1987

1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Events

Environmental change

Varroa destructor, an invasive parasite is found in the US
October 15 - Hurricane force winds cause extensive damage in southern England.

January

January 1 - Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories, changes its name to Iqaluit. In 1999, it will become the capital of Nunavut.
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

February-May

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 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.
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)
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.

June-September

The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues
July 11 - Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke's Goverment is re-elected for a 3rd term
August 9- 9 people die + 11 injured when 19 year old Julian Knight goes on shooting rampage in Melbourne(Hoddle St Massacre)
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 plane's 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 - premieres on syndicated television with the first part of a two-part episode "Encounter at Farpoint"

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 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 23 - On a vote of 58-42, the United States Senate rejects President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court.
October 30 - The NEC PC Engine is released in Japan.

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
Monday, December 7, 1987 - Delaware celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
December 8 - first Intifada begins
Saturday, December 12, 1987 - Pennsylvania celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
Friday, December 18, 1987 - New Jersey celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
Friday, December 18, 1987 - programming language Perl 1.0 released
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

unknown dates

Pendolino train in Italy
Shoko Asahara founds Aum Shinrikyo
Barry Minkows ZZZZ Best fraud unravels

Year in Topic

1987 in film

Friday, February 6, 1987 - Black Widow
Friday, March 6, 1987 - Lethal Weapon starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover
Saturday, May 16, 1987 - Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
Wednesday, May 20, 1987 - Beverly Hills Cop 2 starring Eddie Murphy
Wednesday, June 3, 1987 - The Untouchables
Friday, June 12, 1987 - Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
Friday, June 26, 1987 - Dragnet
Friday, July 17, 1987 - Jaws 4: The Revenge
Friday, November 13, 1987 - The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

1987 in literature
1987 in music
1987 in rail transport
1987 in science
1987 in sports
1987 in television

CBS becomes the last American network to cease a chime intonation at the beginning of telecasts; satellite feeds have made the tones obsolete (the chime served as a signal to the affiliates to start airing the network feed in sync with everyone else).
Sunday, April 5, 1987 - Married... with Children premieres on the FOX television network.

Births

March 9 - Bow Wow, rap musician, actor
March 9 - Pikku G, Finnish rap musician
April 9 - Jesse McCartney, actor and singer
April 10 - Hayley Westenra, singer
April 11 - Joss Stone, musician
April 19 - Maria Sharapova, tennis player
May 21 - Ashlie Brillault, actress (Lizzie McGuire)
June 3 - Lalaine, actress (Lizzie McGuire)
August 22 - Elena Canty, actress (The Ring 2)
September 22 - Tom Felton, actor (Harry Potter movies)
September 28 - Hilary Duff, actress, singer (Lizzie McGuire, Agent Cody Banks)
December 7 - Aaron Carter, singer
December 12 - Kate Todd, actress (Radio Free Roscoe)

Deaths

January 15 - Ray Bolger, actor, singer, dancer
February 2 - Alistair MacLean, British thriller writer, heart attack
February 4 - Liberace, American pianist
February 22 - Andy Warhol, American artist, director, writer
March 2 - Randolph Scott, actor
March 3 - Danny Kaye, actor, American singer, comedian
March 19 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, French physicist and winner 1929 of the Nobel Prize in Physics
March 21 - Robert Preston and Dean Paul Martin, actors
March 26 - Eugen Jochum, German conductor (b. 1902)
March 28 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer
April 2 - Buddy Rich, drummer
April 3 - Tom Sestak, American football player (b. 1936)
April 4 - C. L. Moore, science fiction writer
April 28 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua
May 3 - Dalida, French singer
May 4 - Paul Butterfield, blues musician
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 2 - Andres Segovia, Spanish guitarist (b. 1893)
June 6 - Fulton Mackay, actor
June 6 - Keith Paultur, inventor
June 10 - Elizabeth Hartman, American actress. (suicide)
June 22 - Fred Astaire, American actor, dancer
July 10 - John Hammond, record producer (b. 1910)
August 17 - Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second-in-command (suicide)
September 11 - Lorne Greene, actor
September 23 - Bob Fosse, theater choreographer and director
October 3 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (b. 1910)
October 3 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist
October 19 - Jacqueline Du Pr, English cellist
October 20 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician
October 28 - Andr Masson, French artist
October 29 - Woody Herman, American jazz musician (b. 1913)
October 31 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology
December 10 - Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian violinist (b. 1901)

Nobel Prizes

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Robert Solow

Right Livelihood Award

Johan Galtung, Chipko Movement, Hans-Peter Drr / Global Challenges Network, Institute for Food and Development Policy / Frances Moore-Lapp and Mordechai Vanunu

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