  |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
 |
1988
• On 8 February, an international commission clears Kurt Waldheim, president of Austria and former secretary general of the United Nations, of war crimes during World War II but finds that he was aware of atrocities in the Balkans. • In March, the 'Burmese Spring' begins with hundreds of thousands of students protesting against military rule. The army brutally suppresses the movement for democratic reform and changes the country's name to Myanmar. • On 15 May, Soviet troops begin to withdraw from Afghanistan. • On 18 July, Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday is marked by worldwide protests over his continued imprisonment in South Africa. • On 8 August, a ceasefire ends the Iran-Iraq War. • On 8 November, Republican George Bush wins a landslide victory for US president against the Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. • On 16 November, Benazir Bhutto, daughter of the executed former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (see 1979), herself becomes prime minister of Pakistan. • On 21 December, a terrorist bomb planted in Pan-Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York, explodes. The aircraft crashes on Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 passengers and 11 villagers. • In December, Yasser Arafat addresses the General Assembly of the United Nations, rejecting violence and calling for a political solution to the Middle East conflict. • British physicist Stephen Hawking publishes A Brief History of Time, a bestselling account of the origins of the universe. • Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie publishes The Satanic Verses. The following year, a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death is issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini because of the novel's alleged blasphemy. • Egyptian novelist Naguib Mafouz wins the Nobel prize for Literature. • Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ attracts violent demonstrations from fundamentalist Christian groups. |
|
