1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

Environmental change

• Zebra mussels found in the Great lakes
• December 2 - Cyclone in Bangladesh leaves 5 million homeless - thousands dead
• December 7 - In Armenia an earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale killed nearly 25.000, injured 15.000 and left 400.000 persons homeless.
• Earthquake predicted to wipe out California coastline by the year 2000

January

• 1 January - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
• 2 January - Georgia celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• January 9 - Connecticut celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• January 26 - Australia celebrates its bicentennial day.

February

• February 3 - The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.
• February 6 - Massachusetts celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• February 11 - Anthony M. Kennedy is appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
• February 13 - The 1988 Winter Olympics open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• February 17 - US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins , serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon is kidnapped (captors later kill him)
• February 21 - On his own televangelism program being taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jimmy Swaggart confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit. The "unspecified sin" was an affair with a prostitute.
• February 21 - British archeologists locate the grave of Boadicea under Platform 8 at King's Cross railway station in London
• February 24 - The Supreme Court of the United States sides with Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation.
• February 28 - The 1988 Winter Olympics close.
• February 29 - Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in WWII deportations

March

• March 1 - Anthony M. Frank is appointed United States Postmaster General
• March 7 - The SAS shoot dead three Irish Republican Army members in Gibraltar.
• March 8 - Two United States Army helicopters collide in Fort Campbell, Kentucky killing 17 servicemen
• March 9 - Students at Gallaudet University go on strike for the selection of a Deaf university president
• March 16 - The Halabja poison gas attack was carried out by Iraqi government forces.
• March 16 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
• March 16 - California v. Greenwood : In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage
• March 24 - Israeli court sentences Mordechai Vanunu to 18 years in prison for disclosing Israel's nuclear program to The Sunday Times
• March 29 - Assassination of Dulcie September in Paris

April

• April 10 - The Great Seto Bridge opened to traffic in Japan
• April 12 - Former pop singer Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California
• April 14 - In Geneva Agreement , Soviet Union commits itself to withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan
• April 14 - USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf while deployed on Operation Earnest Will
• April 16 - Israeli commandos kill PLO's Khalil Wazir (Abu Jihad) in Tunisia
• April 18 - U.S. Navy forces retaliate for the Roberts mining with Operation Praying Mantis, a day of strikes against Iranian oil platforms and naval vessels
• April 25 - In Israel John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. He was accused of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp known as "Ivan the Terrible" by survivors. Conviction overturned by Israeli Supreme Court .
• April 28 - Maryland celebrates its bicentennial statehood.

May

• May 15 - Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdraw from Afghanistan
• May 16 - A report by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
• May 23 - South Carolina celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• May 24 - Section 28 is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom

June

• June 6 - Queen Elizabeth strips jockey Lester Piggott of his OBE because he has been sentenced to jail for repeated tax evasion
• June 21 - New Hampshire celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• June 25 - Virginia celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• June 28 - Four workers asphyxiated at a metal-plating plant in Auburn, Indiana, in the worst confined-space industrial accident in US history. A fifth victim died two days later.
• June 29 - United States Supreme Court upholds the law allowing special prosecutor to investigate suspected crimes by executive branch officials.

July

• July 1 - Bologna, Italy: Quartetto Cetra's last concert after over forty years' musical career.
• July 3 - Iran Air Flight 655 shot down by missiles launched from the USS Vincennes ship
• July 6 - The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners.
• July 26 - New York celebrates its bicentennial statehood.

August

• August 9 - Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in hockey history.
• August 17 - Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
• August 19 - Ceasefire begins in the Iran-Iraq war
• August 20 - Iran-Iraq war finished costing an estimated 1 million lives
• August 26 - Merhan Karimi Nasseri ends up stuck in the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris
• August 28 - A fire destroys part of Chiado quarter, in Lisbon's historical center.

September

• September 1- Acacia pycnantha proclamed Australia's national floral emblem
• September 3- Federal referendums on 4-year terms, recognition of local Government + other issues is defeated (Aus)
• September 5 - With US$2 billion in federal aid, the Robert M. Bass Group agrees to buy the United States's largest thrift, American Savings and Loan Association
• September 17 - Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea opens
• September 22 - Ocean Odyssey drilling rig suffers a blowout and fire in the North Sea. (See also July 6th)
• September 29 - NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster

October

• October 5 - Thousands riots in Algiers, Algeria against the government of National Liberation Front - by October 10 army has killed and tortured about 500 people in crushing the riots
• October 11 - Girls are allowed to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge, for the first time. Male students wear black armbands and the porter flies a black flag
• October 12 - two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings in Australia
• October 19 - United Kingdom bans broadcast interviews with IRA members
• October 28 - Abortion: 48 hours after announcing it was abandoning RU-486, French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it would resume distribution of the drug, bowing to pressure from the government of France
• October 29 - In Japan, the Sega Megadrive is released for the first time.
• October 30 - Philip Morris buys Kraft Foods for US$13.1 billion.

November

• November 2 - The Morris worm is unleashed on the Internet
• November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1988: George Herbert Walker Bush is elected over Michael Dukakis.
• November 11 - In Sacramento, California, police find a body buried in the lawn of 60-year-old boardinghouse landlady Dorothea Puente (seven bodies were eventually found and Puente was convicted of three murders and sentenced to life in prison)
• November 15 - In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran is launched by an Energia rocket on her maiden orbital spaceflight (this was the first and last space flight for the shuttle)
• November 15 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253 to 46
• November 16 - The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declares that the Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence
• November 16 - In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan choose populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister
• November 17 - The Netherlands becomes the second country to get connected to the Internet
• November 18 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Wilson Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers
• November 22 - In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed
• November 30 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for US$25.07 billion.

December

• December 2 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state
• December 12 - The Clapham Rail disaster kills 35 and injures 132
• December 19 - The Consumer Product Safety Commission bans the sale of lawn darts following the deaths of three children
• December 21 - Pan Am flight 103 is blown up by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 on the ground
• December 22 - Assassination of Brazilian union and environmental activist Chico Mendes

Unknown dates

• Al-Qaida established by Osama bin Laden

Year in topic

• 1988 in film
  • May 20 - Willow starring Warwick Davis
  • July 15 - Die Hard starring Bruce Willis
  • July 15 - A Fish Called Wanda
  • July 16 - Akira (Japanese release date)
  • July 29 - Cocktail starring Tom Cruise
  • December 9 - Mississippi Burning starring Gene Hackman
  • December 16 - Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise
  • December 16 - Dangerous Liaisons
  • December 21 - Working Girl
• 1988 in literature
• 1988 in music
  • N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton is the first hip hop album to achieve widespread mainstream success
• 1988 in science
• 1988 in sports
  • January 16 - Sports commentator Jimmy 'the Greek' Snyder is fired by CBS a day after publicly stating that African Americans had been bred to produce stronger offspring during slavery.
  • January 31 - Super Bowl XXII Washington Redskins (42) defeat Denver Broncos (10)
  • February 13 - 1988 Winter Olympic Games open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
  • Summer - The Netherlands win the European Football Championship
  • September 17-October 2 - 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, Korea
• 1988 in television
  • February 29 - The sitcom Day by Day premieres on NBC.
  • September 17 - TV Show Garfield and Friends debuts on CBS
  • October 4 - Following in the footsteps of Cher, Actress Shirley MacLaine calls David Letterman an "Asshole", on the air during a taping of Late Night
  • October 27 - The last of Harding Lemay's "comeback" episodes air on Another World. In the final minutes of the episode, Australian actress Carmen Duncan took over the role of the legendary bitch Iris Cory Wheeler, after the role had been vacated for many years by Beverlee McKinsey.

Births

• January 17 - Nikki Reed , actress
• February 4 - Carly Patterson, gymnast
• April 10 - Haley Joel Osment, actor
• June 1 - Nami Tamaki, singer
• August 24 - Rupert Grint, actor
• November 15 - Zena Grey, actress
• November 28 - Scarlett Pomers, actress (Star Trek: Voyager, Reba)
• December 7 - Emily Browning, actress (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Deaths

• January 2 - Edmund Brisco Ford, geneticist
• January 5 - Pete Maravich, Basketball Hall of Famer
• January 7 - Trevor Howard, actor
• January 11 - Pappy Boyington, aviator
• January 14 - Georgi Malenkov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party
• January 15 - Seán MacBride, former Chief of Staff of the IRA and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974
• January 20 - Philippe de Rothschild, vineyard operator
• January 22 - Parker Fennelly, comedian, actor
• February 1 - Heather O'Rourke, child actress (b. 1975)
• February 15 - Richard Feynman, physicist
• February 19 - René Char, French poet
• March 1 - Joe Besser, member of the Three Stooges (b. 1907)
• March 5 - Alberto Olmedo, comedian, actor
• March 7 - Divine, actor
• March 8 - Henryk Szeryng, violinist
• March 9 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger, third Chancellor of Germany
• March 10 - Andy Gibb, singer
• March 31 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia
• April 3 - Milt Caniff, cartoonist
• April 15 - Kenneth Williams, actor and raconteur
• April 26 - James McCracken, American tenor (b. 1926)
• April 22 - Irene Rich , actress
• May 3 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Soviet mathematician
• May 8 - Robert A. Heinlein, science fiction author
• May 11 - Kim Philby, spy
• May 12 - Chet Baker, jazz trumpeter
• May 16 - Charles Keeping, illustrator
• May 18 - Daws Butler, voice actor
• May 21 - Sammy Davis, Sr., US dancer
• May 25 - Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize Physicist
• June 25 - Hillel Slovak, Red Hot Chili Peppers, guitarist
• July 8 - Ray Barbuti, American athlete
• July 27 - Frank Zamboni, inventor most famous for the Zamboni machine for resurfacing ice rinks
• August 17 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., American lawyer and politician
• August 17 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Leader of Pakistan
• September 28 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist
• October 19 - Son House, blues musician
• October 22 - Henry Armstrong, American boxing champion
• October 31 - John Houseman, actor, producer
• November 9 - John N. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal
• November 13 - Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (b. 1906)
• November 19 - Christina Onassis, Greek shipping magnate
• December 2 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
• December 6, Roy Orbison, American Rock and Roll singer
• Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1904)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz , Jack Steinberger
• Chemistry - Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel
• Medicine - Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings
• Literature - Naguib Mahfouz
• Peace - The United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces.
• The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - Maurice Allais

Right Livelihood Award

• International Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims / Dr. Inge Kemp Genefke , José Lutzenberger , John F. Charlewood Turner and Sahabat Alam Malaysia / Mohamed Idris , Harrison Ngau , the Penan people.

Fictional references

• The 2001 movie Donnie Darko is set in October 1988