987
Year 987 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
- February 7 - Bardas Phokas and Bardas Skleros, two members of the military elite, begin a Bardas Phokas the Younger|wide-scale rebellion] against Emperor Basil II. They overrun Anatolia, and Phokas declares himself Emperor. Basil applies for military assistance from Prince Vladimir the Great, ruler of Kievan Rus', who agrees to help him and sends a Varangian army.
Europe
- Al-Mansur, the de facto ruler of Al-Andalus, occupies the city of Coimbra.
- July 3 - After the last Carolingian king of West Francia, Louis V, had died in May, Hugh Capet is crowned king at Noyon.
- December - The 15-year-old Robert is crowned co-ruler of France around Christmas at Orléans.
- The population of Bari revolts against the Byzantine Empire.
Africa
- The Zirid Dynasty fails to reconquer the western part of the Maghreb, which they have recently lost to the Umayyad Caliphate.
Births
- Al-Mahdi al-Husayn, Zaidi imam of Yemen
- Ibn Hayyan, Moorish writer and historian
- Li (Zhenzong)|Li], imperial consort of the Song Dynasty
- Liu Yong, Chinese poet of the Song Dynasty
Deaths
- January 10 - Pietro I Orseolo, doge of Venice
- March 30 - Arnulf II, Frankish nobleman
- May 21 - Louis V, king of the West Frankish Kingdom
- July 13 - Abu'l-Fawaris Ahmad ibn Ali, Ikhshidid governor
- July 21 - Geoffrey I, Frankish nobleman
- September 8 - Adalbert I, Count of Vermandois, Frankish nobleman
- November 16 - Shen Lun, Chinese scholar-official