1979 - What happened in 1979 ?

January 1979

Monday 01:

Formal diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America.

Tuesday 02:

Sid Vicious goes on trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen.

Sunday 07:

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are overthrown by Vietnamese troops.

Tuesday 16:

The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.

February 1979

Friday 02:

Sid Vicious dies of a heroin overdose.

Wednesday 07:

Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either planet was known to science.

Tuesday 13:

The intense February 13, 1979 Windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge

Wednesday 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.

Thursday 22:

Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.

March 1979

Monday 05:

Detection equipment picks up a gamma ray burst originating from the Large Magellanic Cloud, leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.

Tuesday 13:

The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.

Wednesday 14:

In China, a Hawker-Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.

Tuesday 20:

1979 – REXX programming language created

Sunday 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.

April 1979

Sunday 01:

Iran's government becomes Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.

Wednesday 04:

President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.

Wednesday 11:

Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.

Friday 20:

President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Swamp Rabbit while on vacation in Plains, Georgia.

Sunday 22:

Brent Mydland performs his first show with the Grateful Dead at Spartan Stadium, San Jose.

May 1979

Friday 04:

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Thursday 10:

The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.

Monday 21:

White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

Friday 25:

1979 - The movie Alien opens in theaters.

June 1979

Saturday 02:

Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

Tuesday 12:

Bryan Allen flies the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.

Monday 18:

SALT II is signed by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Saturday 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.

Tuesday 26:

Muhammad Ali retires.

July 1979

Monday 02:

The first U.S. coin to honor a woman, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, is introduced.

Thursday 12:

The island nation of Kiribati declares independence.

Sunday 15:

U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his famous "malaise" speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation."

Monday 16:

Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

Tuesday 17:

Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.

August 1979

Friday 17:

Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156

Thursday 23:

Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.

Friday 24:

In Central Park, New York a concert is given by cars.

Monday 27:

An IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten and 3 others on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.

Tuesday 28:

An IRA bomb explodes on the Great Market in Brussels.

September 1979

Saturday 01:

The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.

Friday 07:

The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for USD $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

Wednesday 12:

Indonesia is hit with an earthquake that measures 8.1 on the Richter scale.

Saturday 22:

The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.

Thursday 27:

The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency.

October 1979

Monday 01:

The United States returns sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama.

Wednesday 10:

The Pac-Man arcade game is released to the Japanese market by Namco.

Sunday 14:

The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C. demands "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people," drawing 200,000 people.

Wednesday 17:

The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the United States Department of Education and United States Department of Health and Human Services. Both replace the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Friday 26:

Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.

November 1979

Sunday 04:

Iran hostage crisis begins: Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (63 of whom are American).

Thursday 08:

Foundation of the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action).

Wednesday 14:

Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.

Friday 16:

The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea in Bucharest, Romania.

Monday 19:

Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.

December 1979

Monday 03:

In Cincinnati, Ohio, a stampede for seats at Riverfront Coliseum during a Who concert kills eleven fans.

Wednesday 12:

Rhodesia changes its name to Zimbabwe

Friday 14:

Punk rock band The Clash release the influential double album London Calling.

Sunday 23:

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: Soviet military units occupy Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan

Monday 24:

1979 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.