1987: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

1987 is a common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January 1987

• Saturday, January 3, 1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Sunday, January 4, 1987 - An Amtrak train en route from Washington, DC to New York collides with CONRAIL engines killing 16.
• Monday, January 5, 1987 - US President Ronald Wilson Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
• Wednesday, January 21, 1987 - Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon (released 1991)
• Thursday, January 22, 1987 - In Pennsylvania, R. Budd Dwyer, Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shoots and kills himself at a press conference after being found guilty on charges of bribery, fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering.
• Saturday, January 24, 1987 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnap Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh

February 1987

• Wednesday, February 11, 1987 - 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
• Thursday, February 12, 1987 - Unabomber bomb explodes in Salt Lake City, Utah
• Monday, February 16, 1987 - 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.
• Friday, February 20, 1987 - Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, Utah a bomb explodes in a computer store.
• Monday, February 23, 1987 - Supernova 1987a is observed, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604.
• Thursday, February 26, 1987 - Iran-Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes American President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.

March 1987

• Monday, March 2, 1987 - Chrysler acquires American Motors
• Friday, March 6, 1987 - The Herald of Free enterprise ferry capsizes off of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 189
• Tuesday, March 10, 1987 - Reproductive rights: The Vatican condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination.
• Thursday, March 12, 1987 - Les Misérables opens on Broadway.
• Thursday, March 19, 1987 - Following a scandal involving Jessica Hahn, televangelist Jim Bakker resigns from the PTL.
• Friday, March 20, 1987 - The Food and Drug Administration approves anti-AIDS drug AZT.
• Sunday, March 22, 1987 - Apple announces Macintosh II ja Macintosh SE
• Monday, March 30, 1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers" is bought for $39.85 million.

April 1987

• Wednesday, April 1, 1987 - The Japanese National Railways are privatized and split up into the modern Japan Railway group.
• Monday, April 6, 1987 - The White Patriot Party declares "war" against the Zionist Occupation Government (of America)

May 1987

• Friday, May 8, 1987 - 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
• Monday, May 11, 1987 - 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.
• Thursday, May 14, 1987 - Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka executes a bloodless coup on the island of Fiji.
• Sunday, May 17, 1987 - 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.
• Thursday, May 28, 1987 - 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 1987

• Friday, June 5, 1987 - Ted Koppel hosts a "National Town Meeting on AIDS" on a special 4-hour long live broadcast of Nightline.
• Thursday, June 11, 1987 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term.
• Friday, June 12, 1987 - The Central African Republic's former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
• Friday, June 12, 1987 - Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tare down the Berlin Wall.

July 1987

• Saturday, July 4, 1987 - In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Monday, July 6, 1987 - Martha Stewart signs a contract with Kmart to be the company's lifestyle spokesperson.

August 1987

• Tuesday, August 4, 1987 - The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues.
• Sunday, August 16, 1987 - 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.
• Monday, August 17, 1987 - The Harmonic Convergence is observed.
• Wednesday, August 19, 1987 - Hungerford Massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills 16 with an assault rifle and then commits suicide.
• Wednesday, August 19, 1987 - Order of Garter opened to women

September 1987

• Wednesday, September 2, 1987 - 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 7-21, 1987 - World's first conference on artificial life, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Monday, September 28, 1987 - premieres on syndicated television with the double-length episode "Encounter at Farpoint"

October 1987

• Wednesday-Friday, October 14-16, 1987 - 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.
• Thursday, October 15, 1987 - Hurricane force winds cause extensive damage in southern England
• Monday, October 19, 1987 - Black Monday: stock market falls sharply around the world
• Friday, October 30, 1987 - The NEC PC Engine is released in Japan

November 1987

• Thursday, November 5, 1987 - 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.
• Saturday, November 7, 1987 - In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
• Sunday, November 8, 1987 - Enniskillen massacre: In Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes, at a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead, killing eleven people.
• Wednesday, November 18, 1987 - 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."
• Saturday, November 28, 1987 - 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.
• Sunday, November 29, 1987 - A Korean Air Boeing 707 exploded over the Thai-Burmese border killing 155.

December 1987

• Tuesday, December 1, 1987 - 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
• Tuesday, December 8, 1987 - first Intifada begins
• Tuesday, December 29, 1987 - Prozac® makes its debut in the US

unknown dates

• Pendolino train in Italy
• Shoko Asahara founds Aum Shinrikyo

Fictional events

• Saturday-Wednesday, September 26-30, 1987 - The Events of James Bond's 15th mission, The Living Daylights

• 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
  • Friday, June 12, 1987 - Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Friday, June 26, 1987 - Dragnet
  • Friday, July 17, 1987 -
  • Friday, November 13, 1987 - The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • The Untouchables
• 1987 in literature
• 1987 in music
• 1987 in science
• 1987 in sports
• 1987 in television

March 1987

• Monday, March 9, 1987 - Bow Wow, rap musician, actor

April 1987

• Saturday, April 11, 1987 - Joss Stone, musician
• Sunday, April 19, 1987 - Maria Sharapova, tennis player

May 1987

• Thursday, May 21, 1987 - Ashlie Brillault, actress (Lizzie McGuire)

June 1987

• Wednesday, June 3, 1987 - Lalaine, actress (Lizzie McGuire)

September 1987

• Tuesday, September 22, 1987 - Tom Felton, actor (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
• Monday, September 28, 1987 - Hilary Duff, actress, singer (Lizzie McGuire, Agent Cody Banks)

December 1987

• Monday, December 7, 1987 - Aaron Carter, singer

January 1987

• Thursday, January 15, 1987 - Ray Bolger, actor, singer, dancer

February 1987

• Monday, February 2, 1987 - Alistair MacLean, British thriller writer, heart attack
• Wednesday, February 4, 1987 - Liberace
• Sunday, February 22, 1987 - Andy Warhol, artist, director, writer

March 1987

• Monday, March 2, 1987 - Randolph Scott, actor
• Tuesday, March 3, 1987 - Danny Kaye, actor, singer, comedian
• Thursday, March 19, 1987 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, physicist and winner 1929 of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Saturday, March 21, 1987 - Robert Preston, actor
• Saturday, March 28, 1987 - Maria von Trapp, singer

April 1987

• Thursday, April 2, 1987 - Buddy Rich, drummer
• Saturday, April 4, 1987 - C. L. Moore, science fiction writer
• Tuesday, April 28, 1987 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua

May 1987

• Sunday, May 3, 1987 - Dalida, French singer
• Wednesday, May 6, 1987 - William Casey, controversial director of the CIA
• Monday, May 11, 1987 - Peter Tosh, musician
• Thursday, May 14, 1987 - Rita Hayworth, actress
• Tuesday, May 19, 1987 - James Tiptree, Jr, science fiction author

June 1987

• Saturday June 6, 1987 - Fulton Mackay, actor
• Monday, June 22, 1987 - Fred Astaire, actor

July 1987

• Friday, July 10, 1987 - John Hammond, record producer (b. 1910)

August 1987

• Monday, August 17, 1987 - Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second-in-command, commits suicide in Spandau Prison

September 1987

• Wednesday, September 23, 1987 - Bob Fosse, theater choreographer and director

October 1987

• Saturday, October 3, 1987 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist
• Monday, October 19, 1987 - Jacqueline Du Pre, English Cellist
• Tuesday, October 20, 1987 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician
• Thursday, October 29, 1987 - Woody Herman, jazz musician (b. 1913)
• Saturday, October 31, 1987 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology

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