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August 1988 in History

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Events in History

  • Aug 1 Deep Rover 1-man research submarine unveiled at Crater Lake, Oregon
  • Aug 2 Raymond Acevedo is retired from singing group Menudo
  • Aug 2 System Enhancement Association settles case with PKware (ARC vs PKARC)
  • Aug 3 David "Skip" Storch (37) swims 152.9 miles (246 km) of Hudson River from Albany to NYC
  • Aug 4 Congress votes $20,000 to each Japanese-American interned in WW II
  • Aug 4 Hertz car rental will pay out $23 million in consumer fraud case
  • Aug 5 American politician Mario Biaggi (Rep-D-NY) convicted of racketeering resigns his seat
  • Aug 6 The Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City spurs reform of the NYPD, who were responsible for the melee that transpired the night of August 6-7
  • Aug 7 Angola, Cuba and South Africa allegedly signed a cease fire treaty
  • Aug 7 Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
  • Aug 7 Writers guild ends its 6 months strike
  • Aug 8 -11] Army in Rangoon, Myanmar fires on pro-democracy students, killing thousands during the "8888 Uprising"
  • Aug 8 Angola, Cuba and South Africa sign cease fire treaty
  • Aug 8 Ceasefire between Iran and Iraq takes effect after 8 years of war
  • Aug 8 Discovery of most distant galaxy (15 * 10 ^ 12 light yrs) announced
  • Aug 8 Duchess of York gives birth to 6 lb 12 oz baby girl
  • Aug 8 Jennifer Levin's parents file $25M suit against Dorrian Red Hand Bar
  • Aug 8 Renovated Central Park Zoo reopens after 4 years (New York City)
  • Aug 8 Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after 9 year war
  • Aug 8 South Africa declares cease-fire in Angola
  • Aug 8 Temperature hits high of 88 deg F on 8/8/88 in NYC

Assassination Attempt

Aug 8 US Secretary of State George P. Shultz narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in Bolivia

US Secretary of State George P. Shultz
  • Aug 9 Just 1 day after 8/8/88 NY's daily number is 888
  • Aug 10 Rodrigo Borja installed as president of Ecuador
  • Aug 10 UN estimates Asia's population hits 3 billion

Meeting of Interest

Aug 11 Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Dr Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan

Islamic Militant and Terrorist Osama bin Laden
  • Aug 11 Charlotte Colisieum in Charlotte NC opens
  • Aug 11 Meir Kahane renounced US citizenship to stay in Israeli Parliament

Event of Interest

Aug 12 Nelson Mandela is treated for tuberculosis at hospital

Anti-apartheid Activist and South African President Nelson Mandela
  • Aug 12 Richard Thornburgh becomes US Attorney General
  • Aug 13 Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit opens
  • Aug 13 Ronald J Dossenbach sets world record for pedaling across Canada from Vancouver, BC to Halifax, NS in 13 days, 15 hr, 4 min
  • Aug 14 Detroit beats Sox, 18-6, at Fenway, ends Boston winning streak at 24
  • Aug 15 At 4PM LILCO consumers used a record 3,813 megawatts
  • Aug 15 NYC begins $70 million program to rebuild 900 Bronx apartments
  • Aug 16 IBM introduces software for artificial intelligence
  • Aug 16 Mayor Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers
  • Aug 17 Butch Reynolds runs world record 400m (43.29)
  • Aug 17 LIRR says Penn station will get air conditioning in 1991
  • Aug 17 NYC 1st case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (9 year old Bronx boy)
  • Aug 17 Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
  • Aug 17 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Aug 17 US Republicans nominate George H. W. Bush for President
  • Aug 18 FDA approves Minoxidil as a hair loss treatment
  • Aug 18 Largest house (130 rooms) on Long Island sold for $22 million
  • Aug 18 Republican Convention in New Orleans select Bush-Quayle ticket
  • Aug 19 Iran and Iraq begin a cease-fire in their 8-year-old war (11 PM EDT)
  • Aug 19 Maung Maung succeeds General Sein Lwin as the 7th President of Burma
  • Aug 20 "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
  • Aug 20 6.5 earthquake strikes India/Nepal, 1,000s killed
  • Aug 20 Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
  • Aug 22 Australia unveils 1st platinum coin (Koala)
  • Aug 22 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • Aug 25 Challenger Center opens its classroom doors in Houston
  • Aug 25 Iran & Iraq begin talks to end their 8 year war
  • Aug 25 NASA launches space vehicle S-214
  • Aug 25 Serious fire destroys historic center of Lisbon
  • Aug 26 Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri arrives at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy-en-France, France, stays for almost 8 years
  • Aug 28 70 killed in crash of three Italian air force fighters at air show at Ramstein, Germany
  • Aug 29 Macy's Tap-o-Mania sets a Guinness record for tap dancing
  • Aug 29 USSR launches Soyuz TM-6 including Valery Polyakav, Vladimir Lyakhov and first Afghan cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand to station Mir
  • Aug 30 France performs nuclear test
  • Aug 31 5-day power blackout of downtown Seattle begins
  • Aug 31 Arbitrator George Nicolau rules owners conspired against free agents
  • Aug 31 Bomb attack on office of South Africa Council of Churches

Birthdays in History

  • Aug 7 Melody Oliveria, American internet blogger (bowiechick)
  • Aug 8 Beatrice, Princes of York, British daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, born in London
  • Aug 19 Veronica Roth, American writer (Divergent trilogy), born in New York City
  • Aug 26 Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, born in Saint-Luc, Belgium

Deaths in History

  • Aug 1 John Dearden, American cardinal (1969-88) and archbishop of Detroit, dies at 80
  • Aug 2 Joe Carcione, American consumer advocate (The Green Grocer), dies at 73
  • Aug 2 Raymond Carver, American poet and short story writer (Furious Season), dies at 50
  • Aug 6 Anatoly Levchenko, Soviet cosmonaut (TM-4), dies of a brain tumor at 47
  • Aug 6 J. Skelly Wright, American judge (anti-segregationist), dies at 77
  • Aug 10 Arias Arnulfo, 3 time president of Panama (1940-41, 49-51, 68), dies at 86
  • Aug 11 Pauline Lafont, daughter of Bernadette, dies in hiking accident at 25
  • Aug 13 Otto Passman, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana (1947-77), dies at 88
  • Aug 15 Barry Bingham Sr, US daily newspaper publisher, dies at 82
  • Aug 15 Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician (President of Pakistan 1978-88), killed in plane crash at 64
  • Aug 17 Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr, American politician and son of President Roosevelt (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), dies on his 74th birthday
  • Aug 17 Mohammad Zia Ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (1978-88), dies in plane crash at 64
  • Aug 18 Alexandr V Shchukin, Russian cosmonaut, dies in SU-26 crash at 42
  • Aug 21 H. G. Adler, German writer (The Journey), dies at 78
  • Aug 24 Max Shulman, American author (Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap), dies at 69
  • Aug 25 Price Daniel, American politician (38th Governor of Texas), dies at 77
  • Aug 27 Max Black, Azerbaijan-born British-American philosopher (analytical philosophy), dies at 79
  • Aug 30 Albert F. Frey-Wyssling, Swiss botanist and pioneer of submicroscopic morphology and the discipline of molecular biology, dies at 87

Historical Figures

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