1986 - What happened in 1986 ?

January 1986

Wednesday 01:

Spain and Portugal are admitted into the European Community.

Wednesday 15:

The HBO and Cinemax pay cable television services initiate scrambling of their national satellite feeds on Galaxy 1 with the Videocipher II system.

Monday 20:

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

Friday 24:

Voyager 2 passes within 50,679 miles of Uranus.

Wednesday 29:

Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as President of Uganda.

February 1986

Friday 07:

28 years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.

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.

Tuesday 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.

Wednesday 26:

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

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.

Sunday 13:

Jack Nicklaus wins his sixth Masters Tournament

Saturday 26:

In Ukraine, a nuclear reactor at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.

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.

Friday 27:

International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in the Nicaragua v. United States.

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

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.

Thursday 28:

US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.

Sunday 31:

The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 398.

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.

Saturday 11:

Cold War: US President 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.

Sunday 19:

Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others died when their Tupolev 134 plane crashed into the Lebombo Mountains.

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

Monday 27:

The London Stock Exchange is deregulated and computerisation is introduced for the first time.

November 1986

Monday 03:

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.

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.

Friday 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.

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.