WORLD HISTORY · 1986 日本語
Events of 1986Showa 61 (Japan) · Year of the Tiger
What happened in 1986?
In 1986, Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Act took effect, and Tokyo hosted a G7 summit. Doi Takako became the first woman to lead a Japanese political party, and in the Philippines Corazon Aquino became president.
- Soviet Union launches Mir space stationEurope
- Corazon Aquino becomes Philippine presidentAsia
- Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme assassinatedEurope
- Equal Employment Opportunity Act takes effectAsia
- Tokyo Summit heldAsia
- Doi Takako becomes Socialist Party chairAsia
- Iran-Contra affair comes to lightMiddle East
- Mount Mihara on Izu Oshima erupts after 12 yearsAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1986 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 61 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Tiger |
| Age of people born in 1986 | Turn 40 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1985 (Showa 60) ／ 1987 (Showa 62) |
| Events | 103 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 1986
Our birthday pages list 899 people born in 1986. Here are some of them.
- Shaun WhiteBorn September 3 · turns 40 this year · American snowboarder nicknamed "The Flying Tomato" who won Olympic gold in the…
- Lady GagaBorn March 28 · turns 40 this year · American pop singer, songwriter, and actress known for hits like "Bad Romance"…
- Rafael NadalBorn June 3 · turns 40 this year · Spanish tennis champion who won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, including a recor…
- DrakeBorn October 24 · turns 40 this year · Canadian rapper and singer who became one of the most successful music artists…
- Yu DarvishBorn August 16 · turns 40 this year
- Sayaka KandaBorn October 1 · turns 40 this year
- Keisuke HondaBorn June 13 · turns 40 this year
- Yuto NagatomoBorn September 12 · turns 40 this year
- Kazuya KamenashiBorn February 23 · turns 40 this year
- Hideaki WakuiBorn June 21 · turns 40 this year
- Aya MatsuuraBorn June 25 · turns 40 this year
- Daisuke TakahashiBorn March 16 · turns 40 this year
Show 28 more
- Ikusaburo YamazakiBorn January 18 · turns 40 this year
- Saori KimuraBorn August 19 · turns 40 this year
- Shinji OkazakiBorn April 16 · turns 40 this year
- Robert PattinsonBorn May 13 · turns 40 this year
- Emmy RossumBorn September 12 · turns 40 this year
- Colin MorganBorn January 1 · turns 40 this year
- Glen DavisBorn January 1 · turns 40 this year
- Lee Sung-minBorn January 1 · turns 40 this year
- Pablo CuevasBorn January 1 · turns 40 this year
- Cedric SimmonsBorn January 3 · turns 40 this year
- Dana HussainBorn January 3 · turns 40 this year
- Dmitry StarodubtsevBorn January 3 · turns 40 this year
- Greg NwokoloBorn January 3 · turns 40 this year
- LloydBorn January 3 · turns 40 this year
- Nikola PekovićBorn January 3 · turns 40 this year
- Andrei KrauchankaBorn January 4 · turns 40 this year
- James MilnerBorn January 4 · turns 40 this year
- Russell MartinBorn January 4 · turns 40 this year
- Younès KaboulBorn January 4 · turns 40 this year
- Deepika PadukoneBorn January 5 · turns 40 this year
- Alex TurnerBorn January 6 · turns 40 this year
- Irina ShaykBorn January 6 · turns 40 this year
- Paul McShaneBorn January 6 · turns 40 this year
- Petter NorthugBorn January 6 · turns 40 this year
- Amanda MynhardtBorn January 9 · turns 40 this year
- Jéferson GomesBorn January 9 · turns 40 this year
- Raphael DiazBorn January 9 · turns 40 this year
- Kirsten FlipkensBorn January 10 · turns 40 this year
Events of 1986 (timeline · 103)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Space Shuttle program: Congressman and future NASA Administrator Bill Nelson lifts off from Kennedy Space Center aboard Columbia on mission STS-61-C as a payload specialist.
A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
An Aerovías Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes on approach to Mundo Maya International Airport in Flores, Petén, Guatemala, killing all 94 people on board.
In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
Leabua Jonathan, Prime Minister of Lesotho, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by General Justin Lekhanya.
Conservative protestors attack a mock shanty town that had been erected on the Green at Dartmouth College as part of anti-apartheid protests.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
The Ugandan government of Tito Okello is overthrown by the National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni.
Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.
Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, making it one of the worst rail accidents in Canada.
China Airlines Flight 2265 crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing all 13 aboard.
The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.
The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines' first female president.
The Australia Act 1986 commences, causing Australia to become fully independent from the United Kingdom.
The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.
Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses.
Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships.
The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.
A car bomb explodes outside Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, Australia, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people.
Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940 crashes into the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range near the Mexican town of Maravatío, killing 167.
Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.
Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
FBI Miami Shootout: A gun battle in broad daylight in Dade County, Florida, between two bank/armored car robbers and pursuing FBI agents. During the firefight, FBI agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan are killed, while five other agents are wounded. As a result, the popular .40 S&W cartridge was developed.
The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, each weighing 1 kilogram (2.2 lb), fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.
The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly is declared over.
The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster.
High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident.
An assembly of Sikhs, known as a Sarbat Khalsa, officially declare independence for a state of Khalistan.
The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.
A fire at the Central library of the Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.
Chernobyl disaster: The City of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the disaster.
Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.
The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
The Ariane 2 rocket is launched on its maiden flight, carrying Intelsat VA F-14, but the mission ends in failure.
Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.
The Mindbender derails, killing three riders and severely injuring one at the Fantasyland (known today as Galaxyland) indoor amusement park at West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta.
The famous Hand of God goal, scored by Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, ignites controversy. This was later followed by the Goal of the Century. Argentina wins 2–1 and later goes on to win the World Cup.
The Argentina national football team wins the FIFA World Cup held in Mexico after defeating the West Germany national football team by a score of 3–2 in the final at the Estadio Azteca.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
Aeroflot Flight 2306 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Syktyvkar Airport in Syktyvkar, in present-day Komi Republic, Russia, killing 54 people.
Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile in the Quemados case.
The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalising homosexuality in New Zealand.
A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
A Sudan Airways Fokker F27 Friendship is shot down near Malakal in present day South Sudan, killing 60.
In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill shoots and kills 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometre (12 mi) range.
Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.
Pan Am Flight 73 from Mumbai, India with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
In Istanbul, two terrorists from Abu Nidal's organization kill 22 and wound six congregants inside the Neve Shalom Synagogue during Shabbat services.
Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town.
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet survives an assassination attempt by the FPMR; five of Pinochet's bodyguards are killed.
Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, is indicted on charges of espionage by the Soviet Union.
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes Kalamata, Greece with a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing at least 20 and causing heavy damage in the city.
TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada, is officially opened.
An explosion occurred at the Cipel-Marco fur factory in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, killing 14 and injuring 10.
The Phantom of the Opera, eventually the second longest running musical in London, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Iceland to continue discussions about scaling back IRBM arsenals in Europe.
The president of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, along with 33 others, die when their aircraft crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.
Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashes while landing at Kuibyshev Airport (now Kuromoch International Airport) in Kuibyshev (now present-day Samara, Russia), killing 70 people.
In Lebanon, pro-Iran kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).
Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing of an El Al flight at Heathrow Airport.
The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.
Lebanon hostage crisis: U.S. hostage David Jacobsen is released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity.
Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
The Compact of Free Association becomes law, granting the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands independence from the United States.
USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao, China; the first US naval visit to China since 1949.
Sumburgh disaster: A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.
The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska.
National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents allegedly implicating them in the Iran–Contra affair.
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.
The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of committing war crimes as a guard at the Nazi Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
Iran–Contra affair: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
The Surinamese military attacks the village of Moiwana during the Suriname Guerrilla War, killing at least 39 civilians, mostly women and children.
The MV Amazon Venture oil tanker begins leaking oil while at the port of Savannah in the United States, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 500,000 US gallons (1,900,000 L).
Qasba Aligarh massacre: Over 400 Muhajirs killed in revenge killings in Qasba colony after a raid on Pashtun heroin processing and distribution center in Sohrab Goth by the security forces.
The Jeltoqsan riots erupt in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, in response to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of ethnic Kazakh Dinmukhamed Kunaev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, and his replacement with Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian from the Russian SFSR.
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.
Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.
Iraqi Airways Flight 163, a Boeing 737-270C, is hijacked and crashes in Arar, Saudi Arabia, killing 63 people.
Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others, making it the second-deadliest hotel fire in American history.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1986 in the Japanese calendar?
1986 was Showa 61 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1986?
1986 is the Year of the Tiger.
How old is someone born in 1986?
They turn 40 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1986?
In 1986, Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Act took effect, and Tokyo hosted a G7 summit. Doi Takako became the first woman to lead a Japanese political party, and in the Philippines Corazon Aquino became president.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.