1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 4
While hosting Game 4 on NBC, Bob Costas angered many members of the Dodgers (especially manager Tommy Lasorda) by commenting before the start of the game that the Dodgers quite possibly were about to put up the weakest-hitting lineup in World Series history. That comment ironically fired up the competitive spirit of the Dodgers. Later (while being interviewed by NBC's Marv Albert), after the Dodgers had won Game 4, Lasorda sarcastically suggested that the MVP of the 1988 World Series should be Bob Costas.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
Orel Hershiser capped one of the greatest seasons ever by a starting pitcher and one of the most improbable World Series wins in history by pitching a complete game, allowing only four hits, two runs, and striking out nine. Stan Javier had both RBIs with a single and a sac fly.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
In addition to Hershiser's performance, the Dodgers won because Mickey Hatcher stepped in for the hobbled Kirk Gibson in left field and provided spark, enthusiasm, and unexpected offense. He blasted his second home run in the Series off Oakland starter Storm Davis, a two-run shot, in the first inning; he had hit only one home run in the entire 1988 regular season.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
Mike Davis, a disappointing free-agent signing for most of the 1988 season, added a two-run blast (on a 3-0 count) in the fourth off Davis, and former World Series MVP Rick Dempsey, filling in for an injured Mike Scioscia, drove in Davis with an RBI double in the sixth.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
The only drama of the game briefly arose in the 8th inning: after Javier's single brought the lead to 5-2, Hershiser walked Dave Henderson to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of 42-homer man José Canseco. Hershiser got him to pop out, and struck out Dave Parker to end the threat. He struck out Tony Phillips for the final out to give the Dodgers their first World Championship since 1981.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
The Dodger pitching tamed Oakland monsters José Canseco (one hit, his grand slam in Game 1) and Mark McGwire (one hit and one RBI, which came in Game 3) for the entire series.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
The Dodgers became the first (and so far only) team to have a perfect game pitched against them and win a World Series in the same season. Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds pitched that perfect game on September 16, 1988.


1988 World Series, Matchups, Game 5
With the Lakers winning their fifth NBA championship in nine years four months before, the Dodgers winning the World Series made Los Angeles the first city to have both NBA and World Series champions in the same year. This accomplishment would be repeated in 2020, with the same two teams winning their respective championships again.


1988 World Series, Composite line score
1988 World Series (4–1): Los Angeles Dodgers (N.L.) over Oakland Athletics (A.L.)


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage
The 1988 World Series marked the last time that NBC would televise a World Series for seven years. Beginning in 1990, NBC would be shut out of Major League Baseball coverage completely, after CBS signed a four-year, exclusive television contract. After splitting coverage of the 1995 World Series with ABC, NBC would next cover a World Series exclusively in 1997.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage
Longtime Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully called the Series for NBC along with Joe Garagiola; this was the last World Series that Scully would call on television (although he would subsequently call several more on CBS Radio) and the final Series broadcast on either medium for Garagiola. According to Scully (during an interview on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury profile on Dennis Eckersley), when he saw Kirk Gibson walk up to the plate, he seemed to be using his bat as a cane.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage
When NBC returned from a commercial break at the start of the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1, Scully commented (as NBC's cameras were panning the Dodgers' dugout) that Gibson (who wasn't in the dugout at the time) wouldn't play for sure. According to Gibson, Scully's comments in large part influenced his decision to want to bat.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage
As previously mentioned, Bob Costas, who along with Marv Albert, hosted NBC's World Series pregame coverage and handled postgame interviews made on-air statements that enraged many in the Dodgers' clubhouse (especially manager Tommy Lasorda). Costas said that the 1988 Dodgers possibly had the weakest hitting line-up in World Series history. After the Dodgers won Game 4, Lasorda (during a postgame interview with Marv Albert) sarcastically said that the MVP of the World Series should be Bob Costas.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage
On the radio side, Jack Buck and Bill White provided commentary for CBS Radio. This was Buck's sixth World Series call for CBS Radio and White's fifth. It was White's last World Series as a broadcaster, as he replaced Bart Giamatti as President of the National League shortly after the World Series. As previously mentioned, he had been part of the broadcast team for a total of six World Series, four of which involved his primary employers, the New York Yankees.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage
The Series was also broadcast by the teams' local flagship radio stations using their own announcers. In the San Francisco Bay Area, KSFO aired the games with Bill King and Lon Simmons announcing, while in Los Angeles, KABC aired the games with Ross Porter and Don Drysdale announcing.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage, WMGT Intrusion
On October 17, 1988, The Atlanta Constitution reported that NBC affiliate WMGT based in Macon, Georgia was hijacked during Game 1, which was taken 2 days prior. The Atlanta Constitution reported that portions of the second inning of WMGT's broadcast were hijacked with an adult program (more proportionally a snippet of one of the premium channels) was shown on-air for 10 seconds. An unidentified technician from WMGT was then later fired by WMGT-TV's staff. The incident was then recalled a few days later that an investigation takes place at WMGT's studio building due to the horrific incident during the World Series. The production manager for WMGT, L.A. Sturdivant, told The Atlanta Constitution that the incident was "just an accident and not deliberated planned".


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage, WMGT Intrusion
Despite footage of the hijack remains lost through time, television listings reported that HBO, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, or Showtime were all showing G to PG-13 rated films right at the time the second inning was played, and all 4 channels were part of Macon's Cox Cable systems. Due to the harm of explicit content, it was possible that WMGT accidentally hijacked and plastered NBC's broadcast of the second inning with a snippet of the Playboy Channel off of a C-band satellite antenna for 10 seconds before plastering back to the World Series.


1988 World Series, Television and radio coverage, WMGT Intrusion
Sturdivant received many phone calls from WMGT's studios in Macon telling that the hijack lasted a minimum of 3 seconds and a maximum of 30 seconds, but The Atlanta Constitutional reports on the finalized timing that the hijack had lasted for 10 seconds. He told the Constitutional that "it's being treated as a serious matter".


1988 World Series, Aftermath
This was the last World Series that Peter Ueberroth presided over as commissioner. Incidentally, Ueberroth rose to prominence for organizing the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.


1988 World Series, Aftermath
Following this confrontation, both teams appeared on Family Feud with Ray Combs for a special sweeps week billed as a World Series Rematch.


1988 World Series, Aftermath
The Dodgers would not make another World Series appearance until 2017, where they would lose in seven games against the Houston Astros, who won their first World Series title (marred by a cheating scandal). The Dodgers would make another World Series appearance the following year in 2018, but lost to the Boston Red Sox in five games, marking the first time the Dodgers lost back-to-back World Series since 1977 and 1978, where they lost both World Series to the New York Yankees. They wouldn't win another World Series until 2020.


1988 World Series, Aftermath
The A's made it to the World Series the next two years, winning the 1989 "Loma Prieta earthquake" series 4-0 vs. the San Francisco Giants and being swept by the Cincinnati Reds 4–0 in 1990. The A's haven't appeared in the World Series since. The closest the A's have gotten to the World Series since that time was in 1992, when they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series in six games and 2006, when they lost to the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS in a four-game sweep.


1988 World Series, Aftermath
The Dodgers World Series capped off a spectacular decade of sports for the city of Los Angeles. As mentioned above, Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Summer Olympics, its first since hosting the 1932 Summer Olympics. In terms of team sports, the Lakers won five NBA championships in the decade (including one in 1988), the Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles and won the city's first (and to date, only) Super Bowl, and the Los Angeles Kings traded for Wayne Gretzky in August 1988, who was even at that time considered the greatest hockey player ever. For their part, the Dodgers won two World Series in the 1980s. 32 years later in 2020, the Dodgers and Lakers would again win a World Series and NBA Finals in the same season.


1988 World Series of Poker
The 1988 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe between 5th May, 1988, and 21st May, 1988.


1988 World Series of Poker, Main Event
There were 167 entrants to the main event on 16th May, 1988. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. The 1988 Main Event was the second consecutive World Championship for Johnny Chan. The final hand that featured Chan against Erik Seidel would be featured in the 1998 movie Rounders.


1988 World Series of Poker, Main Event, Other High Finishes
NB: This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.


1988 World Snooker Championship
The 1988 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1988 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 1988 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), it was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1987–88 snooker season and the twelfth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament there having taken place in 1977.


1988 World Snooker Championship
A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988 for 113 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The winner received £95,000 from the total prize fund of £475,000.


1988 World Snooker Championship
The defending champion was Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship four times. He met the 1979 champion Terry Griffiths in the final, which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis won the match 18–11, after the pair had been level at 8–8 at the end of the first day of the final. Steve James scored the championship's highest break, a 140, in his first-round match. There were 18 century breaks compiled during the championship.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Overview
The World Snooker Championship is an annual professional snooker tournament organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the cue sport gained popularity in the British Isles in the 1920s and 1930s. In the modern era, which started in 1969 when the World Championship reverted to a knockout format, it has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Overview
Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, organised by the Billiards Association and Control Council, the final match being held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The 1988 championship featured 32 professional players competing in one-on-one snooker matches in a single-elimination format, each match played over several frames.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Overview
These competitors in the main tournament were selected using a combination of the top players in the snooker world rankings and the winners of a pre-tournament qualification stage that took place at Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988. The qualifying competition consisted of five knockout rounds, all contested as the best-of-19-frames, including a single preliminary round match. There were 113 players involved in the qualifying competition, which produced 16 players who each faced one of the top 16 players in the world rankings in the first round of the main event. The rounds held at the Crucible Theatre were broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC. The 1988 championship was sponsored by cigarette brand Embassy, and was also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Overview, Prize fund
The tournament featured a total prize fund of £475,000, with £95,000 awarded to the winner. The prize money allocation is shown below. An award of £90,000 would have been made to a player making a maximum break.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Qualifying
Qualifying matches took place at Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988. The qualifying competition consisted of five knockout rounds, including a single preliminary round match, starting with 113 players, and all qualifying matches were played as best-of-19-frames. American pool player Steve Mizerak made his competitive snooker debut in the preliminary round, losing 3–10 to Anthony Harris. On the first day of the qualifying competition, Billy Kelly established a new record highest break for world championship qualifying, compiling a 141 in the sixth frame of his match against Tony Kearney.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Qualifying
Kelly won 10–4, concluding with a 76 break in the 14th frame. Alain Robidoux had walkovers against Frank Jonik, who withdrew due to problems with his back, and Robbie Grace, who was unable to travel from South Africa, which meant Robidoux earnt a ranking merit point that enabled him to gain full professional status for the following season. He lost 2–10 to Bill Oliver in the third round.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Qualifying
Dene O'Kane, a quarter-finalist in 1987, led 9–8 against Eddie Sinclair but lost 9–10. Oliver eliminated six-time champion Ray Reardon 10–4 before losing 6–10 to Cliff Wilson. It was the first time in his career that Reardon had failed to qualify for the main event. Returning to snooker after a four-month absence during which he had been treated in a Canadian clinic for cocaine addiction, Kirk Stevens defeated Mark Bennett 10–7. Eight-time champion Fred Davis, aged 74, progressed past Jack Fitzmaurice, 10–8, and Jim Bear, 10–4, before losing 3–10 to John Campbell in the last qualifying round. John Spencer, three-times world champion, was eliminated 7–10 by Warren King at the same stage.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Qualifying
Four players, Steve James, Bob Chaperon, Tony Drago and Peter Francisco, qualified for the main event for the first time. James received a walkover against Terry Whitthread in the first round, and eliminated Joe O'Boye, Paddy Browne and Eugene Hughes; Chaperon defeated Robert Marshall, Tommy Murphy and David Taylor; Drago won against Tony Chappel; and Francisco eliminated Robby Foldvari.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
The first round took place between 16 and 21 April, each match played over two sessions as the best of 19 frames. Davis, who had won three of the five ranking events during the season leading up to the world championship, was Coral bookmakers' pre-tournament favourite to win, with odds of 5/4. Stephen Hendry, winner of the other two ranking tournaments, was second favourite at 4/1. They were followed by Jimmy White at 8/1 and John Parrott at 10/1.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
Davis won a closely contested match against John Virgo, finally prevailing 10–8. Mike Hallett was 8–1 ahead of Chaperon at the end of their first session, and completed a 10–2 victory. Alex Higgins, who won the competition in 1972 and 1982, had been banned (in April 1987) from the first two ranking events of the season, as part of a punishment imposed by the WPBSA for behaviour including headbutting the tournament director at the 1986 UK Championship.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
He trailed Drago 2–7 after their first session, and after being defeated 2–10, lost his place in the elite top 16 of the snooker world rankings for the first time since rankings were introduced in 1976. The 1985 champion Taylor was 4–5 behind to Bill Werbeniuk as their first session ended. After their second session the following morning was stopped due to over-running as a result of lengthy tactical exchanges and several delays whilst Werbeniuk made visits to the toilet during frames, eventually prevailed 10–8 when it was reconvened. This was Werbeniuk's last appearance at the World Snooker Championship finals.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
Joe Johnson, champion in 1986 and runner-up in 1987, knocked out Wilson 10–7. Nine days after suffering a serious road traffic accident that wrote off his car, James compiled a break of 140, and another of 104, on his way to defeating Rex Williams 10–6. In the opening frame against King, Parrott produced a break of 80, which turned out to be his only break above 40 as he won 10–4.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
Cliff Thorburn, the champion in 1980 and the first player to make a maximum break in the championship, in 1983, was only able to compete after his lawyers managed to postpone a disciplinary hearing relating to his failed drug test at the 1988 British Open. He eliminated Stevens, who had undergone voluntary treatment for cocaine addiction and fell from fourth place to outside the top 32 in the rankings during the season. Thorburn won the match 10–6.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
From 3–3 against Wayne Jones, Neal Foulds led  6–3 at the end of the first session and progressed by winning 10–7. Doug Mountjoy recorded a 10–6 win against Barry West, and Willie Thorne won by the same score against Peter Francisco. Steve Longworth won only a single frame as he went out 1–10 to the 1979 champion Terry Griffiths.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, First round
Tony Knowles eliminated Danny Fowler 10–8. Silvino Francisco made breaks of 91, 109 and 105 against Eddie Charlton in their first session, but still ended it 4–5 behind. Charlton, playing with a cue stick that he had only started using earlier that year, won 10–7. Hendry led Dean Reynolds 6–3 and 7–6, taking the last three frames to progress at 10–6. After winning the first seven frames against Campbell, White achieved a 10–3 victory.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Second round
The second round, which took place between 21 and 25 April, was played as best-of-25-frames matches spread over three sessions. Davis finished a 13–1 defeat of Hallett with a break of 106. This result matched the heaviest defeat ever recorded in the world snooker championship at the Crucible, Davis's 18–6 victory over Thorburn in the 1983 final. Drago, having defeated a former world champion in the first round, knocked out another in the second round, winning 13–5 against Dennis Taylor. James compiled a break of 112 in the last frame of the first session against Johnson and led 7–1. During the second session, he increased this to 11–3. Johnson won the last two frames of the second session, and the first four frames of the third session, before James took two consecutive frames to qualify 13–9. Thorburn Parrott 13–10, after the pair had been level at 6–6 and 7–7.}}


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Second round
Foulds equalled Davis's record for an emphatic victory at the Crucible, and had a break of 102, eliminating Mountjoy 13–1; Mountjoy's failure to progress further meant that he lost his place in the top 16 of the rankings. Griffiths reached the quarter-finals for the fifth year in succession, going from 9–9 to 13–9 against Thorne and concluding with a 101 break in the 22nd frame. Knowles led Charlton 12–4 as they started the third session, and won 13–7.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Second round
White finished the first session against Hendry 5–3 ahead, with the pair both preferring attempts to pot balls rather than play safety shots. White added the first frame of the second session, before Hendry won six frames in a row, including breaks of 52, 79, 125, 56 and 101, thus led 9–6. White took the final frame of the second session. In the third session, Hendry claimed the first frame to lead 10–7. White replied with breaks of 62, 50, 78 and 71, to take the lead at 11–10.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Second round
A 108 break from Hendry made it 11–11, but he scored no points in the 23rd frame as White moved ahead again. On a break of 43 in the 24th frame, White miscued, and Hendry won the frame after a break of 48. In the deciding frame, White started a break of 86 by potting a long-range red ball, and prevailed 13–12 in the match. In all, the match featured twenty breaks of 50 or more, including three century breaks.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Second round
The match was re-shown on BBC Two on 23 April 2020 in a series called Crucible Classics shown in place of the 2020 World Snooker Championship which was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first of seven Crucible matches between White and Hendry over the following decade, including four finals, with White not winning one of the encounters again until their seventh world championship clash in 1998.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Quarter-finals
The quarter-finals were played as best-of-25-frames matches over three sessions on 26 and 27 April. Davis led Drago 3–2, and then won the next four frames scoring a total of 271 points whilst Drago scored none. Drago took the tenth frame, but from 3–7 was later one frame from defeat at 3–12. However, in the 16th frame, Davis snookered himself whilst on a break of 61, and Drago recovered to win that frame. The third session consisted of a single frame, as Davis completed a 13–4 victory.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Quarter-finals
After the eight frames of the first session between Thorburn and James, the score was 4–4. James, who the bookmakers had rated a 500/1 outsider to win the tournament at the start, was still level at 6–6 but lost 11–13. During the match he compiled a break of 103, his fourth century break of the competition.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Quarter-finals
Griffiths reached the quarter-finals for the first time since he won the title in 1979 by eliminating Foulds 13–9, having been 1–3 behind. White lost the opening frame, but took a 7–1 lead over Knowles in their first session. After extending this lead to 10–2, White later commented "I did the worst thing possible. I started playing to the crowd." Knowles won four consecutive frames, compiling a break of 124 in the process, to trail 6–10. White responded by winning the next three to progress 13–6.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Semi-finals
The semi-finals took place between 28 and 30 April as best-of-31-frames matches played over four sessions. Thorburn won the first frame against Davis with a clearance of 32, but lost the second on a re-spotted black despite having made a break of 62. Davis took the next three frames, one with a break of 103, and ended the first session 4–3 ahead after Thorburn won the last two frames. During the second session, the players were level at 6–6 before Davis moved into an 8–6 lead, increasing this to 11–6 by taking the first three frames of the third session.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Semi-finals
Breaks of 77 and 49 in the 18th frame, and a narrow win in the 19th frame, saw Thorburn move to 8–11. Thorburn led by 57 points in the twentieth frame, but conceded 4 points by accidentally missing the red balls when playing a safety shot, and Davis compiled a break of 54 to clinch the frame by a single point, finishing the session 14–8 ahead after winning the last two frames. Davis won the first two frames of the fourth session to complete a 16–8 victory.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Semi-finals
White won the first two frames against Griffiths, compiling a break of 83 in the second, and made it 3–1 after Griffiths had won the third frame. Griffiths reduced White's advantage to one frame with a fifth frame break of 114. In the next frame, Griffiths missed a red to allow White in and gain the frame. Griffiths won the following two frames and first session ended level at 4–4. During the second session, White compiled breaks of 44, 77 and 83 whilst gaining a 7–6 lead.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Semi-finals
Griffiths replied with breaks of 32, 71 and 61 during the session's last two frames, and took the lead at 8–7. The third session included a 119 break from White in the 17th frame, and saw Griffiths increase his lead to 12–10. Griffiths fluked a red in the first frame of the fourth session and went on to compile a winning break of 78. White responded with a 69 break to gain the following frame, making it 13–11 to Griffiths. After potting a re-spotted black to go 14–11 ahead, Griffith added the following two frames, winning 16–11.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
The final between Davis and Griffiths took place on 1 and 2 May, as a best-of-35-frames match played over four sessions. It was Davis's sixth successive final, and Griffith's first since his win in 1979. Davis had won fifteen of the previous nineteen matches between the pair.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
Griffiths won the first frame before missing an easy blue ball in the second frame that allowed Davis in to equalise at 1–1. Davis then won the next four frames, with Griffiths taking the last frame of the first afternoon session to finish it 2–5 behind. In the second session, Griffiths won the first frame after a break of 34. Davis followed this by taking the next two frames with breaks of 83 and 81 to lead 7–3. Griffiths equalised at 7–7, making breaks of 30, 49, 63 and 55. Davis took the lead back with a break of 66 in the 15th frame, but a fluke on a red by Griffiths and a later miss on a red by Davis contributed to Griffiths equalising at 8–8 at the session's end.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
Davis missed some easy pots at the start of the third session, but still won the first three frames to lead 11–8 as Griffiths made several errors. Griffiths took the 20th frame with a break of 46, but Davis restored a three-frame advantage with breaks of 33 and 36 in the 21st frame. In the 22nd frame, Griffiths laid a snooker and obtained the penalty points from Davis that he would have required to win the frame, but then missed in an attempt to pot the black ball and lost the frame as Davis moved to a 13–9 lead. A break of 57 by Griffiths won him a frame to reduce Davis's lead to 13–10, and he led 41–0 in the next frame before Davis compiled a 92 break to lead 14–10 at the end of the session.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
In the fourth session, Davis won the opening frame after making a break of 46, and then won two of the next three frames with breaks of 118 and 123. In the 29th frame, Griffiths missed a black from its spot, and Davis went on to win the frame with a break of 66 and take the title, achieving victory at 18–11.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
Clive Everton, who played in the qualifying rounds of the tournament, wrote in The Guardian that, despite Griffiths equalising at 7–7 by winning four consecutive frames, "it was not a vintage final." The Benson and Hedges Snooker Year report of the championship concluded that "The final was never a classic but merely emphasized Davis's superiority and grip on the world of professional snooker." Griffiths, who was the oldest world snooker championship finalist since Reardon in 1982, said "My long potting got me to the final. But in the end it let me down.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
Steve's safety is so good that you have to make the long potting count and I didn't which was the most disappointing part of my performance in the final." This was Davis's fifth world championship win, leaving him one behind Reardon's record total of six titles in the modern era. Davis commented "You are always delighted to win a world championship, and I'm not thinking about records. All I know is I keep coming back to the World Championship, which is two and a half weeks of agony and turmoil and trauma."


1988 World Snooker Championship, Tournament summary, Final
It was Davis's fourth win in six ranking tournaments in the 1987–88 snooker season,  a period in which he also won the 1988 Masters and the 1988 Irish Masters, and he became first player to win all of the snooker "Triple Crown" events in a single season. His prize money earnings for the season were £425,000, and he retained his top position in the end of year rankings with 59 points, ahead of White in second on 44 points. Griffiths, with 33 points, was fifth, one place higher than in the previous ranking list.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Main draw
Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in brackets denote player seedings, whilst match winners are denoted in bold.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Qualifying
A preliminary round match, and four rounds of qualification for the main draw, were played at the Guild Hall in Preston, England from 22 March to 2 April 1988. Match winners are denoted in bold.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Century breaks
There were 18 century breaks in the championship, the highest being 140 compiled by Steve James. James's performance at the championship earned him the WPBSA's Most Memorable Performance of the Year award, and he shared the Association's Highest Televised Break of the Year award with Steve Davis, who had compiled a break of 140 at the 1987 International Open.


1988 World Snooker Championship, Century breaks, Qualifying stages
There were twenty century breaks in the qualifying stages, the highest of which was 141 compiled by Billy Kelly.


1988 World Sports Acrobatics Championships
The 8th World Sports Acrobatics Championships were held in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1988.


1988 World Sportscar Championship
The 1988 World Sportscar Championship season was the 36th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured the 1988 FIA World Sports Prototype Championship which was open to FIA Group C and Group C2 cars and to IMSA GTP, GTX, GTO and GTU cars. The championship was contested over an eleven race series which ran from 6 March to 20 November 1988.


1988 World Sportscar Championship
Martin Brundle was awarded the World Sports Prototype Championship for Drivers, Gordon Spice and Ray Bellm jointly won the FIA Cup for Group C2 Drivers, Silk Cut Jaguar was awarded the World Sports Prototype Championship for Teams and Spice Engineering won the FIA Cup for Group C2 Teams.


1988 World Sportscar Championship, Results and standings, Race results
In order to be classified for points, a team had to complete 90% of the winner's distance. Further, drivers were required to complete at least 30% of their car's total race distance to qualify for championship points. Drivers forfeited points if they drove in more than one car during the race. Group C2 drivers earned extra championship points for any finish within the overall top ten positions.


1988 World Sportscar Championship, Results and standings, Drivers championships
The respective driver championships only counted each driver's seven highest scores toward the final championship total. Points not counted toward the driver's tally are marked with parenthesis.


1988 World Weightlifting Championships
The 1988 Women's World Weightlifting Championships were held in Jakarta, Indonesia from December 2 to December 4, 1988. There were 103 women in action from 23 nations.


1988 World Weightlifting Championships, Medal table
Ranking by all medals: Big (Total result) and Small (Snatch and Clean & Jerk)


1988 World Women's Curling Championship
The 1988 World Women's Curling Championship was held in Glasgow, Scotland from 2–10 April 1988.


1988 World Women's Curling Championship
West Germany, skipped by Andrea Schöpp defeated Canada in the final to claim Germany's first ever women's world championship in curling.


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Heather Houston Third: Lorraine Lang Second: Diane Adams Lead: Tracy Kennedy


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Fourth: Helena Blach Third: Malene Krause Skip: Lone Kristoffersen Lead: Lene x. Nielsen


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Anne Eerikäinen Third: Mari Lundén Second: Tytti Haapasaari Lead: Terhi Liukkonen


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Annick Mercier Third: Agnes Mercier Second: Andrée Dupont-RocLead: Catherine Lefebvre


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Andrea Schöpp Third: Almut Hege-Schöll Second: Monika Wagner Lead: Suzanne Fink


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Anne Jøtun Bakke Third: Hilde Jøtun Second: Ingvill Githmark Lead: Bille Sørum


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Christine Allison** Third: Margaret Scott Second: Kimmie Brown Lead: Sheena Drummie


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Erika Müller Third: Brigitte Kienast Second: Susanne Luchsinger Lead: Regula Rüegg


1988 World Women's Curling Championship, Teams
Skip : Nancy Langley Third: Nancy Pearson Second: Leslie Frosch Lead: Mary Hobson


1988 World's Strongest Man
The 1988 World's Strongest Man was the 11th edition (because there was no contest in 1987) of World's Strongest Man and was won by Jón Páll Sigmarsson from Iceland. It was his third title. 1980, 1981 and 1982 winner Bill Kazmaier from the United States finished second, and Jamie Reeves from the United Kingdom finished third. The contest was held at Budapest, Hungary.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) against major United States television and film studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike, which ran from March 7 to August 7, 1988, affected production on movies and TV shows. At 153 days, it remains the longest strike in the history of the WGA, surpassing the 1960 strike by one week and the 2007–08 strike by seven weeks.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
Formal negotiations between the writers guilds and producers began in January 1988. The main disagreements included:


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
The guilds' previous deal with producers expired on February 29, 1988. One day later, 96% of guild membership authorized a strike. On March 7, 1988, one day after rejecting a softened final offer from producers, 9,000 movie and television writers went on strike. Negotiations took place during March and April under a federal mediator but broke off before resuming on May 23, again with a federal mediator.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
After intensive bargaining, producers made a "strike settlement offer" on June 16, 1988; the offer included an extended contract term (to four years) and expansion of creative rights, but still included the percentage-based residuals studios demanded and not a foreign residual increase writers demanded. The offer was turned down by the guilds' membership by a 3–1 margin.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
During July 1988, the Guild devised an interim contract. Membership approved it, and more than 150 smaller producers signed it. Major studios and outlets including Fox, Paramount, and the "Big Three" television networks refused projects from the independents who signed the deal, leading to the Guild filing an antitrust suit accusing 18 studios and networks of mounting an illegal boycott.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
Twenty-one dissident Guild members who still favored the June 16 offer filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board to seek invalidation of Guild rules that barred them from returning to work during a strike; some dissidents threatened to resign Guild membership and return to work if the strike was not settled by July 28.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
On July 23, 1988, formal bargaining resumed, again under the auspices of federal mediators; by July 30, however, talks collapsed, with studios threatening to not bargain any further and to concentrate on producing work with non-union scripts. Behind-the-scenes "shuttle diplomacy" involving Guild negotiators, studio heads, and emissaries began on July 31 in an effort to revive talks. Guild officials and studio representatives met on August 2 to discuss the proposals, and on August 3 announced a tentative deal.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Summary
While the new deal gave studios the sliding residual scale they sought for hour-long reruns, writers won a modest financial gain when hour-long shows were sold internationally. The writers also gained creative rights regarding original screenplays and TV movies. The Guild board approved the deal by a 26–6 vote; Guild membership also approved the deal (2,111 in favor, 412 against), and the strike formally ended on August 7, 1988.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
The writers' strike forced the major TV networks to hold off the start of their fall 1988 schedule later than usual; rather than the traditional late-September/early-October start, new and returning TV series' debuts were delayed until late October and into November (one NBC series, In the Heat of the Night, and one ABC series, Thirtysomething, did not start their second seasons until early December). In the interim, the networks had to rely on a hodgepodge of programming, including reruns, movies, entertainment and news specials, program-length political advertising, and unscripted original series (e.g. CBS' High Risk).


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
Networks also benefited from sports programming, including NBC, which relied on the Summer Olympics in September and the World Series in October, and ABC, which in addition to its postseason baseball coverage, moved up the start time for the early weeks of Monday Night Football from 9 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET (MacGyver, which normally aired at 8 p.m., was not yet ready with new episodes).


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
The 1988–89 television season was the first of three television seasons to have its start delayed due to issues outside of the control of the major networks; the next two instances occurred in the 2001–02 season (due to the networks' news coverage of the September 11 attacks) and the 2020–21 season (due to the suspension of television productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
While waiting for their fall seasons to begin, the networks still had access to scripted original series. Despite refusing earlier in the summer to accept new projects from independents who settled with the Guild, TV networks gained a benefit from the Guilds' decision to offer independent contracts to producers, with the offers beginning in late May 1988. The agreements would allow producers and writers of such shows as The Cosby Show, A Different World, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Late Night with David Letterman to resume work. Johnny Carson actually resumed work on The Tonight Show before the agreement, returning with the Guild's blessing on May 11, 1988 (after Tonight was in reruns since the strike's start) without writers and with his own material; David Letterman would follow suit, returning to Late Night on June 29.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
The strike also led to a revival of Mission: Impossible; ABC, in search of original content for Fall 1988, used reworked scripts from the original version of M:I and filmed them in Australia (where production costs at the time were lower than that in the Hollywood area), making the new M:I one of the first American commercial network programs to be filmed there. NBC took a similar approach with its new sitcom Dear John, using some reworked episodes that were from the original version that aired on Britain's BBC. CBS revived The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, nearly 20 years after throwing the duo off the air for poor taste, and gave them carte blanche to perform their own existing material.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
Soap operas continued to air during the strike; however, without experienced script writers many suffered in quality. At first most stories were dragged out for as long as possible, then plots lurched forward that did not leave shows in the best of shape, including Santa Barbara, which was already struggling in ratings as a result of Bridget and Jerome Dobson being fired.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
Saturday morning programming for the 1988–1989 season was mostly unaffected, as animation writers were not part of the strike; a notable exception was CBS' live-action series Pee-wee's Playhouse, which only had two new episodes and a prime-time Christmas special that season. The animation exemption also led to several animated specials being aired, including a new Peanuts miniseries (This Is America, Charlie Brown) and an adaptation of a Garfield book, Garfield: His 9 Lives.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
The strike significantly shrunk average television audiences, and had a lasting effect.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
The strike did not, as some later claimed, lead to the advent of reality television (which did not rise to its current level of popularity until over a decade later), mainly due to the fact that it began in the traditional summer "offseason" when little new scripted programming was being produced anyway. One notable exception was COPS on the Fox television network, which was commissioned as the result of a strike and remained on Fox's Saturday night lineup until 2013 before moving to Spike, the current Paramount Network.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Television
The cancellations of Moonlighting and Kate & Allie have been attributed in part to audience loss stemming from the shows' long hiatuses due to the writers' strike.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Films
The horror film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers narrowly avoided the strike. Writer Alan B. McElroy had only 11 days in which to come up with the film's story and subsequently write the script. McElroy did just this and managed to turn the script in just hours before the strike commenced.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Films
The 1988 movie Earth Girls Are Easy was filmed during this strike; co-writer Charlie Coffey did not appear in the movie due to being on the picket lines.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Films
According to the Ultimate James Bond DVD Collection, the movie Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton, lost one of its co-writers, Richard Maibaum, so his partner Michael G. Wilson elected to finish the screenplay on his own.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Films
Sam Hamm turned in his script for 1989's Batman just days before the writer's strike began, and was unable to write further drafts due to his involvement. Director Tim Burton and others liked the script, but thought "something" was missing. As such he brought in Beetlejuice co-writers Warren Skaaren and Charles McKeown for rewrite work. Jonathan Gems did a few weeks worth of rewriting as well. All three were British as just about every single writer in America was on strike.


1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Effects of the strike, Films
Their draft introduced the Joker's role as the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents, a revelation Burton wanted from the beginning. Hamm, staying true to the source material, had refused to use the idea. One of the primary reasons as to why the filmmakers brought in McKeown was that they felt he could come up with more creative jokes for The Joker.


1988 Wyoming Cowboys football team
The 1988 Wyoming Cowboys football team represented the University of Wyoming in the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. It was the Cowboys' 93rd season and they competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The team was led by head coach Paul Roach, in his second year, and played their home games at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming. The Cowboys won the first 10 games of the season, with an average margin of victory of 30 points, claiming the WAC championship with an undefeated 8-0 record, and reaching a #10 ranking in the national AP poll. However, the season ended with two disastrous losses in the last three games, including a 62-14 route by Oklahoma State (led by Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders) in the Holiday Bowl. The Cowboys offense scored 511 points, while the defense allowed 280 points.


1988 Yale Bulldogs football team
The 1988 Yale Bulldogs football team represented Yale University in the 1988 NCAA Division I-AA football season. The Bulldogs were led by 24th-year head coach Carmen Cozza, played their home games at the Yale Bowl and finished in fifth place in the Ivy League with a 3–3–1 record, 3–6–1 overall.


1988 Yemen Arab Republic parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in the Yemen Arab Republic on 5 July 1988. As political parties were banned, all 1,300 candidates for the 128 seats ran as independents. Around 40 seats were won by tribal candidates, whilst around 30 were won by candidates sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. After the election, a further 31 members were appointed by the President. Voter turnout was 77%.


1988 Yemen Arab Republic parliamentary election, Electoral system
Of the 159 members of Parliament, 128 were elected in single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system, with the remaining 31 appointed by the President.


1988 Ykkönen – Finnish League Division 1
League table for teams participating in Ykkönen, the second tier of the Finnish Soccer League system, in 1988.


1988 Ykkönen – Finnish League Division 1, League table
Promotion replay: Jaro Pietarsaari - MyPa Anjalankoski  1-1 aet., 3-2 pen. Relegation replay: VanPa Vantaa - GrIFK Kauniainen  3-0


1988 Youth Cricket World Cup
The 1988 McDonald's Bicentennial Youth World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in Australia from 28 February to 13 March 1988. Sponsored by McDonald's, it was the inaugural edition of what is now the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and formed part of the celebrations for the Australian Bicentenary.


1988 Youth Cricket World Cup
The tournament was primarily organised by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), with only limited oversight from the International Cricket Conference (ICC). Eight teams participated, with the seven Test-playing ICC members joined by a composite team of players from ICC associate members. Australia defeated Pakistan in the final by five wickets, with England and the West Indies being the losing semi-finalists. The tournament play-offs were held at Adelaide Oval, with the other matches held at country venues in the states of New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria. Australia's Brett Williams was the leading run-scorer at the tournament, while his teammate Wayne Holdsworth and Pakistan's Mushtaq Ahmed were the joint leading wicket-takers.


1988 Youth Cricket World Cup, Squads
Players at the tournament had to be 18 years or younger on 1 January 1987, restricting participation to those born before 1 January 1968.


1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix
The 1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix was the tenth round of the 1988 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 15–17 July 1988 at the Rijeka circuit.


1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Eddie Lawson dislocates his shoulder in practice, but starts the race against doctor's orders. He's 34 points ahead of Wayne Gardner.


1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Christian Sarron gets his 4th pole in a row, but Wayne Rainey gets the start from Gardner, Kevin Magee, et al.


1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Gardner through to 1st, then it's Rainey, Sarron, Magee and Niall Mackenzie.


1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Gardner and Sarron get a gap to Rainey and Magee, with Randy Mamola in a close 5th.


1988 Yugoslavian motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Gardner's 3rd win in a row, and he's now 20 points from Lawson.


1988 Zambian general election
General elections were held in Zambia on 26 October 1988. At the time, the country was a one-party state with the United National Independence Party (UNIP) as the sole legal party. UNIP leader Kenneth Kaunda was automatically re-elected for a sixth five-year term as President with 95.5% of the vote, whilst UNIP also won all 125 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was around 60% in the parliamentary elections, but 58.8% in the presidential elections.


1988 Zambian general election
Two years later UNIP was forced to give up its monopoly of power as part of an agreement with the opposition. The next elections had been scheduled for 1993, but snap elections were called in 1991 as a result of the agreement.


1988 Zambian general election, Campaign
Prior to the elections, primary elections were held to elect candidates for the 125 constituencies. Only UNIP members could vote in the primaries, and the top three candidates would be able to stand for the National Assembly election. In total, 706 people stood for election to the National Assembly, of which 612 were approved by the UNIP central committee.


1988 Zambian general election, Results, President
Kaunda was the sole candidate for president, and voters voted yes or no to his candidacy.


1988 Zambian general election, Aftermath
Following protests, riots and an attempted coup in 1990, the constitution was amended to allow other parties to challenge UNIP in the 1991 elections.


1988 du Maurier Classic
The 1988 du Maurier Classic was contested from June 30 to July 3 at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, British Columbia. It was the 16th edition of the du Maurier Classic, and the 10th edition as a major championship on the LPGA Tour.


1988 elections in India, Legislative Assembly elections, Meghalaya
Elections were held on 2 February for the Legislative Assembly.


1988 elections in India, Legislative Assembly elections, Tripura
Elections were held in 1988 in Tripura for the Tripura Legislative Assembly


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
The 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners was a series of state-sponsored execution of political prisoners across Iran, starting on 19 July 1988 and lasting for approximately five months. The majority of those killed were supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, although supporters of other leftist factions, including the Fedaian and the Tudeh Party of Iran (Communist Party), were executed as well.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
According to Amnesty International, "thousands of political dissidents were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Iranian detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran and implemented across prisons in the country. Many of those killed during this time were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the process."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
The killings have been described as a political purge without precedent in modern Iranian history, both in terms of scope and coverup. However, the exact number of prisoners executed remains a point of contention. Amnesty International, after interviewing dozens of relatives, puts the number in thousands; and then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini's deputy, Hussein-Ali Montazeri put the number between 2,800 and 3,800 in his memoirs, but an alternative estimation suggests that the number exceeded 30,000. Because of the large number, prisoners were loaded into forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes in half-hour intervals.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
Ayatollah Montazeri wrote to Ayatollah Khomeini saying "at least order to spare women who have children ... the execution of several thousand prisoners in a few days will not reflect positively and will not be mistake-free ... A large number of prisoners have been killed under torture by interrogators ... in some prisons of the Islamic Republic young girls are being raped ... As a result of unruly torture, many prisoners have become deaf or paralysed or afflicted with chronic diseases."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
Great care was taken to keep the killings undercover, and the government of Iran currently denies their having taken place. Motivations for why the victims were executed vary, but one of the most common theories advanced is that they were in retaliation for the 1988 attack on the western borders of Iran by the People's Mujahedin of Iran. This, however, does not account for the targeting of other leftist groups who did not take part in nor supported the Mujahedin invasion.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
The killings operated outside legislation and trials were not concerned with establishing the guilt or innocence of defendants. Survivors of the massacre have made various calls for justice and prosecution for the event. Canada called the event a crime against humanity, and Italy made similar declarations for justice to be served.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Khomeini's order
Shortly before the executions commenced, Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued "a secret but extraordinary order – some suspect a formal fatwa." This set up "Special Commissions with instructions to execute members of People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran as moharebs (those who war against Allah) and leftists as mortads (apostates from Islam)."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Khomeini's order
از آنجا که منافقین خائن به هیچ وجه به اسلام معتقد نبوده و هر چه میگویند از روی حیله و نفاق آنهاست و به اقرار سران آنها از اسلام ارتداد پیدا کرده‌اند، با توجه به محارب بودن آنها و جنگ کلاسیک آنها در شمال و غرب و جنوب کشور با همکاری‌های حزب بعث عراق و نیز جاسوسی آنها برای صدام علیه ملت مسلمان ما و با توجه به ارتباط آنان با استکبار جهانی و ضربات ناجوانمردانهٔ آنان از ابتدای تشکیل نظام جمهوری اسلامی تا کنون، کسانی که در زندانهای سراسر کشور بر سر موضع نفاق خود پافشاری کرده و میکنند، محارب و محکوم به اعدام میباشند.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Khomeini's order
[In the Name of God,The Compassionate, the Merciful,]As the treacherous Monafeqin [Mojahedin] do not believe in Islam and what they say is out of deception and hypocrisy, and As their leaders have confessed that they have become renegades, and As they are waging war on God, and As they are engaging in classical warfare in the western, the northern and the southern fronts, and As they are collaborating with the Baathist Party of Iraq and spying for Saddam against our Muslim nation, and As they are tied to the World Arrogance, and in light of their cowardly blows to the Islamic Republic since its inception,It is decreed that those who are in prison throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [Mojahedin] are waging war on God and are condemned to execution.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Administering of the executions
In Tehran the special commission for the executions had 16 members representing the various authorities of the Islamic government – Imam Khomeini himself, the president, the chief prosecutor, the Revolutionary Tribunals, the Ministries of Justice and Intelligence, and the administration of Evin and Gohar Dasht, the two prisons in the Tehran area from which the prisoners were eliminated. The chair of the commission was Ayatollah Morteza Eshraqi. His two special assistants were Hojatt al-Islam Hossein-Ali Nayyeri and Hojjat al-Islam Ali Mobasheri. The commission shuttled back and forth between Evin and Gohar Dasht prisons by helicopter. In the provinces similar commissions were established, but less is known about them.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Administering of the executions
Another description of the administration of the executions has it implemented by a "four-man commission, later known as the 'death committee'." Members were Hossein-Ali Nayyeri (who was then a judge), Morteza Eshraqi (then Tehran Prosecutor), Ebrahim Raisi (then Deputy Prosecutor General) and Mostafa Pourmohammadi (then the representative of the Intelligence Ministry in Evin Prison). Ebrahim Raisi went on to campaign for president of Iran in 2017 as a hard-line conservative where he was criticized for his role in the executions, before being elected as president on his second try in 2021 .


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Administering of the executions
Amnesty International identified and analysed evidence that linked several Iranian officials to participating in the massacre. These included Alireza Avayi (tasked to participate in the so-called "death commission" of Dezful), Ebrahim Raisi (member of the "death commission" in Tehran), Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, and others.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Administering of the executions
The prisoners were not executed without any proceedings, but were "tried" on charges totally unrelated to the charges that had landed them in prison. They were interviewed by commissions with a set list of questions to see if they qualified as moharebs or mortads to the satisfaction of that commission. Many, if not most, of the prisoners were unaware of the true purpose of the questions, although later some were warned by the prison grapevine.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Administering of the executions
Some of the victims were killed because of their beliefs about religion – because they were atheists or because they were Muslims who followed different versions of Islam.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Isolation of the prisoners
Some scholarly examinations of the massacre argue that the planning stages of the 1988 Massacre began months before the actual executions started. According to one report: "prison officials took the unusual step in late 1987 and early 1988 of re-questioning and separating all political prisoners according to party affiliation and length of sentence." The actual execution process began in the early hours of 19 July 1988 with the isolation of the political prisoners from the outside world. Prison gates were closed, scheduled visits and telephone calls were canceled, letters, care packages, and even vital medicines from the outside were turned away, the main law courts went on an unscheduled vacation. Even relatives of prisoners were forbidden to congregate outside the prison gates.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Isolation of the prisoners
Inside the prison, cell blocks were isolated from each other and cleared of radios and televisions. Places where prisoners gathered communally, such as lecture halls, workshops, infirmaries, were all closed down and inmates were confined to their cells. Prison guards and workers were ordered not to speak to prisoners. One prisoner constructed a homemade wireless set to listen to the radio news from the outside but found news broadcasters were saying nothing at all about the lockdown.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, People's Mujahedin of Iran
The first prisoners to be interviewed or "tried" were the male members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, including those who had repented of their association with the group. The commission prefaced the proceedings with the false assurance that this was not a trial but a process for initiating a general amnesty and separating the Muslims from the non-Muslims.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, People's Mujahedin of Iran
It first asked their organisational affiliation; if they replied "Mojahedin", the questioning ended there. If they replied monafeqin (hypocrites), the commission continued with such questions as:


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, People's Mujahedin of Iran
Almost all the prisoners answered "no" to at least one of the  questions. These were then taken to another room and ordered to write their last will and testament and to discard any personal belongings such as rings, watches, and spectacles. They were then blindfolded and taken to the gallows where they were hanged in batches of six. Since "hanging" did not mean death by breaking of the neck by drop through a trap door, but stringing up the victim by the neck to suffocate, some took fifteen minutes to die.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, People's Mujahedin of Iran
After the first few days, the overworked executioners requested firing squads. These requests were rejected on the claim that the Shari'a mandated hanging for apostates and enemies of Allah, though it is thought that the real reason may have been that hanging was quieter than gunfire and would thus better preserve the secrecy of the operations.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, People's Mujahedin of Iran
At first this secrecy was effective. "One survivor admits that he thought he was being processed to be released in time for the forthcoming peace celebrations."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Dealing with leftists
After 27 August, the commission turned its attention to the leftist prisoners, such as members of the Tudeh, Majority Fedayi, Minority Fedayi, other Fedayi, Kumaleh, Rah-e Kargar, Peykar. These were also assured they were in no danger and asked:


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Dealing with leftists
Prisoners were told that authorities were asking them these questions because they planned to separate practicing Muslims from non-practicing ones. However, the real reason was to determine whether the prisoners qualified as apostates from Islam, in which case they would join the moharebs in the gallows.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Dealing with leftists
Some prisoners saved from execution by answering the questions properly returned to their cells and passed along what the commission was asking. A leftist prisoner "who had at one time attended a seminary quickly grasped the theological significance of the questions" and "spent the night of August 30 sending morse code messages to other cells" by knocking on the prison walls. He pointed "out the hidden dangers." The questioners wanted to know if prisoners' fathers prayed, fasted, and read the Qur'an because the sons of devout men could be called apostates. If they had not been raised in proper Muslim homes first and "exposed to true Islam," they could not be apostates. Another wrong answer was refusing to reply "on the grounds of 'privacy'," which "could itself be taken as an admission of 'apostasy'."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Dealing with leftists
All this was a surprise to the prisoners, with one commenting: "In previous years, they wanted us to confess to spying. In 1988, they wanted us to convert to Islam." It also meant there was no correlation between the length of sentence being served and the likelihood of death. "The first leftist to go before the Evin commission were those with light, and even completed, sentences." These had no warning of what was in store and many died.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Dealing with women
Mojahedin women were given equal treatment with Mojahedin men, almost all hanged as 'armed enemies of Allah'. However, for apostasy the punishment for women was different and lighter than that for men. Since according to the commission's interpretation of Islamic law, women were not fully responsible for their actions, "disobedient women – including apostates – could be given discretionary punishments to mend their ways and obey male superiors."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Dealing with women
Leftist women—even those raised as practicing Muslims—were given another 'opportunity' to recant their 'apostasy.' "After the investigation, leftist women began to receive five lashes every day -- one for each of the five daily prayers missed that day, half the punishment meted out to the men. After a while, many agreed to pray, but some went on hunger strike, refusing even water. One died after 22 days and 550 lashes, and the authorities certified her death as suicide because it was 'she who had made the decision not to pray.'"


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Families
According to Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, executed prisoner's families were told: 'For one year you shall refrain from holding a funeral, or mourning his death in any public way. If after one year your conduct is deemed acceptable, we will reveal to you his place of burial.' The justification given to these families for the execution of their loved ones was that the prisoner's name had appeared on notes pinned to PMOI members killed in the Mersad attack whose bodies had been recovered by Iranian Islamic officials.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Families
The notes listing the PMOI's supporters' in prison so the prisoners had been guilty of aiding the attack. Ebadi complained that aside from being improbable, this did not explain why the prisoners had not received a trial for the charge of giving support to the enemy. In 2009, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center commissioned Geoffrey Robertson QC to write a legal opinion based on evidence and witness testimonies gathered by the center. Robertson's final report accused Tehran of continuing to deny relatives of the victims their right to know where their loved ones are buried.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Estimates of fatalities
One anonymous ex-prisoner places the death toll in the 'thousands.' Another eyewitness puts in between 5000 and 6000 – 1000 from the left and the rest from the Mojahedin. Yet another estimates it in the 'thousands', with as many as 1500 killed at Gohar Dasht prison alone. A recent study using scattered information from the provinces places the figure at 12,000. Amnesty International estimates that the national total is more than 2500 and describes the vast majority of the victims as 'prisoners of conscience' as they had not been charged with actual deeds or plans of deeds against the state.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, Estimates of fatalities
It is extremely difficult to get an accurate number since many killings were carried out in remote Kurdish and Baluchi cities. It could be as high as 30,000 according to figures provided by Iranian defectors. In the aftermath of the 2009 uprisings in Iran, a defector of the Iranian regime Mohammad Nurizad stated over 33,000 people were massacred within 2–3 months in the summer of 1988. It is estimated that most of the executed were either high school or college students or fresh graduates, and over 10% were women. According to Christina Lamb, writing in The Telegraph: "Secret documents smuggled out of Iran reveal that, because of the large numbers of necks to be broken, prisoners were loaded onto forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes in half-hourly intervals."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, International reaction and criticism
On 30 August 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council highlighted the 1988 massacre and distributed a written statement by three non-governmental organizations titled, "The 1988 Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran: Time for the Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence" The  statement points to the following: In 1988, the government of Iran massacred 30,000 political prisoners. The executions took place based on a fatwa by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Three-member commissions known as a 'Death Commission' were formed across Iran sending political prisoners who refused to abandon their beliefs to execution. The victims were buried in secret mass graves. The perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, International reaction and criticism
Another joint written statement by five NGOs with consultative status with the United Nations was circulated during the UN Human Rights Council in February 2018 urged "UN to launch fact-finding mission to investigate Iran's 1988 massacre in order to end impunity and prevent the same fate for detained protesters."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, International reaction and criticism
On 4 December 2018 Amnesty International asked the government of Iran to bring to light what happened to the political detainees in the country. Amnesty asked the United Nations to set up an investigation group to find the facts of crimes against humanity in Iran.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Massacre, International reaction and criticism
In November 2019, Sweden arrested Hamid Nouri, accused of being an assistant prosecutor during the massacres and playing a key role during the mass executions. UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard stated that Nouri's arrest was the first time that someone was held responsible for the mass killings. His trial, initially scheduled to begin in June 2021, began August 2021.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Montazeri
One of the consequences of the killings was the resignation of Hussein-Ali Montazeri as the heir-designate to Ayatollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader of Iran. Prior to the killings, Montazeri "had taken issue with the diehard cleric on a number of subjects – the trial of Mehdi Hashemi, the anti-hoarding campaign ..." When he heard of the killings Montazeri rushed off three public letters – two to Khomeini, one to the Special Commission – denouncing the executions "in no uncertain terms."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Montazeri
He also took the Special Commission "to task for violating Islam by executing repenters and minor offenders who in a proper court of law would have received a mere reprimand." Montazeri warned Khomeini: "The execution of several thousand prisoners in a few days will not have positive repercussions and will not be mistake-free."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Montazeri
Montazeri was asked to resign, with Khomeini maintaining he had always been doubtful of Montazeri's competence and that 'I expressed reservations when the Assembly of Experts first appointed you.'" But the Assembly of Experts had insisted on naming Montazeri the future Supreme Leader.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Montazeri
The regime published letters between the two Ayatollahs but "the selection dealt only with the Hashemi affair and scrupulously avoided the mass executions – thus observing the official line that these executions never took place."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Montazeri
On 9 August 2016, a website run by followers of Montazeri published an audio recording from a meeting he held on 15 August 1988 with the special judicial tribunal (Tehran Prosecutor Morteza Eshraghi, Judge Hossein-Ali Nayeri, Deputy Prosecutor General Ebrahim Raeesi and MOIS representative in Evin Mostafa Pourmohammadi). One can hear Montazeri condemning the mass executions. The Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) had the recording taken down the day after its release.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Iranian position
Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was speaking in the administrative council meeting in the city of Khorram-Abad in Lorestan province, on 28 August 2016 said: "We are proud we have implemented God's order about Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK)." In 2017 Ali Khamenei defended the executions, stating that those killed were "terrorists" and "hypocrites".


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Iranian position
The Iran government accused those investigating the killings of  "disclosing state secrets" and "threatening national security". According to Amnesty International, there has been an ongoing campaign by the Islamic Republic to demonize victims, distort facts, and repress family survivors and human rights defenders.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
One complaint made against the mass killings was that almost all the prisoners executed had been arrested for relatively minor offenses, since those with serious charges had already been executed. The 1988 killings resembled the 'disappearances' of prisoners in 20th-century Latin America.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
According to Kaveh Shahrooz, writing in Gozaar, a publication sponsored by Freedom House, "it is baffling that two of the world's most powerful human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have simply never written full reports on a crime as widespread as the 1988 extermination campaign."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
While Amnesty International's report "Iran: Violations of Human Rights 1987-1990" published in 1990 devotes a few pages to the massacre, the human rights organization has never written a full report on the killings. The Amnesty International report states:


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
The political executions took place in many prisons in all parts of Iran, often far from where the armed incursion took place. Most of the executions were of political prisoners, including an unknown number of prisoners of conscience, who had already served a number of years in prison. They could have played no part in the armed incursion, and they were in no position to take part in spying or terrorist activities.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
Many of the dead had been tried and sentenced to prison terms during the early 1980s, many for non-violent offences such as distributing newspapers and leaflets, taking part in demonstrations or collecting funds for prisoners' families. Many of the dead had been students in their teens or early twenties at the time of their arrest. The majority of those killed were supporters of the PMOI, but hundreds of members and supporters of other political groups, including various factions of the PFOI, the Tudeh Party, the KDPI, Rah-e Kargar and others, were also among the execution victims.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
Similarly, Human Rights Watch devotes a mere handful of pages to the massacre in a background report concerning President Ahmadinejad's cabinet picks.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the executions as "deliberate and systematic ... extrajudicial killings," and condemned them as crimes against humanity. HRW also accused Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi, Iran's Interior Minister from 2005 to 2008, of direct involvement in the killings.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Response, Other criticism
UN judge and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC urged the UN Security Council to set up a special court, along the lines of the International Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to try the men involved "for one of the worst single human rights atrocities since the Second World War."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Motivation
A 2018 research by Amnesty International found that Ruhollah Khomeini had ordered the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners through a secret fatwa. In 2016, an audio recording was posted online of a high-level official meeting that took place in August 1988 between Hossein Ali Montazeri and the officials responsible for the mass killings in Tehran. In the recording, Hossein Ali Montazeri is heard saying that the ministry of intelligence used the MEK's armed incursion as a pretext to carry out the mass killings, which "had been under consideration for several years."


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Motivation
Scholars disagree over why the prisoners were killed. Ali Akbar Mahdi believes the intense overcrowding of Iranian prisons and the July 1988 Mojahedin Operation Mersad offensive "had much to do" with the massacre. Ervand Abrahamian believes the "regime's internal dynamics" were responsible – the need for "a glue" to hold "together his disparate followers" and a "bloodbath" to "purge" moderates like Montazeri and prevent any future "détente with the West" from destroying his legacy.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Motivation
In particular the killings destroyed any ties, or possibility of ties, between populists in the Khomeini movement on the one hand, and non-Khomeiniist Islamist and secular leftists on the other. Khomeini had been concerned that "some of his followers had toyed with the dangerous notion of working with the Tudeh Party to incorporate more radical clauses into the Labor Law as well as into the Land Reform Law" earlier.


1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, Motivation, Iran Tribunal
In 2012, the families of the victims, along with the survivors of the mass executions initiated an international Commission, the Iran Tribunal, in order to investigate the mass killing of Iran's political prisoners. "Iran Tribunal" is aiming to hold Iran's government accountable on charges of crimes against humanity. The first session of court hearing was organized in London and the second one at The Hague Peace Palace.


1988 in Afghanistan
The following lists events that happened during 1988 in Afghanistan.


1988 in Afghanistan
As the Soviets begin to leave, the division between Afghan Marxists and Muslims becomes even sharper, and the fear of even bloodier fighting heightens. Leaders of the Pakistan-based Muslim insurgent groups vow to continue fighting until they topple the Marxist regime and proclaim Afghanistan an Islamic republic. The efforts by the government either to form a coalition or to bring King Mohammad Zahir Shah back from his exile in Italy fail.


1988 in Afghanistan, April 1988
Elections are held for a two-chamber National Assembly to replace the Revolutionary Council. Although the elections are boycotted by the Mujahideen, the government leaves vacant 50 of the 234 seats in the House of Representatives and a small number of seats in the Senate, in the hope that the guerrillas will abandon their armed struggle and present their own representatives to participate in the new administration. The PDPA itself wins only 46 seats, but is guaranteed support from the National Front, which gains 45, and from the various newly recognized left-wing parties, which win a total of 24 seats.


1988 in Afghanistan, April 14, 1988
The United States, the Soviet Union, Pakistan, and Afghanistan sign an agreement in Geneva after years of painstaking efforts by the UN to end one of modern history's most bitter conflicts. Under the accord Afghanistan and Pakistan pledge not to intervene in each other's affairs and to work for the safe, voluntary return of refugees.


1988 in Afghanistan, May 15, 1988
The withdrawal of an estimated 115,000 Soviet troops, who had entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to prop up a faltering Communist regime, begins.


1988 in Afghanistan, May 25, 1988
For the first time, the Soviet Union admits that it has suffered almost 50,000 casualties, including 13,310 deaths, in the conflict. A top general says that 35,478 soldiers were wounded and 311 missing without a trace. Gen. Aleksey D. Lizichev says that the death and injury toll includes casualties suffered from December 27, 1979, until May 1, 1988. The figure is slightly higher than some Western analysts have estimated.


1988 in Afghanistan, May 26, 1988
Mohammad Hassan Sharq, a non-PDPA member and a deputy prime minister since June 1987, replaces Sultan Ali Keshtmand as prime minister. In June a new Council of Ministers is appointed.


1988 in Afghanistan, September 22, 1988
A UN report released in Geneva says that the conflict has "produced unparalleled human sufferings and immeasurable social and economic havoc." The report states that the war has reduced Afghanistan "to the status of one of the poorest, least developed countries." It also says that the fighting has caused an estimated one million deaths and that hundreds of thousands of widows, orphans, and disabled people will need sustained care for years to come. The 169-page report cites extensive damage to agriculture, with the wheat-growing area reduced to 70% of its prewar size and one-fifth of the nation's livestock lost.


1988 in Afghanistan, September 22, 1988
It estimates that 2,000 schools and 130 health centres are damaged and that road transport infrastructure will require intensive repairs. The countryside, it says, is "littered with mines, unexploded bombs, hand grenades, shells and other ordnance [that will] pose a major threat to life and limb for years to come." (see unexploded ordnance)


1988 in Afghanistan, Early November 1988
The Soviets halt the withdrawal of their troops and also begin supplying the Afghan Army with powerful weapons. The Soviets say that their action is caused by increased guerrilla activity in Afghanistan, and they accuse Pakistan of supporting the rebels.


1988 in Afghanistan, December 3, 1988
The government of Afghanistan reveals that high-level negotiations between the Soviet Union and guerrilla leaders are beginning in Saudi Arabia. This is the first publicly announced top-level meeting between the two antagonists since the conflict began. Though it is not represented at the meeting or at a subsequent conference in Pakistan on December 17, the Afghan government is said to support the negotiations.


1988 in American television
The year 1988 in television involved some significant events. This is a list of notable events in the United States.


1988 in American television, Programs, Debuting this year
The following is a list of shows that premiered in 1988.


1988 in American television, Programs, Entering syndication
A list of programs (current or canceled) that have accumulated enough episodes (between 65 and 100) or seasons (3 or more) to be eligible for off-network syndication and/or basic cable runs.


1988 in Armenia
The following lists events that happened during 1988 in Armenia.


1988 in Australia
The following lists events that happened during the year 1988 in Australia.


1988 in Australian literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1988.


1988 in Australian literature, Deaths
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1988 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.


1988 in Australian television, Changes to network affiliation
This is a list of programs which made their premiere on an Australian television network that had previously premiered on another Australian television network. The networks involved in the switch of allegiances are predominantly both free-to-air networks or both subscription television networks. Programs that have their free-to-air/subscription television premiere, after previously premiering on the opposite platform (free-to air to subscription/subscription to free-to air) are not included. In some cases, programs may still air on the original television network. This occurs predominantly with programs shared between subscription television networks.


1988 in Bangladesh
1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1988th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 988th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th  year of the 20th century, and the  9th   year of the 1980s decade.


1988 in Bangladesh
The year 1988 was the 17th year after the independence of Bangladesh. It was also the seventh year of the Government of Hussain Muhammad Ershad.


1988 in Bangladesh, Climate, Flood
Bangladesh experienced heavy rain and flooding in the last two weeks of August. By the first week of September the situation further deteriorated. Nearly 25 million people were rendered homeless and official death toll exceeded 500. About 30,000 km of roads were partially destroyed and rice crop on 3.5 million hectares was destroyed or damaged. The situation started to improve in late September, but people rendered homeless due to the flood continued to struggle.


1988 in Bangladesh, Climate, Flood
Different countries including Australia, Denmark, United Kingdom, Japan, Ireland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, India, Iraq, Kuwait, Nederlands, Turkey, France, Pakistan, Qatar, KSA and United States as well as agencies including UNDRO, WHO, UNDP, EEC, Caritas, SCF-US, World Vision, LRCS, CCDB, Red Cross, WFP joined the Bangladesh Government in the relief operations.


1988 in Bangladesh, Climate, Cyclone
The 1988 Bangladesh cyclone (designated as Tropical Cyclone 04B by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center) was one of the worst tropical cyclones in Bangladeshi history. Striking in November 1988, the tropical system exacerbated the catastrophic damage from what was then considered the worst floods in Bangladesh's history. The tropical cyclone originated from a disturbance that developed within the Strait of Malacca on 21 November. Tracking slowly westward, the initial tropical depression reached tropical storm status in the Andaman Sea. On 26 November, the storm reached an intensity equivalent to that of a modern-day severe cyclonic storm and subsequently turned northward.


1988 in Bangladesh, Climate, Cyclone
Gradually intensifying as it had previously, the tropical cyclone reached peak intensity with winds of 125 mph (200 km/h) as it was making landfall near the Bangladesh-West Bengal border on 29 November. Although the storm retained strong winds well inland, it was last monitored over central Bangladesh as a moderate cyclonic storm-equivalent on 30 November.


1988 in Bangladesh, Climate, Cyclone
The brunt of the tropical cyclone's damage was inflicted upon coastal areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal. A total of 6,240 people were killed as a result of the storm, with 5,708 in Bangladesh and 538 in West Bengal. Many of the deaths were a result of the destruction of homes or electrocution after strong winds toppled power poles across the region. Along the coast of Bangladesh, strong storm surge caused heavy infrastructure damage and contributed in wiping out an estimated 70% of all harvestable Bangladeshi crops, with an estimated 200,000 tonnes (220,000 tons) of crops being lost. Widespread power outages cut telecommunications across Bangladesh; in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital city, debris-laden streets paralyzed traffic while electrical outages caused water shortages.


1988 in Bangladesh, Economy
Note: For the year 1988 average official exchange rate for BDT was 31.73 per US$.


1988 in Belgian television
This is a list of Belgian television related events from 1988.


1988 in Brazilian football
The following article presents a summary of the 1988 football (soccer) season in Brazil, which was the 87th season of competitive football in the country.


1988 in Brazilian football, Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Final
Bahia declared as the Campeonato Brasileiro champions by aggregate score of 2-1.


1988 in Brazilian football, Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Relegation
The four worst placed teams in the first stage, which are Bangu, Santa Cruz, Criciúma and América-RJ, were relegated to the following year's second level.


1988 in Brazilian football, Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, Promotion
The two best placed teams in the final stage of the competition, which are Internacional-SP and Náutico, were promoted to the following year's first level.


1988 in Brazilian football, Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, Relegation
The worst placed team in each one of the four groups in the first stage, which are Treze, Rio Branco-ES, Uberlândia, and Pelotas, were relegated to the following year's third level.


1988 in Brazilian football, Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, Final
União São João declared as the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C champions by aggregate score of 3-3 due to better season record.


1988 in Brazilian football, Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, Promotion
The champion and the runner-up, which are União São João and Esportivo-MG, were promoted to the following year's first level.


1988 in Brazilian football, Brazil national team
The following table lists all the games played by the Brazil national football team in official competitions and friendly matches during 1988.


1988 in Brazilian football, Women's football, National team
The following table lists all the games played by the Brazil women's national football team in official competitions and friendly matches during 1988.


1988 in Brazilian television
This is a list of Brazilian television related events from 1988.


1988 in British music
This is a summary of 1988 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.


1988 in British music, Summary
The growing popularity of house music was evident in the charts by the start of 1988, with many songs of this genre becoming big hits, such as "House Arrest" by Krush, "Beat Dis" by Bomb the Bass and "Rok da House" by The Beatmasters. Acid house band S'Express had two Top 10 hits this year including a number 1 in April with the song "Theme from S'Express", but the biggest dance hit of the year came from London singer Yazz, who had first had a big hit with producers Coldcut on the song "Doctorin' The House".


1988 in British music, Summary
Still with Coldcut, but now with her name billed as the lead artist, her song "The Only Way Is Up" topped the chart for five weeks, becoming the second biggest-selling single of the year, and paved the way for a successful solo career, including the follow-up "Stand Up For Your Love Rights" which hit No.2 in October.


1988 in British music, Summary
One of the biggest successes of the year was 19-year-old Kylie Minogue, well known to the public from her role in the Australian soap opera Neighbours which had been airing on the BBC since 1986. The popularity of "girl next door" Minogue and her on-screen character Charlene Mitchell ensured chart success. Signed to the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, her debut international song "I Should Be So Lucky" was number 1 for five weeks, and all of her other solo releases this year – "Got to Be Certain", "The Loco-Motion" and "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi" – reached number 2.


1988 in British music, Summary
Her album Kylie was also number 1 for six weeks, the biggest-selling album of the year and the fifth best-selling album of the entire decade. All Kylie's hits were produced by Stock Aitken Waterman who continued to score hit after hit this year.


1988 in British music, Summary
The production powerhouse also scored Top 10s with Mel and Kim ("That's The Way It Is", No.10, February) Sinitta ("Cross My Broken Heart", No.6, March), Rick Astley ("Together Forever", No.2, March and "Take Me to Your Heart", No.8, November), Bananarama ("I Want You Back", No.5, April), Hazell Dean ("Who's Leaving Who", No.4, April), Brother Beyond ("The Harder I Try", No.2, August and "He Ain't No Competition", No.6, November). In September, another star from Neighbours – Minogue's co-star Jason Donovan – debuted with his Stock Aitken Waterman-produced hit "Nothing Can Divide Us" which reached number 5 and he would go on to outsell even Kylie the following year.


1988 in British music, Summary
Popular teenage acts other than Minogue to emerge this year included the American singer Tiffany who scored three Top 10 hits including the No.1 "I Think We're Alone Now" while fellow American teenage star Debbie Gibson also crossed over to the British Charts and had four Top 20 hits. Gibson's biggest hit was the 1980s-compilation staple "Shake Your Love" which reached number 7 in January. Meanwhile, from Italy came Sabrina whose infamous appearances in skimpy swimsuits became tabloid-fodder throughout the year as her pan-European smash hit "Boys (Summertime Love)" hit number 3 in June and the Stock Aitken Waterman-produced follow-up "All of Me" peaked at number 25 three months later.


1988 in British music, Summary
New British boyband Bros took five singles into the Top 5 this year including "When Will I Be Famous?" and their only number 1 "I Owe You Nothing", a re-issue of their first single originally released in 1987. Wet Wet Wet scored the first number 1 of their long run of hits with a cover of "With A Little Help From My Friends" which held the top position for 3 weeks.


1988 in British music, Summary
Also making her chart debut this year was nineteen-year-old Tanita Tikaram, who launched her career with the critically acclaimed album Ancient Heart, containing the Top 10 hit "Good Tradition" and the intriguing "Twist In My Sobriety" which peaked at number 22 in October. Eddi Reader also rose to prominence during 1988 as the lead-singer of Fairground Attraction. The band made number 1 with the song "Perfect" and followed it up with another Top 10 hit, "Find My Love" and number 2 album The First of a Million Kisses.


1988 in British music, Summary
Making chart comebacks after long-absences were Cher, re-launching her music career with "I Found Someone", a number 5 hit written and produced by Michael Bolton. Belinda Carlisle revived her career this year with three Top 10s including the number 1 "Heaven is a Place on Earth" while Kim Wilde scored a career-best three successive Top 10s with "You Came" (No.3), "Never Trust a Stranger (No.7) and "Four Letter Word" (No.6).


1988 in British music, Summary
Pop duo Dollar scored their ninth and final Top 20 hit with comeback hit "Oh L'amour", a SAW-produced cover of an early Erasure single, which made number 7 in April, and also making a chart comeback was the song "A Groovy Kind Of Love", originally a hit in 1965 for The Mindbenders, it hit number 1 in September for Phil Collins, taken from the film Buster in which Collins also starred.


1988 in British music, Summary
Some of the more unusual hits of the year included a remix of the theme tune from the popular television series Doctor Who, by "The Timelords", who would go on to have huge success in the early 1990s under the name The KLF. Their song "Doctorin' The TARDIS" (a play on Coldcut's "Doctorin' The House") was number 1 for a week in June.


1988 in British music, Summary
A television advertisement for Miller Lite beer used the 1969 song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by The Hollies, which became a number 1 in September 19 years after its original release, and an advert for Coca-Cola gave Robin Beck a number 1 with the ballad "First Time". Film and Television actress Patsy Kensit, a teenager in 1988, also reached the Top 10 this year in the band Eighth Wonder. Their Pet Shop Boys–produced UK debut "I'm Not Scared" slowly climbed up the Top 40 and peaked at number 7 in May. The band were more popular in Italy and Japan where they scored several number 1 hits.


1988 in British music, Summary
The race for Christmas number one was a battle between Cliff Richard, with a career stretching back to the 1950s and his seasonal song "Mistletoe and Wine", and new star Kylie Minogue with "Especially for You", a duet with her Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan released to coincide with their characters' on-screen wedding. Cliff won the battle with the biggest-selling song of the year, but "Especially for You" climbed to number 1 in the new year of 1989, eventually selling just short of 1 million copies.


1988 in British music, Summary
1988 sees Radio 1 start to broadcast on FM on a full time basis across much of the UK when five major transmitters begin radiating Radio 1 on FM for the first time. Previously, Radio 1 had only been available on FM for approximately 25 hours per week, when it 'borrowed' BBC Radio 2's FM frequency at certain points of the day.


1988 in British music, Summary
New classical works by British composers included oboe and trumpet concertos from Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Finnissy's Red Earth for orchestra. Devotional works included Nicholas Jackson's Variations on ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty’ and John Tavener's The Akathist of Thanksgiving. Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin made his Proms debut during the 1988 season, whilst Sir Andrew Davis gave up his role as conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to become director of Glyndebourne.