1987

From Freepedia

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

Years:
1984 1985 1986 - 1987(MCMLXXXVII) - 1988 1989 1990

Decades:
1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s

Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1987 by topic:
Arts	Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology	Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science
Countries	Australia - Canada - Ireland - South Africa - Sport
Other	Births - Deaths - State leaders - Religious leaders

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Fiction
5 Nobel Prizes
- 5.1 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
6 Templeton Prize
7 Right Livelihood Award

Events

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 Boston collides with Conrail engines killing 16.
January 5 - US President Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
January 8 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 2,000 for the first time gaining 8.30 to close at 2,002.25.
January 13 - New York mafiosi Anthony Salerno and Carmine Peruccia are sentenced for 100 years in prison for racketeering
January 16 - Leon Cordero, president of Ecuador, is kidnapped by followers of imprisoned general Frank Vargas who successfully demand his release
January 20 - Terry Waite, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lebanon, is kidnapped in Beirut (released November 1991)
January 22 - R. Budd Dwyer, Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shoots himself dead 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
January 31 - The last Ohrbach's department store closes in New York City after 64 years of operation.

February-May

Image:USS Stark.jpg

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 20 - Second Unabomber bomb explodes at the Salt Lake City computer store - owner injured
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 6 - A cross-channel ferry capsizes outside the harbor off Zeebrugge, Belgium - 180 drown
April 13 - Portugal and China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999.
April 27 - US Department of Justice declares incumbent Austrian president Kurt Waldheim as an undesirable alien
May 5 - Assemblies of God defrocks Jim Bakker
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 3 - In Soviet Union, Vladimir Nikolayev is sentenced to death for cannibalism
July 4 - Court in Lyons sentences Klaus Barbie to life in prison
July 11 - Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke's government is re-elected for a 3rd term
July 22 - Palestine cartoonist Naji Salim al-Ali is fatally shot in London. He dies August 28
July 31 - 400 Iranian pilgrims die in clashes with Saudi Arabian security forces in Mecca
August 9- 9 people die and 17 are injured when 19-year-old Julian Knight goes on a 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 Robert 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.
September 7-September 21 - World's first conference on artificial life, Los Alamos National Laboratory

October

Image:Black Monday Dow Jones.png

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- 16 - Great Storm of 1987: hurricane force winds hit much of the South of England killing 23 people.
October 19 - Black Monday: stock market falls sharply around the world.
October 22 - John Coolidge Adams's opera Nixon in China debuts at the Houston Grand Opera in Houston, Texas.
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.

December

December 1 - NASA announces the names of four companies who were awarded contracts to help build Space Station Freedom: Boeing Aerospace, General Electric's Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas, and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell.
December 1 - Channel Tunnel digging commences.
December 1 - Queensland: Following a week of turmoil from his National Party of Australia colleagues, Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigns as Premier of Queensland. He is replaced by Mike Ahern, the only premier never to contest an election as premier.
December 7 - Delaware celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
December 7 - PSA Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
December 8 - First Intifada begins.
December 8 - Queen Street Massacre in Melbourne, Australia. 22-year-old Frank Vitkovic kills 8 and injures another 5 in an Australia Post office building in Queen Street before committing suicide by jumping from the 11th floor.
December 8 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
December 12 - Pennsylvania celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
December 13 - Graz I was born.
December 17 - Czechoslovakian leader Gustáv Husák resigns as General Secretary of the Communist Party.
December 18 - New Jersey celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
December 18 - Square Co., Ltd. releases Final Fantasy in Japan for the Famicom.
December 21 - The ferry Doña Paz collides with the oil tanker Vector I - 1,500 confirmed deaths (reportedly closer to 4,000 due to unregistered passengers).
December 24 - Japanese legendary rock band BOØWY declared breakup at Shibuya Kokaido.
December 29 - Prozac® makes its debut in the United States.

Environmental change

Varroa destructor, an invasive parasite is found in the U.S.

Unknown dates

Pendolino train in Italy
Shoko Asahara founds Aum Shinrikyo
Barry Minkow's ZZZZ Best fraud unravels

Births

February 2 - Martin Spanjers, American actor
April 10 - Hayley Westenra, New Zealand soprano
April 11 - Joss Stone, English musician
April 19 - Courtland Mead, American actor
April 19 - Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player
May 6 - Moon Geun Young, Korean actress
May 15 - Andrew Murray, Scottish tennis player
May 21 - Ashlie Brillault, American actress
June 3 - Lalaine, American actress
June 3 - Masami Nagasawa, Japanese actress
June 16 - Diana DeGarmo, American singer
July 20 - Nicolas Dansereau, Canadian professional wrestler
July 25 - Michael Welch, American actor
August 7 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player
September 7 - Evan Rachel Wood, American actress and singer
September 19 - Danielle Panabaker, American actress
September 22 - Tom Felton, English actor
September 28 - Hilary Duff, American actress and singer
December 2 - Teairra Mari, American singer
December 4 - Orlando Brown, American singer and comedian
December 18 - Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater

Deaths

January 15 - Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1904)
January 21 - Charles Goodell, American politician (b. 1926)
January 27 - Allan V. Cox, American geologist (b. 1926)
February 2 - Alistair MacLean, British writer (heart attack) (b. 1922)
February 4 - Liberace, American pianist (b. 1919)
February 14 - Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (b. 1904)
February 22 - Andy Warhol, American artist, director, writer (b. 1928)
March 2 - Randolph Scott, American actor (b. 1898)
March 3 - Danny Kaye, American singer, actor, and comedian (b. 1918)
March 19 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
March 21 - Robert Preston, American actor (b. 1918)
March 21 - Dean Paul Martin, American actor (b. 1951)
March 26 - Eugen Jochum, German conductor (b. 1902)
March 28 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer (b. 1905)
March 28 - Patrick Troughton, British actor (b. 1920)
April 2 - Buddy Rich, American jazz drummer (b. 1917)
April 3 - Tom Sestak, American football player (b. 1936)
April 4 - C. L. Moore, American writer (b. 1911)
April 28 - Ben Linder, American engineer (murdered) (b. 1959)
May 3 - Dalida, French singer (b. 1933)
May 4 - Paul Butterfield, American musician (b. 1942)
May 6 - William J. Casey, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1913)
May 14 - Rita Hayworth, American actress (b. 1918)
May 17 - Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
May 19 - James Tiptree, Jr, American author (b. 1915)
May 27 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
June 2 - Andres Segovia, Spanish guitarist (b. 1893)
June 6 - Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor (b. 1922)
June 10 - Elizabeth Hartman, American actress (suicide) (b. 1943)
June 22 - Fred Astaire, American actor and dancer (b. 1899)
July 10 - John Hammond, American record producer (b. 1910)
August 17 - Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second-in-command (b. 1894)
August 26 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
September 4 - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (b. 1908)
September 11 - Lorne Greene, Canadian actor (b. 1915)
September 11 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1944)
September 21 - Jaco Pastorius, American bassist (b. 1951)
September 23 - Bob Fosse, American theater choreographer and director (b. 1927)
October 3 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (b. 1910)
October 3 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist (b. 1947)
October 13 - Walter Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
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, American author on mythology (b. 1904)
December 2 - Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
December 2 - Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Russian physicist (b. 1914)
December 10 - Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian violinist (b. 1901)

Fiction

On November 7, Events in the Doctor Who episode Father's Day take place.

The animated internet cartoon series Homestar Runner frequently references 1987 as if the name of a year in the close past yet preceding 1999 is needed.