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Top Song(s)
• Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
• Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
• Los Lobos - La Bamba
• George Michael - Faith
• Jefferson Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Top Film(s)
• The Princess Bride
• Full Metal Jacket
• Predator
• The Untouchables
• Wings of Desire
Best Selling Book(s)
• Beloved - Toni Morrison
• Misery - Stephen King
• Mort - Terry Pratchett
• The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King
• Watchmen - Alan Moore
Famous Deaths
• January 13 – Taddy Aycock, politician, 45th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
• January 10 - Sir David Robinson, English philanthropist and entrepreneur
• March 28 - Maria von Trapp, Matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers
• May 17 - Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist and economist (Nobel 1974)
• June 3 – Will Sampson, Muscogee Nation painter, actor, and rodeo performer
• July 2 – Michael Bennett, musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer
• July 8 - Lionel Chevrier, Canadian politician (Canadian Member of Parliament)
• August 7 - Camille Chamoun, President of Lebanon (1952-58)
• September 29 – Henry Ford II, chairman, CEO & president of the Ford Motor Company
• November 22 – W. Haydon Burns, 35th Governor of Florida
Medical/Science/Technology
• Supernova 1987a is observed, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604.
• Asteroid 7816 Hanoi is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
• Yoshizumi Ishino discovers the DNA sequence of CRISPR.
• Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
• Thomas Knoll and John Knoll develop the first version of Photoshop.
• The name chronic fatigue syndrome first appears in the medical literature.
• The first heart-lung transplant takes place.
• The first successful surgical separation of craniopagus twins is done by Dr. Ben Carson.
• Prozac makes its debut in the U.S
.
• First fossils of Argentinosaurus found.
Political
• January 5 – President Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery, causing speculation about his physical fitness to continue in office.
• January 22 – Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer commits suicide by shooting himself during a press conference.
• January 28 – The U.S. State Department invalidates US passports for travel to or through Lebanon due to security concerns.
• March 4 - President Ronald Reagan addresses the American people on the Iran–Contra affair.
• April 27 – The United States Department of Justice declares incumbent Austrian president Kurt Waldheim an "undesirable alien".
• May 8 – U.S. Senator Gary Hart drops out of the running for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.
• June 12 – During a visit to Berlin, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
• July 1 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan nominates former Solicitor General Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.
• July 25 – United States Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige Jr. dies in a rodeo accident at a California ranch.
• November 23 – Frank Carlucci is sworn in as the new Secretary of Defense, succeeding Caspar Weinberger.
National
• January 31 – The last Ohrbach's department store closes in New York City after 64 years of operation.
• February 11 – The United States military detonates an atomic weapon at the Nevada Test Site.
• March 2 – American Motors Corporation is acquired by the Chrysler Corporation.
• April 5 – The Fox Network makes its primetime debut.
• May 24 - Approx. 800,000 people gather for a walk to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.
• August 7–23 – Pan American Games are held in Indianapolis.
• September 17 – Televangelist Pat Robertson announces his candidacy for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination.
• October 19 - Stock market levels fall sharply on Wall Street and around the world.
• December 1 – NASA announces the names of four companies who were awarded contracts to help build Space Station Freedom.
• December 10 – A squirrel closes down the Nasdaq Stock Exchange when it burrows through a telephone line.
Worldwide
• January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict: The Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade.
• February 25 – Beginning of the Phosphorite War protest movement in the Estonian SSR.
• March 1 – The first Starbucks outside of the US is opened in Vancouver, Canada.
• April 21 – In Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Central Bus Station Bombing kills 113 civilians.
• May 11 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
• June 27 – A commercial HS 748 (Philippine Airlines Flight 206) crashes near Baguio, Philippines, killing 50.
• October 3 – The Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement is reached but still requires ratification.
• November 1 – The InterCity 125 breaks the world speed record for a diesel-powered train, reaching 238 km/h (147.88 mph).
• November 12 – The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mainland China opens in Beijing, near Tiananmen Square.
• December 15 – Production I.G is founded by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Takayuki Goto.