Events 1 - 200 of 679
- Jan 1 60 bodies recovered in Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Puerto Rico
- Jan 1 China's rudimentary civil code in effect
- Jan 1 International Year of Shelter for Homeless begins
- Jan 2 Indiana Pacers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 116-106 to give coach Jack Ramsay his 800th NBA victory; at the time Ramsey is one of only 2 coaches (with Red Auerbach) to reach milestone
Chadian Troops Conquer Fada
Jan 2 Troops of Chadian President Hissène Habré conquer the Fada oasis
Aretha Franklin 1st Female
Jan 3 Aretha Franklin is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Prince Edward Resigns
Jan 12 Britain's Prince Edward resigns from his Royal Marines training
Larry Bird's Double Accolade
Jan 15 Champion Boston Celtics NBA forward Larry Bird is named Man of the Year by 'The Sporting News' and Athlete of the Year by 'Associated Press'; first time one athlete gains both distinctions
- Jan 15 Police officer who mistakenly shot and paralysed an innocent woman in Brixton, UK, is cleared of all criminal charges
General Secretary Resigns
Jan 17 General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Yaobang is forced to resign, amid demonstrations for greater democracy
Reagan's Covert Arms Sale
Jan 17 US President Reagan signs secret order permitting covert sale of arms to Iran
Litchfield Arrested
Jan 20 Bank robber Robert A. Litchfield is arrested at Lake Tahoe
- Jan 20 Rhino Records 1st #1, Billy Vera & Beaters' "At This Moment"
- Jan 20 UK Police crackdown on soccer hooligans in biggest operation against violence around football stadiums
Second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jan 21 Second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Coasters; Eddie Cochran; Bo Diddley; Aretha Franklin; Marvin Gaye; Bill Haley; B.B. King; Clyde McPhatter; Ricky Nelson; Roy Orbison; Carl Perkins; Smokey Robinson; Joe Turner; Muddy Waters; Jackie Wilson; Louis Jordan; T-Bone Walker; Hank Williams; Leonard Chess; Ahmet Ertegun; Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller; and Jerry Wexler
- Jan 22 Blizzard in NJ, as 334 attend Devils-Flame NHL game, NJ wins 7-5
- Jan 22 Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism
- Jan 23 Dow Jones rises 64 points then drops 110 points (44.15 pt loss)
- Jan 23 Japan 1st exceeds military spending cap of 1% of GNP ($23 billion)
Super Bowl XXI
Jan 25 Super Bowl XXI, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: NY Giants beat Denver Broncos, 39-20; MVP: Phil Simms, NY Giants, QB
- Jan 27 Midnight Rockers beat Buddy Rose & Doug Somers for AWA World Tag Team
Shultz Meets Tambo
Jan 28 US Foreign minister George P. Shultz meets African National Congress leader Oliver Tambo
- Jan 28 Wrestler Jim Neidhart indicted for assaulting a flight attendant
- Jan 29 The president of the Philippines puts down a rebellion against their government in Manila
Casey's CIA Term Ends
Jan 29 William J. Casey term as 13th director of the CIA ends
"Fine Things"
Feb 1 Danielle Steel publishes her 21st novel “Fine Things”
- Feb 2 KC Royal pitcher Dennis Leonard (3X 20 game winner), retires
- Feb 2 Philippines adopts constitution
- Feb 3 MLB Montreal Expos trade pitcher Jeff Reardon to Minnesota Twins for pitcher Neal Heaton
- Feb 4 Sacramento Kings score only 4 points 1st quarter against Lakers; fewest in a period since introduction of 24 second shot-clock in 1954
- Feb 4 San Diego Yacht Club's 'Stars & Stripes' captained by Dennis Conner beats Royal Perth Yacht Club of Australia's 'Kookaburra III' to capture the America's Cup at Freemantle, Western Australia
- Feb 4 Stars & Stripes beats Australia's Kookaburra 3, sweeps America's Cup
- Feb 4 US President Reagan's veto of Clean Water Act is overridden by Congress
- Feb 5 Dow Jones avg closes above 2,200 for 1st time
- Feb 5 Soyuz TM-2 launches
- Feb 6 No-smoking rules take effect in US federal buildings
- Feb 7 "Ronnies Rap" by Ron & DC Crew peaks at #93
- Feb 7 Dennis Conner & Stars & Stripes bring the America's Cup back to US
- Feb 7 Police in South Korea make hundreds of arrests during protest demonstrations, the country's biggest for 6 years, after a student died in custody
Event of Interest
Feb 9 Former US national security adviser Robert McFarlane attempts suicide by overdosing on Valium hours before scheduled testimony before panel investigating illegal arms-for-hostages "Iran-Contra" affair
- Feb 9 NY Stock Exch installs ladies restroom in the Exchange Luncheon Club
- Feb 10 Philippine troops murder 17 civilians in Lupao Massacre
- Feb 11 British Airways begins trading stocks
- Feb 11 Philippines constitution goes into effect
- Feb 11 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Feb 12 Survivors of a black man murdered by KKK members awarded $7 M damages
Sports History
Feb 13 Tigers' Jack Morris awarded $1.85 million salary by arbitrator
- Feb 14 Detroit Pistons-Philadelphia 76ers game draws crowd of 53,745 at Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac; third largest crowd in NBA history; Pistons win, 125-107
Disqualified for Kneeling
Feb 15 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler is disqualified from Andy Williams Open for kneeling on a towel to make a shot
Daytona 500
Feb 15 29th Daytona 500: Bill Elliott leads for 104 of 200 laps including the last 3; had won pole with record speed of 210.364 mph
- Feb 15 ABC-TV begins broadcasting "Amerika" mini-series
- Feb 15 Karlstad skates world record 10km (14:03,92)
- Feb 15 Nikolai Guljajev becomes world champion skater
Sports History
Feb 17 New York Yankees Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration ($1,975,000 per year)
- Feb 19 Minnesota sheriff's office arrest FBI's most wanted, Thomas G. Harrelson
- Feb 19 US President Reagan lifts trade boycott against Poland
- Feb 20 Bomb blamed on Unabomber explodes by a computer store in Salt Lake City
- Feb 20 David Hartman quits ABC's "Good Morning America" after 11 years
- Feb 21 Syrian army marches into Beirut
- Feb 22 Bruno Marie-Rose runs world record 200m indoor (20.36 sec)
- Feb 23 Russian Writers Union accepts Boris Pasternak posthumous as member
- Feb 23 Supernova 1987A in LMC 1st seen; 1st naked-eye supernova since 1604
Grammy Awards
Feb 24 29th Grammy Awards: "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood; "Graceland" by Paul Simon; and Bruce Hornsby win
Radio History
Feb 24 American radio and television personality Larry King suffers a heart attack
Sports History
Feb 24 LA Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores his 36,000th NBA point in a 97-93 win over the Suns in Phoenix
- Feb 25 Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva discovers royal tombs of Sipan from Moche culture (A.D. 100 to 800) in northern Peru, after a police tip off - richest archaeological find of the New World [1]
- Feb 25 US Supreme Court upholds (5-4) affirmative action
- Feb 26 1st release of Beatles on compact disc: "Please Please Me"; "With The Beatles"; "A Hard Day's Night"; and "Beatles For Sale" [1]
- Feb 26 NASA launches GEOS-H
Sports History
Feb 26 NBA's Michael Jordan's 58 points in one game is a Chicago Bulls record
- Feb 26 Tower Commission probes Iran-Contra affair
- Feb 26 USSR resumes nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Feb 26 Wash blocks 20 Indiana shots tying NBA regulation game record
- Feb 27 "Washington Week In Review" 20th anniversary on PBS
- Feb 27 American Mike Conley sets world indoor triple jump record (17.76m) in New York
- Feb 27 Donald Regan resigns as White House chief of staff
- Feb 27 NCAA cancels SMU's entire 1987 football schedule for gross violations of NCAA rules regarding athletic corruption
- Mar 3 Ray Dandridge, 3rd baseman in Negro Leagues, eleected to Hall of Fame
- Mar 6 6.8 earthquake hits Ecuador, kills 100
- Mar 6 Belgian ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise" sinks; 192 die
Lethal Weapon
Mar 6 First "Lethal Weapon" film starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, directed by Richard Donner is released
- Mar 7 Gavaskar becomes 1st cricket batsman to score 10,000 Test runs
Boxing Title Fight
Mar 7 Mike Tyson beats James 'Bonecrusher' Smith by unanimous decision in 12 rounds in Las Vegas for WBC / WBA heavyweight boxing titles
- Mar 8 "A Team" last aired on NBC-TV after 4 years
- Mar 8 17th Easter Seal Telethon raises $35,184,425
- Mar 8 David Hookes (306*) Wayne Phillips make 462 stand for S Aust
- Mar 8 FBI apprehends most wanted Claude L Dallas, Jr in California
- Mar 8 Nelli Cooman becomes world champion 60m indoor
- Mar 9 Chrysler Corp offers to buy American Motors Corp for $1 billion
- Mar 10 Vatican formal opposition to test-tube fertilization & embryo transfer
Sports History
Mar 12 David Robinson scores 50 points in a NCAA basketball game
Event of Interest
Mar 12 Federal judge dismisses lawsuits sought by Oliver North
- Mar 12 Ice Pairs World Championship at Cincinnati won by Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov (USSR)
- Mar 12 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk (Soviet Union)
- Mar 13 Ice Dance Championship at Cincinnati won by Bestemianova & Bukin (URS)
Event of Interest
Mar 13 John Gotti, boss of the Gambino crime family, is acquitted of racketeering
- Mar 13 Washington Caps score 5 goals against Toronto in 3 mins & 3 secs
Sports History
Mar 14 NY Met Darryl Strawberry charges Red Sox pitcher Al Nipper during spring training exhibition game, causes bench clearing brawl
- Mar 14 Providence, with Billy Donovan's 25 points, beats Austin Peay 90-87
- Mar 14 Skier Piotr Fijas jumps record 194m
- Mar 14 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Cincinnati won by Katarina Witt
- Mar 15 Last day in Test cricket for Larry Gomes & Joel Garner
- Mar 15 NZ beat WI by 5 wickets in Jeremy Coney's last Test Cricket
- Mar 17 IBM releases PC-DOS version 3.3
Cricket History
Mar 17 Sunil Gavaskar ends his Test career with an innings of 96 v Pak
- Mar 18 Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns are Jessica and Matthew
- Mar 18 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Event of Interest
Mar 19 American televangelist Jim Bakker resigns amid rape accusation by his secretary, Jessica Hahn
World Record
Mar 19 Bonnie Blair skates ladies' world record 500 m (39.43 sec)
- Mar 19 Fred Currey acquires Greyhound Bus Company
- Mar 19 Hassanali inaugurated as president of Trinidad & Tobago
World Record
Mar 19 Yvonne van Gennip skates ladies world record 3 km (4:16.85)
- Mar 20 FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)
- Mar 20 NASA launches Palapa B2P
- Mar 20 Soap opera "Capitol" final episode
- Mar 20 Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit
- Mar 20 Yvonne van Gennip skates ladies' world record 5 km (7:20.36)
- Mar 21 PSV sells soccer player Ruud Gullit to AC Milan (Ÿ17 million)
Event of Interest
Mar 23 Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns as chairman of the Social Democratic Party
- Mar 23 Soap "Bold & Beautiful" premieres
- Mar 23 US offers military protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf
- Mar 25 The US Supreme Court rules that gender-based workplace affirmative action plans do not constitute discrimination on the basis of sex under the Civil Rights Act 1964
Event of Interest
Mar 26 August Wilson's "Fences" premieres at the 46th Street Theatre, New York City in NYC; wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 4 Tony and 3 Drama desk Awards
- Mar 26 Hyderabad beat Delhi on 1st innings to win Ranji Trophy
- Mar 26 NASA launches Fltsatcom-6, it fails to reach orbit
- Mar 26 National Federation of State High School Associations adopt the college 3 point shot (21 feet)
- Mar 27 Chadian President Hissène Habré's troops reconquer Faya Largeau in Chad
- Mar 28 Stacking of Discovery's SRBs gets underway
Election of Interest
Mar 29 Yitzḥak Shamir re-elected chairman of right wing Likud Party
Academy Awards
Mar 30 59th Academy Awards: "Platoon", Paul Newman & Marlee Matlin win
Event of Interest
Mar 30 Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" sells for a record 22.5 million pounds ($39.7 million)
- Apr 2 IBM introduces PS/2 & OS/2
- Apr 3 Bill Elliott sets NASCAR qualify record of 212.809 mph at Talladega
- Apr 3 Duchess of Windsor's jewels auctioned for £31,380,197
- Apr 3 MLB Chicago Cubs trade Dennis Eckersley to Oakland A's for 3 minor league players
- Apr 3 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Music History
Apr 4 "Always & Forever" second studio album by Randy Travis (Billboard Album of the Year 1988)
- Apr 4 Dow Jones up 69.89 points, ending at record 2,390.34 pts
- Apr 5 Fox TV network premieres "Married... with Children" and "The Tracey Ullman Show"
Golf Major
Apr 5 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Betsy King wins the first of her 6 major titles in a sudden-death playoff with Patty Sheehan, with a par on the 2nd extra hole
Sports History
Apr 5 Wayne Gretzky wins 7th straight NHL scoring title
- Apr 6 Los Angeles Dodger's GM Al Campanis appears on TV program ABC News: Nightline saying Blacks may not be equipped to be in baseball management, sparking a racial controversy
Sports History
Apr 6 Middleweight World Boxing Championship bout: Sugar Ray Leonard upsets Marvelous Marvin Hagler at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada
- Apr 7 Al Campanis, Dodger executive for more than 40 years, resigns, after making racial remarks on "Nightline"
- Apr 7 National Museum of Female Physicians opens in Washington, D.C.
- Apr 9 For 3rd time, Wayne Gretzky, scores 7 points (1 goal, 6 assists) in a Stanley Cup game and passes Jean Béliveau as all time playoff scoring champ
- Apr 11 Yankees score 12 runs in 7th inning vs KC Royals
- Apr 11 Zoja Ivanova wins 2nd female World Cup marathon (2:30:39)
- Apr 12 Ahmed Salah wins 2nd World Cup marathon (2:10:55)
- Apr 12 CBS' premiere of fact-based World War II drama "Escape from Sobibor"
- Apr 12 Texaco files for bankruptcy
- Apr 13 1st 3 San Diego Padres hit HRs off SF starter Roger Mason
- Apr 13 Portugal signs agreement to return Macau to China (in 1999)
- Apr 14 Turkey asks to join European market
- Apr 15 Alfred Uhry's "Driving Miss Daisy" premieres in NYC
- Apr 16 August Wilson's "Fences" wins 1987 Pulitzer Prize for drama
- Apr 16 British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London charged with gross indecency
- Apr 16 FCC imposes a broader definition of indecency over airwaves
- Apr 16 Howard Stern & Infinity Broadcasting are warned by FCC
- Apr 16 Michael Jordan becomes the second NBA player in history to score 3,000 points in a season
- Apr 16 Peter Taylor's "Summons to Memphis" wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction
Sports History
Apr 17 Julius Erving becomes 3rd NBA (and ABA) player to score 30,000 points
- Apr 17 Richard Wilbur appointed as American poet laureate
- Apr 17 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Apr 18 Bettino Craxi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy
- Apr 18 Bob Land wins his 6th straight Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race
- Apr 18 Gregory Robertson does 200-mph free fall to save unconscious skydiver near Coolidge, Arizona
Baseball Record
Apr 18 Mike Schmidt hits 500th home run (vs Robinson-Pirates)
- Apr 18 Pat Knauff, France sets 1-leg downhill ski speed record (115.012 mph)
- Apr 19 Brendon Kuruppu scores 201* on Test Cricket debut (Sri Lanka v NZ)
- Apr 19 Brewers score 5 runs in 9th to win 6-4 & record 12th straight AL win
- Apr 19 Jacqueline Blanc, sets women's downhill ski speed rec (124.902 mph)
- Apr 19 LA Clippers end season with a terrible 12-70 record
- Apr 19 Last wild condor captured on California wildlife reserve
- Apr 19 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Apr 20 Sri Lankan Civil War: Tamils shoot 122 Sinhalese dead
- Apr 20 US deports Karl Linnas to USSR, charged with Nazi war crimes
- Apr 21 Brewers lose, ending AL season-opening winning streak at 13 games
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