1979

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Years

Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -   1980s   1990s   2000s
Years:	1976 1977 1978 - 1979 - 1980 1981 1982

Year 1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar).

Events of 1979

January

• January 1 - United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the " International Year of the Child".
• January 1 - The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.

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• January 4 - The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.
• January 7 - Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreat west to an area along the Thai border.
• January 8 - The French tanker Betelgeuse explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry in Ireland; 50 are killed.
• January 9 - The Music for UNICEF Concert is held at the United Nations General Assembly to raise money for UNICEF and promote the Year of the Child. It is broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world. Hosted by The Bee Gees, other performers include Donna Summer, ABBA, Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire. A soundtrack album was released.
• January 16 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.

February

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• February 1 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
• February 1 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
• February 3 - Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
• February 7 - Supporters of Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration; the final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.
• February 7 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was known to science.
• February 10- February 11 - The Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution.
• February 11 - Khomeini seizes power in Iran.
• February 12 - Prime Minister Hissène Habré starts the battle of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chad's President Félix Malloum.
• February 13 - The intense February 13, 1979 Windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
• February 15 - A suspected gas explosion rocks a bank in Warsaw killing 49.
• February 17 - The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.
• February 18 - The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30 minutes.
• February 22 - Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
• February 26 - A total solar eclipse arcs over northern Canada, and a partial solar eclipse is visible over almost all of North America and Central America.

March

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• March 1 - Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
• March 4 - The U.S. Voyager I spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
• March 5 - Voyager I makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.
• March 7 - Largest Magnetar, or Soft gamma repeater, event recorded.
• March 13 - Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada.
• March 14 - In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
• March 17 - The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the UK collapses, killing two workers.
• March 25 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Centre, to be prepared for its first launch.
• March 26 - In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty.
• March 28 - A nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, caused a partial meltdown.
• March 28 - In Britain, Jim Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election.
• March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah, Sultan of Pahang.
• March 30 - Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the British House of Commons car park.
• March 31 - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.
• March 31 - Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
• March 31 - Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song Hallelujah.

April

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• April 1 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
• April 1- April 18 - Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria, and forget him there without food or drink.
• April 1- Nickelodeon Television Channel, a children's cartoon channel, launches as The Pinwheel Network.
• April 2 - Sverdlovsk Anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
• April 10 - A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42 people (the most notable of 26 that hit that day).
• April 11 - Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
• April 17 - Schoolchildren in the Central African Empire are arrested (and around 100 killed) for protesting against compulsory school uniforms. An African judicial commission later determines that Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa "almost certainly" took part in the massacre.
• April 20 - President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown Plains, Georgia.
• April 23 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.

May

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• May 1 - Greenland gets home rule.
• May 4 - Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
• May 10 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
• May 21 - San Francisco gays riot after hearing the verdict for Dan White who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
• May 25 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
• May 27 - Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and the second time for car owner Roger Penske.

June

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• June 1 - Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
• June 1 - The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal.
• June 1 - The Seattle Supersonics won the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.
• June 2 - Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
• June 3 - A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons, making it the largest unintentional oil spill ever.
• June 3 - General elections are held in Italy.
• June 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's 16th and youngest Prime Minister.
• June 4 - Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after military coup in which General Akuffo is overthrown.
• June 12 - Bryan Allen flies the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
• June 18 - Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
• June 20 - A Nicaraguan National Guard soldier kills ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape.
• June 23 - Sydney: New South Wales Premier Neville Wran officially opens the Eastern Suburbs Railway. It operates as a shuttle between Central & Bondi Junction until full integration with the Illawarra Line during 1980.
• June 25 - Belgium: Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.

July

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• July 2 - The Susan B. Anthony dollar is introduced in the U.S.
• July 3 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
• July 8 - Los Angeles passes its homosexual rights bill.
• July 11 - NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.
• July 12 - Kiribati declares independence from the United Kingdom.
• July 16 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.
• July 17 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
• July 19 - The Marxist Sandinistas take control of Nicaragua.
• July 19 - Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal.
• July 24 - The Soviet Union exchanges Gerald Brook for spies Peter and Helen Kroger with the United Kingdom.

August

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• August 5 - The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania.
• August 9 - The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton.
• August 10 - Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album Off The Wall. It sold 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
• August 14 - A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the death of 15 sailors.
• August 27 - Lord Mountbatten and 3 others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs, Provisional Irish Republican Army members attack a British Convoy at Narrow Water, County Down, killing 18 British soldiers.

September

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• September 1 - The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
• September 7 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
• September 7 - The Entertainment Sports Programing Network, known as ESPN, debuts.
• September 12 - Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
• September 20 - French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa in the Central African Republic.
• September 22 - The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.
• September 30 - The Hong Kong MTR begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka Kwun Tong Line).

October

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• October 1 - Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Nigerian Second Republic is established.
• October 1- October 6 - Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
• October 2- Bob Marley's album "Survival" is released.
• October 9 - Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record 6 laps, with a lap record on the last lap.
• October 15 - Black Monday events, in which members of a political group sack a newspaper office, unfold in Malta.
• October 16 - A tsunami in Nice, France kills 23 people.
• October 17 - The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles to win the '79 World Series.
• October 19 - 13 Marines die in a fire at Camp Fuji, Japan as a result of Typhoon Tip.
• October 26 - Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, was assassinated by the KCIA director Kim Jaegyu
• October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.

November

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• November 1 - Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
• November 2 - French police shoot gangster Jacques Mesrine in Paris.
• November 4 - Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah back to Iran to stand trial.
• November 5 - The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio.
• November 6 - At Montevideo, Uruguay, the International Olympic Committee adopts a resolution, whereby Taiwan Olympic and sports teams will participate with the name Chinese Taipei in future Olympics Games and international sports tournaments and championships.
• November 7 - U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
• November 12 - Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.
• November 14 - Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.
• November 16 - Bucharest Metro Line One is opened, in Bucharest, Romania (from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea stations, 8.63 km).
• November 17 - Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
• November 20 - A group of terrorists of around 200 militants occupy Mecca's Grand Mosque. They are driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that leaves 250 people dead and 600 wounded.
• November 21 - After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing 4. (see: Foreign relations of Pakistan)
• November 23 - In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
• November 28 - Mount Erebus disaster: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.

December

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• December 3 - Eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum (now known as the U.S. Bank Arena) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• December 5 - Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
• December 6 - The world premiere for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
• December 9 - The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
• December 21 - A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
• December 24 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
• December 24 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
• December 26 - In Rhodesia, 96 Patriotic Front guerrillas enter the capital Salisbury to monitor a ceasefire that begins December 28.
• December 27 - The Soviet Union seizes control of Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin.

Undated

• China becomes the first nation in the world to register 1 billion people in its population. Conversely, the One Child Policy is implemented in China in this year.
• VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.
• Guardian Angels civilian patrol group forms in New York City.
• Sprengel Museum opens in Hanover, Germany.
• Windsor Tower was built in Madrid, Spain.
• The first usenet experiments were conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.
• The Vauxhall Viva finishes production after 16 years and is replaced by the all-new Astra, which follows the current European trend of abandoning rear-wheel drive saloons for front-wheel drive hatchbacks on the small family car market.
• Ford launches the MK5 Cortina, which is little more than a facelift of the hugely successful MK4 that was launched three years ago.
• Financially-troubled American carmaker Chrysler sells its European division to Peugeot. The British-built Chrysler and French Simca models are all sold under the Talbot badge.
• Mag Instrument puts its first flashlight on the market, the Maglite.

Ongoing

• The 1979 energy crisis occurred throughout this year, in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.
• Historical peak year of worldwide per capita oil production.
• Cold War.

Deaths

January - March

• January 3 - Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
• January 5 - Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
• January 5 - Billy Bletcher, American actor (b. 1894)
• January 8 - Sara Carter, American bluegrass and country singer (b. 1898)
• January 13 - Donny Hathaway, American musician (b. 1945)
• January 26 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)

• February 2 - Issa Pliyev, Soviet general (b. 1903)
• February 7 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (b. 1911)
• February 9 - Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• February 12 - Jean Renoir, French film director (b. 1894)
• February 14 - Reginald Maudling, British politician (b. 1917)
• February 23 - W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (b. 1900)
• February 28 - Mr. Ed, American talking horse (b. 1949)

• March 1 - Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician (b. 1903)
• March 19 - Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)
• March 23 - Ted Anderson, English footballer (b. 1911)
• March 28 - Emmett Kelly, American clown (b. 1898)
• March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, King of Malaysia (b. 1917)
• March 30 - Airey Neave, British politician (assassinated) (b. 1916)

April - June

• April 1 - Barbara Luddy, American actor (b. 1908)
• April 4 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan (executed) (b. 1928)
• April 4 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (b. 1903)
• April 10 - Nino Rota, Italian composer (b. 1911)
• April 23 - Blair Peach, New Zealand-born anti-Nazi campaigner (killed by police) (b. 1946)

• May 2 - Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
• May 29 - Mary Pickford, Canadian actress and studio founder (b. 1892)

• June 1 - Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1904)
• June 4 - Lazar Lagin, Soviet satirical and children's writer (b.1903)
• June 11 - John Wayne, American actor (b. 1907)
• June 17 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b. 1888)
• June 19 - Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
• June 21 - Angus MacLise, American percussionist, composer, mystic, shaman, poet, occultist, calligrapher and original drummer for the Velvet Underground (b. 1938)
• June 25 - Dave Fleischer, American animator (b. 1894)
• June 26 - Vernon Presley, father of Elvis Presley, grandfather of Lisa Marie Presley (b. 1916)
• June 29 - Lowell George, American musician ( Little Feat) (b. 1945)

July - September

• July 3 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
• July 8 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• July 8 - Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• July 10 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (b. 1894)
• July 12 - Minnie Riperton, American singer (b. 1947)
• July 13 - Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and graphic artist (1913)
• July 15 - Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican President (b. 1911)
• July 16 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
• July 22 - Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
• July 29 - Bill Todman, American game show producer (b. 1916)

• August 2 - Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician, founder of APRA party (b. 1895)
• August 2 - Thurman Munson, baseball player (b. 1947)
• August 3 - Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• August 6 - Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
• August 9 - Walter O'Malley, baseball executive (b. 1903)
• August 12 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
• August 16 - John Diefenbaker, Canadian Prime Minister (b. 1895)
• August 17 - Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
• August 19 - Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, Satmarer Rebbe (b. 1887)
• August 27 - Earl Mountbatten, last British Viceroy of India (assassinated) (b. 1900)
• August 31 - Sally Rand, American dancer (b. 1904)
• September 4 - Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (b. 1904)
• September 5 - Alberto di Jorio, former head of the Vatican Bank and secretary of the 1958 conclave (b. 1884)
• September 8 - Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
• September 10 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan nationalist (b. 1922)
• September 20 - Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, King of Malaysia (b. 1907)
• September 20 - Ludvík Svoboda, president of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)
• September 22 - Syed Abul Ala Maududi, political philosopher and Islamic thinker from Pakistan (b. 1903)
• September 28 - John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
• September 29 - Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea (assassinated/executed)

October - December

• October 6 - Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (b. 1911)
• October 10 - Dr Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist (b. 1931)
• October 13 - Rebecca Helferich Clarke, English composer and violist (b. 1886)
• October 16 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
• October 19 - 13 Marines from H&S 2/4 die as result of burns from a fire @ Camp Fuji, Japan. As well as Japanese Nationals injured. Fire stemmed from Typhoon Tip.
• October 22 - Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)
• October 26 - Park Chung-Hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)
• October 30 - Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer (b. 1887)
• October 30 - Donna Rachele Mussolini, Italian, wife of Benito Mussolini (b. 1890)

• November 1 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• November 17 - Immanuel Velikovsky, author of "Worlds In Collision" and psychiatrist (b. 1895)
• November 21 - Marie Byles, first female solicitor in New South Wales, Australia (b. 1900)
• November 21 - Paul Wexler, American actor (b. 1929)
• November 29 - Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1901)

• December 3 - Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (b. 1905)
• December 23 - Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (b. 1898)
• December 25 - Jordi Bonet, Canadian artist (b. 1932)
• December 27 - Hafizullah Amin, General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)

Unknown dates

• Dave Line, British author
• Nur Mohammad Taraki, General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (b. 1917)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg
• Chemistry - Herbert C. Brown, Georg Wittig
• Medicine - Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey N. Hounsfield
• Literature - Odysseas Elytis
• Peace - Mother Teresa
• Economics - Theodore Schultz, Arthur Lewis

Templeton Prize

• Rev. Nikkyo Niwano