1987

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s

Years: 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

This is a Common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January

January 3 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
January 4 - An Amtrak train en route from Washington, DC to New York collides with CONRAIL engines killing 16.
January 5 - US President Ronald Wilson Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
January 21 - Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon (released 1991)
January 22 - In Pennsylvania, R. Budd Dwyer, Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shoots himself at a press conference after being found guilty on charges of bribery, fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering.
January 24 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnap Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh

February

February 11 - British Airways is privatised and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Wednesday, February 11, 1987 - Constitution of the Philippines goes into effect.
Wednesday, February 11, 1987 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
February 12 - Unabomber bomb explodes in Salt Lake City, Utah
February 16 - The trial of John Demjanjuk, who was accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem. He was eventually convicted, but this ruling was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.
February 20 - Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, Utah a bomb explodes in a computer store.
February 23 - Supernova 1987a is observed, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604.
February 26 - Iran-Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes American President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.

March-April

March 6 - The Herald of Free enterprise ferry capsizes off of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 189
March 10 - Reproductive rights: The Vatican condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination.
March 12 - Les MisÃÂÃÂ©rables opens on Broadway.
March 17 - An Iraqi F-1 Mirage fighter fires two exocet missiles at the USS Stark while patrolling the Persian Gulf, killing 37 sailors, wounding 62 others.
March 19 - Following a scandal involving Jessica Hahn, televangelist Jim Bakker resigns from the PTL.
March 20 - The Food and Drug Administration approves anti-AIDS drug AZT.
March 22 - Apple announces Macintosh II ja Macintosh SE
March 30 - Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers" is bought for $39.85 million.
April 1 - The Japanese National Railways are privatized and split up into the modern Japan Railway group.
April 6 - The White Patriot Party declares "war" against the Zionist Occupation Government (of America)

May-June

May 8 - Gary Hart drops out of the running for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1988 U.S. presidential election, amid allegations of an extra-marital affair with Donna Rice
May 11 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland).
Monday, May 11, 1987 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
May 17 - Iran-Iraq War: The USS Stark (FFG-31) is struck by a missile from an Iraqi Mirage fighter killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.
May 28 - 19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defense and lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained and will later be released on Wednesday, August 3, 1988.
June 11 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term,

July-August

July 4 - In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
July 6 - Martha Stewart signs a contract with Kmart to be the company's lifestyle spokesperson.
July 10 - In Auckland harbor in New Zealand, Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior sinks after French agents in diving gear plant a bomb on the hull of the vessel.
August 4 - The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues.
August 16 - A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport killing all but one of the 156 people on-board (sole survivor was four-year old Cecelia Cichan). The crew forgot to properly set the planes flaps.
August 17 - The Harmonic Convergence is observed.
August 19 - Hungerford Massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills 16 with an assault rifle and then commits suicide.
August 19 - Order of Garter opened to women

September-October

September 2 - In Moscow, the trial of 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May 1987, begins.
September 7-September 21 - World's first conference on artificial life, Los Alamos National Laboratory
October 14 - October 16 - The US is caught up in a drama that unfolds on television as a young child, Jessica McClure, falls down a well and is later rescued.
October 15 - Hurricane force winds cause extensive damage in southern England
October 19 - Black Monday: sharp stock market falls around the world
October 22 - Israel Porter born in New Zealand with IQ of 200
October 30 - The NEC PC Engine is released in Japan

November

November 5 - Apartheid: In South Africa, Govan Mbeki is released from custody after serving 24 years in the Robben Island prison. He had been sentenced to life for treason against the white minority South Africa government.
November 7 - In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
November 8 - Enniskillen massacre: In Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes, at a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead, killing eleven people.
November 18 - Kings Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross.
Wednesday, November 18, 1987 - Iran-Contra scandal: The United States Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra affair, stating that US President Ronald Wilson Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides and his administration exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law."
November 28 - A Boeing 747 carrying South African Airways 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.
November 28 - In Wappingers Falls, New York, Tawana Brawley is found wrapped in garbage bags, with feces smeared all over her body and a racial written on her body (she later told police that she was held against her will for four days and repeatedly raped by a group of white men, one of which had a police badge. Her story did not check out, however).
November 29 - A Korean Air Boeing 707 exploded over the Thai-Burmese border killing 155.

December

December 1 - NASA announces the names of four companies who were awarded contracts to help build the International Space Station: Boeing Aerospace, General Electric's Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas, and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell.
Tuesday, December 1, 1987 - Channel Tunnel digging commences
December 8 - first Intifada begins
December 29 - ProzacÃÂÃÂ® makes its debut in the US

unknown dates

Pendolino train in Italy
Shoko Asahara founds Aum Shinrikyo
Televangelist Jimmy Bakker is involved in a sex scandal, which causes him to step down as the host of The PTL Club.
US Politician Gary Hart is involved with a sex scandal which destroys his career.

Year in Topic

1987 in film
- Friday, January 30, 1987 - ''Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
- Friday, February 6, 1987 - ''Black Widow
- Friday, March 6, 1987 - Lethal Weapon 1 starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover
- Wednesday, May 20, 1987 - Beverly Hills Cop 2 starring Eddie Murphy
- Friday, June 12, 1987 - ''Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Friday, June 26, 1987 - ''Dragnet
- Friday, July 17, 1987 - ''
- The Untouchables
1987 in literature
1987 in music
1987 in science
1987 in sports
1987 in television

Births

March 9 - Bow Wow, rap musician.
April 11 - Joss Stone, musician.
September 28 - Hilary Duff, actress/singer

Deaths

January-July

January 15 - Ray Bolger, actor, singer, dancer
February 2 - Alistair MacLean, British thriller writer, heart attack
February 4 - Liberace
February 22 - Andy Warhol, artist, director, writer
March 2 - Randolph Scott, actor
March 3 - Danny Kaye, actor, singer, comedian
March 19 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, physicist and winner 1929 of the Nobel Prize in Physics
March 21 - Robert Preston, actor
March 28 - Maria von Trapp, singer
April 2 - Buddy Rich, drummer
April 4 - C. L. Moore, science fiction writer
April 28 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua
May 3 - Dalida, French singer
May 6 - William Casey, controversial director of the CIA
May 11 - Peter Tosh, musician
May 14 - Rita Hayworth, actress
May 19 - James Tiptree, Jr, science fiction author
June 22 - Fred Astaire, actor
July 10 - John Hammond, record producer (b. 1910)

August-December

August 17 - Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second-in-command, commits suicide in Spandau Prison
September 23 - Bob Fosse, theater choreographer and director
October 3 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist
October 19 - Jacqueline Du Pre, English Cellist
October 20 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician
October 29 - Woody Herman, jazz musician (b. 1913)
October 31 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology

Nobel Prizes

Physics - J. Georg Bednorz, K. Alexander MÃÂÃÂ¼ller
Chemistry Donald J Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, Charles J Pedersen
Medicine - Susumu Tonegawa
Literature - Joseph Brodsky
Peace- Oscar Arias Sanchez
Economics - Robert Solow