On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 1989, the world population was approximately 5,234,431,732 people[†]
1989Safdar Hashmi, Indian actor, director, and playwright (born 1954)[†]
Safdar Hashmi was an Indian communist playwright and director, best known for his work with street theatre in India. He was also an actor, lyricist, and theorist, and he is still considered an important voice in Indian political theatre. He was an activist of the Students' Federation of India (SFI).
LEAD: At least 51 people drowned and another 30 to 40 were believed to be missing when a boat carrying party-goers to watch a New Year's fireworks display along Copacabana Beach sank at the entrance to the bay of Rio de Janeiro a few minutes before midnight Saturday.
LEAD: Publishers have already spent more than a million dollars on advances to authors writing about Manhattan's two most talked-about current courtroom dramas: the murder trial of Joel B. Steinberg and the corruption trial that ended in the acquittal of Bess Myerson, a former Miss America and New York cultural commissioner.
LEAD: Five months after Iran embraced a cease-fire in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, the regime is struggling over how to rebuild its economy and recast its goal of ''war until victory'' to an ideology suited to peace.
LEAD: Patent battles now beginning could determine which organizations and even which nations control the rights to new high-temperature superconductors, materials that could revolutionize fields like computers and electricity generation.
LEAD: 49ers and Bills Win The San Francisco 49ers routed Minnesota, 34-9, and advanced to the National Football Conference final.
LEAD: George Bush has taken some time out since the election for sedentary activities like picking a Cabinet and preparing a plan to govern. But mostly he has kept up a grueling schedule of shooting, casting, jogging, putting, pitching, lobbing, boating, diving and body surfing.
LEAD: When President Reagan took office, environmentalists feared the worst from the man who once said trees cause pollution. They expected him to dismantle environmental regulation and give away public lands and resources.
LEAD: Finance Minister Shimon Peres unveiled a stringent austerity plan today to rescue Israel's troubled economy.
LEAD: Santiago and Gloria Rodriguez have been married for eight years, but neither has ever met the other's parents, his in Mexico, hers in Guatemala. As immigrants living illegally in California, the couple dared not, until now, leave the United States for fear they might not ever be able to slip back across the border.
LEAD: International 2-8 An Israeli austerity plan to rescue the troubled economy was unveiled by Finance Minister Shimon Peres. It includes major budget reductions and would call for the layoff of thousands of Government employees. Page 1
LEAD: Thirty years ago today Cubans poured into the streets of Havana, cheering and honking car horns, to celebrate the collapse of a brutal dictatorship and the promise of a better way of life.
LEAD: ''I do not think an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth is ever valid. I can understand the anger. We feel the anger very deeply. The most important thing to do is to try to get the cooperation of all nations to track down these people so that they are brought to justice.'' - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, on the crash of Pan Am Flight 103.