50 Fun Facts About 1987

Which animated family made its television debut in April 1987 in short sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show?

The Simpsons were dreamed up in a hurry by Matt Groening in the lobby before his pitch meeting. He had planned to offer his Life in Hell comic strip, but did not want to sign away its rights.

What nickname was given to 19 October 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6 percent in one day?

Black Monday's 508-point slide is the largest one-day percentage drop in the Dow's history. Markets crashed worldwide, starting in Asia, and Hong Kong shares lost 45.8 percent.

Which image file format, later best known for short looping animations, did CompuServe introduce in June 1987?

GIF was meant to be said with a soft g, its creator insisted, echoing the peanut butter brand Jif. Polls show most people say it with a hard g anyway.

The picture-book character Americans know as Waldo first appeared in Britain in 1987 under which name?

Wally became Waldo in the United States and Canada, Charlie in France and Walter in Germany as the puzzle books spread abroad. Readers hunt for his red-and-white striped shirt, bobble hat and glasses.

Which US landmark flattened under the weight of about 300,000 walkers on its 50th anniversary in May 1987?

The Golden Gate Bridge is built to flex that way, and the load was put at under 40% of what its cables can take before yielding. Up to a million people had turned out for the party.

At which Berlin landmark did Ronald Reagan stand in June 1987 to urge the Soviet leader to tear down the wall?

The Brandenburg Gate stood so close to East Berlin that Reagan spoke in front of two panes of bulletproof glass. His speechwriter took the idea for the famous challenge from a West Berlin host.

In October 1987, rescuers in Midland, Texas, spent 58 hours freeing 18-month-old Jessica McClure from what?

A backyard well at her aunt's home held the toddler about 22 feet down, in a casing only eight inches wide. A photograph of the rescue won a Pulitzer Prize the following year.

Which 1987 film stars Jennifer Grey as a teenager who falls for an instructor at a Catskills resort in 1963?

Dirty Dancing was filmed at a Virginia mountain hotel and a Carolina lake, because its makers found nothing suitable left in the Catskills. It was budgeted at about $5 million, less than half the average of the day.

Which Seattle coffee chain did its founders sell in 1987 to Howard Schultz, their former director of marketing?

Starbucks took on the cafe format of Il Giornale, the business Schultz had modelled on the coffee bars of Milan. The founders had wanted to stay focused on selling beans.

Which future World Cup-winning captain of Argentina was born in the city of Rosario in June 1987?

Lionel Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency at the age of 10 and began therapy a year later. His father's health insurance covered only two years of the treatment.

Which Leonard Nimoy-directed 1987 comedy was the first Disney film to gross $100 million in its original US run?

Three Men and a Baby is a remake of the French film Three Men and a Cradle. A supposed ghost glimpsed in one scene is really a cardboard standee of Ted Danson's character, left on the set.

Which Vietnam War film, based on its director's own time as an infantryman, won Best Picture in March 1987?

Platoon was the first Hollywood film written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War. Its maker wanted to counter the picture of the conflict painted by John Wayne's The Green Berets.

Which 1987 thriller casts Glenn Close as Alex Forrest, who stalks a married lawyer and boils his family's pet rabbit?

Fatal Attraction got a new ending after test audiences rejected the original, in which Alex takes her own life and leaves him looking guilty. It was the second highest-grossing film of the year in the US.

Which 1987 fairy-tale film features the giant Fezzik, swordsman Inigo Montoya and scheming Sicilian Vizzini?

The Princess Bride had only modest box-office success at first and became a cult favourite over time. In 2016 the Library of Congress chose it for the US National Film Registry.

Which 1987 film follows murdered Detroit policeman Alex Murphy after a corporation rebuilds him as a cyborg?

RoboCop is set in Detroit but was filmed mainly in Dallas. Director Paul Verhoeven dismissed the script twice, missing its satire, until his wife convinced him of its value.

Which 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci epic was the first Western film allowed to shoot in Beijing's Forbidden City?

The Last Emperor won all nine Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture. It follows Puyi, who was summoned to the palace as a toddler in 1908.

Which Shakespearean actor became Captain Picard when Star Trek: The Next Generation began in September 1987?

Patrick Stewart signed the six-year contract only because he and his agent believed the new series would quickly fail. He was still living out of his suitcase when filming was under way.

Which sitcom, launched on ABC in September 1987, follows a widowed San Francisco father raising his daughters?

Full House cast sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to alternate as youngest daughter Michelle. For years they shared a single screen credit, so that viewers would not realise two girls played her.

Which new US network began its prime-time schedule in April 1987 with the sitcom Married... with Children?

Fox told the sitcom's writers to be as outrageous as they could, with material the established networks would never allow. The working title was Not the Cosbys.

Which Welsh-born actor made his debut as James Bond in The Living Daylights, released in the summer of 1987?

Timothy Dalton was cast after the producers came close to hiring Pierce Brosnan, who finally played Bond in GoldenEye in 1995. Dalton wanted a 007 more faithful to Ian Fleming's original character.

Which U2 album, released in March 1987, gave the band their only two US number-one singles?

The Joshua Tree won the Grammy for Album of the Year at the 1988 ceremony. Its sleeve photographs show the band in American desert landscapes.

Which singer's second album made her the first woman to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, in June 1987?

Whitney Houston then sent the album's first four singles to number one, another first for a female artist. Advance orders had passed 1.5 million a week before it reached the shops.

Which Los Angeles band released Appetite for Destruction in July 1987, a debut that took a year to top the US chart?

Guns N' Roses got little notice from American press and radio at first, apart from some airplay in California. The album finally reached number one in August 1988 and spent 147 weeks on the chart.

Which English singer spent five weeks at number one in the UK in 1987 with Never Gonna Give You Up?

Rick Astley had spent two years as the recording studio's tea boy while his producers groomed him for a career. The single was the UK's best-seller of the year and topped charts in 25 countries.

Which Detroit-raised singer became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987?

Aretha Franklin had seen her voice declared a natural resource by the state of Michigan two years before the honour. In the year of her induction she also sang to open WrestleMania III.

Which musical opened on Broadway in March 1987, won eight Tony Awards and ran there for sixteen years?

Les Misérables came to its lyricist at another London show, when a streetwise pickpocket on stage brought Victor Hugo's urchin Gavroche to mind. The Broadway run lasted 6,680 performances.

Which heroes named after Renaissance artists first reached television in an animated miniseries in December 1987?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as darker-toned comics and were changed considerably to suit children and families. Their rat mentor names the four after his favourite Italian painters and sculptors.

Which fictional TV host's mask was worn by the pirate who hijacked two Chicago TV signals in November 1987?

Max Headroom's impersonator broke into WGN's nightly newscast for about 17 seconds, then into a Doctor Who serial on WTTW two hours later.

Which singer, killed at 17 in a 1959 plane crash, is played by Lou Diamond Phillips in the 1987 film La Bamba?

Ritchie Valens was on the plane only because he won a coin toss with Buddy Holly's backup guitarist. He had turned the Mexican folk song of the film's title into a rock and roll hit in 1958.

Which NFL team won its first Super Bowl in January 1987 by beating the Denver Broncos 39–20 at the Rose Bowl?

The New York Giants gave a national audience an early look at the Gatorade shower, a cooler of the drink dumped over their coach's head. Quarterback Phil Simms completed 22 of 25 passes and was named MVP.

Which team won the 1987 World Series, the first in which the home side won all seven games?

The Minnesota Twins took all four of their games at the Metrodome, the first World Series games ever played indoors. They were also the first team to reach the Series after being outscored in the regular season.

Which champion beat André the Giant in the main event of WrestleMania III in March 1987?

Hulk Hogan's win topped a card that the WWF said drew 93,173 fans to the Pontiac Silverdome. Later analysis put the real crowd at around 78,000.

Which nation won the first Rugby World Cup in June 1987, beating France 29–9 in the title match on home soil?

New Zealand hosted 21 of the 32 matches and shared the rest of the tournament with Australia. South Africa could not compete because of the sporting boycott over apartheid.

Which boxer became undisputed heavyweight champion in August 1987 by outpointing Tony Tucker over twelve rounds?

Mike Tyson was the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Leon Spinks in 1978. He had become the youngest heavyweight title holder in history the year before, at 20 years and 4 months.

Which Lakers star won Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals with a hook shot over two Celtics in the dying seconds?

Magic Johnson's shot became known as the junior sky hook, after teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's trademark move. It cleared the fingertips of two defenders for a 107–106 lead with two seconds left.

Which Australian started a tradition by climbing into the stands after winning Wimbledon in 1987?

Pat Cash had just beaten world number one Ivan Lendl in straight sets. During the same championship he began the habit of throwing wristbands and headbands into the crowd.

Which Italian club won its first league title in 1987, having signed Diego Maradona for a world-record fee?

Napoli added the Coppa Italia in the same year. The club's stadium was renamed after Maradona following his death in 2020.

Which Capcom arcade game of 1987 introduced rival martial artists Ryu and Ken and the six-button control layout?

Street Fighter's deluxe cabinet had two large rubber pads, one for punches and one for kicks, that registered how hard a player hit them. Its special moves needed set joystick and button sequences, a convention later games copied.

Which role-playing series did Hironobu Sakaguchi launch in Japan in December 1987, after Dragon Quest proved a hit?

Final Fantasy was first developed as Fighting Fantasy, until trademark problems forced a change of name. Its publisher had refused to back a role-playing game at all, expecting low sales.

Which prime minister won a third straight UK general election in June 1987, defeating Labour under Neil Kinnock?

Margaret Thatcher became the first prime minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to manage such a run of election wins. Her majority was reduced, but still stood at 102 seats.

Which Marine lieutenant colonel testified under limited immunity at the televised Iran–Contra hearings in July 1987?

Oliver North admitted shredding government documents when the scandal became public, at William Casey's suggestion. He also said he had helped alter official records of aid to the Contras.

Beside which Moscow landmark did West German teenager Mathias Rust land a rented Cessna in May 1987?

Red Square lay behind an air defence system thought to be impenetrable, and the flight cost the Soviet defence minister his job. Rust was sentenced to four years in a labour camp.

Which Democratic front-runner quit the presidential race in May 1987 after reports of an extramarital affair?

Gary Hart had been watched by Miami Herald reporters, who staked out his townhouse after following Donna Rice from Florida. He re-entered the race that December, then withdrew again after poor early primaries.

Which Soviet leader signed the INF Treaty with Ronald Reagan at a Washington summit in December 1987?

Mikhail Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to scrap their intermediate-range missiles, and by May 1991 the two countries had eliminated 2,692 of them. The US Senate ratified the deal by 93 votes to 5.

Which treaty, agreed in September 1987, set out to phase out the chemicals destroying the ozone layer?

The Montreal Protocol became the first treaty in United Nations history to be ratified by every member. NASA's images of the Antarctic ozone hole had played an important part in the talks.

Which Eli Lilly antidepressant won approval from US regulators in December 1987 and went on sale a month later?

Prozac reached annual US sales of $350 million within a year of its launch. The compound behind it, fluoxetine, had been invented at the company back in 1972.

What kind of astronomical phenomenon was 1987A, first spotted in the Large Magellanic Cloud in February 1987?

Supernova 1987A was the closest observed since Kepler's in 1604, about 168,000 light-years away. Detectors on Earth caught a burst of its neutrinos a few hours before the visible light arrived.

Which Supreme Court nominee, the man who fired the Watergate special prosecutor, did the Senate reject in October 1987?

Robert Bork lost the roll-call vote 42–58 after interest groups mobilised against him on an unprecedented scale. The seat went to Anthony Kennedy, confirmed unanimously the following February.

Which Vincent van Gogh painting became the most expensive ever sold when it fetched $53.9 million in 1987?

Irises went to a buyer who turned out not to have enough money to pay for it. The canvas, painted in the asylum at Saint-Rémy, has been in the Getty's collection in Los Angeles since 1990.

Which pop artist, shot and wounded at his Manhattan studio in 1968, died after gallbladder surgery in 1987?

Andy Warhol was 58 and died of a cardiac arrhythmia. His studio, the Factory, had been a hub for the self-styled superstars who appeared in his films.