On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Portrait 1080 à 1920 PNG · created on your device
LEAD: The latest reports on jobs, consumer debt, production and the like are convincing many economists that the economy is a lot stronger these days than they were predicting just a few weeks ago. Today's announcement of an 8.9 percent jump in home construction last month is further evidence of the economy's surprising resilience.
LEAD: For the first time in the United States, a computer program that can secretly spread from computer to computer and potentially destroy stored data has compromised a major commercial personal computer software product.
LEAD: FOR generations, portraits of favorite dogs have held a special place in English drawing rooms. Now it seems that paintings of the pedigreed pets are found almost as frequently on the walls of New York living rooms as their real-life counterparts are on the paths of Central Park.
LEAD: President Reagan tonight ordered the deployment of four battalions of American troops, about 3,200 men, to Honduras as a sign of support for the Government there.
LEAD: An attempt to overthrow Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega failed here today, but it was followed by widespread civil disorders across Panama.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of March 16, 1988, covering March 17, 1988.
Soundtrack
George Michael
INXS
Michael Jackson
Tiffany
1988Rasmus Elm, Swedish footballer[â ]
Rasmus Christoffer Elm is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently the assistant coach of Kalmar FF. During his career, he played for Kalmar FF in Sweden, for AZ in the Netherlands and the Russian side CSKA Moscow. Elm earned 39 caps for Sweden between 2009 and 2013 and competed at UEFA Euro 2012. He is the younger brother of Viktor and David Elm.
1988Fraser Forster, English footballer[â ]
Fraser Gerard Forster is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. He will become a free agent on 1 July 2025.
1988Grimes, Canadian musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and visual artist[â ]
Claire Elise Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. The visuals in her videos are elaborate and sometimes have fantasy themes. She has released five studio albums.
1988Brent Meuleman, Belgian politician[â ]
Brent Meuleman is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of Vooruit, he has represented East Flanders since June 2024.
1988Ryan White, Canadian ice hockey player[â ]
Ryan White is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He was selected in the third round, 66th overall, by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. White also played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild.
1988A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.[â ]
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Peru and Ecuador to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of BogotĂĄ is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub. Other major urban areas include MedellĂn, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, CĂșcuta, IbaguĂ©, Villavicencio and Bucaramanga. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers and has a population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural heritageâincluding language, religion, cuisine, and artâreflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by immigration from Europe and the Middle East, with those brought by the African diaspora, as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization. Spanish is the official language, although Creole, English and 64 other languages are recognized regionally.
1988Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.[â ]
The Eritrean War of Independence was an armed conflict and insurgency aimed at achieving self-determination and independence for Eritrea from Ethiopian rule. Starting in 1961, Eritrean insurgents engaged in guerrilla warfare to liberate Eritrea Province from the control of the Ethiopian Empire under Haile Selassie and later the Derg under Mengistu. Their efforts ultimately succeeded in 1991 with the fall of the Derg regime.
In 1988, the world population was approximately 5,141,992,542 people[â ]