After nearly eight years of war, Iran and Iraq agree to a cease-fire. Direct talks to resolve the conflict follow. The war has cost an estimated 105,000 Iraqi and one million Iranian lives.

18 Aug.

Pakistani president Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. ambassador Arnold I. Raphel are killed in a midair explosion of a Pakistani Air Force plane.

24 Sept.

France and China authorize use of the abortion pill, RU 486.

1 Dec.

Benazir Bhutto, daughter of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is elected prime minister of Pakistan. She becomes the first woman to head a modern Islamic state and brings eleven years of military rule to an end.

5 Dec.

The West German environmental ministry confirms that a serious accident occurred at a nuclear power plant near Frankfurt in December 1987, as reported by an American journal.

21 Dec.

A Pan Am 747 explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and 11 persons...