1987

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Years:	1984 1985 1986 1987 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	Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science
Countries	Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa
Other	Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming

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

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

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Events

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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.

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February-May

The damaged US Frigate, USS Stark, after being struck by an Iraqi Exocet Missile in the Persian Gulf.

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.

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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

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October

Performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Index during Black Monday

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.

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November-December

November 18 - King's Cross fire on the London Underground kills 31.
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.

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Environmental change

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

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Unknown dates

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

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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 2 - Nana Kitade, J-Rock singer
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/NHL 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
December 2 - Teairra Mari, American singer
December 4 - Orlando Brown, American singer and comedian
December 18 - Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater

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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 11 - Woody Hayes, Football coach at Ohio State (b. 1913)
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)

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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.

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