WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1989
Find out what all happened May to December 1989

A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians. (2. August 1989)

1,645 Australian domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute. (23. August 1989)

The San Bernardino train disaster kills 4 people. A week later an underground gasoline pipeline explodes killing 2 more people. (12. May 1989)

The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. (5. June 1989)

Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia. (18. August 1989)

German citizens begin to bring the Berlin Wall down (10. November 1989)

Cedar Point opens Magnum XL-200, the first roller coaster to break the 200 ft height barrier, therefore spawning what is known as the "coaster wars". (6. May 1989)

Denmark introduces the world's first legal modern same-sex civil union called "registered partnership". (1. October 1989)

Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe. (25. August 1989)

1989 Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état. (1. December 1989)

Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restoring democracy for the first time since 1972. (2. August 1989)

Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary. (16. June 1989)

Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine; the biggest bankruptcy in the nordic countries until then. (23. October 1989)

Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President in almost 30 years. (17. December 1989)

Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States. (1. May 1989)

The first episode of television series The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", airs in the United States. (17. December 1989)

Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way). (23. August 1989)

A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. (26. July 1989)

United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft. (20. December 1989)

Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany. (22. December 1989)