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).[1]
February 27 – The
United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
March
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.
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.
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.[3]
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 13 – The 5.8 MwOceanside earthquake shook the south coast of California with a maximum
Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), causing $700,000 in losses and one death.
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. Twenty-one people are killed during the hijacking, including nationals from India, the United States, Pakistan, and Mexico.
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 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.
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 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 – 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 the longest-running non-news program on network television, NBC airs the final episode of daytime drama Search for Tomorrow.