Date in year · 1986 · The 1980s

August 31, 1986

On August 31, 1986, aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground. The year's #1 song was "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne and Friends (Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder). Nikolaos Kourtidis, Hillary Scott, Olivia Borlée would arrive in the same year.

Events

2

Births

3

Deaths

3

Year

1986

1980s

Around 1986

The year in brief

1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1986th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 986th year of the 2nd millennium, the 86th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1980s decade.

Read the full year of 1986 →

What happened

On August 31, 1986

  1. 1986 Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.

    1986 mid-air collision over California

    Aeroméxico Flight 498 was a scheduled commercial flight from Mexico City, Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, United States, with several intermediate stops. On Sunday, August 31, 1986, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the flight was clipped in the tail section by N4891F, a Piper PA-28 Cherokee owned by the Kramer family, and crashed into the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, killing all 64 on the DC-9, all 3 in the Piper, and an additional 15 people on the ground. Eight on the ground also sustained minor injuries.

  2. 1986 The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.

    Country in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991

    The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian SFSR.

Arrivals

Born on August 31, 1986

Ryan Kelley 1986– American actor (born 1986)
Johnny Wactor 1986– American actor (1986–2024)
Blake Wheeler 1986– American ice hockey player (born 1986)

Farewells

Died on August 31, 1986

Elizabeth Coatsworth American poet
Urho Kekkonen President of Finland from 1956 to 1982
Henry Moore English sculptor (1898–1986)

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1986

The class of 1986

Others born in 1986

Nikolaos Kourtidis 1986– Greek weightlifter
Hillary Scott 1986– American country singer-songwriter
Olivia Borlée 1986– Belgian sprinter
Fernando Gago 1986– Argentine footballer and manager
Corey Kluber 1986– American baseball pitcher
Vincent Kompany 1986– Belgian footballer and manager

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