WORLD HISTORY · 1988 日本語
Events of 1988Showa 63 (Japan) · Year of the Dragon
What happened in 1988?
In 1988 (Showa 63 in Japan's calendar), the Seikan Tunnel linking Honshu and Hokkaido and the Seto Ohashi Bridge linking Honshu and Shikoku opened, and the Recruit bribery scandal came to light. Around the world, the Seoul Olympics were held and Soviet troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan.
- Seikan Tunnel opensAsia
- Seto Ohashi Bridge links all JR linesAsia
- Soviet troops begin Afghanistan withdrawalAsia
- Recruit scandal comes to lightAsia
- Iran–Iraq War ceasefireMiddle East
- Seoul Olympics openAsia
- State of Palestine proclaimedMiddle East
- Consumption tax bill passes after all-night Diet sessionAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1988 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 63 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Dragon |
| Age of people born in 1988 | Turn 38 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1987 (Showa 62) ／ 1989 (Showa 64 / Heisei 1) |
| Events | 115 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 1988
Our birthday pages list 840 people born in 1988. Here are some of them.
- Clayton KershawBorn March 19 · turns 38 this year · American left-handed pitcher who spent his entire 18-season career with the Los…
- Emma StoneBorn November 6 · turns 38 this year · American actress who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for both La La Land…
- RihannaBorn February 20 · turns 38 this year · Barbadian pop singer and entrepreneur known for hits like "Umbrella" and for fo…
- AdeleBorn May 5 · turns 38 this year · English singer-songwriter known for powerful ballads like "Rolling in the Deep,…
- Kevin DurantBorn September 29 · turns 38 this year · American basketball star, NBA MVP and two-time champion, and the first man to w…
- Vanessa HudgensBorn December 14 · turns 38 this year · American actress and singer who rose to fame as Gabriella Montez in Disney's Hi…
- Yui AragakiBorn June 11 · turns 38 this year
- Masahiro TanakaBorn November 1 · turns 38 this year
- Erika TodaBorn August 17 · turns 38 this year
- Tori MatsuzakaBorn October 17 · turns 38 this year
- Hayato SakamotoBorn December 14 · turns 38 this year
- Takahiro MoriuchiBorn April 17 · turns 38 this year
Show 28 more
- Maya YoshidaBorn August 24 · turns 38 this year
- Ayano ŌmotoBorn September 20 · turns 38 this year
- Atsuto UchidaBorn March 27 · turns 38 this year
- Russell WestbrookBorn November 12 · turns 38 this year
- Matthias JaissleBorn April 5 · turns 38 this year
- Benny BlancoBorn March 8 · turns 38 this year
- Khabib NurmagomedovBorn September 20 · turns 38 this year
- Zoë KravitzBorn December 1 · turns 38 this year
- Dallas KeuchelBorn January 1 · turns 38 this year
- Marcel GecovBorn January 1 · turns 38 this year
- Damien TussacBorn January 2 · turns 38 this year
- Germán CanoBorn January 2 · turns 38 this year
- Luke HarangodyBorn January 2 · turns 38 this year
- Ikechi AnyaBorn January 3 · turns 38 this year
- Jonny EvansBorn January 3 · turns 38 this year
- Matt FrattinBorn January 3 · turns 38 this year
- The CompletionistBorn January 3 · turns 38 this year
- Anestis ArgyriouBorn January 4 · turns 38 this year
- Maximilian RiedmüllerBorn January 4 · turns 38 this year
- Azizulhasni AwangBorn January 5 · turns 38 this year
- Luke DanielsBorn January 5 · turns 38 this year
- Mandip GillBorn January 5 · turns 38 this year
- Miroslav RaduljicaBorn January 5 · turns 38 this year
- Nikola KalinićBorn January 5 · turns 38 this year
- Haley BennettBorn January 7 · turns 38 this year
- Scott PendleburyBorn January 7 · turns 38 this year
- Adrián LópezBorn January 8 · turns 38 this year
- Alex TyusBorn January 8 · turns 38 this year
Events of 1988 (timeline · 115)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
Condor Flugdienst Flight 3782 crashes near Seferihisar, Turkey, killing 16 people.
Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.
China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 crashes near Chongqing Baishiyi Airport, killing all 98 passengers and 10 crew members.
Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 crashes in Bayfield, Colorado, killing nine.
An Aeroflot Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes at Nizhnevartovsk Airport, killing 27 people.
In R v Morgentaler the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down all anti-abortion laws.
Doug Williams becomes the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl and leads the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.
Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage.
A Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner operating as AVAir Flight 3378 crashes in Cary, North Carolina, killing 12.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Saddam Hussein begins the Anfal genocide against Kurds and Assyrians in northern Iraq.
Sumgait pogrom: The Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan is targeted in a violent pogrom.
Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the House of Commons of Canada to come out as gay.
South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with 100 other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
Operation Flavius: Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.
Aeroflot Flight 3379 is hijacked by the Ovechkin family and diverted to Veshchevo in the Soviet Union.
The Seikan Tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world with an undersea segment, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.
In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands.
Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA, are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.
Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.
A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.
Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
The United States Congress votes to override President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987.
The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.
In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
In Israel John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II, although the verdict is later overturned.
Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
All thirty-six passengers and crew are killed when Widerøe Flight 710 crashes into Mt. Torghatten in Brønnøy.
A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".
Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.
Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan.
A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.
Somaliland War of Independence: The Somali National Movement launches a major offensive against Somali government forces in Hargeisa and Burao, then the second- and third-largest cities of Somalia.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Three cars on a train carrying hexogen to Kazakhstan explode in Arzamas, Gorky Oblast, USSR, killing 91 and injuring about 1,500.
Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.
Haitian president Leslie Manigat is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant General Henri Namphy.
The first crash of an Airbus A320 occurs when Air France Flight 296Q crashes at Mulhouse–Habsheim Airfield in Habsheim, France, during an air show, killing three of the 136 people on board.
Villa Tunari massacre: Bolivian anti-narcotics police kill nine to 12 and injure over a hundred protesting coca-growing peasants.
The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.
United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. One hundred sixty-seven oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life.
The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala in India killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.
General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.
Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
The first night baseball game in the history of Chicago's Wrigley Field (game was rained out in the fourth inning).
The 8888 Uprising begins in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar). Led by students, hundreds of thousands join in nationwide protests against the one-party regime. On September 18, the demonstrations end in a military crackdown, killing thousands.
Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.
A meeting between Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, and leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan culminates in the formation of Al-Qaeda.
President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
The Troubles: Eight British soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by an IRA roadside bomb in Ballygawley, County Tyrone.
The 6.9 Mw Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal–India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured.
Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy are killed and 346 seriously injured.
Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashes during takeoff from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 14.
CAAC Flight 301 overshoots the runway at Kai Tak Airport and crashes into Kowloon Bay, killing seven people.
End of the last stage of the Anfal campaign of Ba'athist Iraq against its Kurdish population, which resulted in major destructions and major civilian losses.
Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
Vietnam Airlines Flight 831 crashes in Khu Khot, Thailand, while on approach to Don Muang International Airport, killing 76.
Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.
Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).
The Magna Charta Universitatum, asserting key principles essential to the free operation of universities, is signed in Bologna by the rectors of 388 institutions of higher learning, to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the University of Bologna.
General Henri Namphy, president of Haiti, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by General Prosper Avril.
Margaret Thatcher delivers the Bruges speech, in which she articulates her opposition to further European integration.
The National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and others to fight dictatorship in Myanmar.
NASA launches STS-26, the first Space Shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster.
A Chilean opposition coalition defeats Augusto Pinochet in his re-election attempt.
A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.
Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down execution-style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.
Uganda Airlines Flight 775 crashes at Rome–Fiumicino International Airport, in Rome, Italy, killing 33 people.
The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.
Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure.
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 crashes in Białobrzegi, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland, killing one person and injuring several more.
The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.
Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries attempt to overthrow the Maldivian government. At President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's request, the Indian military suppresses the rebellion within 24 hours.
Lancang–Gengma earthquakes: At least 730 are killed after two powerful earthquakes rock the China–Myanmar border in Yunnan Province.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence.
In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia.
Benazir Bhutto, is named as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first female leader to lead a Muslim nation.
Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority state.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-27, a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense.
The 6.8 Ms Armenian earthquake shakes the northern part of the country with a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating), killing 25,000–50,000 and injuring 31,000–130,000.
A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing five people and injuring 50 others.
A Soviet Air Force Il-76 aircraft crashes while participating in the Armenian earthquake relief, killing 78 people.
The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains—one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York.
War on drugs: The United Nations agrees upon and promulgates the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, one of three major drug control treaties currently in force.
A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. This is to date the deadliest air disaster to occur on British soil.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1988 in the Japanese calendar?
1988 was Showa 63 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1988?
1988 is the Year of the Dragon.
How old is someone born in 1988?
They turn 38 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1988?
In 1988 (Showa 63 in Japan's calendar), the Seikan Tunnel linking Honshu and Hokkaido and the Seto Ohashi Bridge linking Honshu and Shikoku opened, and the Recruit bribery scandal came to light. Around the world, the Seoul Olympics were held and Soviet troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.