1986 in the Soviet Union

On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, exploded. With dozens of direct casualties and thousands of health complications stemming from the disaster, it is one of only two nuclear accidents rated at the maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The response involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. It remains the worst nuclear disaster and the most expensive disaster in history, with an estimated cost of US$700 billion.

first and only crewed spaceflight to travel between two space stations in one mission

1986 Tu-134 crash in Samara

1925 ocean liner converted to hospital ship

1986 Tu-134 crash near Berlin

first module of the Soviet/Russian Mir space station

group of UN agencies

Soviet cruise liner wrecked in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand

ship incident in the Black Sea

aviation accident

August 1986 earthquake in Romania

soviet intelligence satellite