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Top Song(s)
• Phil Collins - A Groovy Kind of Love
• Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy
• U2 - Desire
• Guns n' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
• Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now
Top Film(s)
• Die Hard
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Rain Man
• Beetlejuice
Best Selling Book(s)
• Matilda - Roald Dahl
• A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
• The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
• Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Famous Deaths
• January 3 - Prime Minister of Belgium (1949, 1958-61, 1968-72)
• January 11 - Pappy Boyington, pilot, United States Marine Corps fighter ace
• February 15 – Richard Feynman, theoretical physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics
• March 9 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German politician and author (Chancellor of West Germany 1966-69)
• April 19 - Kwon Ki-ok, first Korean female pilot
• May 8 - Ruby M. Rouss, WAC and first female president of the Virgin Islands Legislature
• July 27 – Frank Zamboni, inventor
• August 17 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., American lawyer and politician
• September 1 - Luis Walter Alvarez, experimental physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics
• November 9 – John N. Mitchell, lawyer, 67th United States Attorney General
Medical/Science/Technology
• NASA resumes Space Shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster.
• NASA climate scientist James Hansen uses the term global warming in testimony to the United States Congress.
• Internet Relay Chat, the first Internet-based chat protocol, is created.
• The Morris worm, the first computer worm distributed via the Internet, written by Robert Tappan Morris.
• The initial case definition of Chronic fatigue syndrome (the "Holmes definition") is published.
• Patricia Bath patents the Laserphaco Probe, a device "for ablating and removing cataract lenses".
• Stephen Hawking publishes A Brief History of Time.
• 2nd International Studies of Infarct Survival (ISIS-2) demonstrates beneficial effects of aspirin.
• France and China permit use of "morning-after" birth-control drug RU486 (Mifepristone).
• Tim Berners-Lee begins openly to discuss his plans for what will become the World Wide Web at CERN.
Political
• January 25 - Ronald Reagan delivers his final State of the Union Address.
• January 25 - VP George H. W. Bush and CBS News anchor Dan Rather clash over Bush's role in the Iran–Contra scandal.
• February 12 – Anthony M. Kennedy is appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
• March 26 – U.S. presidential candidate Jesse Jackson defeats Michael Dukakis in the Michigan Democratic caucuses.
• April 4 – Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
• April 5 – Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis wins the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary.
• April 12 – Former pop singer Sonny Bono is elected Mayor of Palm Springs, California.
• May 16 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage.
• May 31 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses 600 Moscow State University students during his visit to the Soviet Union.
• July 20 – The Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia nominates Michael Dukakis as their presidential candidate.
National
• January 1 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is established, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S.
• March 8 - Two U.S. Army helicopters collide in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, killing 17 servicemen.
• July 3 – Iran Air Flight 655 is shot down by a missile launched from the USS Vincennes.
• July 14 – Volkswagen closes its Westmoreland Assembly Plant after ten years of operation.
• August 9 – Wrigley Field has its first night game of baseball, ending long opposition to lights at the field.
• September 15 – Nicholas F. Brady is sworn in as the new Secretary of Treasury, succeeding James Baker.
• October 30 – Philip Morris buys Kraft Foods for US$13,100,000,000.
• October 31 – National Park of American Samoa is established.
• November 10 – The United States Air Force acknowledges the existence of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.
• December 9 – The last Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant roll off the assembly line in a Chrysler factory.
Worldwide
• January 13 – Vice-president Lee Teng-hui takes over as President of the Republic of China.
• February 13–28 – The 1988 Winter Olympics are held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
• March 16 - The Halabja chemical attack is carried out by Iraqi government forces.
• April 5 – Kuwait Airways Flight 422 is hijacked while enroute from Bangkok, Thailand, to Kuwait.
• June 10–25 – West Germany hosts the UEFA Euro 1988 football tournament, which is won by the Netherlands.
• August 5 – The 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis culminates in the ousting of the Lord President of Malaysia, Salleh Abas.
• August 20 – A ceasefire effectively ends the Iran–Iraq War, with an estimated one million lives lost.
• September 17–October 2 – The 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea.
• October 30 – Five Israelis are killed and five wounded in a Palestinian attack in the West Bank.
• December 1 - Carlos Salinas de Gortari takes office as President of Mexico.