1986

• January 5 – Sana Mir, Pakistani cricketer
• January 24 – Mischa Barton, English-born American actress
• January 24 – Ricky Ullman, Israeli-born American actor
• February 1 – Johan Vonlanthen, Swiss footballer
• February 19 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer
• February 21 – Charlotte Church, Welsh soprano
• March 1 – Jonathan Spector, American footballer
• March 9 – Brittany Snow, American actress
• March 14 – Jamie Bell, English actor
• March 16 – Alexandra Daddario, American actress
• March 28 – Lady Gaga, American singer
• April 3 – Amanda Bynes, American actress and variety show host
• April 9 – Leighton Meester, American actress
• April 18 – Mateusz Rutkowski, Polish ski jumper (d. 2024)
• May 13 – Robert Pattinson, Actor, Singer & Model
• May 16 – Megan Fox, American actress
• June 3 – Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player
• June 10 – Joey Zimmerman, American actor
• June 11 – Shia LaBeouf, American actor
• June 13 – Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, American actresses and entrepreneurs
• June 24 – Solange Knowles, American actress and singer
• June 25 – Aya Matsuura, Japanese singer
• June 27 – Drake Bell, American actor
• July 2 – Lindsay Lohan, American actress
• July 4 – Shane Kippel, Canadian actor
• July 17 – Brando Eaton, American actor
• August 16 – Shawn Pyfrom, American actor
• September 9 – Michael J. Sox, German singer
• September 12 – Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer
• October 16 - Inna, Romanian singer and songwriter
• October 31 – Christie Hayes, Australian actress
• November 1 – Penn Badgley, American actor
• November 2 – Lara Sacher, Australian actress
• November 3 – Jasmine Trias, American singer
• November 5 – BoA, Korean singer
• November 17 – Nani, Portuguese footballer
• November 25 – Amber Hagerman, American murder victim (d. 1996)
• November 27 – Suresh Raina, Indian cricketer
• December 28 – Tom Huddlestone, English football player
• December 30 – Ellie Goulding, British singer

January

• January 1 – Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (b. 1902)
• January 2 – Una Merkel, American actress (b. 1903)
• January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)
• January 4 - Phil Lynott, Irish bass guitarist (Thin Lizzy) (b. 1949)
• January 8 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (b. 1906)
• January 14 – Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
• January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American fiction writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
• January 24 – Gordon MacRae, American actor, singer (b. 1921)
• January 24 – Vincente Minnelli, American director (b. 1903)
• January 27 – Lilli Palmer, actress (b. 1914)
• January 28 – Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Greg Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe.

February

• February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction writer (b. 1920)
• February 27 – Jacques Plante, Canadian hockey player (b. 1929)
• February 28 – Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)

March

• March 6 – Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist (b. 1887)
• March 10 – Ray Milland, Welsh actor (b. 1907)
• March 30 – James Cagney, American actor (b. 1899)

April

• April 14 – Simone de Beauvoir, French writer and intellectual (b. 1908)
• April 15 - Tim McIntire, American actor (b. 1944)
• April 24 – Wallis Simpson, wife of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1896)
• April 26 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)

May

• May 9 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountain guide (b. 1914)

June

• June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (b. 1899)

August

• August 22 – Celâl Bayar, 3rd President of Turkey (b. 1883)
• August 26 – Ted Knight, American actor (b. 1923)
• August 31 – Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)

September

• September 1 – Murray Hamilton, American actor (b. 1923)
• September 24 – Cliff Burton, American bassist and songwriter from Metallica (b. 1962)

October

• October 14 – Keenan Wynn, American actor (b. 1916)
• October 19 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique (b. 1933)

November

• November 2 – Paul Frees, American actor, comedian (b. 1920)
• November 8 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (b. 1890)
• November 21 – Jerry Colonna, American comedian (b. 1904)
• November 22 – Scatman Crothers, American actor, musician (b. 1910)
• November 29 – Cary Grant, English actor (b. 1904)

December

• December 2 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, musician and television producer (b. 1917)
• December 26 – Elsa Lanchester, British-American actress (b. 1902)
• December 28 – Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian movie director (b. 1932)
• December 29 – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the UK (b. 1894)

• January 1 – Spain and Portugal enter the European Community
• January 1 – Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles.
• January 9 – After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.
• January 12 – Space Shuttle Columbia is launched with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
• January 20 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
• January 20 – The first federal Martin Luther King Day, honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
• January 24 – Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus
• January 28 – Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts on board.
• January 29 – Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of the Republic of Uganda after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle.
• February 25 – Corazon Aquino becomes President of the Philippines.
• February 28 – Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated.
• April 20 - NBA player Michael Jordan scores a playoff record 63 points in a game against the Boston Celtics.
• April 21 – Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on live television and finds nothing.
• April 26 – An explosion occurs at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl.
• August 21 – A leak of volcanic gases at Lake Nyos in Cameroon kills many people nearby as they sleep.
• September 24 — Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is killed in a bus crash
• October 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan hold a meeting in Iceland.
• October 19 – Mozambique's President Samora Machel dies in a plane crash.
• Bubble Bobble is created, a video game popular world-wide

• Little Shop of Horrors
• Top Gun
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Stand by Me
• Back to School
• Aliens
• The Delta Force
• Three Amigos!
• Cobra
• Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation
• Club Paradise
• Ruthless People
• The Hitcher
• Heartbreak Ridge
• The Great Mouse Detective
• My Little Pony: The Movie
• Maximum Overdrive
• 16 Candles
• An American Tail

• "Stimulation – Wa Wa Nee
• "You're The Voice" – John Farnham #1
• "No Lies" – Noiseworks
• "Funkytown" – Psudeo Echo #1
• "Throw Your Arms Around Me" – Hunters + Collectors
• "(There's Gonna Be) A Showdown – The Johnnys
• "Walk Like an Egyptian" – The Bangles
• "Livin' on a Prayer" – Bon Jovi
• "The Final Countdown" – Europe
• "French Kissin' In The USA" – Debbie Harry
• "True Colors" – Cyndi Lauper
• "Hip To Be Square" – Huey Lewis and the News
• "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" – Iggy Pop
• "Hymn To Her" – The Pretenders
• "War" – Bruce Springsteen
• "Breakout" – Swing Out Sister
• "I Want To Wake Up With You" – Boris Gardiner
• "Two Of Hearts" – Stacey Q
• "Whole Of The Moon" – Waterboys
• "Take My Breath Away" – Berlin
• "Glory Of Love" – Peter Cetera
• "The Next Time I Fall" – Peter Cetera
• "You Give Love A Bad Name" – Bon Jovi
• "Move Away" – Culture Club
• "That's What Friends Are For" – Dionne Warwick
• "Hey, You!" – Divine
• "Little Baby" – Divine
• "Sara" – Starship
• "Parce que je ne t'aime plus" – Dalida
• "Le sixième jour" – Dalida
• "Addicted To Love" – Robert Palmer
• "Stuck With You" – Huey Lewis & the News
• "How Will I Know" – Whitney Houston
• "When I Think of You" – Janet Jackson
• "West End Girls" – Pet Shop Boys
• "Live to Tell" – Madonna
• "Holding Back The Years" – Simply Red
• "Stay For Awhile" – Amy Grant
• "Papa Don't Preach" – Madonna
• "Rock Me Amadeus" – Falco
• "On My Own" – Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
• "Notorious" – Duran Duran
• "Sometimes" – Erasure
• "Kyrie" – Mr. Mister
• "That Was Then, This Is Now" – The Monkees
• "Kiss" – Prince
• "The Greatest Love of All" – Whitney Houston
• "Manic Monday" – The Bangles
• "Locked In" – Judas Priest
• "Turbo Lover" – Judas Priest
• "Love Walks In" – Van Halen
• "La Isla Bonita" – Madonna
• "Sledgehammer" – Peter Gabriel
• "Invisible Touch" – Genesis
• "Living In America" – James Brown
• "Lady In Red" – Chris de Burgh
• "Holding Out For A Hero" – Bonnie Tyler
• "My Hometown" – Bruce Springsteen
• "Venus" – Bananarama

• Extinction – Thomas Bernhard
• The Bourne Supremacy – Robert Ludlum
• The Bridge – Iain Banks
• Cadillac Desert – Marc Reisner
• The Fence Post Chronicles – W.P. Kinsella
• The Fisher King – Anthony Powell
• Ghost – Piers Anthony
• The Golden Cup – Belva Plain
• Hollywood Husbands – Jackie Collins
• I'll Take Manhattan – Judith Krantz
• In the Hollow of His Hand – James Purdy
• It – Stephen King
• Kara Kush – Idries Shah
• Kate Vaiden – Reynolds Price
• Last of the Breed – Louis L'Amour
• Leo Africanus – Amin Maalouf
• The Light Fantastic – Terry Pratchett
• Love You Forever – Robert Munsch
• A Matter of Honour – Jeffrey Archer
• The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America – Martin Amis
• Nobody Lives For Ever – John Gardner
• The Old Devils – Kingsley Amis
• A Perfect Spy – John le Carré
• The Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy
• Red Storm Rising – Tom Clancy
• Speaker for the Dead – Orson Scott Card
• Sportswriter – Richard Ford
• Tourist Season – Carl Hiaasen
• Wanderlust – Danielle Steel
• Whirlwind – James Clavell
• The Wizards and the Warriors – Hugh Cook

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