This is a list of important events the occured during 1988. Exact dates are listed when known.

• CDs outsell vinyl for the first time ever.
• Soviets leave Afghanistan
• Jimmy Swaggart admits to being with prostitutes.
• Summer Olympics in Seoul, South-Korea; Ben Johnson caught for steriods after setting a World Record in the 100 meter dash.
• Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland; Lybian terrorists are suspected of planting the bomb
• Earthquake in the USSR
• Bobby McFerrin tells everyone "Don't worry, be happy"
• Prozac is introduced as an anti-depresent.
• US advertising is permitted on Soviet TV
• The first plutonium pacemaker is made.
• World's longest undersea tunnel is completed. Work begins on the Chunnel which will then become the world's longest undersea tunnel.
• Sonny Bono becomes Mayor in Palm Springs.
• Robin Givens files for divorce from Mike Tyson
• Benazir Bhutto becomes the first woman to head an Islamic nation
• Willie Horton ads during the '88 re-election
• Dukakis loses to the "Read My Lips" guy, he's never heard from again.
• McDonalds in the USSR (might have been 1989)
• Long Island beaches close due to medical waste coming ashore July 6th.
• Iran-Iraqi war ends in August.
• Human Genome project begins.
• Soviets withdraw from Afghanastan.
• Australia celebrates it's bicentenary
• Supreme Court case, California v. Greenwood, tested the Bill of Rights 4th Amendment, addressing search and seizure in trash.
• Fires in Yellowstone National Park. The rains didn't come when expected but months later.