Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).

"Cold Sunday" in the United States would see temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.

EPCOT Center opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.

In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.

American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.

Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.

A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.

Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.

The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations after 117 years.

Aboard the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'', astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.

The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.

United States Vice President George H.W. Bush becomes the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan undergoes surgery to remove polyps from his colon.

A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.

Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.

The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.

In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).

Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine ''Ash-Shiraa'' reports that the United States has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.

A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.

U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted for fraud.

Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.

The United States becomes a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.

The first episode of television series ''The Simpsons'', "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", airs in the United States.

United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega.

Gulf War: An Iraqi scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists from Pennsylvania.

Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).

The United States recognize the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega begins in the United States.

Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

The United States Supreme Court rules in ''United States v. Álvarez-Machaín'' that it is permissible for the USA to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the USA for trial, without approval from those other countries.

Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.

Hurricane Iniki, one of the most damaging hurricanes in United States history, devastates Hawaii.

UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.