On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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LEAD: Easy credit, including longer repayment periods, has led to a sharp increase in defaults on auto loans, the two biggest American car makers say.
LEAD: The British authorities have concluded that the bomb that blew up a Pan Am flight over Scotland in December was hidden in a radio-cassette player, the British Transport Minister announced today.
LEAD: Police officers are spending longer hours waiting in courthouses because of a sharp rise in drug-related arrests in New York City and limited space in prosecutors' offices, officials said yesterday. The problems have slowed the early processing of all kinds of criminal cases.
LEAD: Sheldon Ofodile, a 9-year-old pupil at Public School 153 in the Bronx, has an hour set aside each night to read a story or novel. ''My mother,'' he said by way of explanation. ''It's a rule.''
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of February 15, 1989, covering February 17, 1989.
Bobby Brown
Guns N' Roses
Traveling Wilburys
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
Guns N' Roses
1989Rebecca Adlington, English swimmer[†]
Rebecca Adlington is an English former competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle events in international competition. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle, breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the 800-metre final. Adlington was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. After winning her first World Championship gold over 800 metres in 2011, along with silver in the 400 metres at the same meet, she won bronze medals in both the women's 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle events in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Adlington is one of the few people to have won Olympic Games, World Championships, European championships and Commonwealth Games gold medals.
1989Chord Overstreet, American actor and singer[†]
Chord Paul Overstreet is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Sam Evans on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015). He has starred in the Apple TV+ comedy series Acapulco since 2021.
1989Lefty Gomez, American baseball player (born 1908)[†]
Vernon Louis "Lefty" Gomez was an American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, Gomez played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1930 and 1943 for the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators. Gomez was a five-time World Series champion with the Yankees. He was also known for his colorful personality and humor.
In 1989, the world population was approximately 5,234,431,732 people[†]