1987

1987 is a common year starting on Thursday.

Years: 1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1987 in aviation 1987 in film 1987 in literature 1987 in music 1987 in sports 1987 in television

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Events

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January

January 1 - Nunavut's capital changes it name to Iqaluit from Frobisher Bay.
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 20 - Terry Waite, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lebanon, is kidnapped in Beirut (released November 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.
January 29 - William J. Casey ends his term as a director of CIA

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February

February 11 - British Airways is privatised and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
February 11 - Constitution of the Philippines goes into effect.
February 11 - 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.

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March-April

March 2 - Chrysler acquires American Motors
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 Misérables opens on Broadway
March 18 - Rajendra Sethia is charged in New Delhi with criminal conspiracy and defrauding an Indian bank of £5 million
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 and 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)

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May

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 8 - Mathias Rust from West Germany flies a plane from Helsinki to Moscow, passes through Soviet airspace and lands on the Red Square
May 11 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland)
May 11 - Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II
May 14 - Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka executes a bloodless coup on the island of Fiji.
May 17 - Iran-Iraq War: The USS Stark (FFG-31), while patrolling the Persian Gulf, is struck by two exocet missiles from an Iraqi F-1 Mirage fighter killing 37 sailors and injuring 21 other crew members
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.

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June-July

June 5 - Ted Koppel hosts a "National Town Meeting on AIDS" on a special 4-hour long live broadcast of Nightline
June 11 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term.
June 12 - The Central African Republic's former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
June 12 - Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
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.

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August-September

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 17 - Rudolf Hess is found hanging in his cell in Spandau Prison
August 19 - Order of the Garter opened to women
August 19 - Hungerford Massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills 16 with an assault rifle and then commits suicide
August 28 - Michael Jackson releases Bad, his follow-up to 1982's Thriller
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.
Monday-Monday, September 7-September 21 - World's first conference on artificial life, Los Alamos National Laboratory
September 28 - Star Trek: The Next Generation premieres on syndicated television with the double-length episode "Encounter at Farpoint"

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October

Wednesday-Friday, 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: stock market falls sharply around the world.
October 23 - British jockey Lester Piggott is jailed for 3 years for tax evasion
October 30 - The NEC PC Engine is released in Japan.

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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 African government
November 7 - In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
November 8 - Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes, at a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead, killing eleven people
November 16 - US Supreme Court upholds the convictions of former Wall Street Journal reporter R. Foster Winans and two co-defendants in federal mail & wire fraud and inside trading
November 18 - Kings Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross
November 18 - 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.
Saturday, November 28, 1987 - In Wappingers Falls, New York, Tawana Brawley is found wrapped in garbage bags, with human excrement smeared all over her body and a racial slur 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. Investigations determined her story was fabricated.
November 29 - A Korean Air Boeing 707 exploded over the Thai-Burmese border killing 155.

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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
December 1 - Channel Tunnel digging commences
December 8 - first Intifada begins
December 20 - Dona Paz collides with Vector I - 749 confirmed deaths (probably closer to 3,000 due to unregistered passengers)
December 29 - Prozac® makes its debut in the US