1988

May 26 – The Surgeon General releases the nation's first coordinated HIV/AIDS education strategy, mailing out 107 million copies of a pamphlet titled Understanding AIDS in an attempt to reach every household in America, the largest public mailing in history.

November 4 – President Reagan signs the first comprehensive federal AIDS bill, the Health Omnibus Programs Extension (HOPE) Act, establishing the Office of AIDS Research and authorizing federal funds for AIDS prevention, research, and testing.

December 1 – The WHO declares the first World AIDS Day.

1990

February 16 – Keith Haring, a pop artist whose graffiti-inspired works often promoted AIDS-related charities and other social causes, dies of an AIDS-related illness.

April 8 – Ryan White dies of an AIDS-related illness.

June 6 – The International AIDS Conference convenes in San Francisco, but a number of organizations boycott in protest of American immigration restrictions.

July 26 – President George H.W. Bush signs the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, allocating over $220 million in federal funds for care and treatment of people with AIDS in its first year. The bill is the result of a bargain—in exchange for instituting “payer of last resort” programs to cover treatment for poor and uninsured people with HIV/AIDS, conservatives won the inclusion of clauses stipulating that certain funds will only be available to states that have passed harsh criminal laws against knowingly transmitting HIV.