Three decades ago, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger was one of the biggest stories of the year. But that year also saw hearings in the Iran-Contra affair, the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty after a long renovation, the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and the crash of Aeromexico Flight 498 above Los Angeles. Photographers were also busy documenting the lives of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joan Jett, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, Mike Tyson, and many others. Take a step into a visual time capsule now, for a brief look at the year 1986.
30 Years Ago: A Look Back at 1986
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Read moreA rare sight at London's Heathrow Airport on January 21, 1986: The entire British Concorde fleet in one picture. The occasion was the 10-year anniversary of British Concorde flight service, which began in 1976. #
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Read moreThe independent filmmaker Spike Lee, right, with actress Tracy Camilla Johns at a release party for his film, “She's Gotta Have It,” in August of 1986 in New York. Lee said he wants to make honest films about black people and didn't believe there were any films by and for black people. #
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Read moreA masked demonstrator aims a slingshot at riot police behind fence during violent demonstration at the site of a nuclear waste reprocessing plant when about 10,000 demonstrators protested against the use of nuclear energy at Wackersdorf, West Germany, on May 19, 1986. More than 130 policemen were injured. #
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Read morePrincess Diana stands in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace on July 23, 1986, as guests gather to say farewell to the Duke and Duchess of York in the carriage enclosure behind the window. The Duke and Duchess of York were married that morning. #
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Read moreThe crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission 51L. All seven members of the crew were killed when the shuttle exploded during launch on January 28, 1986. Front row from left are Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, and Ronald E. McNair. Back row from left are Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik. #
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Read moreThousands of people join hands in the desert near Phoenix, Arizona, May 25, 1986, as part of the Hands Across America campaign. Organizers of the fundraiser claimed more than 6 million people participated, and $34 million was raised to help combat homelessness, poverty, and hunger. #
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Read morePerformers on the first episode of “The Late Show” pose with star Joan Rivers on October 9, 1986. From left: Elton John, Joan Rivers, Cher, and Pee Wee Herman. #
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Read moreThe First Lady Nancy Reagan is joined by Kristeen Reft, 9, of Kodiak Island, Alaska, left, and Laurence Honore, 17, of Herdville, France, in the crown of the Statue of Liberty, on July 5, 1986. All three are waving during a ceremony, headed by Mrs. Reagan, reopening the statue after it had been closed to the public for two years for renovation. #
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Read moreThe actor Sean Penn and his wife, Madonna, stop to chat with reporters prior to the screening of Penn's new movie “At Close Range,” in Los Angeles, on April 17, 1986. #
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Read moreThe wide receiver Bill Brooks of the Indianapolis Colts break away from the San Francisco 49ers secondary to score a touchdown during a game at Candlestick Park on October 5, 1986, in San Francisco, California. #
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Read moreA black path runs through the Cerritos, California neighborhood in this August 31, 1986 photo, after a midair collision between an AeroMexico DC-9 and a small twin-engine plane. The crash of Aeromexico Flight 498 killed 82 people: 64 jetliner passengers, 15 people on the ground, and three in the small plane that collided with the jet as it approached Los Angeles International Airport. #
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Read moreThe first runner-up Halle Berry of Ohio (left) stands beside Christy Fichtner of Dallas, Texas, as Fichtner is named the 1986 Miss USA winner in Miami, Florida, on May 21, 1986. #
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Read moreLieutenant-Colonel Oliver North, former aide to former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, is sworn in on December 9, 1986, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on arms sales to Iran and diversion of profits to Nicaraguan Contra rebels. North, citing the Fifth Amendment, refused to answer questions although he pledged to “cooperate fully” with investigations at an unspecified date. The ‘Irangate’ saga erupted November 30 into a new crisis for the U.S. President Reagan administration with the resignation of Admiral John Poindexter as the President's National Security Advisor and the dismissal of North, a member of the National Security Council Staff. ‘Ollie’ North, a much-decorated Marine officer, known to White House cynics as the President's ‘Swashbuckler in Chief,’ was linked to the transfer of some $30 million profit from the Iran weapons sales to Contra rebels fighting the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. #
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Read moreThe actor Michael J. Fox poses with rock star Joan Jett at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe during a party hosted by Taft Entertainment Motion Pictures on May 29, 1986. The couple was celebrating the completion of their feature film, “Light of Day.” #
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Read moreThe opposition presidential candidate Corazon Aquino waves from the podium as thousands of supporters cheer during a campaign rally in downtown Manila, Philippines, on January 27, 1986. Aquino was set to face President Marcos in a February 7 presidential election. #
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Read moreHundreds of Filipinos storm the presidential palace in Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday, February 25, 1986, after the resignation and departure of President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos, who resigned under the pressure of a popular people’s movement in the wake of a tainted election, was flown by helicopter to nearby Clark Air Base. #
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Read moreThe Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi (center) holds hands with Cuban president Fidel Castro (right) and Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, during the non-aligned countries summit, on September 4, 1986, in Harare, Zimbabwe. #
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Read moreArms locked as they march, Chinese university students demand the release of classmates arrested by police earlier in the day for taking part in a pro-democracy rally in Beijing, China, on January 2, 1986. An estimated five thousand students took part in the unauthorized march. Authorities freed the arrested students. #
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Read moreAfghan girls wave to a convoy of Red Army armored personnel vehicles in Kabul, Afghanistan, on October 17, 1986, as Red Army units returned to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 to shore up the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul and maintained more than 100,000 troops in the country until completing their phased withdrawal in 1989. #
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Read moreFrom left: Vahran Vahranian, Mihran Mihranian, and Murad, respectively spokesman and members of political committee of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), during a press conference October 15, 1986, in Beirut, Lebanon. ASALA, one of the Lebanese-based extremist groups, claiming co-responsibility for a wave of terror bomb attacks in France, was demanding the release from prison in France of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, presumed leader of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction, Anis Naccache, convicted assassin of former Iranian Premier Shapur Bakhtiar, and ASALA militant Varadjian Garabidjian, jailed for a 1983 bombing of a Turkish airline counter at Orly Airport near Paris. #
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Read moreThe Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka reaches to shake hands with New England Patriots Coach Raymond Berry on January 26, 1986, after the Bears won Super Bowl XX in New Orleans. Ditka is being carried by William “Refrigerator” Perry, right, and Steve McMichael. #
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Read moreThe developer Donald Trump (right) poses with New York City’s Park Commissioner Henry Stern holding a pair of ice skates that are intended for use at the Wollman Skating Rink Central Park in New York, August 7, 1986. Trump offered to rebuild the long-closed rink at no profit to himself after the city’s renovation effort went through five years of delays and more than double the original cost estimate. The rink reopened on November 13, 1986. #
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Read moreFrom left to right: the singer Lionel Richie, Sheila E., the actress Elizabeth Taylor, the singer Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross sing ‘We are the World’ at the close of the American Music Awards on Monday, January 28, 1986, in Los Angeles. #
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Read moreThe Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev congratulates East German leader Erich Honecker with a fraternal hug and kiss after Honecker's re-election as General Secretary of the Communist Party Congress in East Berlin, on April 21, 1986. #
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Read moreThe British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stands in a British tank during a visit to British forces in Fallingbostel, some 120 kilometers (70 miles) south of Hamburg, Germany, on September 17, 1986. #
Jockel Fink / AP
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