1986 Year in Review

 Highlights:

• Applied for the Foreign Service as a Financial Management Specialist and passed the written and oral exams and was placed high enough on the register to be selected and available for worldwide assignment after medical and security clearance.      

• Playing squash with Roger Meece at the Fairfax County recreation center.  Roger was a former Peace Corps colleague who ended up being Consul General in Nova Scotia and Ambassador to The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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U.S. Events:

• US Supreme Court bars racial bias in trial jury selection (Jan. 14).
• Space shuttle Challenger explodes after launch at Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven aboard (Jan. 28).
• US Supreme Court reaffirms abortion rights (June 11).
• Senate Judiciary Committee approves William H. Rehnquist as Chief Justice of US Supreme Court(Aug. 14).
• House votes arms appropriations bill rejecting Administration's "star wars" policy (Aug. 15).
• Secret initiative to send arms to Iran revealed (Nov. 6 et seq.); Reagan denies exchanging arms for hostages and halts arms sales (Nov. 19); diversion of funds from arms sales to Nicaraguan Contras revealed (Nov. 25).

World Events:

• President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in US (Jan. 8). US planes attack Libyan "terrorist centers" (April 14).
• Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees to France (Feb. 7).
• President Ferdinand Marcos flees Philippines after ruling for 20 years; newly elected Corazon Aquino succeeds him (Feb. 26).
• Spain and Portugal join European Economic Community (Jan. 1).
• Union Carbide ide agrees to settlement with victims of Bhopal gas leak in India (March 22).
• Major nuclear accident at Soviet Union's Chernobyl power station alarms world (April 26 et seq.).
• Ex-Navy analyst, Jonathan Jay Pollard, 31, guilty as spy for Israel (June 4).
• World Court rules US broke international law in mining Nicaraguan waters (June 27).

Movies:

Best Picture was "Out of Africa".  Best Actor went to William Hirt" as Luis Molina in "Kiss of the Spider Woman". Best Actress was Geraldine Page in "Bountiful".   Best Supporting actor was Don Ameche in "Cocoon".  Best supporting actress went to Angelica Huston "Prizzi's Honor ".  Best Director Sydney Pollack for "Out of Africa".  Best original score John Barry "Out of Africa".

Super Bowl:

Super Bowl 20 was between the 1985 Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots. The Bears defeated the Patriots by the score of 46–10, capturing their first NFL championship since 1963, three years prior to the birth of the Super Bowl. It was played on January 26, 1986 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.  This was the fourth Super Bowl and, to date, the last time in which both teams made their Super Bowl debuts. The Bears entered the game after becoming the second team in NFL history to win 15 regular season games. With their then-revolutionary 4-6 defense, Chicago led the league in several defensive categories, outscored their opponents with a staggering margin of 456–198, and recorded two postseason shutouts. The Patriots were considered a Cinderella team during the 1985 season, and posted an 11–5 regular season record, but entered the playoffs as a wild card because of tiebreakers. But defying the odds, New England posted three road playoff wins to advance to Super Bowl XX.  In their victory over the Patriots, the Bears set or tied Super Bowl records for sacks (seven), fewest rushing yards allowed (seven), and margin of victory (36 points).

World Series:

The 1986 World Series was played between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox. The Mets won the series four games to three to claim their second World Series title and first since 1969.  The series is best remembered for its Game 6, which saw the Mets rally from a two run-deficit in the bottom of the 10th inning, despite having two outs and no one on base. The Red Sox, who held a 3–2 series lead, were twice one strike away from securing the championship, but failed to close out the inning as the Mets won off an error by Boston first baseman Bill Buckner. Due to the Mets claiming the series in Game 7, the Game 6 collapse entered baseball lore as part of the "Curse of the Bambino" superstition that was used to explain the Red Sox's championship drought after the 1918 World Series. The 1986 World Series marked the second time in which the winning team lost the first two games of the series at home, following the previous series.  It was also the first World Series to use the designated hitter only in games played at the American League representative's stadium, a policy which has continued since. Mets third baseman Ray Knight was MVP.