Track and field athlete Benjamin Kiplagat

Events in 1989 and 4-3

Events in the world in the birth year of Benjamin Kiplagat

• 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 Benjamin Kiplagat (4-3) in history

• Day 4-3 year 1789: The Constitution of the United States went into effect.
• Day 4-3 year 1791: Vermont passed the constitution and became the 14th state of the United States.
• Day 4-3 year 1861: Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as president.
• Day 4-3 year 1917: Jeannette Rankin took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Day 4-3 year 1933: Frances Perkins, appointed Secretary of Labor, became first woman to serve in the Cabinet.
• Day 4-3 year 1994: Four Muslim fundamentalists were found guilty in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.
• Day 4-3 year 1999: Retired Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun died in Arlington, Va., at age 90.