YEAR 1986

• Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing the crew of 7 astronauts.
• The first PC virus, Brain, starts to spread.
• Comet Halley reaches its perihelion, the closest point to the Sun, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th Century.
• The United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide.
• Berlin discotheque bombing: a known hangout for United States soldiers, is bombed, killing 3 and injuring 230.
• In Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
• "Captain Midnight" interrupts HBO satellite feed.
• The Lake Nyos tragedy occurs, killing nearly 2,000 people.
• IBM demonstrates the first laptop computer.
• The cargo ship Khian Sea departs carrying 14,000 tons of toxic waste. It will wander the seas for the next 16 months trying to find a place to dump its cargo.
• Calderone is born.

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