193 people die when a ferry capsizes in the North Sea
The MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster was a ferry accident that occurred on March 6, 1987, in the North Sea. The ferry, which was traveling from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Dover, England, capsized shortly after leaving port. The ferry’s bow doors had been left open, allowing water to flood the car deck and causing the ship to list heavily to the starboard side.

Robert Mugabe becomes Zimbabwe’s first black prime minister
A hero of the black struggle against the white minority rule in his country, Mugabe won a landslide victory. More recently, his oppressive style of leadership has been condemned domestically and internationally.

The first documented cases of the Spanish flu herald a deadly worldwide pandemic
The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was a global outbreak of a deadly strain of influenza that began in the spring of 1918. The first documented cases of the flu were reported in Kansas in March 1918, and within a month the virus had spread across the United States and Europe. Over the next two years, the pandemic claimed an estimated 50 to 100 million lives around the world, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.

The U.S. Constitution is put into effect
The United States Constitution was officially put into effect, creating the world’s first modern democracy. The Constitution, which had been ratified by nine of the 13 states, established a strong federal government and defined the rights and responsibilities of the citizens of the new nation.