BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953

Home | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 |1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003

 

 

1986

Jan20 United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
  Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel
Jan24 Voyager 2 passes within 81593km of the planet Uranus and in doing so discovers two moons
Jan28 Soviet Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev demands reforms and announces plans for radical changes in economic policy.
  Nine years and a day after the first launch, (27 Jan 1967) the 25th Space Shuttle (51L)-Challenger 10 explodes 73 seconds after lift off killing the crew of five men and two women.
Feb9 Halley's Comet reaches 30th perihelion (closest approach to Sun)
Feb19 USSR launches Mir space station into the Earth's orbit 
Feb25 Former Philippines President Ferdinand E Marcos flees the country
Feb28 Swedish Premier Olof Palme is assassinated in Stockholm
Mar2 The Australia Bill formally severs Australia's constitutional ties with Britain
Mar20 The highest gust of wind ever recorded in th UK at a high level site ((1,245 m AMSL) occurred at the Cairngorms. It measured 150 knots an hour
Mar23 Greater London Council and six Metropolitan Councils are abolished by the Tory government
Mar26 U.S. Sinks Libyan Patrol Boats. Four Libyan vessels were sunk or damaged and an SA-5 radar site was crippled
Apr11 Halley's Comet makes closest approach to Earth this trip, 63 M km It was named after Edmund Halley, who predicted its orbit but he died before he could see his prediction come true. Halley's most famous appearance was in 1066 AD before the Battle of Hastings.
Apr14 US aircraft attacks five terrorist locations in Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5th; Libya says 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Apr17 British journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped in Beirut. He was released in August 1991, by the Islamic Jihad. Also on this day, Britons Philip Padfield, John Leigh Douglas and American Peter Kilburn were found shot dead. The pro-Libyan Revolutionary Cells said it killed them in retaliation for the U.S. bombing of Libya.
Apr26 Chernobyl nuclear reactor no 4 explodes in Russia - radiation reaches Britain 2 May 
Apr30 Indian police invade the Golden Temple at Amritsar, massacring the people there
Jun19 Argentina beats West Germany 3-2 in soccer's 13th World Cup Final
Jul23 Britain's Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson. 
July7 Boris Becker wins the mens singles title at Winbledon defeating Kevin Curran in the Final. He is 17 years old
Jul30 Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh is reported missing after meeting a client in London.
Oct19 President Samora Machel is killed in an air crash in Mozambique.
Nov22 By beating Trevor Berbick in two rounds in Las Vegas Mike Tyson becomes the Worlds youngest ever Heavyweight Boxing Champion
Dec14 Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards AFB, CA on 1st non-stop, non-refueled flight around world 
Dec19 Andrei Sakharov the Russian dissident is permitted to return to Moscow after seven years internal exile

 

Home | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 |1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003

Last Updated 21/07/03 10:18

Return to Main HomePage