On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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LEAD: A 19-year-old Bronx man was fatally stabbed at a rap concert Saturday night in the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale during a wave of assaults, robberies and stabbings that left 13 others injured, three critically.
LEAD: Dozens of school districts that are scrambling to find class space in overcrowded elementary schools as they open this week are consolidating classes and cutting curriculums in high schools as enrollments there continue to decline.
LEAD: No, the Jets aren't going to go through the season without scoring a touchdown. In fact, they're not going to go through without a victory.
LEAD: After spending six years and millions of dollars, the United States Patent Office is still far from computerizing the nation's patent files. Amid growing criticism from Congress and industry groups, estimates of the system's ultimate cost have mounted, and some critics question whether the new system will work at all.
LEAD: In 1973, civic leaders in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Ill., suggested an ingenious safeguard against the white flight that housing integration had heralded in so many other communities.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of September 7, 1988, covering September 12, 1988.
Def Leppard
Guns N' Roses
Tracy Chapman
Steve Winwood
D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
1988Amanda Jenssen, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist[†]
Jenny Amanda Katarina Jenssen is a Swedish singer and songwriter who first rose to prominence as the Swedish Idol 2007 runner-up. Her first album, Killing My Darlings (2008), became one of that year's best-selling albums in Sweden, peaking at number 1 on the Swedish album chart. She also had success with her music singles, with seven individual placements on the Swedish singles chart.
1988Guðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson, Icelandic politician[†]
Guðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson is an Icelandic politician and member of the Althing. A member of the Social Democratic Alliance, he has represented the Southwest constituency since November 2024.
1988Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.[†]
Hurricane Gilbert was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Atlantic basin in terms of barometric pressure, only behind Hurricane Wilma in 2005. An extremely powerful tropical cyclone that formed during the 1988 Atlantic hurricane season, Gilbert peaked as a Category 5 hurricane that brought widespread destruction to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and is tied with 1969's Hurricane Camille as the second-most intense tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Atlantic Ocean. Gilbert was also one of the largest tropical cyclones ever observed in the Atlantic basin. At one point, its tropical storm-force winds measured 575 mi (925 km) in diameter. In addition, Gilbert was the most intense tropical cyclone in recorded history to strike Mexico.
In 1988, the world population was approximately 5,141,992,542 people[†]