1986

Years :	1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
Years:	1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century

1986 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders Video gaming
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths

1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

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Events

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January

Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

January 1 - Spain and Portugal enter the European Community
January 1 - 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 is launched with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
January 19 - The first PC virus, Brain, starts to spread.
January 20 - The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
January 20 - The first federal Martin Luther King Day, honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
January 24 - Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus
January 28 - Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing its crew of six astronauts and the schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
January 29 - Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of the Republic of Uganda after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle.

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February

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Flees to Hawaii.

February 7 - 28 years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
February 9 - Mohinder Amarnath becomes the first batsman dismissed for handling the ball in one-day international cricket.
February 9 - Comet Halley reaches its perihelion, the closest point to the Earth, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th century.
February 11 - Human Rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky is released by the USSR and 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 goes into exile to USA after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president, first as in interim president.
February 25 - Egyptian military police, protesting bad salaries, enter four luxury hotels near the pyramids, set fire to them and loot them
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.

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March

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 27 - A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer.
March 31 - A fire devastates Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England.
March 31 - Judas Priest releases Turbo.

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April

The Chernobyl reactor following the explosion.

April 2 - A bomb explodes on a TWA flight from Rome to Athens - 4 dead
April 5 - 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 13 -- Pope John Paul II officially visits the Synagogue of Rome — the first time a modern Pope had visited a synagogue.
April 14 - 2.2 lb (1 kg) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.
April 15 - At least 100 people died after USA planes bombed targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region as part of Operation El Dorado Canyon
April 17 - British journalist John McCarthy kidnapped in Beirut (released in August 1991) - three others are found dead, Revolutionary Cells claims responsibility in retaliation for the US bombing of Libya.
April 17 - Treaty signed, ending Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.
April 26 - In Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes creating the world's 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" interrupts HBO satellite feed

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May

May 2 - The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada opens.
May 7 - Steaua Bucharest wins the European Champions Cup in Sevilla
May 25 - Hands Across America
May 26 - The European Community adopts the European flag.
May 31 - The Football World Cup 1986 is inaugurated in Mexico

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June

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
June 29 - Argentina defeat West Germany 3-2 to win the Football World Cup 1986

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July

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.
July 30 - Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a meeting in London

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August

August 6 - A low pressure system moving from South Australia and redeveloping off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimetres of rain in a day on Sydney.
August 18 - Australian Democrats leader Don Chipp retires from federal parliament and is succeded by Janine Haines, becoming the first woman to lead a political party in Australia.
August 19 - Picasso painting Weeping Woman is found in a locker at the Spencer Street Station in Melbourne, Australia. It had been stolen two weeks earlier.
August 20 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, United States Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers before committing suicide.
August 21 - The Lake Nyos tragedy occurs, killing nearly 2000 people.
August 31 - The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov collides with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Black Sea and sinks almost immediately, killing 398.
August 31 - An Aeroméxico Douglas DC-9 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 on both aircraft and 15 on the ground.
August 31 - Cargo ship Khian Sea departs from the docks of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, carrying 14,000 tons of toxic waste. It will wander the seas for the next 16 months trying to find a place to dump its cargo.

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September

September 5 - Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport by four armed men of the Abu Nidal organization which operated much in the same manner as Al Qaeda.
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.
September 21- Cheryl Keeton is found dead in her van on the Sunset Highway, inspring the novel Dead By Sunset
September 27 - A tour bus carrying heavy metal band Metallica crashes in Sweden, killing their bassist, Cliff Burton.

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October

October 1 - President Ronald Reagan signs the Goldwater-Nichols Act into law, making official the largest reorganization of the United States Department of Defense since the Air Force was made a separate branch of service in 1947.
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: Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, 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 27 - The New York Mets win the Major League Baseball World Series, beating the Boston Red Sox in seven games.
October 28 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.
October 28 - Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the murder of his parents, sister and twin nephews and is given five life sentences.

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November

November 1 - Queensland, Australia: Joh Bjelke-Petersen wins his final election as Premier of Queensland with 38.6% of the vote. He resigns on December 1 1987 following revelations of his involvement corruption released in the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
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 11 - Sperry Rand and Burroughs merge to form Unisys, becoming the second largest computer company
November 12 - Australian singer John Farnham releases the album "Whispering Jack", which becomes the highest selling album in Australia's history.
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 Contra 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 Affair: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces that as of Monday, December 1 former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft will serve as members of the Special Review Board looking into the scandal (they became known as the Tower Commission). Reagan denies involvement in the scandal.

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December

December 14 - Voyager, an experimental aircraft designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, begins its flight around the world.
December 19 - Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov is permitted to return to Moscow after years of internal exile
December 23 - Voyager completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds
December 31 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.