1986 - What happened in 1986 ?

January 1986

Wednesday 01:

Spain and Portugal are admitted into the European Community.

Wednesday 08:

Hacker Manifesto written.

Thursday 09:

After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.

Monday 20:

The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.

Tuesday 28:

Space Shuttle Challenger explodes just after takeoff killing all seven astronauts onboard.

February 1986

Sunday 09:

Comet Halley reaches its perihelion, the closest point to the Earth, during it's second visit to the solar system in the 20th century.

Tuesday 11:

Rights activist Anatoly Sharansky, released by the USSR, leaves the country.

Sunday 16:

The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

Wednesday 26:

Robert Penn Warren is named poet laureate of the United States.

Thursday 27:

The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.

March 1986

Sunday 09:

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.

Thursday 20:

1986 – Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France

Thursday 27:

Car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer, Angela Taylor and injuring 21 people.

Monday 31:

Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England

April 1986

Thursday 03:

IBM unveils the PC Convertible, their first laptop computer.

Wednesday 09:

The government of France rules against the privatization of French automaker Renault.

Monday 14:

2.2 lb (1kg) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.

Monday 21:

Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on live television and finds nothing.

Sunday 27:

Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) hijacks HBO's satellite and transmits his own message to HBO viewers.

May 1986

Friday 02:

The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, opens.

Saturday 03:

In Bergen, Norway, Sandra Kim wins the thirty-first Eurovision Song Contest for Belgium singing "J'aime la vie" (I love life).

Monday 26:

The European Community adopts the European flag.

June 1986

Wednesday 04:

Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.

Thursday 05:

A 52-year old man in Auburn, Washington, United States, dies after taking an Excedrin capsule laced with cyanide; this is the first of two Excedrin deaths.

Monday 09:

The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Sunday 22:

The All Jharkhand Students Union is founded, in order to fight for autonomy for tribal peoples in India.

Sunday 29:

Argentina wins the {{Wc|1986}}

July 1986

Tuesday 01:

In an interview with Playboy magazine, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke comes out as a bisexual.

Friday 18:

1986 - The motion picture Aliens opens in theaters.

Wednesday 23:

In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.

August 1986

Wednesday 06:

A low pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimetres of rain in a day on Sydney.

Saturday 09:

1987 - Five people shot dead + Eleven injured as 19-year old Julian Knight opens fire @ random in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, Melbourne, VIC

Wednesday 20:

In Edmond, Oklahoma, US Postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.

Thursday 21:

Toxic gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing over 1700 people.

Tuesday 26:

Toxic gas kills 1700 in Cameroon.

September 1986

Friday 05:

Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.

Saturday 06:

In Istanbul, two Arab terrorists from Abu Nidal's terror organization kill 22 and wound six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Shabbat services.

Sunday 07:

1986 - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination.

Monday 15:

First broadcast of the TV show LA Law on NBC.

Saturday 27:

Cliff Burton, bassist for Metallica, dies after being crushed by the band's tour bus during their European tour.

October 1986

Thursday 09:

United States District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne becomes the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.

Friday 10:

An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

Monday 20:

1989 - Brisbane bound coach collides with Semi - Traler North of Grafton NSW (Grafton Bus Crash)

Saturday 25:

The New York Mets defeat the Boston Red Sox due to Bill Buckner's famous error in Game 6 of the World Series and go on to win the championship two days later

Tuesday 28:

Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the murder of his parents, sister and twin nephews and is given five life sentences.

November 1986

Sunday 09:

Romania: Ellection of Patriarch Teoctist Ar?pa?u/Theoctist

Tuesday 11:

Sperry Rand and Burroughs merge to form Unisys, becoming the second largest computer company.

Saturday 22:

Mike Tyson knocks-out Trevor Berbick in a round 2 fight, becoming the youngest world heavyweight-boxing champion (20 years, 4 months old).

Tuesday 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.

Wednesday 26:

The New Yorker publishes Susan Sontag's AIDS short story, "The Way We Live Now"

December 1986

Wednesday 10:

Elie Wiesel wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Tuesday 23:

The Scaled Composites Voyager aircraft completes the first non-stop flight around the world without refueling.

Friday 26:

The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air

Wednesday 31:

A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.