8 things we got out of 1989 (aside from the end of the Berlin Wall)

Come 9 November 2009, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - and, by extension, the beginning of the end of the USSR and Cold War. Big festivities are already planned to mark the occasion.

But 1989 was significant for a whole lot of other reasons. Huge things were happening in film, television, music, literature and politics. We scoured our memories and the Internet to bring you a list of what we think are the most important events that took place, that year -- and why.

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1. Launch of the first GPS Block II satellite (14 February, 1989)

Every smart phone and middling-to-high-end car employs the Global Positioning System (GPS) in some way. If you've ever used your iPhone to find out just how lost you really are, you owe your (eventual) return to civilisation to this modest 32-satellite network - the first of which was launched in 1989.

This was one of the points in which the Space Age began, for us civilian folk.

2. Exxon Valdez spill (24 March, 1989)

In the early minutes of 24 March, 1989, the 300-metre oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef and spilled 10.8 million gallons of petroleum into Prince William Sound. It was the most devastating man-made environmental disaster at sea, with the oil eventually covering 28 million square kilometres of ocean, killing up to 500,000 seabirds, 22 killer whales, and untold numbers of fish.

Its environmental effects continue today; scientists estimate that some Alaksan-shore ecosystems will take up to 30 years to recover.

3. Tim Burton's Batman (23 June, 1989)

The first Batman film was one of the highest-grossing blockbusters of 1989; it earned USD411 million at the box office. It changed the movie business in many ways - not least in making it cool (and profitable) to turn a pre-sold property (say, a comic-book character) into a full-on, multi-medium franchise.

1989 had a slew of other big movies: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the year's biggest earner); When Harry Met Sally ...; Do the Right Thing; License to Kill. The list goes on.

4. Madonna's "Like a Prayer" (28 February, 1989)

The controversial music video for the Queen of Pop's "Like a Prayer" hit single featured sex with a Catholic saint, burning crosses, and other such novel takes on Christian iconography. It was condemned by the Vatican.

1989 was also the year of The Bangles' "Eternal Flame", The Stone Roses, and, of course, Band Aid's second "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

5. First episode of The Simpsons (17 December, 1989)

It's the longest-running American television series in history, and helped change the perception that cartoon animation was only for children. Do we need to say any more about The Simpsons, really?

By the way, Seinfeld also debuted in 1989.

6. Tiananmen Square protests (14 April to 4 June, 1989)

It began with the death of pro-democracy figure Hu Yaobang, and ended with People's Liberation Army tanks clearing out protesters in Beijing's heart.

The New York Times would later estimate that Tiananmen Square ended with 800 dead. The protests sparked international outcry, and its aftermath meant that the democratising sweep of the Autumn of Nations would fail to make inroads in Communist China.

Tiananmen gave us the Unknown Rebel: a young protestor who, in standing before an advancing tank column, became a symbol of common people struggling against authoritarianism -  successfully or not.

7. Fatwa on Salman Rushdie (14 February, 1989)

Following a series of violent protests in Pakistan over Rushdie's controversial fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoimeini declared the novelist anathema to Islam. Khoimeini issued a fatwa, calling on all good Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers.

This act forced Rushdie into hiding and British police protection, and set the tone of the continuing skirmishes between freedom of expression and the Islamic ideal of upholding the honour of the faith.

Even after a message of conciliation by Iran, in 1998, the fatwa remains in place. (Such declarations may only be revoked by the person who issued them; Khoimeini is dead.) Although Rushdie remains unharmed to this day, several translators and publishers of The Satanic Verses have been attacked or killed.

8. Haatyai Peace Accords (2 December, 1989)

1989 was the year that the 41-year armed struggle of the Malayan Communist Party against (what they saw as) the British-puppet government of Malaysia officially ended. Its regiments laid down their arms, and its leaders - Chin Peng, Abdullah C D, and Rashid Maidin - met with representatives of the Thai and Malaysian governments to sign treaties of peace.

For the communists, that was when the war ended. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, this isn't the case; its as if the Emergency never ended. British laws designed to combat communist and Leftist movements are still deployed against the Malaysian citizenry today.

One of the conditions of the Haatyat Peace Accords was that MCP party members of Malayan origin be allowed to return to Malaysia. The only one for whom this promise remains undelivered is Chin Peng, himself. The (wholly illusory) spectre of communism haunts us to this day.

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There it is. If your memory actually stretches back that far, tell us what your favourite circa-1989 event is!