1986

1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday.

Years:
1983 1984 1985 - 1986 - 1987 1988 1989
Decades:
1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1986 in aviation
1986 in film
1986 in literature
1986 in music
1986 in sports
1986 in television

Table of contents

1 Events

1.1 January
1.2 February
1.3 March-April
1.4 May-August
1.5 September-October
1.6 November-December

2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths

4.7 January-April
4.8 May-December

5 Nobel Prizes

Events

January

January 1 - Spain and Portugal enter the European Community
Wednesday, January 1, 1986 - Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles.
January 9 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.
January 12 - Space shuttle Columbia takes-off with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
January 20 - The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
Monday, January 20, 1986 - The first federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr
January 24 - Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus
January 28 - Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
January 29 - Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of the Republic of Uganda after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle.

February

February 7 - 28 years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
February 11 - Human Rights activist Anatoly Scharansky is released by USSR, leaves the country.
February 16 - The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand
February 19 - The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station
February 19 - After waiting 37 years, the United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide.
February 25 - EDSA Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president.
February 27 - The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
February 28 - Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is shot dead on his way home from the cinema, his wife the only witness.

March-April

March 8 - Japanese spacecraft Suisei flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.
March 9 - United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily-damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The bodies of all seven astronauts were still inside.
March 31- a fire devestates Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England.
April 3 - IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
April 6 - In the terroristic La Belle discotheque bombing the West-Berlin discotheque, a known hangout for U.S. soldiers, was bombed, killing 3 and injuring 230 people. Libya is held responsible.
April 26 - In the Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes creating the worlds worst nuclear disaster. 31 are killed directly by the incident, many thousands more were exposed to significant amounts of radioactive material, vast territories in Ukraine and Belarus rendered uninhabitable.
April 27 - Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) hijacks HBO's satellite and transmits his own message to HBO viewers.

May-August

May 2 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada opens.
May 25 - "Hands Across America"
May 26 - The European Community adopts the European flag.
June 4 - Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.
June 8 - Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria.
June 9 - The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
July 5 - The Statue of Liberty is reopened to the public after an extensive refurbishing.
July 23 - In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
August - Apple Lisa discontinued by Apple.
August 20 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, US Postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
August 21 - The Lake Nyos Tragedy occurs, killing nearly 2000 people.

September-October

September 1 - The Soviet sea-liner Admiral Nakhimov collides with the bulk carrier Petr Vasev and sinks almost immediately, killing 448.
September 5 - Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
September 6 - In Istanbul, two Arab terrorists from Abu Nidal's terror organization kill 22 and wound six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Sabbath services.
September 7 - Desmond Tutu becomes the first black to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
October 9 - United States District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne becomes the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.
October 10 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
October 11 - Cold War: US President Ronald Wilson Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe (the talks break down in failure).
October 26 - Bus deregulation in the United Kingdom, except Greater London and Northern Ireland.
October 28 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.

November-December

November 11 - Sperry Rand and Burroughs merge to form Unisys, becoming the second largest computer company.
November 3 - Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
November 21 - Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contras rebels in Nicaragua.
November 25 - Iran Contra Affair: US Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
November 26 - Iran-Contra scandal: US President Ronald Reagan announces that as of December 1 former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft will be serving as members of the Special Review Board looking into the scandal (they became known as the Tower Commission).
December 23 - Voyager, an experimental aircraft designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling.
December 31 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
Commonly considered the start date of the golden age of old school rap

Year in topic

1986 in film
- Friday, February 7, 1986 - F/X
- Friday, May 16, 1986 - Top Gun starring Tom Cruise
- Friday, June 6, 1986 - Raw Deal starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Friday, July 18, 1986 - Alien 2 starring Sigourney Weaver
- Friday, October 17, 1986 - The Color of Money starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise
- Wednesday, November 26, 1986 -
- Platoon
- Children of a Lesser God
- Hannah and Her Sisters
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
1986 in literature
February 26 - Robert Penn Warren, named poet laureate of the United States
1986 in music
- January 23 - The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley)
1986 in sports
1986 in television
- May 22 - Cher calls David Letterman an "asshole" on the air during a taping of Late Night with David Letterman.
- July 18 - A tornado is broadcast live on KARE TV in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
- October 9 - The FOX Broadcasting Company becomes the United States' fourth television network with a broadcast of "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers".
- October 27 - Australian soap opera Neighbours begins broadcast on BBC1

Births

February 21 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer
March 9 - Brittany Snow, actress
April 3 - Amanda Bynes, teen actress and show host
June 13 - The Olsen twins, actresses and entrepreneurs
March 14 - Jamie Bell, actor
June 24 - Solange Knowles, actress, singer
July 2 - Lindsay Lohan, actress
November 25 - Amber Hagerman, kidnapping, murder victim (d. 1996)

Deaths

January-April

January 1 - Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist
January 14 - Donna Reed, actress
January 24 - L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer, founder of Scientology
January 24 - Gordon MacRae, actor, singer
January 24 - Vincente Minnelli, director
January 27 - Lilli Palmer, actress
January 28 - Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Greg Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe.
February 11 - Frank Herbert, science fiction author.
February 27 - Jacques Plante, ice hockey star
February 28 - Olof Palme, Swedish prime minister
March 6 - Georgia O'Keeffe, artist
March 10 - Ray Milland, British actor
March 30 - James Cagney, actor
April 3 - Richard Manuel, musician ("The Band")
April 14 - Simone de Beauvoir, feminist philosopher
April 26 - Broderick Crawford, actor

May-December

May 9 - Tenzing Norgay, mountaineer
May 12 - Elisabeth Bergner, actress
May 15 - Theodore H. White, writer
May 23 - Sterling Hayden
May 25 - Chester Bowles, politician
June 13 - Benny Goodman, jazz musician (b. 1909)
June 14 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer
July 8 - Hyman Rickover, American admiral
July 8 - Skeeter Webb, Professional Baseball Player (b. 1909)
August 20 - Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer, and playwright
August 31 - Urho Kekkonen, president of Finland 1956-1981 (b. 1900)
August 31 - Henry Moore, sculptor
September 4 - Hank Greenberg, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1911)
September 27 - Cliff Burton, Metallica bassist
October 5 - James H. Wilkinson, mathematician
October 25 - Forrest Tucker, American actor
October 26 - Jackson Scholz, American sprinter
November 8 – Artur London, Czech statesman
November 21 – Dar Robinson, film stuntman
November 22 - Scatman Crothers, actor, musician
November 29 - Cary Grant, actor
December 28 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian movie director
December 29 - Harold Macmillan, British statesman

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Ernst Ruska, Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer
Chemistry - Dudley R Herschbach, Yuan T Lee, John C Polanyi
Medicine - Stanley Cohen, Rita Levi-Montalcini
Literature - Wole Soyinka
Peace - Elie Wiesel
Economics - James Buchanan Jr