In 1989 the USSR began to lose grip on power in Eastern Europe, climaxing in the collapse of the Berlin Wall in Germany. The Chinese Government stamped hard on student protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. There was an environmental disaster in Alaska, as an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil and an earthquake sent shock waves in California.
Worldwide protests by muslims took place about a new book by British author Salman Rushdie which offended their religion. The idea of the World Wide Web was introduced and Diana, Princess of Wales, changed people's prejudice about victims of a killer disease by visiting hospitals in Harlem and London to cuddle ill children and shake the hands of patients with AIDS. This was 1989: the year that rocked the world.
