December 29, 1989: Japan, Inc.

December 29, 1989: The Nikkei, Japan's main stock exchange, hits an all-time high: 38,915.87. It marks the peak of what had become known as "Japan, Inc."

The Nikkei, an abbreviation of The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. and the world's largest financial newspaper. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has been calculated by the newspaper since 1950. 

For the 1st 30 or so years after World War II, "Made in Japan" was a byword for "cheap" and "poorly made." Japanese companies got the hint, and made things better, and the company became a giant in electronics and automotive services. Brands like Sony and Toyota had become the biggest in the world in their respective fields.

South Korea fought to keep up with their regional rivals, and succeeded in some areas. So did British-controlled Hong Kong, off the coast of China, home to the next-biggest stock market in Asia. This led to the American cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle stepping up their game: The term "Pacific Rim" no longer referred to just a danger zone for earthquakes, but to technological innovation.

The joke was turned back on America: Not only were American companies competing by cutting costs, by skimping on quality control, but Japanese companies began buying American real estate, including skyscrapers in major cities. A recession struck America in 1990, and the country seemed to be falling behind Japan, which looked strong enough to be recession-proof. In his "Carnac the Magnificent" sketch on The Tonight Show, in which he "divined the answers without ever having seen the questions," Johnny Carson came up with this gem:

A: Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York.

Q: Name the three largest Japanese cities.

On January 8, 1992, during a State dinner honoring Japan's Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, President George H.W. Bush -- who was running for re-election during a recession, and really did not need for this to happen -- contracted food poisoning, and threw up on Miyazawa.

This led to the TV show Saturday Night Live parodying the American political show The McLaughlin Group, which often had over-the-top analysis of current events and predictions that started out silly and got sillier as they were proven untrue. (They had already parodied it a few times, and real-life host John McLaughlin had joined them the preceding October.)

In The Arakawa Group, a sketch that was too racist to be allowed to air today, the moderator, played by Mike Myers, asked his 4 panelists -- like him Japanese people being played by white American actors -- things like, "Who is more lazy, American worker or... " And the answers would be in broken English. And when the end of the show/sketch came, the moderator asked for predictions. One panelist said, "Within five years, all Americans addicted to crack!"

What most Americans didn't know was that the bubble had already burst: Japan was not recession-proof, the Nikkei went down in 1990, and, by mid-1992, it had lost 60 percent of its end-of-1989 value. The fall of the Japanese economy was every bit as remarkable as its rise. The 1990s became known as "Japan's Lost Decade," and it took them nearly 20 years to fully recover.

UPDATE: It took until February 22, 2024 for the Nikkei to exceed the 1989 peak: 39,098.68.

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December 29, 1989 was a Friday. Actress Jane Levy was born.

There was 1 college football bowl game on this day. Number 18 Penn State beat Number 19 Brigham Young University (BYU), 50-39, in the Holiday Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons, 99-85 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Houston Rockets, 103-97 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the San Antonio Spurs, 101-97 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 34 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 118-101 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 144-140 in triple overtime at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Derek Harper scored 42 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 130-111 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. James Worthy scored 34 points.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-95 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento. Danny Ainge scored 33 points for the Kings.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 96-89 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 3-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Sylvain Turgeon scored the winning goal with 9:06 left in regulation. You might laugh that I mentioned the winning goal, but, at the time, this was 1 of the Top 10 moments in Devils history.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Craig Janney scored the winning goal with 3:27 left in overtime.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Flames, 2-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary. Tomas Steen scored the winning goal with 2:11 left in overtime.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

December 27, 2007: The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

December 27, 2007: Benazir Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, and for 25 years the leader of the Pakistan People's Party, is assassinated by a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi. She was 54.

Her father, Zulfikar Bhutto, the party’s founder, had also served as Prime Minister, and had also been assassinated in Rawalpindi, in 1979. She became Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1982, and held that post for the rest of her life. She served as Prime Minister from December 2, 1988, becoming the 1st democratically-elected woman to be a mostly-Muslim nation's head of government, until August 6, 1990; and again from October 18, 1993 to November 5, 1996.

As is frequently the case, the other major party, the Pakistan Muslim League, accused Bhutto and her party of corruption, most likely because they opposed her efforts at modernizing the country. Most of the accusations were about not her, but her husband, businessman Asif Ali Zardari.

They had 3 children, and she was pregnant with her son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, when she won her 1st election, making her the 1st elected head of government to give birth while in office. She later had 2 daughters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa. A joke arose that "PPP" stood for "Perpetually Pregnant Prime Minister."

Brooke Allen, in her 2016 biography of her, wrote, "The Benazir Bhutto of 1988 was a uniting figure for her country; that of twenty years later, a divisive one. In retrospect, her best and worst qualities seem so intimately linked that the course of her career might almost have been predicted."

On the morning of December 27, 2007, Bhutto met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In the afternoon, she gave a speech at a PPP rally held in Rawalpindi's Liaquat National Bagh. On leaving in a bulletproof vehicle, she opened the car's escape hatch and stood up to wave to the surrounding crowds. A man standing within 6 to 10 feet of the car fired 3 gunshots at her, and detonated a suicide vest packed with ball bearings.

Bhutto was fatally injured, but reports differ as to whether she was hit by bullets or by shrapnel from the explosion. There were 22 others who died in the attack. The following day, she was buried next to her father in the family mausoleum near Larkana. PPP supporters rioted in various parts of Pakistan, leading to at least 50 deaths.

It wasn't clear who was responsible. Pakistani authorities claimed to have proof that the attack was masterminded by Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani branch of the Taliban. The CIA officially agreed with them. Mehsud, however, denied it. He was killed in a U.S. missile strike in 2009. Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, a.k.a. Saeed al-Masri, leader of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, did claim responsibility, saying, 

"We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat the mujahideen." He was killed in a U.S. missile strike in 2010.

Likewise, it's unclear with either Mehsud or al-Masri that their responsibility, if any, for Bhutto's assassination had anything to do with the U.S. targeting them, as they had committed other terrorist acts against Americans.

Benazir's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was immediately elected the PPP's leader, though he was only 19 years old and a student at the University of Oxford at the time. Upon his appointment, he said, "My mother always said that democracy is the best revenge." He was mainly a ceremonial figure until becoming the Party's spokesman in the 2018 elections, winning a seat in the National Assembly at age 30. On April 27, 2022, he was named the country's Foreign Minister.

UPDATE: He lost that office and his seat on August 10, 2023, when his party lost the next election. He remains Party Chairman, and won a by-election for a new Assembly seat on February 8, 2024.

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December 27, 2007 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its regular season and its Playoffs. There was a college bowl game: Number 17 Texas pulled off a mild upset, beating Number 12 Arizona State, 52-34, in the Holiday Bowl, at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium).

There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 88-81 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angele Clippers, 108-88 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Seattle Seahawks, 104-96 at the KeyArena in Seattle. Paul Pierce scored 37 points for the Celtics. This would be the Sonics' last season in Seattle, as they were being moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder.

There were 10 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-3 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 at the Sommet Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then known) in Pittsburgh. Former Capital Sergei Gonchar scored the winning goal with 3:27 left in overtime.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche, 4-2 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at Rexall Place (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known) in Edmonton.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, California.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames, 5-3 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

December 17, 1984: Brigham Young University, National Champions

Robbie Bosco

December 17, 1984: The football team at Brigham Young University defeats the University of Michigan, 24-17 in the Holiday Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego -- a game that, under the rules of the time, BYU were locked into as Champions of the Western Athletic Conference.

This was not a particularly strong Michigan team, going in at just 6-5, and probably getting the bowl bid solely because of their history. Nevertheless, the Cougars of coach LaVell Edwards and quarterback Robbie Bosco beat them, leading a 4th-quarter comeback down 17-10 and throwing the winning touchdown pass with 1:23 left, and finished an undefeated 13-0 season.

No other team finished the season undefeated. The University of Washington finished 11-1, beating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. But their 1 loss, to USC (the University of Southern California), cost them the Pacific-10 Conference title, and if you're not Conference Champions, you shouldn't be crowned National Champions -- a principle that should have been held once the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and later the Playoffs finally did come, but didn't.

Oklahoma, who won the Big 8 Conference, had been Number 2, but this loss eliminated them. Florida had been Number 3, and won the Southeastern Conference title, but were on probation, and were ineligible for a bowl game, costing them the National Championship.

Put it all together, and, voting on January 2, 1985, the Associated Press (AP) in their poll of college football writers, and United Press International (UPI) in their poll of college football coaches both gave BYU got a very dubious national title.

BYU had some unfair advantages. Being in the WAC, they had a rather weak schedule. The only ranked team they beat all season was the University of Pittsburgh, then Number 3, 20-14 in their season opener. They only beat Hawaii 18-13. They only beat Wyoming 41-38. They only beat the Air Force Academy 30-25. Their season was similar to that of the 1972 Miami Dolphins: They rarely looked like a great team, but they went undefeated, and won the Super Bowl.

Another unfair advantage BYU had was missions. As a school run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a.k.a. the Mormons, and named for the man who led the early Church to Salt Lake City -- the University is in Provo, 50 miles to the south -- they send their men on missions, and even "redshirt" their good players, so that their seniors are 23, 24 or 25 years old, playing opponents between 18 and 22 years old.

Then as now, the NCAA usually grants a player 5 years to complete 4 years of eligibility, but allows exceptions for injuries, military service, and, yes, religious missions -- something the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, with its freedom of religion, requires them to allow. Yet other schools famous for being run by religious institutions, such as Catholic schools like Notre Dame and Boston College, don't require missions. Nor do the Protestant schools in Texas that play major college football: Southern Methodist (SMU) in Dallas, Texas Christian (TCU, Disciples of Christ) in Fort Worth, or Baylor (Baptist) in Waco.

The Mormons do require missions, but will grant exceptions in some cases, including that of the man who was their quarterback the 4 previous seasons, and their most famous player ever, who just so happened to be the great-great-great-grandson of the school's namesake: Steve Young. That was seen as a bit hypocritical, because they were viewed as wanted to raise their profile, as well as raise money, off Steve's pro career.

Built in 1964, BYU's Cougar Stadium was renamed for coach Edwards following his retirement after the 2000 season. Under him, they won 19 Conference Championships -- the 1st 18 in the WAC, the last in the new Mountain West Conference -- in a span of 26 seasons. They became known for "mad bomber" quarterbacks, such as Virgil Carter, Gary Sheide, Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Young and Bosco; and, after Bosco, Ty Detmer, John Walsh. (Detmer's brother Koy starred at the University of Colorado.)

LaVell Edwards

Despite finishing 3rd in the Heisman Trophy voting in both 1984 and 1985, and winning a National Championship, Bosco never played a down in the NFL, the USFL or the CFL. Since 1989, he has been employed by BYU. Apparently, they take care of their own. Edwards died in 2016.

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December 17, 1984 was a Monday. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins beat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-21 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Baseball was out of season. No games were played in the NBA. Two were played in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the New Jersey Devils beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands. It had been 7 months since the Oilers, led by Wayne Gretzky, had won their 1st Stanley Cup; and 13 months since Gretzky had called the Devils "a Mickey Mouse organization" following a 13-4 Oilers win over them in Edmonton. Well, Wayne, how did they look after this?