What happened December 1988 AD

In December 1988, just after this ruling, Bolsonaro left the Army to begin his political career. In total, he served in the military for fifteen years, reaching the rank of Captain.

On 5 December 1988, he was visited by King Juan Carlos, who confessed that he had always been a serious devotee of Dalí.

Velardi and Williams were divorced in 1988. While it was reported that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny Marsha Garces in 1986, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind that the relationship with Garces began after the two had separated.

The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake, occurred on December 7 at 11:41 local time with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (Devastating). Between 25,000 and 50,000 were killed and up to 130,000 were injured.

In mid-1988, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Bundy, and in December the Supreme Court denied a motion to review the ruling. Within hours of that final denial, a firm execution date of January 24, 1989, was announced. Bundy's journey through the appeals courts had been unusually rapid for a capital murder case: "Contrary to popular belief, the courts moved Bundy as fast as they could ... Even the prosecutors acknowledged that Bundy's lawyers never employed delaying tactics. Though people everywhere seethed at the apparent delay in executing the archdemon, Ted Bundy was actually on the fast track".

Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747–121 bound for New York–JFK from London–Heathrow with continued service to Detroit, was destroyed by a terrorist bomb over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew, and 11 people on the ground (all residents of Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie), died, making it the worst terrorist attack involving an aircraft in the UK and the deadliest terrorist attack on British soil.

Van Basten won his 1st Ballon d'Or.