This page relates to the year 1988 Gregorian Calendrier.

Events

  • the Nobel Prize of peace is allotted to the Gripping force of the peace of the United Nations, guardians of peace.
  • December 8th: Following the seism of Erevan (25  000 dead) in Soviet Union, on the initiative of the president Mitterrand, the General meeting of UNO adopts the principle of the interference Humanitaire: “humanitarian aid with the victims of natural disasters and emergencies of the same type”.
  • December 20th: Is held with Vienna, the Convention against the illicit traffic of narcotics and of the psychotropic substances (organized under the aegis of UNO), it will be application the November 11th 1990 and reinforces existing measurements in term of fight against the drug trafficking.

Africa

  • January 5th: Demonstrations of women against the expensive life with Conakry.
  • 12 - January 20th: Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The Angola is used as a basis back for the liberation movement of Namibia (SWAPO). The South-African troops, invade the south of the Angola to the beginning of the year to support UNITA, movement directed by Jonas Savimbi against the Marxists of MPLA. Their failure opens the way with the American mediation.
  • July 20th: An agreement of 14 points is found between the South Africa, the Angola and Cuba. 50  000 cuban soldiers are then in Angola.
  • August 30th: The Morocco and the Front Polisario start negotiations. The two parts accept the mediation of the United Nations but do not manage an agreement.
  • October 5th, Algeria: Events of October 5th, 1988, a popular revolt which made 400 died, a thousand of casualties.
  • December 13rd: The agreement of Brazzaville puts an end to the international conflict in Angola. The cuban troops are withdrawn by stage of Angola, while the Namibia reaches the independence, which will be proclaimed the March 21st 1990. The civil war continues however in Angola.
  • Ivory Coast: 11 million inhabitants. The life expectancy passed from 33 years in 1959 to 55 years. Progression of the elimination of illiteracy: 8% in 1960, 56% in 1980, 61% in 1988.

America

the United States

  • January 29th: The United States announces that the “four dragons” (South Korea, HongKong, Singapore and Taiwan) do not have to profit any more from the privileged treatment granted to the countries in the process of development.
  • May - June: Summit of Moscow. Ronald Reagan celebrates there the Human rights and freedoms. Agreements envisaging the withdrawal of the Soviet troops of Afghanistan and of the cuban troops of Angola.
  • November 9th: The vice-president in exercise George Herbert Walker Bush is elected with difficulty chair of the United States with 54% of the votes expressed on the democrat Michael Dukakis. The democrats keep the majority in the two Rooms of the Congrès.

  • the military expenditure is reduced by 12% since 1986.

Latin America

  • January 5th: A new military mutiny endangers the mode in Argentine.

  • 15 - January 16th: Summit centraméricain of Alajuela to the Costa Rica. It makes a negative assessment of the application of the provisions envisaged by the peace plan Arias.
  • February 14th, Nicaragua: The government Sandinista lance a monetary reform of great width, supplied with series of measures of stabilization unpopular which will be balanced overall by a failure.
  • March 23rd, Nicaragua: The government Sandinista sign the agreement of Sapoá with the countered which makes pass the debate of the soldier to the policy.
  • March 30th: The ARENA gains the legislative ones (30 seats out of 60,23 for PDC) and the local elections with the El Salvador.
  • 12 - September 14th: The Gilbert hurricane devastates the Jamaica and the peninsula of the Yucatán (880 million dollars of damage).
  • October 5th:
    • Referendum with the Chile. 54% of the voters are opposed to the prolongation of the mandate of Pinochet and decide for the behavior of general elections. The victorious opposition divides to know if it must introduce an one applicant and a common program of government. It gives up it temporarily. Constitutional system in Chile. Free elections carry to the capacity a government Christian Democrat.
    • Constitution of October 1988 to the Brazil: direct presidential ballot with two turns, increase in the weight of the Congress vis-a-vis the executive, decentralization, social rights and personal freedom.
  • February 1st: Carlos Salinas de Gortari, candidate of PRI, becomes president of the Republic of Mexico in spite of electoral charges of fraud.

  • Economy :

    • Brazil: The rate of inflation reaches 930% for the year 1988.
    • inflation reaches the world records of 36 000% in 1988 with the Nicaragua.
    • the Brazil and the Argentine launch out in an experiment of multilateral liberalization of the exchanges.
    • economic Countryside of the United States against Panama.
    • the Colombia is the second exporter of flowers and the first supplier of the North-American market.

Asia & Indian world

  • Mars and June: Antigovernment riots in Burma against the socialist capacity.
  • April 14th: The Soviet Union is committed with Geneva withdrawing its task force of Afghanistan.
  • May 15th, War of Afghanistan: Beginning of the withdrawal of the Soviets of Afghanistan (end in February 1989) the official figures (May) indicate that 13  310 Soviet soldiers were killed and 35  478 wounded during the engagements.
  • June 15th: The Dalaï Lama present at the European Parliament of Strasbourg an official proposal for a negotiation, which, it hoped for it, would be used as a basis for the resolution of the question of the Tibet, and taking again its Peace plan in five points for Tibet presented to the Ore baskets from the United States in Washington on September 21st 1987. The Dalaï Lama declared: “My proposal, which was then known under the name “of approach of the center gate” or of “proposal of Strasbourg” consists in considering for the Tibet a true autonomy within the framework of the Popular republic of China. It should not be a question, however, of autonomy on paper which had been imposed to us there is fifty years in the agreement in 17 points, but of a real autonomy, of a Tibet which autogouverne truly, with Tibetans fully responsible for their own interior matters, including the education of their children, the questions religious, the cultural questions, the protection of their delicate and invaluable environment and the local economy. Beijing would continue to assume the responsibility for the control of the foreign affairs and defense”.
  • June 22nd: Đỗ Mười, Prime Minister of Vietnam (fine in 1991).
  • July 23rd, Burma: In front of the popular movement of protest, Win does not resign of the presidency of the Burmese socialist party, starting one period of strong political instability.
  • July:
    • the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Face (JKLF) proclaims in the armed struggle for the independence of the Cachemire.
    • Elections in Thailand.
  • August 4th: Chatichai Choonhavan, Prime Minister in Thailand (fine in 1991).
  • August 17th: Accidental death of the president Zia ul-Haq with the Pakistan.
  • September 18th, Burma: The general Saw Maung, chief of staff under Win, refuses to recognize the result of the free elections, leaves victorious a bloody fight for the capacity (massacre of the demonstrators, arrest of the leader of the opposition Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi) and founds a military government: the Council of restoration of the law and about State (SLORC).
  • November 16th: Benazir Bhutto is democratically elected Prime Minister for the Pakistan.
  • February 1st: Beginning of the mandate of Benazir Bhutto with the Pakistan.
  • December 31st: Fourth top of SAARC to Islamabad. Rajiv Gandhi goes to the Pakistan where new agreements are signed with Benazir Bhutto.

  • Kampuchea: to the autumn, on order of Khieu Samphan, of the thousands of refugees are sent, under the fire of the artillery Vietnamese, to supply the Khmer Rouge with ammunition and vivres. More than one half-thousand of them will be massacred in this suicidal mission.

  • China: Return of inflation (more than 20%) due to the liberalization of the prices, measures recommended by Deng Xiaoping. The capacity of Zhao Ziyang is some weakened, even if it were hostile with the reform.
  • Wage increase of the South Korean workers of 15% by after 1988.

Europe

Western Europe

  • January: First top enters the Greece and the Turkey since 1978.
  • February 13rd: Agreement of the twelve members of the EEC on a reform of the financing of the EEC. It makes possible the opening of a market unified on January 1st 1993 and includes/understands a clause envisaging a rise of 100% of the assistance granted by the countries of North to the countries of the South in 1993.
  • February 19th: Encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis .
  • March 11th, Italy: Fall of the government Giovanni Goria.
  • April 13rd: Ciriaco de Mita, general secretary of the Christian Democrat since 1982, becomes President of the Council in Italy.
  • April 30th: The Québécois singer Céline Dion gains with Dublin the Concours Eurovision of the song for the Suisse
  • June 13rd: At the time of the Summit of Luxembourg, the Ministers for Finance of the EEC decide to liberalize the movements of capital for on July 1st, 1990.
  • July 6th: Catastrophe of the oil platform Piper Alpha at sea of the North which caused 167 dead.
  • August 24th: With Cyprus, Cypriot Turkish and Greeks start a dialog.
  • August 29th: Catastrophe with the air meeting of the base of USAF of Ramstein Air Bases in Germany
  • September 20th: In a speech with Bruges, Margaret Thatcher is opposed to the prospect for a European State, a true “nightmare”, a form of “bureaucratic centralism”.
  • December: General strike in Spain.

  • Dismantling of the American base of Torrejón, close to Madrid.

  • the election of Wilfried Martens as Prime Minister in Belgium (its eighth mandate) closes an open political crisis in December 1987. It forms a cabinet of center left.
  • Process of decentralization in Belgium.

  • Economy :

    • favorable Economic conjuncture in Europe (1988-1989).
    • Spain: Inflation is stabilized. Economic growth.
    • Italy: Continuation of the growth (3,8%). The trade deficit increases (12 863 billion liras) in spite of an important surplus of to tourism (8  260 billion). Inflation begins again (5%).

France

See also: 1988 in France

Swiss

See also: 1988 in Switzerland

The United Kingdom

  • July 29th: Education Act giving to the establishments an important room for maneuver budget recruitment of the teachers. It imposes an obligatory national plan in ten matters and a national examination of end of secondary study (GCSE).

  • Formation of the democratic liberal party, born from the alliance of the liberal party and the party social democrat and directed by Paddy Ashdown. It carries out only 6% of the votes to the European elections of June 1989.

  • XIIe conference of the Eglise Anglican in Lambath admits the episcopal ordination of the women.
  • Fall of the standard rate of the income tax with 25%, while the maximum rate falls to 40%.
  • the tertiary sector ensures 66% of the national revenue and employment 13,5 million people (68% of national labor).
  • 2,6 million emigrants in the United Kingdom.
  • Rise of interest rates. Many owners having bought their housing in an euphoric context are in impossibility of honouring their drafts and are expelled.

  • Birth of the Cat Humphrey

Eastern Europe

  • February: The new president of the Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, made countryside on the need for putting a term at the autonomy of the Kosovo and Voïvodine. The other Yugoslav republics fear a return towards a centralized mode.

  • Mars, the USSR: Business Nina Andreeva, a chemist of Leningrad which signed an press article of stalinist spirit. The opposition to Mikhaïl Gorbatchev starts a return, but this one counter-attacks and benefits from its prestige of general secretary to make adopt by the 19th conference of the party of radical measurements (June 28th).

  • May 22nd: In Hungary, János Kádár is replaced at the position of secretary general by the Prime Minister Károly Grósz who establishes an austere economic program with new taxes, suppressions of subsidies and the creation of a small private sector. Grósz storm against alleged “white terror” and finds pretext there to refuse any pluralism. But it runs up against the opinion and the mode must go into reverse. The government softens the censure, authorizes the formation of independent political parties and recognizes the right to strike and of demonstration.

  • June 28th, the USSR: Gorbatchev proposes a series of constitutional reforms which must transfer the capacity from the party with representatives elected by the people, reduce the role of the party in the management of the local economy and largely increase the capacity of the president.

  • August: Strikes multiply in Poland to protest against the rise of the prices and to claim the legalization of the trade union Solidarité.

  • October 1st: Andreï A. Gromyko resigns of the station of president of Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet (which it occupied since 1985) and Gorbatchev takes again this function.

  • December: At the time of the General meeting of the United Nations Gorbatchev announces a unilateral reduction of the conventional forces, in particular in Eastern Europe and border sino-Soviet.

  • Demonstrations in Yugoslavia against the fall of the standard of living and corruption.

  • In Romania, Nicolae Ceauşescu announces a program of forced repopulation envisaging the demolition of almost 8  000 villages, the rehousing of the agricultural workers and their families in concrete turns (political of “systematization”), and the construction of imposing and not very realistic monuments to the glory of the mode and of its leader, the Conducator . Ceausescu lowers the standard of living of the Roumanians to refund his foreign debt. Thousands of Hungarian of Transylvania, threatened in their identity, flee towards the Hungary. The policy of Ceausescu (his Elena wife takes influence more and more) ruin country, but the population does not move, not terrified by the secret police, the Securitate .
  • 40  000 citizens of East Germany are authorized to pass to the West.
  • Starter of reforms in the USSR on the initiative of Mikhaïl Gorbatchev for more transparency ( Glasnost ) and of freedom in the political life, and to work with the social and economic reorganization ( Perestroika ). Transfer of responsibilities for the Central committee to the companies. Law on the co-operatives supporting the establishment of private companies (like the repairers of cars and television), in conditions which they do not employ of direct employees.
  • Soviet Union: 40% of the families live with less than 100 roubles per month - the Poverty line is then fixed between 50 and 90 roubles per month according to the areas of the Soviet Union - an average Soviet family devotes 59% of its incomes to the purchase of foodstuffs. (ref. “ the Moment Gorbatchev ” of Francoise Thorn)

Oceania & the Pacific

  • April 22nd: Taken of hostage of Ouvéa (New Caledonia), at the time which 24 gendarmes are taken as hostages by Kanak S and 4 others assassinated with the axe and the shotgun. This serious event marks the beginning of the faintness of the gendarmerie.
  • April 25th: Regional elections in New Caledonia.
  • May 26th, Australia: First celebration of the National Sorry Day (Day of Forgiveness), popular movement with the memory of the “flights generations”, these métissés indigenous children torn off with their family between 1860 and 1960, and placed in orphanages, missions or families of reception to assimilate them of force.
  • June 5th: catch of attack of the cave of Ouvéa.
  • June 26th: agreements of Matignon between Kanaks and Caldoches on the future of the New Caledonia, sponsored by French the Prime Minister Michel Rocard. It makes it possible to bring back the calm one.

The Middle East & world arabo-Moslem

  • February 17th: Removal of the American colonel William R. Higgins, commander-in-chief of ONUST.

  • February 20th: The Armenian enclave of the Haut-Karabagh, located in Azerbaïdjan, benefits from the climate of reforms founded by Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, and claims his fastening with the Arménie.
  • February 24th: Gigantic popular demonstrations and strikes, with Erevan and Stepanakert (capital of the Haut-Karabagh), mark the “national alarm clock” of the Armenian people. The question of the Haut-Karabagh leads to a bloody conflict with the Azerbaïdjan.
  • February 29th: The town of Sumqayıt, important industrial center near to Bakou, is the place of a true pogrom. Several tens of Armenians are assassinated and the hundreds of others wounded. In Arménie, the Karabakh Committee, formed by a group of intellectuals, is made the spokesperson of the aspirations to democratization, freedom and national sovereignty.
  • March 16th: Aviation Iraq ienne bombards the Kurdish population of the Iraqi Kurdistan (Halabja) with bombs with chemical loading. 5.000 Kurdish civilians are killed.
  • Mars: The ayatollah Khomeiny names Hachemi Rafsandjani, commander-in-chief of the Iranian armies.
  • April, War Iran-Iraq: Iraq passes by again with the offensive and takes again FAO, then multiplies the victories. In July, the Iranian territory is again threatened.
  • May 4th: Release of three French hostages to the Lebanon.
  • June 12th: The autonomous region of the Haut-Karabagh declares in secession with respect to the Azerbaïdjan.
  • July 18th: Teheran accepts resolution 598 of UNO. The cease-fire is operational the August 20th.
  • August 20th: End of the war Iraq - Iran thanks to a cease-fire organized by UNO (1 million died for a statu-quo). An International Conference opens then with Geneva around the belligerents, which are not able to agree on the question of the international borders and the exchange of the prisoners. After the death of Khomeiny the June 3rd 1989, the power struggles with Teheran do not make it possible any more to obtain a diplomatic decision.
  • August 18th: The pope Jean-Paul II denounces the genocide perpetrated with the Lebanon, and announces his intention to go to Beirut.
  • September 19th: Israel lance its first satellite.
  • September 22nd: The Lebanese president Amine Gemayel bids his farewell at the end of his mandate, without a successor being designated; the Lebanon does not have any more a president.
  • December 7th: Earthquake in Arménie which causes the death of more than 25  000 people and leaves at least 400  of it; 000 without shelter.

Israel & Palestine

  • Intifada: starting from January, the Palestinian tradesmen enter in strike the urban centres of the Occupied territories. In the campaigns, stoppings are drawn up on the roads. Yitzhak Rabin is to charge with repressing the insurrection, which becomes considerable extensive.
  • January 4th: Setting-up of the patriotic Management unified of the rising, which claims the intensification of the fight and the construction of an independent Palestinian State. Part of islamist join while most radical form the Movement of the Islamic resistance (Hamas) whose program is the permanent fight and the total disappearance of the State of Israel. Intifada is organized around popular committees charged to implement the instruction as of the unified direction: strikes, boycott of the Israeli goods, refusal to pay the Israeli taxes, etc rising makes on average a death Palestinian per day. Approximately 15  000 Arabs are imprisoned. Little by little, the Occupied territories cease being for Israel a source of revenue and become financial expenses.
  • February: Shultz plan, which calls with the fast behavior of negotiations between Israel and a jordano-Palestinian delegation, to lead to an interim agreement on the territories then with a discussion on their final statute according to the principle “grounds against peace”. Shimon Peres approves the American plan but the chief of control Ariel Sharon refuses it. George Shultz proposes a participation of PLO in the negotiations in exchange of the recognition of Israel of the resolution 242. The Jordan rejects the idea of common delegation with the Palestinians and the PLO requires a israélo-Palestinian direct dialog within the framework of an International Conference.
  • Fine July: The king Hussein of Jordan accepts that the the West Bank does not form any more part of its kingdom. He ceases being the representative of the Palestinians.
  • September 14th: In front of the the European Parliament, Yasser Arafat gives up terrorism and accepts international legality.
  • November 15th: The Palestinian National council proclaims with Algiers a Palestinian State from which sovereignty extends on the the West Bank and Gaza, and not on the whole of old the Palestine.
  • December 6th: Yasser Arafat recognizes implicitly the State of Israel.
  • 13 - December 16th: Conference of the United Nations of Geneva. Arafat accepts the existence of Israel, admits resolutions 242 and 338 and denounces the terrorist activity.
  • December 22nd:
    • In Israel, Yitzhak Shamir takes the head of the government of national union and preserves a hard line vis-a-vis the Palestinian openings.
    • resolution 605 of the Safety advice, adopted thanks to the American abstention, deplores “the policies and practices of Israel who violate the rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories”.

  • 1 170  000 Palestinians in the occupied territories (75% of more since 1967).

Arts & culture

See also: 1988 with the cinema, 1988 in music, 1988 in literature, 1988 with the theater, 1988 as a cartoon, 1988 on television

Sciences & technology

See also: 1988 in science

See also: 1988 in aeronautics

See also: 1988 in the railroads

Sport

See also: 1988 in sport

See also: 1988 in football

Births in 1988

January

February

April

May

August

September

November

December

Death in 1988

Beats-smg: 1988 Be-X-old: 1988 Map-bms: 1988 Simple: 1988 Zh-min-nan: 1988 nor Zh-yue: 1988 年

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