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Czech-born tennis star Hana Mandlikova becomes an Australian citizen.

Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th Century.

Actor Trevor Howard dies on 7th January, aged 71.

Arthur Scargill is re-elected as President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

Celebrations are held in Australia on 26th January to mark the nation's 200th anniversary.

In the UK delegates at a SDP conference vote in favour of merging with the Liberal Party.

The National Union of Seamen (NUS) calls a national strike 31st January in support of the 161 crew sacked by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for refusing to accept new terms and conditions.

Nurses and health service staff in the UK take part in a one day strike on 3rd February as part of a campaign for better pay.

On 5th February Comic Relief organises its first Red Nose Day to help raise funds for Africa.

Thousands are made homeless by landslides and flooding in Rio de Janiero.

US televangelist Jimmy Swaggart hits the headlines in the USA after admitting that he had met with a prostitute.

Three members of the IRA are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar on 6th March. At their funeral on 16th March a gunman opens fire, killing three of the mourners and injuring 50 others.

On 10th March Prince Charles is nearly killed by an avalanche whilst on a skiing holiday in Klosters. The avalanche claims the life of Major Hugh Lindsay and badly injures Mrs. Patti Palmer-Tomkinson.

Andy Gibb, the Bee Gees' younger brother, also dies on 10th March, aged 30.

On 16th March thousands die in an Iraqi poison gas attack the Kurdish city of Halabja.

A Kuwait Airways jumbo jet with members of the Kuwaiti Royal Family on board is hijacked on 5th April and forced to fly to Iran. The hijackers, who allow 24 women passengers to leave the plane, demand the release of 17 prisoners in return for the lives of everyone else on the aircraft. The plane flies on to Beirut three days later but is refused permission to land and flies to Cyprus instead. One of the passengers is killed and his body dumped on the tarmac. A further 12 hostages are released unharmed. The plane then flies to Algiers, where the remaining passengers are also released.

Dave Prater, one half of the duo Sam and Dave, is killed in a car accident on 9th April, aged 50.

The Last Emperor, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, wins 9 Oscars.

The comic actor Kenneth Williams is found dead from an overdose of barbiturates on Thursday, 14th April, aged 62. The coroner returns an open verdict.

On the same day, at a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, the Soviet Union signs an agreement to gradually withdraw of its troops from Afghanistan, after nine years of occupation.

Yasser Arafat's deputy, Abu Jihad, is killed in Tunis on 16th April.

Sonny Bono is inaugurated as the Mayor of Palm Springs on 19th April.

Ian Botham raises £3 million for leukemia research by completing a walk across the Alps with elephants.

François Mitterand is re-elected as President of France on 8th May, winning over 54% of votes. His defeated opponent, Jacques Chirac, resigns as Prime Minister two days later and is succeeded by the Socialist Michel Rocard.

On 19th May Sikh rebels surrender to Indian government forces after occupying the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab.

On 20th May pub opening hours in England and Wales are extended (11.00am - 11.00pm).

In UK secondary schools 16-year-olds sit the new General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam for the first time. The GCSE replaced O-Levels and CSEs.

Lester Piggott is stripped of his OBE on 6th June.

TV presenter Russell Harty dies in St. James' Hospital, Leeds on 8th June.

On 11th June a concert is held at Wembley Stadium to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday.

On Sunday, 3rd July 286 innocent people are killed when an Iranian airliner is shot down in the Gulf, apparently by accident, by missiles launched from the USS Vincennes.

On Wednesday, 6th July the Piper Alpha North Sea oil rig explodes. 167 people die in the blaze.

Paddy Ashdown becomes the new leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats on 29th July.

The Education Reform Act introduces a national curriculum for all state schools in the UK.

Iran and Iraq call an end to the 8-year war in the Gulf, in which an estimated 1 million people had been killed.

Enzio Ferrari dies on 14th August, aged 90.

On 17th August President Zia-ul Haq of Pakistan dies in a plane crash along with five senior Generals and the American Ambassador, Arnold Raphel.

On 21st August an area on the border of India and Nepal is hit by an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale.

Bangladesh is hit by severe floods.

On 11th September millions of people all over the world take part in Sport Aid '88 - The Race Against Time. The event is staged to help raise funds to fight diseases that claim the lives of 15 million children each year.

In Haiti on 18th September Brigadier-General Prosper Avril leads a coup against President Leslie Manigat. Avril installs a civilian government under military control.

Comedy actor Roy Kinnear dies in Spain on 21st September after falling from a horse.

The National League for Democracy is founded in Burma on 24th September. The founding members include Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Shroud of Turin is revealed to be a fake.

A Law Lords' ruling on Thursday, 13th October allows the British media to publish extracts from the memoirs of former MI5 officer Peter Wright.

On 19th October the UK government bans the broadcasting of interviews with members of Sinn Fein or representatives of the IRA.

A general election in Israel ends inconclusively on 2nd November, with the governing Likud party winning 40 seats and the opposition Labour Alignment winning 39. By the end of the month the two parties agree to form another national unity government.

On 8th November George Bush is elected President of the USA.

On 16th November, in the first open election for more than a decade, Benazir Bhutto is elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The 1920 manuscript of Franz Kafka's The Trial is sold at Sotheby's in London on 17th November for a record £1million.

The USA unveils its new Stealth fighter-bomber, which is supposedly undetectable by radar.

The World Health Organisation promotes the first World AIDS Day on 1st December.

Roy Orbison dies of a heart attack on 6th December, aged 52.

On 9th December an earthquake devastates Armenia, leaving 45,000 people dead and a further 500,000 without homes.

35 people are killed in a morning rush hour rail crash at Clapham Junction on Monday, 12th December. Another 132 people are injured.

UK Health Minister Edwina Currie resigns on 16th December, following her claim that most of the eggs in Britain are infected with salmonella.

US singer Sylvester (full name: Sylvester James), who had hits with Dance (Disco Heat) and You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), dies on 16th December, aged 41.

A Pan Am jet (Flight 103) crashes at Lockerbie on 21st December, killing everyone on board. Crash investigators later confirm that the disaster was caused by a bomb.

• Tracy Chapman
  
• Jason Donovan
  
• Milli Vanilli
  
• Kylie Minogue
  
• Morrissey
  
• Yazz
  

• All About Eve
  Martha's Harbour
  
• Rick Astley
  Together Forever
  
• Aswad
  Don't Turn Around
  
• Bananarama
  I Want You Back
  
• Bangles
  Hazy Shade Of Winter
  
• Bros
  I Owe You Nothing
  
• Bros
  When Will I Be Famous
  
• Belinda Carlisle
  Heaven Is A Place On Earth
  
• Belinda Carlisle
  Circle In The Sand
  
• Tracy Chapman
  Fast Car
  
• Climie Fisher
  Love Changes (Everything)
  
• Natalie Cole
  Pink Cadillac
  
• Phil Collins
  A Groovy Kind Of Love
  
• Danny Wilson
  Mary's Prayer
  
• Terence Trent D'Arby
  Sign Your Name
  
• Taylor Dayne
  Tell It To My Heart
  
• Hazell Dean
  Who's Leaving Who
  
• Dollar
  O L'Amour
  
• Enya
  Orinoco Flow
  
• Erasure
  A Little Respect
  
• Everything But The Girl
  I Don't Want To Talk About It
  
• Fairground Attraction
  Perfect
  
• Fat Boys and Chubby Checker
  The Twist (Yo Twist)
  
• Fleetwood Mac
  Everywhere
  
• Hollies
  He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
  
• Hothouse Flowers
  Don't Go
  
• Whitney Houston
  One Moment In Time
  
• Billy Idol
  Hot In The City (re-mix)
  
• Elton John
  Candle In The Wind (Live)
  
• Bobby McFerrin
  Don't Worry Be Happy
  
• Glenn Medeiros
  Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You
  
• Milli Vanilli
  Girl You Know It's True
  
• Kylie Minogue
  Got To Be Certain
  
• Kylie Minogue
  I Should Be So Lucky
  
• Kylie Minogue
  The Loco-motion
  
• Morrissey
  Everyday Is Like Sunday
  
• Morrissey
  Suedehead
  
• New Order
  Blue Monday 1988
  
• Billy Ocean
  Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car
  
• Vanessa Paradis
  Joe Le Taxi
  
• Pet Shop Boys
  Heart
  
• Prefab Sprout
  The King Of Rock 'n' Roll
  
• Maxi Priest
  Wild World
  
• Cliff Richard
  Mistletoe And Wine
  
• S Express
  Theme from S Express
  
• Sabrina
  Boys (Summertime Love)
  
• Salt 'n' Pepa
  Push It / Tramp
  
• Tiffany
  I Think We're Alone Now
  
• UB40 featuring
  Chrissie Hynde
  Breakfast In Bed
  
• U2
  Desire
  
• Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg and Cara Tivey
  With A Little Help From My Friends / She's Leaving Home
  
• Jane Wiedlin
  Rush Hour
  
• Kim Wilde
  You Came
  
• Womack and Womack
  Teardrops
  
• Yazz and the Plastic Population
  The Only Way Is Up
  
• Yello
  The Race
  

• Robin Beck
  The First Time
  
• Desireless
  Voyage Voyage (re-mix)
  
• Harry Enfield
  Loadsamoney (Doin' Up The House)
  
• Timelords
  Doctorin' The Tardis
  
  

• Rosanne Cash
  King's Record Shop
  
• Tracy Chapman
  Tracy Chapman
  
• Dire Straits
  Money For Nothing
  
• Enya
  Watermark
  
• Erasure
  The Innocents
  
• Fairground Attraction
  The First Of A Million Kisses
  
• Nanci Griffith
  Little Love Affairs
  
• Nanci Griffith
  One Fair Summer Evening
  
• k.d. lang
  Shadowland
  
• Mike and the Mechanics
  Living Years
  
• Kylie Minogue
  Kylie
  
• Prince
  Lovesexy
  
• Chris Rea
  New Light Through Old Windows
  
• Cliff Richard
  Private Collection
  
• Michelle Shocked
  Short Sharp Shocked
  
• Traveling Wilburys
  Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1
  
• U2
  Rattle and Hum
  
• Steve Winwood
  Roll With It
  

• The Accidental Tourist
  
• Another Woman
  (Woody Allen)
  
• Big Business
  
• Broadcast News
  
• Buster
  
• Crocodile Dundee II
  
• Cry In The Dark
  
• Empire Of The Sun
  
• Fatal Attraction
  
• A Fish Called Wanda
  
• Good Morning, Vietnam
  
• Hairspray
  
• A Handful Of Dust
  
• The Last Emperor
  
• The Last Temptation Of Christ
  
• Manon des Sources
  
• Moonstruck
  
• Rambo III
  
• RoboCop
  
• Three Men and A Baby
  
• Throw Momma From The Train
  
• The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
  
• Wall Street
  
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
  
• Wish You Were Here
  
  

• All Creatures Great and Small
  
• 'Allo 'Allo
  (Series 5)
  
• Around The World In 80 Days (Michael Palin)
  
• Bread
  (Series 4)
  
• Death On The Rock
  
• Desmond's
  
• French and Saunders
  (Series 2)
  
• The Golden Girls
  (USA: Series 4)
  
• Hale and Pace
  
• Hi-de-Hi
  (Series 8)
  
• Last of the Summer Wine
  (Series 10)
  
• London's Burning
  
• No Frills
  
• Prisoner Cell Block H
  
• Red Dwarf
  (Series 1 and 2)
  
• Roseanne
  (USA)
  
• Spitting Image
  (Series 8)
  
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  
• Whose Line Is It Anyway?
  
• You Bet!
  
  

Winter Olympics: Skier Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards gains sporting notoriety when he comes last by a long way in the Ski Jump competition.

Horse Racing: Rhyme 'n' Reason wins the Grand National.

Golf: Sandy Lyle wins the US Masters at Augusta - the first British player to do so.
Sevy Ballesteros wins the Open Championship at Royal Lytham.

Snooker: Canadian Cliff Thorburn scores the first ever 147 maximum in the World Championships at the Crucible, Sheffield.
Doug Mountjoy beats Stephen Hendry in the final of the UK Championship.

Football: Wimbledon beat Liverpool 1:0 in the FA Cup final.

Cricket: Graeme Hick scores 405 runs in a county championship match against Somerset on 6th May - the highest championship score since Archie MacLaren's 424 for Lancashire in 1895.

Seoul Olympics: Ben Johnson wins the men's 100 metres final in a new world record time of 9.79 seconds, beating Carl Lewis into second place and Linford Christie into third. He is later stripped of his medal after testing positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol.
The British team returns home with five gold medals, including a gold in the Coxless Pairs for rowers Steve Redgrave and Andy Holmes and a gold in the 100m Breaststroke for swimmer Adrian Moorhouse.

Tennis: Stefan Edberg beats Boris Becker in the men's singles final at Wimbledon (4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2).
Steffi Graf wins the women's singles title at all four of the Grand Slams. At Wimbledon she beats Martina Navratilova in the final in three sets (5-7 6-2, 6-1). Graf also wins a gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.