1979
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''This page refers to the year 1979. For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see 1979 (song).''
'''1979''' '''(MCMLXXIX)''' is a common year starting on Monday.
Events
1979 energy crisis - occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution
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" fund.
January 1 - Sino-American relations: United States and the People's Republic of China establish diplomacy|diplomatic relations
January 4 - State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings.
January 7 - Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge retreat to Thailand
January 8 - The French tanker ''Betelgeuse'' explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry in Ireland - 50 dead
January 13 - YMCA sues the Village People for libel because of their song of the same name
January 16 - The Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran|Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocate to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
January 19 - Former US Attorney General John N. Mitchell released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama
January 29 - Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at random in San Diego, California, killing two teachers and wounding 8 students
February 1 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President of the United States|President Jimmy Carter
February 1 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
February 2 - Sid Vicious dies of heroin overdose
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
February 7 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either planet was known to science.
February 10-February 11 - Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution
February 11 - Khomeini seizes power in Iran.
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 - Musician Walter Carlos reveals that he has undergone a sex change operation and become Wendy
February 17 - The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.
February 22 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
March 1 - Scotland voted narrowly for home rule, which was not implemented, and Wales voted against
March 5 - Voyager I passes Jupiter (planet)|Jupiter
March 13 - In Grenada, Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup
March 14 - In China, a Hawker-Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing killing at least 200
March 25 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, ''Space Shuttle Columbia|Columbia,'' was 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 - Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, releases radiation
March 28 - In United Kingdom|Britain, Jim Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by one vote, forcing a general election
March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, 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 INLA bomb in British House of Commons car park
March 31 - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta
April 1 - Iran's government becomes 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 for the next 18 days without food or drink
April 2 - Soviet Union|Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores. 66 dead plus unknown amount of livestock
April 4 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed
April 10 - A tornado hits in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people. It was the most notable tornado of twenty-six that hit that day.
April 11 - Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Idi Amin flees
April 17 - Schoolchildren in the Central African Republic arrested for protesting against wearing the expensive, school uniforms. Around 100 killed.
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 1 - Greenland gets home rule
May 4 - Conservatives win the Britain|British united Kingdom general election, 1979|general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
May 9 - Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris
May 10 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
May 25 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, Illinois, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10|DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
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 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 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's sixteenth, and youngest, Prime Minister of Canada|prime minister.
June 12 - Bryan Allen (pilot)|Bryan Allen flies the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.
June 18 - Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
June 20 - a national guard soldier in Nicaragua kills American Broadcasting Company|ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart (journalism)|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.
July 2 - The Susan B. Anthony United States dollar coin|one-dollar coin is introduced in the US.
July 3 - President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
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 - The space station Skylab returns to Earth.
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 - Assassination of Carmine Galante, boss of Bonanno mafia family
July 13 - Skylab re-enters the Earth atmosphere; the wreckage lands in Australia
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|Miami; Sandinistas form a new government on July 19.
July 19 - The Marxism | Marxist Sandinistas take control of Nicaragua
July 19 - Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal
July 24 - Soviet Union exchanges Gerald Brook for spies Peter and Helen Kroger with United Kingdom
July 31 - 400 Iranian pilgrims are killed after clashes with Sauri Arabia|Saudi security forces in Mecca
August 5 - Polisario signs a peace treaty with Mauritania
August 5 - Government of Mauritania signs a peace treaty with Polisario
August 9 - The first British nude beach|nudist beach is established in Brighton
August 27 - Lord Mountbatten and three others assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army|I.R.A..
September 1 - The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn (planet)|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 - ESPN starts broadcasting.
September 16 - Three families flee from East Germany by balloon
September 20 - French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Jean-Bedel Bokassa|Bokassa
September 22 - The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.
October 14 - A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving many tens of thousands of people.
October 16 - 23 people die in Nice, France, when the coastal town is hit by a tsunami
October 21 - 259 Muslim radicals occupy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Saudi Arabian army goes in to expel them
October 26 - South Korean president Park Chunghee killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu.
October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.
November
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November 1 - Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests
November 2 - French police shoots gangster Jacques Mesrine in Paris
November 3 - In Greensboro, North Carolina, five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and seven are wounded by a group of Ku Klux Klan | Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a "Death to the Klan" rally
November 4 - Iran hostage crisis begins: 3000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (63 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former shah of Iran|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 where Taiwan Olympic and sports team participate with the name Chinese Taipei in future Olympics Games and international sports tournaments and championships .
November 12 - Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran
November 14 - Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and US banks in response to the hostage crisis
November 16 - Bucharest Metro Line 1 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 black United States|American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.
November 20 - A group of around 200 militant Muslims occupied Mecca's Grand Mosque. They were driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that left 250 people were killed and 600 wounded.
November 20 - Group of Sunni muslims barricade themselves into the Holy Mosque of Mecca. They hold out until December 4
November 21 - After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Great Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing four. (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 Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Mountbatten
November 28 - The Mount Erebus disaster: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
December 5 - Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland. Successor Charles Haughey.
December 21 - Ceasefire for Rhodesia signed at London
December 24 - Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
December 24 - The launch of the first European Ariane rocket.
December 26 - In Rhodesia, 96 Patriotic Front guerillas enter the capital Harare|Salisbury to monitor a ceasefire that begins in December 28
December 27 - The Soviet Union seizes control of Afghanistan and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin.
Unknown dates
The World Health Organization declares the world free of naturally occurring smallpox.
UNICEF declares 1979 the "International Year of the Child."
VisiCalc becomes the first spreadsheet#Spreadsheet programming|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.
Births
January 15 - Mary Pierce, American tennis player
January 16 - Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
January 20 - Rob Bourdon, American drummer (Linkin Park)
January 21 - Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby player
January 24 - Tatyana Ali, American actress
January 29 - Sui Feifei, Chinese basketball player
February 9 - Mena Suvari, American actress
February 9 - Zhang Ziyi, Chinese actress and model
February 11 - Brandy Norwood, American singer
February 16 - Valentino Rossi, Italian race car driver
February 21 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer
March 9 - Melina Perez, American professional wrestler
March 11 - Benji Madden and Joel Madden, twins from Good Charlotte
March 12 - Pete Doherty, English singer and guitarist (The Libertines and Babyshambles)
March 30 - Norah Jones, American musician
April 4 - Heath Ledger, Australian actor
April 3 - Daniel Lane, British music journalist (Kerrang!)
April 8 - Alexi Laiho, Finnish guitarist (Children of Bodom)
April 10 - Rachel Corrie, American activist (d. 2003)
April 10 - Tsuyoshi Domoto, Japanese artist
April 10 - Sophie Ellis-Bextor, English singer
April 12 - Claire Danes, American actress
April 18 - Michael Bradley (basketball)|Michael Bradley, American basketball player
April 19 - Kate Hudson, American actress
April 19 - Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgarian chess player
April 28 - Jorge Garcia, American actor
May 2 - Roman Lyashenko, Russian hockey player (d. 2003)
May 24 - Tracy McGrady, American basketball player
May 25 - Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player
May 26 - Ashley Massaro, American professional wrestler and model
June 5 - Pete Wentz, American bassist and lyricist (Fall Out Boy)
June 13 - Nila Håkedal, Norwegian beach volleyball player
June 23 - LaDainian Tomlinson, American football player
June 24 - Craig Shergold, British cancer patient
June 28 - Randy McMichael, American football player
June 29 - Marleen Veldhuis, Dutch swimmer
July 3 - Ludivine Sagnier, French model and actress
July 5 - Amélie Mauresmo, French tennis player
July 9 - Enav Itamar, Israeli Writer
July 21 - David Carr, American football player
July 26 - Johnson Beharry, British war hero
August 10 - Joanna Garcia, American actress
August 13 - Taizo Sugimura, Japanese politician
August 16 - Sarah Balabagan, Filipina prisoner and singer
August 26 - Jamal Lewis, American football player
August 28 - Robert Hoyzer, German football referee
September 13 - Bjørn-Arild Berthelsen, Norwegian Salvation Army soldier
September 13 - Ivan Miljković, Serbian volleybal player, considered as the best attacker in the world, Olympic Champion in 2000 (with the team of Jugoslavia)
September 15 - Amy Davidson, American actress
September 28 - Bam Margera, American skater
October 1 - Rudi Johnson, American football player
October 14 - Stacy Keibler, American professional wrestler
October 17 - Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish race car driver
October 30 - Yukie Nakama, Japanese actress
November 6 - Lamar Odom, American basketball player
November 7 - Jon Peter Lewis, American singer and songwriter
November 13 - Ron Artest, American basketball player
December 12 - Nate Clements, American football player
December 14 - Michael Owen, English footballer
December 15 - Adam Brody, American actor
December 17 - William Green (football)|William Green, American football player
December 23 - Summer Altice, American model and actress
December 27 - Carson Palmer, American football player
Deaths
January-March
January 3 - Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
January 5 - Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
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 - Sid Vicious, English musician (Sex Pistols) (drug overdose) (b. 1957)
February 7 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (b. 1911)
February 9 - Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|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 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 (asassinated) (b. 1916)
April-September
April 4 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan|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 in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
May 11 - Barbara Hutton, American socialite (b. 1912)
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 11 - John Wayne, American actor (b. 1907)
June 17 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b. 1888)
June 19 - Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
June 29 - Lowell George, American musician (Little Feat) (b. 1945)
July 3 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
July 8 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
July 8 - Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
July 10 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (b. 1894)
July 12 - Minnie Riperton, American singer (b. 1947)
July 16 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
July 22 - Nittatsu Hosoi, Japanese priest (b. 1902)
July 29 - Bill Todman, American game show producer (b. 1916)
August 2 - Thurman Munson, baseball player (b. 1947)
August 3 - Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize in Economics|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 12 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
August 27 - Earl Mountbatten, last British Viceroy of India (assassinated) (b. 1900)
August 31 - Sally Rand, American dancer (b. 1904)
September - Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Zainal Abidin III, King of Malaysia (b. 1907)
September 8 - Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
September 10 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan nationalist (b. 1922)
September 28 - John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
September 29 - Francisco Macias Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea
October-December
October 6 - Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (b. 1911)
October 10 - Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist (b. 1931)
October 13 - Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist (b. 1886)
October 16 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
October 22 - Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)
October 26 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)
November 1 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
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 27 - Hafizullah Amin, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)
Fictional
June 13 - Pamela Voorhees, serial killer, mother of Jason Voorhees (b. 1930)
Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics - Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg
Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry - Herbert C. Brown, Georg Wittig
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine - Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey N. Hounsfield
Nobel Prize in literature|Literature - Odysseas Elytis
Nobel Peace Prize|Peace - Mother Teresa
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel|Economics - Theodore Schultz, Arthur Lewis (economist)|Arthur Lewis
Niwano Peace Prize|Rev. Nikkyo Niwano
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