On this day

April 11, 1987

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from April 11, 1987

DOLLAR'S DECLINE OVERCOMES BUYING BY CENTRAL BANKS

By Peter T. Kilborn, Special To the New York Times

LEAD: The dollar slid again today even though central banks were buying dollars and Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d offered his assurances that the United States and other countries were ''fully committed'' to stabilizing currencies.

Financial Desk921 words

COURT RESTORES BABY M VISITS BY WHITEHEAD

By Robert Hanley, Special To the New York Times

LEAD: The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today that Mary Beth Whitehead could resume visits with Melissa Stern, the year-old girl who was the central figure in the landmark Baby M custody case.

Metropolitan Desk777 words

PLANS FOR DOMED STADIUM IN QUEENS IN DOUBT

By Richard J. Meislin

LEAD: New York's plans to build an 82,000-seat domed stadium in Queens are ''pretty much dead,'' and with them, the city's hopes of luring a professional football team back to New York, the head of the state's Urban Development Corporation said yesterday.

Metropolitan Desk873 words

Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of April 8, 1987, covering April 11, 1987.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Licensed To Ill by Beastie Boys

    Licensed To Ill

    Beastie Boys

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    20
  2. 2
    Album cover for Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi

    Slippery When Wet

    Bon Jovi

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    31
  3. 3
    Album cover for The Joshua Tree by U2

    The Joshua Tree

    U2

    Last week
    7
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    2
  4. 4
    Album cover for Graceland by Paul Simon

    Graceland

    Paul Simon

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    31
  5. 5
    Album cover for The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby & The Range

    The Way It Is

    Bruce Hornsby & The Range

    Last week
    4
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    43

Notable Births

Joss Stone

1987Joss Stone, English singer-songwriter and actress[†]

Joscelyn Eve Stoker, known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, Mind Body & Soul (2004), topped the UK Albums Chart and spawned the top-ten single "You Had Me", Stone's most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date. Both the album and single received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004, was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer to top the UK Albums Chart. Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, released in March 2007, achieved gold record status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and yielded the second-ever highest debut for a British female solo artist on the Billboard 200, and became Stone's first top-five album in the US.

Lights (musician)

1987Lights, Canadian singer-songwriter[†]

Lights Valerie Anne Poxleitner-Bokan, known mononymously as Lights, is a Canadian musician, singer, comic book author and artist, and songwriter. Her debut album, The Listening (2009), included the singles "Drive My Soul" and "Saviour". Her second album, Siberia, which featured the single "Toes", was released in 2011. Her work has earned multiple Canadian Independent Music Awards, and Juno Awards including Pop Album of the Year for her third album Little Machines, which included the single "Up We Go", and fourth album Skin & Earth, in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Lights' fifth studio album, Pep, was released in 2022. Her newest record A6 was released May 2, 2025.

Notable Deaths

Erskine Caldwell

1987Erskine Caldwell, American novelist and short story writer (born 1903)[†]

Erskine Preston Caldwell was an American novelist and short story writer. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native Southern United States, in novels such as Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933), won him critical acclaim.

Primo Levi

1987Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (born 1919)[†]

Primo Michele Levi was a Jewish Italian chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works include: If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland; and The Periodic Table (1975), a collection of mostly autobiographical short stories, each named after a chemical element which plays a role in each story, which the Royal Institution named the best science book ever written.

Historical Events

1987The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.[†]

The London Agreement between King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres was signed during a secret meeting held at the residence of Lord Mishcon in London on April 11, 1987. Also present in the meeting were Jordanian Prime Minister Zaid al-Rifai and Director General of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, Yossi Beilin.

Historical Context for April 11, 1987

In 1987, the world population was approximately 5,049,746,397 people[†]