This Year in History:
1987
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
On October 16, 1987, in an event that had viewers around the world glued to their televisions, 18‑month‑old Jessica McClure is rescued after being trapped for 58 hours in an…
The largest‑ever one‑day percentage decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average comes not in 1929 but on October 19, 1987. As a number of unrelated events conspired to tank global…
After nearly a year of hearings into the Iran‑Contra scandal, the joint Congressional investigating committee issues its final report. It concluded that the scandal, involving a complicated plan whereby some…
Tawana Brawley, a young Black woman, is found covered with feces and wrapped in garbage bags outside the Pavilion Condominiums in Wappingers Falls, New York. Brawley appeared to have undergone…
At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals. Previous…
In the Israeli‑occupied Gaza Strip, the first riots of the Palestinian intifada, or “shaking off” in Arabic, begin one day after an Israeli truck crashed into a station wagon carrying…
