1987 History, Facts and Trivia

Quick Facts from 1987

• World Changing Event: Black Monday — on October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508 points, a 22.6% single-day loss, the largest percentage drop in stock market history.
• Top Song: “Faith” by George Michael
• Must-See Movies: The Princess Bride, Good Morning Vietnam, Moonstruck, Dirty Dancing, Wall Street, and Lethal Weapon
• Most Famous American: Robin Williams
• Notable Books: Misery by Stephen King and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
• Daily Newspaper: 25¢ | VHS Tape Rental: $3.49 | Gummi Bears: $2.99/lb
• Super Bowl XXI: The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos 39–20. Phil Simms was named MVP and became the first person to say “I’m going to Disney World!” after a Super Bowl win.
• Funniest Late Night Host: Johnny Carson
• Funniest Lady on TV: Roseanne Barr
• Unusual TV Factoid: Valerie Harper was fired from her sitcom Valerie — the first time an actor was fired from a show bearing their name and replaced by a different lead.
• The Simpsons debuted as an animated short on The Tracey Ullman Show. Tracey Ullman was the original voice of Marge Simpson.
• The Conversation: All eyes were on 18-month-old Jessica McClure, who fell into a well in Midland, Texas. After 58 hours, she was rescued alive.

Top Ten Baby Names of 1987

Girls: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda, Jennifer, Sarah Boys: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, David

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols

Elle Macpherson

Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men

Johnny Depp, Michael Jackson, Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, Michael Hutchence, Morrissey, Mickey Rourke, Patrick Swayze, Tom Jones

The Quotes

“I’m going to Disney World.” — Phil Simms, after winning Super Bowl XXI

“This is your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs.” — Partnership for a Drug-Free America PSA, 1987

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” — Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, Wall Street

“Snap out of it!” — Cher, Moonstruck

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” — Patrick Swayze, Dirty Dancing

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” — President Ronald Reagan, Berlin, June 12, 1987

Time Magazine Person of the Year

Mikhail Gorbachev

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Kellye Cash, Memphis, TN Miss USA: Michelle Royer, Texas

The Scandals

Jim Bakker resigned as host of the PTL (Praise The Lord) Club after a scandal involving former church secretary Jessica Hahn.

Gary Hart, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate for 1988, abandoned his campaign after details of his alleged affair with Donna Rice became public. He had famously challenged reporters to follow him around — and they did.

Robert “Budd” Dwyer was a Pennsylvania state treasurer who, on January 22, 1987, died by suicide by gunshot during a live televised press conference.

Iran-Contra: Reagan security advisor Oliver North was at the center of a scheme to fund anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua using money from secret arms sales to Iran, while simultaneously working to secure the release of American hostages. The Senate hearings aired during daytime TV, pre-empting most programming. It was significantly more complicated than it sounds here.

Pop Culture Facts and History

Eli Lilly’s Prozac was first sold to the public in 1987. It would go on to become one of the most prescribed drugs in American history.

The Garbage Pail Kids were made into a live-action movie in 1987, with a cast of little people. It was rated PG, somehow.

Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill became the first rap album to hit #1 on the Billboard 200 in 1987, holding the top spot for seven consecutive weeks.

Red M&Ms were reintroduced in 1987. They had been pulled from shelves in 1976 over public fear of red food dyes — despite the fact that M&Ms never used the suspect dyes in the first place.

Red Bull launched in 1987 in Austria, beginning its long career of making people think they could stay up forever.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis patented a diaper design (#4,753,647) featuring a moisture-proof pocket with pre-stored wipes. She refused to license it until biodegradable diapers existed. The patent expired in 2007.

The heaviest newspaper ever delivered was the September 14, 1987 edition of The New York Times — 12 lbs. and 1,612 pages.

In 1987, Steve Rothstein purchased a lifetime unlimited first-class American Airlines ticket for $250,000, plus a companion pass for $150,000 more. He flew over 10,000 flights before American terminated the deal in 2008, by which point he had cost the airline an estimated $21 million.

Italian Formula One driver Andrea de Cesaris finished 3rd at the 1987 Belgian Grand Prix by pushing his car across the finish line after it ran out of fuel.

In 1987, only 50% of the U.S. population had access to 911 emergency services. Louisiana was also the last state to comply with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, finally falling in line that year.

When Pope John Paul II visited Arizona in 1987, the host venue had to cover its name and mascot — because it was Sun Devil Stadium, and the mascot is a devil holding a pitchfork.

During the 1987 Joshua Tree Tour, U2 occasionally took the stage in disguise as a country band called “The Dalton Brothers,” complete with wigs and costumes.

The word “Borked” entered political vocabulary in 1987 after the Senate rejected Ronald Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. It means to be systematically blocked during a confirmation process.

In 1987, approximately 7 million American children vanished from tax returns overnight when the IRS began requiring Social Security numbers for claimed dependents. They were never actually missing — most had never existed as real dependents.

Harvey Comics sued Columbia Pictures for $50 million in 1987, claiming the Ghostbusters logo was too similar to Casper’s friend Fatso. The court ruled for Columbia, noting there are only so many ways to draw a cartoon ghost.

Jon Bon Jovi’s parents attended a wedding in 1987 and recommended the wedding singer audition for a friend’s band. The singer was Sebastian Bach. The band became Skid Row.

The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea — 3,000 rooms, 1,082 feet tall — broke ground in 1987, stalled in 1992, and has never opened.

Tennis bracelets got their name in 1987 when Chris Evert lost her diamond bracelet during a U.S. Open match and stopped play to find it.

Bruce Willis released a Motown R&B album in 1987 called The Return of Bruno. “Respect Yourself” reached #5 on the Billboard Pop Chart. This actually happened.

Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987) received six Oscar nominations and lost every single one to The Last Emperor — also released in 1987. Spielberg had a rough night.

To bring the VHS price of Top Gun down to $27, Pepsi paid for a 60-second ad that ran before the film. $27 in 1987 is roughly $75 today.

Bras were not shown on live models in TV commercials until 1987. Prior to that, they had to be displayed on headless, armless mannequins.

Treasure hunter Tommy Thompson located the SS Central America in 1987 — a ship that sank in 1857 carrying several tons of gold. He recovered an estimated $1 billion in gold and never paid his crew or investors. He later went to prison.

Tom’s Restaurant, the inspiration for Suzanne Vega’s 1987 song “Tom’s Diner,” is the same diner used as the exterior of Monk’s Café in Seinfeld.

In 1987, an unidentified person wearing a Max Headroom mask hijacked two Chicago TV broadcasts. The FBI investigated but never solved the case.

The famous “Keyboard Cat” video was filmed in 1984. Its star, Fatso the cat, died in 1987 — twenty years before the video went viral on YouTube.

Over 300,000 people crowded the Golden Gate Bridge in 1987 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The sheer weight of the crowd flattened the bridge’s arch, causing the center to sag an estimated 7 feet.

Until 1987, it was standard medical practice to perform surgery on newborns without anesthesia, as it was commonly believed babies could not feel pain.

Baby Jessica McClure, rescued from a Texas well in 1987 after 58 hours, received $1.2 million in donated trust funds. She used some of it to buy a home at age 25, then lost most of the remainder in the 2008 stock market crash.

A Super Bowl ad in 1987 cost $600,000 for 30 seconds.

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, has had nine names since opening in 1987 as Joe Robbie Stadium. It became Hard Rock Stadium in 2016.

The 1987 Porsche 944 was the first production car sold with standard airbags on both the driver and passenger sides.

Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx was clinically dead for two minutes after a heroin overdose in 1987. A paramedic who was a fan revived him with adrenaline injections. The experience became the song “Kickstart My Heart.”

Mike Hayes, a student at the University of Illinois, convinced 2.8 million people to each send him a penny for his college tuition in 1987. He raised $29,000 — $1,000 more than his goal.

Bebop and Rocksteady were added to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon in 1987 primarily because the toy company needed more characters to sell.

Since 1720, the Baltic Sea has frozen over completely approximately 20 times. The most recent occurrence was in early 1987.

In 1987, 22 tons of marijuana washed ashore on beaches near Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in sealed cans, dumped by traffickers who panicked when DEA vessels appeared nearby. Brazilians called it the Summer of the Can.

The Spy

In 1987, FBI agent Robert Hanssen was assigned by his superiors to find a mole inside the agency — following the exposure of the FBI’s KGB contacts. Hanssen was the mole. He had been feeding intelligence to the KGB since 1979 and wasn’t caught until 2001.

The Feuds

Debbie Gibson vs. Tiffany — the media invented a rivalry between the two teen pop stars, who barely knew each other. They did eventually settle things the only sensible way: co-starring in Mega Python vs. Gatoroid on Syfy in 2011.

After two and a half seasons of will-they-won’t-they tension, David and Maddie finally got together on Moonlighting. The audience immediately stopped watching. Stars Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd were barely speaking in real life at the time.

The U.S. Senate rejected Ronald Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork — an event so culturally significant it added a new verb to the English language.

The Habit

Watching Moonlighting until about halfway through the season.

Nobel Prize Winners

Physics — J. Georg Bednorz and Karl Alexander Müller Chemistry — Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, and Charles J. Pedersen Medicine — Susumu Tonegawa Literature — Joseph Brodsky Peace — Óscar Arias Sánchez Economics — Robert Solow

Christmas Gifts, Toys, and First Appearances of 1987

Jenga Koosh Ball Pictionary (wide national release — available in select markets since 1985) Double Loves transforming plush animals, Spuds MacKenzie, who made his debut in Bud Light ads and immediately became America’s favorite party animal. Literally.

Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1987

A Brief History of Time — Stephen Hawking
Beloved — Toni Morrison
Bonfire of the Vanities — Tom Wolfe
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three — Stephen King
The Eyes of the Dragon — Stephen King
Fine Things — Danielle Steel
The Haunted Mesa — Louis L’Amour
Hatchet — Gary Paulsen Heaven and Hell — John Jakes
I Am Not Going to Get Up Today! — Dr. Seuss and James Stevenson
It — Stephen King Kaleidoscope — Danielle Steel
Leaving Home — Garrison Keillor Misery — Stephen King
New York Trilogy — Paul Auster
Patriot Games — Tom Clancy
Presumed Innocent — Scott Turow
Red Storm Rising — Tom Clancy
The Tommyknockers — Stephen King
Watchmen — Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Where’s Waldo? — Martin Handford
Windmills of the Gods — Sidney Sheldon

Stephen King had five books on the 1987 bestseller list simultaneously. The man was not taking a year off.

Broadway in 1987

Les Misérables opened on Broadway on March 12, 1987, and ran until May 18, 2003 — a 16-year run.

Best Film Oscar Winner

Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone, won Best Picture at the 1987 Academy Awards, presented for the 1986 film year.

The Bomb

Movie: Ishtar, starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, became one of Hollywood’s most notorious flops. TV: Shelley Long quit Cheers, widely considered one of the worst career decisions in television history.

Top Movies of 1987

1. Three Men and a Baby
2. Fatal Attraction
3. Beverly Hills Cop II
4. Good Morning, Vietnam
5. Moonstruck
6. The Untouchables
7. The Secret of My Success
8. Stakeout
9. Lethal Weapon
10. The Witches of Eastwick

Most Popular TV Shows of 1987

1. The Cosby Show (NBC)
2. Roseanne (ABC)
3. A Different World (NBC)
4. Cheers (NBC)
5. 60 Minutes (CBS)
6. The Golden Girls (NBC)
7. Who’s the Boss? (ABC)
8. Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
9. Empty Nest (NBC)
10. Anything But Love (ABC)

1987 Billboard Number One Songs

December 20, 1986 – January 16, 1987: Walk Like an Egyptian — The Bangles
January 17 – January 23: Shake You Down — Gregory Abbott
January 24 – February 6: At This Moment — Billy Vera and The Beaters
February 7 – February 13: Open Your Heart — Madonna
February 14 – March 13: Livin’ on a Prayer — Bon Jovi
March 14 – March 20: Jacob’s Ladder — Huey Lewis and the News
March 21 – April 3: Lean on Me — Club Nouveau
April 4 – April 17: Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now — Starship
April 18 – May 1: I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) — Aretha Franklin and George Michael
May 2 – May 15: (I Just) Died in Your Arms — Cutting Crew
May 16 – June 5: With or Without You — U2
June 6 – June 12: You Keep Me Hangin’ On — Kim Wilde
June 13 – June 19: Always — Atlantic Starr
June 20 – June 26: Head to Toe — Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
June 27 – July 10: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) — Whitney Houston
July 11 – July 31: Alone — Heart
August 1 – August 7: Shakedown — Bob Seger
August 8 – August 21: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For — U2
August 22 – August 28: Who’s That Girl — Madonna
August 29 – September 18: La Bamba — Los Lobos
September 19 – September 25: I Just Can’t Stop Loving You — Michael Jackson
September 26 – October 9: Didn’t We Almost Have It All — Whitney Houston
October 10 – October 16: Here I Go Again — Whitesnake
October 17 – October 23: Lost in Emotion — Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
October 24 – November 6: Bad — Michael Jackson
November 7 – November 20: I Think We’re Alone Now — Tiffany
November 21 – November 27: Mony Mony (Live) — Billy Idol
November 28 – December 4: (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life — Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
December 5 – December 11: Heaven Is a Place on Earth — Belinda Carlisle
December 12, 1987 – January 8, 1988: Faith — George Michael

1987 had two #1 hits each from Whitney Houston, U2, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam — making it one of the most repeat-dominated chart years of the decade.

Sports Champions of 1987

World Series: Minnesota Twins
Super Bowl XXI: New York Giants
NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers
Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers
U.S. Open Golf: Scott Simpson
U.S. Open Tennis — Men: Ivan Lendl | Women: Martina Navratilova
Wimbledon — Men: Pat Cash | Women: Martina Navratilova
NCAA Football: Miami
NCAA Basketball: Indiana
Kentucky Derby: Alysheba

FAQ — 1987 History, Facts, and Trivia

Q: What was the biggest news event of 1987?
A: Black Monday — October 19, 1987 — when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508 points (22.6%) in a single day, the largest single-day percentage decline in stock market history.

Q: What was the #1 song of 1987?
A: “Faith” by George Michael ended 1987 at #1, holding the top spot from December 12, 1987, through January 8, 1988.

Q: What was the biggest movie of 1987?
A: Three Men and a Baby was the top-grossing film of 1987, followed by Fatal Attraction and Beverly Hills Cop II.

Q: Who won Super Bowl XXI?
A: The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos 39–20. MVP Phil Simms became the first person to say “I’m going to Disney World!” after a Super Bowl win.

Q: What TV show made its debut in 1987?
A: The Simpsons debuted as an animated short on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Tracey Ullman was the original voice of Marge Simpson.

Q: What famous drug was introduced in 1987?
A: Prozac, made by Eli Lilly, was first sold to the public in 1987 and became one of the most prescribed antidepressants in history.

Q: What energy drink launched in 1987?
A: Red Bull launched in 1987 in Austria before expanding globally.

Q: What was the first rap album to hit #1 on the Billboard 200?
A: Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill reached #1 on the Billboard 200 in 1987 — the first rap album ever to do so — and stayed there for seven consecutive weeks.

Q: How much did a Super Bowl ad cost in 1987?
A: A 30-second Super Bowl ad in 1987 cost $600,000. By 2025, the same spot costs approximately $7 million.

Q: What did “Borked” mean in 1987?
A: “Borked” entered political vocabulary after the Senate rejected Ronald Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. It means to be systematically blocked during a confirmation process.

Q: When did tennis bracelets get their name?
A: Tennis bracelets got their name in 1987 when Chris Evert lost her diamond bracelet during a U.S. Open match and stopped play to search for it.

Q: What were the most popular toys at Christmas in 1987?
A: Top gifts in 1987 included Jenga, the Koosh Ball, Pictionary, and Spuds MacKenzie merchandise from the Bud Light ad campaign.

More 1987 History and Trivia Resources