1989 was the most important year in my life

The 24th of May 1989 was important for me because I won against Denmark at the European Court of Human Rights. This was a near nine-year struggle and hard work, not to forget the suffering of 309 solitary confinement and 1492 pre-trial incarceration. The first-ever win against Denmark since near 40 years earlier, Denmark become a member of the Court. Denmark had never lost a case. Geoffrey Robertson claim in his new book: Rather His Own Man: In Court with Tyrants, Tarts and Troublemakers, that my case was the most important case, as to human rights, that he has been involved in and he was involved in so many cases in Strasbourg and throughout the world.

Geoffrey is the leading Human Rights barrister in the United Kingdom and a United Nation Judge. He writes in his legal memoirs “What is crucial, and now accepted throughout Europe as a result of the Hauschildt case, is that the judge at the trial itself must not be the same judge who authorised the police investigations into the suspect on the basis that he is likely to be guilty, or has charged him on that basis.”

Speaking to human rights lawyers, also in Denmark, they told me the very important contribution my case was and the judgment, to Human Rights and to the western democratic society. So at least I made some contribution to society. It is clear that without the judgment against Denmark, the changes in the Danish society, as to the appointment and administrative law, would never have been made. The Ministry of Justice had total power.

However, that was really nothing for me at the time, since within a few months, I met the love of my life Romana. That is why 1989 is so special to me. It is also my Chinese sign, the year of the Snake. It certainly was a good year for me, but a momentous for the world.

1989 changed the world

Timothy Garton Ash wrote in the Guardian:

“Nineteen eighty-nine was the biggest year in world history since 1945. In international politics, 1989 changed everything.

It led to the end of communism in Europe, the Soviet Union, the cold war and the short 20th century. It opened the door to German unification, a historically unprecedented European Union stretching from Lisbon to Tallinn, the enlargement of Nato, two decades of American supremacy, globalisation, and the rise of Asia. The one thing it did not change was human nature.

In 1989, Europeans proposed a new model of the non-violent, velvet revolution, challenging the violent example of 1789, which for two centuries had been what most people thought of as “revolution”. Instead of Jacobins and the guillotine, they offered people power and negotiations at a round table.

With Mikhail Gorbachev’s breathtaking renunciation of the use of force (a luminous example of the importance of the individual in history), a nuclear-armed empire that had seemed to many Europeans as enduring and impregnable as the Alps, not least because it possessed those weapons of total annihilation, just softly and suddenly vanished. But then, as if this were all somehow too good to be true, 1989 also brought us Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa on Salman Rushdie – firing the starting gun for another long struggle in Europe, even before the last one was really over.

Such years come only once or twice in a long lifetime.

What happened in 1989 Major News Stories include Berlin Wall Comes Down, the first release of Microsoft Office, Tiananmen Square Protests lead to Military Intervention, Hillsborough disaster, Savings and Loan Crisis, Exxon Valdez Environmental disaster in Alaska, 486 series of microprocessors introduced, Toyota launches Lexus, Game Boy Launched, Civil War in Lebanon, Elections in Poland bring Solidarity to power.

Following Massive protests against the Berlin Wall, bringing about the collapse of The Berlin Wall and the East German Government both are dismantled which leads after many years to the reunification of East and West Germany.

In China Pro democracy protesters clash with Chinese Security Forces in Tiananmen Square on June 4th, and the pictures of a man taking on a tank are seen on TV news throughout the world, sadly ending with thousands of young people killed – just massacred.”

Historical Events for the Year 1989

• 1st January – The Montreal Protocol Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force.
• 4th January – Gulf of Sidra incident (1989) Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 MiG-23 “Floggers” are shot down by a pair of United States Navy US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
• 7th January – Prince Akihito is sworn in as the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Hirohito
• 8th January – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland International or British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737 Classic e.g Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
• 8th January – Beginning of the Japanese Heisei period.
• 29th January – Hungary–South Korea relations called Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so
• 30th January – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
• 2nd February – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union called Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
• 3rd February – After a stroke two weeks previously, the President of South Africa named South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party (South Africa) named National Party but stays on as president for six more months.
• 3rd February – A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
• 6th February – The Polish Round Table Talks called Round Table Talks to start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
• 10th February – Ron Brown (U.S. politician) called Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead the major United States called American political party.
• 14th February – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
• 14th February – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of ‘The Satanic Verses (novel) known as The Satanic Verses’.
• 15th February » Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
• 20th February – A Provisional Irish Republican Army known as IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England.
• 24th February – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a US$3 million The Satanic Verses controversy e.g bounty for the death of ‘The Satanic Verses’ author Salman Rushdie.
• 24th February – United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during the flight, blowing 9 passengers out of the business-class section.
• 27th February – Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo riots.
• 1st March – The United States becomes a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
• 2nd March » Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
• 7th March – Iran and the United Kingdom break diplomatic relations after a row over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’.
• 16th March – In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found near the Great Pyramid of Giza known as the Pyramid of Cheops.
• 19th March – The Egyptian Flag is raised on Taba, Egypt announcing the end of the Israeli occupation after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the peace negotiations in 1979.
• 23rd March – Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced their discovery of cold fusion at the University of Utah.
• 24th March – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the ‘Exxon Valdez’ spills convert 240000 oil bbl m3 of petroleum after running aground.
• 2nd April – Soviet Union e.g Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
• 7th April – Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets called Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.
• 9th April – The April 9 tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, an anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strikes, demanding restoration of Georgian independence is dispersed by the Soviet army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
• 15th April – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. known as Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool F.C. e.g Liverpool fans.
• 19th April – A gun turret USS Iowa turret explosion explodes on the USS Iowa BB-61 6, killing 47 sailors.
• 21st April – Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate China named Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
• 26th April – Daulatpur-Salturia Tornado e.g The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
• 27th April – The April 27 Demonstration, a student-led protest responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
• 4th May – Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
• 6th May – Cedar Point opens Magnum XL-200, the first roller coaster to break the 200 ft height barrier, therefore spawning what is known as the “coaster wars”.
• 12th May – The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people. A week later an underground gasoline pipeline explodes killing two more people.
• 13th May – Large groups of students in Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 known as occupying Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
• 20th May -The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.
• 24th May –  Denmark, after near 50 years membership of in the European Court of Human Rights, loose its first case and Denmark was judged not to have given Mogens Hauschildt, a fair trial in accordance with article 6.
• 29th May – Signing of an agreement between Egypt and the United States, allowing the manufacture of parts of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon named F-16 jet fighter plane in Egypt.
• 30th May – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: the 33-foot high “Goddess of Democracy” statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
• 31st May – A group of six members of the guerrilla group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) of Peru, shoot dead eight transsexualism named transsexuals, in the city of Tarapoto.
• 3rd June – The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
• 4th June -Ali Khamenei is elected as the new Supreme Leader of Iran e.g Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Assembly of Experts after the death and funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• 4th June – Ufa train disaster: A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia, kills 575 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline.
• 5th June – The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
• 16th June – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister of Hungary or Prime Minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
• 24th June – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests.
• 28th June – On the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
• 5th July – Iran–Contra affair: Oliver North is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours community service. His convictions were later overturned.
• 17th July – First flight of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit e.g B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
• 17th July – Holy See–Poland relations are restored.
• 19th July – United Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112.
• 26th July – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris or Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• 2nd August – Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972.
• 5th August – General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista National Liberation Front winning a majority.
• 7th August – U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-Texas named TX) and 15 others die in Aviation accidents and incidents called a plane crash in Ethiopia.
• 8th August – Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
• 18th August – Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
• 19th August – President of Poland Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity (Polish trade union) Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-Communism communist prime minister in 42 years.
• 19th August – Radio Caroline, the offshore pirate station in the North Sea, is raided by British and the Netherlands called Dutch governments.
• 19th August – Several hundred East Germany-named East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Berlin Wall The Fall named Fall of the Berlin Wall.
• 20th August – The pleasure boat Marchioness disaster e.g ‘Marchioness’ sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.
• 23rd August – Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way).
• 24th August – Colombian drug barons declare “total war” on the Government of Colombia e.g Colombian government.
• 24th August – Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central Europe or Central and Eastern Europe.
• 25th August – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.
• 4th September – In Leipzig, East Germany, the first of Monday demonstrations in East Germany known as a weekly demonstration for the legalisation of opposition groups and democracy called democratic reforms takes place.
• 8th September – Partnair Flight 394 drove into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade.
• 11th September – Hungary announces that East Germany named East German refugees who had been housed in temporary camps were free to leave for West Germany.
• 13th September – Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu.
• 19th September – A terrorist bomb explodes UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171.
• 9th October – An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of an Unidentified flying object e.g UFO in Voronezh.
• 15th October – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.
• 17th October – 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale known as Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).
• 18th October – Peaceful Revolution: Erich Honecker resigns as Leadership of East Germany named General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
• 19th October –  The convictions of the Guildford Four are quashed by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales after they had spent 15 years in prison.
• 23rd October – Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine; the biggest bankruptcy in the Nordic countries until then.
• 7th November  David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected Mayor of New York City known as mayor of New York City.
• 7th November  East Germany named East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph, along with his entire cabinet forced to resign after huge anti-government protests.
• 9th November – Cold War: Berlin Wall Fall of the Berlin Wall. Communism Communist-controlled East Germany opens Border checkpoint checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual German reunification run
• 10th November – German citizens begin to bring the Berlin Wall down
• 13th November – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein named Hans-Adam II, the present Prince of Liechtenstein, begins his reign on the death of his father.
• 16th November – A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops Murder of UCA scholars killing six Society of Jesus Jesuit priests and two others at Central American University Jose Simeon Canas University.
• 17th November – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
• 20th November – Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
• 22nd November – In West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President René Moawad, killing him.
• 22nd November – Back to the Future Part II was released.
• 27th November – Avianca Flight 203, a Boeing 727, explodes in mid-air over Colombia, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground. The Medellín Cartel will claim responsibility for the attack.
• 28th November – Cold War: Velvet Revolution In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power.
• 30th November – Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.
• 3rd December – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between NATO and the Soviet Union may be coming to an end.
• 6th December – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique de Montréal called École Polytechnique in Montreal.
• 13th December – The Troubles: Attack on Derryard checkpoint The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches an attack on a British Army temporary vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea e.g Rosslea, Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are killed and one badly wounded.
• 17th December – The first episode of the television series ‘The Simpsons’, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, airs in the United States.
• 17th December – Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, 1989 e.g Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President of Brazil e.g President in almost 30 years
• 18th December – The European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
• 20th December – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow the government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
• 22nd December – Communism called Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife flee Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers.
• 25th December – Deposed President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, First-Deputy Prime Minister Elena Ceaușescu are condemned to death and executed after a summary trial.
• 28th December – A 1989 Newcastle earthquake called magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.
• 29th December – Riots break out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.