Cliff Hayes and Bob Johnston receive National Safety Awards from the Pipe
Line Contractors Association for exceptional safety performance in the
pipeline industry. The Pipeline Division showed a 61% decrease in
lost-time accidents between 1987-88, despite an 11% increase in man-hours
worked… H&M’s Training Division, in its eighth year, graduates student
number 8,000…Henkels & McCoy’s Delaware Valley Division (Del Val) installs a
nearly one-mile long, eight-inch diameter gas line atop the roof of the new
Franklin Mills indoor shopping center in northeast Philadelphia. In addition
to the rooftop installation, Del Val installs 8,000 feet of underground
pipe. Including electrical conduit, and a 5,000 foot gas main connecting the
roof line to the city gas utility… Del Val and H&M’s Communication Services
group completes building one of the largest telephone central office main
distribution frames in the East Coast for Bell of Pennsylvania, in
Philadelphia… H&M’s Transmission and Distribution Division installs four new
130-feet tall galvanized steel H-frame towers across Great Egg Harbor River
in an environmentally sensitive marshy area of southern New Jersey. The
towers replace older wooden poles, unable to withstand the weight of new –
and heavier wire upgrades, capable of handling up to 230 kV.
January 4
US warplanes shoot down two Libyan jet fighters over international waters in
the Mediterranean Sea, crossing Colonel Muammar Khaddafi’s (right) so-called Line of Death.
January 7
Japan’s Emperor Hirohito dies at 87.
January 20
George Herbert Walker Bush is inaugurated as 41st US president.
February 14
My Funny Valentine: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman
Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses to be blasphemous and offensive and
sentences him to death, offering a reward for any Muslim who kills Rushdie…
no matter where they may find him. Rushdie goes underground and is rumored
to be somewhere in Britain.
March 24
Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into
Alaska's formerly pristine Prince William Sound.
April 19
Tens of thousands of Chinese university students take over Beijing's
Tiananmen Square in public rally for democracy. The unprecedented event
receives international coverage in TV, radio and the press.
May 4
US jury convicts Oliver North (left) for his role in the Iran-Contra arms
for hostages affair. North receives a three-year suspended sentence and
community service. He had shredded incriminating documents detailing the
illegal transactions.
May 15
More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads
across nation, making the elderly leadership nervous. It is the first time
that their authority has been challenged publicly.
June 4
Chinese leaders take hard line toward student democracy demonstrators in
Tiananmen Square, resulting in great loss of life and thousands of arrests.
It is rumored that thousands of demonstrators are killed in the square.
Right: a lone dissenter stares down -- and halts a column of advancing
tanks.
August 9
Army General Colin R. Powell (left) becomes the first African-American Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell will serve in that capacity under two
presidents and will later become the Secretary of State in the
administration of President George W. Bush.
August 14
P. W. Botha stands down as South Africa's president
August 29
Voyager 2 spacecraft passes Neptune after making discoveries about the
planet and its moons.
November 9
Deng Xiaoping resigns from China's leadership.
November 9
The Berlin Wall is opened. Travel restrictions are lifted. More than 10,000
East Germans cross the border to West Berlin. Mass celebrations last for
days. People break pieces – even chunks – off the wall. East and West Berlin
are reunited after 28 years of forced partition.
November 30
The Czech Parliament votes to end the Communists' dominant role.
December 20
US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of corrupt local strongman General
Manuel Noriega. He is taken four days later.
December 25
Romanian uprising overthrows the ruling, tyrannical
Communist government. President Ceausescu and his wife are summarily
executed after a quickie trial in a kangaroo court.
ALSO IN 1989:
Peter Deutsch of McGill University, in Montreal, develops "Archie", an
archive of FTP web sites, in the first effort to index the Internet. Another
indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by
Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corporation... The Dalai Lama wins the
Nobel Prize for Peace... Unemployment stands at 5.3%... It costs 25 cents to
mail a first class letter.. At your local bookstore: Oscar Hijuelos, The
Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love; Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the
Day; Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club.
In Sports
San Francisco 49s over Cincinnati Bengals (20-16)in the Super Bowl...
Oakland A's sweep the SF Giants (4-0) in the World Series... In the NBA
Championship the Detroit Pistons whip the LA Lakers in four straight... At
Wimbledon, Steffi Graf beats long standing champion Martina Navratilova (6-2
6-7 6-1), while Boris Becker defeats S. Edberg (6-0 7-6 6-4)... The Kentucky
Derby is won by Sunday Silence... In a nail biting NCAA Basketball
Championship, Michigan squeaks past Seton Hall (80-79) in overtime.
What's on TV
Who'd a thought? Rosanne, queen of the proles, rules the
airwaves at Numero Uno... reflecting the explosion of home movie
making, thanks to low priced camcorders, America's Funniest Videos
makes its entrance to prime time... Chicken Soup, Grand and Coach
also debut this year.
That's Show Biz
In the Multiplexes: Glory, Born on the Fourth of July, My Left
Foot, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Field of Dreams.
Deaths
In 1989 we bid farewell to:
Actor and Comedian Jim Backus (Mr. Magoo, Thurston Howell III)
Comedy Legend Lucille Ball
Irish Playwright Samuel Beckett
Surrealist Painter Salvador Dali
Actress Bette Davis (pictured at right)
Ex Dictator (Philippines) Ferdinand Marcos
Yankee manager, ex-manager, manager Billy Martin
Stage and Film Actor Sir Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights, Richard
III, Marathon Man, Boys from Brazil)
Boxing Great Sugar Ray Robinson
Andrei Sakharov
R.D. Laing
Robert Penn Warren
