I was reading Good Woman’s post about the year she was born, and I found it very interesting. It gave me the idea to write a post about the year I was born 1986.
First of, at the same day I was born 26th of April 1986, the terrible Chernobyl disaster occurred. Everyone was scared about the effects that this nuclear power plant blowing up would have. In Norway it meant among other things that it was un safe to eat reindeer meat for quite some time. But the effects in areas closer to the accident has been a lot more severe.
Other bad stuff was the murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take-off killing all the 7 people on board. It seems there was quite a lot of fires, boats sinking, earth quakes and bombings this year too.
The year wasn’t all bad even if there was a lot of bad stuff going on. On a more positive note. IBM showed the world their PC Convertible, the company’s first portable computer. Spain and Portugal joined the EEC. Pixar Animation Studios is opened. The 27th Congress of the CPSU opens in Moscow. The General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the keywords of his mandate to the audience: Glasnost and Perestroika. Breakthrough in US – USSR Arms Talks between Reagan and Gorbachev leads to commitment to disarm thus ending a long period of instability caused by the Cold War
Some of the leaders around the world was: Jacques Chirac was elected prime minister of France. Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier “Baby Doc”, fled Haiti. Ronald Reagan was president in the USA, he made the decision to bomb Libya this year and the Iran-Contra affair was known. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in Great Britain. In Norway the Willoch government abdicated due to a question of raising the tax on gas and Gro Harlem Brundtland had her second period in office. And one must not forget that Clint Eastwood was elected Mayor of Carmel California!
Entertainment and sports: In one of the most famous FIFA World Cup matches, Argentinian football player Diego Maradona scores one handball goal (nicknamed the “Hand of God”) and then dribbles past the entire English football team to score a second goal (nicknamed “The Goal of the Century”) with Argentina winning 2-1 against England.Mike Tyson wins his first world boxing title by defeating Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas. Sandra Kim from Belgium wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Bergen, Norway with her song J’aime la vie. Matt Groening creates The Simpsons family.
Sources: Wikipedia and the people history
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The thoughts and life of me 
Gosh you make me feel old as I was born on 6 January 1969. I still enjoy listening to some of the music from the eighties. Thanks for your interesting post. Kevin
Hehe you’re not that old. And I enjoy listening to some of the music from the 80’s too.
I enjoyed your revisit to 1986 – brought back lots of childhood memories of the 80s. Hadn’t quite realised how busy and eventful that one particular year was.
Yeah ther was a lot happening that year!
What a novel way to look at the year you were born. It kind of puts things in perspective doesn’t it. I never looked at the year I was born like that. It was a long time ago. It’s a strange world we live in no matter the era. I should know as I’m quite old. 🙂
Thank you. It was an interesting post to write!
I remember seeing the Challenger disaster, but I had forgotten that Chernobyl was the same year.
Hard to forget those things. One remembers the incedents but often not when they happened!
How fun to see what was g going on in the world the year you were born. I would be afraid to go back that far ha ha! !
It was a very interesting post to write 🙂 I strongly recomend writing one.
Your birthday came in with an unfortunate bang so to speak (Chernobyl). I am hopeful that the rest of your life has been less eventful in that regard. What an interesting post to do. I will have to think about doing something similar but I might be afraid to go back that faaaaaaaar. 🙂
Thank you. I do hope I’m not the proof of the fact that an accident rearly comes alone as some claim 😉 It was a post that was very interesting post to write and I got the idea because I read one of these posts and enjoyed it a lot. I highly recomend to do a post of your own because it’s so much fun!
Thanks. I shall do. When I get brave enough… and look again at that year. Ha Ha
I look forward to it 🙂
This is really interesting. Made me what to see what happened in the year I was born! 🙂
Thank you! As I’ve said to everyone else, I really recomend it 🙂 It’s very facinating.
Interesting post! I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you. I enjoyed writing it too!
I love reading about the events which took place in a certain year. Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed the post 🙂
Thanky you. I’m glad that you enjoyed 🙂
I was only 3 in 1986 so don’t remember any of this but wow – what an eventful year! This is such a great idea for a post too 🙂
I had no idea that Maradona’s hand of god was as long ago as this… English football fans still talk about it when England have to play Argentina in the World Cup!
Hehe, Yes it’s interesting isn’t it? Maradonas hand is always mentioned when the two countries meet!
Visiting through the blog party 🙂 I was born in the same year! Very interesting post, I knew some of these things, but not all of them. We have all kinds of stories about Chernobyl since Hungary is fairy close to where it happened (and it was covered up for quite a while).
Cheers!
Thank you for visiting. It sure was an eventful year. I imgine you felt the effects more than us.
1986 was the year I moved to live and work in London. I had an amazing 27 years there. Lots of happy memories. It’s also one of my favourite years for Pop Music – especially anything by Stock, Aiken and Waterman.
Sounds like a good year for you. I really like London and wouldn’t mind living there for a bit myself!
I remember the Challenger explosion very well but I can’t remember the Chernobyl disaster as clearly. Great post. Do you know what the number one song in the UK was on the day you were born?
No I don’t actually. I don’t know what it was here in Norway either.
I’m obsessed with knowing these things lol. This is your UK number one…https://youtu.be/IPWHkK-_a_A
Cool think to know. Thank you very much!
Wow! This is so interesting and actually fun for me to sit here, reading this and thinking how many of the things I remember, like Chernobyl and also the Challenger exploding… I remember playing outside with the neighbor’s kids when my mom came outside telling us to come back inside because of the radioactive cloud approaching (or something like this). I remember watching the start of the Challenger on TV which was supposed to be special because of the female astronaut (at least I think so) being on board. Watching how it went up and then exploded…
What a great idea for a post. I might do something similar one day 🙂
Thank you. I can recommend doing a post like this. It’s fun to write and people seem to enjoy reading about it too!
Hello! You gave a good summary of the major events that happened on the day you were born. I remember the Nintendo Entertainment system..but clueless about the rest of the toys! I feel OLD! LOL. Nice to meet you. 🙂
Thank you. Nice to meet you too good of you to stop by.
What a fun post. Now i’m curious to find out the same things about my year. Hugs.
Thank you. You should find out. I found it very interesting!
You are almost exactly the same age as my third son. I remember that year so well. I was so broken hearted by the Challenger explosion. The teacher that died was so tragic.
Obviously I don’t remember it at all, but it stuck in my head hearing about it at school.
Hey Maja! I enjoyed this piece!
Than you! Glad you liked it.
Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often and commented:
A retrospective post: 1986!
Thank you very much for the reblog!
My pleasure!!
Omg! This made me feel old! I graduated high school in 1986. My wife loves 80’s music, not for value necessarily, but for sentimental reasons. I might add that my University of Louisville Cardinals won the NCAA basketball championship in 1986 too! Go CARDS!
Thank you for sharing this wonderfull fact. Always glad to learn more about the year I was born.
I was stranding in my kitchen listening to the news about Tjernobyl and I was pregnant with my forth child and I remember our Danish newsmedia brought the news some days before the Russians got the news. 8 years after I travelled in the area and met a man who was ordered to clean up. He was insane. People were kept in ignorance in Russia
That is very sad. I’ve met people my age from Russia who knew almost nothing about the accedent og the possible after effects.
Yes we are lucky to live in countries where you get at least most of the news. I am suddenly reminded of having taken part in summer camps in Sweden for weak Tjernobyl children in the 1990s