On September 29, 1988, Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-26, sending Americans back into orbit for the first time since the Challenger disaster 32 months earlier. Five veteran astronauts flew the redesigned orbiter to deploy a tracking satellite and prove NASA’s fixes actually worked, landing safely at Edwards Air…
On September 23, 1988, Oakland Athletics outfielder Jose Canseco stole his 40th base of the season in a 14-inning game against the Milwaukee Brewers, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball history to reach 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season. He finished the year with 42 homers and 40…
On September 17, 1988, Seoul, South Korea opened the XXIV Summer Olympics — the first Games since 1972 where the United States, Soviet Union, and both German nations all competed simultaneously. Over the following 16 days, Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100m world-record gold after testing positive for steroids, Florence Griffith Joyner set 100m…
On September 10, 1988, Steffi Graf won the US Open singles title — her fourth Grand Slam of the year — becoming only the third woman in history to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam. Three weeks later she won Olympic gold in Seoul, creating a record so unprecedented the sport had to invent a new…
On August 9, 1988, the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three first-round draft picks, and $15 million cash. Gretzky was 27, had already shattered virtually every NHL scoring record, and had four Stanley Cup rings. He cried at the press conference. Canada treated it like…
How NWA’s Straight Outta Compton went triple platinum with no MTV, no radio, and an FBI letter trying to shut them down. The 1988 album that broke gangsta rap.
On May 15, 1988, Soviet tanks began rolling out of Afghanistan. After 9 years and 15,000 lives lost, Gorbachev called it a bleeding wound and pulled the plug. Here are 7 wild facts from the day Russia’s Vietnam finally ended.
The PEPCON disaster on May 4, 1988 was the most powerful civilian explosion in American history — a rocket-fuel chemical plant in Henderson, Nevada that vaporized itself, leveled the marshmallow factory next door, cracked windows at McCarran International Airport seven miles away, and shoved a 1,000-foot mushroom cloud over Las Vegas while a Boeing 737…
