On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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LEAD: It is a measure of the uncertainty about the future here that officials in the Government and ruling party have drawn up contingency plans for underground resistance should the Khmer Rouge succeed in returning to power in Cambodia, senior diplomats say.
LEAD: A senior Solidarity official said today that he would be nominated as Poland's Prime Minister. He would be the first non-Communist head of government in Eastern Europe since the early postwar years.
LEAD: Britain and Argentina agreed today to set aside their rival claims over the Falkland Islands and start substantive talks on restoring diplomatic relations, which were severed at the start of their war for control of the bleak, windswept South Atlantic islands in 1982.
LEAD: After decades of denial, the Kremlin conceded for the first time today that ''without a doubt'' the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany secretly and illegally divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence before the start of World War II.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of August 16, 1989, covering August 19, 1989.
Prince
Richard Marx
New Kids on the Block
Paula Abdul
Tom Petty
1989Romeo Miller, American basketball player, rapper, actor[†]
Percy Romeo Miller Jr., also known by his stage name Romeo, is an American rapper, singer, actor and television personality. He gained fame as a rapper in the early 2000s after signing with his father, Master P's record label No Limit Records. His 2001 debut single, "My Baby" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and preceded his debut studio album Lil' Romeo, which peaked at number six on the US Billboard 200.
1989Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.[†]
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was a Polish military general, politician and de facto leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party between 1981 and 1989, making him the last leader of the Polish People's Republic. Jaruzelski served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985, the Chairman of the Council of State from 1985 to 1989 and briefly as President of Poland from 1989 to 1990, when the office of President was restored after 37 years. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army, which in 1990 became the Polish Armed Forces.
1989Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.[†]
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". The economy of the country was centrally planned and state-owned. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, its economy became the most successful in the Eastern Bloc.
In 1989, the world population was approximately 5,234,431,732 people[†]