1986 in Belgium

Events in the year 1986 in Belgium.

← 1985 1984 1983 1986 in Belgium → 1987 1988 1989
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	Other events of 1986 List of years in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Baudouin
• Prime Minister: Wilfried Martens

Events

January

• 1 January – Breakout of 14 inmates from Arlon prison.
• 25 January – About 3,000 gendarmes demonstrate in Brussels for better working conditions.

February

• 5 February – Publication of a report into working practices in the Belgian postal service reveals massive inefficiency.

March

• 17 March – Albert Houssiau appointed bishop of Liège by Pope John Paul II

April

• 12 April – About 20,000 march in Hasselt to demand that Limburg's mines be kept open.
• 15 April – Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and Deputy Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt lay the first stone of the Flanders Expo convention centre in Ghent.
• 29 April – R.W.D. Molenbeek football club goes into receivership.

May

• 3 May – Sandra Kim wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 singing "J'aime la vie".
• 18 May – Albert Houssiau consecrated bishop of Liège
• 29 May – The Flag of Europe first flown in front of the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels.
• 30 May – About 50,000 protest against government austerity measures in a demonstration organised by the General Federation of Belgian Labour.

June

• 25 June – Former prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants convicted of fraud.
• 30 June – Massive public celebration of the return of the Belgium national football team after placing fourth in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

October

• 12 October – Renovated La Monnaie opera house reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
• 18 October – Interior Minister Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb resigns in protest over the government's stance on the language struggle in Voeren.
• 21 October – An accident occurs in Kwaadmechelen with a Transnuklear transport from Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant to SCK CEN in Mol. Nuclear waste being transported does not correspond to the documents, later bringing a bribery scandal to light.
• 26 October – German-speaking Community Council election

November

• 14 November – Hugo Claus receives the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren for The Sorrow of Belgium.

December

• 12 December – A bank robber shot by police in Anderlecht turns out to be a policeman himself.

Publications

Reference series

• Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 44 (supplement 16).
• OECD, Economic Surveys, 1985/1986: Belgium, Luxembourg

Books

• Jonathan E. Helmreich, Gathering Rare Ores: The Diplomacy of Uranium Acquisition, 1943–1954 (Princeton University Press)

Art and architecture

Films

• Chantal Akerman (dir.), Golden Eighties

Births

• 13 February – Sylvie De Caluwé, model
• 21 February – Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
• 13 March – Ludovic Buysens, footballer
• 20 April – Onur Kaya, footballer
• 1 August – Michaël Van Geele, footballer
• 15 October – Sandra Kim, singer
• 22 October – Murat Akın, footballer
• 3 December – Annelien Coorevits, beauty queen

Deaths

• 7 February – Armand Preud'homme, composer
• 3 April – Charles Moeller, scholar
• 2 June – Daniel Sternefeld, conductor
• 6 July – Flor Peeters, organist
• 23 August – Charles Janssens, actor
• 5 October – Jozef van Overstraeten, founder of the Flemish automobile association
• 16 October – Arthur Grumiaux, violinist
• 16 December – Marcel Quinet, composer
• 27 December – Louis Van Lint, painter
• 28 December – Karel Aerts, director of the BRT