1988

From left, clockwise: the oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; the USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 people on board; Australia celebrates its Bicentennial on January 26; the 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea; Soviet troops begin their withdrawal from Afghanistan, which is completed the next year; an earthquake in Armenia kills between 25,000 and 50,000 people; the 8888 Uprising in Myanmar, led by students, protests the Burma Socialist Programme Party; a bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 103, causing the plane to crash down on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland – the event kills 270 people.
Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
1988 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1988
MCMLXXXVIII
Ab urbe condita2741
Armenian calendar1437
ԹՎ ՌՆԼԷ
Assyrian calendar6738
Baháʼí calendar144–145
Balinese saka calendar1909–1910
Bengali calendar1395
Berber calendar2938
British Regnal year36 Eliz. 2 – 37 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar2532
Burmese calendar1350
Byzantine calendar7496–7497
Chinese calendar丁卯年 (Fire Rabbit)
4685 or 4478
    — to —
戊辰年 (Earth Dragon)
4686 or 4479
Coptic calendar1704–1705
Discordian calendar3154
Ethiopian calendar1980–1981
Hebrew calendar5748–5749
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat2044–2045
 - Shaka Samvat1909–1910
 - Kali Yuga5088–5089
Holocene calendar11988
Igbo calendar988–989
Iranian calendar1366–1367
Islamic calendar1408–1409
Japanese calendarShōwa 63
(昭和63年)
Javanese calendar1920–1921
Juche calendar77
Julian calendarGregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar4321
Minguo calendarROC 77
民國77年
Nanakshahi calendar520
Thai solar calendar2531
Tibetan calendar阴火兔年
(female Fire-Rabbit)
2114 or 1733 or 961
    — to —
阳土龙年
(male Earth-Dragon)
2115 or 1734 or 962
Unix time567993600 – 599615999

1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1988th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 988th year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1980s decade.

1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United States (National Science Foundation Network) and Europe (Nordunet) as well as the first Internet-based chat protocol, Internet Relay Chat.[1] The concept of the World Wide Web was first discussed at CERN in 1988.[2]

The Soviet Union began its major deconstructing towards a mixed economy at the beginning of 1988 and began its gradual dissolution. The Iron Curtain began to disintegrate in 1988 as Hungary began allowing freer travel to the Western world.[3] The first extrasolar planet, Gamma Cephei Ab (confirmed in 2003), was detected this year and the World Health Organization began its mission to eradicate polio. Global warming also began to emerge as a more significant concern, with climate scientist James Hansen testifying before the U.S. Senate on the issue.

  1. ^ "History of IRC (Internet Relay Chat)". daniel.haxx.se. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  2. ^ The Christian Science Monitor (March 24, 1988). "Look out, Yugoslavia, there's a Big Mac attack coming on! First McDonald's opens in a communist country, and the fans are lining up". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  3. ^ Binder, David (July 31, 1988). "THE WORLD: Visit From Grosz; Hungary and the U.S., Finally Face to Face". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017.