June 1986 in History

Events in History

Historic Publication

Jun 1 Danielle Steel’s romance novel “Wanderlust” is published

Jun 2 NYC transit system issues a new brass with steel bullseye token
Jun 2 Regular TV coverage of US Senate sessions begins
Jun 3 Battles in Beirut; 53 killed
Jun 4 Jonathan Pollard, spy for Israel, pleads guilty in US court
Jun 6 Kathy Ormsby, a 21-year-old member of NC State track team jumps off a bridge permanently paralyzing herself

Kurt Waldheim Elected

Jun 8 Alleged Nazi Kurt Waldheim elected President of Austria

4th Secretary-General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim

Jun 8 Iraqi jets attack Assadabad satellite station in Afghanistan
Jun 9 Dow Jones industrial average hits record 1,885.90 points
Jun 9 Rogers Comm report on Challenger disaster blames Morton Thiokol
Jun 10 In South Africa, the three-year-old 'State of Emergency' is renewed for another twelve months, followed by an organized campaign of civil disobedience against it

South African History

Jun 12 P. W. Botha declares South African national emergency

Event of Interest

Jun 13 US President Reagan criticizes South African state of emergency

Pripyat: Nuclear Wasteland

Jun 15 Pravda announces high-level Chernobyl staff fired for stupidity

'I Love You Pripyat, Forgive Me!' scrawled on the walls of a Pripyat clinic during its hasty evacuation after the Chernobyl disaster

Jun 16 1 day general strike in South Africa
Jun 17 US Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger resigns and Antonin Scalia nominated as his replacement
Jun 18 De Havilland Twin Otter & Bell 206 helicopter collide, kills 25
Jun 18 Heike Friedrich swims female world record 200m freestyle (1:57.55)
Jun 18 Papua New Guinea score 9-455 in 60 overs v Gibraltar, ICC Trophy
Jun 18 US House of Representatives approves Bill to impose stricter sanctions on Apartheid South Africa
Jun 21 President Reagan gives speech defending his judicial appointments
Jun 22 Pirate Radio Euro Weekend (Holland) begins transmitting
Jun 22 Spain's premier Gonzalez' Socialist Party wins elections
Jun 23 Tip O'Neill refuses to let President Reagan address House
Jun 24 Guy Hunt elected 1st Republican governor of Alabama in 112 years

Meeting of Interest

Jun 24 In Britain, Foreign Office Minister Lynda Chalker, meets Oliver Tambo, president of the African National Congress to discuss means of ending Apartheid without violence

Anti-Apartheid Politician and Revolutionary Oliver Tambo

Jun 24 US Senate approves "tax reform"
Jun 25 Former Belgium premier Vanden Boeynants sentenced for fraud

Event of Interest

Jun 27 Ibrahim Babangida's regime in Nigeria launches the 'Structural Adjustment Program" to restructure the Nigerian economy via deregulation and privatization with the support of the IMF and the World Bank

General and President of Nigeria Ibrahim Babangida

Jun 27 In referendum, Irish uphold ban on divorce
Jun 27 South African Journalist and founder of the 'New Nation' newspaper, Zwelakhe Sisulu is abducted; he was released 721 days later on 2 December 1988
Jun 27 US informs NZ it will not defend it against attack
Jun 27 World Court rules US aid to Nicaraguan contras illegal
Jun 28 Irish population condemns divorce
Jun 28 Kenneth and Nellie Pike challenge Ala Dem runoff win by AG C Graddick
Jun 28 West European leaders, meeting in the Netherlands, delay indefinitely imposing economic sanctions against South Africa
Jun 29 Moses Mayekiso, former General Secretary of Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU) and member of South African Communist Party (SACP), detained for a second time, spends months in solitary confinement

Event of Interest

Jun 29 Richard Branson aboard Virgin Atlantic Challenger II reaches Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly, fastest crossing of Atlantic

Jun 30 Georgia sodomy law upheld by US Supreme Court (5-4)

Deaths in History

Jun 6 Herbert Eisenreich, Austrian writer, dies at 61
Jun 10 Merle Miller, American biographer (b. 1919)
Jun 11 Chesley Bonestell, American-born engineer, architect, and artist (b. 1888)
Jun 12 Antoon Breyne, Belgian journalist, dies at 76
Jun 12 Tony Desimone, combo leader (Ernie in Kovacsland), dies at 66

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Jun 14 Argentine short-story writer of fiction (Ficciones, El Aleph, The Book of Sand), essayist and poet, dies in Geneva at 86

Jun 17 Jozef Keuleers, Belgian worker's union leader, dies at 75
Jun 18 Frances Scott Fitzgerald, Daughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. (b. 1921)
Jun 19 Murray P Haydon, artificial heart recipient, dies in Louisville at 59
Jun 25 Gery Florizoone, Flemish poet, dies at 63
Jun 29 John P. East, American politician (Sen-R-NC), dies at 55