May 1989 in History

Events in History

May 7 Panamanian voters reject dictator Manuel Noriega's bid for presidency

May 8 US space shuttle STS-30 lands
May 9 Journalist petition Chinese government for freedom of press
May 9 VP Quayle says in United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste"
May 10 General Manuel Noriega's Panama government nullifies country's elections, which the opposition had won by a 3-1 margin
May 11 217th & final episode of TV soap "Dynasty" is aired
May 11 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
May 11 Kenya announces worldwide ban on ivory to preserve its elephant herds

May 11 US President George H. W. Bush orders 1,900 additional troops to Panama

May 12 Last graffiti covered NYC subway car retired
May 12 Retired British pilot Jack Mann is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists
May 13 Approx 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China
May 14 Demonstration for democratic reforms in Beijing's Tiananmen square

May 15 Soviet President Gorbachev visits Beijing for the 1st Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years

May 16 Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping meet in Beijing and formally end a 30-year rift
May 17 Longest Cab Ride Ever: 14,000 miles costs $16,000!

May 17 Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa

May 19 Dow Jones Avg passes 2,500 mark for 1st time, closes at 2,501.1
May 20 China declares martial law in Beijing
May 20 Walter McConnel, 57, is oldest to reach 27,000' Mt Everest top
May 23 Cleve loses & drop to 21-22, this is the latest a sub .500 team is in 1st place (AL East)
May 23 Lincoln Square in Bronx named
May 24 French Nazi war criminal Paul Touvier arrested at the Society of Saint Pius X monastery in Nice
May 24 Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded £600,000 in damages after winning a libel action against satirical magazine Private Eye (later reduced to £60,000 on appeal).
May 25 Eastern Airlines graduates it 1st class of non-union pilots
May 25 Mariners trade Mark Langston to Montreal for Randy Johnson
May 25 Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union
May 26 American radio broadcasters go silent for 30 seconds at 7:42 am to honor the radio industry
May 26 Danish parliament allows same-sex marriage
May 26 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

May 29 Student pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, China construct a replica of the Statue of Liberty, naming it the Goddess of Democracy

May 1 David Webster, South African white anti-apartheids activist, murdered
May 1 Sally Kirkland, American fashion editor (Vogue magazine) and manager (Lord & Taylor), dies at 76
May 2 Giuseppe Siri, Italian Catholic Cardinal (b. 1906)
May 2 Veniamin Kaverin, Russian writer (b. 1902)
May 3 Christine Jorgensen, 1st transsexual, dies at 62
May 3 Edward Ochab, Polish Communist politician (b. 1906)
May 4 Evelle Jansen Younger, American prosecutor (Charles Manson; Sirhan Sirhan), dies at 70
May 12 Joe Valdez Caballero, American creator of hard taco, shell, dies at 81
May 16 Hassan Khaled, sheik of Lebanon, murdered
May 17 Dan Alderson, American scientist (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and sci-fi fandom figure, dies of diabetes at 47
May 19 Abel Herzberg, Russian-Dutch Jewish lawyer (Eichmann in Jerusalem), dies at 95
May 20 Erzsébet Galgoczi, Hungarian writer, dies at 58
May 20 John R. Hicks, English economist (Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences 1972), dies at 85
May 23 Georgy Tovstonogov, Russian theatre director (b. 1915)
May 24 Herwig Hensen [Flor Mielants], Flemish dramatist and poet, dies at 72
May 27 Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
May 30 Claude Pepper, American politician (Rep-D-FL, 1963-89), dies at 88
May 31 C. L. R. James [Cyril Lionel Robert James], Trinidadian historian (The Black Jacobins), journalist, intellectual and socialist, dies at 88 [1]
May 31 Charles A. Hufnagel, American surgeon (artificial heart valve pioneer), dies at 72