George HW Bush is Vice President. Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, CA. Bill Clements is Governor of Texas. Ann Richards is the Texas State Treasurer and delivers the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Federal Minimum Wage is $3.35 per hour. Unemployment is 5.5%
A postage stamp costs 22¢ and increases to 25¢ in April. Girl Scout cookies cost $2 per box. Average cost
of regular gasoline is $1.08. Average cost of a new car is $10,400. The Acura Integra is the top rated car. Average home costs $61,020. CD’s outsell vinyl records for the first time. population is 244,498,982 (2010 estimate is 288,000,000). Life expectancy is 74.9 years (2010 expectancy is 78.3). Movies: Rain Man, Biloxi Blues, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Die Hard. Songs: Faith (George Michael), Need You Tonight (INSX), Got My Mind Set on You (George Harrison). New TV Shows: China Beach, 48 Hours, The Wonder Years, America’s Most Wanted, Roseanne, and Murphy Brown. NASA begins the Shuttle program with the launch of Discovery, the first since Challenger exploded shortly after launch in 1986. The worst air show disaster kills 67 and injures 346 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Over 1/3 of Yellowstone National Park is destroyed by fire. Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland. Deaths: Andy Gibb, Billy Carter, Christine Onassis. Births: Rumor Willis (daughter Bruce Willis & Demi Moore), Brooke Hogan (daughter of Hulk Hogan), Greg Oden (NBA player, drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers). TAT-8, the first transatlantic telephone cable using optical fibers, is completed. Prozac is sold for the first time as an anti-depressant. Chevrolet introduces the Geo Tracker as a 1989 model. TECHNOLOGY:
About 15% of households have a computer. The Tandy 1000TL home computer costs $1400. Toshiba’s T1200H, a laptop, cost $4098, and weighs 14 pounds. PC’s come with DOS, Windows 2.0 is a $99 option. CompuServe is a dial-up connection with access to 400 databases, access cost is $6 - $47.50 per hour. AOL is launched in 1989, and the web followed in 1993. About 800,000 people have cell phones. The Motorola Dyna TAC 8500XL cell phone cost $2500 and weighs almost 2 pounds. A cell phone bills is typically $100-$150 with a charge of 50¢ per minute. Pioneer introduces the CLD-1010 Laserdisc Player. Laserdiscs will later be replaced by the DVD. Nintendo NES is the top selling game system at $200. The Sega Genesis game system will be released next year. Atari introduces Tetris and Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. 2 in the U.S. SPORTS:
Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea. Winter Olympics are held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Winners at Wimbledon are Stefan Edberg and Steffi Graf (her first of seven). Open Golf Champion Curtis Strange defeats Nick Faldo in an 18 hole playoff round. Super Bowl XXII, Washington Redskins defeat Denver Broncos, 42 – 10. World Series, LA Dodgers defeat Oakland A’s, 4 games to 1. NASCAR, Bill Elliott is the Winston Cup Champion. Dallas Cowboys, Steve Pelluer is quarterback and finishes the season 3-13. This is Tom Landry’s last season to coach the Cowboys. Houston Astros, Craig Biggio joins the team, as catcher. LOCAL NEWS:
Larry Brown makes his debut as the new head coach of the Spurs and will go from worst to first in the 1989 season when David Robinson makes his debut. Spurs player Willie Anderson is runner-up Rookie of the Year. Henry Cisneros is mayor (1981-1989). According to the 1980 census, San Antonio’s population is 988,800 (2010 estimate 1,300,000). SeaWorld of Texas opens, and later changes their name to SeaWorld Adventure Park San Antonio. Fiesta Texas will open its doors four years later. The Alamodome is in the planning stage, with construction to begin in 1990.
