This number is a prime.

+ A supernova (SN1987a) became visible to earthlings in the year 1987.

+ The year Noam Elkies proved that an elliptic curve over the rational numbers was supersingular at infinitely many primes.

+ The Fermat Prize for Mathematics Research started in 1987. It rewards the work of one or more mathematicians in fields where the contributions of Pierre de Fermat have been decisive: statements of variational principles, foundations of probability and analytical geometry, and number theory.

+ The concept of self-organized criticality (SOC) was put forward by Per Bak, Chao Tang and Kurt Wiesenfeld in a paper published in 1987 and is considered to be one of the mechanisms by which complexity arises in nature. [Jackson]

+ The 1987 book "Hans Jacob Honegger: From Switzerland to America" by Nadine W. Larson is about a carpenter who changed his last name from Honegger to Honaker. (Honaker primes are named in his honor.)

+ The largest number in a Collatz trajectory is 9232 for 1987 different numbers. [Gaydos]

+ There are 1987 ways to place four non-attacking chess kings on a 5 × 5 board. [Astudillo]
