WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO FEBRUARY 1989
Find out what all happened January to February 1989

United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, blowing 9 passengers out of the business-class section. (24. February 1989)

The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes. (30. January 1989)

Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. (14. February 1989)

The Montreal Protocol Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force. (1. January 1989)

Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo riots. (27. February 1989)

A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954. (3. February 1989)

Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul. (2. February 1989)

An IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England. (20. February 1989)

The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. (1. February 1989)

Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board. (8. January 1989)

The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe. (6. February 1989)

Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. (14. February 1989)

Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation. (4. January 1989)

After a stroke two weeks previously, South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party, but stays on as president for six more months. (3. February 1989)

Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party. (10. February 1989)

Beginning of Japanese Heisei period. (8. January 1989)

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie. (24. February 1989)

Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan. (15. February 1989)

Prince Akihito is sworn in as the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Hirohito (7. January 1989)

Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so (29. January 1989)