February 1986

Friday 07:

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

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 19:

After waiting 37 years, the United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide.

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.

Thursday 27:

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

Friday 28:

Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.