1986

• Bangles - "Walk Like an Egyptian"
• Bananarama - “Venus”
• Berlin - “Take My Breath Away”
• Bon Jovi - “You Give Love a Bad Name”
• Cyndi Lauper - “True Colors”
• Dionne Warwick ft Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder - “That’s What Friends are For”
• Falco - “Rock Me Amadeus”
• Genesis - “Invisible Touch”
• Huey Lewis & The News - “Stuck With You”
• Lionel Richie - “Say You, Say Me”
• Madonna - “Papa Don’t Preach”
• Mr. Mister - “Kyrie”
• Pet Shop Boys - “West End Girls”
• Peter Gabriel - “Sledgehammer”
• Prince - “Kiss”
• Robert Palmer - “Addicted to Love”
• Starship “- Sara”
• Steve Winwood - “Higher Love”
• The Bangles - “Walk Like an Egyptian”
• Wang Chung - “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” 
• Whitney Houston - “Greatest Love of All”

• Top Gun
• Crocodile Dundee
• Karate Kid 2
• Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home
• Aliens
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Stand By Me
• Short Circuit
• Pretty in Pink
• The Fly

• The Hogan Family
• Perfect Strangers
• The Flinstone Kids
• The Oprah Winfrey Show
• Head of the Class
• L.A. Law
• ALF
• Dennis the Menace
• Matlock
• Designing Women
• My Sister Sam

• Diff'rent Strokes
• The Fall Guy
• T.J. Hooker
• Knight Rider
• The Love Boat

• The Cosby Show
• Family Ties
• Cheers
• Murder, She Wrote
• The Golden Girls
• Growing Pains
• Moonlighting
• Who's the Boss?
• Dallas
• Kate & Allie
• My Sister Sam
• Highway to Heaven
• LA Law
• Dynasty
• Alf
• Miami Vice

• Drake - rapper, "Hotline Bling", "Passionfruit"
• Lady Gaga - pop singer, "Poker Face", "Born This Way", "Bad Romance"
• Jenna Marbles - YouTube star, "How to Trick People Into Thinking You're Good Looking" received 5.3 million views the week it was uploaded
• Megan Fox - actress, "Transformers"
• Robert Pattinson - British movie actor, "Twilight" series
• Lindsay Lohan - actress, "Mean Girls", "Freaky Friday"
• Ellie Goulding - British pop singer, "Lights", "Love Me Like You Do"
• Usain Bolt - Jamaican sprinter, world's fastest man, first person to hold both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records; considered greatest sprinter of all time
• Lea Michele - TV actress, "Glee", "Scream Queens"
• Holland Roden - TV actress, "Teen Wolf"
• Emilia Clarke - TV actress, plays Daenerys Targaryen on HBO's "Game of Thrones"
• Daniel Sharman - TV actor, in "Fear the Walking Dead", "Teen Wolf"

• Oprah Winfrey show debuted nationally
• First Goodwill Games held in Moscow
• Hands Across America charity event
• stage musical Phantom of the Opera debuts in London
• Soviet Union launches Mir space station
• first case of Mad Cow disease in England
• smoking banned on all public transportation in the US
• Mike Tyson becomes youngest heavyweight champion in history
• IBM unveils PC Convertible, first laptop computer
• Internet Mail Access Protocol defined for e-mail transfer
• nicotene patch invented

• bungee jump
• chat room
• cringey
• deets
• dress-down day
• FYI
• roid rage
• sippy cup
• soul patch
• sound-bite
• Special K
• SUV

January 28: Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. Approximately 17 percent of Americans witnessed the launch live because of the presence of Payload Specialist Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space. 

April 26: The worst ever nuclear disaster occurs as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Ukraine explodes causing the release of radioactive material across much of Europe. The accident was the result of a flawed design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. Thirty people were killed from injuries, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the disaster.

The large public charity event “Hands Across America” is held during May of 1986. The publicity campaign asked Americans to join hands in a human chain across the country. Those who participated were asked for a ten dollar donation to get a place in the line. Approximately six and a half million people participated. The money raised from the donations was used to help people in poverty through local charities.

October: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical "Phantom of the Opera" debuts in London's West End.  The musical proved to be incredibly popular and won Musical of the Year and Best Actor in a musical for lead Michael Crawford at that year’s Laurence Olivier Awards in London. It has since become the second longest-running musical in the West End (behind Les Misérables) and the longest-running musical on Broadway.

September: The Oprah Winfrey Show debuts nationally. Her show soon became the highest-rated talk show in the U.S. and aired for 25 seasons, winning over 45 Daytime Emmy Awards. Using her show as a platform, Oprah became an influential figure in popular culture and is now ranked as one of the wealthiest and most powerful African-American women in the country. The Oprah Winfrey Show made over 4,500 episodes before it ended in 2011.

February: The Soviet Union launches the core unit of the Mir Space Station into Earth’s orbit. Mir was the largest space station ever created at that point in time (5 expansion modules were added to the core unit from 1987 -1996) . Over 14 years of service, over 100 space travelers from twelve countries lived in it until June 2000. In March 2001 it was abandoned by Russia and the station returned to Earth in March of 2001 with a controlled re-entry.

IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.

June: The Virgin Atlantic Challenger II powerboat broke the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Manned by Richard Branson, the millionaire entrepreneur, the 72 foot boat was competing for the “Blue Riband” trophy and broke the record for fastest crossing of the Atlantic. He was disqualified for refueling twice during the trip and for the fact that his boat was not a commercial vessel. Despite this, it was still an accomplishment for Branson as he had attempted the 3,000 mile trip during 1985 but was unable to finish when his boat sank less than 150 miles away from the British coast.

June 14 - An accident involving the "Mindbender" roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall kills three people and seriously injures a fourth.