Seattle
- Sub Pop launched the Singles Club subscription series and released Soundgarden's first full-length, Ultramega OK; Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff set a template for the Seattle sound.
- The Mariners drafted Tino Martinez and continued building a farm system that would soon include Ken Griffey Jr.
- Boeing rolled out the 747-400, the most successful long-haul widebody of its generation.
- Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera continued international touring.
The United States
- George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in November after promising "Read my lips: no new taxes."
- Yellowstone National Park's summer wildfires burned roughly 800,000 acres and reshaped U.S. wildfire policy. (Reference, NPS)
- Rain Man won Best Picture; Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Die Hard, and Beetlejuice were released.
- The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway in January.
- Prozac (fluoxetine) was approved by the FDA, beginning a transformation of psychiatric medicine.
The World
- The Seoul Summer Olympics opened in September; Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100m gold for steroids three days after winning. (Reference, IOC)
- Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, killing 270. (Reference, FBI)
- The Soviet Union began withdrawing from Afghanistan; the Iran–Iraq War ended in August.
- Stephen Hawking published A Brief History of Time and made cosmology a bestseller.
Program
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