1979

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

1979 by topic:
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Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
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This page refers to the year 1979. For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see 1979 (song).

1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1979 calendar). It was proclaimed International Year of the Child by the United Nations.

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Events

1979 energy crisis - occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution

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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" fund.
January 1 - Sino-American relations: United States and the People's Republic of China establish 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 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 was broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world
January 13 - YMCA sues the Village People for libel because of their song of the same name
January 16 - The 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

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February

February 1 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by 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
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 - Following her 1972 sex reassignment surgery, musician Wendy Carlos legally changes her name from Walter. She later revealed this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of Playboy magazine. [1]
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 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.

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March

March 1 - Scotland voted narrowly for home rule, which was not implemented, and Wales voted against
March 5 - Voyager I passes 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, 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 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

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April

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 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

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May

Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

May 1 - Greenland gets home rule
May 4 - Conservatives win the British 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 DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
May 27 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and the second time for car owner Roger Penske.

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June

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.
June 12 - 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 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.

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July

July 2 - The Susan B. Anthony 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 - NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth after being in orbit for almost 38 months after its launch date of May 14, 1973.
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 - NASA's Skylab orbiting space station 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; Sandinistas form a new government on July 19.
July 19 - The 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 Saudi security forces in Mecca

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August

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 nudist beach is established in Brighton
August 27 - Lord Mountbatten and three others assassinated by the I.R.A.. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

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September

September 1 - The American 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 - ESPN starts broadcasting.
September 12 - Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 pm on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
September 16 - Three families flee from East Germany by balloon
September 20 - French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa
September 22 - The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.

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October

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 25 - Great Lakes Airlines officially incorporated.
October 26 - South Korean president Park Chunghee killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu.
October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.

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November

Iranian students burn the American flag on the wall of the American Embassy in Tehran, shortly after siezing the compound.

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 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 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 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 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.

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December

December 4 - the Hastie fire in Hull, England, leads to the deaths of three 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. 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 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.