On This Day

Historical Events in March 1989

  • Mar 1 Charlie Francis, coach of disqualified sprinter Ben Johnson tells federal inquiry into Canada's greatest sports scandal Johnson knowingly used steroids since 1981; Johnson first across line Olympic 100m 1988
  • Mar 1 Comet du Toit at perihelion
  • Mar 1 The United States becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
  • Mar 2 12 European nations agree to ban chlorofluorocarbon production by 2000
  • Mar 2 Tanker Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 2 Madonna's "Like a Prayer" premieres on worldwide Pepsi commercial

Pop Star Madonna
Pop Star
Madonna

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 2 NY Mets stars Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry famously nearly come to blows in front of reporters and TV crews at spring training

Baseball Player Darryl Strawberry
Baseball Player
Darryl Strawberry
MLB First Baseman Keith Hernandez
MLB First Baseman
Keith Hernandez
  • Mar 3 Machinists strike Eastern Airlines; pilots honor picket lines
  • Mar 3 Robert McFarlane gets $20,000 fine, 2 yrs probation for Iran-Contra
  • Mar 4 Eastern Airlines machinists strike
  • Mar 4 Javier Sotomayor high jumps indoor world record (2.43m)

FranceLouvre Pyramid

Mar 4 The Louvre Pyramid designed by I. M. Pei is inaugurated by French President Francois Mitterrand

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I. M. Pei's masterpiece at night in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre)
I. M. Pei's masterpiece at night in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre)
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  • Mar 5 19th Easter Seal Telethon raises $37,002,000
  • Mar 5 Elly Verhulst runs world record 3000 m indoor (8:33.82)
  • Mar 6 Yanks beat Mets 6-4 in exhibition game (1st meeting since 1985)

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 7 Iran drops diplomatic relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses"

Novelist Salman Rushdie
Novelist
Salman Rushdie

  • Mar 7 Partial eclipse of the Sun (Hawaii, NW North America, Greenland)

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 7 Dino Ciccarelli is traded by the Minnesota North Stars to the Washington Capitals

NHL Star Dino Ciccarelli
NHL Star
Dino Ciccarelli
  • Mar 8 "Heidi Chronicles" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 621 performances
  • Mar 8 Roger Kingdom runs indoor world record 60m hurdles (7.37 secs)
  • Mar 9 Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy
  • Mar 9 Roger Kingdom runs world record 60m hurdles indoor (7.36 sec)

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 9 US Senate rejects President George H. W. Bush's nomination of John Tower as Defense Secretary

41st US President George H. W. Bush
41st US President
George H. W. Bush
  • Mar 9 Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of the World Court
  • Mar 9 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Film tv awardsFilm and TV Awards

Mar 12 15th People's Choice Awards: Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Bill Cosby & Phylicia Rashad win (TV)

Actor Dustin Hoffman
Actor
Dustin Hoffman
Actor/Comedian Bill Cosby
Actor/Comedian
Bill Cosby
Actress Meryl Streep
Actress
Meryl Streep
  • Mar 12 2 cyanide-contaminated Chilean grapes found (Philadelphia)
  • Mar 12 Madagascar AREMA party wins parliamentary election
  • Mar 12 36th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: #9 North Carolina beats #7 Duke, 77-74
  • Mar 12 30th SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: Alabama beats Florida, 72-60
  • Mar 12 10th Big East Men's Basketball Tournament: Georgetown beats Syracuse, 88-79

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 12 Computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee submits his first proposal for an "information management system" to his boss at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) who finds it “vague, but exciting”

Computer Scientist Tim Berners-Lee
Computer Scientist
Tim Berners-Lee
  • Mar 13 27th shuttle, Discovery 8, launched, 1st woman to do the countdown
  • Mar 13 FDA orders recall of all Chilean fruit in US
  • Mar 13 US space shuttle STS-29 launched
  • Mar 15 "Les Miserables" opens at Royal Alexandra Theatre Toronto

  • Mar 15 US Department of Veterans Affairs officially established as a Cabinet position
  • Mar 15 NY Rangers retire goalie Eddie Giacomin's #1 uniform
  • Mar 17 "Chu Chem" opens at Ritz Theater NYC for 44 performances
  • Mar 17 Dorothy Cudahy is 1st female grand marshal of St. Patrick Day Parade
  • Mar 18 27th space shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8), returns to Earth
  • Mar 18 California Quake amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
  • Mar 18 Dino Ciccarelli sets Washington Capital record of 7 pts in a game
  • Mar 18 In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops
  • Mar 19 Boeing V-22 Osprey VTOL aircraft makes maiden flight
  • Mar 19 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by M Klimova & S Ponomarenko (USSR)
  • Mar 19 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by E Gordeeva & S Grinkov (USSR)
  • Mar 19 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Kurt Browning (CAN)
  • Mar 19 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Paris won by Midori Ito (Japan)
  • Mar 19 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Tom Kite wins the title in gusty conditions, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Chip Beck
  • Mar 19 Wales beats England, 12-9 at Cardiff Arms Park to allow France to claim it's 9th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 20 Baseball announces Reds manager Pete Rose is under investigation

MLB Player and Manager Pete Rose
MLB Player and Manager
Pete Rose
  • Mar 20 Richard J Kerr replaces Robert M Gates as deputy director of CIA
  • Mar 21 1st sea test of Trident 2 missile self-destructs, Cape Canaveral, Florida

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 22 Pete Rozelle announces retirement as NFL commissioner after 29 years

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle
NFL Commissioner
Pete Rozelle
  • Mar 22 US Supreme Court upholds 1 person 1 vote rule of NYC Board of Estimate
  • Mar 22 Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
  • Mar 23 2 Utah scientists claim they have produced fusion at room temperature
  • Mar 23 Joel Steinberg sentenced to 25 yrs for killing his adopted daughter

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 24 Mary Martin in "Peter Pan" 1st seen on TV since 1973

Actress Mary Martin
Actress
Mary Martin
  • Mar 24 Worst US oil spill, Exxon's Valdez spills 11.3 mil gallons off Alaska
  • Mar 25 "Les Miserables" opens at Auditorium Theatre, Chicago

Electoral defeatElection of Interest

Mar 26 1st free elections in USSR; 190 million votes cast; Boris Yeltsin wins

Russian President Boris Yeltsin
Russian President
Boris Yeltsin
  • Mar 27 1st African American soap opera, "Generations" premieres on NBC-TV
  • Mar 27 Delhi beat Bengal by innings & 210 to win Cricket's Ranji Trophy
  • Mar 28 New Zealand wins America's Cup over Stars & Stripes, in a NY court
  • Mar 29 1st Soviet hockey players are permitted to play for the NHL
  • Mar 29 1st US private commercial rocket makes suborbital test flight (NM)
  • Mar 29 61st Academy Awards: "Rainman", Dustin Hoffman & Jodie Foster win
  • Mar 29 9th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Cocktail" wins

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 29 I. M. Pei's pyramidal entrance to the Louvre opens in Paris

Architect I. M. Pei
Architect
I. M. Pei
  • Mar 29 Michael Milken, junk bond king, indicted in NY for racketeering

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 31 Donald Trump purchases Eastern's Northeast Shuttle

45th US President, Businessman and TV Personality Donald Trump
45th US President, Businessman and TV Personality
Donald Trump


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