At A Glance

27 May 1988 at a glance

Day of the week
27 May 1988 was a Friday.
UK Number One
The UK Number One single was “With a Little Help from My Friends / She's Leaving Home” by Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg and Cara Tivey.
Top Film of 1988
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1988 was Rain Man.
Star sign
The star sign for 27 May is Gemini.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 27 May 1988 fell in the Year of the Dragon.
Birthstone
The birthstone for May is Emerald.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 27 May 1988 was Waxing Gibbous.

On this day: 27 May

  • 1967 Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.
  • 1984 The Danube–Black Sea Canal is opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s.
  • 1988 Somaliland War of Independence: The Somali National Movement launches a major offensive against Somali government forces in Hargeisa and Burao, then the second- and third-largest cities of Somalia.
  • 1996 First Chechen War: Russian president Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechen rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire.
  • 1999 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-96, the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station.

Famous people born on 27 May

  • Christopher Lee, English actor (1922–2015)
  • Paul Bettany, English actor (born 1971)
  • Henry Kissinger, German-American political scientist and politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (1923–2023)
  • João Cancelo, Portuguese footballer (born 1994)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1988 in the United Kingdom

A selection from Wikipedia's '1988 in the United Kingdom'. Not a complete list.

  • 5 February – The first BBC Red Nose Day raises £15,000,000 for charity.
  • 3 March – The SDP amalgamates with the Liberal Party to form the Social and Liberal Democratic Party. Its interim leaders are David Steel and Robert Maclennan. The merger means that the Liberal Party has ceased to exist after 129 years.
  • 24 May – Local Government Act becomes law. The controversial Section 28 prevents local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Local authorities are also obliged to outsource more services, and dog licences are abolished (except in Northern Ireland).

Life in 1988

Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher

Monarch

Elizabeth II

Pint of Beer

80p

Loaf of Bread

51p

Average House

£46,788

Weekly Wage

£225.00

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1980s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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