1986

1986 was the 115th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.

Events

• February: Operation Western Sizzler concluded.
• June: The Birmingham Airport Authority was created.
• October 28: President Ronald Reagan visited Birmingham.
• November 27: The Homewood High School Marching Band led the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• The first We Love Homewood Day was held.
• The first Liberty Day was held in Columbiana.
• Arlington School closed.
• The former Ridgely Apartments opened as the new Tutwiler Hotel.
• A reserve population of watercress darters was planted at Penny Springs in Pinson.
• A fire badly damaged the Studio Arts Building.
• AIDS Task Force of Alabama was founded.
• The first Beam's Crawfish Boil took place.
• Space One Eleven was founded.
• The Center for Urban Missions was founded.
• Former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black appeared on a U. S. postage stamp
• Chris McNair and Reuben Davis were the first African Americans elected to the Jefferson County Commission.

Business

• September 12: The Stafford Inn in Tuscaloosa closed.
• AAA Auto Truck and Trailer became Southern Comfort Conversions.
• B & B Smith Construction was founded.
• BioCryst opened.
• Buffalo Rock purchased the Tuscaloosa Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company.
• Cosmo's Pizza opened.
• Costa and Head filed for bankruptcy.
• Eighteenth Street Orientals opened.
• Fair Park Drive-In and Mustang Drive-In closed.
• HealthSouth went public.
• Mabel's Beauty Shop & Chainsaw Repair opened on 14th Street South.
• Moore-Handley, Inc. went public.
• Nidek Medical was founded.
• The Pizitz department store chain was sold to McRae's.
• Silvertron Café opened.
• Terrific New Theatre was founded.
• Intensive Care Beauty Salon opened.
• NewsBreak opened on Highland Avenue.
• Ulysses Smoot received a revitalization loan from Birmingham to refurbish the Jaguar Club.
• Tuscaloosa's Vinyl Solution record shop moved to University Boulevard.
• Jack Scheffer founded Schaeffer Eye Center.
• Air New Orleans relocated from Panama City, Florida to Birmingham.
• Walls Newspapers Consultants relocated from Houston, Texas to Birmingham.
• Almost Famous art gallery at Five Points South closed.

Media

• The Russ and Dee Fine talk show debuted.
• WCAJ, channel 68, went on the air.

Religion

• March 30: First Baptist Church of Birmingham held its first service at its new building in Homewood on Easter Sunday.

Sports

• March 24: Bobby Unser set a closed-course speed record for four-wheel drive vehicles at Talladega Superspeedway.
• August 4: The USFL suspended their scheduled fall season, effectively ending the Birmingham Stallions.
• October 2: Vida Blue pitched his final Major League game.
• December 25: Alabama beat Washington 28-6 in the Sun Bowl.
• December 31: The first All-American Bowl was held at Legion Field.
• Alabama A&M won the Magic City Classic.

Individuals

• April 2: George Wallace announced his retirement from public office.
• Larry DeLucas became Associate Director of UAB's Center for Macromolecular Crystallography.
• Penelope Cunningham succeeded Ted Tibbs as president of the Birmingham Music Club.
• William Maddox began serving as a Governor for the American College of Surgeons.
• Robert Taylor joined the Alabama Forge Council.
• Ethel Hall was elected to the Alabama Board of Education.
• Marvin Engel retired from the Engel Realty Company.

Births

• February 18: Ebonee Benson, Miss Black Alabama USA 2005
• May 16: Drew Roy, actor
• June 3: Darius McClure, minister
• June 4: Colin Peek, football player
• June 15: Montez Billings, football player
• July 18: Walter Sharpe, basketball player
• September 5: Breanne Kostyk, restaurant manager
• September 19: Ryan Kussmaul, baseball player
• October 21: Natalee Holloway, missing person
• October 30: Desmond Jennings, baseball player
• November 14: Joe Webb, football player
• Valerie Gribben, author

Graduations

• Architect Jeremy Erdreich from Sidwell Friends School.
• Basketball player Alan Ogg from Gardendale High School.
• Football player Eric Ramsey from Homewood High School.
• Bart Slawson from Samford University's Cumberland School of Law with a juris doctorate.
• Football player Willie Wyatt from Gardendale High School.

Marriages

• November 20: Olympic sprinters Emmit King and Lillie Leatherwood

Awards

• Supreme Court Justict Hugo Black was featured on a U.S. postage stamp.
• Actor Glenn Shadix won an L. A. Weekly award for his portrayal of Gertrude Stein in a stage production of "Faustus Light the Lights".
• Alabama Sports Hall of Fame: Terry Beasley, Bobby Bowden, William Lee, Robert Marlow, Sam Perry, and Ken Stabler

Deaths

• August 13: Way Bandy, makeup artist
• September 4: War Eagle V, Auburn University mascot
• October 7: Wallace Wade, Alabama Crimson Tide football coach
• November 5: Bobby Nunn, doo-wop singer
• November 20: William Bradford Huie, novelist and journalist
• Frank Samford, Jr, president of Liberty National Life Insurance Company

See also List of Birmingham homicides in 1986

Works

• J. R. Taylor began his I Cover the War column in The Southsider.

Buildings

• Five Points South Deck
• First Baptist Church of Birmingham on Lakeshore Drive
• Hank Crisp Indoor Practice Facility at the University of Alabama
• Harbert Center on 4th Avenue North
• Heatherwood Country Club
• Inverness Country Club Clubhouse (destroyed by fire in 2007)
• Riverchase Galleria
• Southtrust Tower
• WTTO Tower
• Organ installation, St Paul's Cathedral

Music

• The Alabama Wurlitzer at Its Best by Tom Hazleton
• Thirteen by Emmylou Harris
• "Don't Go Away" single by the Primitons
• Car Radio Jerome by T. R. Reed
• A Night in East Berlin by Sun Ra and his Cosmo Discipline Arkestra

See also

• 1986 Birmingham Barons
• 1986 UAB Blazers
• 1986 Iron Bowl

Context

In 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr Day was first observed as a federal holiday. The Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after take-off. Turner Broadcasting began to colorize black and white movie classics. Halley's Comet visited the inner solar system. The United States bombed targets in Libya. Geraldo Rivera hosted The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault. A reactor at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. Hands Across America createsd a human chain across the U.S. Desmond Tutu became the first black Anglican Church bishop in South Africa. Fox launched as America's fourth television network. The New York Mets won their second World Series.

Notable films of 1986 included Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Platoon, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Larry McMurtry won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Lonesome Dove.

Notable births in 1986 included Megan Fox, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, Tahj Mowry, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Notable deaths in 1986 included Desi Arnaz, James Cagney, Cary Grant, Benny Goodman, Frank Herbert, L. Ron Hubbard, and Donna Reed.

1980s

<< 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 >>

Births - Deaths - Establishments - Events - Works