Events from the year 1986 in the United States.
Incumbents Federal government President: Ronald Reagan (R-California) Vice President: George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Virginia) (until September 26) William Rehnquist (Virginia) (starting September 26) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tip O'Neill (D-Massachusetts) Senate Majority Leader: Bob Dole (R-Kansas) Congress: 99th
State governments Governors and lieutenant governorsGovernors
Lieutenant governors
Events January
January 12 – STS-61-C: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz. January 20 – The first federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring Martin Luther King Jr., is observed. January 23 – The first group of artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which included Elvis Presley, James Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis. January 24 – The Voyager 2 space probe makes its first encounter with Uranus. January 26 – Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots 46–10 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. January 28 STS-51-L: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing the crew of seven astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe (see Space Shuttle Challenger disaster). President Ronald Reagan postpones for one week the State of the Union address that had been scheduled for the evening and instead addresses the nation on the Challenger disaster. January 31 – Two earthquakes (5.0 and 4.4 ) affected northeastern Ohio causing minor damage and 17 injuries. The shocks in this doublet earthquake occurred almost six hours apart with both having a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong).
February February 4 – President Reagan delivers his fifth State of the Union Address. February 19 – After waiting 37 years, the United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide. February 25 – People Power 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. Salvador Laurel becomes her vice president. February 27 – The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
March Halley's Comet reaches the closest point to the Earth during its second visit to the Solar System in the 20th century. The next time it will be seen is predicted for 2061. March 9 – United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger; the bodies of all seven astronauts are still inside. March 24 – The 58th Academy Awards, hosted by Alan Alda, Jane Fonda and Robin Williams, are held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, with Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa winning Best Picture, Best Director and five other awards out of 11 nominations. The film is tied in nominations by Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. 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.
April April 5 – 1986 West Berlin discotheque bombing: The West Berlin discothèque, a known hangout for United States soldiers, is bombed, killing three and injuring 230; Libya is held responsible. April 7 – The World Wrestling Federation holds WrestleMania 2 from three different venues: the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. April 11 - 1986 Miami FBI Shootout: 2 Gunmen cause a shootout in Miami, in five minutes, 4 people, including both perpetrators and 2 FBI agents, were killed April 15 – Operation El Dorado Canyon: At least 15 people die after United States planes bomb targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region. April 17 – British journalist John McCarthy is kidnapped in Beirut (released in August 1991) and three others are found dead; Revolutionary Cells (RZ) claims responsibility in retaliation for the U.S. bombing of Libya. April 29 Roger Clemens sets the record for the most strikeouts in a 9-inning Major League Baseball game, striking out 20 batters. A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes.
May
May 9 – The first victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy who hadn't been seen alive for 14 years is identified as 16-year-old Timothy McCoy of Omaha, Nebraska, who disappeared January 2, 1972 after encountering Gacy in Chicago, Illinois, and was killed the next morning. May 16 – Top Gun, an action film featuring naval aviation and starring Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis, debuts in cinemas. It goes on to become the highest-grossing film of the year, netting nearly $177 million in America alone. May 25 – Hands Across America: approximately 6.5 million people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California, to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.
June June 4 – Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel. June 5–11 – Excedrin cyanide tampering crisis (see Stella Nickell). June 8 – The Boston Celtics defeat the Houston Rockets in six games to win the NBA Championship. June 9 – The Rogers Commission Report is released on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. June 19 – American college basketball player Len Bias suffers a fatal cardiac arrhythmia from a cocaine overdose less than 48 hours after being selected 2nd overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA draft.
July July 5 – The Statue of Liberty is reopened to the public after an extensive refurbishing. July 8 – The 6.0 North Palm Springs earthquake shook Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing 29–40 injuries and $4.5–6 million in losses. July 13 – The 5.8 Oceanside earthquake shook the south coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), causing $700,000 in losses and one death. July 21 – The 6.2 Chalfant Valley earthquake shook eastern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), causing $2.7 million in losses and two injuries.
August August 6 – In Louisville, Kentucky, William J. Schroeder, the second artificial heart recipient, dies after 620 days. August 20 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, United States Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers before committing suicide. 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. The cargo ship Khian Sea departs from the docks of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, carrying 14,000 tons of toxic waste. It wanders the seas for the next 16 months trying to find a place to dump its cargo.
September September 5 – Pan Am Flight 73, a flight from Bombay, India, to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, is hijacked. Twenty-one people are killed during the hijacking, including nationals from India, the United States, Pakistan, and Mexico.
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. The Fox Broadcasting Company (then abbreviated as FBC; now Fox) launches as the United States' fourth commercial broadcast television network, the first such attempt since 1967. 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 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 27 World Series: The New York Mets defeat the Boston Red Sox in 7 games. This is the second world series title in the Mets franchise. It is also remembered for Game 6, when Bill Buckner lets an easy ground ball hit by Mookie Wilson roll through his legs, letting the Mets win and pull even with the Red Sox in the series. Great Basin National Park is established. October 28 – The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor.
November November 3 – 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. November 4 Democrats regain control of the United States Senate for the first time in six years. In California, Chief Justice Rose Bird and two colleagues are removed by voters from the Supreme Court of California for opposing capital punishment. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands officially becomes a territory of the United States. November 21 – Iran-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. November 22 – Mike Tyson wins his first world boxing title by defeating Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion ever at age 20. November 25 – Iran-Contra Affair: U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. November 26 – Iran-Contra Affair: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces that as of December 1, former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft will serve as members of the Special Review Board looking into the scandal (they became known as the Tower Commission). Reagan denies involvement in the scandal.
December December – The unemployment rate drops to 6.6%, the lowest since March 1980. 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 26 – After 35 years on the airwaves and holding the title of the longest-running non-news program on network television, NBC airs the final episode of daytime drama Search for Tomorrow. December 31 – A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Iran–Contra affair (1985–1987)
Births Those born in the year 1986 are considered millennials (Generation Y or Gen Y).
January
January 1 Ramses Barden, football player Glen Davis, basketball player Mayra Flores, Mexican-born politician January 2 Jeff Bauman, author and victim in the Boston Marathon Bombing Scott Burley, football player Trombone Shorty, trumpet player and composer January 3 Mackenzy Bernadeau, football player Jenn Bostic, Christian and country singer/songwriter Lloyd, urban musician January 4 Deon Butler, football player Maria Lamb, Olympic speed skater Steve Slaton, football player Emilia Sykes, politician Charlyne Yi, actress January 5 J. P. Arencibia, baseball player Jesse Draper, talk show host January 6 Mike Teel, football player Shane Sweet, actor