November 15 – In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran is launched by an Energia rocket on her maiden orbital spaceflight (this was the first and last space flight for the shuttle).
Canadian astronomers Bruce Campbell, G. A. H. Walker and Stephenson Yang publish radial-velocity observations suggesting that an extrasolar planet orbits the star Gamma Cephei,[1] although its existence is not confirmed until 2003.
April 27 – Valery Legasov (born 1936), Russian nuclear physicist, known for the investigation of causes of the Chernobyl disaster and planning the mitigation of its consequences.[18]
September 1 – Luis Walter Alvarez (born 1911), American experimental physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for bubble chamber research into particle physics.
^U.S. Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, "Greenhouse Effect and Global Climate Change, part 2" 100th Cong., 1st sess., 23 June 1988, p. 44: "global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and the observed warming."
^ISIS-2 (Second International Study of lnfarct Survival) Collaborative Group (1988). "Randomised Trial of Intravenous Streptokinase, Oral Aspirin, Both, or Neither Among 17 187 Cases of Suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction: ISIS-2". The Lancet. 332 (8607): 349–360. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(88)92833-4. PMID2899772. S2CID21071664.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Wilson, Donald; Wilson, Jane (2003). The Pride of African American History. AuthorHouse. p. 25. ISBN978-1-4107-2873-9.