Timeline April 1989

Events in April 1989 10

• 1911 – 1989 Lucille Ball (1911-1989) Died 26 April 1989, aged 77 Lucille Ball starred in and produced I Love Lucy, one of the most popular and influential television sitcoms in American history. She was also a pioneering studio executive as head of Desilu Productions. Her comedic performances remain widely syndicated decades later.
• 1921 – 1989 Sugar Ray Robinson (1921-1989) Died 12 April 1989, aged 67 Sugar Ray Robinson was an American boxer widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, holding world titles at welterweight and middleweight. His fluid style and ring generalship set a benchmark for the sport. He compiled a professional record of 173 wins.
• 1929 – 1989 Sergio Leone (1929-1989) Died 30 April 1989, aged 60 Sergio Leone was an Italian film director who pioneered the Spaghetti Western genre with films including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. His operatic visual style and collaborations with composer Ennio Morricone influenced generations of filmmakers. Once Upon a Time in America was his final completed film.
• 1936 – 1989 Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) Died 12 April 1989, aged 52 Abbie Hoffman was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party and was a defendant in the Chicago Seven trial. He became a symbol of 1960s counterculture protest against the Vietnam War. He died of an intentional overdose.
• 1989 Round Table Talks End of Communism Negotiations between the communist government and Solidarity that led to free elections.
• 1989 Intel 486 — the PC goes mainstream Intel introduces the 80486 (486) in April 1989 — containing 1.2 million transistors and running at 25–100MHz with an integrated floating-point unit and cache. The 486 is the processor that makes PCs genuinely useful for everyday applications — fast enough for Windows, word processing, spreadsheets and early graphics. Intel's 'Red X' advertising campaign, marking out 386 computers as outdated, is one of the most effective comparative advertising campaigns in technology history. The 486 era sees Intel's revenues grow from $3 billion to $8 billion.
• 1989 1989 World Snooker Championship Steve Davis Title 6 Most one-sided final in the modern era. Winner: Steve Davis; Runner-up: John Parrott. Score: 18–3.
• 1989 Hillsborough disaster Crowd crush kills 97 football fans in Sheffield A fatal crush occurred among Liverpool supporters at Hillsborough Stadium during an FA Cup semi-final, ultimately killing 97 people. It remains the deadliest disaster in British sporting history. The tragedy led to sweeping changes in UK stadium safety, including the removal of standing terraces.
• 1989 Nintendo Game Boy released Handheld console launches in Japan Nintendo released the Game Boy handheld game console in Japan, later launching in North America and Europe the same year. Bundled with the puzzle game Tetris in Western markets, it became one of the best-selling gaming systems ever made. It established the template for portable gaming for the following decade.
• 1989 Tom Petty releases Full Moon Fever Free Fallin' A solo album with Free Fallin', I Won't Back Down and Runnin' Down a Dream.