1987

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

Years: 1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990
Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Contents

1 Events

1.1 Environmental change
1.2 January
1.3 February-May
1.4 June-September
1.5 October
1.6 December
1.7 unknown dates

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

6 Right Livelihood Award

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
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

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 Minkow’s ZZZZ Best fraud unravels

Year in Topic

1987 in film
- February 6 - Black Widow
- March 6 - Lethal Weapon starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover
- May 16 - Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
- May 20 - Beverly Hills Cop II starring Eddie Murphy
- June 3 - The Untouchables
- June 12 - Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
- June 26 - Dragnet
- July 17 - Jaws 4: The Revenge
- November 13 - The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
1987 in literature
1987 in music
- August 28 - Michael Jackson releases Bad, his follow-up to 1982's Thriller
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).
- April 5 - Married... with Children premieres on the FOX television network.
- September 28 - Star Trek: The Next Generation premieres on syndicated television with the first part of a two-part episode "Encounter at Farpoint"

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 (b. 1904)
February 2 - Alistair MacLean, British thriller writer (heart attack; b. 1922)
February 4 - Liberace, American pianist (b. 1919)
February 22 - Andy Warhol, American artist, director, writer (b. 1928)
March 2 - Randolph Scott, actor (b. 1898)
March 3 - Danny Kaye, actor, American singer, comedian (b. 1918)
March 19 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, French physicist and winner 1929 of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1892)
March 21 - Robert Preston, actor (b. 1918)
March 21 - Dean Paul Martin, actor (b. 1951)
March 26 - Eugen Jochum, German conductor (b. 1902)
March 28 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer (b. 1905)
April 2 - Buddy Rich, jazz drummer (b. 1917)
April 3 - Tom Sestak, American football player (b. 1936)
April 4 - C. L. Moore, science fiction writer (b. 1911)
April 28 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua (b. 1959)
May 3 - Dalida, French singer (b. 1933)
May 4 - Paul Butterfield, blues musician (b. 1942)
May 6 - William J. Casey, controversial director of the CIA (b. 1913)
May 11 - Peter Tosh, musician (b. 1944)
May 14 - Rita Hayworth, actress (b. 1918)
May 19 - James Tiptree, Jr, science fiction author (b. 1915)
June 2 - Andres Segovia, Spanish guitarist (b. 1893)
June 6 - Fulton Mackay, actor (b. 1922)
June 6 - Keith Paultur, inventor
June 10 - Elizabeth Hartman, American actress, from suicide (b. 1943)
June 22 - Fred Astaire, American actor, dancer (b. 1899)
July 10 - John Hammond, record producer (b. 1910)
August 17 - Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second-in-command (suicide) (b. 1894)
September 4 - Bill Bowes, champion Yorkshire and England bowler (b. 1908)
September 11 - Lorne Greene, Canadian actor (b. 1915)
September 23 - Bob Fosse, theater choreographer and director (b. 1927)
October 3 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (b. 1910)
October 3 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist (b. 1947)
October 19 - Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (b. 1945)
October 20 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1903)
October 28 - André Masson, French artist (b. 1896)
October 29 - Woody Herman, American jazz musician (b. 1913)
October 31 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology (b. 1904)
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 Dürr / Global Challenges Network , Institute for Food and Development Policy / Frances Moore-Lappé and Mordechai Vanunu