Editing 1987 (section)

=== August ===
* [[August 4]]
** The World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the [[Brundtland Commission]], publishes its report, ''[[Our Common Future]].''
** The [[Federal Communications Commission]] rescinds the [[Fairness Doctrine]], which had required radio and television stations to present alternative views on controversial issues.
* [[August 7]]
** The [[Colombia]]n frigate ''Caldas'' enters [[Venezuela]]n waters near the [[Los Monjes Archipelago]], sparking the Caldas frigate crisis between both nations.
** American [[Lynne Cox]] becomes the first person to swim the [[Bering Strait]], crossing from [[Little Diomede Island]] to [[Big Diomede]] in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
* [[August 9]] – [[Hoddle Street massacre]] in Australia: [[Julian Knight (murderer)|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 11]] – [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] introduces [[HyperCard|Hypercard]], a precursor to the [[World Wide Web]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pollack |first=Andrew |date=August 11, 1987 |title=Apple to Introduce Unusual Software |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/11/business/company-news-apple-to-introduce-unusual-software.html |work=New York Times}}</ref>
* [[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 15]] – [[Great Basin National Park]] is dedicated; it is the 49th [[List of national parks of the United States|national park]] in the United States and the first in the state of [[Nevada]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=AP |date=August 16, 1987 |title=New National Park is Dedicated in Nevada's Lonely Outback |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/16/us/new-national-park-is-dedicated-in-nevada-s-lonely-outback.html |work=New York Times}}</ref>
* [[August 16]]
** [[Northwest Airlines Flight 255]] (a [[McDonnell Douglas MD-82]]) crashes on takeoff from [[Detroit Metropolitan Airport]] in [[Romulus, Michigan]] just west of [[Detroit]] killing all but one (4-year old [[Cecelia Cichan]]) of the 156 people on board.
** The followers of the [[Harmonic Convergence]] claim it is observed around the world.
* [[August 17]] – [[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. He was the last remaining prisoner at the complex, which is soon demolished.
* [[August 19]]
** [[Hungerford massacre]]: Sixteen people die in an apparently motiveless mass shooting in the United Kingdom, carried out by [[Michael Ryan (mass murderer)|Michael Ryan]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Josephs |first1=Jeremy |title=Hungerford: One Man's Massacre |url=http://www.jeremyjosephs.com/hunger.htm |access-date=1 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060104044543/http://www.jeremyjosephs.com/hunger.htm |archive-date=4 January 2006}}</ref>
** [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]' chief Middle East correspondent Charles Glass escapes his Hezbollah kidnappers in Beirut, Lebanon, after 62 days in captivity.
** The [[Order of the Garter]] is opened to women.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Waddington |first=Raymond B. |year=1993 |journal= Sixteenth Century Journal |title= Elizabeth I and the Order of the Garter |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=97–113 |doi= 10.2307/2541800 |publisher=The Sixteenth Century Journal |jstor= 2541800|s2cid=165893968 | issn=0361-0160 }}</ref> 
*[[August 22]] – The [[Parliament of Zimbabwe]] votes to eliminate the 20 seats reserved for the [[White Zimbabweans|white minority]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 22, 1987 |title=Zimbabwe to Drop White-Only Posts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/22/world/zimbabwe-to-drop-white-only-posts.html |work=New York Times}}</ref>
* [[August 23]] – The [[Hirvepark meeting]] is organized as the first unsanctioned political meeting in [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic]], in commemoration of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].
* [[August 24]] – [[Mozert v. Hawkins]] decision: The U.S. [[United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit|Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals]] rules that the class readings assigned by public schools in [[Hawkins County, Tennessee]] do not violate Christian students' [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] rights.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools, 647 F. Supp. 1194 (E.D. Tenn. 1986) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/647/1194/2359788/ |website=Justia U.S. Law}}</ref>
* [[August 26]] – [[Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County]] decision: The U.S. [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals]] overturns the earlier ruling of a lower court which found that certain public school textbooks promoted the "religion" of [[secular humanism]]; in this final ruling, the court finds that the plaintiffs have not proven that the state is presenting secular humanism as a religious ideology.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Smith v. Board of School Com'rs of Mobile County, 655 F. Supp. 939 (S.D. Ala. 1987) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/655/939/1423583/ |website=Justia U.S. Law}}</ref>
* [[August 31]] – [[Michael Jackson]] releases ''[[Bad (album)|Bad]]'', his first studio album since ''[[Thriller (Michael Jackson album)|Thriller]]'', the best-selling album of all time. The album would produce five number one singles in the US, a record which has not been broken.