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

[edit] Events of 1979

[edit] January

• January 1 - United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the International Year of the Child. Many musicians donate to the Music for UNICEF Concert fund.
• January 1 - The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.

• 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, 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 is later released.
• January 16 - Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
• January 19 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
• January 21 - Super Bowl XIII: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 35–31 at the Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
• January 29 - Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing 2 faculty members and wounding 8 students.
• January 31 - The police under directions of Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister of the CPM-led government of West Bengal, surround and open fire on unarmed refugee settlement of Morichjhapi island in Sunderbans, West Bengal, India. Hundreds are killed but the official government death toll is 36.^{[clarification needed]}

[edit] February

• 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 14 - In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
• February 14 - Following her 1972 sex reassignment surgery, musician Wendy Carlos legally changes her name from Walter. She later reveals this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine.
• February 15 - A suspected gas explosion in a Warsaw bank kills 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. [1]
• February 28 - Mr. Ed, the 'talking horse' featured in the television show of the same name, dies.

[edit] March

• 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 - The largest Magnetar (Soft gamma repeater) event is 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 U.K. collapses, killing 2 workers.
• March 25 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, 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, causes 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 II 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 last British soldier (belonging to the Royal Navy) leaves the Maltese Islands, after 179 years of presence. 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.

[edit] April

• April 1 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
• April 1–18 - Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria, and forget him there without food or drink.
• April 1- The 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 day).
• April 11 - Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
• April 15 - 1979 Montenegro Earthquake: A major earthquake (7.0 on the Richter scale) strikes Montenegro (then part of Yugoslavia) and parts of Albania, causing extensive damage to coastal areas and taking 136 live; the old town of Budva is devastated.
• April 17 - Schoolchildren in the Central African Republic 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 of 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.

[edit] May

May 4: Thatcher

• May 1 - Greenland gets home rule.
• May 4 - Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
• May 8 - The Manchester, England Woolworth's in city centre is seriously damaged by fire; 10 shoppers die.
• May 9 - A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
• May 10 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
• May 21 - San Francisco gays riot after hearing the verdict for Dan White, assassin of 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 2 people on the ground.
• May 25 - John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of death penalty in 1976.
• May 27 - Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.

[edit] June

• June 1 - The 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 win 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 a 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 in 1980.
• June 25 - Belgium: NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.

[edit] July

• 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 9 - A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
• 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 12 - A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.
• July 12 - Carmine Galante, boss of the Bonanno crime family, is assassinated.
• July 12 - A fire at a hotel in Saragossa, Spain leaves 72 dead. Worst hotel fire in Europe in decades.
• 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 - Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela wins the Miss Universe Pageant; the stage collapses after contestants and news photographers rush to her throne.
• 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.

[edit] August

• August 5 - The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania.
• August 9 - The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton.
• August 9 - Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is shot and killed 5 months after his arrest for quadruple murder (his killers have not yet been identified).
• August 10 - Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album Off The Wall. It sells 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.
• August 28 - The death toll of the previous day's IRA bombing reaches 5 when Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, 83, dies in a hospital as a result of her injuries.
• August 29 - A national referendum is held in which Somali voters approve a new liberal constitution, promulgated by President Siad Barre to placate the United States.

[edit] September

• 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 9 - The long-running comic strip For Better or For Worse begins its run.
• September 7 - The Entertainment Sports Programming Network, known as ESPN, debuts.
• September 12 - Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
• September 16 - Two families flee from East Germany by balloon.
• 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).

[edit] October

• October 1 - Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Nigerian Second Republic is established.
• October 1–6 - 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 14 - A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving many tens of thousands of people.
• 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 - 1979 World Series: The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles.
• October 19 - 13 Marines die in a fire at Camp Fuji, Japan as a result of Typhoon Tip.^[1]
• October 26 - Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jaegyu.
• October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.

[edit] November

• 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 3 - In Greensboro, North Carolina, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.
• 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 of Iran back 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 9 - The Carl Bridgewater murder trial ends with all 4 men found guilty. James Robinson, 45, and 25-year-old Vincent Hickey are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended 25-year minimum for murder. 18-year-old Michael Hickey is also found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite detention. Patrick Molloy, 53, is found guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

[2]

• 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 Juhayman al-Otaibi 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.

[edit] December

• 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 3 - The United States dollar exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark falls to 1.7079 DM, the all-time low so far; this record is not broken until November 5, 1987.
• December 4 - The Hastie fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK's most prolific killer.
• 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 23 - The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.
• 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.

[edit] 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.
• The Guardian Angels civilian patrol group forms in New York City.
• Sprengel Museum opens in Hanover, Germany.
• Windsor Tower is built in Madrid, Spain.
• The first usenet experiments are 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.
• Worldwide per capita oil production reaches an historic peak.
• The price of crude oil doubles.

[edit] Ongoing

• 1979 energy crisis
• Cold War

[edit] Births

[edit] January–February

• January 1 - Brody Dalle, Australian singer
• January 1 - Koichi Domoto, Japanese entertainer (Kinki Kids)
• January 2 - Morena Baccarin, Italo-Brazilian actress
• January 3 - Francesco Bellissimo, Italian mangaka
• January 4 - Charity Rahmer, American actress
• January 6 - Bernice Liu, Hong Kong actress
• January 7 - Bipasha Basu, Indian actress and model
• January 10 - Chris Smith, African-American rapper (Kris Kross)
• January 11 - Siti Nurhaliza, Malaysian singer
• January 12 - Marián Hossa, Slovak ice hockey player
• January 12 - Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer
• January 15 - Drew Brees, American football player
• January 16 - Aaliyah, African-American singer (Age Ain't Nothin' But A Number) (d. 2001)
• January 17 - Sharon Chan, Hong Kong actress
• January 18 - Jay Chou, Taiwanese singer and producer
• January 18 - Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer
• January 20 - Rob Bourdon, American rock drummer (Linkin Park)
• January 20 - Asaka Kubo, Japanese gravure idol
• January 21 - Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby union player
• January 23 - Larry Hughes, American basketball player
• January 24 - Tatyana Ali, African-American actress (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
• January 27 - Rosamund Pike, British actress
• January