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1989 Trivia, Fun Facts and History |
Table of Contents Quick Facts from 1989: |
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A Look At 1989’s Top News Stories |
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The Year of the SnakeThe year of the snake is one of the 12 years in the Chinese zodiac cycle. The snake is the sixth animal in the cycle. |
Top Ten Baby Names of 1989:Jessica, Ashley, Brittany, Amanda, Sarah, Michael, Chris, Topher, Matthew, Joshua, David |
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols:Elle Macpherson |
Leading Men and Hollywood Hunks:Johnny Depp, John Travolta |
“The Quotes”“If you build it, he will come.” “It keeps going, and going, and going…” “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” “Fahrvergnügen” “Cotton. The fabric of our lives.” “I’m Batman” “Eat My Shorts” “I’ll have what she’s having.” “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” |
Time Magazine’s Man of the Year:Mikhail Gorbachev |
Miss America:Gretchen Carlson (Anoka, MN) |
Miss USA:Gretchen Polhemus (Texas) |
The Scandals & Mysteries:Allegations that Major League Baseball star Pete Rose gambled on the Game became public. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in which the tanker hit Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated 11 to 30 million gallons of oil on March 24. The captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was drinking at the time. Billy Ripken’s 1989 Fleer baseball card has the words “F*ckFace” written on the bat due to a prank from teammates. Salmon Rushdie published The Satanic Verses – with heresy in the book, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered a ‘fatwa’ on him – a command ordering followers of the Muslim faith to kill him. The fatwah was lifted in 1998. The Exxon Valdez vessel, which caused the worst oil spill (at that time) in U.S. history in 1989, continued to operate under various names before eventually being dismantled in India in 2012, 23 years after the disaster in Alaska. Russian psychic E. Frenkel was run over by a train while attempting to stop it with his psychic-biological power after successfully stopping a car and streetcar. No one knows what happened to “Tank Man,” who stood in front of government tanks at Tiananmen Square in China. In an episode of Ducktales (Yuppy Ducks), there is a scene where Donald Duck is in a doctor’s office where an eye chart in the background reads “Ask about Illuminati”. |
Celebrity Murders:Rebecca Schaeffer, star of TV’s My Sister Sam, was killed by a stalker who got her address from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Private information is no longer available from them. Joy Adamson, the author of Born Free, was murdered in 1980 by a former employee and is buried next to Elsa the Lioness in Meru National Park in Kenya. Her husband was murdered by poachers in 1989. |
US Politics: |
Boris Yeltsin Visited An American Supermarket |
| On September 16th, 1989, Boris Yeltsin, then newly elected to the new Soviet parliament and the Supreme Soviet, had just visited Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, Texas, and invited himself to visit a regular American Supermarket. The store manager, Paul Yirga, only had 15 15-minute warnings and no pre-planned security. As he roamed the aisles of Randall’s, nodding his head in amazement, Yeltsin told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets,” there would be a revolution.” It’s hard to believe that just 29 years ago, the collapse of communism was spurred by Yeltsin’s visit to an American grocery store. The shelves were stocked with so much food that he was in disbelief. While communist Russia was experiencing shortages and long lines for essential goods, America had abundant everything. This event perfectly exemplifies the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” The images of Yeltsin in the grocery store were shared across the Soviet Union and caused an outcry. People couldn’t believe they were living in poverty when others had so much. This was one of the factors that led to the collapse of communism. It’s amazing to think about how a trip to the grocery store can change the course of history. Yeltsin’s visit was a wake-up call for the Soviet Union and led to more freedom and democracy for its people. Yeltsin didn’t leave empty-handed, as he was given a small bag of goodies to enjoy on the rest of his trip. About a year after the Russian leader left office, a Yeltsin biographer later wrote that he was sad on the plane ride to Yeltsin’s next destination, Miami. He couldn’t stop thinking about the plentiful food at the grocery store and what his countrymen had to subsist on in Russia. Yeltsin’s visit to America changed his perspective and made him realize communism wasn’t working for the people. It was this realization that eventually led to the collapse of communism in Russia. |
World News:Operation Yellowbird was carried out by various Western intelligence services to help dissidents from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests escape China through Hong Kong. Over 400 people were reportedly successfully evacuated, including 7 of the 21 major leaders of the protests. Emperor Hirohito (April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) ), the Emperor of WWII Japan, was the only “Axis Power” leader not to have died during the war; he died in 1989. In 1989, Queen Elizabeth II was the wealthiest person in the UK. In 2015, she fell out of the top 300. 3% of Americans had passports in 1989. |
Alcohol News:Beer was banned in Iceland until March 1, 1989, which is now celebrated annually as Beer Day. Iceland outlawed all forms of alcohol in 1915, but within 20 years had unbanned all alcoholic beverages except for beer. |
Pop Culture Facts & History:The same Hershey’s Kisses Holiday Commercial has aired every season since 1989. |
| One of the most expensive wine bottles that were never to have been drunk was a 1787 Margaux from Thomas Jefferson’s Collection. The owner brought it to a restaurant, and a waiter knocked it over. Insurance paid out $225,000 for it in 1989. The word with the most meanings in English is the verb ‘set’, with 430 meanings listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words (326,000 characters). Lexus was introduced in the US market in 1989. The Energizer Bunny was introduced to an unsuspecting public, replacing gymnast Mary Lou Retton as the energetic spokesperson. Jules Verne’s shelved 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century predicted gas-powered cars, fax machines, electric street lighting, maglev trains, the record industry, and the internet. His publisher deemed it pessimistic and lackluster. It was discovered in 1989 and finally published in 1994. Charging Bull, the famous statue on Wall Street was installed secretly and illegally outside the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 following the 1987 stock market crash. NYPD seized and impounded the sculpture but re-installed it two blocks south of the Exchange after a public outcry. The most generations alive in a single family is seven. Augusta Bunge, aged 109 years, followed by her daughter, aged 89; her granddaughter, 70; her great-granddaughter, 52; her great-great-granddaughter, 33; her great-great-great-granddaughter, 15; and her great-great-great-great-grandson born in 1989. Buddy, the golden retriever that played the original Air Bud, is the same dog that played Comet on Full House. In 1989, his owner originally found him as a stray in the Sierra Nevada. He took Buddy in and trained him to play basketball, baseball, football, soccer, and hockey. In 1989, only 50% of the US had 911 service. On September 15, 1989, NASA published a comprehensive report on house plants that are best for cleaning indoor air pollution. All arcade games imported into North America from 1989 to 2000 had the following FBI slogan included in their attract mode: “Winners Don’t Use Drugs”. The first Reebok Pump shoes were released on November 24, 1989. Cost of a Super Bowl ad in 1989: $675,000 |
The Habit:Game Boy |
1st Appearances & 1989’s Most Popular Christmas Gifts, Toys and Presents:Tetris, Sega Genesis, Polly Pockets, Nintendo Game Boy, Trolls* |
Popular and Best-selling Books From 1989:A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving |
East End Shows:The Woman in Black (Play) Opened on June 7, 1989 |
Broadway Show:Grand Hotel (Musical) Opened on November 12, 1989, and closed on April 25, 1992 |
Best Film Oscar Winner:Rain Man (presented in 1989) |
1989 Entries to The National Film Registry:The Best Years of Our Lives (released in 1946) |
The Big Movies: (according to boxofficemojo)1. Batman |
1989 Most Popular TV Shows:1. The Cosby Show (NBC) |
1989 Billboard Number One Songs:December 24, 1988- January 13, 1989: January 14 – January 20: January 21 – February 3: February 4 – February 10: February 11 – March 3: March 4 – March 24: March 25 – March 31: April 1 – April 7: April 8 – April 14: April 15 – April 21: April 22 – May 12: May 13 – May 19: May 20 – June 2: June 3 – June 9: June 10 – June 16: June 17- June 23: June 24 – June 30: July 1 – July 7: July 8 – July 14: July 15 – July 21: July 22 – August 4: August 5 – August 11: August 12 – September 1: September 2 – September 8: September 9 – September 15: September 16 – September 22: September 23 – October 6: October 7 – November 3: November 4 – November 10: November 11 – November 24: November 25 – December 9: December 9 – December 22: December 23, 1989 – January 13, 1990: |
Sports:World Series Champions: Oakland Athletics |
More 1989 Facts and History Resources:Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com) |
