1986 TOP U.S. NEWS STORIES

• Following several trouble-free years in Space Exploration, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after take-off, killing all on board, and was watched live on TV by people around the world.
• Various artists, including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nelson, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, and Stevie Wonder, recorded the song "We Are The World" as USA for Africa to raise money for famine relief.
• Michael Jackson buys ATV Music and every Beatles song for 47 million dollars.
• Coca-Cola Company introduces New Coke. (6 months later, they returned to the original formula.)
• The Internet Mail Access Protocol was defined, which will open the way for E-Mail
• The Human Genome Project was launched to understand the Human Makeup; this will open the way for great advances in the treatment of many illnesses.
• The US bombs Libya in protest of Libyan sponsorship of terrorist organizations involved in the bomb that exploded in the crowded La Belle disco in Berlin, Germany.
• Breakthrough in US - USSR Arms Talks between Reagan and Gorbachev leads to a commitment to disarm, thus ending a long period of instability caused by the Cold War
• Comet Halley reaches the closest point to the Earth during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th century.
• Approximately seven million Americans joined hands in "Hands Across America."
• Iran-Contra Affair: President Ronald Reagan's administration sold arms to Iran, an avowed enemy. At the time, Americans were being held hostage in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a militant Shi'a organization loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini.
• The US stock market drops 22.6% in one day on October 19.
• Mike Tyson becomes the youngest Heavyweight Champion in history.
• Smoking is banned on all public transport, including trains, planes, buses and coaches.
• The experimental airplane Voyager completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight.
• IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
• The 386 series of microprocessor was introduced by Intel.
• Nicotine patch was invented by Frank Etscorn.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD...

• The worst-ever nuclear disaster occurs as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station explodes, causing the release of radioactive material across much of Europe.
• Spain and Portugal join the EEC.
• John McCarthy, a British TV journalist, is kidnapped in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut.
• Gorbachev steps up the reform program in Russia, introducing Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness).
• Violence continues to escalate in Northern Ireland during the Orangemen Parades in Dumcree and Portadown, with more innocents killed during the Troubles.
• Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport by four armed men.
• Bomb explodes on TWA Jet over Greece, blowing a hole in the aircraft and sucking 4 passengers out.
• Earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
• Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease first identified. Following an epidemic of BSE in Britain, 157 people (as of 2004) acquired and died of a disease with similar neurological symptoms, subsequently called vCJD, or (new) variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
• The London Stock Exchange is deregulated, allowing computerized share dealing (The Big Bang).
• South African troops launch multiple raids on Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. The South African government censors reporters and the news media from reporting unrest throughout the country.
• Richard Branson on the 72 ft powerboat Virgin Challenger II breaks the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic.
• A fire in a King’s Cross underground station in London kills 30 commuters and injures dozens of others.
• Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated.
• A full survey is carried out of Loch Ness, hoping to find proof that Nessie exists. (No proof was found.)
• The Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, is laid to rest alongside her husband, King Edward VIII.
• Terry Waite, a special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, is kidnapped.
• A mass uprising by Palestinians against Israeli military occupation begins in Jabalia refugee camp and spreads to Gaza.
• Argentina Wins 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
• The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
• The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
• Micronesia gains independence from the United States.
• British Surgeons perform the world's first triple transplant ( heart, lung, and liver).
• The high-temperature superconductor was invented in Switzerland/