Events Date 1987 April | History by KabAstro

Apr 2 "Mikado" opens at Virginia Theater NYC for 46 performances
Apr 2 IBM introduces PS/2 & OS/2

Sports History

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 141st Grand National: Jockey Steve Knight wins his second GN aboard 28/1 shot Maori Venture by 5 lengths from The Tsarevich
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

Academy of Country Music Awards

Apr 6 22nd Academy of Country Music Awards: Hank Williams Jr, Randy Travis, and Reba McEntire win

Country Music Singer and Songwriter Hank Williams Jr

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)

US Masters Golf

Apr 12 51st US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Larry Mize chips-in from 140 feet for an improbable birdie 3 on the 2nd playoff hole to beat Greg Norman for his only major title

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 "Barbara Cook: A Concert" opens at Ambassador, NYC; runs for 13 performances
Apr 15 Alfred Uhry's "Driving Miss Daisy" premieres in NYC

Event of Interest

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

NBA Record

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

Boston Marathon

Apr 20 91st Boston Marathon: Toshihiko Seko of Japan wins 2nd title in 2:11:50; Rosa Mota of Portugal claims women's event in 2:25:21; her first of 3 race victories

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
Apr 21 Dow Jones Average soared 664.7; 2nd biggest one-day gain in history
Apr 21 Milwaukee Brewers lose after 13th straight victory to start season

Cricket History

Apr 21 Richard Hadlee makes highest Test Cricket score of 151* (v Sri Lanka)

Apr 21 Tamil bomb attack in Colombo Sri Lanka, 115 killed
Apr 22 Sri Lanka Air Force bomb Tamil, 100s killed
Apr 23 28 construction workers killed in an apt collapse in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Apr 23 NJ Devils farm team Maine Mariners (AHL) move to Utica (Devils) NY

Film & TV History

Apr 24 Howard Stern holds a free speech rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, NYC

Apr 26 "Barbara Cook: A Concert" closes at Ambassador NYC after 13 performances

Event of Interest

Apr 27 US Justice Department bars Austrian Chancellor Kurt Waldheim from entering US, due to his aid of Nazi Germany during WW II

4th Secretary-General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim

Apr 28 American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
Apr 28 NBA announces expansion to Charlotte NC & Miami Fla in 1988 & Minneapolis Minn & Orlando Fla in 1989
Apr 28 NFL Draft: University of Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers