WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1986
Find out what all happened January to December 1986

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. (25. November 1986)

The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. (16. February 1986)

Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa. (7. September 1986)

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. (3. November 1986)

The Soviet passenger liner  Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423. (31. August 1986)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time. (20. January 1986)

The Boston Red Sox win Game 2 of the 1986 World Series versus the New York Mets 9-3 at Shea Stadium. (19. October 1986)

The Chernobyl Disaster: American and European Spy Satellites capture the ruins of the 4th Reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant (29. April 1986)

The Legend of Zelda, the first game of The Legend of Zelda series, was released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System. (21. February 1986)

The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for 10 of those years. (20. February 1986)

Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky. (19. December 1986)

A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer and injuring 21 people. (27. March 1986)

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. (27. October 1986)

Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor. (7. March 1986)

Hotel New World Disaster: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses. (15. March 1986)

The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus. (4. March 1986)

Three people are killed in the bombing of the La Belle Discothèque in West Berlin, Germany. (5. April 1986)

Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders. (16. October 1986)

Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines. (22. February 1986)

Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation. (7. February 1986)