What happened in 1986

World6

• Jan 13South Yemen Civil War.
• Feb 15The Beechcraft Starship makes its maiden flight.
• Jun 23Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software.
• Oct 3A hybrid solar eclipse was visible off the coast of Iceland, and was the 53rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 124.
• Oct 19Mozambican President Samora Machel's plane crashes in South Africa, killing him and 33 and others.
• Oct 26The state funeral of President Samora Machel of Mozambique takes place in Maputo.

Japan4

• Mar 8The Japanese Suisei probe flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.
• Apr 29The diamond jubilee of Hirohito is held at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.
• Aug 6Metroid is released by Nintendo for the Famicom Disk System.
• DecJapanese asset price bubbleInterest rates were cut to fight the slump from the strong yen, money poured into stocks and land, and on the last trading day of 1989 the Nikkei average hit a record 38,915 yen. From 1990 stocks and then land prices fell, and a long stagnation began.

North America17

• Jan 28Space Shuttle Challenger disaster – STS-51-L: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch from the United States, killing the crew of seven astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
• Feb 3Pixar is founded by John Lasseter along with Steve Jobs.
• Feb 8Hinton train collision: A Canadian National train heading westbound collides with a Via Rail train in Hinton, Alberta; 23 people are killed and 71 injured in the accident.
• Mar 13In a Black Sea incident, American cruiser USS Yorktown and the destroyer USS Caron, claiming the right of innocent passage, enter the Soviet territorial waters near the southern Crimean Peninsula.
• Mar 24The 58th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with Out of Africa winning Best Picture.
• Apr 2A bomb explodes on a Trans World Airlines flight from Rome to Athens, killing 4 people.
• Apr 11The infamous FBI shootout in Miami results in the death of two FBI agents and the wounding of five others.
• Apr 21Lorimar-Telepictures launches as a mass media company.
• May 2Expo 86, the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, a World's fair, opens in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Jul 2Walt Disney Pictures releases the company's 26th animated film, The Great Mouse Detective.
• Aug 31Aeroméxico Flight 498, a Douglas DC-9, collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 82 (67 on both aircraft and 15 on the ground).
• Oct 9News Corporation completes its acquisition of the Metromedia group of companies, thereby launching the Fox Broadcasting Company.
• Oct 11Cold War: Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe, which end in failure.
• Nov 3Iran–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 7 American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
• Nov 21Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, start shredding documents implicating them in selling weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

2 more in the app

Europe12

• Feb 16Mário Soares wins the second round of the Portuguese presidential election.
• Feb 17The Single European Act is signed.
• Feb 28Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is shot to death on his way home from the cinema in Stockholm, Sweden.
• Mar 1Olof Palme's deputy Ingvar Carlsson becomes acting Prime Minister of Sweden. He is elected Prime Minister by the Swedish Riksdag on March 15.
• Apr 51986 Berlin discotheque bombing: The West Berlin discothèque La Belle, a known hangout for United States soldiers, is bombed, killing three and injuring 230; Libya is held responsible.
• Jun 29Argentina defeats West Germany 3–2 in the final to win the 1986 World Cup at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
• JunConstruction of the Oosterscheldekering, the world's largest openable storm surge flood barrier, is completed in the Netherlands.
• Sep 4Eusko Alkartasuna, the Basque Social Democratic Party, is created in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
• Sep 13The 6.0 Kalamata earthquake shook southern Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The shock left at least 20 dead, 300 injured, and caused $5 million in damage.
• Oct 9The Phantom of the Opera, the longest running Broadway show in history, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
• Nov 1Sandoz chemical spill: A major environmental disaster near Basel, Switzerland pollutes the Rhine, when an agrochemical storehouse catches on fire.
• The Province of Flevoland is established in the Netherlands.

USSR / Russia3

• Feb 19The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
• Feb 25The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union opens in Moscow. The General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the keywords of his mandate to the audience: Glasnost and Perestroika.
• Apr 26Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property". Radioactive fallout from the accident is concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000 people are forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident, "traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere".

Asia7

• Feb 7The snap presidential election in the Philippines earlier announced by President Ferdinand Marcos is held amidst controversy, that paves the way for a chain of protests, culminating in the People Power Revolution.
• Feb 22The People Power Revolution begins in the Philippines to remove President Ferdinand Marcos from office.
• Feb 25People Power Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines is ousted from power and goes into exile in Hawaii after 20 years of dictatorial rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president and forms an interim government with Salvador Laurel becoming her Vice-president and Prime Minister.
• Mar 15Hotel New World collapses; 33 were killed and 17 rescued from rubble.
• Sep 5Pan Am Flight 73, with 358 people on board, is hijacked at Karachi International Airport by four Abu Nidal terrorists.
• Sep 28The Democratic Progressive Party is founded. It was part of the Tangwai movement in the new generation to challenge Kuomintang in Taiwan's one-party politics, and is currently one of only two parties to win presidential elections in Taiwan.
• Dec 16Jeltoqsan, mass anti-government protests, break out across the Kazakh SSR, resulting in the massacre of over 165 protesters.

Middle East1

• Sep 1Jordan University of Science and Technology is established in Jordan.

Latin America5

• Jan 1Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
• Feb 7Anti-Duvalier protest movement: President Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") flees Haiti, ending 28 years of family rule.
• Mar 31Mexicana Flight 940 crashes near Maravatío, Mexico, killing 167.
• Sep 7Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet survives an assassination attempt by the FPMR; 5 of Pinochet's bodyguards are killed.
• Oct 10The 5.7 San Salvador earthquake shook San Salvador, El Salvador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to 1,500 people were killed.

Africa3

• Feb 16Ouadi Doum air raid: The French Air Force raids the Libyan Ouadi Doum airbase in northern Chad.
• Apr 15Operation El Dorado Canyon: At least 15 people die after United States planes bomb targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region.
• Aug 21The Lake Nyos disaster, a limnic eruption, occurs in Cameroon, killing nearly 2,000 people.

Oceania1

• Oct 21The Marshall Islands became an associated state under the Compact of Free Association.