The World in 1988 the year a worm hit the internet
60KComputers on the internet
$0.95Gallon of gas (US)
$4.11Movie ticket (US)
25ยขUS stamp, from April
$3.35US minimum wage per hour
1stYear CDs outsell vinyl (US)
ยฃ1Pint of beer (UK)
31 miEngland to France tunnel dug
1stF1 title for Ayrton Senna (Brazil)
The whole internet in 1988 was about 60,000 computers, fewer machines than a big university has students. In one night the Morris worm reached roughly one in ten of them.
Life back then

Compact discs outsold vinyl albums in the United States for the first time, so record shops began shrinking the LP aisle. Anyone with a computer and a modem could dial a local bulletin board system, one caller at a time, to read messages and download games. Under the sea between England and France, two teams of diggers were boring toward each other. At the movies, Who Framed Roger Rabbit dropped cartoon characters into real rooms and every kid wanted to know how.
The year in 8 events
- ๐ชMay 15 Soviet troops start leaving Afghanistan after more than eight years of war.
- โฝJun 25 The Netherlands beat the Soviet Union in Munich to win the European Championship. Marco van Basten scores with a volley from a narrow angle.
- ๐๏ธAug 20 A ceasefire takes effect in the Iran-Iraq war, which had dragged on for nearly eight years.
- ๐
Sep 17 The Summer Olympics open in Seoul, South Korea, with 159 nations taking part.
- ๐Nov 2 A graduate student's program at a US university, later called the Morris worm, spreads across the internet and clogs thousands of computers.
- ๐ณ๏ธNov 8 George H. W. Bush is elected president of the United States.
- ๐๏ธDec 2 Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan, the first woman to lead a modern Muslim country.
- ๐ฏ๏ธDec 21 A bomb destroys Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. 270 people die.