) was a common year starting on
(link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar
is considered a historical turning point for the wave of
revolutions that swept the Eastern
Bloc, starting in Poland.
Collectively known as the Revolutions of 1989, they heralded the
death of the Soviet
Union two years later and the beginning of the post-Cold War era of United States dominance in world affairs.
- February 1 –
Joan Kirner becomes Victoria's first female Deputy Premier, after the
resignation of Robert Fordham over the VEDC (Victorian Economic
Development Co-operation) Crisis.
- February 2 –
Soviet war in Afghanistan:
The last Soviet
Union armored column leaves Kabul, ending 9
years of military occupation.
- February 2 – Satellite television
service Sky Television plc is
launched in Europe.
- February 3 – A
military coup overthrows Alfredo
Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
- February 3 – After a stroke, Pieter Willem
Botha resigns his party's leadership and the presidency of
- February 7 – The
California City Council bans the sale or possession of
- February 10 –
Ron Brown is elected
chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major United States political
- February 11 – Barbara Clementine Harris is
consecrated as the first female bishop of the Episcopal
Church in the United States of America.
- February 14 –
Union Carbide agrees to pay USD $470 million to the Indian government
for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal
- February 14 –
Iranian leader Ruhollah
Khomeini encourages Muslims to kill
The Satanic Verses
author Salman Rushdie.
- February 14 – The first of 24
Global Positioning System
satellites is placed into orbit.
- February 15 –
Soviet war in Afghanistan:
Union announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
- February 16 – Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce
that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden
inside a radio-cassette player.
- February 23 – After protracted
testimony, the U.S. Senate Armed Services
Committee rejects, 11–9, President Bush's nomination of
John Tower for Secretary of Defense.
- February 24 – Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini places a US $3-million bounty on the head of
The Satanic Verses
author Salman Rushdie.
- February 24 –
After 44 years, Estonian flag is
raised to the Pikk
Hermann Castle tower.
- February 27 –
Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo,
a wave of protests and looting.
- March 1 – The
Berne Convention, an international treaty
on copyrights, is ratified by the United States.
- March 1 – A curfew is imposed in Kosovo, where
protests continue over the alleged intimidation of the Serb minority.
- March 1 – Louis Wade Sullivan starts his term of
office as U.S. Secretary of Health
and Human Services.
- March 1 – James D. Watkins starts his term of office as
U.S. Secretary of Energy.
- March 1 – The
Radicalen, Pacifistisch Socialistische
Partij, Communistische Partij
Nederland and the Evangelische Volks Partij
amalgamate to form Netherlands political party GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft).
- March 2 – Twelve European Community nations agree to ban
the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of
- March 3 – Jammu Siltavuori abducts and murders two
8-year-old girls in Myllypuro suburb in Helsinki, Finland.
- March 3 – Portugal wins the FIFA U-20
World Cup, defeating Nigeria on the final by 2–0 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
- March 4 – Time, Inc.
and Warner Communications
announce plans for a merger, forming Time
- March 4 – The
Station rail crash in London leaves 5
dead and 94 injured.
- March 4 – The first
ACT (Australian Capital Territory) elections are held.
- March 7 – Iran breaks off
diplomatic relations with the
Kingdom over Salman Rushdie's
- March 9 – A strike forces financially
troubled Eastern Air Lines into
- March 13 – A geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of
the Hydro-Québec power grid. Six million people are left without power for 9 hours. Some areas in the
northeastern U.S. and in Sweden also lose power, and aurora are seen as far as Texas.
- March 14 – Gun
control: U.S. President George
H. W. Bush bans the importation of certain guns
deemed assault weapons into the
- March 14 – Christian
General Michel Aoun declares a 'War of
Liberation' to rid Lebanon of Syrian forces and
- March 17 – The
Civic Tower of Pavia, built in
the 14th century, crumbles down.
- March 18 – In
Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is
found in the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- March 20 – Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television as he
admits marital infidelity.
- March 22 – Clint Malarchuk of the NHL Buffalo
Sabres suffers an almost fatal injury when another player
accidentally slits his throat.
- March 22 – Asteroid 4581 Asclepius approaches the Earth at a
distance of 700,000 kilometers.
- March 23 – Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce that they
have achieved cold fusion at the
- April 1 – Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Poll tax, is introduced in
- April 4 – In Brussels,
Belgium, NATO celebrates
its 40th anniversary.
- April 6 – National Safety Council of
Australia chief executive John
Friedrich is arrested after defrauding investors to the tune of
- April 7 – The
Soviet submarine K-278
Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea, killing 41.
- April 9 – Georgian demonstrators are massacred by Red Army soldiers in Tbilisi's central square during a peaceful rally; 20
citizens are killed, many injured.
- April 14 The U.S. government seizes the
Irving, CA Lincoln
Savings and Loan Association; Charles Keating (for whom the Keating Five were named – John McCain among them) eventually goes to jail,
as part of the massive 1980s Savings and Loan Crisis which costs
U.S. taxpayers nearly $200 billion in bailouts, and many people
their life savings.
- April 15 – The Hillsborough disaster, one of the
biggest tragedies in European football, claims the life of 96 Liverpool supporters.
- April 17 – Poland, Solidarity was again legalized and allowed to
participate in semi-free elections on June 4.
- April 19 – Trisha Meili is attacked while jogging in
Park; as her identity remains secret for years, she
becomes known as the "Central Park Jogger."
- April 19 – A gun
turret explodes on the U.S. battleship Iowa, killing 47 crew members.
- April 20 – NATO debates
modernising short range missiles; although the U.S. and UK are in
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
obtains a concession deferring a decision.
- April 21 – Students
from Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, and
Nanjing begin protesting in Tiananmen
- April 25 – The term
Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum
Sultan Ismail as the 8th Yang
di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia ends.
- April 25 – Motorola introduces the Motorola MicroTAC Personal Cellular
Telephone, then the world's smallest mobile phone.
- April 26 –
Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin
Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, Sultan of
Perak, becomes the 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- June 3 – The SkyDome (now known as Rogers Centre) is opened in Toronto.
- June 3 – The Ayatollah Khomeini dies in Iran; during the
funeral, his corpse falls out of the casket into the mob of
- June 4 – The Tiananmen
Square massacre takes place in Beijing on
the army's approach to the square, and the final stand-off in the
square is covered live on television.
- June 4 – Solidarity's victory in Polish elections is
the first of many anti-communist revolutions in Central and Eastern
Europe in 1989.
- June 4 – Ufa train
disaster: A natural gas explosion
near Ufa, Russia kills 645
as 2 trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky
- June 7 – Surinam
Airways Flight PY764 crashes, killing 176.
- June 12 – The
Gallery of Art removes Robert
Mapplethorpe's gay photography exhibition.
- June 13 – The wreck
of the German battleship Bismarck, which was sunk in 1941, is located west of Brest, France.
- June 16 – A crowd of
250,000 gathers at Heroes Square in Budapest for the historic reburial of Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister who
had been executed in 1958.
- June 21 – British
police arrest 250 people for celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge.
- June 22 – Ireland's first universities established since independence
in 1922, Dublin City University and the University of Limerick, open.
- June 23 – Batman is released to positive reviews
and becomes the highest grossing film based on a DC comic book,
until Batman & Robin
- August 23 – Two
million indigenous people of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania, then still occupied by the Soviet Union, join hands to demand freedom and independence,
forming an uninterrupted 600 km human chain called the
- August 23 –
Hungary removes border restrictions with Austria.
- August 23 – All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign
over an airline's move to sack and sue them over a dispute.
- August 23 –
Yusef Hawkins is shot in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New
York, sparking racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans.
- August 24 –
Record-setting baseball player Pete Rose agrees to a lifetime ban from the sport
following allegations of illegal gambling, thereby preventing his
induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- August 24 –
Indonesia's first privately owned television station, Rajawali
Citra Televisi Indonesia, (RCTI) begins
- August 25 – Voyager II passes the planet Neptune and its moon Triton.
- October 9 – An
official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
- October 9 – In
Germany, protesters demand the legalization of opposition
groups and democratic reforms.
- October 13 – Friday the 13th mini-crash: The
Dow Jones Industrial
Average plunges 190.58 points, or 6.91 percent, to close at
2,569.26, most likely after the junk bond
- October 17 – The
Prieta earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, strikes the San
Francisco–Oakland region of Northern California, killing 67 people
and delaying the 1989 World Series
for ten days
- October 18 – The
Communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, is
forced to step down as leader of the country after a series of
- October 19 – The Guildford Four are freed after 14 years.
- October 19 – The
Wonders of Life pavilion opens at
Epcot in Walt Disney
- October 21 – The Heads of Government of the
Commonwealth of Nations
issue the Langkawi Declaration
on the Environment, making environmental sustainability
one of the Commonwealth's main priorities.
- October 23 – The
Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös (replacing
the Hungarian People's Republic).
- October 23 – The
Phillips Disaster in Pasadena,
Texas kills 23 and injures 314 others.
- October 30 – The qualification for
the 1990 Football World Cup
- ("November 1989" – Cold War: East Germany Nov 7, 9; Bulgaria Nov 10; Czechoslovakia Nov 17, 20, 28)
- November 2 –
Dakota and South
Dakota celebrate their 100th Birthdays.
- November 4 –
Typhoon Gay devastates Thailand's Chumphon Province.
- November 7 –
Douglas Wilder wins the Virginia governor's race, becoming the first elected
African American governor in the
- November 7 –
David Dinkins becomes the first
African American mayor of New York City.
- November 7 –
Cold War: The Communist government of East Germany resigns, although SED leader Egon Krenz remains head of state.
- November 9 – Cold
War: Günter Schabowski
accidentally states in live broadcast press conference that new
rules for traveling from East Germany to West Germany will be put
in effect "immediately". East Germany opens checkpoints in the
Wall, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time in decades (November 17
celebrates Germans began tearing the wall down).
- November 10 –
After 45 years of Communist rule in Bulgaria, Bulgarian
Communist Party leader Todor
Zhivkov is replaced by Foreign Minister Petar Mladenov, who changes the party's name
to the Bulgarian Socialist
- November 10 – Gaby Kennard becomes the first Australian woman to fly non-stop around the
- November 10 –
CKO (a Canadian national all-news radio
network) suddenly terminates all broadcasting during the newscast
at noon (Eastern time), due to financial losses (the station began
broadcasting on July 1, 1977).
- November 11 – Louie Espinoza inaugurated as WBO World Featherweight
- November 12 –
Brazil holds its first free presidential election since
1960. This marks the first time that all
Ibero-American nations, excepting
elected constitutional governments simultaneously.
- November 15 –
Pakistan Sachin Tendulkar
starts his international cricket career in Karachi. He got over for just 15 runs but over the
next 20 years was regarded as the greatest batsman of all
- November 16 – Six Jesuit priests—among them Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, and Ignacio Martín-Baró—their
housekeeper, and her teenage daughter, are murdered by U.S.
- November 16 – South African President F.W. de Klerk announces the scrapping of the
Separate Amenities Act.
- November 16 –
UNESCO adopts the Seville Statement on Violence
at the 25th session of its General Conference.
- November 17 –
Cold War – Velvet Revolution: A peaceful student
demonstration in Prague, Czechoslovakia is severely beaten back by riot police. This
sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the Communist government
(it succeeds on December 29).
- November 20 –
Cold War – Velvet Revolution: The number of peaceful
protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated
- November 21 –
Carolina celebrates its bicentennial
- November 22 – In
West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President Rene Moawad
and kills him.
- November 28 –
Cold War – Velvet Revolution: The Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power (elections held in
December bring the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years).
- November 30 – Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a bomb (the
Red Army Faction claims
responsibility for the murder).
- December 1 –
Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision
granting the Communist-dominated SED its monopoly on
power. Egon Krenz, the Politburo
and the Central Committee resign 2 days later.
- December 1 – A
military coup attempt
begins in the Philippines against the government of Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, ending by December 9.
- December 3 –
Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush
and Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an
- December 6 –
Polytechnique Massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman,
murders 14 young women at the École
Polytechnique in Montreal.
- December 10 – Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj announces the
establishment of Mongolia's democratic movement, that peacefully
changes the second oldest communist country into a democratic
- December 14 –
Chile holds its first free election in 16
- December 15 –
Drug baron José
Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha is killed by Colombian police.
- December 17 –
The Romanian Revolution begins
in Timişoara when rioters break into the Committee Building
and cause extensive vandalism. Their attempts to set the
buildings on fire are foiled by military units.
- December 17 –
Brazil holds the second round of its first free election
in 29 years; Fernando Collor de
- December 17 – The first full-length
episode of The Simpsons,
"Simpsons Roasting on
an Open Fire", premieres on Fox.
- December 19 – Workers in Romanian
cities go on strike in protest against the communist regime.
- December 20 –
Cause is launched in an attempt to overthrow Panamanian dictator Manuel
- December 21 –
Nicolae Ceausescu addresses an assembly of some 110,000 people
outside the Parliament Palace in Bucharest. The crowd begin to protest against
Ceausescu and he orders in the army to
attack the protesters.
- December 22 –
After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion
Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending the communist
dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu, who flees his
palace in a helicopter to escape inevitable execution after the
palace was invaded by rioters. The Romanian troops, who
yesterday had followed Ceausescu's orders to attack the
demonstrators, change sides and join the uprising.
- December 22 –
Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific highway north of
Kempsey, Australia, killing 35.
- December 23 –
Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu are captured in
- December 25 – Romanian leader
Nicolae Ceauşescu and his
wife Elena are executed by
military troops after being found guilty of crimes against
- December 25 –
Japan governors announce a major interest rate hike,
eventually leading to the peak and fall of the bubble economy.
- December 28 – A
magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing
- December 29 –
Václav Havel is elected president
- December 29 –
Riots break-out after Hong
Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
- December 29 – Nikkei 225 for Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time
intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87.
The following are references to year 1989 in fiction:
- World in Conflict
(computer game) – The Soviet Union
invades Europe and the United States.
- Red Dawn is set around this
- The 1990 remake of Night of the Living
Dead is set during this year.
- The events of the arcade version of Final Fight occurs in 1989 according to the
original Japanese version. The English localization changes the
setting to an unspecified year in the 1990s.
- January 2 – Kaitlin Howell, Canadian actress
- January 3 – Alex D. Linz,
- January 3 – Anya
Kop, American fashion model
- January 3 – Kohei Uchimura, Japanese gymnast
- January 7 – Emiliano Insúa, Argentine
- January 9 – Michael Beasley, American basketball
- January 11 – Chris Perry-Metcalf, British actor
- January 14 – Frankie Sandford, British singer
- January 20 – Nadia Di Cello, Argentine actress
- January 21 – Katie Griffiths, English actress
- January 21 – Dogus Balbay, American Basketball player
- January 21 – Sergey Fesikov, Russian swimmer
- January 22 – Jared Smith, American singer
- January 24 – Calvin Goldspink, British singer
- January 25 – Mikako Tabe, Japanese stage and film
- January 25 – Yasmien Kurdi, Filipino actress and
- January 26 – Emily Hughes, American figure skater
- January 27 – Daisy Lowe, British model
- January 30 – Khleo Thomas, American actor and rapper
- February 3 – Ryne Sanborn, American actor
- February 5 – Jeremy Sumpter, American actor
- February 7 – Louisa Lytton, English actress
- February 8 – Danielle Harmer, English actress
- February 9 – Wu Chia-ching, Taiwanese pool player
- February 13 – Rodrigo Possebon, Brazilian footballer
- February 13 – Carly McKillip, Canadian actress
- February 17 – Rebecca Adlington, British swimmer
- February 21 – Corbin Bleu, American actor and singer
- February 21 – Kristin Herrera, American actress
- February 21 – Scout Taylor-Compton, American
- February 24 – Kosta Koufos, Greek-American basketball
- February 24 – Trace Cyrus, American musician
- February 25 – Lee Sang-Hwa, South Korean speed skater
- February 27 – Kelly Breeding, American singer
- March 1 – Daniella Monet, American actress
- March 1 – Carlos
Vela, Mexican footballer
- March 5 – Jake
Lloyd, American actor
- March 9 – Christina Broccolini, Canadian TV
- March 11 – Anton Yelchin, Russian actor
- March 14 – Colby O'Donis,American singer
- March 15 – Caitlin Wachs, American actress
- March 16 – Peaches Geldof, British performer
- March 16 – Blake Griffin, American basketball player
- March 16 – Theo
Walcott, English footballer
- March 21 – Rochelle Wiseman, British singer (S Club Juniors & The Saturdays)
- March 25 – Scott Sinclair, English footballer
- March 25 – Alyson Michalka, American actress and
- April 8 – Nicholas Megalis, American
- April 8 – Hitomi Takahashi, Japanese singer
- April 18 – Alia
Shawkat, American actress
- April 23 – Anastasia Baranova, Russian-born
- April 23 – Nicole Vaidišová, Czech tennis
- April 25 – Michael van Gerwen, Dutch darts
- April 25 – Raquel Donatelli, American reality
- May 4 – Dániel Gyurta, Hungarian swimmer
- May 4 – James van Riemsdyk, American ice hockey
- May 5 – Chris Brown, American singer and
- May 10 – Lindsey
Shaw, American actress
- May 11 – Giovani dos Santos,Mexican
- May 12 – Imogen
Poots, English actress
- May 29 – Riley
Keough, American model
- May 30 – Kevin
Covais, American Idol Season 5
- June 2 – Freddy
Adu, American soccer player
- June 7 – Shelley Buckner, American actress
- June 8 – Richard Fleeshman, English actor
- June 9 – Chloe
Agnew, Irish singer
- June 13 – Tommy
Searle , British Motocross Racer
- June 18 – Renee
Olstead, American actress and singer
- June 20 – Christopher Mintz-Plasse, American
- June 22 – Jeffrey Earnhardt, American race car
- June 27 – Matthew Lewis, British actor
- June 27 – Bruna Tenório, Brazilian supermodel
- July 1 – Mitch
Hewer, British actor
- July 11 – David
Henrie, American actor
- July 13 – Sayumi Michishige, Japanese singer
- July 14 – Cyril
Rioli, Australian rules footballer
- July 14 – Sean Flynn-Amir, American actor
- July 15 – Tristan Wilds, American actor
- July 18 – Yohan
Mollo, French Footballer
- July 21 – Rory
Culkin, American actor
- July 21 – Jamie
Waylett, British actor
- July 23 – Daniel Radcliffe, British actor
- July 23 – Zhong
An Qi, Taiwanese singer
- July 25 – Noel
Callahan, Canadian actor
- July 27 – Charlotte Arnold, Canadian actress
- August 8 – Sesil Karatantcheva, Bulgarian tennis
- August 9 – Stefano Okaka Chuka, Italian
- August 10 – Sam
Gagner, Canadian ice hockey player
- August 14 – Kyle Turris, Canadian ice hockey player
- August 15 – Belinda, Mexican singer and
- August 15 – Joe
Jonas, American musician actor and singer
- August 19 – Romeo, American rapper and actor
- August 21 – Hayden Panettiere, American actress and
- August 23 – Breanna Conrad, American reality television
- September 1 – Bill and Tom Kaulitz, German rock
singers (Tokio Hotel)
- September 2 – Alexandre Pato, Brazilian footballer
- September 9 – Hugh Mitchell, British actor
- September 9 – Sean Malto, American Professional
- September 10 – Sanjaya Malakar, American singer and
American Idol finalist
- September 15 – Steliana Nistor, Romanian gymnast and
- September 26 – Emma Rigby, British actress
- September 27 – Park Taehwan, South Korean swimmer
- September 29 – Theo Adams, British performance artist
- October 1 – Brie Larson, American actress
- October 4 – Lil
Mama, American rapper
- October 4 – Kimmie Meissner, American figure skater
- October 11 – Michelle Wie, American golf player
- October 27 – Erik Kloeker, American juggler
- October 30 – Nastia Liukin, American gymnast and Olympic
- November 3 – Paula DeAnda, Mexican-American singer
- November 6 – Jozy Altidore, American soccer player
- November 11 – Reina Tanaka, Japanese singer
- November 14 – Jake Livermore, English footballer
- November 15 – Tim Corcoran, American acrobat
- November 20 – Cody Linley, American actor
- November 27 – Freddie Sears, English footballer
- December 2 – Cassie Steele, Canadian actress and
- December 4 – Garron DuPree, American musician
- December 7 – Nicholas Hoult, British actor
- December 12 – Helen Flanagan, English actress
- December 12 – Harry Eden, British actor
- December 13 – Taylor Swift, American country/pop music
- December 18 – Ashley Benson, American actress
- December 19 – Valdimar Bergstað, Icelandic Horse
- December 22 – Jordin Sparks, American singer and
American Idol winner
- December 26 – Yohan Blake, Jamaican athlete
- December 27 – Kateryna Lahno, Ukrainian chess player
- December 28 – Mackenzie Rosman, American actress
- December 28 – Jessie Buckley, Irish actress and singer
- December 30 – Ryan Sheckler, American skateboarder
- For musicians born in 1989, see 1989 in music.
- January 3 – Robert Banks, American chemist (b.
- January 4 – Dvora Netzer, Israeli politician (b. 1897)
- January 7 – Frank Adams, British mathematician (b. 1930)
- January 7 – Hirohito, Emperor of
Japan (b. 1901)
- January 8 – Kenneth McMillan, American actor
- January 10 –
Hai Teng, abbott of Shaolin
Temple (b. 1902?)
- January 10 – Herbert Morrison, American
radio reporter (b. 1905)
- January 10 – Donald Voorhees, American composer and
musician (b. 1903)
- January 11 – August Koern, Estonian statesman and diplomat
- January 13 – Joe Spinell, American actor (b. 1936)
- January 16 – Trey Wilson, American actor (b. 1948)
- January 19 – Norma Varden, English actress (b. 1898)
- January 20 – Beatrice Lillie, Canadian actress (b.
- January 21 – Carl Furillo, American baseball player (b.
- January 21 – Billy Tipton, American musician (b. 1914)
- January 22 – Kazi Uzair, Pakistani pediatrician, student
leader (b. 1959)
- January 23 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (b.
- January 24 – Ted
Bundy, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1946)
- January 27 – Bayani Casimiro, Filipino dancer and actor
- February 1 – Elaine de Kooning, American artist (b.
- February 2 – Ondrej Nepela, Slovakian figure skater (b.
- February 3 – John Cassavetes, American actor and author
- February 3 – Glenna Collett-Vare, American golfer (b.
- February 5 – Joe Morrison, University of South Carolina Head
Football Coach ( b. 1937)
- February 6 – Ron
Field, American choreographer (b. 1934)
- February 6 – Barbara Tuchman, American historian (b.
- February 9 – Osamu Tezuka, Japanese Manga artist, e.g. Astroboy (b. 1928)
- February 11 – T.E.B. Clarke,
English screenwriter (b. 1907)
- February 11 – George O'Hanlon, American actor and director
- February 14 – Vincent Crane, British musician (Atomic Rooster)
- February 17 – Lefty Gomez, Mexican-American baseball player
- February 17 – Joe Raposo, musician, composer for Sesame Street and The Electric Company (b. 1937)
- February 21 – Moshe Unna, Israeli politician (b. 1902)
- February 24 – Sparky Adams, American baseball player (b.
- February 26 – Roy Eldridge, American musician (b. 1911)
- February 27 – Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (b.
- February 27 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient
of the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- March 6 – Harry
Andrews, British actor (b. 1911)
- March 8 – Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician
- March 9 – Robert Mapplethorpe, American
photographer (b. 1946)
- March 11 – James
Kee, American politician (b. 1917)
- March 12 – Maurice Evans, English actor (b.
- March 14 – Edward Abbey, American author and
environmentalist (b. 1927)
- March 14 – Stephen D. Bechtel, Sr., American businessman
- March 14 – Empress Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Wife of Emperor
Franz Joseph I, last Empress of
Austria (b. 1892)
- March 17 – Merritt Butrick, American actor (b. 1959)
- March 19 – Alan
Civil, English French horn player (b. 1929)
- March 21 – Milton Frome, American actor (b. 1909)
- March 27 – May
Allison, American actress (b. 1890)
- March 27 – Malcolm Cowley, American author (b. 1898)
- March 27 – Jack Starrett, American actor and director (b.
- March 27 – Scott Safran, Arcade game world record holder
- March 29 – Bernard Blier, French actor (b. 1916)
- April 1 – George Robledo, Chilean soccer player (b.
- April 9 – Moshe
Ziffer, Israeli sculptor (b. 1902)
- April 12 – Gerald Flood, British actor (b. 1927)
- April 12 – Abbie Hoffman, American political activist (b.
- April 12 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b.
- April 15 – Hu
Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1915)
- April 15 – Charles Vanel, French actor (b. 1892)
- April 16 – Jocko Conlan, baseball player and umpire (b.
- April 19 – Daphne du Maurier, English writer (b.
- April 21 – Princess Deokhye, Princess of Korea (b.
- April 21 – James Kirkwood, Jr., American playwright
- April 22 – Emilio G. Segrè, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- April 25 – George Coulouris, English actor (b.
- April 26 – Lucille Ball, American entertainer (b. 1911)
- April 27 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese
industrialist (b. 1894)
- April 30 – Sergio Leone, Italian film director (b.
- April 30 – Bangja, Crown Princess
Euimin of Korea, (b. 1901)
- May 1 – Sally Kirkland, fashion editor at
LIFE (b. 1912)
- May 3 – Christine Jorgensen, transgendered
actress, singer, and writer (b. 1926)
- May 7 – Guy
Williams, American actor (b. 1924)
- May 9 – Keith
Whitley, American singer (b. 1955)
- May 15 – Johnny
Green, American songwriter (b. 1908)
- May 19 – C.
James, Trinidadian writer and
journalist (b. 1901)
- May 19 – Robert
Webber, American actor (b. 1924)
- May 20 – Anton
Diffring, German actor (b. 1918)
- May 20 – John
Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- May 20 – Gilda
Radner, American comedian and actress (b. 1946)
- May 29 – John
Cipollina, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service)
- May 30 – James Harry Lacey, British World War II RAF Fighter pilot (b. 1917)
- June 3 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran (b. 1900)
- June 3 – John
McCauley, NHL official
- June 4 – Dik
Browne, American cartoonist (b. 1917)
- June 7 – Don the Beachcomber, American
restaurateur (b. 1907)
- June 9 – George Wells Beadle, American
geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine (b. 1903)
- June 10 – Richard Quine, American actor (b. 1920)
- June 13 – Fran
Allison, actress (b. 1907)
- June 15 – Victor French, American actor and director (b.
- June 17 – John
Matuszak, American football player and actor (b. 1950)
- June 20 – Hilmar Baunsgaard, Danish politician (b.
- June 22 – Lee
Calhoun, American Olympic athlete (b. 1933)
- June 22 – Menahem Stern, Israeli historian (b. 1925)
- June 24 – Hibari Misora, Japanese singer (b. 1937)
- June 27 – Alfred
Ayer, British philosopher (b. 1910)
- June 27 – Jack
Buetel, American actor (b. 1915)
- June 28 – Joris
Ivens, Dutch filmmaker (b. 1898)
- July 2 – Andrei
Gromyko, former USSR politician, diplomat(b. 1909)
- July 2 – Ben
Wright, English Actor in radio, film and television(b. 1915)
- July 2 – Franklin Schaffner, American film
director (b. 1920)
- July 3 – Jim
Backus, American actor (b. 1913)
- July 6 – János Kádár, Hungarian dictator
- July 10 – Mel
Blanc, American voice actor (b. 1908)
- July 11 – Laurence Olivier, prolific English stage
and screen actor and director (b. 1907)
- July 15 – Laurie Cunningham, English footballer (b.
- July 16 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor
- July 17 – Itubwa
Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (b. 1922)
- July 18 – Donnie
Moore, baseball player (suicide) (b. 1954)
- July 18 – Rebecca Schaeffer, American actress (b.
- July 19 – Kazimierz Sabbat, Polish president (b.
- July 20 – Forrest H. Anderson, American politician (b.
- July 22 – Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (b. 1935)
- July 23 – Donald Barthelme, American writer (b.
- July 23 – Michael Sundin, English television presenter
- July 24 – Ernie Morrison, American actor (b. 1912)
- July 30 – Lane
Frost, American bull rider (b. 1963)
- August 1 – John
Ogdon, English pianist (b. 1937)
- August 4 – Maurice Colbourne, British actor (b.
- August 4 – Franziska Liebing, Swedish actress (b.
- August 7 – Mickey Leland, American congressman (b.
- August 12 – William Shockley, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
- August 13 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (b.
- August 14 – Robert Bernard Anderson, American
political figure (b. 1910)
- August 16 – Jean-Hilaire Aubame, French-Gabonese
politician (b. 1912)
- August 16 – Amanda Blake, American actress (b. 1929)
- August 20 – George Adamson, Indian-born conservationist
(assassinated) (b. 1906)
- August 20 – Joseph LaShelle, American cinematographer
- August 21 – Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)
- August 22 – John
Clyne, Canadian jurist (b. 1902)
- August 22 – Diana Vreeland, American fashion editor (b.
- August 22 – Huey P. Newton,
co-founder of the Black Panther
Party (murdered) (b. 1942)
- August 23 – Ronald David Laing, Scottish psychiatrist
- August 26 – Irving Stone, American writer (b. 1903)
- August 29 – Peter Scott, English naturalist, artist, and
explorer (b. 1909)
- August 30 – Joe
Collins, baseball player (b. 1922)
- September 1 – A. Bartlett Giamatti, American President
of Yale University and MLB
Commissioner (b. 1938)
- September 4 – Georges Simenon, Belgian writer (b. 1903)
- September 4 – Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and
historian (b. 1903)
- September 8 – Barry Sadler, American author and musician (b.
- September 14 – Dámaso Pérez Prado, Cuban
musician (b. 1916)
- September 15 – Robert Penn Warren, American writer (b.
- September 17 – Hugh Quincy Alexander, American
politician (b. 1911)
- September 22 – Irving Berlin, American composer (b. 1888)
- September 28 – Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines
- September 30 – Horace Alexander, English writer, pacifist,
and ornithologist (b. 1889)
- September 30 – Virgil Thomson, American composer (b.
- October 4 – Graham Chapman, English comedian (Monty
Python) (b. 1941)
- October 6 – Bette Davis, American actress (b. 1908)
- October 9 – Penny Lernoux, American journalist and author
- October 11 – M. King
Hubbert, American geophysicist (b. 1903)
- October 16 – Scott O'Dell, children's writer and winner of 5
Newbery Awards (b. 1898)
- October 16 – Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
- October 20 – Dahn Ben-Amotz, Israeli joyrnalist and author
- October 20 – Anthony Quayle, English actor (b. 1913)
- October 22 – Roland Winters, American actor (b. 1904)
- October 25 – Mary McCarthy, American writer (b.
- October 26 – Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- October 30 – Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (b.
- November 1 – Sadie Tanner Mossell
Alexander, American civil rights activist (b. 1898)
- November 3 – Timoci Bavadra, Fiji physician and politician
- November 5 – Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (b.
- November 11 – Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr.,
Canadian minister and librarian (b. 1912)
- November 12 – Sourou Migan Apithy, Beninese political
figure (b. 1913)
- November 13 – Victor Davis, Canadian Olympic swimmer (b.
- November 13 – Franz Joseph II,
14th Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein (b. 1906)
- November 20 – Lynn Bari, American actress (b. 1913)
- November 22 – C. C. Beck, American cartoonist (b. 1910)
- November 25 – George Cakobau, Fiji Governor General (b.
- November 26 – Ahmed Abdallah, Comorian politician (b.
- November 29 – Gubby Allen, English cricketer (b. 1902)
- November 30 – Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroonian politician (b.
- December 1 – Alvin Ailey, American dancer and choreographer
- December 2 – Ray Morehart, American baseball player (b.
- December 5 – John Pritchard, English conductor
- December 6 – Frances Bavier, American actress (b. 1902)
- December 6 – Sammy Fain, American composer (b. 1902)
- December 6 – Marc Lépine, Canadian mass murderer (b.
- December 6 – John Payne, American actor (b. 1912)
- December 8 – Mikhail Katukov, Russian war hero (b.
- December 11 – Lindsay Crosby, American singer and actor (b.
- December 14 – Jock Mahoney, American actor (b. 1919)
- December 14 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and
activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace
Prize (declined) (b. 1921)
- December 15 – Edward Underdown, stage and film veteran
- December 16 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (b.
- December 16 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (b. 1895)
- December 16 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (b. 1925)
- December 20 – Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
- December 21 – Ján Cikker, Slovak composer (b. 1911)
- December 22 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- December 25 – Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator
(executed) (b. 1918)
- December 25 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and
manager (b. 1928)
- December 30 – Yasuji Miyazaki, Japanese Olympic swimmer