1979 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1979?
- January 28, 1979 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Earth Sheep in Chinese astrology.
- February 1, 1979 – Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
- March 5, 1979 – Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by “off the scale” gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
- March 30, 1979 – Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
- March 31, 1979 – The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
- April 4, 1979 – President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
- April 11, 1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.
- May 25, 1979 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
- June 3, 1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3000000 oilbbl of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.
- June 18, 1979 – SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
- July 15, 1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his so-called “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” but in which he never uses the word malaise
- August 7, 1979 – Several tornadoes struck the city of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada and the surrounding communities.
- August 17, 1979 – Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156.
- September 7, 1979 – The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, makes its debut.
- September 13, 1979 – South Africa grants independence to the “homeland” of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
- October 6, 1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
- October 17, 1979 – The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.
- November 17, 1979 – Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra is commissioned.
- November 21, 1979 – The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four. (see: Foreign relations of Pakistan)
- December 21, 1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.
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