The overwhelming story of 1989 was the disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe and Mikhail S. Gorbachev's efforts to lead the Soviet Union into a freer society, according to a poll of Associated Press newspaper editors and broadcast news directors.
The communist turnaround received 3,256 points, almost the sum of the two stories that finished second and third, the crushing of China's Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, and the Alaskan oil spill.The China story narrowly outpolled the oil spill in editor interest, 1,690 points to 1,687.
In the poll, 315 editors and news directors ranked the stories. A first-place vote earned a story 10 points and a 10th-place listing one point.
Late-developing stories were not on the ballots, which were due by Dec. 15 - five days before the United States invaded Panama and seven before the bloody ouster of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania.
The decline of communism was voted No. 1 by almost the same margin as in an earlier AP poll of the top stories for the decade, a poll in which the AIDS epidemic was voted No. 2 for the 1980s.
The No. 4 story for 1989 was the San Francisco earthquake, with 1,616 points, followed by: the continuing abortion controversy, 1,225; the international drug war, 1,061; Hurricane Hugo, 935; government ethics, including scandals involving the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Pentagon, 751; the federal bailout of savings and loans, 515; the conviction of Oliver North and the lingering investigation of the Iran-Contra affair, 511.
Notable stories of 1989 that did not make the top 10 included the Malta summit; the crash of United Flight 232 and the skill of its crew in saving 184 lives; the conviction and 45-year sentence of TV evangelist Jim Bakker; the lifetime ban of Pete Rose from baseball; the unprecedented meeting of Gorbachev and the pope; the USS Iowa gun turret explosion; the death of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini; the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan; the plight of the hostages in Lebanon, and the election of New York City's first black mayor and Virginia's first black governor.
The year's top 10 stories:
1. Eastern Europe
When Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in 1985 and gave the world two new words, glasnost and perestroika, no one could have guessed the incredible changes that would burst forth, like a genie from a bottle, four years later.
But there it was in 1989; thousands standing in the streets of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and East Germany, demanding a voice in government, a more open society, and eviction of the old communist guard. In Poland, Solidarity won an election and began to build economic ties with the West to try to pull the country out of poverty.
2. China's crackdown
Beijing was hosting the first Chinese-Soviet summit in 30 years, but the historic event was upstaged by the drama unfolding in Tiananmen Square.
For seven weeks, the hundred-acre square had been occupied by thousands of demonstrators, demanding greater democracy and humiliating the government. For seven weeks, the government had responded with tolerance and restraint.
Then, at 2 a.m. Sunday, June 4, barely two weeks after Gorbachev left Beijing, a convoy of trucks accompanied by 10,000 foot soldiers of the People's Liberation Army swept through the streets and opened fire on the crowds.
By 5 a.m., the square was empty, except for the charred hulks of vehicles and debris left by the protesters. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - were dead.
The United States condemned China's military crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrators. At year's end, controversial fence-mending visits by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft were followed by signs of a warming between the two countries.
3. Alaskan oil spill
Early on March 24, the tanker Exxon Valdez strayed off course and struck a reef in Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound.
The spilled oil contaminated 1,000 miles of coastline and killed tens of thousands of shore birds, including 138 bald eagles.
Volunteers from the lower 48 states, responding to news photos of oil-soaked otters and crippled birds, joined Alaska fisherman hosing down beaches, rescuing wildlife and wiping off rocks, one at a time. Ultimately, more than 2.6 million gallons of oil were recovered.
The worst oil disaster in U.S. history sullied Exxon's reputation as well as Alaska's coast. It also resulted in criminal charges against Exxon Valdez Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, 42, who was fired and allegations he'd been drunk at the time of the accident. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 22.
4. San Francisco earthquake
As 58,000 fans packed San Francisco's Candlestick Park with 21 minutes to go before the start of the World Series' third game between the Oakland A's and the Giants, television screens across America suddenly went black.
The nation's next look at San Francisco was of a city in darkness except for a fire fed by open gas lines in the Marina District and the headlights of thousands of vehicles inching along in countless traffic jams.
The earthquake, centered 75 miles south of San Francisco, measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, the strongest to hit the United States since the Alaska quake of 1964. It lasted 15 seconds, killed 67 people and injured 3,000 others. Property damage was placed at $7 billion.
A 50-foot section of the Bay Bridge collapsed, as did a few apartment buildings, and a 1.5-mile stretch of double-decker Interstate 880 toppled onto the lower roadway, crushing cars and trapping motorists.
Among the safest places during the quake: San Francisco's high rises, built to strict building codes adopted after the San Fernando quake of 1971.
5. The abortion debate
When the Supreme Court opened the door for states to regulate the standards for abortions within their borders, limiting the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, it also moved the battleground between pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates to state legislatures and state elections.
The anti-abortion side wanted to require teenagers to seek permission from their parents for abortions, or married women to seek their husband's OK. Other questions focused on the use of federal funds for abortions.
Pennsylvania passed the most restrictive abortion statute in the nation. Illinois settled a suit that would have limited abortions in that state. Virginia and New Jersey elected governors who drew considerable support from pro-choice voters. Pro-choice advocates in Congress were readying a federal statute to broaden abortion rights along the lines of Roe vs. Wade.
The issue is sure to affect state and congressional elections in 1990.
6. Colombia's drug war
The Colombian government declared war on the druglords in August, in response to the assassination of a leading presidential candidate.
Within four months, 10 middle-level drug suspects had been extradited to the United States. Drug traffickers retaliated with a campaign of bombings and shootings that included a Dec. 8 car-bomb attack that killed 63 people. The government also blamed the druglords for the Nov. 27 bombing of an Avianca jetliner near Bogota, which killed 107.
The government claimed a major victory in December with the killing by security forces of Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, a billiionaire leader of Colombia's biggest cocaine gang, the Medellin cartel, and the man accused of directing the campaign of terror.
In the United States, a record 21.4 tons of cocaine was seized near Los Angeles and near-record amounts intercepted elsewhere. President Bush unveiled a $7.9 billion drug control strategy, and planned to meet with South American leaders in Colombia in February 1990.
7. Hurricane Hugo
For a week in September, Hurricane Hugo cut a wide swath of destruction along a 2,300-mile path from the Caribbean to the Carolinas. The storm killed 56 people in the Caribbean and 40 more on the mainland, despite an exodus of residents along the Southeast coast.
In hard-hit St. Croix, 90 percent of the houses and buildings were destroyed by Hugo's 200-mph winds. Hundreds of looters plundered stores of everything from food and clothing to VCRs and jewelry in the aftermath of the storm, prompting President Bush to send Army troops. FBI agents and federal marshals to restore order in the U.S. territory. Officials say it could be spring before power is restored. Full recovery could take years.
In South Carolina, the storm did nearly $6 billion in damage. Hugo virtually demolished downtown Charlestown, which had not been hit by a major hurricane in 30 years. It also left homeless an estimated 16,000 South Carolinians.
8. Government scandals
The scandals that rocked Congress, the Defense Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development seemed endless. A congressman admittted to a brief sexual relationship with a man who claimed to run a male prostitution ring. The speaker of the House resigned after being cited for ethics violations. Five senators were to be investigated for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of a scandal-ridden savings and loan. Pentagon procurement irregularities led to indictments, and HUD influence peddling became a running national story.
In three separate cases, congressmen were convicted of money-laundering, perjury and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Finally Congress passed the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 that would bar congressmen, but not senators, from accepting fees for speeches, starting in 1991. In return, congressmen, but not senators, would receive a $24,000-plus pay raise. The act also provided substantial raises for other top executive and judicial branch officials.
9. The thrift crisis
The so-called thrift institutions--the nation's savings and loans--turned out not to be thrifty at all. When the failures piled up, Congress passed a $159 billion bailout bill in August and established the Resolution Trust Corp. to oversee the rrescue of the pillaged S&Ls, which had grown to 280 by the end of the year. In December the RTC was pressing the S&Ls under its control to begin selling more thatn $300 billion in assets.
The RTC has disposed of 33 of the ailing thrifts and had its eye on 220 more.
10. Iran-Contra investigation
Hampered by the non-availability of secret documents, the Iran-Contra investigation ground on, trying to unravel the scheme by which the United States sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to finance pro-American Guerillas in Nicaragua.
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, the former National Security Council aide who won national prominence in dramatic congressional hearings probing the arms deals, was convicted of three of 12 felony counts, including destroying or falsifying government documents and receipt of an illegal gratuity. *****
(Additional information)
The headlines of the year
Associated press
Here are the top 10 stories of 1989 as selected by Associated Prress newspaper editors and broadcast news directors in the United States.
1. Communism crumbles in Eastern Europe and Gorbachev leads the Soviet Union toward a freer society.
2. A student-led pro-democrarcy movement in China is crushed by troops.
3. The Exxon Valdez oil spill spoils hundreds of mile of Alaskan coastline.
4. An earthquake batters the San Francisco Bay area.
5. The abortion debate shifts to state legislature and state elections.
6. The international drug war.
7. Hurricane Hugo pounds the Caribbean and the Southeast coast.
8. Scandals, trials and resignations shake confidence in the federal government.
9. The federal government moves to rescue savings and loans.
10. Lt. Col. Oliver North is convicted and the Iran-Contra investigation grinds on.