Events January January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. January 4 – 1987 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route from Washington, D.C. to Boston collides with Conrail engines at Chase, Maryland, United States, killing 16 people. January 15 – Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, is forced into retirement by political conservatives. January 16 – León Febres Cordero, president of Ecuador, is kidnapped for 11 hours by followers of imprisoned general Frank Vargas, who successfully demand the latter's release. January 20 – Terry Waite, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lebanon, is kidnapped in Beirut (released November 1991). January 24 – 1987 Forsyth County protests: About 20,000 protestors marched in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States. February 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 11 British Airways is privatised and listed on the London Stock Exchange. 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 23 – SN 1987A, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604, is observed. February 25 – Beginning of the Phosphorite War protest movement in the Estonian SSR. February 26 – Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes U.S. President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his National Security Council staff. March March 1 – The first Starbucks outside of the US is opened in Vancouver, Canada. 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 6 – Zeebrugge disaster: Roll-on/roll-off cross-channel ferry capsizes off Zeebrugge harbor in Belgium; 193 people die. March 7 – 1987 Lieyu massacre: The Republic of China Army execute 19 unarmed Vietnamese refugees on Donggang beach, Lieyu, Kinmen off Mainland China. March 18 – Woodstock of physics: A marathon session of the American Physical Society's