On this day

June 21, 1989

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from June 21, 1989

Harcourt Plans Sale Of 6 Parks

By Edwin McDowell

LEAD: To ease its heavy debt burden, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. said yesterday that it would sell its six theme parks and the land surrounding them.

Financial Desk842 words

GORBACHEV CHEERS IRANIAN IN MOSCOW

By Francis X. Clines, Special To the New York Times

LEAD: President Mikhail S. Gorbachev heartily welcomed the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament to the Kremlin today and made a pointed appeal for closer relations, saying the time was never better to show that Soviet restructuring and the Iranian revolution shared common values.

Foreign Desk808 words

New York Cancels Regents Exam After Newspaper Carries Answers

By Sam Howe Verhovek, Special To the New York Times

LEAD: New York's State Education Commissioner today canceled a statewide achievement test in chemistry for 80,000 high school students after The New York Post printed the answers to the exam. Copies of the answer key were already being bought and sold in New York City.

Metropolitan Desk1248 words

All Safe in Soviet Ship Drama

By Steve Lohr, Special To the New York Times

LEAD: A Norwegian rescue ship broke through Arctic ice floes several feet thick today to rescue nearly 1,000 people from a Soviet cruise vessel that had struck an iceberg.

Foreign Desk854 words

Connecticut Abortion Protesters Clog Jails

By Kirk Johnson

LEAD: By this morning, the raw eggs and maple syrup that abortion protesters poured over surgical instruments at the Summit Women's Center here last Saturday had been cleaned off. But the fervor that inspired that damage is creating clogged jails and courts.

Metropolitan Desk891 words

Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of June 21, 1989, covering June 21, 1989.

  1. 1
    Album cover for The Raw & The Cooked by Fine Young Cannibals

    The Raw & The Cooked

    Fine Young Cannibals

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    16
  2. 2
    Album cover for Beaches by Soundtrack

    Beaches

    Soundtrack

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    2
    Weeks
    23
  3. 3
    Album cover for Don't Be Cruel by Bobby Brown

    Don't Be Cruel

    Bobby Brown

    Last week
    4
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    49
  4. 4
    Album cover for Like A Prayer by Madonna

    Like A Prayer

    Madonna

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    12
  5. 5
    Album cover for Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty

    Full Moon Fever

    Tom Petty

    Last week
    6
    Peak
    5
    Weeks
    7

Notable Births

Abubaker Kaki Khamis

1989Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese runner[†]

Abubaker Kaki Khamis is a Sudanese runner who specialises in the 800 metres. He is a two-time World Indoor Champion over the distance and also won gold at the 2007 All-Africa Games. He represented Sudan at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the Messiria ethnic minority.

Historical Events

Supreme Court of the United States

1989The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment.[†]

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." In 1803, the Court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution via the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.

Historical Context for June 21, 1989

In 1989, the world population was approximately 5,234,431,732 people[†]