Britain and the World 1988

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953

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	1988
Jan26	Australia's bicentennial anniversary-parade of tall ships in Sydney Harbour
Feb17	Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, an American officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group, was kidnapped in southern Lebanon (he was later slain by his captors).
Feb21	The grave of Boadicea, the warrior queen who fought the Romans almost 2,000 years ago, was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King's Cross railway station.
Feb23	The fifteenth Winter Olympic Games opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Feb25	Sinner and US TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart is suspended by the elders of the church for his descent into immorality
Feb29	Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in WW II deportations. He is also accused of criminal involvement in the execution of seven British Commandos
Mar6	Three IRA terrorists were shot dead by SAS men in Gibraltar. The circumstances surrounding their deaths formed the basis of a controversial TV documentary "Death On The Rock"
Mar11	The one pound note (introduced 12th March 1797) ceased to be legal tender, and was replaced by the pound coin.
Apr4	The ITV soap opera Crossroads ended after 24 years and 4510 episodes
Apr10	The world's longest double-decker bridge opened to traffic,carrying cars and trains. The 7-9 mile long 'Great Seto Bridge' crossed the Inland Sea and liked the islands of Honshu and Shikoku. It had taken 10 years to build and cost £4.9 billion.
Apr16	PLO military chief Khalil Wazir (Abu Jihad) is gunned down by Israeli commandos in Tunisia.
Apr18	Israeli court convicted John Demjanjuk of Nazi war crimes, saying he was the gas chamber operator "Ivan The Terrible" at the Treblinka death camp in World War 11
May15	Soviet troops began leaving Afghanistan after eight years of occupation
Jun2	In Canberra, the High Court unanimously rejected Britain's bid to ban further publication in Australia of the "Spycatcher" memoirs of former secret agent Peter Wright.
Jun6	The Queen stripped imprisoned jockey Lester Piggott of his OBE. He was jailed earlier for repeated tax evasion
Jul3	American warship Vincennes shot down an Iran Airbus A300 over the Gulf in the last weeks of the Iran-Iraq war, killing all 290 aboard.
Jul6	167 men die in an explosion on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea.
Aug19	Iran-Iraq begin a cease-fire in their eight year-old war
Oct19	British government banned broadcast interviews with groups which expressed support for violence in Northern Ireland, provoking opposition charges it was handing a propaganda coup to the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
Nov8	George Bush (Republican) beats Mike Dukakis (Democrat) for Presidency of the USA
Dec1	Benazir Bhutto named first female Prime Minister of a Moslem country (Pakistan)
Dec6	Roy Orbison died.
Dec12	The Clapham Rail disaster kills 35 people and injures 132. The Report into the disaster placeds the blame firmly with the management of British Rail and its commitment to outdated and damaging practises
Dec21	Lockerbie disaster - Pan Am flight 103 blows up over the town of Lockerbie. All aboard the plane are killed. Subsequent investigation points to the complicity of Lybian agents in planting explosives on the plane

Last Updated 19/09/02 14:18

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