Events

  • Salman Rushdie‘s novel Satanic Verses is published and sparks immediate controversy. Islamic militants put a price on his head.
  • America’s beloved comedienne Lucille Ball dies at age 87.
  • Visionary Jaron Lanier coins the term virtual reality and produces the equipment to experience it.

Movies

  • Glory, Born on the Fourth of July, My Left Foot, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Field of Dreams

Books

  • Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
  • Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
  • Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler
Music: Whispers Out of Time, Roger Reynolds
Drama: The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein

Oscars awarded in 1989
Academy Award, Best Picture: Rain Man, Mark Johnson, producer (United Artists)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Camilo José Cela (Spain)

1989 Emmy Awards

1989 Tony Awards

Grammys awarded in 1989
Record of the Year: “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” Bobby McFerrin
Album of the Year: Faith, George Michael (Columbia/CBS)
Song of the Year: “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” Bobby McFerrin, songwriter

Miss America: Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson (MN)

More Entertainment Awards…