WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO NOVEMBER 1987
Find out what all happened May to November 1987

In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment. (4. July 1987)

The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, known as the Loonie. (30. June 1987)

Fiji becomes a republic. (6. October 1987)

The Whittier Narrows earthquake shakes the San Gabriel Valley, registering as magnitude 5.9. (1. October 1987)

The Loughgall Ambush: The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland. (8. May 1987)

Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. (1. May 1987)

Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses. (21. October 1987)

New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987. (8. June 1987)

RMS Titanic Inc. begins the first expedited salvage of wreckage of the RMS Titanic. (27. July 1987)

For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht. (28. June 1987)

The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England. (15. October 1987)

Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. (12. June 1987)

The United States Navy conducts Operation Nimble Archer, an attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. (19. October 1987)

Sikh nationalists declares the independence of Khalistan from India; it is not internationally recognized. (7. October 1987)

With the death of the last individual of the species, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct. (17. June 1987)

Govan Mbeki is released from custody after serving 24 years of a life sentence for terrorism and treason. (5. November 1987)

Montreal, Canada, is hit by a series of thunderstorms causing the Montreal Flood of 1987. (14. July 1987)

In Baltimore, Maryland, the first heart–lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine. (11. May 1987)

Lynne Cox becomes first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, crossing from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union (7. August 1987)

Pope John Paul II embraces an AIDS-infected boy while visiting San Francisco. (17. September 1987)