1988

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

==Events==
 near Old Faithful]]
*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 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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.

## Births
 in 2016]]
 in 2017]]

### 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

### September
### 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

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

### May 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* July 25 – Judith Barsi, American child actress (b. 1978)

### August 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* October 3 – Franz Josef Strauß, German politician (b. 1915)

### November 
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* 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

## Other websites