1987: December

December 1 - NASA announces the names of 4 companies who were awarded contracts to help build Space Station Freedom: Boeing Aerospace, General Electric's Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas, and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell.
December 1 - Construction of the Channel Tunnel is initiated.
December 1 - Queensland: Following a week of turmoil from his National Party of Australia colleagues, Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigns as Premier of Queensland. He is replaced by Mike Ahern, the only premier never to contest an election as premier.
December 2 - Hustler Magazine v. Falwell is argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
December 7 - PSA Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-supervisor on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
December 8 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
December 8 - Queen Street Massacre in Melbourne, Australia: 22-year-old Frank Vitkovic kills 8 and injures another 5 in an Australia Post office building in Queen Street, before committing suicide by jumping from the 11th floor.
December 8 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
December 8 - Alianza Lima air disaster: A Peruvian Navy Fokker F27 crashes near Ventanilla, Peru, killing 43.
December 9 - General Rahimuddin Khan retires from the Pakistan Army, as well as the cabinet of the country's military dictatorship.
December 17 - Czechoslovakian leader Gustáv Husák resigns as General Secretary of the Communist Party.
December 18 - Square Co., Ltd. releases Final Fantasy in Japan for the Famicom.
December 18 - The Perl programming language was created by Larry Wall.
December 21 - The ferry Doña Paz collides with the oil tanker Vector I - 1,500 confirmed deaths (reportedly closer to 4,000 due to unregistered passengers).
December 29 - Prozac makes its debut in the United States.
December 30 - Pope John Paul II issues encyclical on Social Concern.