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Top News of 1979
[ Top News ][ Top
100 Songs ][ Top Movies ]
| Date |
Event |
JANUARY
|
| 31 |
British Public Sector
workers strike in response to the government's 5% limit on pay
rises. The period becomes known as "the winter of discontent" |
| 01 |
USA and China establish
diplomatic relations |
| 03 |
Conrad Hilton, founder
of the Hilton Hotel chain and one-time husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor,
dies aged 91 |
| 04 |
Ohio agrees to pay
$675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University
shootings |
| 07 |
Influential jazz
musician Charles Mingus, dies from a heart attack in Cuernavaca,
Mexico. Aged 56 |
| 16 |
Cambodia falls to
Vietnamese |
| 16 |
The Shah of Iran
is driven into exile by fanatical supporters of the Ayatollah
Khomeini. The ailing Shah flees to Mexico, then to the US in
October. When uproar over his presence in the US becomes too
great, the Shah relocates to Panama |
| 17 |
 |
Lillian Gasinskaya, an
18-year-old Ukrainian woman, jumps from a Russian ship
in Sydney Harbour wearing only a red bikini in a bid to
defect to the west |
|
| 17 |
Australian TV presenter
and comedian Graham Kennedy is chosen as King of Melbourne's
Moomba Festival |
| 19 |
Ex-Attorney General
John Mitchell, the last Watergate conspirator still in jail,
is released on parole |
| 22 |
A car bomb in Beirut
kills Abu Hassan, allegedly the man behind the 1972 Olympics
massacre |
| 23 |
Australian government
suspends aid to Vietnam |
| 26 |
US Republican politician,
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, dies (b. 1908) |
| 29 |
San Diego teenager
Brenda Spencer shoots and kills eleven of her school friends.
When asked why she had done it, she replied "I don't like Mondays" |
| 29 |
President Carter
commutes Patty Hearst's jail sentence |
| 30 |
A referendum of white
Rhodesians votes overwhelmingly for black majority rule |
|
|
FEBRUARY
|
| 01 |
Ayatollah Khomeini
comes back to Iran from exile |
| 02 |
Punk star Sid Vicious
dies of heroin overdose in New York |
| 08 |
US withdraws aid
to the Somoza regime in Nicaragua in protest at human rights
violations, and in an attempt to force Anastasio Somoza to negotiate
with the insurgent Sandanista movement |
| 12 |
Harry M Miller's
Computicket collapses |
| 17 |
China begins making
punitive invasions into Vietnam |
| 23 |
War breaks out between
North and South Yemen |
|
|
MARCH
|
| 17 |
Nottingham Forrest
beat Southampton 3-2 in UK League Cup final |
| 26 |
Egypt and Israel
sign peace treaty in US |
| 28 |
Eric Clapton weds
Patti Boyd, ex-wife of George Harrison, in Tuscon, Arizona |
| 29 |
Atomic leak crisis
in USA |
| 29 |
Idi Amin driven from
Uganda as regime crumbles |
| 30 |
IRA car bomb kills
Airey Neave, Tory spokesman on Northern Ireland, as he enters
House Of Commons grounds in London |
|
|
APRIL
|
| 01 |
The last Royal Navy
warship leaves Malta, ending British ties with the island |
| 01 |
Iran is declared
an Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Khomeini |
| 02 |
Begin is the first
Israeli PM to visit Egypt |
| 03 |
Over 1,000 trucks
block the Hume Highway at Camden and Yass in NSW, Australia,
as truck drivers protest against high road taxes and freight
costs |
| 04 |
The Yorkshire Ripper
claims his 11th victim, in Halifax. For the first time the victim
is not a prostitute |
| 04 |
Hijacker killed in
Sydney Airport Drama |
| 04 |
Former Pakistan Prime
Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed after being convicted
of conspiracy to murder (b. 1928) |
| 08 |
Folk singer Phil
Ochs hangs himself in New York |
| 17 |
IRA detonates 1000lb
bomb killing four policemen in Northern Ireland. The bomb is
the IRA's most powerful yet |
| 21 |
The Bjelke-Petersen
government in Queensland (Australia) allows the unannounced
demolition of the historic Bellevue Hotel |
|
|
MAY
|
| 03 |
Jeremy Thorpe loses
his seat in British election |
| 04 |
Margaret Thatcher
is Britain's first woman PM |
| 07 |
In Iran, the Ayatollah
Khomeini lowers the age of marriage to 13 for girls and 15 for
boys |
| 08 |
Ten die and 47 are
hurt when fire breaks out in a Woolworth's store in Manchester,
England |
| 11 |
American Woolworth's
heiress Barbara Hutton dies, aged 67 |
| 12 |
Arsenal beat Manchester
United 3-2 in the British FA Cup Final |
| 18 |
The estate of Karen
Silkwood wins $10.5 million compensation for the atomic contamination
she suffered as a nuclear worker in 1974 |
| 22 |
Progressive Liberal
party wins Canadian general election - Joe Clark becomes Prime
Minister |
| 25 |
An American Airlines
DC 10 crashes in Chicago shortly after take-off. 275 people
are killed in the worst air disaster in US history |
| 28 |
Britain agrees to
take 982 Vietnamese "boat people" refugees on South China Sea |
| 29 |
Muzorewa is sworn
in as Rhodesia's first black Prime Minister |
|
|
JUNE
|
| 04 |
South African President
Vorster resigns after a financial scandal |
| 09 |
Ghost train becomes
a ride to death at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia |
| 10 |
European electors
vote for the first European Parliament |
| 11 |
John Wayne loses
his fight against cancer. Wayne, 72, began his career under
his real name, Marion Morrison, nicknamed "Duke" as a student
on vacation. He was married three times and had seven children. |
| 13 |
The Sioux Indian
nation is awarded $17.5 million for lands taken from them in
the Black Hills of South Dakota back in 1877 - including interest,
the settlement comes to over $100 million |
| 18 |
The SALT II strategic
arms limitation treaty is signed in Vienna by President Carter
and USSR President Leonid Brezhnev |
| 29 |
Lowell George (Little
Feat) dies of a drug-induced heart attack in Arlington, Virginia,
aged 34 |
|
|
JULY
|
| 11 |
After 6 years in
space Skylab streaks back to Earth and dumps most of its 80
tons of molten metal into a watery grave |
| 12 |
Singer Minnie Ripperton
dies |
| 15 |
In a televised speech,
President Carter calls for a new energy conservation program
that includes limiting oil imports, reducing oil use by utilities,
fuel rationing for motorists and the study of other forms of
fuel |
| 16 |
Saddam Hussein becomes
President of Iraq |
| 17 |
Sandinista victory
sends Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza into exile |
| 19 |
Maria Pintassilgo
becomes Portugal's first woman Prime Minister |
| 23 |
Ayatollah Khomeini
bans the broadcast of music, saying it corrupts youth |
| 24 |
Gas explosion kills
14 miners at Appin colliery in NSW, Australia |
|
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AUGUST
|
| 15 |
Seb Coe is first
athlete to hold world indoor records simultaneously for 800
meters, 1500 meters and the mile |
| 26 |
Rhodesia renamed
Zimbabwe |
| 27 |
Lord Mountbatten
killed by IRA bomb |
|
|
SEPTEMBER
|
| 01 |
Pioneer II
flies within 13,000 miles of Saturn |
| 02 |
Yorkshire Ripper
claims 12th victim |
| 08 |
Jean Seberg is found
dead in Paris |
| 09 |
British bandleader
Norrie Paramor dies |
| 14 |
Plans are announced
for the revitalization of London' Docklands area |
| 14 |
Abba perform for
the first time in North America at a venue in Vancouver, Canada |
| 20 |
Ruthless dictator
of the Central African Empire, Jean Bédal Bokassa (who
is said to have eaten his enemies), is removed from power by
his nephew, former president David Dacko. The troubled country
is once again a republic |
| 21 |
NME young
guns Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill wed at Brentwood Registry
Office |
| 23 |
200,000 demonstrators
attend the "No Nukes" rally and concert in New York City |
| 26 |
Elton John collapses
on stage at Hollywood Universal Amphitheatre, suffering from
exhaustion |
| 27 |
Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch
(ex- Wings , Thunderclap Newman, Small Faces ) dies, aged 26 |
| 27 |
British entertainer
Gracie Fields dies, aged 81, on the Isle of Capri |
|
|
OCTOBER
|
| 08/12 |
The Dow Jones Industrial
plunges 58 points in panic trading triggered by the Federal
Reserve Board's raising of interest rates. Though the market
eventually rights itself, the new high interest rates spell
bad news for the automobile and construction industries |
| 19 |
Australian Federal
Police formed |
| 26 |
South Korean president
Park Chung Hee is assassinated |
|
|
NOVEMBER
|
| 04 |
The US embassy in
Tehran, Iran is seized by Iranian student revolutionaries. Most
foreign hostages are released, but 52 white American males remain
hostage. The revolutionaries demand the return of the deposed
Shah to Iran to stand trial. The US refuses, and the "hostage
crisis" begins - The hostages are not ultimately released until
January 1981 |
| 15 |
Queen's art adviser,
Sir Anthony Blunt, is revealed as a Russian spy |
| 20 |
Armed militants seize
the Grand Mosque in Mecca |
| 22 |
UK Mortgage rate
hits a record 15% |
| 22 |
Gangland killer Ronald
Kray has been declared a paranoid schizophrenic and is to be
transferred to Broadmoor Hospital. Kray, 45, and twin brother
Reggie are at present in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight,
serving life sentences for murder |
| 28 |
NZ plane hits mountain
in Antarctica - 257 people die |
|
|
DECEMBER
|
| 03 |
Eleven people are
trampled to death in the audience at a concert by The Who at
River Front Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio |
| 04 |
President Carter
announces candidacy for re-election, despite polls showing his
approval rating is at its lowest levels ever |
| 27 |
Soviet troops invade
Afghanistan |
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