If you’ve ever wondered how many people it would take to form a hand-holding human chain from Long Beach, California to New York, wonder no more: the answer is 6.5 million. The human-chain project was first conceived by Ken Kragen, part of the USA for Africa charity group that put out the previous year’s charity single “We Are the World.” Kragen played a leading role in organizing that event, but getting a handful of singers and celebrities was a lot easier than linking up nearly seven million people through seventeen states. Kragen worked tirelessly and on short notice to pull it off.

On this day, May 25, in 1986, Kragen saw his vision take form, as a more or less unbroken human chain queued up from Southern California to New York. Where the line stretched over depopulated land, it was symbolized by yellow tape, and everywhere else people linked up arms to sing “We Are the World.”

As a fundraiser, “Hands Across America” was not a great success: it cost $17 million to put together and fell short of its target of $50 million, despite generous donations for several corporate sponsors. As a singular moment in history, however, it remains unbeaten: Oprah, Prince, Jane Fonda and Jerry Seinfeld lent their hands to Hands, as did President Reagan in the White House, Governor Bill Clinton in Arkansas, Shamu the killer whale in Sea World, Ohio, and Mickey Mouse in Disneyland, California.