1989 in the United States

Decades:	1960s ; 1970s ; 1980s ; 1990s ; 2000s ;
See also:	History of the United States (1980–1991) ; Timeline of United States history (1970–1989) ; List of years in the United States ;

Last updated March 14, 2025

Incumbents

Federal government

President:

Ronald Reagan (R-California) (until January 20)

George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) (starting January 20)

Vice President:

George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) (until January 20)

Dan Quayle (R-Indiana) (starting January 20)

Jim Wright (D-Texas) (until June 6)

Tom Foley (D-Washington) (starting June 6)

Senate Majority Leader:

Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) (until January 3)

George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) (starting January 3)

Congress: 100th (until January 3), 101st (starting January 3)

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: H. Guy Hunt (Republican) Governor of Alaska: Steve Cowper (Democratic) Governor of Arizona: Rose Mofford (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: Bill Clinton (Democratic) Governor of California: George Deukmejian (Republican) Governor of Colorado: Roy Romer (Democratic) Governor of Connecticut: William A O'Neill (Democratic) Governor of Delaware: Michael Castle (Republican) Governor of Florida: Bob Martinez (Republican) Governor of Georgia: Joe Frank Harris (Democratic) Governor of Hawaii: John D. Waihee III (Democratic) Governor of Idaho: Cecil D. Andrus (Democratic) Governor of Illinois: James R. Thompson (Republican) Governor of Indiana: Robert D. Orr (Republican) (until January 9), Evan Bayh (Democratic) (starting January 9) Governor of Iowa: Terry E. Branstad (Republican) Governor of Kansas: Mike Hayden (Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Wallace G. Wilkinson (Democratic) Governor of Louisiana: Buddy Roemer (Democratic)/(Republican) Governor of Maine: John R. McKernan, Jr. (Republican) Governor of Maryland: William Donald Schaefer (Democratic) Governor of Massachusetts: Michael Dukakis (Democratic) Governor of Michigan: James Blanchard (Democratic) Governor of Minnesota: Rudy Perpich (Democratic) Governor of Mississippi: Ray Mabus (Democratic) Governor of Missouri: John Ashcroft (Republican) Governor of Montana: Ted Schwinden (Democratic) (until January 2), Stan Stephens (Republican) (starting January 2) Governor of Nebraska: Kay A. Orr (Republican) Governor of Nevada: Richard Bryan (Democratic) (until January 3), Bob Miller (Democratic) (starting January 3) Governor of New Hampshire: John H. Sununu (Republican) (until January 4), Judd Gregg (Republican) (starting January 4) Governor of New Jersey: Thomas Kean (Republican) Governor of New Mexico: Garrey Carruthers (Republican) Governor of New York: Mario Cuomo (Democratic) Governor of North Carolina: James G. Martin (Republican) Governor of North Dakota: George A. Sinner (Democratic) Governor of Ohio: Dick Celeste (Democratic) Governor of Oklahoma: Henry Bellmon (Republican) Governor of Oregon: Neil Goldschmidt (Democratic) Governor of Pennsylvania: Robert P. Casey (Democratic) Governor of Rhode Island: Edward D. DiPrete (Republican) Governor of South Carolina: Carroll A. Campbell, Jr. (Republican) Governor of South Dakota: George S. Mickelson (Republican) Governor of Tennessee: Ned McWherter (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Bill Clements (Republican) Governor of Utah: Norman H. Bangerter (Republican) Governor of Vermont: Madeleine M. Kunin (Democratic) Governor of Virginia: Gerald L. Baliles (Democratic) Governor of Washington: Booth Gardner (Democratic) Governor of West Virginia: Arch A. Moore, Jr. (Republican) (until January 16), Gaston Caperton (Democratic) (starting January 16) Governor of Wisconsin: Tommy Thompson (Republican) Governor of Wyoming: Mike Sullivan (Democratic) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Jim Folsom, Jr. (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Alaska: Stephen McAlpine (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Winston Bryant (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of California: Leo T. McCarthy (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Mike Callihan (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Joseph J. Fauliso (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Shien Biau Woo (Democratic) (until January 20), Dale E. Wolf (Republican) (starting January 20) Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Bobby Brantley (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: Zell Miller (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii: Ben Cayetano (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Butch Otter (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: George H. Ryan (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: John Mutz (Republican) (until January 9), Frank O'Bannon (Democratic) (starting January 9) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Jo Ann Zimmerman (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Jack D. Walker (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Brereton Jones (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Paul Hardy (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: Melvin A. Steinberg (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Evelyn Murphy (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Martha W. Griffiths (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Marlene Johnson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Brad Dye (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Harriett Woods (Democratic) (until January 9), Mel Carnahan (Democratic) (starting January 9) Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Gordon McOmber (Democratic) (until January 2), Allen Kolstad (Republican) (starting January 2) Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: William E. Nichol (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Bob Miller (Democratic) (until January 3), vacant (starting January 3) Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Jack L. Stahl (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Stan Lundine (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Robert B. Jordan, III (Democratic) (until January 7), James Carson Gardner (Republican) (starting January 7) Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Lloyd Omdahl (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Paul R. Leonard (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Robert S. Kerr III (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Mark Singel (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Richard A. Licht (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Roger N. Begin (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Nick Theodore (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Walter Dale Miller (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: John S. Wilder (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: William P. Hobby, Jr. (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Utah: W. Val Oveson (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Howard Dean (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Cherberg (Democratic) (until January 11), Joel Pritchard (Republican) (starting January 11) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Scott McCallum (Republican)

Events

January

January 1 – The Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.^[1]
January 4 – Second Gulf of Sidra incident: Two Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are engaged and shot down by two United States Navy F-14 Tomcats.
January 10 – Harris Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago settles a government enforcement action by agreeing to pay $14 million in backpay to women and minorities, the largest such settlement ever obtained from a single employer.
January 11
- President Ronald Reagan delivers his farewell address to the nation.
- The National Collegiate Athletic Association adopts Proposition 42, which withdraws athletic scholarships from athletes who fail to meet minimal academic standards.
January 12 – President-elect George H. W. Bush announces the final members of his cabinet, naming James D. Watkins as Secretary of Energy and William Bennett as the first director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
January 13 – Bernhard Goetz is sentenced to one year in prison and fined $5,000 for shooting four young men on the New York subway in 1984.^[2]
January 16 – A Hispanic Miami police officer shoots and kills a speeding black motorcyclist in the Overtown section of Miami, Florida, starting three days of rioting.
January 17 – Stockton schoolyard shooting: Patrick Edward Purdy kills five children, wounds 30 and then shoots himself in Stockton, California.^[3]
January 18 – The Republican National Committee elects Lee Atwater as its chairman.
January 20 – George H. W. Bush is sworn in as the 41st president of the United States, and Dan Quayle is sworn in as the 44th vice president.
January 22 – The San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII.
January 24
- Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair.^[4]
- Joel Steinberg is convicted of manslaughter in the beating death of a 6-year-old child he was raising.
January 29 – Shining Time Station , a children's sitcom debuts on PBS. Starring Didi Conn, Brian O'Connor and Ringo Starr, the series introduces British children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends to America.
January 31 – Northway, Alaska records the highest mean sea level pressure on record in the United States with a reading of 31.85 inHg (1078.6 millibars)^[5]

February

February 7
- The Los Angeles, California City Council bans the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons.
- The 101st United States Congress rejects a proposed 51 percent pay raise for its members, federal judges, and certain other high-ranking government officials.
February 9 – President Bush delivers his first address to the 101st Congress.
February 10
- Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major United States political party.
- President Bush meets with Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney in Ottawa, laying the groundwork for the Acid Rain Treaty of 1991.
February 11 – Barbara Harris is the first woman consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
February 14 – The first of 24 Global Positioning System satellites is placed into orbit.
February 23 – After protracted testimony, the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee rejects, 11–9, President Bush's nomination of John Tower for Secretary of Defense.
February 23–27 – U.S. President Bush visits Japan, China, and South Korea, attending the funeral of Hirohito and then meeting with China's Deng Xiaoping and South Korea's Roh Tae-woo.
February 26 – 60 Minutes in the United States airs a report claiming that apples sprayed with Alar may cause cancer in children, leading many schools to remove apples from their cafeterias.

March

March – The unemployment rate drops to a low of 5.0%, the lowest since December 1973.
March 1
- The Berne Convention, an international treaty on copyrights, is ratified by the United States.
- Louis W. Sullivan starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
- James D. Watkins starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Energy.
March 3 – Former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane is fined $20,000 and given two years' probation for misleading Congress about the Iran–Contra affair.
March 4
- Time Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner.
- Eastern Air Lines machinists and baggage workers walk off the job to protest pay cuts. The airline subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection five days later, on March 9.
March 9 – By a vote of 53 to 47, the Senate votes to reject the nomination of John Tower as United States Secretary of Defense. President Bush subsequently nominated Dick Cheney the next day, and Cheney was confirmed and sworn in as defense secretary on March 17.
March 13 – A geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid. 6 million people are left without power for 9 hours. Some areas in the northeastern U.S. and in Sweden also lose power, and aurorae are seen as far as Texas.
March 13–17 – The Food and Drug Administration bans the import of grapes from Chile after traces of cyanide are found in two grapes.
March 13–18 – The Space Shuttle Discovery flies mission STS-29.
March 14 – Gun control: U.S. President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of certain guns deemed assault weapons into the United States.
March 15 – The United States Department of Veterans Affairs becomes established.
March 20 – Dick Cheney is sworn in as the new Secretary of Defense, succeeding Frank Carlucci.^[6]
March 22
- Congress passes a bill to protect the job of whistle blowers who expose government waste or fraud.
- National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle, commissioner since 1960, announces he will step down when a replacement is found.
- Clint Malarchuk of the NHL Buffalo Sabres suffers an almost fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
March 23 – Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce that they have achieved cold fusion at the University of Utah.
March 24 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m³) of oil after running aground.
March 29 – The 61st Academy Awards, the first since 1971 with no official host are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Barry Levinson's Rain Man winning four awards out of eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The television broadcast is the most-viewed in Oscar history until 1998, garnering nearly 43 million viewers.

April

April 1 – Bill White becomes president of baseball's National League, becoming the first African American to head a major sports league.
April 3
- The Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team defeats the Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball team to win the 1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.
- Richard M. Daley is elected Mayor of Chicago.
April 5 – Beginning of the Pittston Coal strike after miners had worked 14 months without a contract.
April 9 – More than 300,000 demonstrators march in Washington, D.C. in support of legal abortion in the United States.
April 14 – The U.S. government seizes the Irving, California Lincoln Savings and Loan Association; Charles Keating (for whom the Keating Five were named – John McCain among them) eventually goes to jail, as part of the massive 1980s Savings and loan crisis which costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $200 billion in bailouts, and many people their life savings.^[7]
April 17 – The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct charges House Speaker Jim Wright with improperly evading limits on outside income and accepting improper gifts.
April 19
- Trisha Meili is attacked while jogging in New York City's Central Park; as her identity remains secret for years, she becomes known as the "Central Park Jogger."
- A gun turret explodes on the U.S. battleship Iowa, killing 47 crew members.
April 20 – NATO debates modernizing short range missiles; although the U.S. and U.K. are in favor, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl obtains a concession deferring a decision.

May

May 1 – Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.
May 4
- In the trial of Oliver North on charges related to the Iran–Contra affair, the jury finds North guilty of three criminal charges and not guilty of nine.
- STS-30 was launched, deploying the Venus-bound Magellan probe.
May 8 – STS-30 lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California after four days of its mission and the successful deployment of a Venus spacecraft.
May 12 – A Southern Pacific Railroad freight train crashes on Duffy Street in San Bernardino, California.
May 15–25 – Los Angeles schoolteachers go on strike. The strike ends with the teachers gaining more administrative control and a 24% pay raise.
May 19 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 2,500 for the first time since Black Monday (1987).
May 25 – Thirteen days after the Southern Pacific train derailment, the Calnev Pipeline explodes at the same section of Duffy Street in San Bernardino, California.
May 26 – United States House of Representatives Majority Whip Tony Coelho resigns from the United States House of Representatives, saying he wants to spare his family from an investigation into his finances.
May 31 – Jim Wright announces his resignation as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

June

June 4 – Jerome Robbins' Broadway wins the Tony Award for Best Musical and five other Tonys.^[8]
June 6 – The United States House of Representatives elects Tom Foley as its new speaker.^[9]
June 12 – The Corcoran Gallery of Art cancels Robert Mapplethorpe's photography exhibition, "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment", due to its sexually explicit content.^[10]
June 13
- The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers to win the 1989 NBA Finals.^[11]
- President Bush vetoes a minimum-wage bill passed by Congress on May 17 that would have increased the minimum wage to $4.55 an hour.^[12]
June 14 – A Titan IV blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.^[13]
June 21 – In Texas v. Johnson , the United States Supreme Court rules that burning the Flag of the United States is protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[14]
June 23 – The film Batman opens on general release, earning more than $40 million in its first weekend, a box office record.
June 23–24 – Three shipping accidents in a 12-hour period create oil spills in Rhode Island, Delaware and Texas.
June 26 – In Penry v. Lynaugh , the Supreme Court rules that states can execute murderers as young as 16 or who are mentally challenged.^[15]
June 27 – A federal appeals court overturns the February 1988 conviction of Lyn Nofziger for illegal lobbying.

July

July 3 – In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services , the Supreme Court gives the states new authority to restrict abortions.
July 5
- The television show Seinfeld premieres.
- Oliver North is fined $150,000, and given a two-year suspended sentence and three years probation and ordered to perform 1,200 hours of community service for his crimes in the Iran-contra affair.
July 9–12 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush travels to Poland and Hungary, pushing for U.S. economic aid and investment.
July 17 – Maiden flight of the B-2 stealth bomber.
July 18 – Actress Rebecca Schaeffer is murdered by obsessed fan Robert John Bardo, leading to stricter stalking laws in California.
July 19 – United Airlines Flight 232 (Douglas DC-10) crashes in Sioux City, Iowa, killing 112; 184 on board survive.
July 21 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 2,600 for the first time since Black Monday (1987).
July 26 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. for releasing a computer virus, making him the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
July 31 – Nintendo's Game Boy is released in North America.

August

August 5 – Congress passes the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, which is signed into law by President Bush on August 9. The act provides a $166-billion bailout to failed savings and loans and overhauls regulation of the industry.
August 7
- U.S. Representative Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
- Federal Express purchases Flying Tiger Line for approximately $800 million.
August 8 – STS-28: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret 5-day military mission.
August 10 – President Bush nominates United States Army Gen. Colin Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the first African American to hold that position.
August 16–17 – Woodstock '89 festival.
August 20 – In Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their wealthy parents to death in the family's den.
August 22 – Nolan Ryan becomes the first pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball to get 5,000 strikeouts.
August 23 – Yusef Hawkins is shot in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, sparking racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans.
August 24
- Record-setting baseball player Pete Rose agrees to a lifetime ban from the sport following allegations of illegal gambling, thereby preventing his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average ends the day at 2,734.64, its highest closing since Black Monday (1987).
August 27 – A Delta II rocket owned by McDonnell Douglas launches a television satellite, the first time a privately owned rocket had orbited a payload.
August 29 – Harry Zych, a diver and salvager, files a lawsuit to gain ownership of the wreck of the Lady Elgin which he has recently discovered in Lake Michigan in Highland Park, Illinois.^[16]

September

September 1 – Commissioner of Baseball A. Bartlett Giamatti dies of a heart attack. On September 13, club owners elect Fay Vincent as his successor.
September 2–3 – Fraternity members attending the Greekfest fraternity festival in Virginia Beach, Virginia spend two days rioting and looting.
September 5 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush holds up a bag of cocaine purchased across the street at Lafayette Park, and proposes to spend $7.9 billion in the War on Drugs, in his first televised speech to the nation.
September 8 – Former president Ronald Reagan undergoes surgery to remove fluid on his brain. He recovers quickly.
September 14 – Standard Gravure shooting: Factory worker Joseph Wesbecker kills 8 and injures 12 before committing suicide inside a factory in Louisville, Kentucky.
September 21 – Hurricane Hugo makes landfall in South Carolina, causing $7 billion in damage.
September 27–28 – President Bush and the governors of the 50 U.S. states meet at the University of Virginia to discuss education policy.
September 28
- Braniff Incorporated files for bankruptcy for the second time since 1982.
- Former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos dies in an inter-organ failure at his hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States.^[17]
September 29 – In the biggest narcotics seizure on record, drug agents confiscate 21.4 short tons of cocaine and more than $12 million in cash from a Los Angeles warehouse.

October

October 4 – More than 55,000 Boeing machinists go on strike. They return to work on November 22 after winning higher pay.
October 5 – A jury in Charlotte, North Carolina convicts televangelist Jim Bakker of fraud and conspiracy. On October 24, he is sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000.
October 9 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at a record high of 2,791.41.
October 12
- The Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings complete the Herschel Walker trade.
- Congress passes the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which Bush allows to become law without his signature on October 28.
October 13 – Friday the 13th mini-crash: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 190.58 points, or 6.91 percent, to close at 2,569.26, most likely after the junk bond market collapses.
October 15 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the leading scorer in the history of the National Hockey League.
October 17 – The 6.9 M_w Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Sixty-three people were killed and damage amounted to $5.6–6 billion.
October 18 – STS-34 is launched, deploying the Jupiter-bound Galileo probe.
October 19 – The Wonders of Life pavilion opens at Epcot in Walt Disney World, Florida.
October 20
- The Senate convicts Judge Alcee Hastings of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida of perjury and conspiracy to obtain a bribe, and removes him from office.
- A federal jury in New York City convicts Rep. Robert García of extortion and conspiracy.
October 23
- The Phillips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas kills 23 and injures 314 others.
- STS-34 lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California after five days of its mission and the successful deployment of a Jupiter-bound spacecraft.
- Congress fails to override Bush's veto of a bill that would have restored funding for abortions for poor women who were the victims of rape or incest.
October 26 – NFL owners elect Paul Tagliabue as NFL commissioner.
October 28 – The Oakland Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants to win the 1989 World Series.

November

November 2 – North Dakota and South Dakota celebrate their 100th birthdays.
November 3 – The Senate convicts Judge Walter Nixon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi of lying under oath to a federal grand jury and removes him from office.
November 7
- Douglas Wilder wins the Virginia governor's race, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.
- David Dinkins becomes the first African American mayor of New York City.
November 8 – Congress passes legislation to raise the minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.25 an hour by April 1991. Bush signs this bill on November 17.
November 9 – The Berlin Wall is brought down.
November 15 – Lech Walesa, leader of Poland's Solidarity movement, addresses a Joint session of the United States Congress.
November 15–16 – November 1989 tornado outbreak: Tornadoes in the Eastern United States kill at least 31 people.
November 16
- Six Jesuit priests—among them Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, and Ignacio Martín-Baró—their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter, are murdered by U.S. trained Salvadoran soldiers.
- The House of Representatives passes amendments to strengthen the Ethics in Government Act of 1978; the Senate passes its own amendments the next day.
November 17 – Walt Disney Feature Animation's 28th feature film, The Little Mermaid , is released to critical acclaim and is one of Disney's biggest financial successes at the time. After the success of 1986's The Great Mouse Detective and the 1988 Disney/Amblin live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit , the film is given credit for breathing life back into the art of Disney animated feature films after some prior films produced by Disney were struggling. It also marks the start of the era known as the Disney Renaissance.
November 19 – United States Soccer Team qualified to the 1990 FIFA World Cup after 40 years of absences, beating Trinidad & Tobago 1–0 in Port Spain, The goal scored by Paul Caligiuri was named as:Shot heard round the world
November 21 – North Carolina celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
November 22
- Congress repeals the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988.
- The Space Shuttle Discovery begins STS-33.

December

December 2 – The Solar Maximum Mission research satellite, launched in 1980, crashes back to earth.
December 3 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
December 7 – A Miami, Florida jury convicts police officer William Lozano for the January 16 deaths of a black motorcyclist and his passenger.
December 10 – Members of ACT UP organize Stop the Church, a demonstration in Manhattan protesting Cardinal John O’Connor. Over one hundred protestors are arrested.
December 12 – Hotelier Leona Helmsley is sentenced to four years in prison and fined $7.2 million for tax evasion.
December 16–18 – Mail bombings kill a federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama and a lawyer in Savannah, Georgia.
December 17 – The television show The Simpsons premieres on FOX with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
December 20 – Operation Just Cause is launched in an attempt to overthrow Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

Ongoing

Cold War (1947–1991)