WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO DECEMBER 1988
Find out what all happened February to December 1988

National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar. (27. September 1988)

The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. 167 oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life. (6. July 1988)

A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others. (8. December 1988)

Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the Canadian House of Commons to come out as gay. (29. February 1988)

Three cars on a train carrying hexogen to Kazakhstan explode in Arzamas, Gorky Oblast, USSR, killing 91 and injuring about 1,500. (4. June 1988)

Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state. (2. December 1988)

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. (15. November 1988)

Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. (16. March 1988)

A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered the 'worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history' and still the worst to occur on Mother's Day. (8. May 1988)

The Ojhri Camp disaster: Killing more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad as a result of rockets and other munitions expelled by the blast. (10. April 1988)

Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure). (13. September 1988)

The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan. (13. March 1988)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York. (13. December 1988)

Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist. (7. December 1988)

The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. (29. May 1988)

The Tompkins Square Park Riot in New York City spurs a reform of the NYPD, held responsible for the event. (6. August 1988)

A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. (21. December 1988)

The St Jean Bosco massacre takes place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (11. September 1988)

Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. (5. February 1988)

Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II. (10. August 1988)