1986

**1986** (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Births

- January 5 – Sana Mir, Pakistani cricketer
- January 24 – Mischa Barton, English-born American actress
- January 24 – Ricky Ullman, Israeli-born American actor
- February 1 – Johan Vonlanthen, Swiss footballer
- February 19 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer
- February 21 – Charlotte Church, Welsh soprano
- March 1 – Jonathan Spector, American footballer
- March 9 – Brittany Snow, American actress
- March 14 – Jamie Bell, English actor
- March 16 – Alexandra Daddario, American actress
- March 28 – Lady Gaga, American singer
- April 3 – Amanda Bynes, American actress and variety show host
- April 9 – Leighton Meester, American actress
- April 18 – Mateusz Rutkowski, Polish ski jumper (d. 2024)
- May 13 – Robert Pattinson, Actor, Singer & Model
- May 16 – Megan Fox, American actress
- June 3 – Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player
- June 10 – Joey Zimmerman, American actor
- June 11 – Shia LaBeouf, American actor
- June 13 – Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, American actresses and entrepreneurs
- June 24 – Solange Knowles, American actress and singer
- June 25 – Aya Matsuura, Japanese singer
- June 27 – Drake Bell, American actor
- July 2 – Lindsay Lohan, American actress
- July 4 – Shane Kippel, Canadian actor
- July 17 – Brando Eaton, American actor
- August 16 – Shawn Pyfrom, American actor
- September 9 – Michael J. Sox, German singer
- September 12 – Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer
- October 16 - Inna, Romanian singer and songwriter
- October 31 – Christie Hayes, Australian actress
- November 1 – Penn Badgley, American actor
- November 2 – Lara Sacher, Australian actress
- November 3 – Jasmine Trias, American singer
- November 5 – BoA, Korean singer
- November 17 – Nani, Portuguese footballer
- November 25 – Amber Hagerman, American murder victim (d. 1996)
- November 27 – Suresh Raina, Indian cricketer
- December 28 – Tom Huddlestone, English football player
- December 30 – Ellie Goulding, British singer

### January

- January 1 – Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (b. 1902)
- January 2 – Una Merkel, American actress (b. 1903)
- January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)
- January 4 - Phil Lynott, Irish bass guitarist (Thin Lizzy) (b. 1949)
- January 8 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (b. 1906)
- January 14 – Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
- January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American fiction writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
- January 24 – Gordon MacRae, American actor, singer (b. 1921)
- January 24 – Vincente Minnelli, American director (b. 1903)
- January 27 – Lilli Palmer, actress (b. 1914)
- January 28 – Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Greg Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe.

### February

- February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction writer (b. 1920)
- February 27 – Jacques Plante, Canadian hockey player (b. 1929)
- February 28 – Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)

### March

- March 6 – Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist (b. 1887)
- March 10 – Ray Milland, Welsh actor (b. 1907)
- March 30 – James Cagney, American actor (b. 1899)

### April

- April 14 – Simone de Beauvoir, French writer and intellectual (b. 1908)
- April 15 - Tim McIntire, American actor (b. 1944)
- April 24 – Wallis Simpson, wife of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1896)
- April 26 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)

### May

- May 9 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountain guide (b. 1914)

### June

- June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (b. 1899)

### August

- August 22 – Celâl Bayar, 3rd President of Turkey (b. 1883)
- August 26 – Ted Knight, American actor (b. 1923)
- August 31 – Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)

### September

- September 1 – Murray Hamilton, American actor (b. 1923)
- September 24 – Cliff Burton, American bassist and songwriter from Metallica (b. 1962)

### October

- October 14 – Keenan Wynn, American actor (b. 1916)
- October 19 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique (b. 1933)

### November

- November 2 – Paul Frees, American actor, comedian (b. 1920)
- November 8 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (b. 1890)
- November 21 – Jerry Colonna, American comedian (b. 1904)
- November 22 – Scatman Crothers, American actor, musician (b. 1910)
- November 29 – Cary Grant, English actor (b. 1904)

### December

- December 2 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, musician and television producer (b. 1917)
- December 26 – Elsa Lanchester, British-American actress (b. 1902)
- December 28 – Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian movie director (b. 1932)
- December 29 – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the UK (b. 1894)

## Events

- January 1 – Spain and Portugal enter the European Community
- January 1 – Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles.
- January 9 – After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.
- January 12 – Space Shuttle Columbia is launched with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
- January 20 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
- January 20 – The first federal Martin Luther King Day, honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
- January 24 – Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus
- January 28 – Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts on board.
- January 29 – Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of the Republic of Uganda after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle.
- February 25 – Corazon Aquino becomes President of the Philippines.
- February 28 – Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated.
- April 20 - NBA player Michael Jordan scores a playoff record 63 points in a game against the Boston Celtics.
- April 21 – Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on live television and finds nothing.
- April 26 – An explosion occurs at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl.
- August 21 – A leak of volcanic gases at Lake Nyos in Cameroon kills many people nearby as they sleep.
- September 24 — Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is killed in a bus crash
- October 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan hold a meeting in Iceland.
- October 19 – Mozambique's President Samora Machel dies in a plane crash.
- Bubble Bobble is created, a video game popular world-wide

## Movies released

- _Little Shop of Horrors_
- _Top Gun_
- _Ferris Bueller's Day Off_
- _Stand by Me_
- _Back to School_
- _Aliens_
- _The Delta Force_
- _Three Amigos!_
- _Cobra_
- _Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation_
- _Club Paradise_
- _Ruthless People_
- _The Hitcher_
- _Heartbreak Ridge_
- _The Great Mouse Detective_
- _My Little Pony: The Movie_
- _Maximum Overdrive_
- _16 Candles_
- _An American Tail_

## Hit songs

- "Stimulation – Wa Wa Nee
- "You're The Voice" – John Farnham #1
- "No Lies" – Noiseworks
- "Funkytown" – Psudeo Echo #1
- "Throw Your Arms Around Me" – Hunters + Collectors
- "(There's Gonna Be) A Showdown – The Johnnys
- "Walk Like an Egyptian" – The Bangles
- "Livin' on a Prayer" – Bon Jovi
- "The Final Countdown" – Europe
- "French Kissin' In The USA" – Debbie Harry
- "True Colors" – Cyndi Lauper
- "Hip To Be Square" – Huey Lewis and the News
- "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" – Iggy Pop
- "Hymn To Her" – The Pretenders
- "War" – Bruce Springsteen
- "Breakout" – Swing Out Sister
- "I Want To Wake Up With You" – Boris Gardiner
- "Two Of Hearts" – Stacey Q
- "Whole Of The Moon" – Waterboys
- "Take My Breath Away" – Berlin
- "Glory Of Love" – Peter Cetera
- "The Next Time I Fall" – Peter Cetera
- "You Give Love A Bad Name" – Bon Jovi
- "Move Away" – Culture Club
- "That's What Friends Are For" – Dionne Warwick
- "Hey, You!" – Divine
- "Little Baby" – Divine
- "Sara" – Starship
- "Parce que je ne t'aime plus" – Dalida
- "Le sixième jour" – Dalida
- "Addicted To Love" – Robert Palmer
- "Stuck With You" – Huey Lewis & the News
- "How Will I Know" – Whitney Houston
- "When I Think of You" – Janet Jackson
- "West End Girls" – Pet Shop Boys
- "Live to Tell" – Madonna
- "Holding Back The Years" – Simply Red
- "Stay For Awhile" – Amy Grant
- "Papa Don't Preach" – Madonna
- "Rock Me Amadeus" – Falco
- "On My Own" – Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
- "Notorious" – Duran Duran
- "Sometimes" – Erasure
- "Kyrie" – Mr. Mister
- "That Was Then, This Is Now" – The Monkees
- "Kiss" – Prince
- "The Greatest Love of All" – Whitney Houston
- "Manic Monday" – The Bangles
- "Locked In" – Judas Priest
- "Turbo Lover" – Judas Priest
- "Love Walks In" – Van Halen
- "La Isla Bonita" – Madonna
- "Sledgehammer" – Peter Gabriel
- "Invisible Touch" – Genesis
- "Living In America" – James Brown
- "Lady In Red" – Chris de Burgh
- "Holding Out For A Hero" – Bonnie Tyler
- "My Hometown" – Bruce Springsteen
- "Venus" – Bananarama

## New books

- _Extinction_ – Thomas Bernhard
- _The Bourne Supremacy_ – Robert Ludlum
- _The Bridge_ – Iain Banks
- _Cadillac Desert_ – Marc Reisner
- _The Fence Post Chronicles_ – W.P. Kinsella
- _The Fisher King_ – Anthony Powell
- _Ghost_ – Piers Anthony
- _The Golden Cup_ – Belva Plain
- _Hollywood Husbands_ – Jackie Collins
- _I'll Take Manhattan_ – Judith Krantz
- _In the Hollow of His Hand_ – James Purdy
- _It_ – Stephen King
- _Kara Kush_ – Idries Shah
- _Kate Vaiden_ – Reynolds Price
- _Last of the Breed_ – Louis L'Amour
- _Leo Africanus_ – Amin Maalouf
- _The Light Fantastic_ – Terry Pratchett
- _Love You Forever_ – Robert Munsch
- _A Matter of Honour_ – Jeffrey Archer
- _The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America_ – Martin Amis
- _Nobody Lives For Ever_ – John Gardner
- _The Old Devils_ – Kingsley Amis
- _A Perfect Spy_ – John le Carré
- _The Prince of Tides_ – Pat Conroy
- _Red Storm Rising_ – Tom Clancy
- _Speaker for the Dead_ – Orson Scott Card
- _Sportswriter_ – Richard Ford
- _Tourist Season_ – Carl Hiaasen
- _Wanderlust_ – Danielle Steel
- _Whirlwind_ – James Clavell
- _The Wizards and the Warriors_ – Hugh Cook