1989
Dissident Vaclav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia
Drug cartels in Columbia assassinate leading presidential candidate
Berlin Wall falls
Massacre in Tiananmen Square
Federal government bails out savings-and-loan banks
"Imago" by Octavia Butler
"Lyndon" by David Foster Wallace
"The Rainbow Stories" by William T. Vollmann
"Woman, Native, Other" by Trinh T. Minh-ha
"Do the Right Thing," directed by Spike Lee
"The Simpsons" premieres