Shuttle mission to have a veteran crew with all members having previously participated in at least one other mission. STS-26 lasted about four days and traveled in space for about 1.7 million miles before returning to Earth.

The USSR launches the Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft on June 7th of 1988. The mission carried three crew members to the Mir Space Station. This was the fifth mission to bring Soviet cosmonauts to the Mir Space Station. The crew on board the flight were Anatoly Solovyov, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, and Viktor Savinykh. The crew left the space station after one week had passed and used a different spacecraft, the Soyuz TM-4, to return to Earth. The Soyuz TM-5 was left at the space station for the two remaining cosmonauts who had been on a long-term mission to use to get home. They returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz TM-5 during September of 1988.

Prince Charles escapes an avalanche in Switzerland.


Popular Culture 1988

Popular Films

• Rain Man
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Big
• Twins
• Crocodile Dundee II
• Die Hard
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
• Beetlejuice
• Dangerous Liaisons
• A Fish Called Wanda
• Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Popular Musicians and Songs

• Enya
• Robert Palmer
• Erasure
• Kylie Minogue
• U2
• The Beach Boys
• Bros
• Michael Jackson with " Dirty Diana "
• Gloria Estefan
• Chica George Michael with " father Figure 
• Guns N' Roses
• George Harrison

Technology

First transatlantic fibre optic cable laid able to carry 40,000 telephone calls simultaneously
Stephen Hawking Publishes " A Brief History Of Time "
The first major computer virus infects computers connected to the Internet.
The US Stealth Bomber is unveiled
Using Carbon Dating it is established that the Turin Shroud Can Not Be the Burial Cloth of Christ
The Antidepressant Prozac introduced which quickly became the market leader for treating depression
Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
Laser Eye Surgery USA

From thepeoplehistory, Wikipedia, and Google