See:
Wikipedia.
Events:
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 and kills 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 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.
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 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 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 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.
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 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".
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 30 - The NEC PC Engine is released in Japan.
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 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.
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.
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 29 - Prozac® makes its debut in the US.
Unknown dates:
Pendolino train in Italy.
Shoko Asahara founds Aum Shinrikyo.
Fictional event:
Saturday-Wednesday, September 26-30, 1987 - The Events of James Bond's 15th
mission, The Living Daylights.
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.
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.
The Untouchables.
Births:
February 22 -
Walter Dingeman Frans (Walter) van den Houten.
March 9 -
Bow Wow, rap musician, actor.
April 11 -
Joss Stone, musician.
April 19 -
Maria Sharapova, tennis player.
May 21 -
Ashlie Brillault, actress (Lizzie McGuire).
June 3 -
Lalaine, actress (Lizzie McGuire).
June 20 -
Thijs David van den Houten.
September 22 -
Tom Felton, actor (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
September 28 -
Hilary Duff, actress, singer (Lizzie McGuire, Agent Cody Banks).
December 7 -
Aaron Carter, singer.
December 20 -
Christofoor Brandjes.
Deaths:
January 15 -
Wijnanda Braber.
January 15 -
Ray Bolger, actor, singer, dancer.
January 17 -
Janna van den Houten.
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.
May 31 -
Johanna Jacoba van den Houten.
June 6 -
Fulton Mackay, actor.
June 17 -
Dingeman Frans (Dé or Dingeman) van den Houten.
June 22 -
Fred Astaire, actor.
July 10 -
John Hammond, record producer (b. 1910).
July 25 -
Johanna Bok.
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.
December 15 -
Janna Johanna (Jannie) van den Houten.
Jan Folmer.
December 20 -
Sietje van den Houten.
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