The Year 1979
History and Politics
Shah of Iran is forced into exile and is replaced as Iranian leader by
Ayatollah Khomeini, who heads Islamic fundamentalist government; nearly
100 US Embassy staff and Marines are taken hostage.
Vietnamese army invades Cambodia and installs new government
under Heng Samrin; Chinese forces attack Vietnam; mass graves
of up to 3 million victims of Khmer Rouge discovered.
Nelson Rockefeller dies.
St Lucia, St Vincent, and the Grenadines win independence from Britian; Maurice
Bishop becomes leader in Grenada following coup overthrowing Eric Gairy.
Idi Amin, President of Uganda is overthrown by Tanzanian-backed rebels; new President is Yusuf Lule.
US President Jimmy Carter, Isreali Premier Menachem Begin, & Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
agree on the Camp David peace treaty; Egypt is expelled From Arab League.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is hanged after international pleas
for mercy are ignored by Gen. Zia; mobs attack the US Embassy and other US posts in Islamabad.
John Vorster, President of S. Africa, resigns after "Muldergate"
scandal involving allegations of government corruption.
US President Jimmy Carter & USSR President Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT-2 arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
Direct elections to the European Parliment held for first time.
Margaret Thatcher becomes Conservative Prime Minister of Britian.
Ignatius Achempong, former President of Ghana, is executed.
Joe Clark is elected new Prime Minister of Canada.
General Alexander Haig, Chief of Allied Forces in Europe,
survives terrorist assassination attempt.
Nicaragua's President Anastosio Somoza is overthrown by Sandinistas
after bloody civil war; a new Marxist government is installed.
Maria Pintassilgo becomes Portugal's first woman Prime Minister.
Francisco Nguema, brutal dictator of Equartorial Guinea, is overthrown in coup.
Commonwealth Conference reaches Lancaster House agreement on the future of Rhodesia as
the independent state of Zimbabwe; Bishop Abel Muzorewa is elected first prime minister.
Earl Mountbatten of Burma, is murdered in continuing IRA bobming campaign; another bomb
kills prominent Conservative politician Airey Neave; large arms shipment sent by US
sympathizers of the IRA is seized by security forces in Ireland.
Emperor Bokass of the Central African Empire is overthrown;
new Preisdent David Dacko abolishes Empire.
Carlos Romero, President of El Salvador, is overthrown in military coup.
President Park Chung Hee of S. Korea is shot dead, alledgedly by accident, by his Chief of Intelligence.
US Embassy in Tripoli is attacked by mob.
Charles Haughey is elected Prime Minister of Ireland, replacing Jack Lynch.
Adolph Dubs, US Ambassador to Afghanistan, is kidnapped by Muslim terrorists and killed in gun
battle; Soviet army invades Afghanistan on Christmas Eve; new President is Babrak Karmal.
Science, Technology, Growth
Discovery of ring around Jupiter by Voyager I spacecraft.
Nuclear disaster is narrowly averted at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania;
reactor building is badly contamonated.
Two Soviet cosmonauts in orbiting Salyut 6 space station return
to earth after record breaking 175 days in space.
Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine: Godfrey Hounsfield (Eng) and Allan Cormack (US)
Nobel Prize for Physics: Sheldon Glashow (US), Steven Weinberg (US), and Abdus Salem (Pak)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Herbert Brown (US) and George Wittig (Ger)
Nobel Prize for Economics: Theadore Schultz (US) and Sir Arthur Lewis (Eng)
Daily Life
Pittsburgh Steelers defeat Dalls Cowboys, 35-31, to win Super Bowl.
Patty Hearst, American heiress, is released from prison.
Montreal Canadians defeat New York Rangers in hockey to win their 4th consecutive Stanley Cup.
Pittsburgh Pirates defeat Baltimore Orioles, 4 games to 3, to win World Series.
Seattle Supersonics win NBA championship.
273 people die in America's worst aviation disaster when an engine falls off a DC-10 on take-off
at Chicago Airport; 257 die when another DC-10 crashes into a mountain in Antarctica.
A. Phillip Randolph, American black civil rights leader dies.
Karen Silkwood is posthumously awarded $10,500,000 damages for
negligent exposure to atomic contamination in 1974.
John McEnroe (US) captures his first US Open; Martina Navratilova (Czech) wins her 2nd Wimbledon;
Bjorn Borg (Swed) capturs his 4th consecutive Wimbledon; US wins Davis Cup.
Ku Klux klan stages 50-mile "white rights" march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
14 persons die when the Fastnet international yacht race
between Cornwall and Ireland is hit by Atlantic storm.
Sebastian Coe, (Eng) middle-distance runner, becomes first to hold
world records simultaneously in 1800 m, 1500m, and 1 mile events.
Hurricanes Frederick and David hit Mobile, Alabama, and
southern Florida; estimated $45 million in damages.
Grete Waitz (Nor) breaks 2 1/2 hour barrier in women's marathon during New York Marathon.
Sir Anthony Blunt (Eng) art historian, is unmasked as "fourth man" in Burgess, Maclean,
and Philby spy scandal, he is stripped of his kinghthood by Queen Elizabeth II.
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