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 Concert fund including ABBA, who wrote the song "Chiquitita" to commemorate the event.
The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.
The Canton of Jura comes into existence as the 26th canton of Switzerland, being formed from the predominantly French-speaking Catholic part of the Canton of Bern.
January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.
January 5 – Queen releases "Don't Stop Me Now". It becomes one of their most popular singles.
January 7 – Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreat west to an area along the Thai border.
January 8 – Whiddy Island Disaster: The French tanker Betelgeuse explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry, Ireland; 50 are killed.
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 is broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world. Hosted by the Bee Gees, other performers include Donna Summer, ABBA, Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire. A soundtrack album is later released.
January 16 – Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
January 19 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
January 25 – Pope John Paul II arrives in Mexico City for his first visit to Mexico, mainly for 1979's Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) or Conference of Puebla.
January 26 – The Dukes of Hazzard debuts on CBS
January 29 – Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, killing 2 faculty members and wounding 8 students and a police officer. Her justification for the action, "I don't like Mondays", inspires the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.
February
February 1
Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
February 2
Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious is found dead, aged 21, of a heroin overdose in New York City, the day after being released from a 55-day sentence at Rikers Island prison on bail.
February 3 – Ayatollah Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
February 7
Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration; the final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.
Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was known to science.
Nazi criminal Josef Mengele suffers a stroke and drowns while swimming in Bertioga, Brazil. His remains are found in 1985.
February 10 – February 11 – The Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution.
February 11 – Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power in Iran, overthrowing Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi.
February 12 – Prime Minister Hissène Habré starts the Battle of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chad's President Félix Malloum.
February 13 – The intense February 13, 1979 windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
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.
Following her 1972 sex reassignment surgery, musician Wendy Carlos legally changes her name from Walter. She later reveals this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of Playboy magazine.
February 15 – A suspected gas explosion in a Warsaw bank kills 49.
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 – Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
February 24 – Ethiopia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
February 26 – A total solar eclipse arcs over northern Canada, and a partial solar eclipse is visible over almost all of North America and Central America.[1]
February 27 – The annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans is cancelled due to a strike called by the New Orleans Police Department.
March
March 1 – Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
March 4 – The U.S. Voyager 1 spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
March 5 – Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.
March 7 – The largest Magnetar (Soft gamma repeater) event is recorded.
March 8 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
March 13 – Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada. His government is later crushed by American intervention in 1983.
March 14 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
March 17 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the U.K. collapses, killing 2 workers.
March 18 – Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Greater Manchester.[2]
March 25 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the 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
In Britain, James Callaghan's minority Labour government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election which is to be held on 3 May.[3]
America's most serious nuclear power plant accident occurs, at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
March 29 – Sultan Yahya Petra of Kelantan, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Head of State) of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang.
March 30 – Airey Neave, World War II veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the British House of Commons car park.
March 31
The last British soldier (belonging to the Royal Navy) leaves the Maltese Islands, after 179 years of presence. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song "Hallelujah".
April
April 1
Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
The Pinwheel Network changes its name to Nickelodeon and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.
April 1 – April 18 – Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria and forget about him, leaving him there without food or drink.
April 2 – Sverdlovsk anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. It is a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.
April 7 – In Japan, Yoshiyuki Tomino directed Mobile Suit Gundam, the first series of the metaseries of the same name.
April 10
A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42 people (the most notable of 26 tornadoes that day).
Cambodia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
April 11 – Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
April 13 – The La Soufrière volcano erupts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
April 15 – 1979 Montenegro earthquake: A major earthquake (7.0 on the Richter scale) strikes Montenegro (then part of Yugoslavia) and parts of Albania, causing extensive damage to coastal areas and taking 136 lives; the old town of Budva is devastated.
April 17 – Schoolchildren in the Central African Republic are arrested (and around 100 killed) for protesting against compulsory school uniforms. An African judicial commission later determines that Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa "almost certainly" took part in the massacre.
April 20 – President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, USA.
April 22 – The Albert Einstein Memorial is unveiled at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
April 23 – Fighting breaks out in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group; protester Blair Peach receives fatal injuries during the incident, now officially attributed to the SPG.
May
May 4: Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister
May 1 – Greenland is granted limited autonomy from Denmark, with its own Parliament sitting in Nuuk.
May 4 – Counting in the previous day's British general election shows that the Conservatives have won and Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister, ending the rule of James Callaghan's Labour government.[4]
May 8 – The Woolworth's store in Manchester city centre in England is seriously damaged by fire; 10 shoppers die.
May 9
The Salvadoran Civil War begins.
A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
Laos recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
May 10 – The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
May 21
Dan White receives a light sentence for killing San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, gay men in the city riot.
The Montréal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1 in the best-of-seven series, winning the Stanley Cup.
May 23 – Afghanistan recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
May 25
American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U. S. history.
John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976.
Etan Patz, 6 years old, is kidnapped in New York. He is often referred to as the "Boy on the Milk Carton" and the investigation later sprouts into one of the most prolific child abduction cases of all time. This is a cold case until 2010 when it is re-opened.
May 27 – Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.
June
June – McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal.
June 1
The Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal.
The Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.
June 2
Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland on his first official, nine-day stay, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country. This visit, known as nine days that changed the world, brings about the solidarity of the Polish people against Communism, ultimately leading to the rise of the Solidarity movement.
Los Angeles' city council passes the city's first homosexual rights bill signed without fanfare by mayor Thomas Bradley.
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 until it was surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
General elections are held in Italy.
June 4
Joe Clark becomes Canada's 16th and youngest Prime Minister.
Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown.
June 7 – The first direct elections to the European Parliament begin, allowing citizens from across all then-9 European Community member states to elect 410 MEPs. It is also the first international election in history.
June 12 – Bryan Allen flies the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
June 20 – A Nicaraguan National Guard soldier 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 in 1980.
June 24 – Bologna: The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, an international opinion tribunal, is founded at the initiative of Senator Lelio Basso.
June 25 – Belgium: NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.
July
July 1
Sweden outlaws corporal punishment in the home.
The Sony Walkman goes on sale for the first time in Japan.
July 3 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
July 4 – Cape Verde recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
July 5 – Queen Elizabeth II attends the millennium celebrations of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald.[5]
July 8 – Los Angeles passes its gay and lesbian civil rights bill.
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 6 years and 2 months.
July 12
The Gilbert Islands become fully independent of the United Kingdom as Kiribati.
A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.
Carmine Galante, boss of the Bonanno crime family, is assassinated in Brooklyn.
A fire at a hotel in Zaragoza, Spain, leaves 72 dead, the worst hotel fire in Europe in decades.
July 16 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.
July 17 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.
July 21
The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.
Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal.
Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela wins the Miss Universe pageant; the stage collapses after contestants and news photographers rush to her throne.
August
August 3 – Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état lead by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
August 4 – Opening game of the American Football Bundesliga played between Frankfurter Löwen and Düsseldorf Panther, first-ever league game of American football in Germany.[6]
August 5 – The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania. Mauritania withdraws from the Western Sahara territory it had occupied, and cedes it to the SADR.
August 8 – Two American commercial divers, Richard Walker and Victor Guiel, die of hypothermia after their diving bell becomes stranded at a depth of over 160 metres (520 ft) in the East Shetland Basin. The legal repercussions of the accident will lead to important safety changes in the diving industry.[7]
August 9
A nudist beach is established in Brighton.
Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles (his killers have not yet been identified).
August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
August 11 – The former Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya in Western Sahara is annexed by Morocco.
August 14 – A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the deaths of 15 sailors.
August 20 – Grenada recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
August 24 – Ghana recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
August 27 – Lord Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of The Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs, killing 18 British soldiers.
August 28 – The death toll of the previous day's IRA bombing reaches 5 when Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, 83, dies in a hospital as a result of her injuries.
August 29 – A national referendum is held in which Somali voters approve a new liberal constitution, promulgated by President Siad Barre to placate the United States.
September
September 1
The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
Dominica, Guyana & St. Lucia recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 4 – Jamaica recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 6 – Nicaragua and Uganda recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 7 – The first cable sports channel, ESPN, known as the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, is launched.
September 8 – Mexico recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 9 – The long-running comic strip For Better or For Worse begins its run.
September 12 – Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
September 16 – Two families flee from East Germany by balloon.
September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa in the Central African Republic.
September 22 – The South Atlantic Flash is observed near the Prince Edward Islands, thought to be a nuclear weapons test conducted by South Africa and Israel.
September 30 – The Hong Kong MTR begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka Kwun Tong Line).
October
October 1 – Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Second Nigerian Republic is established.
October 1 – October 6 – Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
October 1 – The MTR, the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong, opens.
October 3 – An EF4 Tornado hits Windsor Locks, Connecticut, causing extensive damage to the town.
October 6 – Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy.
October 9
Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record 6 laps, with a lap record on the last lap.
Lesotho recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
October 12
Zambia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
Near Guam, Typhoon Tip reaches a record intensity of 870 millibars, the lowest pressure recorded at sea level. This makes Tip the most powerful tropical cyclone in known world history.
October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving tens of thousands of people.
October 15 – Black Monday events, in which members of a political group sack a newspaper office, unfold in Malta.
October 16 – A tsunami in Nice, France kills 23 people.
October 17 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series. Willie Stargell is named the Series MVP.
October 19 – 13 U.S. Marines die in a fire at Camp Fuji, Japan as a result of Typhoon Tip.[8]
October 20 – The first McDonald's in Singapore opens at Liat Towers in Orchard Road.[9] [10]
October 26 – Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jae-gyu.
October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence from the United Kingdom.
November
November 1 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
November 2
French police shoot gangster Jacques Mesrine in Paris.
Assata Shakur (née Joanne Chesimard), a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, escapes from a New York prison to Cuba, where she remains under political asylum.
November 3 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.
November 4 – Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.
November 5 – The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio in the United States.
November 6 – At Montevideo, Uruguay, the International Olympic Committee adopts a resolution, whereby Taiwan Olympic and sports teams will participate with the name Chinese Taipei in future Olympic Games and international sports tournaments and championships.
November 7 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
November 9
The Carl Bridgewater murder trial ends in England with all 4 men found guilty. James Robinson, 45, and 25-year-old Vincent Hickey are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended 25-year minimum for murder. 18-year-old Michael Hickey is also found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite detention. Patrick Molloy, 53, is found guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.[11]
Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect an apparent massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.[12]
November 10 – 1979 Mississauga train derailment: A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history.
November 12
Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.
Süleyman Demirel, of the Justice Party (AP) forms the new government of Turkey (43rd government, a minority government).
November 14 – Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.
November 15 – British art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt's role as the "fourth man" of the 'Cambridge Five' double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom;[13] she gives further details on November 21.[14]
November 16 – Bucharest Metro Line One 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 African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
November 20 – Grand Mosque Seizure: A group of 200 Juhayman al-Otaybi militants occupy Mecca's Masjid al-Haram, the holiest place in Islam. They are driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that leaves 250 people dead and 600 wounded.
November 21 – After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing 4, and disturbing Pakistan–United States relations.
November 23 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.
November 25 – Last cargo of phosphate shipped from Banaba Island.
November 28 – Air New Zealand Flight 901: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus in Antarctica on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
December
December 3
Eleven fans are killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.
The United States dollar exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark falls to 1.7079 DM, the all-time low so far; this record is not broken until November 5, 1987.
December 4 – The Hastie fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, leads to the deaths of 3 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; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
December 6 – The world premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
December 9 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two human diseases that have been driven to extinction.
December 12
A major earthquake and tsunami kills 259 people in Colombia.
Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-hah, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung-hee.
The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.
December 15 – The directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki, The Castle of Cagliostro based on the manga series Lupin III is released in Japan.
December 21 – A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
December 23 – The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.
December 25
The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin, which begins the war.
The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
December 26 – In Rhodesia, 96 Patriotic Front guerrillas enter the capital Salisbury to monitor a ceasefire that begins December 28.
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 Concert fund including ABBA, who wrote the song "Chiquitita" to commemorate the event.
The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.
The Canton of Jura comes into existence as the 26th canton of Switzerland, being formed from the predominantly French-speaking Catholic part of the Canton of Bern.
January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.
January 5 – Queen releases "Don't Stop Me Now". It becomes one of their most popular singles.
January 7 – Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreat west to an area along the Thai border.
January 8 – Whiddy Island Disaster: The French tanker Betelgeuse explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry, Ireland; 50 are killed.
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 is broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world. Hosted by the Bee Gees, other performers include Donna Summer, ABBA, Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire. A soundtrack album is later released.
January 16 – Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
January 19 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
January 25 – Pope John Paul II arrives in Mexico City for his first visit to Mexico, mainly for 1979's Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) or Conference of Puebla.
January 26 – The Dukes of Hazzard debuts on CBS
January 29 – Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, killing 2 faculty members and wounding 8 students and a police officer. Her justification for the action, "I don't like Mondays", inspires the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.
February
February 1
Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
February 2
Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious is found dead, aged 21, of a heroin overdose in New York City, the day after being released from a 55-day sentence at Rikers Island prison on bail.
February 3 – Ayatollah Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
February 7
Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration; the final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.
Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was known to science.
Nazi criminal Josef Mengele suffers a stroke and drowns while swimming in Bertioga, Brazil. His remains are found in 1985.
February 10 – February 11 – The Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution.
February 11 – Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power in Iran, overthrowing Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi.
February 12 – Prime Minister Hissène Habré starts the Battle of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chad's President Félix Malloum.
February 13 – The intense February 13, 1979 windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
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.
Following her 1972 sex reassignment surgery, musician Wendy Carlos legally changes her name from Walter. She later reveals this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of Playboy magazine.
February 15 – A suspected gas explosion in a Warsaw bank kills 49.
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 – Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
February 24 – Ethiopia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
February 26 – A total solar eclipse arcs over northern Canada, and a partial solar eclipse is visible over almost all of North America and Central America.[1]
February 27 – The annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans is cancelled due to a strike called by the New Orleans Police Department.
March
March 1 – Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
March 4 – The U.S. Voyager 1 spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
March 5 – Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.
March 7 – The largest Magnetar (Soft gamma repeater) event is recorded.
March 8 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
March 13 – Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada. His government is later crushed by American intervention in 1983.
March 14 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
March 17 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the U.K. collapses, killing 2 workers.
March 18 – Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Greater Manchester.[2]
March 25 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the 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
In Britain, James Callaghan's minority Labour government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election which is to be held on 3 May.[3]
America's most serious nuclear power plant accident occurs, at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
March 29 – Sultan Yahya Petra of Kelantan, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Head of State) of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang.
March 30 – Airey Neave, World War II veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the British House of Commons car park.
March 31
The last British soldier (belonging to the Royal Navy) leaves the Maltese Islands, after 179 years of presence. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song "Hallelujah".
April
April 1
Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
The Pinwheel Network changes its name to Nickelodeon and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.
April 1 – April 18 – Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria and forget about him, leaving him there without food or drink.
April 2 – Sverdlovsk anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. It is a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.
April 7 – In Japan, Yoshiyuki Tomino directed Mobile Suit Gundam, the first series of the metaseries of the same name.
April 10
A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42 people (the most notable of 26 tornadoes that day).
Cambodia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
April 11 – Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
April 13 – The La Soufrière volcano erupts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
April 15 – 1979 Montenegro earthquake: A major earthquake (7.0 on the Richter scale) strikes Montenegro (then part of Yugoslavia) and parts of Albania, causing extensive damage to coastal areas and taking 136 lives; the old town of Budva is devastated.
April 17 – Schoolchildren in the Central African Republic are arrested (and around 100 killed) for protesting against compulsory school uniforms. An African judicial commission later determines that Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa "almost certainly" took part in the massacre.
April 20 – President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, USA.
April 22 – The Albert Einstein Memorial is unveiled at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
April 23 – Fighting breaks out in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group; protester Blair Peach receives fatal injuries during the incident, now officially attributed to the SPG.
May
May 4: Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister
May 1 – Greenland is granted limited autonomy from Denmark, with its own Parliament sitting in Nuuk.
May 4 – Counting in the previous day's British general election shows that the Conservatives have won and Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister, ending the rule of James Callaghan's Labour government.[4]
May 8 – The Woolworth's store in Manchester city centre in England is seriously damaged by fire; 10 shoppers die.
May 9
The Salvadoran Civil War begins.
A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
Laos recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
May 10 – The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
May 21
Dan White receives a light sentence for killing San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, gay men in the city riot.
The Montréal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1 in the best-of-seven series, winning the Stanley Cup.
May 23 – Afghanistan recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
May 25
American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U. S. history.
John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976.
Etan Patz, 6 years old, is kidnapped in New York. He is often referred to as the "Boy on the Milk Carton" and the investigation later sprouts into one of the most prolific child abduction cases of all time. This is a cold case until 2010 when it is re-opened.
May 27 – Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.
June
June – McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal.
June 1
The Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal.
The Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.
June 2
Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland on his first official, nine-day stay, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country. This visit, known as nine days that changed the world, brings about the solidarity of the Polish people against Communism, ultimately leading to the rise of the Solidarity movement.
Los Angeles' city council passes the city's first homosexual rights bill signed without fanfare by mayor Thomas Bradley.
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 until it was surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
General elections are held in Italy.
June 4
Joe Clark becomes Canada's 16th and youngest Prime Minister.
Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown.
June 7 – The first direct elections to the European Parliament begin, allowing citizens from across all then-9 European Community member states to elect 410 MEPs. It is also the first international election in history.
June 12 – Bryan Allen flies the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
June 20 – A Nicaraguan National Guard soldier 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 in 1980.
June 24 – Bologna: The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, an international opinion tribunal, is founded at the initiative of Senator Lelio Basso.
June 25 – Belgium: NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.
July
July 1
Sweden outlaws corporal punishment in the home.
The Sony Walkman goes on sale for the first time in Japan.
July 3 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
July 4 – Cape Verde recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
July 5 – Queen Elizabeth II attends the millennium celebrations of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald.[5]
July 8 – Los Angeles passes its gay and lesbian civil rights bill.
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 6 years and 2 months.
July 12
The Gilbert Islands become fully independent of the United Kingdom as Kiribati.
A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.
Carmine Galante, boss of the Bonanno crime family, is assassinated in Brooklyn.
A fire at a hotel in Zaragoza, Spain, leaves 72 dead, the worst hotel fire in Europe in decades.
July 16 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.
July 17 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.
July 21
The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.
Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal.
Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela wins the Miss Universe pageant; the stage collapses after contestants and news photographers rush to her throne.
August
August 3 – Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état lead by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
August 4 – Opening game of the American Football Bundesliga played between Frankfurter Löwen and Düsseldorf Panther, first-ever league game of American football in Germany.[6]
August 5 – The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania. Mauritania withdraws from the Western Sahara territory it had occupied, and cedes it to the SADR.
August 8 – Two American commercial divers, Richard Walker and Victor Guiel, die of hypothermia after their diving bell becomes stranded at a depth of over 160 metres (520 ft) in the East Shetland Basin. The legal repercussions of the accident will lead to important safety changes in the diving industry.[7]
August 9
A nudist beach is established in Brighton.
Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles (his killers have not yet been identified).
August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
August 11 – The former Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya in Western Sahara is annexed by Morocco.
August 14 – A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the deaths of 15 sailors.
August 20 – Grenada recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
August 24 – Ghana recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
August 27 – Lord Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of The Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs, killing 18 British soldiers.
August 28 – The death toll of the previous day's IRA bombing reaches 5 when Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, 83, dies in a hospital as a result of her injuries.
August 29 – A national referendum is held in which Somali voters approve a new liberal constitution, promulgated by President Siad Barre to placate the United States.
September
September 1
The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
Dominica, Guyana & St. Lucia recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 4 – Jamaica recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 6 – Nicaragua and Uganda recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 7 – The first cable sports channel, ESPN, known as the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, is launched.
September 8 – Mexico recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
September 9 – The long-running comic strip For Better or For Worse begins its run.
September 12 – Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
September 16 – Two families flee from East Germany by balloon.
September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa in the Central African Republic.
September 22 – The South Atlantic Flash is observed near the Prince Edward Islands, thought to be a nuclear weapons test conducted by South Africa and Israel.
September 30 – The Hong Kong MTR begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka Kwun Tong Line).
October
October 1 – Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Second Nigerian Republic is established.
October 1 – October 6 – Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
October 1 – The MTR, the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong, opens.
October 3 – An EF4 Tornado hits Windsor Locks, Connecticut, causing extensive damage to the town.
October 6 – Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy.
October 9
Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record 6 laps, with a lap record on the last lap.
Lesotho recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
October 12
Zambia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
Near Guam, Typhoon Tip reaches a record intensity of 870 millibars, the lowest pressure recorded at sea level. This makes Tip the most powerful tropical cyclone in known world history.
October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving tens of thousands of people.
October 15 – Black Monday events, in which members of a political group sack a newspaper office, unfold in Malta.
October 16 – A tsunami in Nice, France kills 23 people.
October 17 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series. Willie Stargell is named the Series MVP.
October 19 – 13 U.S. Marines die in a fire at Camp Fuji, Japan as a result of Typhoon Tip.[8]
October 20 – The first McDonald's in Singapore opens at Liat Towers in Orchard Road.[9] [10]
October 26 – Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jae-gyu.
October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence from the United Kingdom.
November
November 1 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
November 2
French police shoot gangster Jacques Mesrine in Paris.
Assata Shakur (née Joanne Chesimard), a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, escapes from a New York prison to Cuba, where she remains under political asylum.
November 3 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.
November 4 – Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.
November 5 – The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio in the United States.
November 6 – At Montevideo, Uruguay, the International Olympic Committee adopts a resolution, whereby Taiwan Olympic and sports teams will participate with the name Chinese Taipei in future Olympic Games and international sports tournaments and championships.
November 7 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
November 9
The Carl Bridgewater murder trial ends in England with all 4 men found guilty. James Robinson, 45, and 25-year-old Vincent Hickey are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended 25-year minimum for murder. 18-year-old Michael Hickey is also found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite detention. Patrick Molloy, 53, is found guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.[11]
Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect an apparent massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.[12]
November 10 – 1979 Mississauga train derailment: A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history.
November 12
Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.
Süleyman Demirel, of the Justice Party (AP) forms the new government of Turkey (43rd government, a minority government).
November 14 – Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.
November 15 – British art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt's role as the "fourth man" of the 'Cambridge Five' double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom;[13] she gives further details on November 21.[14]
November 16 – Bucharest Metro Line One 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 African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
November 20 – Grand Mosque Seizure: A group of 200 Juhayman al-Otaybi militants occupy Mecca's Masjid al-Haram, the holiest place in Islam. They are driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that leaves 250 people dead and 600 wounded.
November 21 – After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing 4, and disturbing Pakistan–United States relations.
November 23 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.
November 25 – Last cargo of phosphate shipped from Banaba Island.
November 28 – Air New Zealand Flight 901: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus in Antarctica on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
December
December 3
Eleven fans are killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.
The United States dollar exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark falls to 1.7079 DM, the all-time low so far; this record is not broken until November 5, 1987.
December 4 – The Hastie fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, leads to the deaths of 3 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; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
December 6 – The world premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
December 9 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two human diseases that have been driven to extinction.
December 12
A major earthquake and tsunami kills 259 people in Colombia.
Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-hah, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung-hee.
The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.
December 15 – The directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki, The Castle of Cagliostro based on the manga series Lupin III is released in Japan.
December 21 – A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
December 23 – The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.
December 25
The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin, which begins the war.
The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
December 26 – In Rhodesia, 96 Patriotic Front guerrillas enter the capital Salisbury to monitor a ceasefire that begins December 28.