Seattle
- Ken Griffey Jr. made his Mariners debut on April 3 at age 19, becoming the face of the franchise and one of the most popular athletes the city has known.
- The Sub Pop "Lamefest" at the Moore Theatre on June 9 (Mudhoney, Tad, Nirvana) sold out and made the Seattle scene a national story; Nirvana released Bleach on Sub Pop later that month.
- The Goodwill Games preparations transformed Seattle Center venues for the 1990 international event.
- The Seattle Seahawks remained the city's NFL anchor as the Knox era wound down.
The United States
- The Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24, spilling about 11 million gallons of crude oil — the worst U.S. oil spill at that point. (Reference, NOAA)
- The Tim Burton Batman dominated the box office and reshaped the superhero genre; Do the Right Thing, Field of Dreams, and When Harry Met Sally were released.
- The Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Bay Area during Game 3 of the World Series on October 17. (Reference, USGS)
- Seinfeld aired its pilot in July; Tim Berners-Lee proposed what became the World Wide Web at CERN.
- The first commercial dial-up internet service providers (PSINet, UUNET) began operating.
The World
- The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, opening the way to German reunification and the end of the Cold War. (Reference, Britannica)
- The Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing were crushed on June 4; the "Tank Man" image became one of the century's defining photographs. (Reference, Britannica)
- The Velvet Revolution swept Czechoslovakia in November–December; Václav Havel became president by year's end. (Reference, Britannica)
- Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown and executed during the December revolution.
- Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses in February; Voyager 2 reached Neptune in August.
Program
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