Contemporary
Schengen Agreement (1985): How Europe Abolished Border Checks
Five states agreed to phase out checks at their shared borders, laying the foundation of today's Schengen Area of 29 countries.
Region
Europe
Contemporary
Reykjavik Summit (1986): Reagan and Gorbachev Near Disarmament
The summit ended without an agreement because of disagreement over the Strategic Defense Initiative, but its proposals paved the way for the INF Treaty of 1987 and later strategic arms cuts.
Contemporary
Mir Space Station (1986-2001): Soviet and Russian Outpost
Mir hosted crews for most of 15 years, set endurance records still partly unbeaten and, through Shuttle-Mir, laid the groundwork for the International Space Station before being deorbited into the South Pacific.
Contemporary
Single European Act (1986): Building the European Single Market
The twelve European Community members committed to completing a single market by the end of 1992 and reformed the Community's decision-making.
Contemporary
Chernobyl Disaster (1986): The World's Worst Nuclear Accident
Reactor No. 4 exploded and burned, spreading radioactive contamination across Europe; hundreds of thousands of people were resettled and a large exclusion zone remains.
Contemporary
INF Treaty (1987): Eliminating Intermediate-Range Missiles
The United States and the Soviet Union destroyed 2,692 missiles by June 1991, eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapons under on-site inspection.
Contemporary
Tear Down This Wall (1987): Reagan's Speech at Brandenburg Gate
The speech drew limited attention at the time but became one of the best-known addresses of the Cold War after the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989.
Contemporary
Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (1988) at Wembley Stadium
The concert brought the campaign to free Nelson Mandela to a global television audience and strengthened international pressure on the apartheid government.
Contemporary
Piper Alpha Disaster (1988): The North Sea Oil Platform Fire
The platform was destroyed and 167 men died; the Cullen inquiry led to a new safety-case regime for offshore installations in the United Kingdom.
Contemporary
Lockerbie Bombing (1988): The Destruction of Pan Am Flight 103
All 259 people aboard and 11 Lockerbie residents were killed; a Libyan intelligence officer was convicted in 2001 and Libya later accepted responsibility and paid compensation.
Contemporary
Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989): The Night the Border Opened
East Germans crossed freely into West Berlin; the Wall was dismantled from 1990 and Germany was reunified on 3 October 1990.
Contemporary
Invention of the World Wide Web (1989) by Tim Berners-Lee
Berners-Lee created HTML, HTTP, URLs, the first web server and the first browser; CERN released the technology royalty-free in 1993, allowing the Web to spread worldwide.