1987

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Template:Yearbox Template:C20YearInTopic 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.

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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 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.
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

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.

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March

March 4 - President Reagan addressed the American nation on the Iran-Contra Affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.
March 6 - A cross-channel ferry capsizes outside the harbor off Zeebrugge, Belgium - 180 drown
March 29 - WrestleMania III, an event held by the World Wrestling Federation, takes place at the Pontiac Silverdome in, Pontiac, Michigan. The event is the largest indoor gathering in US history, with an official attendance of 93,173. In the main event, Hulk Hogan successfully defended the World Wrestling Federation Championship, defeating Andre the Giant.

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April

April 13 - Portugal and China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999.
April 27 - U.S. Department of Justice declares incumbent Austrian president Kurt Waldheim an "undesirable alien"

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May

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 24 - Indianapolis 500: Al Unser wins for a fourth time, the second driver to do so, after A.J. Foyt in 1977.
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 was later released on Wednesday, August 3, 1988.

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June

The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues
June 11 - 1987 election: Margaret Thatcher is elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the third time
June 17 - With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.

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July

July 1 - The Single European Act was passed by the European Union
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 17 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time at 2510.04.
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

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August

August 9- 9 people die and 17 are injured when 19-year-old Julian Knight goes on a shooting rampage in Melbourne.
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

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September

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 5 - University of Akureyri founded
September 7-September 21 - World's first conference on artificial life, Los Alamos National Laboratory

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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 - Champion English jockey Lester Piggott is jailed for 3 years after being convicted of 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

November 8 - Enniskillen bombing: Eleven people killed by an PIRA bomb at a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen.
November 18 - King's Cross fire on the London Underground kills 31.
November 25 - Category 5 Typhoon Nina smashes the Philippines with 165 mph winds and devastating storm surge, causing destruction and 1,036 deaths.

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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-supervisor 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 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 declare their breakup at Shibuya Kokaido.
December 29 - Prozac® makes its debut in the United States.