WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO AUGUST 1988
Find out what all happened February to August 1988

A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143. (17. March 1988)

The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. (14. April 1988)

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

General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests. (23. July 1988)

The Troubles: Eight British Army soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by a Provisional Irish Republican Army roadside bomb in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (see Ballygawley bus bombing). (20. August 1988)

In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. (14. April 1988)

Ramstein airshow disaster: three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. 75 are killed and 346 seriously injured. (28. August 1988)

The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three people are killed and more than 60 wounded. The attack was filmed by news crews. (16. March 1988)

Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are killed by Special Air Service on the territory of Gibraltar in the conclusion of Operation Flavius. (6. March 1988)

The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II. (18. April 1988)

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

Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. (20. August 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)

President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash. (17. August 1988)

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

The "8888 Uprising" occurs in Burma. (8. August 1988)

Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo. (6. February 1988)

Johnson South Reef Skirmish: Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in Johnson South Reef, disputed Spratly Islands. (14. March 1988)

The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. (25. March 1988)

32 people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia. (31. July 1988)