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1979

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s

Years: 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 - 1979 - 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984

See also:

Events:

January 1 - 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.
January 16 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocate to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
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 is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
February 11 - Ayatollah Ruhollah 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 17 - The People's Republic of China invades northernVietnam
February 22 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
March 14 - In China, a Trident aircraft[?] 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 28 - Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., releases radiation
April 1 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini proclaims Iran to be an Islamic Republic.
April 6 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto[?] of Pakistan is executed.
May 4 - Conservatives win the British election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
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 on two people on the ground.
June 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's sixteenth, and youngest, prime minister.
July 17 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami; Sandinistas form a new government on July 19.
June 18 - Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
August 27 - Lord Mountbatten killed by the I.R.A..
November 4 - Iranian militants seize the U.S. embassy in Teheran and take hostages.
November 28 - Air New Zealand DC-10, on a sightseeing trip, crashes into Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 257 people on board.
December 24 - Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
December 27 - The Soviet Union seizes control of Afghanistan and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin.

The Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin is introduced in the US
VisiCalc becomes the first spreadsheet program[?].

Art, Culture & Fashion

1979 in film
- Apocalypse Now
- Caligula
- Kramer vs. Kramer
- Mad Max
- March - Production begins on the Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.
- November - Production begins on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
1979 in literature
1979 in music
1979 in sports
1979 in television
- February 11 - 43 million viewers watch "Elvis!" on ABC.
- Over 300 million households worldwide now own television sets.

Births:

January 16 - Aaliyah, singer (+ 2001)
January 24 - Tatyana Ali, actress
February 9 - Mena Suvari[?], actress
February 11 - Brandy Norwood, singer.
February 21 - Jennifer Love Hewitt[?], actress, singer
March 30 - Norah Jones, musician
April 4 - Heath Ledger[?], actor
June 10 - Blasete[?], physicist.

Deaths:

January 3 - Conrad Hilton, hotelier
January 5 - Charles Mingus, American jazz musician
January 26 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States
February 2 - Sid Vicious of Sex Pistols
February 7 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal
February 12 - Jean Renoir, Film Director
February 23 - W.A.C. Bennett, British Columbia politician
February 28 - "The famous Mr. Ed[?]", the talking horse, dies.
March 28 - Emmett Kelly, clown
April 4 - Ali Bhutto[?], President and Prime Minister of Pakistan
April 10 - Nino Rota, composer
May 29 - Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder
July 3 - Louis Durey, composer, member of Les Six
July 16 - Alfred Deller, singer, early modern countertenor
August 27 - Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 79, British World War II hero, and three others are killed by a blast on a fishing boat off the Irish coast; two I.R.A. members are accused on August 30.
September 8 - Jean Seberg, actress
October 10 - Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist
December 7 - Prince Chahryar Shafik[?], nephew of the Shah of Iran, murdered in Paris, France.
December 23 - Peggy Guggenheim, art collector
December 27 - Hafizullah Amin, president of Afghanistan

Nobel Prizes:

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