| 1983–1989 | UK [television] | The comedy Blackadder is shown on British television.Written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, it consists of four main series set in different historical periods – the Middle Ages, the Elizabethan Age, the Regency Period, and the First World War – and stars Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder. |
| 1984–1994 | UK [television] | Spitting Image, a programme satirizing contemporary politics using puppets created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law, is shown on British television. |
| 1987–1993 | UK [television] | French and Saunders, a comic sketch series starring comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, is shown on British television. |
| 1988 | USA [scientific institutions and societies] | The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) is established in Washington, DC, USA; scientists announce a project to compile a complete ‘map’ of human genes. |
| 1988 | France [medicine] | A French company markets the abortion-inducing drug RU486, developed by Etienne Baulieu; it induces an abortion up to seven weeks after fertilization by blocking receptors for the production of the hormone progesterone; anti-abortion groups protest. |
| 1988 | USA [natural disasters] | The USA experiences its worst drought since 1934, forcing it to import grain for the first time ever. |
| 1988 | USA [statistics and demography] | The number of births in the USA is 3,829,000, the highest in 25 years. |
| 1988 | Israel [anthropology] | Fossil remains of a modern Homo sapiens are discovered in Israel, dated about 92,000 years ago; they suggest modern humans appeared twice as early as previously thought. |
| 1988 | USA [chemistry] | Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San José, California, using a scanning tunnelling microscope, produce the first image of the ring structure of benzene, the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon. The image confirms the structure of the molecule envisioned by Frederick Kekulé in 1865. |
| 1988–1994 | USA [ecology] | The amount of chlorofluorocarbons released into the air in the USA is reduced by 52%. |
| 1988 | Israel, USA [energy] | Israeli inventor Herman Branover and the US-Israeli Solmecs firm develop a prototype of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator that uses molten lead fluid and coal as a fuel, making it suitable for countries that do not have petroleum resources. |
| 1988 | India, UK [fiction] | The Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie publishes his novel The Satanic Verses. |
| January - September 1988 | West Germany, Australia, France, UK, USA, South Korea [tennis] | The West German tennis player Steffi Graf becomes the third woman to win the ‘Grand Slam’ of all four major tournaments (the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open). She also wins an Olympic gold medal, following the restoration of tennis to the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. |
| 15 February 1988 | USA [births and deaths] | Richard Feynman, US theoretical physicist in the field of quantum electrodynamics, dies in Los Angeles, California (69). |
| 1 March 1988 | England [computing] | The English company Tome Associates demonstrates the first desktop computer that responds to voice commands, developed from research by the British Library and London University. |
| 3 April 1988 | North Africa [diplomacy] | A peace agreement between Ethiopia and Somalia ends 11 years of border conflict. |
| 23 April 1988 | USA [social legislation] | The US government bans smoking on all internal passenger airline flights of under two hours' duration. |
| 5 May 1988 | USA [Catholicism] | Eugene Antonio Marino is installed as archbishop of Atlanta, the first black Roman Catholic archbishop in the USA. |
| 20 May 1988 | UK [food and drink] | The Licensing Act in Britain allows all-day opening (from 11 am to 11 pm) to pubs in England and Wales. |
| July 1988 | UK [everyday life] | The first EC passports in Britain are issued by the Glasgow Passport Office in Scotland. |
| 27 July 1988 | UK [communications] | The telecommunications company Mercury installs its first 26 payphones at Waterloo Station in London, England. |
| 17 August 1988 | Pakistan [political events] | Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, president of Pakistan 1978–88, who had his predecessor, Lulfiqar Ali Bhutto, executed, is killed in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, when his plane is blown up by an assassin's bomb (64). A state of emergency is declared. |
| September 1988 | Vatican [Catholicism] | Pope John Paul II reiterates his opposition to women priests in the Catholic Church in his Apostolic Letter ‘Mulieris Dignitatem’/‘The Dignity of Woman’. |
| 1 September 1988 | USA [births and deaths] | Luis W Alvarez, US physicist who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968 for his discovery of several subatomic particles, dies in Berkeley, California (77). |
| 23 September 1988 | South Korea, Canada [athletics] | At the Seoul Olympic Games in South Korea, the Canadian runner Ben Johnson wins the 100 metres in a world record time of 9.79 seconds; he is then stripped of the title three days later when drug tests reveal traces of an anabolic steroid, stanozol. |
| 25 September 1988 | USA [Protestantism] | Barbara Harris, a divorcée, is elected the first female bishop in the Anglican communion, to serve as suffragan bishop of Massachusetts. She is consecrated on 11 February 1989. |
| 3 October 1988 | Chad, Libya [diplomacy] | Chad and Libya end their long-running war and establish diplomatic relations. |
| 31 October 1988 | UK [companies and organizations] | British Airways introduces the air miles scheme, offering points towards free flights for specified purchases. |
| 5 November 1988 | UK [charities] | Comic Relief, a charity that raises money for programmes that work to end poverty and promote social justice, launches the first Red Nose Day, with the distribution of almost 4 million noses. |
| 16 November 1988 | Pakistan [elections] | Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party wins 94 seats in the general election. On 2 December, she is sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan. |
| 21 December 1988 | UK, USA [terrorism] | A terrorist bomb explodes on a Pan Am Boeing 747 airliner flying over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 passengers on board and 11 people on the ground. |
