1986 in Belgium

Events in the year 1986 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.
 * 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