Rugby athlete Peter Betham

Events in 1989 and 6-1

Events in the world in the birth year of Peter Betham

• US planes shoot down two Libyan fighters over international waters in Mediterranean (Jan. 4).
• Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death (Feb. 14).
• Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19 et seq.). More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.). Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.).
• Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet President (May 25).
• P. W. Botha quits as South Africa's President (Aug. 14).
• Deng Xiaoping resigns from China's leadership (Nov. 9).
• After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).
• Czech Parliament ends Communists' dominant role (Nov. 30).
• Romanian uprising overthrows Communist government (Dec. 15 et seq.); President Ceausescu and wife executed (Dec. 25).
• US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of General Manuel Noriega (Dec. 20).

Birthday Peter Betham (6-1) in history

• Day 6-1 year 1540: Four years after beheading his second wife, King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
• Day 6-1 year 1759: The founder of the United States, George Washington, married Martha Custis.
• Day 6-1 year 1838: Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of the telegraph.
• Day 6-1 year 1912: New Mexico became the 47th state in the United States.
• Day 6-1 year 1919: Former president Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
• Day 6-1 year 1987: University of California astronomers first witnessed the birth of a galaxy that contained 1 billion stars.
• Day 6-1 year 1994: Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan clubbed on leg by men including husband of rival skater Tonya Harding.