| |
| 1986 |
| |
| Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright and poet, received the Nobel Prize for literature. | 1 |
| |
| Jan |
| |
| The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after it was launched. All seven persons aboard were killed, including S. Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher who was the first private citizen to fly on a shuttle. | 2 |
| |
| Feb |
| |
| The Dalai Lama, exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, met with Pope John Paul II in India. The U.S. Senate ratified the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 37 years after it had been submitted by President Truman. | 3 |
| |
| Mar |
| |
| The Giotto spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency sent back data about the nucleus of Halley's Comet. | 4 |
| |
| April |
| |
| U.S. warplanes bombed Libya in retaliation for terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens. The CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT in the Soviet Union (Ukraine) experienced a major accident. Severely high levels of radioactivity were detected throughout northern and eastern Europe. | 5 |
| |
| May |
| |
| The annual economic summit of the leaders of the G-7 countries was held in Tokyo. | 6 |
| |
| June |
| |
| The UN General Assembly approved a Program of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development. It was the first time that such action had been taken for a specific region. | 7 |
| |
| July |
| |
| The leader of the Turkish republic in northern Cyprus rejected UN efforts to unseal the border that divided the island. | 8 |
| |
| Sept |
| |
| Summit meeting of the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Zimbabwe. It issued a call for selective sanctions against South Africa. | 9 |
| |
| Sept.–Oct |
| |
| The U.S. Congress overrode a veto by President Reagan, legislating strict U.S. economic sanctions against South Africa. | 10 |
| |
| Oct |
| |
| World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, was attended by leaders of 12 different religious traditions. | 11 |
| |
| |
