MultiEducator · The 20th Century Almanac
HistoryCentral Est. 1996
8720th C.
1987
The 20th Century Almanac · The Eighties

1987

Major Events · Sports · Music · Screen · Prizes

Reagan and Gorbachev signed the landmark INF Treaty in Washington, eliminating a class of nuclear missiles, as glasnost and perestroika reshaped the Soviet Union. The Palestinian Intifada erupted in December, Black Monday crashed Wall Street, and The Last Emperor swept the Oscars.

A Year in Review
Best Picture
The Last Emperor
Nobel · Literature
Brodsky
World Series
Minnesota Twins vs. St. Louis Cardinals
No. 1 Song
Open Your Heart
Top TV
Academy · Actor
Michael Douglas

Major Events of 1987

8 events
Rioting breaks out during HajIntifada beginsTamil guerillas ambush convoyUSS Stark hit by Exocet missilesReagan and Gorbachev meet in WashingtonGorbachev campaigns for Glasnost and PerostroiLibyan troops driven out of ChadIndia invades Pakistan

Sports Highlights

Champions of 1987

Champions

NBALos Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics Series: 4-2
NCAA FootballMiami-Fl Record: 12-0-0
Heisman TrophyTim Brown, notre dame, WR points: 1,442
Stanley CupEdmunton Oilers vs. Philadelphia Flyers Series: 4-3 Super Bowl XXI: New York Giants vs. Denver Broncos Score: 39-20 US Open Golf: Scott Simpson Score: 277 Course: Olympic Club Location: San Francisco, CA
World SeriesMinnesota Twins vs. St. Louis Cardinals Series: 4-3

Top Music of 1987

The year on the charts

Top Songs

  1. Open Your Heart Madonna
  2. Livin' on a Prayer Bon Jovi
  3. Jacob's Ladder Huey Lewis and the News
  4. Lean on Me Club Nouveau
  5. Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now Starship
  6. I Knew You Were Waiting Aretha Franklin & George Michael
  7. Died in Your Arms Cutting Crew
  8. With or Without You U2
  9. You Keep Me Hangin' On Kim Wilde
  10. Always Atlantic Starr

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year
"Graceland" ... Paul Simon
Song of the Year
"Somewhere Out There" ... James Horner & Barry Mann Best Album: "The Joshua Tree" ... U2 Male Vocalist: Sting ... "Bring on the Night" Female Vocalist: Whitney Houston ... "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); © 1996-2025

Screen & Television

At the box office & on the air

Top Movies

  1. Beverly Hills Cop III
  2. Dirty Dancing
  3. Dragnet
  4. Fatal Attraction
  5. Full Metal Jacket
  6. La Bamba
  7. Lethal Weapon
  8. The Living Daylights
  9. A Nightmare on Elm Street
  10. Outrageous Fortune

Academy Awards

Honoring 1987
Best Picture
The Last Emperor
Best Director
Bernardo Bertolucci
The Last Emperor
Best Actor
Michael Douglas
Wall Street
Best Actress
Cher
Moonstruck

Nobel & Pulitzer Prizes

The year in letters & science

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry
The prize was awarded jointly to: CRAM, DONALD J., U.S.A., University of California, Los Angeles, CA, b. 1919; LEHN, JEAN-MARIE, France, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, and Collage de France, Paris, b. 1939; and PEDERSEN, CHARLES J.,
Literature
BRODSKY, JOSEPH, U.S.A., b. 1940 (in Leningrad, USSR) d. 1996: "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"
Peace
SANCHEZ, OSCAR ARIAS, Costa Rica, b. 1941: President of Costa Rica, initiator of peace negotiations in Central America
Physiology or Medicine
TONEGAWA, SUSUMU, Japan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., b. 1939: "for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity"
Physics
The prize was awarded jointly to: BEDNORZ, J. GEORG, Federal Republic of Germany, IBM Research Laboratory, Ruschlikon, Switzerland, b. 1950; and MULLER, KARL ALEXANDER, Switzerland, IBM Research Laboratory, Ruschlikon, Switzerland, b. 1927:

Pulitzer Prizes

Drama
August Wilson ... "Fences"
Fiction
Peter Taylor ... "A Summons to Memphis"
History
Bernard Bailyn ... "Voyagers to the West" International Reporting: Michael Parks ... "Los Angeles Times" National Reporting (2): Staff ... "Miami Herald", Staff ... "New York Times"
Public Service
"Pittsburgh Press"