WHAT ALL HAPPENED JULY TO DECEMBER 1988
Find out what all happened July to December 1988

United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. (3. July 1988)

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

The Chilean opposition coalition Concertación (center-left) defeats Augusto Pinochet in his re-election attempt and a general election is called the following year. (5. October 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)

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)

Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days on the Mir space station. (7. September 1988)

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

The Brazilian Constitution is ratified by Constituent Assembly. (5. October 1988)

Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated. (22. 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)

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

Space Shuttle: NASA launches STS-26, the return to flight mission, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. (29. September 1988)

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

Benazir Bhutto is appointed Prime Minister of Pakistan. (1. December 1988)

Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills more than 25,000, injures 30,000 and leaves 500,000 homeless out of a population of 3,500,000. (7. December 1988)

The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains—one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom. (12. December 1988)

First Winter Ascent of Lhotse (8,516m) by Krzysztof Wielicki (solo). (31. December 1988)

Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires. (8. September 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)