1988

• February 13 – Michael Jackson purchases a ranch in Santa Ynez, California. He calls his new home "Neverland".
• March 12 – Record producer Jimmy Iovine presents the Special Olympics with a donation of $5 million, which was raised with the release of the A Very Special Christmas album.
• April 19 – Former rock and roll singer Sonny Bono becomes the mayor of Palm Springs, California.
• May 1 – Citing the 1st Amendment, a judge drops all charges filed against singer Billy Joel. Joel was being sued by Jack Powers for defamation following an interview with Playboy in which he called Powers a "creep".
• June 14 – A small wildfire starts in Montana near Yellowstone National Park. It joins other fires. Eventually, over 750,000 acres (3,000 km²) of Yellowstone burns before firefighters gain control in late September.
• July 1 – Quartetto Cetra's last concert
• August 20 – The Iran–Iraq War ends
• September 16 – rapper Eazy-E releases his first album Eazy-Duz-It
• November 1 – Bad Religion releases Suffer
• Hurricane Gilbert strikes the Caribbean, Mexico and south Texas
• November 24 – Mystery Science Theater 3000 premieres
• December 7 – A powerful earthquake kills nearly 25,000 people in Soviet Armenia
• December 21 – A Pan-Am airplane explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing more than 270 people
• Ankst music label founded
• Peter Ruzicka becomes director of the Hamburg State Opera and State Philharmonic Orchestra
• "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" experiences a surge in popularity sparked by television commercials featuring claymation raisin figures dancing to the song. The California Raisins version of the song peaks at No. 84 on Billboard's Hot 100.

• January 12 – Chris Casement, Northern Irish footballer
• February 20 – Rihanna, Barbadian singer
• February 29 – Lena Gercke, German model
• March 27 – Brenda Song, American actress and singer
• April 27 – Lizzo, American musician
• April 29 – Jonathan Toews, Canadian Professional ice hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks
• May 5 – Adele, British singer
• June 6 – Ajinkya Rahane, Indian cricketer
• June 7 – Michael Cera, Canadian actor
• July 14 – Conor McGregor, Irish boxer
• July 16 – Sergio Busquets, Spanish footballer
• August 25 – Alexandra Burke, British singer
• October 15 – Mesut Özil, German footballer
• November 5 – Virat Kohli, Indian cricketer
• November 6 – Emma Stone, American actress
• November 8 - Chris McNally, Canadian actor
• November 19 – Patrick Kane, American professional ice hockey for the Chicago Blackhawks
• November 25 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (d. 2010)
• December 14 – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress

January

• January 3 – Rose Auslander, German poet (b. 1901)
• January 3 – Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1905)
• January 5 – Pete Maravich, basketball player (b. 1947)
• January 7 – Trevor Howard, English actor (b. 1913)
• January 11 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist (b. 1898)
• January 13 – Chiang Ching-kuo, 3rd President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
• January 14 – Georgy Malenkov, 5th Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)
• January 15 – Seán MacBride, Irish Republican Army leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1904)
• January 16 – Ballard Berkeley, British actor (b. 1904)

February

• February 1 – Heather O'Rourke, American actress (b. 1975)
• February 13 – John Curulewski, American guitarist (Styx) (b. 1950)
• February 15 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

March

• March 7 – Divine, American actor and singer (b. 1945)
• March 9 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 3rd Chancellor of Germany (b. 1904)
• March 10 – Andy Gibb, singer (b. 1958)
• March 10 – Phạm Hùng, Vietnamese prime minister (b. 1912)
• March 31 – Sir William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)

April

• April 12 – Alan Paton, South African author (b. 1903)
• April 17 - Louise Nevelson, American sculptor
• April 25 - Valerie Solanas, American author (b. 1936)

May

• May 8 – Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer (b. 1907)
• May 11 – Kim Philby, British agent and spy (b. 1912)
• May 14 – Willem Drees, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1886)
• May 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)

June

• June 7 - Vernon Washington, American actor (b. 1927)
• June 11 – Giuseppe Saragat, 5th President of Italy (b. 1898)
• June 25 – Hillel Slovak, American musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (b. 1962)

July

• July 25 – Judith Barsi, American child actress (b. 1978)

August

• August 2 – Raymond Carver, American writer (b. 1938)
• August 10 – Arnulfo Arias, President of Panama (b. 1901)
• August 14 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian car maker (b. 1898)
• August 17 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
• August 20 – Lazarus Salii, President of Palau (b. 1937)
• August 30 – Jack Marshall, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1912)

September

• September 1 – Luis Walter Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• September 5 - Gert Fröbe, German actor (b. 1913)
• September 11 - Roger Hargreaves, English writer (b. 1934)
• September 30 – Trường Chinh, former President of Vietnam (b. 1907)

October

• October 3 – Franz Josef Strauß, German politician (b. 1915)

November

• November 4 – Kleanthis Vikelidis, Greek footballer (b. 1916)
• November 14 – Takeo Miki, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1907)
• November 27 – Angela Aames, American actress (b. 1956)
• November 27 – John Carradine, American actor (b. 1906)

December

• December 3 – Thawan Thamrongnawasawat, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1901)
• December 4 – Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist (b. 1899)
• December 6 – Roy Orbison, American singer (b. 1936)

• Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, and Jack Steinberger for their research on neutrinos
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry shared by Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, and Hartmut Michel
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, and George H. Hitchings
• Nobel Prize in Literature won by Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer
• Nobel Peace Prize won by The United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces
• Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences won by Maurice Allais, French economist

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