1988

**1988** (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday in the Gregorian calendar.

## <span lang="ase" dir="ltr">Events</span>

- February 13 – Michael Jackson purchases a ranch in Santa Ynez, California. He calls his new home "Neverland".
- March 12 – Record producer Jimmy Iovine presents the Special Olympics with a donation of $5 million, which was raised with the release of the A Very Special Christmas album.
- April 19 – Former rock and roll singer Sonny Bono becomes the mayor of Palm Springs, California.
- May 1 – Citing the 1st Amendment, a judge drops all charges filed against singer Billy Joel. Joel was being sued by Jack Powers for defamation following an interview with Playboy in which he called Powers a "creep".
- June 14 – A small wildfire starts in Montana near Yellowstone National Park. It joins other fires. Eventually, over  of Yellowstone burns before firefighters gain control in late September.
- July 1 – Quartetto Cetra's last concert
- August 20 – The Iran–Iraq War ends
- September 16 – rapper Eazy-E releases his first album _Eazy-Duz-It_
- November 1 – Bad Religion releases _Suffer_
- Hurricane Gilbert strikes the Caribbean, Mexico and south Texas
- November 24 – Mystery Science Theater 3000 premieres
- December 7 – A powerful earthquake kills nearly 25,000 people in Soviet Armenia
- December 21 – A Pan-Am airplane explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing more than 270 people
- Ankst music label founded
- Peter Ruzicka becomes director of the Hamburg State Opera and State Philharmonic Orchestra
- "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" experiences a surge in popularity sparked by television commercials featuring claymation raisin figures dancing to the song. The California Raisins version of the song peaks at No. 84 on Billboard's Hot 100.

### January

- January 12 – Chris Casement, Northern Irish footballer

### February

- February 17 - Adil Rashid, English cricketer
- February 20 – Rihanna, Barbadian singer
- February 29 – Lena Gercke, German model

### March

- March 27 – Brenda Song, American actress and singer

### April

- April 27 – Lizzo, American musician
- April 29 – Jonathan Toews, Canadian Professional ice hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks

### May

- May 5 – Adele, British singer-songwriter

### June

- June 6 – Ajinkya Rahane, Indian cricketer
- June 7 – Michael Cera, Canadian actor

### July

- July 3 - Adrián Puentes, Cuban archer
- July 14 – Conor McGregor, Irish boxer
- July 16 – Sergio Busquets, Spanish footballer

### August

- August 10 – Kateryna Pavlenko, Ukrainian singer, composer and folklorist
- August 21 – Kacey Musgraves, American singer-songwriter and musician
- August 25 – Alexandra Burke, British singer

### October

- October 15 – Mesut Özil, German footballer

### November

- November 5 – Virat Kohli, Indian cricketer
- November 6 – Emma Stone, American actress
- November 8 - Chris McNally, Canadian actor
- November 19 – Patrick Kane, American professional ice hockey for the Chicago Blackhawks
- November 25 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (d. 2010)

### December

- December 14 – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress

- Ming Kipa, youngest person to climb Mount Everest

### January

- January 3 – Rose Auslander, German poet (b. 1901)
- January 3 – Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1905)
- January 5 – Pete Maravich, basketball player (b. 1947)
- January 7 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)
- January 11 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist (b. 1898)
- January 13 – Chiang Ching-kuo, 3rd President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
- January 14 – Georgy Malenkov, 5th Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)
- January 15 – Seán MacBride, Irish Republican Army leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1904)
- January 16 – Ballard Berkeley, British actor (b. 1904)

### February

- February 1 – Heather O'Rourke, American actress (b. 1975)
- February 13 – John Curulewski, American guitarist (Styx) (b. 1950)
- February 15 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

### March

- March 7 – Divine, American  actor and singer (b. 1945)
- March 9 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 3rd Chancellor of Germany (b. 1904)
- March 10 – Andy Gibb, singer (b. 1958)
- March 10 – Phạm Hùng, Vietnamese prime minister (b. 1912)
- March 31 – Sir William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)

### April

- April 12 – Alan Paton, South African author (b. 1903)
- April 17 - Louise Nevelson, American sculptor
- April 25 - Valerie Solanas, American author (b. 1936)

### May

- May 8 – Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer (b. 1907)
- May 11 – Kim Philby, British agent and spy (b. 1912)
- May 14 – Willem Drees, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1886)
- May 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)

### June

- June 7 - Vernon Washington, American actor (b. 1927)
- June 11 – Giuseppe Saragat, 5th President of Italy (b. 1898)
- June 25 – Hillel Slovak, American musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (b. 1962)

### July

- July 25 – Judith Barsi, American child actress (b. 1978)

### August

- August 2 – Raymond Carver, American writer (b. 1938)
- August 10 – Arnulfo Arias, President of Panama (b. 1901)
- August 14 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian car maker (b. 1898)
- August 17 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
- August 20 – Lazarus Salii, President of Palau (b. 1937)
- August 30 – Jack Marshall, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1912)

### September

- September 1 – Luis Walter Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- September 5 - Gert Fröbe, German actor (b. 1913)
- September 11 - Roger Hargreaves, English writer (b. 1934)
- September 30 – Trường Chinh, former President of Vietnam (b. 1907)

### October

- October 3 – Franz Josef Strauß, German politician (b. 1915)

### November

- November 4 – Kleanthis Vikelidis, Greek footballer (b. 1916)
- November 14 – Takeo Miki, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1907)
- November 27 – Angela Aames, American actress (b. 1956)
- November 27 – John Carradine, American actor (b. 1906)

### December

- December 3 – Thawan Thamrongnawasawat, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1901)
- December 4 – Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist (b. 1899)
- December 6 – Roy Orbison, American singer (b. 1936)

## Nobel Prizes

- Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, and Jack Steinberger for their research on neutrinos
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry shared by Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, and Hartmut Michel
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, and George H. Hitchings
- Nobel Prize in Literature won by Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer
- Nobel Peace Prize won by The United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces
- Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences won by Maurice Allais, French economist