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1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.
[edit] Events
[edit] January
[edit] February
- February 2 - Australia's Worst Crime, the Anita Cobby murder, occurs.
- February 7 - President Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") flees Haiti, ending 28 years of family rule.
- 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 Sun, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th Century.
- February 11 - Human Rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky is released by the Soviet Union and leaves the country.
- February 16 - The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
- February 16 - The French Air Force raids the Libyan Ouadi Doum airbase in northern Chad.
- 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 in Hawaii after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president, first as an interim president.
- February 25 - Egyptian military police, protesting against bad salaries, enter 4 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.
- March 3 - The first paper is published describing the Atomic force microscope, invented the previous year by Gerd Binnig, Calvin Quate and Christophe Berger. [1]
- March 4 - The Today national tabloid newspaper is launched in the United Kingdom, pioneering the use of computer photosetting and full-colour offset printing at a time when British national newspapers still use Linotype machines and letterpress.
- 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 7 astronauts are still inside.
- March 13 - Irish racemare Dawn Run wins the Cheltenham Gold Cup at Cheltenham, England, becoming the first racehorse to complete the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup double.
- March 26 - An article in the New York Times charges that Kurt Waldheim, former United Nations Secretary General and candidate for president of Austria, may have been involved in Nazi war crimes during World War II.
- March 27 - A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing a police officer.
- March 31 - A fire devastates Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England.
The
Chernobyl reactor following the explosion.
- April 2 - A bomb explodes on a Trans World Airlines flight from Rome to Athens; 4 people are killed.
- April 5 - 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing: The West Berlin discotheque, a known hangout for United States soldiers, is bombed, killing 3 and injuring 230; 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 - Hailstones weighing 2.2 lb (880 g) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.
- April 15 - At least 15 people die after United States planes bomb targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region as part of Operation El Dorado Canyon.
- April 17 - British journalist John McCarthy is kidnapped in Beirut (released in August 1991) - 3 others are found dead; Revolutionary Cells claims responsibility in retaliation for the U.S. bombing of Libya.
- April 17 - A treaty ends the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.
- April 17 - The Hindawi Affair begins when an Irishwoman is found unknowingly carrying explosives onto an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv.
- April 21 - Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's secret vault on The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault, discovering only a bottle of moonshine.
- April 26 - In Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster. 31 are killed directly by the incident, many more die from cancer in later years, many thousands more are exposed to significant amounts of radioactive material, and vast territories in Ukraine and Belarus are rendered uninhabitable.
- April 27 - "Captain Midnight" interrupts HBO satellite feed.
[edit] 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 6 - In Louisville, Kentucky, William Schroeder, the second person to receive an artificial heart, dies after 620 days.
- August 6 - Australian Democrats leader Don Chipp retires from federal parliament and is succeeded by Janine Haines, becoming the first woman to lead a political party in Australia.
- August 19 - Two weeks after it was stolen, the Picasso painting Weeping Woman is found in a locker at the Spencer Street Station in Melbourne, Australia.
- 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 disaster occurs, killing nearly 2,000 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 - Aeroméxico Flight 498, a Douglas DC-9, collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 on both aircraft and 15 on the ground.
- August 31 - The 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.
[edit] September
- September 5 - Pan Am Flight 73, with 358 people on board, is hijacked at Karachi International Airport by 4 armed men of the Abu Nidal organization, which operates much in the same manner as Al Qaeda.
- September 6 - In Istanbul, 2 Abu Nidal terrorists kill 22 and wound 6 inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Sabbath services.
- September 6 - Casualty (TV series) is first aired on BBC1.
- September 7 - Desmond Tutu becomes the first black Anglican Church bishop in South Africa.
- September 7 - Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet survives an assassination attempt by the FPMR; 5 of his bodyguards are killed.
- September 13 - A magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocks the city of Kalamata in southern Greece, killing 20 people, injuring 80 and completely destroying one fifth of the city.
- September 21 - Cheryl Keeton is found dead in her van on the Sunset Highway, inspiring the novel Dead By Sunset.
- September 27 - British pop group Five Star top the charts for the first and only time with their million plus selling album Silk And Steel, becoming one of the biggest selling albums of the year.
- September 27 - A tour bus carrying heavy metal band Metallica crashes in Sweden, killing their bassist, Cliff Burton.
[edit] October
- October 1 - U.S. 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 9 - British actor/singer Michael Crawford is made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen, as well as receiving his second Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical) for The Phantom of the Opera.
- 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, to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe (the talks break down in failure).
- October 12 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China
- October 22 - In New York City WNBC Radio's traffic helicopter crashes into the Hudson River killing traffic reporter Jane Dornacker. The last words heard on-the-air were Dornacker's screams of terror "Hit The Water!, Hit The Water!, Hit The Water!".
- October 26 - Bus deregulation goes into effect 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 7 games.
- October 27 - Big Bang in the London Stock Exchange abolishes fixed commission charges, paving the way for electronic trading.
- October 28 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.
- October 28 - In London, Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the murder of his parents, sister and twin nephews and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation by the trial judge that he should serve at least 25 years before being considered for parole.
[edit] November
[edit] December
- December 14 - Rutan 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 20 - Three African Americans are assaulted by a group of white teens in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York. One of the victims, Michael Griffith, is run over and killed by a motorist while attempting to flee the attackers.
- December 22 - British Liberal Party Member of Parliament David Penhaligon, 42, is killed in a car crash near Truro in Cornwall, England.
- December 23 - Voyager completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.
- December 29 - Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan dies at the age of 92.
- December 31 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
[edit] Unknown dates
[edit] Births
[edit] January
[edit] February
- June 3 - Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player
- June 11 - Shia LaBeouf, American actor
- June 13 - Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, American actresses and entrepreneurs
- June 13 - Kat Dennings, American actress
- June 19 - Marvin Williams, American basketball player
- June 25 - Aya Matsuura, Japanese singer
- June 27 - Drake Bell, American actor and singer
- June 28 - Shadia Simmons, Canadian actress
- June 28 - Kellie Pickler, American singer
- June 29 - Austin Drage, British actor and singer
[edit] August
- August 2 - Caitlin Murphy, Australian model and actress (Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive)
- August 3 - Charlotte Casiraghi, heir to the Monaco throne
- August 6 - Bryan Young, Canadian ice hockey player
- August 16 - Shawn Pyfrom, American actor
- August 17 - Tobias Schönenberg, German actor and photomodel
- August 20 - Robert Clark, Canadian actor
- August 23 - Neil Cicierega, American musician and animator
- August 27 - Mario, R&B singer
- August 28 - Gilad Shalit, Israeli soldier/hostage
- August 30 - Ryan Ross, guitarist (Panic! at the Disco)
[edit] September
- September 3 - Shaun White, American professional snowboarder
- September 6 - Raven Riley, American porn star
- September 12 - Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer
- September 14 - Ai Takahashi, Japanese singer
- September 16 - Kyla Pratt, American actress
- September 17 - Natasha Thomas, Danish singer and songwriter
- September 18 - Keeley Hazell, British model
- September 23 - Kaylee DeFer, American actress
- September 26 - Ashley Leggat, Canadian actress
- September 28 - Andrés Guardado, Mexican footballer
- September 29 - Lisa Foiles, American actress and singer
[edit] October
[edit] November
[edit] December
[edit] Unknown dates
[edit] Deaths
[edit] January
- January 1 - Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (b. 1902)
- January 4 - Phil Lynott, lead singer and bassist of Thin Lizzy (b. 1949)
- January 7 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer (b. 1917)
- January 8 - Pierre Fournier, French cellist (b. 1906)
- January 10 - Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- January 14 - Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
- January 24 - L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
- January 24 - Gordon MacRae, American actor, singer (b. 1921)
- January 27 - Lilli Palmer, actress (b. 1914)
- January 28 - Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger:
[edit] February
- February 1 - Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1902)
- February 6 - Frederick Coutts, the 8th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1899)
- February 11 - Frank Herbert, American author (b. 1920)
- February 21 - Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
- February 24 - Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician and "Father of Medicare" in Canada (b. 1904)
- February 27 - Jacques Plante, Canadian hockey player (b. 1929)
- February 28 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)
- February 28 - Thomas Williams, British politician
- April 3 - Peter Pears, English tenor (b. 1910)
- April 7 - Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- April 8 - Yukiko Okada, Japanese idol singer (b. 1967)
- April 14 - Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (b. 1908)
- April 15 - Jean Genet, French writer (b. 1910)
- April 19 - Aileen Britton, Australian actress (b. 1916)
- April 22 - Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religions and writer (b. 1907)
- April 23 - Otto Preminger, Austrian-born film director (b. 1906)
- April 24 - Wallis Simpson, wife of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, later titled "Duke of Windsor" due to his abdication (b. 1896)
- April 26 - Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)
- April 26 - Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
- May 2 - Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally car driver (b. 1956)
- May 3 - Robert Alda, American-born actor (b. 1914)
- May 9 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (b. 1914)
- May 11 - Henry P. McIlhenny, American art collector, socialite, philanthropist and the chairman of the Philadelphia Art Museum (b. 1910)
- May 12 - Elisabeth Bergner, Austrian actress (b. 1897)
- May 15 - Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)
- May 15 - Theodore White, American writer (b. 1915)
- May 19 - Jimmy Lyons, American musician (b. 1931)
- May 23 - Sterling Hayden, American actor (b. 1916)
- May 25 - Chester Bowles, American politician (b. 1901)
- May 26 - Gian-Carlo Coppola, American film producer (b. 1963)
- May 31 - Jane Frank (Jane Schenthal Frank), American artist
- May 31 - James Rainwater, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- June 13 - Benny Goodman, American jazz musician (b. 1909)
- June 14 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (b. 1899)
- June 16 - Maurice Duruflé, French composer (b. 1902)
- June 17 - Kate Smith, American singer (b. 1907)
- June 19 - Len Bias, American basketball player (b. 1963)
- June 19 - Coluche, stage name of Michel Colucci, French comedian and humorist (b. 1944)
- June 21 - Assi Rahbani, Lebanese composer, musician, conductor and author (b. 1923)
- July 4 - Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (b. 1899)
- July 6 - Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (b. 1908)
- July 8 - Hyman Rickover, American admiral (b. 1900)
- July 8 - Skeeter Webb, baseball player (b. 1909)
- July 14 - Raymond Loewy, French-born industrial designer (b. 1893)
- July 15 - Billy Haughton, American harness driver and trainer (b. 1923)
- July 21 - Ernest Maas, American screenwriter (b. 1892)
- July 24 - Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
- July 25 - Vincente Minnelli, American film director (b. 1903)
[edit] August
[edit] September
[edit] October
- October 5 - James H. Wilkinson, English mathematician (b. 1919)
- October 14 - Keenan Wynn, American actor (b. 1916)
- October 16 - Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (b. 1921)
- October 22 - Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
- October 23 - Edward Adelbert Doisy, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1893)
- October 25 - Forrest Tucker, American actor (b. 1919)
- October 26 - Jackson Scholz, American runner (b. 1897)
- October 28 - Ian Marter, British actor and writer (b. 1944)
- October 31 - Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1896)
[edit] November
- November 2 - Paul Frees, American voice actor (b. 1920)
- November 6 - Elisabeth Grümmer, Alsatian soprano (b. 1911)
- November 8 - Artur London, Czech statesman (b. 1915)
- November 8 - Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (b. 1890)
- November 18 - Gia Carangi, supermodel (b. 1960)
- November 21 - Dar Robinson, American film stuntman (b. 1947)
- November 22 - Scatman Crothers, American actor, musician (b. 1910)
- November 22 - William Bradford Huie, American journalist, editor, publisher and author (b. 1910)
- November 29 - Cary Grant, British actor (b. 1904)
[edit] December
[edit] Unknown dates
[edit] Nobel prizes
[edit] Templeton Prize
[edit] Ship events
[edit] 1986 in fiction
[edit] Computer and video games
