1989

Events

January

• January 1 – The New York Times discloses involvement of West German company Imhausen and Salzgitter AG in building a chemical weapon plant in Rabta, Libya.
• January 2 – Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa takes office as the third President of Sri Lanka.
• January 4 – Gulf of Sidra incident : Two Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are engaged and shot down by two US Navy F-14 Tomcats.
• January 7 – Emperor Hirohito dies; his son Akihito ascends as the 125th Emperor of Japan, followed by the change in the era name from Shōwa to Heisei on the following day.
• January 10 – In accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 626 and the New York Accords, Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.
• January 11 – The Lexus and Infiniti luxury car brands are launched at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit with the unveiling of the 1990 Lexus LS and Infiniti Q45 sedans.
• January 13 – Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is expelled to Senegal from Zaire after using a fake Zairean passport in an attempt to return to Uganda. Amin is eventually expelled from Senegal and subsequently returns to Zaire after the Saudi government refuses to allow him in Saudi Arabia.
• January 15 – Thirty-five European nations, meeting in Vienna, agree to strengthen human rights and improve East–West trade.
• January 18 – Ante Marković succeeds Branko Mikulić as Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
• January 20 – George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the United States.
• January 23–24 – Armed civilian leftists briefly attack and occupy an Argentinian army base near Buenos Aires.
• January 29 – The two longest-imprisoned German WWII war criminals in Western Europe, Ferdinand aus der Fünten and Franz Fischer, were released from Dutch prison.
• January 30
• * Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney shuffles his cabinet, appointing six new ministers and reassigning the responsibilities of nineteen others.
• * The Embassy of the United States, Kabul, Afghanistan, is closed; it does not reopen until late 2001.

  February

• February 1 – In Australia, Joan Kirner becomes Victoria's first female Deputy Premier, after the resignation of Robert Fordham over the VEDC Crisis.
• February 2
• * Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet Union armoured column leaves Kabul, ending nine years of military occupation since 1979.
• * Carlos Andrés Pérez takes office as President of Venezuela.
• February 3
• * 1989 Paraguayan coup d'état : A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
• * After a stroke, State President of South Africa P. W. Botha resigns as Leader of the National Party.
• February 5 – Eurosport, a multiple-language sports broadcasting station in Europe, begins broadcasting, from Issy-les-Moulineaux, Île-de-France, France.
• February 6 – The Government of the People's Republic of Poland holds formal talks with representatives of Solidarity movement for the first time since 1981.
• February 7 – The People's National Party, led by Michael Manley, wins the 1989 Jamaican general election.
• February 10
• * Ron Brown is elected as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major United States political party.
• * U.S. President Bush meets Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Ottawa, laying the groundwork for the Acid Rain Treaty of 1991.
• February 11 – Barbara Harris is the first woman consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
• February 14
• * Union Carbide agrees to pay $470,000,000 to the Indian government for damages in the 1984 Bhopal disaster, a gas leak that killed 3.7 thousand.
• * The Satanic Verses controversy: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran, issues a fatwa calling for the death of Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie and his publishers for issuing the novel The Satanic Verses.
• * The first of 24 Global Positioning System satellites is placed into orbit.
• February 15
• * Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
• * Following a campaign that saw over 1,000 people killed in massive campaign-related violence, the United National Party wins the Sri Lankan parliamentary election.
• February 16 – Pan Am Flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the 1988 crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.
• February 17
• * The Arab Maghreb Union is formed.
• * South African police raid the home of Winnie Mandela and arrest four of her bodyguards.
• February 20 – In Canada's Yukon Territory, the ruling New Democrats narrowly maintain control of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, winning 9 seats vs. the Progressive Conservative Party's 7.
• February 23 – After protracted testimony, the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee rejects, 11–9, President Bush's nomination of John Tower for Secretary of Defense.
• February 24
• * The state funeral of Emperor Shōwa in Tokyo is attended by leaders and representatives of 160 nations.
• * The Satanic Verses controversy: Iran places a $3,000,000 bounty on the head of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
• * Singing Revolution: After 44 years, the Estonian flag is raised at the Pikk Hermann tower in Tallinn.
• * United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747, suffers uncontrolled decompression after leaving Honolulu International Airport; nine passengers are blown out of the cabin to their deaths.
• February 25–27 – U.S. President Bush visits China and South Korea, meeting with China's Deng Xiaoping and South Korea's Roh Tae-woo.
• February 27 – Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo, a wave of protests and looting.

  March

• March – Poland begins to liberalise its currency exchange in a move towards capitalism.
• March 1
• * The Berne Convention, an international treaty on copyrights, is ratified by the United States.
• * A curfew is imposed in Kosovo, where protests continue over the alleged intimidation of the Serb minority.
• * The Political Party of Radicals, Pacifist Socialist Party, Communist Party of the Netherlands and the Evangelical People's Party amalgamate to form the Dutch political party GroenLinks.
• * After 74 years, Iceland ends its prohibition on beer; celebrated since as bjórdagur or beer day.
• March 2 – Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons by the end of the century.
• March 3 – Jammu Siltavuori abducts and murders two eight-year-old girls in the Myllypuro suburb of Helsinki, Finland.
• March 4
• * Time Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner.
• * The Purley station rail crash in London leaves five people dead and 94 injured.
• * The first Australian Capital Territory elections are held.
• March 7 – Iran breaks off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom over Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.
• March 9 – Revolutions of 1989: The Soviet Union submits to the jurisdiction of the World Court.
• March 12 – Tim Berners-Lee produces the proposal document that will become the blueprint for the World Wide Web.
• March 13 – A geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid. 6,000,000 people are left without power for nine hours. Some areas in the northeastern U.S. and in Sweden also lose power, and aurorae are seen as far as Texas.
• March 14
• * Gun control: U.S. President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of certain guns deemed "assault weapons" into the United States.
• * General Michel Aoun declares a "War of Liberation" to rid Lebanon of Syrian forces and their allies.
• March 15
• * Israel hands over Taba to Egypt, ending a seven-year territorial dispute.
• * Mass demonstrations in Hungary, demanding democracy.
• March 16 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approves agricultural reforms allowing farmers the right to lease state-owned farms for life.
• March 17
• * The Civic Tower of Pavia, built in the eleventh century, collapses.
• * Alfredo Cristiani is elected as President of El Salvador.
• March 20 – Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television as he admits marital infidelity.
• March 22
• * Clint Malarchuk of the NHL Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
• * Asteroid 4581 Asclepius approaches the Earth at a distance of.
• March 23 – Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce that they have achieved cold fusion at the University of Utah.
• March 23–28 – The Socialist Republic of Serbia passes constitutional changes revoking the autonomy of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, triggering six days of rioting by the Albanian majority, during which at least 29 people are killed.
• March 24 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound, the Exxon Valdez spills of oil after running aground.
• March 26 – 1989 Soviet Union legislative election: The first contested elections for the Soviet parliament, Congress of People's Deputies, result in losses for the Communist Party; the first session of the new Congress opens in late May.
• March 29 – The 61st Academy Awards are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, with Rain Man winning Best Picture, and Jodie Foster wins her first award for Best Actress.