Related events
- Los Angeles police began investigating allegations of child abuse made against Michael Jackson. No criminal charges were ultimately filed, and the civil lawsuit was settled out of court in January 1994.
- Police raided Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch after a child staying there made allegations of sexual abuse. Jackson allowed police to conduct a personal search, which was deeply humiliating for him. He was not charged, but later faced further allegations.
- The Los Angeles Police Department formally announced that Michael Jackson was the subject of a criminal investigation following allegations of child sexual abuse.
- A man who escaped from a psychiatric facility near Helsinki, Finland, was arrested after planning to set fire to the stage where Michael Jackson was due to perform. He had already placed petrol on the stage but was arrested before he could ignite it.
- As part of the Bad World Tour, Michael Jackson performed at Roundhay Park in Leeds on August 29, 1988. On stage he celebrated his 30th birthday, and roughly 90,000 fans sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
- A Los Angeles radio station bypassed Epic Records' strict security measures concerning master tapes and broadcast a pirated sample of Michael Jackson's song “Bad” four days before its official release. The leak did not slow the album's expected success, as pre-orders had already exceeded 2.2 million copies.
- Michael Jackson released the album "Bad", which followed his album "Thriller".
- Michael Jackson released “Bad”.
- Michael Jackson's album "Bad" reached No. 1 on the British albums chart and began a five-week run at the top.
- CBS Records recorded the largest advance order of albums in its history when it shipped 2.25 million copies of Michael Jackson's "Bad" to stores in the United States. The album followed "Thriller", Jackson's best-selling album, and later sold more than 13 million copies.
- Michael Jackson's "Bad" music video was broadcast for the first time on CBS-TV.
- He outbid Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono at auction and acquired ATV Music Publishing for $47.5 million, a company controlling the rights to The Beatles' catalog. The catalog contained the rights to more than 4,000 songs, approximately 250 of which were Beatles compositions. Three years after their collaboration on “The Girl Is Mine”, Paul McCartney recommended that Jackson invest in music publishing rights. McCartney had previously negotiated with Yoko Ono, who withdrew from the deal for “astrological” reasons. The investment proved highly profitable but permanently damaged the friendship between Jackson and McCartney.