George Bush Sr. is elected President.

The greenhouse effect is discovered.

America's Most Wanted debuts.

Prozac is introduced to the public.

Sonny Bono becomes mayor of Palm Springs.

Yo! MTV Raps debuts.

CD's outsell albums for the first time.

Lionel Richie's wife was arrested for assaulting Lionel and a model she found him with.

Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson get hitched.

#1 Song of The Year: Roll With It - Steve Winwood.

"She's Like The Wind" shows Patrick Swayze can sing as well as dance and act.

Salt N Pepa get their breakthrough hit with "Push It".

Julia Roberts hits the big screen in her first breakthrough role in Mystic Pizza.

Top grossing film of the year: Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Spuds Mackenzie becomes the original party animal.
Oprah Winfrey is the hottest talk show in America.

The new Suzuki Samurai gets bad reputation for flipping over when turning corners.

Penny Loafers with a penny in them and Levis with the cuffs rolled up were the fashion statements of the year.

U2 records Rattle and Hum album and then later the documentary.

Flying chair thrown by skinhead hits Geraldo in the nose on his self titled talk show

Super Bowl

Washington d. Denver (42-10)

World Series

LA Dodgers d. Oakland A's (4-1)

NBA Championship

LA Lakers d. Detroit Pistons (4-3)

Stanley Cup

Edmonton d. Boston (4-0)

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Beloved, Toni Morrison
Music: 12 New Etudes for Piano, William Bolcom
Drama: Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry

Oscars awarded in 1988
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Last Emperor, Jeremy Thomas, producer (Columbia)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)

Grammys awarded in 1988
Record of the Year: "Graceland," Paul Simon
Album of the Year: Joshua Tree, U2 (Island)
Song of the Year: "Somewhere Out There," James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, songwriters

Miss America: Kaye Lani Rae Rafko (MI)

Movies