1986 was yet another awesome year for movies and music, but it was also a year of horrors and unspeakable tragedies...

The first PC virus called 'Brain' starts to spread while IBM unveils the PC Convertible - the first laptop computer.

Internet Mail Access Protocol is defined for e-mail transfer, and the 386 series microprocessor is introduced by Intel.

The first federal Martin Luther King Day is observed on Jan 20th.

Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing the crew of 7 astronauts including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

Halley's Comet reaches its perihelion, the closest point to the Sun, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th Century.

The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station in February. It was the largest space station ever created at that point in time, and between 1987 and 1996, five expansion modules were added to the core unit. During the next month after its launch Mir became inhabitable and remained occupied by over one-hundred space travelers from twelve countries until June of 2000. After 14 years of service, the Mir Space Station was abandoned by Russia and the defunct station returned to Earth in March of 2001 with a controlled re-entry.

Hailstones weighing 2.2 pounds each (880 g) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

An earthquake measuring 7.5 strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

175 Gold Miners die in Kinross mine in Eastern Transvaal, South Africa.

In Edmond, Oklahoma, United States Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers before committing suicide. This is where the term "going postal" originated.

The first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, is identified at an agricultural lab in England. It was believed that the outbreak, which would go on to infect over 150,000 cows in Britain, began years earlier in 1984. Symptoms of BSE included a progressive deterioration of behavior and neurological functions, like an increase in aggression and an unsteady gait, leading to death. BSE was also linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans who had consumed infected meat. Millions of cattle were culled to stop the epidemic, ending around 1998 in the UK.  

In the Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes on April 26th, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster. Caused by an experiment gone wrong, the presence of design flaws in the reactor, and a lack of safety oversight, 31 are killed directly by the incident, many more die from cancer in later years, thousands more are exposed to significant amounts of radioactive material, and vast territories in Ukraine and Belarus are rendered uninhabitable.

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the disaster as the Soviet Union evacuated and closed off the surrounding area within 18 miles of the nuclear plant. The explosion at Chernobyl not only damaged the surrounding environment with radiation, but parts of Europe, notably Sweden and Finland were also hit with contaminated dust and air from Chernobyl as it traveled through the atmosphere. Eventually clean-up workers were able to contain the nuclear disaster by putting a concrete sarcophagus over the damaged reactor, but it was still thought to be somewhat unstable. During the late 1990's to mid-2000's, Europe and the Ukraine worked together to create an even more permanent and stable cover to contain the radiation. 

The Iran-Contra Affair takes place when 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.

Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's secret vault on The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault, discovering only a bottle of moonshine. It was a huge embarrassment for him and nearly destroyed his career.  

Hands Across America takes place and at least 5 million people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.

The Statue of Liberty is reopened to the public after an extensive refurbishing, just in time for its centennial dedication.

In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.

Fox Broadcasting Company is launched, and The Oprah Winfrey Show debuts nationally.

The stage musical The Phantom of the Opera debuts in London's West End. It has since become the second longest-running musical in the West End (behind Les Misérables) and the longest-running musical on Broadway. It is estimated to have earned over $5 billion and been seen in 148 cities by over 130 million people. 

TV shows such as Alf, The A-Team, and Growing Pains entertain us while iconic movies such as The Labyrinth, Aliens, Top Gun, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Stand By Me, Short Circuit, Pretty in Pink, The Money Pit, Little Shop of Horrors, Platoon, and Back to School hit the theaters.

Here are just a few of the songs from this year, in no particular order, taken from Billboard's Hot 100:

1.) Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love

2.) Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

3.) Berlin - Take My Breath Away

4.) Cyndi Lauper - True Colors

5.) The Bangles - Manic Monday

6.) Bananarama - Venus

7.) Janet Jackson - What Have You Done For Me Lately?

8.) Run D.M.C. featuring Aerosmith - Walk This Way

9.) Phil Collins - Take Me Home

10.) INXS - What You Need

11.) Dire Straits - Walk of Life

12.) Miami Sound Machine - Conga

13.) Madonna - Papa Don't Preach

14.) Simply Red - Holding Back the Years

15.) David Bowie - As the World Falls Down

16.) Mr. Mister - Broken Wings

17.) Whitney Houston - Greatest Love of All

18.) Prince & The Revolution - Kiss

19.) Lionel Richie - Say You, Say Me

20.) Robert Palmer - I Didn't Mean To Turn You On

21.) Janet Jackson - Nasty

22.) Ben E. King - Stand By Me

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A/N : There you have it - 1986! What movie(s) and song(s) did you like? What about the events? Let me HEAR you!👂🏻

⭐️PLEASE BE SURE TO VOTE AND COMMENT!!!⭐️

Info on 1986 events, movies, and songs credited to:

http://www.liketotally80s.com/2007/08/80s-capsules-1986/

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1986.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1986

Now on to 1987...