On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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LEAD: THE ECONOMY The House took a major step to press the television industry to reduce the amount of violence in programs, waiving antitrust laws so that the industry can meet to adopt voluntary guidelines on reducing such programming. But the networks said they doubted the action would have much effect, noting that the measure did not require the industry to reach agreement on guidelines.
LEAD: The Northeast's labor shortage, long the bane of fast-food restaurants, department stores and other sectors of the region's service economy, is hobbling a new employer: the 1990 census.
LEAD: H.U.D. Consultants Named An investigator identified 20 Republicans and others who were paid as consultants on a housing program linked to favoritism. Page A16. Japanese Buying Colleges Japanese universities and companies are spending millions of dollars to establish a foothold in American higher education.
LEAD: ''YOU people,'' began a recent letter. This is the kind of salutation that sets most people's teeth on edge, and in this case referred to health professionals as well as those who write about health and nutrition.
LEAD: For the sixth time in his durable political career, Giulio Andreotti took charge as Italy's Prime Minister last week, and he wasted no time in calling for budget austerity, a crackdown on tax evaders and stepped-up preparations for Western Europe's economic integration at the end of 1992.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of August 2, 1989, covering August 2, 1989.
Prince
Fine Young Cannibals
New Kids on the Block
Richard Marx
Tom Petty
1989Nacer Chadli, Belgian footballer[†]
Nacer Chadli is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Belgian Division 1 club Standard de Liège 16.
1989Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972.[†]
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on the southwest, and the Sir Creek on the southeast, it shares land borders with India to the east; Afghanistan to the west; Iran to the southwest; and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman, and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor.
1989A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.[†]
The 1989 Valvettiturai massacre occurred on 2 and 3 August 1989 in the small coastal town of Valvettiturai, on the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka. Sixty-four Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were killed by soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. The massacre followed an attack on the soldiers by rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres. The rebel attack had left six Indian soldiers, including an officer, dead, and another 10 injured. Indian authorities claimed that the civilians were caught in crossfire. Journalists such as Rita Sebastian of the Indian Express, David Husego of the Financial Times and local human rights groups such as the University Teachers for Human Rights have reported quoting eyewitness accounts that it was a massacre of civilians. George Fernandes, who later served as defense minister of India (1998–2004), called the massacre India’s My Lai.
In 1989, the world population was approximately 5,234,431,732 people[†]