Cliff Hayes and Bob Johnston receive National Safety Awards from the Pipe Line Contractors Association for exceptional safety performance in the pipeline industry. The Pipeline Division showed a 61% decrease in lost-time accidents between 1987-88, despite an 11% increase in man-hours worked… H&M’s Training Division, in its eighth year, graduates student number 8,000…Henkels & McCoy’s Delaware Valley Division (Del Val) installs a nearly one-mile long, eight-inch diameter gas line atop the roof of the new Franklin Mills indoor shopping center in northeast Philadelphia. In addition to the rooftop installation, Del Val installs 8,000 feet of underground pipe. Including electrical conduit, and a 5,000 foot gas main connecting the roof line to the city gas utility… Del Val and H&M’s Communication Services group completes building one of the largest telephone central office main distribution frames in the East Coast for Bell of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia… H&M’s Transmission and Distribution Division installs four new 130-feet tall galvanized steel H-frame towers across Great Egg Harbor River in an environmentally sensitive marshy area of southern New Jersey. The towers replace older wooden poles, unable to withstand the weight of new – and heavier wire upgrades, capable of handling up to 230 kV.
January 4
US warplanes shoot down two Libyan jet fighters over international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, crossing Colonel Muammar Khaddafi’s (right) so-called Line of Death.
January 7
Japan’s Emperor Hirohito dies at 87.
January 20
George Herbert Walker Bush is inaugurated as 41st US president.
February 14
My Funny Valentine: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses to be blasphemous and offensive and sentences him to death, offering a reward for any Muslim who kills Rushdie… no matter where they may find him. Rushdie goes underground and is rumored to be somewhere in Britain.
March 24
Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's formerly pristine Prince William Sound.
April 19
Tens of thousands of Chinese university students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in public rally for democracy. The unprecedented event receives international coverage in TV, radio and the press.
May 4
US jury convicts Oliver North (left) for his role in the Iran-Contra arms for hostages affair. North receives a three-year suspended sentence and community service. He had shredded incriminating documents detailing the illegal transactions.
May 15
More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation, making the elderly leadership nervous. It is the first time that their authority has been challenged publicly.
June 4
Chinese leaders take hard line toward student democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, resulting in great loss of life and thousands of arrests. It is rumored that thousands of demonstrators are killed in the square. Right: a lone dissenter stares down -- and halts a column of advancing tanks.
August 9
Army General Colin R. Powell (left) becomes the first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell will serve in that capacity under two presidents and will later become the Secretary of State in the administration of President George W. Bush.
August 14
P. W. Botha stands down as South Africa's president
August 29
Voyager 2 spacecraft passes Neptune after making discoveries about the planet and its moons.
November 9
Deng Xiaoping resigns from China's leadership.
November 9
The Berlin Wall is opened. Travel restrictions are lifted. More than 10,000 East Germans cross the border to West Berlin. Mass celebrations last for days. People break pieces – even chunks – off the wall. East and West Berlin are reunited after 28 years of forced partition.
November 30
The Czech Parliament votes to end the Communists' dominant role.
December 20
US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of corrupt local strongman General Manuel Noriega. He is taken four days later.
December 25
Romanian uprising overthrows the ruling, tyrannical Communist government. President Ceausescu and his wife are summarily executed after a quickie trial in a kangaroo court.
ALSO IN 1989:
Peter Deutsch of McGill University, in Montreal, develops "Archie", an archive of FTP web sites, in the first effort to index the Internet. Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corporation... The Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Prize for Peace... Unemployment stands at 5.3%... It costs 25 cents to mail a first class letter.. At your local bookstore: Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love; Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day; Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club.
In Sports
San Francisco 49s over Cincinnati Bengals (20-16)in the Super Bowl... Oakland A's sweep the SF Giants (4-0) in the World Series... In the NBA Championship the Detroit Pistons whip the LA Lakers in four straight... At Wimbledon, Steffi Graf beats long standing champion Martina Navratilova (6-2 6-7 6-1), while Boris Becker defeats S. Edberg (6-0 7-6 6-4)... The Kentucky Derby is won by Sunday Silence... In a nail biting NCAA Basketball Championship, Michigan squeaks past Seton Hall (80-79) in overtime.
What's on TV
Who'd a thought? Rosanne, queen of the proles, rules the airwaves at Numero Uno... reflecting the explosion of home movie making, thanks to low priced camcorders, America's Funniest Videos makes its entrance to prime time... Chicken Soup, Grand and Coach also debut this year.
That's Show Biz
In the Multiplexes: Glory, Born on the Fourth of July, My Left Foot, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Field of Dreams.
Deaths
In 1989 we bid farewell to:
Actor and Comedian Jim Backus (Mr. Magoo, Thurston Howell III)
Comedy Legend Lucille Ball
Irish Playwright Samuel Beckett
Surrealist Painter Salvador Dali
Actress Bette Davis (pictured at right)
Ex Dictator (Philippines) Ferdinand Marcos
Yankee manager, ex-manager, manager Billy Martin
Stage and Film Actor Sir Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights, Richard III, Marathon Man, Boys from Brazil)
Boxing Great Sugar Ray Robinson
Andrei Sakharov
R.D. Laing
Robert Penn Warren