1986

Events from the year 1986 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Ronald Reagan (R-CA)
* Vice President: George H. W. Bush (R-TX)
* Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (MN) (until September 26), William Rehnquist (WI) (starting September 26)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tip O'Neill (D-MA)
* Senate Majority Leader: Bob Dole (R-KS)
* Congress: 99th
==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 to 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 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 Mw and 4.4 Mw) 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 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===
* March 1 – 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 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 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 – 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 Mw 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 Mw 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 Mw 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. 21 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 1 – 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 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.
==Memoriam==
===January===
* January 6 – Una Merkel, actress (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 7 – P. D. Eastman, screenwriter, children's author, and illustrator (aged 76; Cresskill, NJ, USA)
* January 14 – Donna Reed, actress (aged 64; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* January 16 – Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God (aged 93; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* January 23 – Willard Van Dyke, filmmaker and photographer (aged 79; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction author, founder of Scientology (aged 74; Creston, CA, USA)
* January 28
** Gregory Jarvis, astronaut and engineer (aged 41; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
** Christa McAuliffe, school teacher (aged 37; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
** Ronald McNair, astronaut and physicist (aged 35; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
** Ellison Onizuka, astronaut (aged 39; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
** Judith Resnik, astronaut and engineer (aged 36; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
** Francis R. Scobee, astronaut (aged 46; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
** Michael J. Smith, astronaut (aged 40; Cape Canaveral, FL, USA)
* January 29 – Leif Erickson, actor (aged 74; Pensacola, FL, USA)
===February===
* February 1 – Ida Rhodes, mathematician, pioneer in computer programming (aged 85; Rockville, MD, USA)
* February 11 – Frank Herbert, writer (aged 65; Madison, WI, USA)
* February 16 – Howard Da Silva, actor (aged 76; Ossining, NY, USA)
* February 17 – Paul Stewart, actor (aged 77; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 19 – Barry Seal, smuggler of drugs and arms, aircraft pilot, and money launderer and former Trans Worlds Airlines pilot (aged 46; Baton Rouge, LA, USA)
===March===
* March 4 – Howard Greenfield, songwriter (aged 49; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 6
** Adolph Caesar, actor (aged 52; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Georgia O'Keeffe, artist (aged 98; Santa Fe, NM, USA)
* March 10 – Ray Milland, Welsh-born actor and director (aged 79; Torrance, CA, USA)
* March 18 – Bernard Malamud, novelist and short story writer (aged 71; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* March 19 – Jon Lormer, actor (aged 79; Burbank, CA, USA)
* March 22
** John W. Bricker, 54th Governor of Ohio (aged 92; Columbus, OH, USA)
** Charles Starrett, actor (aged 82; Borrego Springs, CA, USA)
* March 28 – Virginia Gilmore, actress and wife of Yul Brynner (aged 66; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
* March 29 – Harry Ritz, actor (aged 78; San Diego, CA, USA)
* March 30 – James Cagney, actor (aged 86; Stanford, NY, USA)
* March 31 – Jerry Paris, actor and director (aged 60; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===April===
* April 15 – Tim McIntire, actor (aged 41; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 17 – Paul Costello, Olympic rower, double sculls (aged 91; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* April 19 – Alvin Childress, actor (aged 78; Inglewood, CA, USA)
* April 23
** Harold Arlen, music composer (aged 81; New York City, NY, USA)
** Otto Preminger, Austrian-born film director (aged 80; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 26
** Broderick Crawford, actor (aged 74; Rancho Mirage, CA, USA)
** Bessie Love, actress (aged 87; London, England, UK)
* April 27 – J. Allen Hynek, ufologist (aged 75; Scottsdale, AZ, USA)
===May===
* May 3 – Robert Alda, actor (aged 72; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 9 – Herschel Bernardi, actor (aged 62; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 15 – Theodore H. White, writer (aged 71; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 20 – Helen B. Taussig, cardiologist (aged 87; Kennett Square, PA, USA)
* May 23 – Sterling Hayden, actor (aged 70; Sausalito, CA, USA)
* May 24 – Yakima Canutt, actor and stuntman (aged 90; North Hollywood, CA, USA)
* May 25 – Chester Bowles, politician (aged 85; Essex, CT, USA)
* May 26 – Gian-Carlo Coppola, film producer (aged 22; Annapolis, MD, USA)
* May 28 – Lurene Tuttle, actress (aged 78; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 30 – Perry Ellis, fashion designer (aged 46; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 31 – James Rainwater, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (aged 68; New York City, NY, USA)
===June===
* June 5 – Bryan Grant, tennis champion (aged 76; Atlanta, GA, USA)
* June 11 – Chesley Bonestell, painter (aged 98; Carmel, CA, USA)
* June 13 – Benny Goodman, jazz musician (aged 77; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 14 – Alan Jay Lerner, lyricist (aged 67; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 17 – Kate Smith, singer (aged 79; Raleigh, NC, USA)
* June 19 – Len Bias, basketball player (aged 22; Riverdale, MD, USA)
* June 27 – Don Rogers, football player (aged 23; Sacramento, CA, USA)
* June 28 – Mary Anderson, actress (aged 88; El Cajon, CA, USA)
===July===
* July 3 – Rudy Vallée, radio show host, bandleader, singer, actor (aged 84; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 8 – Hyman G. Rickover, admiral (aged 86; Arlington, VA, USA)
* July 14 – Raymond Loewy, French-born industrial designer (aged 92; Monte Carlo, Monaco)
* July 18 – Buddy Baer, boxer and actor (aged 71; Martinez, CA, USA)
* July 22 – Floyd Gottfredson, cartoonist (aged 81; Montrose, CA, USA)
* July 24 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (aged 87; Poughkeepsee, NY, USA)
* July 25
** Ted Lyons, baseball player (Chicago White Sox) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (aged 85; Sulphur, LA, USA)
** Vincente Minnelli, film director (aged 83; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* July 26 – W. Averell Harriman, diplomat and politician (aged 94; Yorktown Heights, NY, USA)
* July 31 – Teddy Wilson, jazz pianist (aged 73; New Britain, CT, USA)
===August===
* August 2 – Roy Cohn, lawyer (aged 59; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* August 11 – Chuck McKinley, tennis champion (aged 45; Dallas, TX, USA)
* August 21 – Thad Jones, jazz musician (aged 63; Copenhagen, Denmark)
* August 26 – Ted Knight, actor (aged 62; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===September===
* September 1 – Murray Hamilton, actor (aged 63; Washington, NC, USA)
* September 4 – Hank Greenberg, baseball player and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (aged 75; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* September 6 – Blanche Sweet, actress (aged 90; New York City, NY, USA)
* September 11 – Henry DeWolf Smyth, physicist (aged 88; Princeton, NJ, USA)
* September 27 – Cliff Burton, former Metallica bassist (aged 24; Dörarp, Sweden)
===October===
* October 4 – Raymond E. Baldwin, 72nd and 74th Governor of Connecticut (aged 93; Fairfield, CT, USA)
* October 5 – Hal B. Wallis, film producer (aged 87; Rancho Mirage, CA, USA)
* October 14 – Keenan Wynn, actor (aged 70; Brentwood, CA, USA)
* October 23 – Edward Adelbert Doisy, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (aged 92; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* October 25 – Forrest Tucker, actor (aged 67; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 26 – Jackson Scholz, Olympic athlete (aged 89; Delray Beach, FL, USA)
* October 31 – Robert S. Mulliken, physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (aged 90; Arlington, VA, USA)
===November===
* November 2 – Paul Frees, actor, comedian (aged 66; Tiburon, CA, USA)
* November 11 – Roger C. Carmel, actor (aged 54; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* November 18 – Gia Carangi, supermodel (aged 26; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* November 21
** Jerry Colonna, comedian (aged 82; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
** Dar Robinson, stunt performer and actor (aged 39; Page, AZ, USA)
* November 22 – Scatman Crothers, actor and musician (aged 76; Van Nuys, CA, USA)
* November 29 – Cary Grant, British-born actor (aged 82; Davenport, IA, USA)
===December===
* December 2 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor, bandleader, musician and television producer; co-founder of Desilu Productions (aged 69; Del Mar, CA, USA)
* December 10 – Susan Cabot, actress (aged 59; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 13
** Heather Angel, British-born actress (aged 77; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Ella Baker, civil rights activist (aged 83; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* December 24 – Gardner Fox, writer (aged 75; Princeton, NJ, USA)
* December 26 – Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (aged 84; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
==External links==
* 1986 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 21