A lot happened in the year 1987, including the debut of a family-friendly TV sitcom set in San Francisco. The name of the show was Full House, and we’ll be doing a deep dive into this popular comedy over the coming weeks.
But first, to get a sense of the times and trends that helped shape this series, here’s a quick look at the world in 1987.
1987: World Events
January 4 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route from Washington, D.C. to Boston collides with Conrail engines at Chase, Maryland killing 16 people.
January 6 Iran-Contra Hearings approved. The committees held joint hearings and issued a joint report.
January 13 New York mafiosi Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Carmine Peruccia are sentenced to 100 years in prison for racketeering.
January 22 Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer commits suicide by shooting himself during a press conference. The incident was captured by news cameras and later broadcast on television.
January 24 Forsyth County protests: About 20,000 protestors marched in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States.
February 6 The Soviet oil tanker Antonio Gramsci suffers a minor shipwreck in Finnish waters en route to the Neste oil refinery in Porvoo, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 570–650 tons.
February 9 Brownsville, Texas receives 7 inches of rain in just two hours; flooding in some parts of the city is worse than that caused by Hurricane Beulah in 1967.
February 11 The United States military detonated an atomic weapon at the Nevada Test Site.
February 11 The new Constitution of the Philippines goes into effect. This new constitution adds Spanish and Arabic as optional languages of the Philippines.
February 20 A second Unabomber bomb explodes at a Salt Lake City computer store in the United States, injuring the owner.
February 26 Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes U.S. President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his National Security Council staff.
March 2 New Zealand’s most destructive earthquake in 19 years hits near the city of Edgecumbe, killing 1 person and leaving 25 injured.
March 4 U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses the American people on the Iran–Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.
March 4 Jonathan Pollard is sentenced to life in prison on one count of espionage.
March 18 Woodstock of physics: The marathon session of the American Physical Society’s meeting features 51 presentations concerning the science of high-temperature superconductors.
March 20 AZT is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
March 22 A garbage barge traveled from New York to Belize and back again, trying to unload massive amounts of garbage.
April 13 The governments of the Portuguese Republic and the People’s Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau will be returned to China in 1999.
April 21 In Colombo, Sri Lanka the Central Bus Station Bombing kills 113 civilians.
April 22 Billionaire Boys Club founder Joseph Henry Hunt is convicted of the 1984 murder of main investor Ron Levin and given a life sentence without parole.
April 23 L’Ambiance Plaza collapse: 28 construction workers are killed at a residential project under construction in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was one of the worst disasters in Connecticut history.
April 27 The United States Department of Justice declares incumbent Austrian president Kurt Waldheim an “undesirable alien”.
April 30 Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the Provincial Premiers agree on principle to the Meech Lake Accord which would bring Quebec into the constitution.
May 8 Loughgall ambush: A 24-man unit of the British Army Special Air Service (SAS) ambushed eight members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) as they mounted an attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks.
May 8 U.S. Senator Gary Hart drops out of the running for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, amid allegations of an extramarital affair with Donna Rice.
May 9 A Soviet-made Ilyushin Il-62 airliner, operated by LOT Polish Airlines, crashes into a forest just outside Warsaw, killing all 183 people on board.
May 11 Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
May 14 Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka executes a bloodless coup in Fiji.
May 17 USS Stark is hit by two Iraqi-owned Exocet AM39 air-to-surface missiles killing 37 sailors.
May 22 The Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.
May 27 In one of the densest concentrations of humanity in history, a crowd of 800,000+ packed shoulder-to-shoulder onto the Golden Gate Bridge and its approaches for its 50th Anniversary celebration.
May 28 Eighteen-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defenses and lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow.
June 8 The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act is passed, the first of its kind in the world.
June 9 Large amounts of tires caught on fire after being struck by lightning in Colorado. The fire burned for over a week, producing toxic smoke that could be seen from 150 miles away.
June 11 The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, led by Margaret Thatcher, is re-elected for a third term at the 1987 general election.
June 12 During a visit to Berlin, West Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
June 16 Bernhard Goetz is exonerated on 12 of 13 counts by a jury in the case against him stemming from the 1984 shootings of four youths in a New York subway car.
June 19 The Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law constituted an unconstitutional infringement on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment in Edwards v. Aguillard.
June 19 Hipercor bombing: the Basque terrorist group ETA perpetrated a car-bomb attack at an Hipercor market in Barcelona, killing 21 and hurting 45.
June 27 Philippine Airlines Flight 206 crashes near Baguio, Philippines, killing 50.
June 28 Iraqi warplanes drop mustard-gas bombs on the Iranian town of Sardasht. This is the first time a civilian town was targeted by chemical weapons.
July 3 Greater Manchester Police recover the body of 16-year-old Pauline Reade from Saddleworth Moor, after her killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley help them in their search.
July 7 Oliver North testifies before Congress on national television about his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. He earned 16 felony counts after being found to have lied before Congress.
July 11 World population is estimated to have reached five billion people, according to the United Nations.
July 15 Martial law in Taiwan ends after 38 years.
July 17 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time, at 2,510.04.
July 22 Palestinian cartoonist Naji Salim al-Ali is shot in London; he dies August 28.
July 25 United States Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige Jr. dies in a rodeo accident at a California ranch.
July 31 Four hundred pilgrims are killed in clashes between demonstrating Iranian pilgrims and Saudi Arabian security forces in Mecca.
July 31 An F4-rated tornado devastates eastern Edmonton, Alberta.
August 4 The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to present alternative views on controversial issues.
August 9 Hoddle Street massacre in Australia: Julian Knight, 19, goes on a shooting rampage in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, Victoria, killing 7 people and injuring 19 before surrendering to police.
August 14 All the children held at Kai Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, are released after a police raid.
August 16 Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan just west of Detroit killing all but one of the 156 people on board.
August 17 Former Nazi Rudolf Hess is found dead in his cell in Spandau Prison. Hess, 93, is believed to have committed suicide by hanging himself with an electrical flex.
August 19 Hungerford massacre: Sixteen people die in an apparently motiveless mass shooting in the United Kingdom, carried out by Michael Ryan.
August 19 ABC News chief Middle East correspondent Charles Glass escapes his Hezbollah kidnappers in Beirut, Lebanon, after 62 days in captivity.
September 3 In a coup d’état in Burundi, President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza is deposed by Major Pierre Buyoya.
September 13 Goiânia accident: Metal scrappers open an old radiation source abandoned in a hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, causing the worst radiation accident ever in an urban area.
September 25 Varroa destructor, an invasive parasite, is found for the first time in the U.S.
October 1 The unemployment rate drops below 6% for the first time since 1979.
October 1 The Whittier Narrows earthquake affected the Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 200.
October 3 The Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement is reached but still requires ratification. This agreement would be a precursor to NAFTA.
October 6 Fiji becomes a republic.
October 7 Sikh nationalists declare the independence of Khalistan from India.
October 11 The first National Coming Out Day is held in celebration of the second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The AIDS quilt made its debut appearance.
October 15 In Burkina Faso, a military coup is orchestrated by Blaise Compaoré against incumbent President Thomas Sankara.
October 15 to 16 Great Storm of 1987: Hurricane-force winds hit much of southern England, killing 23 people.
October 19 Black Monday: Stock market levels fall sharply on Wall Street and around the world.
October 19 US warships destroy two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
October 19 Two commuter trains collide head-on on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia; 102 are killed.
October 22 The pilot of a British Aerospace BAE Harrier accidentally ejects from his aircraft. The jet continues to fly until it runs out of fuel and crashes into the Irish Sea.
October 23 On a vote of 58–42, the United States Senate rejects President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.
October 26 The Dow Jones Industrial Average goes down 156.83 points.
November 6 Florida rapist Tommy Lee Andrews is the first person to be convicted as a result of DNA fingerprinting: he is sentenced to 22 years in prison.
November 7 Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumes the Presidency of Tunisia.
November 8 Enniskillen bombing: Twelve people are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb at a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen.
November 15 In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime led by Nicolae Ceaușescu.
November 17 A tsunami hits the Gulf of Alaska.
November 18 The King’s Cross fire on the London Underground kills 31 people and injures a further 100.
November 18 Iran–Contra affair: U.S. Senate and House panels release reports charging President Ronald Reagan with ‘ultimate responsibility’ for the affair.
November 23 Frank Carlucci is sworn in as the new Secretary of Defense, succeeding Caspar Weinberger.
November 25 Category 5 Typhoon Nina smashes the Philippines with 165 mph winds and a devastating storm surge, causing destruction and 812 deaths.
November 28 South African Airways Flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean off Mauritius, due to a fire in the cargo hold; the 159 passengers and crew perish.
November 29 Korean Air Flight 858 is blown up over the Andaman Sea, killing 115 crew and passengers. North Korean agents are responsible for the bombing.
December 1 Fluoxetine, marketed as Prozac, is approved for use as an antidepressant in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration.
December 1 The unemployment rate drops to 5.7%, the lowest since July 1979.
December 2 Hustler Magazine v. Falwell is argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
December 6 Steven Newberry was murdered by a couple of teens, influenced by the so-called Satanic Panic.
December 7 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, United States, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-supervisor on the flight, then shoots both pilots.
December 8 Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
December 8 Queen Street massacre: In Melbourne, Australia, 22-year-old Frank Vitkovic kills 8 people and injures another 5 in a Post Office building before committing suicide by jumping from the eleventh floor.
December 8 The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
December 8 Alianza Lima air disaster: A Peruvian Navy Fokker F27 crashes near Ventanilla, Peru, killing 43.
December 18 Ivan Boeksy was sentenced to 3 years in prison and had to pay back 1 million dollars in penalties.
December 20 In history’s worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry MV Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people.
December 22 to December 28 Ronald Gene Simmons goes on a 6-day killing spree in Russellville, Arkansas, first killing his wife, children, and grandchildren as they arrived to celebrate the holidays at his home.
SCREEN TIME WITH SAM 