1989 Establishments In The United Kingdom

File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, causing a large oil spill; The Fall of the Berlin Wall begins the downfall of Communism in Eastern Europe, and heralds German reunification; The United States invades Panama to depose Manuel Noriega; The Singing Revolution led to the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the Soviet Union; The stands of Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, Yorkshire, where the Hillsborough disaster occurred; Students demonstrate in Tiananmen Square, Beijing; many are killed by forces of the Chinese Communist Party., 300x300px, thumb
rect 0 0 200 200 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
rect 200 0 400 200 World Wide Web
rect 400 0 600 200 Exxon Valdez oil spill
rect 0 200 300 400 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
rect 300 200 600 400 Fall of the Berlin Wall
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rect 200 400 400 600 Singing Revolution
rect 400 400 600 600 United States invasion of Panama

1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" sweeping the Eastern Bloc, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December; the movement ended in December 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Revolutions against communist governments in Eastern Europe mainly succeeded, but the year also saw the suppression by the Chinese government of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.

It was the year of the first Brazilian presidential election in 29 years, since the end of the military government in 1985 that ruled the country for more than twenty years, and marked the redemocratization process's final point.

F. W. de Klerk was elected as State President of South Africa, and his regime gradually dismantled the apartheid system over the next five years, culminating with the 1994 election that brought jailed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela to power.

The first commercial Internet service providers surfaced in this year, as well as the first written proposal for the World Wide Web and New Zealand, Japan and Australia's first Internet connections. The first babies born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis were conceived in late 1989.

Events

January

* January 1 – ''The New York Times'' discloses involvement of 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 (1989): Two Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are engaged and shot down by two US Navy F-14 Tomcats.
* January 7 – Emperor Shōwa dies; his son Akihito is enthroned as the 125th Emperor of Japan immediately, 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 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 sworn in as the 41st President of the United States.
* January 23– 24 – Armed civilian leftists briefly attack and occupy an Argentinian army base near Buenos Aires.
* 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 (Victorian Economic Development Co-operation) 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 ("La Noche de la Candelaria"): 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 (and also the first woman to become a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion).
* 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 (d. June 3), issues a fatwa calling for the death of Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie and his publishers for issuing the novel ''The Satanic Verses'' (1988).
** 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 (AMU) 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 23– 27 – U.S. President Bush visits Japan, China and South Korea, attending the funeral of Hirohito and then meeting with China's Deng Xiaoping and South Korea's Roh Tae-woo.
* February 24
** The funeral of Hirohito is attended by 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

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