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
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* 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

## Deaths 
### January 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* May 9 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountain guide (b. 1914)

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

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

### November 
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* 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 
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* 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