First East-West treaty is signed that reduces nuclear arms. 1988 Treasure hunters searching off South Carolina more than a mile down find the remains of the Central America, a wooden ship that sank in 1857, heavy with tons of California gold. Ballard tows Navy craft Argo over Mediterranean deep and discovers a graveyard of ancient ships, including a fourth-century Roman craft. Ballard lowers Argo nearly three miles down in the Atlantic and finds German battleship Bismarck, a mass of deteriorating guns and fading swastikas. Jason, Ballard's top robot for the Navy, debuts and recovers from the deep Mediterranean dozens of artifacts from lost Roman ships.
Crabs scavenge on giant tubeworms.
Berlin Wall crumbles. Japan finishes Shinkai 6500, the world's deepest-diving piloted craft.