Loading AI tools
The year 1986 in science and technology involved many significant events, some not listed below.
- January 24 – NASA Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus.
- January 28 – NASA Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Their bodies are located by United States Navy divers on March 9.
- February 19 – The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
- March 8 – Japanese spacecraft Suisei flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.
- October 10 – Aten asteroid 3753 Cruithne, in co-orbital configuration with Earth, is identified by Duncan Waldron.
- May – First reported methods for constructing a monoclonal antibody containing parts from mouse and human antibodies, a required first step toward the development of humanized antibodies used later as medical therapeutics (such as Infliximab).[1][2]
- English epidemiologist David Barker proposes his fetal origins hypothesis.[3]
- January 16 – The Internet Engineering Task Force, a standards organization that develops and promotes Internet standards, holds its first meeting, consisting of 21 United States government-funded researchers.
- January 19 – The first MS-DOS-based personal computer virus, Brain, starts to spread.[4]
- April 3 – IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
- June 23 – Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software.[5]
- Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is visualized by Mark Crispin.
- 3D printing is developed by Charles Hull.
- Pixar is founded.
- Summer – Kenneth Alan Ribet demonstrates proof of the ε-conjecture, subsequently known as Ribet's theorem[6] confirming Gerhard Frey's suggestion that the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture implies Fermat's Last Theorem.[7]
- Lawrence Paulson makes the first release of Isabelle (proof assistant).[8]
- Lee Sallows introduces the alphamagic square.[9]
- January 11 – The Gateway Bridge is opened in Brisbane, Australia, the world's largest prestressed concrete single box bridge.
- April 26 – Chernobyl disaster: An RBMK at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic reaches prompt criticality.
- December 23 – Rutan Voyager becomes the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a nine-day trip piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.
- November 8 – Aaron Swartz (suicide 2013), American computer programmer and Internet hactivist.
- January 7 – Rex Wailes (b. 1901), English engineer and historian of technology.
- January 28
- Crew of United States Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-L:
- Greg Jarvis (b. 1944)
- Christa McAuliffe (b. 1948)
- Ronald McNair (b. 1950)
- Ellison Onizuka (b. 1946)
- Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
- Dick Scobee (b. 1939)
- Michael J. Smith (b. 1945)
- Dorothée Pullinger (b. 1894), French-born British production engineer.
- Crew of United States Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-L:
- April 22 – Dame Honor Fell (b. 1900), English biologist.
- July 6 – William Rashkind (b. 1922), American cardiologist.
- July 21 – Zhang Yuzhe (b. 1902), Chinese astronomer.
- October 22 – Albert Szent-Györgyi (b. 1893), Hungarian physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- October 31 – Edward Adelbert Doisy (b. 1893), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- June 7 – Robert S. Mulliken (b. 1896), American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- November 25 – Sir Ivan Magill (b. 1888), British anesthesiologist.
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
