1988 Facts

1988 FACTS

World Series Champions
Los Angeles Dodgers

Superbowl XXII Champions
Washington Redskins

NBA Champions
Los Angeles Lakers

Stanley Cup Champs
Edmonton Oilers

U.S. Open Golf
Curtis Strange

U.S. Tennis (Men/Ladies)
Mats Wilander/Steffi Graf

Wimbledon (Men/Women)
Stefan Edberg/Steffi Graf

NCAA Football Champions
Notre Dame

NCAA Basketball Champions
Kansas

Kentucky Derby
Winning Colors

Sex Symbols and Fashion Icons
Carol Alt, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Naomi Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Cindy Crawford, Rebecca DeMornay, Elvira, Linda Evangelista, Linda Evans, Debbie Gibson, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Susannah Hoffs, Kathy Ireland, Tawny Kitaen, Audrey Landers, Heather Langenkamp, Kelly LeBrock, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Heather Locklear, Traci Lords, Elle Macpherson, Madonna, Bettie Page (revival), Paulina Porizkova, Priscilla Presley, Princess Diana, Linnea Quigley, Jessica Rabbit, Molly Ringwald, Katey Sagal, Stephanie Seymour, Brooke Shields, Heather Thomas, Cheryl Tiegs, Tiffany, Christy Turlington

“The Quotes”
“Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy”
– Lloyd Bentson to Dan Quayle

“Read my lips: no new taxes”
– Presidential Candidate George Bush

“Just do it”
-Nike

“It’s everywhere you want to be”
– Visa

“I’m not bad- I’m just drawn that way”
– Jessica Rabbit

George Lucas gave a speech in 1988 to Congress about the need to protect films from being altered. “People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians.”

Time Magazine’s Planet of the Year
‘The Endangered’ Earth
Miss America
Kaye Lani Rae Rafko (Monroe, MI)
Miss USA
Courtney Gibbs (Texas)

The Scandals, Deaths and Odd News
The Lockerbie, Scotland airplane bombing, ordered by Libya, killed 270 people.

James Brown, while high on PCP, was involved in a high-speed chase with the police. He was eventually convicted of assaulting an officer and possession of an unlicensed firearm, among other charges. He spent three years in prison

Actor Gary Busey was in a severe motorcycle accident. Busey, not wearing a helmet, was in a coma for 33 days. In 2008, a psychiatrist determined that the accident caused brain damage and that is why he is considered to have an eerie and bizarre persona.

Treasure hunter Tommy Thompson located the shipwreck of the SS Central America which sank in 1857 carrying 21 tons of gold. Investors sued after he sold $40 million worth of gold & kept it for himself. He went on the run in 2012 after failing to appear in court, but was caught in 2015.

Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was photographed in series of hook-ups with prostitutes.

In the elections for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 1988 the population was so unhappy with politicians, that a well-known monkey of the local zoo received over 400,000 votes.

Barbara Hershey had collagen injected into her lips, a new scandalous thing at the time. There was a false rumor that, while flying in an airplane, her lips swelled and blew up. We were so naive back then…

The Soviet Union cancelled history exams in 1988 because increased government transparency had revealed that the textbooks were filled with lies.

Philly reputed gangster Jackie DiNorscio, in the longest criminal trial in US history, fired his lawyer, defended himself and through charm, wit and no legal experience, convinced a jury to acquit him and 19 other defendants of charges of loansharking, extortion, trafficking, arson and murder.

Cosmopolitan claimed that unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man did not put women at risk of infection and that it was impossible to transmit HIV in the missionary position.

Pete Maravich. During an interview in 1974, he said, “I don’t want to play 10 years [in the NBA] and then die of a heart attack when I’m 40.”
He died of a heart attack in 1988, at age 40, after his 10 year career in the NBA.

Rob and Fab, Milli Vanilli’s frontmen didn’t really sing, although they were considered good looking guys who could lip sync rather well. They were also smooth stage dancers.

At the Opening Ceremonies for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, a large group of doves were released to symbolize peace. The world watched in horror a few minutes later when those doves were cooked alive when the Opening Ceremony cauldron was ignited.

There was a weight loss option in the 1980’s that with the unfortunate name “Ayds” – literally pronounced “AIDS”. A name change in 1988 did not help, and it went out of business shorty thereafter. “Ayds Reducing Plan vitamin and mineral Candy”

C. Everett Koop sent every household in America a booklet on HIV/AIDS education, despit protests from BOTH political parties. With 107 million households delivered, it remains the largest public health mailing ever done.

Timothy C. May coined the term ‘The Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse’, referring to terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers and money launderers, which are brought up in order to justify the regulation of the internet.

The Reagans lived at 666 St. Cloud Rd but had the address changed to 668 St. Cloud Rd following the 1988 election. #Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

Britain’s Prince Philip expressed the wish that, should he be reincarnated, he would want to be a deadly virus that would reduce world population.

A ten-year-old Michagan girl named Sarah York traveled to Panama to meet with her Panamanian pen pal, the infamous military leader Manuel Noriega. Her parents were criticized for allowing her to visit Panama, and for encouraging her friendship with Noriega.

The U.S.S. Vincennes accidently shot down an Iranian civilian arliner, killng 290 people.