1987 - What happened in 1987 ?

January 1987

Sunday 04:

An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, DC collides with Conrail engines, killing 16.

Monday 05:

President of the United States Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.

Tuesday 20:

Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.

Saturday 24:

In Lebanon, gunmen kidnap Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh.

Sunday 25:

Super Bowl XXI: The New York Giants beat the Denver Broncos, 39-20.

February 1987

Wednesday 11:

Philippines constitution goes into effect.

Monday 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.

Friday 20:

Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store.

Monday 23:

A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).

Thursday 26:

Iran-Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes American President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.

March 1987

Monday 02:

1987- Chrysler acquires American Motors

Friday 06:

The British ferry M/S Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds after leaving the harbour of Zeebrugge, Belgium en route to Dover, England across the English Channel, killing 193.

Saturday 07:

Mike Tyson adds the WBA World Heavyweight boxing championship to his WBC one when he beats James Smith after a 12-round fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Monday 09:

Rock band U2 release the album The Joshua Tree.

Tuesday 10:

Reproductive rights: The Holy See condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood, along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination.

April 1987

Monday 06:

Sugar Ray Leonard takes the middleweight boxing title from Marvin Hagler.

Wednesday 08:

Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid great controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.

Monday 13:

Portugal and China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999

Saturday 18:

Mike Schmidt becomes the 14th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Tuesday 28:

U.S. engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by US-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.

May 1987

Tuesday 05:

Iran-Contra affair: Start of Congressional televised hearings.

Saturday 09:

In Brussels, Belgium, Johnny Logan wins the thirty-second Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "Hold Me Now".

Monday 11:

The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland).

Sunday 17:

Iran-Iraq War: The USS Stark (FFG-31) is struck by a missile from an Iraqi Mirage fighter killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

Thursday 28:

A robot probe finds the wreckage of the USS Monitor near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

June 1987

Friday 05:

Ted Koppel hosts a "National Town Meeting on AIDS" on a special four-hour long live broadcast of Nightline.

Friday 12:

Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

July 1987

Wednesday 01:

Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel.

Saturday 04:

In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sunday 05:

First instance of the LTTE using suicide attacks on Sri Lankan Army. The Black Tigers are born and in the following years continue to use it to deadly effect.

Saturday 11:

According to the United Nations, the world population crosses the 5,000,000,000 mark.

Friday 31:

A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.

August 1987

Tuesday 04:

The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues.

Tuesday 11:

Alan Greenspan becomes Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve.

Thursday 13:

U.S. President Reagan assumes responsibility for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Sunday 16:

A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport killing 155 people onboard, with the sole survivor four-year old Cecelia Cichan).

Wednesday 26:

President Ronald Wilson Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day.

September 1987

Wednesday 02:

In Moscow, the trial begins of 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna aircraft into Red Square in May 1987.

Friday 11:

Reggae musician Peter Tosh is murdered in his own home in Kingston.

Sunday 13:

Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and leading some to die from radiation poisoning.

Tuesday 15:

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.

Wednesday 16:

The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

October 1987

Saturday 10:

Fiji becomes a republic.

Sunday 11:

March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights attracts between 500,000 and 600,000 people to protest the Bowers v. Hardwick decision and the U.S. government's handling of the AIDS epidemic; first public display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Wednesday 14:

18-month-old Jessica McClure ("Baby Jessica") falls down an abandoned well in Midland, Texas (her nationally televised rescue takes 58 hours).

Friday 16:

Great Storm of 1987: hurricane force winds to hit much of the South of England killing 23 people.

Friday 30:

In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the PC-Engine.

November 1987

Thursday 05:

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 Africa government.

Saturday 07:

In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Sunday 08:

Enniskillen massacre: In Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes, at a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead, killing eleven people.

Wednesday 18:

King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.

Saturday 28:

In Wappingers Falls, New York, Tawana Brawley is found wrapped in garbage bags, with feces smeared all over her body and a racial slur on her body.

December 1987

Tuesday 08:

1987 - Gunman Frank Vitovic shoots nine people dead and wounds five others at the Australia Post Building, Queen Street, Melbourne. Vitovic then kills himself by plunging five stories to his death.

Wednesday 09:

The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank

Monday 21:

The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1.

Thursday 24:

Japanese legendary rock band BOØWY declares their breakup at the Shibuya Kokaido.

Tuesday 29:

Yuri Romanenko of USSR remained in space for 326 days and came back to Earth on this day that year.