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Ken Herrera: 1987, The Year in Review, I'm Ken Herrera on the UPI Radio Network.
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Unknown Speaker 1: "The guided-missile frigate USS Stark was hit by an air-launched Exocet missile."
Unknown Speaker 2: "I come to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Unknown Speaker 3: "We got a crash on the airport, the airport's closed."
Unknown Speaker 4: "Okay. Airport's closed" --
Unknown Speaker 3: "That's right."
Unknown Speaker 4: -- "we got a crash at the airport."
Unknown Speaker 5: "I intend to be a candidate for the Presidency of the United States in 1988."
Unknown Speaker 6: "This campaign cannot go on."
Unknown Speaker 7: "Let’s let the people decide, I'm back in the ring."
"(Applause.)"
Unknown Speaker 8: "Senator, I believe that the President has the authority to do what he wants with his own staff."
President Ronald Reagan: "I today announce my intention to nominate Robert Bork to be an Associate Justice."
Unknown Speaker 10: "I intend to nominate and ask the Senate to confirm Judge Douglas Ginsberg of the United States" --
Unknown Speaker 11: "I look forward, and I know Judge Kennedy is looking forward, to prompt hearings."
Unknown Speaker 12: "I would like to sit down with Gene Upshaw for one purpose only, and that would be to resolve the strike."
Unknown Speaker 13: "There are other people that have alleged things about Jim Bakker."
Unknown Speaker 14: "99% of what they have printed or said, there is no truth whatsoever."
Unknown Speaker 15: "Our entire complement of Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles with some 400 deployed warheads will all be destroyed."
Unknown Speaker 16: "The mayor was pronounced dead at 1:36 this afternoon."
Unknown Speaker 17: "We lost Harold, but we cannot lose the faith."
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Ken Herrera: It was a year that saw a thaw in Superpower relations, one that gave us reason to hope that the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union would at long last begin to shrink. 1987 was the year Pope John Paul II visited the United States. It was also the year investors on Wall Street learned the truth behind the old adage, “What goes up must surely come down”.
There were major changes in the Supreme Court, and President Reagan found himself embarrassed not only by his inability to nominate an acceptable Associate Justice, but also, and to a much greater extent, by the Iran-Contra Scandal. The Scandal was symptomatic of the problems 1987 brought us in the Middle East.
There were other scandals, too. The Democratic frontrunner, Gary Hart, found himself embroiled in controversy over his alleged womanizing, a controversy that ended ultimately in his decision to drop out of the race for the highest office in the land. But by year’s end, Hart was back in the race, throwing confusion into the Democrats’ efforts to end eight years of Republican control in the White House.
Another scandal that kept us glued to our radios, televisions and newspapers involved the Reverend Jim Bakker and his PTL Club. As was the case with Gary Hart, this scandal also involved a woman other than Bakker’s wife, Tammy Faye.
1987 was the year the National Football League Players Association learned the hard way that strikes don’t always work.
There were riots by inmates in Federal Alien Detention Centers in Atlanta and in Oakdale, Louisiana.
Chicago lost its mayor, and the world lost some of its finest entertainers.
In 1987, President Reagan sent Congress the first-ever $1 trillion budget proposal.
It was also the year the Democrats regained control of the Senate and Americans were allowed to drive 65 in many states.
The Giants won the Super Bowl; the Lakers were kings of the NBA; and the Minnesota Twins reign supreme in baseball.
These are just some of the happenings of the year, and when we return, we'll go deeper into these stories and more as we review the events of 1987 on the UPI Radio Network.
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