WHAT ALL HAPPENED AUGUST TO NOVEMBER 1986
Find out what all happened August to November 1986

USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China – the first US Naval visit to China since 1949. (5. November 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)

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

In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide. (20. August 1986)

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

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. (29. October 1986)

In Lebanon, pro-Irankidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991). (21. October 1986)

Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination. (7. September 1986)

An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people. (10. October 1986)

Israeli secret nuclear weapons are revealed. The British newspaper The Sunday Times runs Mordechai Vanunu's story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed — the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal". (5. October 1986)

Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets the major-league record by striking out the first eight batters of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. (23. September 1986)

The Compact of Free Association becomes law, granting the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands independence from the United States. (13. November 1986)

Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range. (21. August 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 Boston Red Sox win Game 2 of the 1986 World Series versus the New York Mets 9-3 at Shea Stadium. (19. October 1986)

Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe. (11. October 1986)

Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport. (5. September 1986)

TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, is officially opened. (3. October 1986)

The musical The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. (9. October 1986)