Timeline February 1987

Events in February 1987 9

• 1919 – 1987 Liberace (1919-1987) Died 4 February 1987, aged 67 Liberace was an American pianist and entertainer famed for his flamboyant stage shows who became one of the highest-paid performers in the world during the 1950s and 1970s. He died of complications from AIDS at his home in Palm Springs, California. His death brought renewed public attention to the AIDS epidemic.
• 1922 – 1987 Alistair MacLean (1922-1987) Died 2 February 1987, aged 64 MacLean was a Scottish novelist known for adventure thrillers including The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare, several of which were adapted into major films. He was one of the best-selling authors of the twentieth century. He died in Munich, West Germany.
• 1928 – 1987 Andy Warhol Pop Art · USA Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American Pop Art artist who blurred the line between fine art and commercial culture. His Campbell's Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe prints made him the defining artist of the 1960s.
• 1987 Superconductivity discovered above the boiling point of nitrogen Paul Chu's team finds a superconductor that works above 90 kelvin Physicist Paul Chu and colleagues at the University of Houston discovered that a yttrium barium copper oxide compound becomes superconducting above 90 kelvin, warmer than liquid nitrogen. It was the first superconductor that could be cooled with cheap liquid nitrogen rather than liquid helium. The breakthrough triggered intense global research into high-temperature superconductors.
• 1987 New Philippine Constitution ratified Post-Marcos constitution approved by popular referendum Filipino voters ratified a new constitution in a national plebiscite, replacing the constitution used under deposed president Ferdinand Marcos. Drafted under President Corazon Aquino, it restored a presidential system with term limits and a bill of rights. It remains the Philippines' governing charter.
• 1987 United States regains the America's Cup Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes wins the yachting trophy back from Australia Skipper Dennis Conner and the yacht Stars & Stripes defeated Australia's Kookaburra III off Fremantle to win back the America's Cup. The victory avenged the US loss of the trophy in 1983, ending Australia's four-year hold on it. It was the first time the Cup had been raced for off Australian waters.
• 1987 Public Enemy release Yo! Bum Rush the Show Debut album Their debut on Def Jam.
• 1987 Morris Chang founds TSMC Morris Chang, a 55-year-old Texas Instruments veteran, founds Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on 21 February 1987 in the Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, with $220 million in capital — half from the Taiwanese government, half from Philips. Chang's insight is radical: rather than designing chips and manufacturing them (the integrated device manufacturer model), TSMC will only manufacture chips for other companies. The pure-play foundry model does not yet exist. Everyone in the industry considers it either obvious or impossible.
• 1987 Supernova 1987A observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud Brightest supernova visible from Earth since 1604 Astronomers observed a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. It was the brightest supernova seen from Earth since Kepler's Supernova in 1604 and remains the closest observed since the invention of the telescope. It gave astronomers their first chance to detect neutrinos from a supernova explosion.