The 80s Timeline: 1989

The 80s timeline features pop culture happenings and world events that had a major impact on society.

1989 was the last year of the best decade in history, a bridge to the nineties, the final hurrah before we left oversized decadence behind and entered ten years of grunge.

So, who was born in 1989? And who died? What events that occurred in this year shaped the world as we know it today? This installment of the 80s timeline focuses on 1989.

1989 Births

Love Harry Potter? The actor who portrays him, Daniel Radcliffe was born in 1989. So was Hayden Panettiere of Heroes fame (save the cheerleader, save the world!). American Idol hopeful Sanjaya Malakar was born in 1989 and so was Idol winner Jordin Sparks. 1989 also gave us pop country sensation Taylor Swift and controversial hip-hop dancing man Chris Brown.

1989 Deaths

Many cultural icons were lost to us during our 80s timeline. In 1989, Spanish artist Salvador Dali passed away. We lost comediennes Gilda Radner from Saturday Night Live and Lucille Ball, the beloved and funny redhead. We said goodbye to acclaimed actors Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier, and boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

80s Timeline: 1989 Events by Month

It’s a total joy to welcome new life and it’s a big bummer when we lose those we love. But plenty of other major events happened that were newsworthy. Here’s a look at the 80s timeline for 1989 by month:

January, 1989

• January 17 – It what was coined as the “Stockton Massacre,” Patrick Edward Purdy murdered 5 children, wounded 30, and then shot himself in Stockton, California.
• January 20 – George H. W. Bush became the 41st President of the U.S.A.
• January 24 – Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida via the electric chair.

February, 1989

• February 10 – Ron Brown becomes the first African American to lead a major political party in the U.S.A. when he is elected as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
• February 11 – Barbara Clementine Harris becomes the first female bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.
• February 14 – The first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite enters orbit.

March, 1989

• March 4 – Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce a merger that will ultimately form conglomerate Time Warner.
• March 24 – The Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska.
• March 29 – Rain Man wins best picture at the 61st Academy Awards.

April, 1989

• April 14 – The Keating Five (including John McCain) are accused as responsible for the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s, which cost taxpayers in the U.S.A. almost $200 billion in bailouts.
• April 25 – The worlds smallest mobile phone, the Motorola MicroTAC Personal Cellular Telephone, is introduced.

May, 1989

• May 1 – Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World opens its doors to the public.
• May 2 – Hungary removes 150 miles of barbed wire fencing at its Austrian border, marking the first crack in the Iron Curtain.
• May 12 – In San Bernadino, California, a Southern Pacific Railroad freight train crashes on Duffy Street. Just thirteen days later, a pipeline explodes at the same section of the same street.

June, 1989

• June 4 – The Tiananmen Square massacre.
• June 12 – The Corcoran Gallery of Art pulls Robert Mapplethorpe’s gay photography exhibit.
• June 21 – 250 people are arrested by British police for celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge.
• June 23 – The 1989 Batman film hits theaters and becomes the highest grossing film based on a DC comic book until 2008′s The Dark Knight. (Yes, we LOVE Batman flicks).

July, 1989

• July 5 – Seinfeld premieres.
• July 14 – 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.
• July 19 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Iowa. 112 people are killed, 184 survive.
• July 26 – Cornell student Robert Tappan Morris Jr. is indicted for releasing a computer virus, the first such indictment under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• July 31 – Nintendo launches GameBoy in North America.

August, 1989

• August 14 – Sega Genesis launches in North America.
• August 16-17 – Woodstock ’89 festival.
• August 20 – Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their wealthy parents in the family home, killing them.
• August 24 – Famous, record-setting baseball player Pete Rose accepts a lifetime ban from baseball due to allegations of illegal gambling. He is therefore banned from becoming inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

September, 1989

• September 5 – President George H. W. Bush holds up a bag of cocaine that was purchased in Lafayette Park (across the street) during his first televised speech to the country.
• September 6 – The South African general election, which is the last vote under apartheid, favors the National Party.
• September 21 – Hurricane Hugo hits South Carolina and inflicts $7 billion in damages.

October, 1989

• October 13 – On Friday the 13th, the Dow Jones plunges in a mini-crash of the stock market.
• October 17 – A 7.1 earthquake, strikes the California’s Bay Area and leaves 67 dead.

November, 1989

• November 7 – Douglas Wilder  of Virginia becomes the first elected African American governor in U.S. history and David Dinkins becomes the first African American mayor of New York City.
• November 9 – (Cold War) East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, and begins letting citizens travel freely to West Germany, and the next day, celebratory Germans start tearing the wall down.

December, 1989

• December 17 – The Simpsons premieres on FOX.

80s Timeline – Summary

Some of it was good (hello comic book movies!) and some of it was bad (Tienneman Square). Like most years, 1989 had its ups and downs. By exploring the 80s timeline, we can learn from history and continue to make the world a totally better place.

The 80s timeline is not meant for academia and is presented here for entertainment purposes only. Check an encyclopedia for further details on the events of 1989.

80s Events: Live Aid

Throughout the 80s, there was a massive effort to raise awareness about the struggles people were facing with disease and poverty in Africa. Music-charged 80s events did a great deal to educate the public, raise money, and help people in Africa and in other areas of the world. Live Aid was the biggest event of all.

80s Events and Raising Consciousness

Raising awareness about the harsh struggles throughout the world wasn’t enough. 80s events like Live Aid also raised the public consciousness, instilling a sense of obligation to fellow humans, and raising the bar on what it means to be caring and generous.

It was this new awareness that laid the groundwork for the environmental movement of the 90s, and an even greater movement in recent years, in which a worldwide society has become more knowledgeable about our planet and more compassionate towards those we share it with.

Albums like A Very Special Christmas and recordings like “We Are The World” informed people who were uninformed while simultaneously raising funds to help those in need. The Live Aid concert was an enormous effort, which spanned two continents, included dozens of the most beloved artists and performers, and succeeded both at informing millions of people while raising money to assist millions of others.

Live Aid

It was to be a concert like no other. Some of the biggest names in music would take the stage and perform. They would do so as a charity event to raise money that would help the people of Africa. It was the brainchild of Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, who were also behind the Band-Aid project, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

Their initial hope was to raise £1 million for famine relief in Ethopia, but as the planning and organizing of the event unfolded, and more acts joined the program, it grew to a whopping £150 million.

It took place on July 13, 1985, in London’s Wembley Stadium and the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, with several other countries hosting similar concerts that were inspired by the Live Aid initiative. The event was broadcast live on television, and it drew approximately 400 million viewers in over 60 different countries. It was huge.

The 80s Stars Come Out to Give

The roster was impressive, with some of the biggest names in music showing up to play live and help raise money. A few of the performers on the British stage included:

• Elvis Costello
• Sting and Phil Collins (with Branford Marsalis)
• Paul Young
• U2
• Dire Straits
• Queen
• David Bowie
• The Who
• Elton John

The finale at Wembley featured Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Paul McCartney, and Band Aid.

On the other side of the pond, artists included:

• Joan Baez
• The Four Tops
• Black Sabbath
• Run-DMC
• Rick Springfield
• REO Speedwagon
• Judas Priest
• Bryan Adams
• The Beach Boys
• Simple Minds
• The Pretenders
• Madonna
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Kenny Loggins
• The Cars
• Thompson Twins
• Eric Clapton (with Phil Collins)
• Phil Collins
• Led Zeppelin
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• Duran Duran
• Patti LaBelle
• Hall & Oates
• Mick Jagger

The U.S. finale included Bog Dylan, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood, plus featured USA for Africa performing “We Are the World.”

The Concert That Keeps on Giving

In 2004, an official DVD of Live Aid was released, after two decades of bootlegs and file sharing. Finally, fans could purchase a video recording of the concert, legally, and in doing so, contribute to famine relief. Notably, many performances and songs from the original Live Aid concert were not included on the DVD. However, the DVD shows much of the concert in high quality sound, which is nearly impossible to find form other (more illegal) sources.

It’s estimated that each sale of the Live Aid DVD raises £5 for the charity.

Learn more about Live Aid by visiting the Wikipedia Live Aid article, the unofficial Live Aid site, or the official Band Aid site.

The 80s

Whenever a youngster asks me what it was like in the 80s, I say it was BIG, bold, and bodacious.

Kids today don’t realize how over-the-top everything was in the 80s. One bracelet wasn’t enough – you had to have twenty of them lining your forearm. And a nice, sleek hairstyle was out of the question. You wanted your hair to reach the moon and spread all the way to China.

Everything was like that in the 80s – even the language. Did any other decade produce as much jargon as the 80s did? I think not. Even music and movies got bigger. There more 80s music genres than ever before and new breakthroughs in special effects took film making to new galaxies. It was wicked awesome.

The 80s: Big, Bold, and Bodacious

If it wasn’t big, chances are it wasn’t from the 80s. Everything was enormous. You went through a can of Aqua-Net a day trying to get your hair to be as big as possible. You scoured through the jewelry section in search of the boldest, most colorful earrings. And big wasn’t enough. No. You also had to have lots of everything. Lots of bracelets, jelly shoes, and legwarmers. Lots of mixed tapes. Lots of Cabbage Patch Kids. And lots of style.

Style in the 80s

Big and bold only scratches the surface when it comes to the styles that dominated the 80s. Yes, hair was big and so were earrings. But we even made our shoulders big with plump shoulder pads. Our shirts were enormous (you could NOT have your butt on display), and so were the belts that we wrapped around them. One belt would be four inches thick. Or we’d get a really long (big) belt and wrap it around twice. Or we’d simply use several skinny belts. Speaking of skinny, the guys loved skinny ties and had lots of them. Anything made of colorful plastic was fair game and we stuck that stuff in our hair (banana clips), on our clothes (broaches and pins), our faces (Ray-Bans), and on our feet (jelly shoes). Plus, we had to have three times as many shirts, socks, and accessories because everything had to be layered.

80s Jargon

We had so much stuff and it was so big that we needed a whole new language to describe the 80s and everything that we used, wore, and did during that bodacious decade. Rad. Awesome. Tubular. And these words simply didn’t capture the essence enough, so we tagged totally in front of every single adjective we uttered. It was totally rad, totally awesome, and totally tubular. But we got lazy, too. Sometimes we shortened our favorite word of the 80s. It was a total blast, a total mess, and we loved it so much that we made the Total 80s Remix.

80s Entertainment

Entertainment was as big as everything else. MTV gave us 24 hours of music videos and the new station was a wicked success. It made stars and kept us glued to the tube into the wee hours (you always just knew they were going to play your favorite Madonna video sometime in the next hour). One hit wonders were all the rage and new genres like hip hop and new wave sprung up, giving birth to fresh subcultures. Filmmakers harnessed technology and brought us blockbusters like nothing we’d seen before: E.T., The Empire Strikes Back, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. We loved being entertained in the 80s.

The 80s Craze Lives On

Oh sure, when the nineties came along, it seemed like the 80s were dead. Gloom spread like a virus as grunge music took hold and dancing became passe. Solid Gold was gone and MTV slowly stepped away from music videos in favor of lame reality shows like The Real World and Road Rules.

But the 80s didn’t truly die. They just took a nap. Nowadays, you can look around and see a little bit of the 80s everywhere. Leggings are back and so is the layered look. The superhero movie is bigger than ever and so are the special effects that keep us tromping off to the movie theaters. Listen closely and you’ll still hear mutterings of “totally awesome,” and “that’s rad.” And even music today is borrowing riffs and covers from the beloved 80s.

One generation gave us flappers. Another gave us the poodle skirts. Then, we had the hippies. The 80s gave us so much, and all of it was big, bold, and bodacious, that we can’t even sum it up with a single word or phrase. That’s why we simply call it the 80s.