Topic summary
January 1988
Extracted from the Wikipedia article 1988.
January
- January – The cargo ship Khian Sea deposits 4,000 tons of toxic waste in Haiti after wandering around the Atlantic for sixteen months.
- January 1 – The Soviet Union begins its program of economic restructuring (perestroika) with legislation initiated by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (though Gorbachev had begun minor restructuring in 1985).
- January 7–8 – In the Soviet-Afghan War, 39 men of the Soviet Airborne Troops from the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment fight off an attack by 200 to 250 Mujahideen in the Battle for Hill 3234, later dramatized in the Russian film The 9th Company.
- January 13 – Vice-president Lee Teng-hui takes over as President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo.
- January 26
- A re-enactment of the First Fleet arrives in Sydney Harbour to mark the bicentenary of the First Fleet arriving in Australia in 1788.
- Upon request of Hubert Michon, archbishop of Rabat, two Trappist monks come to Fez and start a community that will later become the Priory of Our Lady of the Atlas.