1989: Year on the Gregorian calendar

A wave of counter revolutions ended the Eastern Bloc and the Cold War during the year.

 

• January 7 – Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan following the death of Hirohito. The Heisei period begins.
• January 8 – the Kegworth Air Disaster – A British Midland Boeing 737 crashes on approach to East Midlands Airport – 44 dead
• January 10 – Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola
• January 10 – Assistant Australian Federal Police commissioner Colin Winchester is shot dead in the driveway of his Canberra home.
• January 17 – A gunman kills 5 children, wounds 30 and then shoots himself in Stockton, California.
• January 20 – George Herbert Walker Bush succeeds Ronald Wilson Reagan as President of the United States of America
• January 24 – Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair
• January 30 – American Olympic medalist Bruce Kimball is sentenced to 17 years in prison for killing two teenagers in a drunk driving accident.
• February 3 – Paraguayan leader Alfredo Stroessner is removed from office.
• February 14 – Iran issues a fatwa (death warrant) against the writer Salman Rushdie for his novel, The Satanic Verses.
• March 24 – The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurs at Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. Until 2010 it is the worst oil spill in United States history.
• May - Tornadoes hit Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
• June 4 – Protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, are brutally crushed. An image of a lone protestor defying a tank is shown worldwide.
• August – First sighting of the Aurora, a supposed hypersonic aircraft
• September - Hurricane Hugo strikes the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and North Carolina. The hurricane causes $8 billion in damage in the United States, about $10 billion in total. Many people die from this hurricane.
• October 17 – A major earthquake strikes San Francisco, California.
• October 18 – East Germany's leader Erich Honecker resigns.
• November 2 – Bad Religion releases No Control, which is considered one of the band's best known works in the history of punk music, along with its predecessor Suffer, which came out in the previous year.
• November 17 – The Berlin Wall in Germany starts to come down.
• December 17 – The television series The Simpsons premieres on FOX as a full animated series with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
• December 22 – The main crossing from East into West Berlin is officially reopened.
• December 22 – In Romania, Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu is removed from office.
• December 25 – Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena are executed by a firing squad.

 

 

• January 9 - Nina Dobrev, Canadian actress
• January 23 – April Pearson, British actress
• February 3 – Vania King, American tennis player
• February 9 – Shunta Takahashi, Japanese footballer
• February 18 – Zhang Li Yin, Chinese singer
• February 21 – Corbin Bleu, American actor
• March 12 – Holger Badstuber, German footballer
• March 13 – Marko Marin, German footballer
• March 14 – Ryohei Yamazaki, Japanese footballer
• March 16 – Theo Walcott, English footballer
• March 19 - James Richman, Latvian-born investor
• March 20 – Keisuke Endo, Japanese footballer
• March 28 – David Goodwillie, Scottish footballer
• April 8 – Koki Otani, Japanese footballer
• April 23 – Nicole Vaidisova, German tennis player
• May 5 – Chris Brown, American singer
• May 11 – Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer
• May 17 – Tessa Virtue, Canadian ice dancer
• June 2 – Freddy Adu, American footballer
• June 10 - Alexandra Stan, Romanian singer and songwriter
• June 11 – Shia LaBeouf, American actor
• July 16 - Gareth Bale, Welsh footballer
• June 28 - Markiplier, American YouTube personality
• July 23 – Daniel Radcliffe, British actor
• August 15 – Joe Jonas, American singer and actor
• August 21 – Hayden Panettiere, American actress
• August 30 - Bebe Rexha, American singer and songwriter
• September 1 – Bill & Tom Kaulitz, German singers
• September 10 – Sanjaya Malakar, American singer
• September 13 – Thomas Mueller, German footballer
• September 21 – Jason Derulo, American singer
• September 21 - Emma Watkins, Australian musician (The Wiggles)
• September 23 – Brandon Jennings, American basketball player
• October 4 – Kimmie Meissner, American ice skater
• October 5 - Alex Beznea, Romanian guitarist (Timpuri Grele)
• October 13 – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, American politician and activist
• October 24 - Pewdiepie, Swedish YouTube personality
• October 30 – Seth Adkins, American actor
• October 30 – Nastia Liukin, American gymnast
• November 11 - Patrick Starrr, American YouTube personality
• December 13 – Taylor Swift, American singer who has an album titled 1989
• December 22 – Jordin Sparks, American singer
• December 28 – Mackenzie Rosman, American actress

January

 

 

 

• January 7 – Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1901)
• January 23 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter (b. 1904)
• January 24 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)

February

 

• February 6 – Chris Gueffroy, last person to be shot at the Berlin Wall (b. 1968)
• February 17 – Lefty Gomez, American baseball player (b. 1908)
• February 26 – Roy Eldridge, American jazz musician (b. 1911)
• February 27 – Konrad Lorenz, German scientist (b. 1903)

March

April

 

 

 

• April 12 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
• April 22 - Emilio G. Segre, Italian-American physicist (b. 1905)
• April 26 – Lucille Ball, American actress (b. 1911)
• April 30 – Sergio Leone, movie director (b. 1929)

May

• May 20 – Gilda Radner, American comedian and actress (b. 1946)

June

 

• June 3 – Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran (b. 1900)
• June 30 – Hilmar Baunsgaard, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1920)

July

 

 

 

• July 2 – Andrei Gromyko, Soviet politician (b. 1909)
• July 10 – Mel Blanc, American actor (b. 1908)
• July 11 – Laurence Olivier, British actor (b. 1907)
• July 16 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (b. 1908)

August

 

• August 12 – William Shockley, American physicist (b. 1910)

September

 

 

 

• September 4 – Georges Simenon, Belgian writer (b. 1903)
• September 8 – Barry Sadler, American musician (b. 1940)
• September 22 – Irving Berlin, Russian-born composer (b. 1888)
• September 28 – Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines (b. 1917)

October

 

• October 4 – Graham Chapman, English comedian (b. 1941)
• October 6 – Bette Davis, American actress (b. 1908)

November

 

• November 5 – Vladimir Horowitz, Russian-born pianist (b. 1903)
• November 30 – Ahmadou Ahidjo, 1st President of Cameroon (b. 1924)

December

 

 

 

 

• December 14 – Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist and activist (b. 1921)
• December 22 – Samuel Beckett, Irish playwright (b. 1906)
• December 25 – Nicolae Ceausescu, President of Romania (b. 1918)
• December 25 – Elena Ceaușescu, Deputy Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1916)

• Nobel Prize in Physics won by Norman F. Ramsey, and shared by Hans G. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry shared by Sidney Altman and Thomas R. Cech
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Varmus
• Nobel Prize in Literature won by Camilo José Cela, Spanish novelist
• Nobel Peace Prize won by Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
• Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences won by Trygve Haavelmo

• Batman
• Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
• Born on the Fourth of July, nominated for eight Academy Awards
• Dead Poets Society, winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Film
• Do The Right Thing
• Driving Miss Daisy, nominated for nine Academy Awards
• Ghostbusters II
• Great Balls of Fire!
• Honey, I Shrunk The Kids
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the highest-grossing movie of 1989
• Kickboxer
• Kiki's Delivery Service, an animated movie
• Lethal Weapon II
• Tango & Cash
• The Little Mermaid, made by Walt Disney Pictures
• Lock Up
• Look Who's Talking
• Next of Kin
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
• Road House
• Roger & Me, directed by Michael Moore
• Steel Magnolias, winning a Golden Globe Award for Julia Roberts
• Turner & Hooch
• UHF
• Uncle Buck, directed by John Hughes

 

 

• "All She Wants Is" – Duran Duran
• "My Brave Face" – Paul McCartney
• "Another Day in Paradise" – Phil Collins
• "Batdance" – Prince
• "Bat Attack '89 – Crime Fighters Inc
• "Beds Are Burning" – Midnight Oil
• "Blame It on the Rain" – Milli Vanilli
• "Buffalo Stance" – Neneh Cherry
• "Cartoon" – Soul Asylum
• "Compulsory Hero – 1927
• "Chained To The Wheel – Black Sorrows
• "Cry In Shame Johnny Diesel + The Injectors
• "Crying In The Chapel" – Peter Blakley
• "Do You Believe In Shame?" – Duran Duran
• "Dr. Feelgood" – Mötley Crüe
• "Eternal Flame" – The Bangles
• "Eyes Of A Stranger" – Queensrÿche
• "Hangin' Tough" – New Kids On The Block
• "Heavy Metal" – Judas Priest
• "I Drove All Night – Cyndi Lauper
• "I Feel The Earth Move – Martika
• "If I Could" – 1927
• "If I Could Turn Back Time" – Cher
• "If Tomorrow Never Comes" – Garth Brooks
• "Kickstart My Heart" – Mötley Crüe
• "Killin' Time" – Clint Black
• "Leave A Light On For Me – Belinda Carlisle
• "Like a Prayer" – Madonna
• "Listen To Your Heart" – Roxette
• "Lost in Your Eyes" – Debbie Gibson
• "Love Shack"- The B-52's
• "Miss You Much" – Janet Jackson
• "Monsters Of Rock" – Judas Priest
• "Open Letter (To A Landlord)" – Living Colour
• "Orange Crush" – R.E.M.
• "Rendez-vous chaque soir" – Dalida (inédit)
• "Right Here Waiting" – Richard Marx
• "Ring My Bell – Collette
• "She Drives Me Crazy" – Fine Young Cannibals
• "She Has To Be Loved" – Jenny Morris
• "Sometime To Return" – Soul Asylum
• "Soul Revival" – Johnny Disel + The Injectors
• "Stand" – R.E.M.
• "Stop – Sam Brown
• "Straight Up" – Paula Abdul
• "Talk It Over" – Grayson Hugh
• "The Crack-Up" – The Black Sorrows
• "The Dance" – Garth Brooks
• "The Look" – Roxette
• "The World Seems Difficult" – Mentals
• "Tucker's Daughter – Ian Moss
• "Un soir qu'on oublie pas" – Dalida (inédit)
• "Veronica" – Elvis Costello
• "When I See You Smile" – Bad English
• "We Didn't Start The Fire" – Billy Joel
• "Wild Thing" – Tone Loc
• "You Got It" – Roy Orbison
• "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" – New Kids On The Block
• "Young Years" – Dragon
• "You'll Never Know" – 1927

 

 

• Geek Love – Katherine Dunn
• The Cardinal of the Kremlin – Tom Clancy
• Chronicle of the French Revolution – Jean Favier et al.
• Daddy – Danielle Steel
• The Face of Battle – John Keegan
• Foucault's Pendulum – Umberto Eco
• The Great and Secret Show – Clive Barker
• Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
• Hyperion – Dan Simmons
• It's Always Something – Gilda Radner
• Jasmine – Bharati Mukherjee
• The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
• The Legacy of Heorot – Larry Niven
• Licence to Kill – John Gardner
• London Fields – Martin Amis
• Lot's Wife – Tom Wakefield
• The Magick of Candleburning – Gerina Dunwich
• The Negotiator – Frederick Forsyth
• The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
• A Prayer For Owen Meany – John Irving
• Pyramids – Terry Pratchett
• Red Phoenix – Larry Bond
• The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Russia House – John le Carré
• The Sands of Time – Sidney Sheldon
• The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
• Six Days in Havana – James A. Michener
• Solomon Gursky Was Here – Mordecai Richler
• Star – Danielle Steel
• Stark – Ben Elton
• The Temple of My Familiar – Alice Walker
• A Time to Kill – John Grisham
• Total Recall – Piers Anthony
• While My Pretty One Sleeps – Mary Higgins Clark
• The Wicked and the Witless – Hugh Cook
• Win, Lose or Die – John Gardner
• New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
• Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon
• Snot Stew by Bill Wallace

•   Media related to 1989 at Wiki Commons