1979

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980

political events

Iran's Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlevi appoints Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar, 64, to head a regency January 4 in an effort to avert a fundamentalist Islamic revolution and flees January 16 to Egypt after nearly 38 years in power (see 1978; Shiites, 680). The Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, 78, flies into Teheran February 1 after 15 years in exile. His supporters clash with government troops and rout the elite Imperial Guard February 11. Bakhtiar resigns, autocratic rule ends after 2,500 years, but turmoil continues throughout the year, with thousands killed in rioting and mass executions. Khomeini accuses the "satanic" United States and her "agents" of fomenting disunity and sends troops to crush a rebellion of Kurdish guerrillas seeking autonomy. The shah moves on to Morocco, the Bahamas, and Cuernavaca, Mexico; terminally ill with cancer, he is permitted entry to the United States October 22 at the insistence of former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger and Chase Manhattan president David Rockefeller, 64, despite warnings from the U.S. ambassador in Teheran. The shah is admitted to New York Hospital for removal of his gall bladder and Iranian terrorists seize the U.S. embassy at Teheran November 4, taking 66 hostages and demanding extradition of the shah. The "student" terrorists release five women and eight black male hostages November 19 to 20. The shah departs for Panama via Texas December 16 (see 1980).

North Yemen and South Yemen have a border war beginning February 24 (see 1978). President Carter sends $390 million worth of arms with military advisers to North Yemen, and he dispatches a naval force to the Arabian Sea; nearly 3,000 Cuban and Soviet troops arrive in South Yemen.

A terrorist bomb explodes in a Jerusalem marketplace January 18, Israeli forces retaliate the next day with their heaviest strike into Lebanon since March 1978, they kill 40 Palestinians, a truce halts shelling across the border January 24, but Palestinian guerrillas attack an Israeli settlement in early May and 400 Israeli troops cross into Lebanon in pursuit May 9 with tanks and armored cars.

The peace treaty signed by Egypt's president Anwar el-Sadat and Israel's prime minister Menachem Begin at Washington March 26 ends a state of war that has existed for nearly 31 years. Both leaders credit President Carter, whose negotiations at Camp David last September have continued with visits to Cairo and Jerusalem. The accord produces dismay in the other Arab states, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) splits in two over the issue, with one side refusing to recognize the settlement. Egypt's neighbors denounce the treaty with demonstrations, strikes, and bombings; some countries break relations with Cairo and impose an economic boycott of Egypt (see 1981).

Former U.S. vice president and New York governor Nelson A. Rockefeller suffers a fatal heart attack January 26 at age 70. It is initially reported that a security guard found him dead at his desk in his RCA Building office where he had been editing an art book, but it then comes to light that he was having sex with a young woman aide, Megan Ruth Marshack, at his 13 West 54th Street town house.

Afghan Muslim extremists abduct U.S. ambassador Adolph Dubs, 58, at Kabul February 14, local police storm the hotel where he is being held, and Dubs is killed along with several of his abductors in an exchange of gunfire. Soviet agents try to oust President Taraki's rival, Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin, in mid-September, but Taraki himself is killed in a shootout. Fearing that the Afghans will install a regime friendly to the United States, Soviet Communist Party chairman Leonid Brezhnev summons his foreign minister Andrei Gromyko, KGB chief Yuri Andropov, and defense minister Dmitri Ustinov to a meeting late at night December 12, and Soviet troops invade Afghanistan December 24, allegedly at the invitation of the new president Amin, who is convicted December 27 of "crimes against the state" and executed along with members of his family by a "revolutionary tribunal." He is succeeded by Soviet puppet Babrak Karmal. U.S.-supplied Afghan guerrillas will resist Soviet occupation forces for more than 9 years, forcing them to retreat into fortified cities (see sports [Olympic boycott], agriculture [grain embargo], 1980).

Accidental release of dry anthrax spores in early April at the Soviet Microbiology and Virology Institute in Sverdlovsk (later Yekaterinburg) contaminates an area with a radius of at least three kilometers and by some estimates kills several hundred persons. Tight censorship is imposed, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, of residents and military personnel reportedly die after inhaling the spores and contracting pulmonary anthrax. Soviet authorities say only that illegal sales of anthrax-contaminated meat have caused a public health problem. Critics charge Moscow with violating the 1972 convention that banned development of biological weapons (see Pasechnik, 1989).

Iraq's president Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns July 16 after 11 years in office, having suffered a heart attack 3 years ago. Now 65, he is succeeded by revolutionary leader Saddam Hussein, now 42, who has shared power with President Bakr since 1968, directed the nationalization of Iraq's oil industry 7 years ago, becomes president and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, will be ruthless in suppressing political opposition, and will embark on rash military adventures (see 1980).

Britain's prime minister James Callaghan loses a vote of confidence by one vote in Britain's House of Commons March 28, the first time such a vote has defeated a government since 1924. Striking trade unions workers have paralyzed transportation, allowed garbage to rot in the streets, forced hospitals to close, even left corpses unburied, and the tabloid London Sun has helped rally public opinion against Callaghan; Conservative leader Margaret (Hilda) Thatcher (née Robert), 53, becomes the nation's first woman prime minister when her party regains power May 3, winning the general elections by the largest majority any party has received since 1966. Mrs. Thatcher has promised to cut income taxes, scale down social services, and reduce the role of the state in daily life.

A 50-pound bomb planted by Irish Republican Army terrorists explodes August 27 on the fishing boat of Lord Mountbatten off the coast of County Sligo, killing the 79-year-old cousin of Elizabeth II with his 14-year-old grandson and a 15-year-old passenger. Four others aboard the Shadow V are seriously hurt (one dies the next day), and an IRA ambush 35 miles south of Belfast kills 18 British soldiers. A leading Conservative MP has been killed by the IRA outside the House of Commons March 30 and the violence continues. A bomb of a different sort explodes in Parliament November 15 when art historian Sir Anthony Blunt, 72, is revealed to have been a Soviet spy. Blunt confessed to treason in 1964 and was given immunity from prosecution and permitted to remain curator to the queen. He is stripped of his knighthood.

French statesman Jean Monnet dies at his country home outside Paris March 6 at age 90, having laid the groundwork for the European Community.

U.S.-educated German political leader Petra (Karin) Kelly, 32, quits the Social Democratic Party in protest against its policies toward nuclear defense, health, and women. Stepdaughter of a U.S. Army colonel, Kelly joins with some friends to found the Green Party, whose anti-nuclear, pro- environmental views will attract many followers (see 1983).

Former Hungarian premier Ferenc Nagy dies of a heart attack at Washington, D.C., June 12 at age 75; former Czech president Ludvík Svoboda at Prague September 20 at age 83.

Washington breaks ties with Taiwan as of January 1 and establishes diplomatic relations with Beijing (see 1978). Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping accepts a New Year's invitation to the U.S. Embassy at Beijing and flies to the United States later in the month, becoming the first Chinese leader to visit America (in addition to seeing President Carter at Washington, he tours the NASA Space Center at Houston, tries out a flight simulator, and attends a Texas rodeo), but he cracks down on dissenters upon his return. Beijing advises Moscow April 3 that China will not renew her 1950 treaty of friendship, due to expire in 1980. Moscow replies April 4 that the decision was taken "contrary to the will and interests of the Chinese people." The Taiwan Relations Act signed into law by President Carter April 10 is the only domestic U.S. law governing relations with a foreign nation.

Cambodia's capital city Phnom Penh falls to Vietnamese forces January 7 as does the country's only seaport, Kompong Som (see 1978). Moscow congratulates the Cambodian rebels on their "remarkable victory," but Romania breaks with her Warsaw Pact allies to denounce Vietnam for intervening in Cambodia (Kampuchea), calling it a "heavy blow for the prestige of socialism" and a threat to peace. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge followers are given refuge at the Thai border and will resist the Vietnamese for the next 12 years while continuing to murder Cambodians with any ties to the "bourgeois" past (see 1975; 1985). The Vietnamese install a new government, headed by Heng Samrin. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, in exile, says 14 Vietnamese divisions have invaded his country with Soviet backing and entreats the UN Security Council to get Vietnam out of Cambodia. Some 9,000 noncommunist troops loyal to Prince Sihanouk join with 15,000 noncommunists under Son Sann receive the support of 35,000 Khmer Rouge forces to fight the 170,000 Vietnamese who support Heng Samrin's government. Chinese troops invade Vietnam in March, destroy major towns, and inflict heavy damage, but withdraw in April after suffering heavy casualties.

South Korea's National Assembly ousts opposition leader Kim Young Sam, 51, October 9, all 70 members resign in protest a few days later, and President Park Chung Hee is assassinated October 26 at age 62 by the director of his Central Intelligence Agency Kim Jae Kyu, 53, a lifelong friend who opens fire at a private dinner party to which he has invited the president and his chief security officer (Park's wife was killed in an attempt on her husband's life in August 1974) (see Kim Dae-jung, 1976). Premier Choi Kyu Hah becomes president and begins releasing imprisoned dissidents (see 1980).

Pakistan's former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is hanged at Rawalpindi April 4 at age 51 for plotting the murder of a political opponent in 1974, having been sentenced by the Lahore High Court in mid-March 1978 (see 1977). President Carter, Pope John Paul II, and other world leaders have appealed for clemency to no avail. Demonstrations throughout Pakistan protest the execution.

U.S. Senate leaders block a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty signed at Vienna June 18 by Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev after nearly 5 years of negotiations (diplomat and former secretary of the navy Paul Nitze, now 72, represented U.S. interests). The United States has 2,283 missiles and bombers as of June 18, the Soviet Union 2,504. President Carter has approved construction of a new generation of smaller aircraft carriers January 8 and scrapped plans for another 90,000-ton supercarrier. He has approved development June 7 of a $30 billion MX Missile plan that would deploy large missiles located in any of 8,800 underground shelters connected by miles of track under the desert of Utah, Nevada, or another western state. The MX will survive a "first strike" by Moscow, say its supporters, provide counterforce capability, and for the first time give the United States "first strike" ability to eliminate large numbers of Soviet land-based missiles (see 1981).

Former French military commander Gen. Maurice Challe dies of cancer at Paris January 18 at age 73; Gen. André Zeller (Challe's fellow conspirator in opposing Algerian independence) at Paris September 18 at age 81. The late president Charles de Gaulle pardoned both in 1965.

Rhodesian whites vote January 30 to ratify a new constitution enfranchising all blacks, establishing a black majority in the Senate and Assembly, and renaming the country Zimbabwe Rhodesia (see 1978). Delegates from 30 Commonwealth countries meeting at Lusaka, Zambia, August 5 approve a new proposal to end the 6-year-old civil war in Zimbabwe Rhodesia (see 1980).

Ugandan guerrillas and Tanzanian troops sent by Julius Nyerere occupy Kampala April 10 and force Uganda's president Idi Amin Dada into exile (see 1972; Entebbe, 1976). Amin flees to Libya, having personally ordered the execution of Uganda's Anglican archbishop, her chief justice, the chancellor of Makerere University, the Bank of Uganda's governor, and several of his ministers, and it is rumored that he has kept some of the severed heads in his freezer and displayed them to guests at his dinner table. Probably neurosyphilitic, he has said that Hitler was right to kill 6 million Jews, that Zambia's president Kenneth Kaunda was an "imperialist puppet and bootlicker," and that Henry A. Kissinger was "a murderer and a spy." He has ejected Peace Corps volunteers and the marines guarding the U.S. Embassy at Kampala, offered to become king of Scotland and lead his Celtic subjects to independence, forced white residents of Kampala to carry him on a throne and kneel before him, and brutalized his own people. All other countries have broken diplomatic ties with Kampala. Amin ordered the invasion of Tanzania in October of last year, trying with Libyan support to annex Tanzania's northern province of Kagera while trying to cover up a mutiny in his army. His 8 years of capricious and bloody oppression have left his country $250 million in debt with only $200,000 in foreign exchange remaining in the central bank. Although Uganda is 85 percent Christian, Amin has had as many as 300,000 Christians killed, giving preference to his own Muslim Kakwa and other Sudanic tribes; Nilotic Acholi, Langi, Baganda, and other tribesmen (Uganda has at least 32 distinct tribes) vie for supremacy (see 1980).

South Africa's president John Vorster resigns June 4 after the release of a report accusing him of covering up irregularities in government spending on secret propaganda efforts in the United States (see human rights [Biko], 1977; [Joseph], 1978). Now 63, Vorster was elected president after leaving the prime ministry last September and was succeeded by Pieter W. Botha, but few people still have any illusions that apartheid can bring peace: the country is gripped by an economic recession, most of its homelands are mired in corruption, their only significant export is labor, skilled whites are exiting the country, and inflation has been running out of control. Vorster is succeeded as president by Marais Viljoen see 1982).

Ghana has a coup d'état June 4; rebels install flight lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, 32, as head of state and execute Gen. Frederick Akuffo along with two other former chief executives. An admirer of Libya's Muammar al-Qadaffi, Rawlings turns over the government to an elected president in July (but see 1981).

Mauritania's president Mustapha Ould Salek resigns in June after only 1 year in office and is succeeded by Lieut. Col. Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly, who will be replaced in January of next year.

Equatorial Guinea has a bloodless coup August 3 that ends the brutal 11-year rule of President Masie Nguema Biyogo Negue Ndong, 57, who has allied himself with Moscow but kept foreigners out of the 10,000-square-mile former Spanish colony. As president for life, Masie Nguema has put tens of thousands to death, scared more than half the country's 300,000 people into fleeing abroad, and shattered the nation's economy while spending lavishly on palaces and other symbols of power. His nephew Theodore Nguema Mbasago heads a new ruling junta. A civilian-military tribunal convicts Masie Nguema of genocide, treason, systematic violation of human rights, and embezzlement of public funds; he and six aides are executed by firing squad.

Angola's president Agostinho Neto dies at Moscow September 10 at age 56 following surgery for pancreatic cancer; he is succeeded by his planning minister José Eduardo dos Santos.

The Central African emperor Bokassa I is overthrown in a bloodless coup September 20 (see 1977). Accused of bankrupting his country and joining in a massacre of schoolchildren, Bokassa is rebuffed by France but given asylum by Ivory Coast. Former president David Dacko regains power, revives the Central African Republic, and pledges a restoration of democracy.

Canada's Progressive Conservative Party wins the general election May 22, gaining a plurality of seats in Parliament as economic and other domestic problems beset the nation; Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Liberal government is ousted after 11 years in power (although Trudeau retains his parliamentary seat), and Alberta-born party leader Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, 40, becomes the youngest prime minister in the nation's history (but see 1980). Former prime minister John Diffenbaker dies of an apparent heart attack at his Ottawa home August 16 at age 83.

St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean gains full independence February 22 after more than 175 years of British colonial rule. St. Lucia gains full independence the same day. St. Vincent and the Grenadines gains full independence October 26 after nearly 196 years of British rule; (Robert) Milton Cato, 64, is the new nation's first prime minister and will serve until 1984.

Grenada has a leftist coup March 13 as the New Jewel Movement headed by Maurice Bishop, 34, takes power while Prime Minister Gairy is in New York, accusing Gairy of fiscal irresponsibility. Bishop is a protégé of Cuba's Fidel Castro (see 1974; 1983).

Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza resigns his presidency July 17 after a 7-week civil war and takes refuge at Miami with 45 aides, ending the 46-year Somoza family dynasty (see 1978). Sandinista rebels enter Managua July 19 with rebel leaders who include Daniel Ortega Saavedra, 33, riding an armored personnel carrier. Ortega dropped out of university at age 17 to join the FSLN (Sandanista National Liberation Front), was imprisoned by the Somoza regime from 1967 to 1974 and then exiled to Cuba, but was spirited back into Nicaragua, where he has led the most moderate of the three guerrilla groups opposed to Somoza; the new five-man junta expropriates the vast business empire of the Somozas and their supporters (see 1980).

El Salvador's military deposes Carlos Humberto Romero in a coup d'état October 15 after months of violence following the killing of 23 leftist demonstrators May 8 (President Romero came to power after disputed elections in February 1977). A new military junta assumes power, begins to redistribute lands to the peasants, and makes other reforms after 47 years of military dictatorship. Violence continues (see 1980).

Former Peruvian economist-diplomat-publisher Pedro Gerado Beltrán dies at his native Lima February 16 on the eve of his 82nd birthday; former Mexican president Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of a heart attack at Mexico City July 15 at age 68; former U.S. governor of Puerto Rico Rexford Guy Tugwell of cancer at Santa Barbara, Calif., July 21 at age 88; Peruvian statesman Vincent R. Haya de la Torre of lung cancer and heart complications at Lima August 2 at age 84; former U.S. first lady Mamie Eisenhower (née Doud) of heart failure at Washington, D.C., November 1 at age 82

The Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) gain independence July 12 after 64 years of British colonial rule.

British aeronautical designer and "dambuster" bomb inventor Sir Barnes Wallis dies at Leatherhead, Surrey, October 30 at age 91.

human rights, social justice

A new Greek law that takes effect February 2 allows a spouse who has been separated for more than 6 years to obtain a divorce even if her/his partner is unwilling to grant the divorce.

Some 15,000 Iranian women march on Teheran's Palace of Justice March 10 to protest the Ayatollah Khomeini's revocation of the 1975 Family Protection Law, his abolition of coeducational schools, and government pressure to wear the chandor, a heavy veil that obscures the face. The new theocratic government has acted swiftly to roll back the shah's progressive decrees on sexual equality and is not moved; it will continue to require that all women wear the chandor when they appear in public, even non-Muslims visiting from abroad. Iran has been a modern country, but the new regime removes women from government jobs and replaces them with men in accordance with its distorted interpretation of Islamic teaching.

First Lady Rosalynn Carter delivers an address at New York April 26 urging women in state legislatures to join in obtaining male support for the Equal Rights Amendment and asking her audience of women communicators to "put the heat on your senators" to nominate women for federal judgeships (but see 1982; religion [Falwell], 1980).

Soviet authorities release five prominent dissidents and fly them to the United States April 27. Aleksandr I. Ginzburg, Mark Dymshitz, Eduard S. Kuzentsov, Valentyn Moroz, and the Rev. George Gins have spent years at various labor camps and prisons in punishment for their human rights activities. Moscow permits a record 51,320 Jews to emigrate, up from 28,864 last year and 16,737 in 1977, but will crack down on such emigration in 1980.

Former Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chamber director Josef Mengele suffers a stroke while swimming near São Paulo, Brazil, dies February 7 at age 67, and is buried under his assumed name Wolfgang Gerhard; civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph dies at New York May 16 age 90.

Ku Klux Klansmen at Greensboro, N.C., fire on a group of self-styled Communists of the Workers Viewpoint Organization November 3, killing three and wounding 12 in an episode that is really gang warfare although the world press relates it to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The Klansmen will plead self defense and win acquittal.

Miami insurance salesman Arthur McDuffie, 33, borrows a cousin's motorcycle after midnight December 17, three white Dade County police officers stop him after a chase through red lights and stop signs at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, other officers arrive at the scene and, without provocation, yank off McDuffie's helmet, handcuff him behind his back, and proceed to crack his skull with their night sticks and heavy metal flashlights. McDuffie is killed, several officers are dismissed amidst charges that their attack was in part racially motivated, some are indicted for manslaughter and for making it appear that McDuffie was killed in an accident (see 1980).

"Red Rudi" Dutschke drowns after an apparent epileptic attack at Raarhus, Denmark, December 24 at age 39.

The Florida state legislature votes 2 to 1 to overturn a Miami-Dade County equal-opportunity ordinance favoring homosexuals (see 1977). A referendum has shown widespread opposition to the measure, and members of what will be called the "religious right" has pushed for its repeal, but a Boston gay-rights magazine urges homosexuals to boycott Florida orange juice, Anita Bryant will lose her job as spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission, and her career will be ruined (see 1998).

philanthropy

Former Sears, Roebuck chairman and philanthropist Lessing J. Rosenwald dies of a bronchial infection at Jenkintown, Pa., June 24 at age 88.

exploration, colonization

The Bhaskara satellite launched by Indian space scientists June 7 is the nation's second (see 1975). Put into orbit by intercosmos rockets, it carries television cameras and will be followed in November 1981 by Bhaskara II.

commerce

The European Monetary System goes into operation as members of the Economic Community strive for closer monetary coordination; the first direct elections to the European Parliament are held.

A federal law that takes effect April 29 forbids U.S. employers to discriminate against pregnant employees or any other disabled workers.

A reverse discrimination suit ends June 27 in a rebuff for Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical lab technician Brian F. Weber, 32, who has sued his union and employer over a job-training program that gave preference to blacks (see human rights [Bakke decision], 1978). Steel Workers Local 5702 and the company announced in 1974 that half the openings in a training program for higher-paying craft jobs would be reserved for blacks regardless of seniority. The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-to-2 decision in United Steel Workers v. Weber is regarded as the definitive statement on affirmative-action programs.

Brazil's Economic Development Council recommends a new salary program that will adjust the lowest salaries in the private sector every 6 months to 10 percent more than the rate of inflation, while adjusting higher salaries at a rate much lower than that of price increases. In 15 years of military rule, the share of the national wealth enjoyed by the lowest-paid workers has steadily declined.

South Africa's black neighbors form the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference in an attempt to keep her from dominating the region's economy, but although South Africa's own economy is beleaguered she provides employment for 280,000 immigrant workers, most export trade continues to go through ports such as Durban and Port Elizabeth, and Prime Minister Botha uses military strength to block anti-apartheid efforts by his neighboring countries.

A Sino-America pact signed July 7 grants China most-favored-nation status, allowing her to lower tariff rates available to most other U.S. trading partners. U.S. exports to China will reach $1.7 billion next year, imports from China will reach $600 million, and total trade by 1980 will be nearly $4 billion.

Gold prices top $300 per ounce for the first time in history July 18 and $400 per ounce September 27 as world financial markets react to inflation worries.

Former Ford Motor Company security head Harry H. Bennett dies at Los Gatos, Calif., January 4 at age 86; industrialist Cyrus S. Eaton at Northfield, Ohio, May 9 at age 95; longtime labor union head Jacob S. Potofsky of cancer at New York August 5 at age 84; British labor leader George Woodcock at Epsom October 30 at age 75.

President Carter appoints New York banker Paul A. Volcker, 52, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in August. Volcker announces October 6 that he is imposing a 1 percent increase in the discount interest rate that Federal Reserve banks charge member institutions. The move to halt inflation sends stock prices sharply lower and begins a short recession. Double- and even triple-digit inflation plagues much of the world. U.S. prices increase 13.3 percent for the year, largest jump in 33 years, and the Federal Reserve Board's move in October to tighten the money supply sparks a jump in loan rates that will continue for 6 months. Banks raise their prime loan rate to 14.5 percent October 9, Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 26.48 points that day, and the New York Stock Exchange has a record 81.6 million share day October 10 as small investors panic. The U.S. Gross National Product has risen by more than a third in constant dollars since 1969, and unemployment has averaged less than 6 percent (it topped 9 percent in only one calendar year, versus a peak of 25 percent in the 1930s when the GNP rose by only 4 percent and when stock prices declined by only 31 percent as compared to 42 percent in the 1970s).

New York investor George Soros establishes the Open Society Fund to support anticommunist movements in Eastern Europe (see Quantum Fund, 1969). The fund takes its name from that of the 1945 book by London School of Economics philosopher Sir Karl Popper, now 77, under whom Soros studied in the 1950s. Now 49, Soros renames the Soros Fund the Quantum Fund (see 1973); he has quietly gained a reputation for wizardry in money management and borrows a term from physics with an allusion to work by the late German physicist Werner Heisenberg, who postulated the idea in 1927 that it is impossible to predict accurately the speed or velocity of an atomic particle; Soros will use his wits to predict future movements in currency-exchange rates and make himself a billionaire.

Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes November 7 at 976.67 but then gives up most of its gains and closes December 31 at 838.74, up from 805.01 at the end of 1978.

retail, trade

Home Depot is founded by Atlanta merchants Arthur M. Blank, 37, and Bernie Marcus to capitalize on the growing market for do-it-yourself home improvement customers. By 1996 there will be more than 450 Home Depot retail stores across the United States and by 2000 more than 1,000, threatening the survival of independent hardware stores in the same way that Wal-Mart has threatened the existence of America's Main Street retailers.

energy

An accident at Unit II of the Three Mile Island nuclear generating station near Harrisburg, Pa., March 28 raises alarms that the year-old reactor may explode and release radioactive cesium. The overheated reactor shuts down automatically but Metropolitan Edison Company operators, misled by ambiguous indicators, think water pressure is building and shut down pumps still operating; the reactor heats up further and tons of water that have poured out through the stuck-open valve overflow into an auxiliary building through a valve that should have been shut. Most of the 144,000 people evacuated from the Middletown area are pregnant women and small children, but the reactor core does not melt down despite exposure and damage; little radiation is released.

Nine new U.S. nuclear reactors begin commercial production; France, Japan, Soviet Russia, and other nations continue to expand nuclear energy capabilities and reduce dependence on petroleum, but the malfunction at Three Mile Island discourages new atomic energy facilities. U.S. utility companies cancel 11 reactor orders and will cancel more next year, installation of other reactors is indefinitely delayed, and no more will be built in this century. Inflation, high interest rates, and declining demand for electricity limit construction of new reactors as much as does public opinion.

Iran's new government announces February 17 that exports of oil will resume March 5 at a price about 30 percent higher than that set by the OPEC nations in December 1978. Iranian oil production averages only 3.4 million barrels per day for the year, down from 5.4 million last year. Since the 900,000 barrels of Iranian crude imported daily by the United States last year supplied 6 percent of U.S. consumption, the drop in Iranian imports creates genuine fuel shortages in many states.

President Carter announces April 5 that he is acting under new legal authority to decontrol domestic oil prices, allowing U.S. producers to compete with the new OPEC base price of $14.54 per barrel. Price controls on 80 percent of marginally productive U.S. oil wells come off June 1. Carter proposes a windfall profits tax to recover unearned profits gained by oil companies and an Energy Security Fund to help low-income families pay higher fuel bills, fund construction of more public transportation facilities, and promote research and development of alternative energy sources.

U.S. motorists line up at filling stations from spring through summer and are often unable to obtain more than a few gallons at a time.

OPEC representatives raise prices 50 percent between January 1 and June 28 to about $20 per barrel, an economic summit meeting of the seven major industrial democracies June 29 at Tokyo agrees to set limits on imports, and U.S. imports for the year fall to 7.9 million barrels, down from a record 8.6 million in 1977, as prices for fuel oil and gasoline rise. At the 55th OPEC meeting in mid-December at Caracas, most OPEC members raise crude oil prices to $24 per barrel; Iran and Libya raise prices to well above $28, and crude oil in the spot market brings as much as $40 (but see 1981).

A federal jury at Oklahoma City decides May 18 that Kerr-McGee must pay $10.5 million to the estate of the late Karen Silkwood (see 1974).

transportation

An American Airlines DC-10 jumbo jet crashes on takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare Airport May 25, killing 273 in the worst U.S. aviation disaster thus far (the Federal Aviation Administration grounds all 136 domestic DC-10s indefinitely June 6 pending new safety tests and bars 143 foreign-operated DC-10s from landing at U.S. airports until the cause of the Chicago crash can be found and corrected); two Soviet planes collide in flight August 15 over the Ukraine, killing 150; a Pakistan International Airlines 707 carrying pilgrims from Mecca crashes November 26 at Jidda, Saudi Arabia, killing 156; an Air New Zealand DC-10 carrying sightseers over Antarctica crashes into Mt. Erebus November 28, killing 257.

German aviation pioneer Heinrich Focke of 1936 helicopter fame dies at Bremen February 25 at age 88; pilot Hannah Reitsch at Bonn August 30 at age 67.

Panama takes over operation of the Panama Canal October 1 under terms of last year's treaty establishing a 20-year transition from U.S. control.

Motorcycle accidents claim 4,893 lives in the United States, up from 3,312 in 1976 when Congress struck down a strong federal regulation requiring helmets. Many states have repealed or weakened their helmet laws, in some instances because insurance company lobbyists have exerted pressure (paying death benefits is cheaper for the companies than paying for patients on life-support systems for indefinite periods of time).

Atlanta's metropolitan rapid transit system (MARTA) begins service June 30 with a 6.7-mile high-speed commuter line linking the downtown business district with eastern suburbs. The 54-mile system is still at least 10 years short of completion and will cost about $2.7 billion more than the $1.3 billion projected in 1971.

Hong Kong's first subway line opens with 140 cars. The MTR will grow by 2002 to have 50 stations, with 1,050 cars carrying more than 2.3 million passengers per day on an 87.7-kilometer route.

Renault saves American Motors (AM) from bankruptcy by purchasing a controlling interest and arranging to have AM dealers market Renaults (see Chrysler, 1987).

The Chrysler Loan Guarantee Bill passed by Congress December 27 saves the 54-year-old automaker from bankruptcy. The measure guarantees $1.2 billion in loans to America's 17th largest company.

technology

Seagate Technology is founded in California by former IBM engineer Alan Shugart, now 48, and three associates to develop and produce the "floppy" disk drives they invented in 1971 for larger computers. The disk drives will be basic fixtures in the coming generation of personal computers.

Japanese microchip makers take a 42 percent share of the world market for 16K DRAMS.

Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry is organized to nurture the country's information and telecommunications technology. Nanjing-born industrialist Li Kwoh-ting, 79, became president of the Taiwan Shipbuilding Corp. in 1951, served as economic minister from 1965 to 1969, headed the finance ministry from 1969 to 1975, and insists on training specialists at school and universities. He will be credited with helping to convert Taiwan from a poor agrarian society into a world-class exporter of high-tech products.

The VisiCalc spreadsheet that goes on sale for $100 in September turns the Apple II computer into a business machine, making it possible to recalculate an entire sheet automatically when one number is changed without having to recalculate every cell. The first electronic spreadsheet, it has been designed by MIT graduate (and Harvard Business School student) Daniel S. (Singer) Bricklin, 28, with programming help from his partner Bob Frankston, 30, who joined with him last year to start Software Arts, Inc. Their interactive visible calculator organizes information into software-defined columns and rows, summarizes information from many paper sources into one place, displays the data in clear form, and is soon available for use on Tandy TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Atari 800 computers (see Lotus 1-2-3, 1983).

science

The genetic-engineering research corporation Biogen, Inc. is founded by Boston area businessmen and scientists who include Phillip A. Sharp and Boston-born Harvard molecular biologist Walter Gilbert, 47. Gilbert will share a Nobel Prize next year for developing a way to determine the sequence of nucleotide links in the chainlike molecules of the nucleic acids DNA and RNA.

An MIT research teamed headed by Hartford, Conn.-born biophysicist Alexander Rich, 54, shakes up the world of structural biology with the announcement that it has discovered a "left-handed" form of DNA. Coiled in the shape of a left-handed screw, it has a zig-zag backbone and is called Z-DNA, but its purpose remains a mystery (see 1995).

Nobel physicist Dennis Gabor dies at London February 8 at age 78; Nobel chemist Giulio Natta at Bergamo May 2 at age 76; Nobel physicist Shinichiro Tomonaga of cancer at Tokyo July 8 at age 73; Nobel chemist Robert B. Woodward of a heart attack at Cambridge, Mass., July 8 at age 62 (he has been working to synthesize the antibiotic erythromycin).

medicine

First Lady Rosalynn Carter testifies before a congressional committee February 7 in behalf of the mentally ill. No president's wife has testified on Capitol Hill since Eleanor Roosevelt did so in the 1940s.

Government-funded kidney dialysis treatment costs $851 million for 46,000 U.S. patients, nearly 20 percent of them bedridden more or less permanently and about half unable to work (see 1960). The escalating costs of hemodialysis raise questions about how much the nation can afford without slighting other health needs, but by 2000 more than 90,000 people will have had their lives extended by kidney dialysis, with the federal government spending $3 billion per year to let Medicare, Medicaid, or the Veterans Administration pay for the cost of treatment.

Canada's Hall Commission conducts a review of the nation's health service, reports that her health care ranks among the best in the world (see Medical Care Act, 1968), but warns that extra-billing by physicians and user fees levied by hospitals are creating a two-tier system that threatens accessibility (see 1984).

Sudan has an outbreak of Ebola virus that kills 90 percent of its victims (see Zaire, 1976). Health authorities are powerless to deal with the disease, and panic-stricken health workers shun the victims.

Neurologist H. Merritt Houston dies of cerebrovascular disease at New York January 9 at age 76, having found a new way to control epileptic seizures; Nobel angioplasty pioneer Werner Forssmann dies at Schopfheim, West Germany, June 1 at age 74; penicillin pioneer Sir Ernst B. Chain in Ireland August 12 at age 73; cancer chemotherapy pioneer Kanematsu Sugiura of a stroke at White Plains, N.Y., October 21 at age 89 (he began his research in 1912).

religion

Concerned Women for America (CWA) is incorporated at San Diego in January by Christian fundamentalist author and lecturer Beverly LaHaye, now 40, who met Detroit-born fundamentalist preacher Tim LaHaye, now 52, when both were undergraduates at Bob Jones University and married him in July 1947 (see Nonfiction, 1976). Watching Barbara Walters interview National Organization for Women founder Betty Friedan on television last year, LaHaye took exception to what she considered Friedan's anti-family, anti-God rhetoric and organized a meeting to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), gay rights, and reproductive rights with prayer and activism. CWA will grow to have chapters in 50 states and claim a membership of more than 500,000.

The Moral Majority is founded by Lynchburg, Va., evangelist Jerry Falwell, 46, of the Thomas Road Baptist Church at the persuasion of Heritage Foundation founder Paul M. Weyrich (who has coined the term "Moral Majority") (see politics, 1973). Falwell's weekly Old Time Gospel Hour airs on more than 300 U.S. television stations and 64 foreign stations, he supports Anita Bryant's campaign against gay rights in Miami-Dade County (see human rights, 1977), and the new political action group will register millions of new voters by November 1980 in an effort to block the Equal Rights Amendment, impede reform of the criminal code, disrupt the White House Conference on the Family, and fight abortion liberalization. It will continue until 1989.

The Religious Roundtable founded by Memphis, Tenn.-born Colgate-Palmolive sales manager-turned-evangelist Edward E. (Eugene) McAteer, 53, will be a leading force in making evangelical Christians politically active.

Navajo elderwoman Katherine Smith, 60, fires her rifle September 1 at a government crew building a barbed-wire fence that will come within 14 feet of a ceremonial hogan on her land in Arizona. Arrested, she is tried but acquitted, becoming a symbol of Navajo determination to protect the people's cultural integrity and prevent the intrusion of commercial interests into sacred land that includes Big Mountain.

Pope John Paul II visits Chicago October 5 and holds Mass in Grant Park, attracting an audience estimated to number more than 1 million.

Radio priest Father John E. Coughlin dies at Bloomfield Hills, Mich., October 27 at age 88.

Sunni Muslim militants occupy Mecca's Grand Mosque December 4; 75 are killed in a shootout with Saudi police, and scores of Saudi troops are killed.

Mother Teresa, now 69, receives the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor of Calcutta and elsewhere (see 1948).

education

President Carter appoints Denver-born federal judge Shirley Hufstedler (née Mount), 44, as the nation's first secretary of education. U.S. spending on education reaches $151.5 billion, up from $8.3 billion in 1950, with $126.5 billion coming from government sources. But student proficiency scores will plummet in the next decade as the nation falls behind countries that spend much less.

The John F. Kennedy Library is dedicated at Dorchester, Mass., October 20 in a ceremony attended by President Carter. Built with private donations from 36 million people worldwide, the structure on Columbia Point has been designed by Chinese-born architect I. M. (Ieoh Ming) Pei, now 63, of I. M. Pei and Partners as a memorial to the 35th president and it is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. A museum will be added in 1993.

communications, media

C-SPAN (Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network) begins March 19 to provide gavel-to-gavel television coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. Indiana-born journalist Brian Lamb, 37, has created the public service in cooperation with the cable TV industry and has an initial viewership estimated at 3.5 million households, a figure that will grow to about 90 million in the next 25 years as C-SPAN 2 comes on line in 1986 and C-SPAN 3 in 1996, giving viewers direct, round-the-clock access to public forums worldwide and interviews with no commercials and no commentary or analysis except from guests.

CompuServe Information Service goes online September 24 with the first commercial electronic mail (e-mail), making "cyberspace" computer linkups possible beyond existing defense department-academia Internet connections (see Internet, 1971). Founded 10 years ago at Columbus, Ohio, CompuServe began as a computer time-sharing service and will be acquired next year by Kansas City-based H&R Block (see AOL, 1985).

AOL (America Online) has its origins in The Source, a McLean, Va.-based company founded by New York-born promoter William F. Von Meister, 36, who has earlier helped start Digital Broadcasting Corp. and envisions a home information utility for online consumers. When Von Meister announces the online services startup at New York's Plaza Hotel in July, writer Isaac Asimov says, "This is the beginning of the information age," but the venture will be slow to get off the ground, his partner Jack Taub will oust Von Meister next year, and The Source will have only 55,000 subscribers by 1984 (see 1985).

The British Post Office inaugurates a Prestel system giving subscribers access to 160,000 pages, or television screenfuls, of information. Using telephones, computers, and TV sets, subscribers can obtain news and information such as rail and air schedules and stock and commodity quotations, make purchases, buy airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, and book theater seats by remote control. The government has spent $30 million to develop the system. A Prestel set costs at least $2,000 U.S. and can also receive ordinary TV programming, but the government will wind up giving the sets away and billing the subscriber for the time the set is used.

Milliyet daily newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci is murdered at Istanbul February 1 at age 49 after writing columns attacking right-wing groups and suggesting that heroin smugglers were working with high-ranking security officers. Police arrest Turkish-Kurdistan-born, Bulgarian-trained militant Mehmet Ali Agca, 21, on murder charges June 25, but he escapes from a maximum-security prison in November, the man who informed on him is tortured and killed at Istanbul in December, terrorists have killed some 600 other Turks by year's end, and Agca will be suspected in the death of a Turkish expatriate at Kempten, West Germany, late next year (see politics [attempt on Pope John Paul II], 1981). Emigré Bulgarian writer and BBC broadcast journalist Georgi Markov dies at London September 11 at age 49, having been stabbed in the thigh 3 days earlier with an umbrella while waiting for a bus. A harsh critic of Bulgaria's totalitarian regime, he has had a wide listenership in Bulgaria; a coroner's court will conclude early next year that the umbrella's ferrule contained a KGB-designed pellet filled with the deadly toxin ricin derived from castor beans.

A Beijing court sentences Chinese journalist Wei Jingsheng, 29, to 15 years in prison October 16, ending the brief "Beijing Spring" that has seen political dissent tolerated. Wei edited the underground journal Explorations which published his essays, including "The Fifth Modernization: Democracy." These were also posted on Democracy Wall, where they attracted worldwide attention by calling for the establishment of political democracy as the necessary basis for economic and social reform, but party leader Deng Xiaoping now takes a hard line on dissent.

Morning Edition debuts November 1 on U.S. National Public Radio with Kentucky-born host Bob Edwards, 32, who will continue until the end of April 2004.

Business Week magazine founder Malcolm Muir dies of bronchial pneumonia at New York January 30 at age 93; syndicated newspaper columnist Inez Robb of Parkinson's disease at Tucson, Ariz., April 4 at age 78; publisher S. I. Newhouse of a stroke at New York August 29 at age 84, leaving an empire of 31 newspapers, 11 U.S. magazines, five radio stations, and many cable-TV stations; former Time Inc. president Roy E. Larsen dies at Fairfield, Conn., September 9 at age 80; cartoonist Al Capp of cancer at Cambridge, Mass., November 5 at age 70.

literature

Nonfiction: Endgame: The Inside Story of Salt II by Dayton, Ohio-born Time magazine diplomatic correspondent Strobe Talbott, 33; Munich: The Price of Peace by Telford Taylor, now 71; The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman; Civilization and Capitalism: Fifteenth-Eighteenth Centuries (trilogy) by Fernand Braudel, now 77; Japan as Number One by Harvard sociologist Ezra F. Vogel, 48; The Gnostic Gospels by Palo Alto, Calif.-born Barnard College religious historian Elaine Pagels (née Hiesey), 36, who has studied more than 50 scrolls written in Coptic by an heretical sect of Christians in the 1st or 2nd century, and found by an Egyptian farmer in 1945; Prisoners of Silence: Breaking the Bonds of Adult Illiteracy in the United States by Jonathan Kozol; Adverbs, Vowels, and Other Objects of Wonder by Glasgow-born University of Chicago linguist James D. McCawley, 41; The Medusa and the Snail by Lewis Thomas; The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux, now 38 (his 14th book); The White Album by Joan Didion; The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time by Hunter S. Thompson; I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can by Miami-born author Barbara Gordon, 44, who took muscle-relaxant anti-convulsant drug Valium for a back pain and blames it for her chronic insomnia, convulsions, and hallucinations; Scribble, Scribble: Notes on the Media by Nora Ephron.

Historian William Yandell Elliott dies at Haywood, Va., January 9 at age 82; sociologist Talcott Parsons of a stroke at Munich May 8 at age 76; lexicographer Eric Partridge in southwestern England June 1 at age 85; Soviet author Anatoly V. Kusnetzov of a heart attack at Moscow June 13 at age 49; historian Sir Herbert Butterfield at Cambridge July 20 at age 78; Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse of a stroke at Sternstarnsberg, West Germany, July 29 at age 81; Basic English pioneer I. A. Richards at Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, September 7 at age 86; Immanuel Velikovsky of a heart ailment at Princeton, N.J., November 17 at age 84.

Fiction: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Le livre du rire et l'oublie) by Milan Kundera; November by exiled East German poet-singer-novelist Rolf Schneider, 48; Sophie's Choice by William Styron; The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth; The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer is based on the 1977 execution of Gary Gilmore; Good as Gold by Joseph Heller; A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul; Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark; The Year of the French by Greenwich, Conn.-born novelist Thomas (James Bonner) Flanagan, 63, deals with the Irish-French military effort against the British in 1798; Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick, now 63; Vida by Marge Piercy; The Confederates by Thomas Keneally; Tales of the Unexpected (stories) by Roald Dahl; So Long, See You Tomorrow by former New Yorker writer-editor William Maxwell, now 71; Coeval Games (Dojidai gemu) by Kenzaburo Oe, who will say that he is writing to give his brain-damaged son Hikari a voice (Hikari will become a successful composer despite his disability); Hear the Wind Sing (Kaze no uta o kike) by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, 30, who has been running a Tokyo jazz bar with his wife, Yoko, but will become a full-time writer in 1981; Sally Hemings by Philadelphia-born sculptor-novelist Barbara Chase-Riboud (née West), 44, deals with the 38-year liaison between Thomas Jefferson and his slave-mistress; A Woman of Substance by Leeds, Yorkshire-born U.S. journalist-novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, 46; Black Tickets (stories) by West Virginia-born writer Jayne Anne Phillips, 27; Vanishing Animals and Other Stories by Chicago-born writer Mary Morris, 32; The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum; Smiley's People by John le Carré.

Novelist John Knowles dies of cancer at Boston March 26 at age 52; writer Jean Stafford of cardiac arrest at White Plains, N.Y., March 26 at age 63; novelist Jean Rhys at Exeter, England, May 14 at age 84; Nicholas Monsarrat of cancer at London August 7 at age 69; James T. Farrell of a heart attack at New York August 22 at age 75; Mika Waltari at his native Helsinki August 26 at age 70; Konstantin Simonov in the USSR August 28 at age 63; humorist-author S. J. Perelman at New York September 17 at age 75.

Poetry: Later by Robert Creeley; This Tree Will Be Here for a Thousand Years by Robert Bly; A Gallery of Harlem Portraits by the late Melvin Tolson.

Poet-novelist-critic Allen Tate dies of emphysema at Nashville, Tenn., February 9 at age 79; poet Elizabeth Bishop of a ruptured cerebral aneurism at Boston October 6 at age 68.

Juvenile: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende; The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Providence, R.I., art teacher Chris Van Allsburg, 30; I Will Not Go to Market Today by Harry Allard, illustrations by James Marshall; George the Drummer Boy by Nathaniel Benchley; The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore by Los Angeles-born mystery writer Joan Lowery Nixon, 52; Goodbye, Chicken Little by Betsy Cromer Byars; A Christmas Card by Paul Theroux.

Author Dorothy Kunhardt dies at Beverly, Mass., December 23 at age 78.

art

Painting: Paintsplats (on a wall by Philip Johnson); Model and Crusoe Umbrella (mural) by Claes Oldenburg; Elephant by Bratislava-born minimalist Milton Resnick, 62; The Dinner Party (table with embroidered runners and surrounding place settings symbolizing 39 guests representing different aspects of women's history from the primordial goddesses to contemporary writers and artists), a group effort by women organized under the direction of Chicago-born activist Judy Chicago (originally Cohen), 40. Inscribed on the floor are the names of 999 women of achievement. Art dealer-publisher Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler dies at Paris January 11 at age 94; Sonia Delaunay at Paris December 4 at age 94; collector Peggy Guggenheim suffers a stroke and dies near Venice December 23 at age 81.

Sculpture: The People Machine by Vito Acconci; Children Playing with Game by Duane Hanson.

photography

Portrait photographer Philippe Halsman dies at New York June 25 at age 73.

theater, film

Theater: Wings by Arthur Kopit 1/28 at New York's Lyceum Theater, with Constance Cummings, 113 perfs.; On Golden Pond by Bellows Falls, Vt.-born playwright (Richard) Ernest Thompson, 29, 2/28 at New York's New Apollo Theater, with Tom Aldredge, Frances Sternhagen, 126 perfs; Cloud Nine by London-born playwright Caryl Churchill, 40, 3/29 at London's Royal Court Theatre, with Anthony Sher, Jim Hooper, Carol Hayman; Faith Healer by Brian Friel 4/5 at New York's Longacre Theater, with James Mason, 20 perfs.; Whose Life Is It Anyway? by English playwright Brian Clark, 46, 4/17 at London's Trafalgar Theatre, with Tom Conti, Jean (Lyndsey Tarren) Marsh, 44; Bent by Philadelphia-born playwright Martin Sherman, 37, 5/3 at London's Royal Court Theatre, with Ian McKellen, Tom Bell is about Nazi persecution of homosexuals, 240 perfs.; Knockout by Hoboken, N.J.-born playwright Louis LaRusso II, 43, 5/6 at New York's Helen Hayes Theater, with Danny Aiello, 154 perfs.; Loose Ends by Michael Weller 6/7 at New York's Circle in the Square Theater, with Kevin Kline, Roxanne Hart, 270 perfs.; Travelling North by David Williamson 8/22 at Sydney's Nimrod Theatre; A Life by Hugh Leonard 10/4 at Dublin's Abbey Theatre, with Cyril Cusack, Philip O'Flynn; One Mo' Time by New Orleans-born actor-playwright Vernel Bagneris, 30, 10/22 at New York's Village Gate Downstairs, with Bagners, 1,372 perfs.; Romantic Comedy by Bernard Slade 11/8 at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Anthony Perkins, Mia Farrow, Carole Cook, 396 perfs.; Amadeus by Peter Shaffer 11/2 at London's Olivier Theatre, with Paul Scofield as the jealous mediocrity Antonio Salieri, Simon Callow as W. A. Mozart.

Onetime Broadway star Mabel Taliaferro dies at Honolulu January 24 at age 91; actor Philip Bourneuf at Santa Monica, Calif., March 23 at age 71; Broadway producer-director Herman Shumlin of heart failure at New York June 14 at age 80; actress-author Cornelia Otis Skinner of a cerebral hemorrhage at New York July 9 at age 78; fan dancer and strip-tease artist Sally Rand of congestive heart failure at Glendora, Calif., August 31 at age 75; playwright Guy Bolton at Goring-on-Thames outside London September 5 at age 94; playwright Preston Jones at Dallas September 19 at age 43 while undergoing surgery for ulcers; Broadway producer Jed Harris of cancer at New York November 15 at age 79; actress Joyce Grenfell of cancer at London November 30 at age 69.

Television: WKRP in Cincinnati 1/8 on CBS with Dayton, Ohio-born actor Gordon Jump, 46; Dayton, Ohio-born actor Gary Sandy, 33; Lebanon, Ohio-born actor Howard Hesseman, 38; St. Paul, Minn.-born actress Loni Anderson, 33 (to 9/20/1982); The Dukes of Hazzard 1/29 on CBS with Wisconsin-born actor Tom Wopat, 27 (Luke Duke), John Schneider (Bo Duke), Warren, Ohio-born actress Catherine Bach, 24 (Daisy Duke) (to 2/8/1985); Antiques Roadshow on BBC with experts appraising bric-a-brac, furniture, objects d'art, and the like; To the Manor Born on BBC-1 with Penelope King as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, Peter Bowles as Richard DeVere; The Facts of Life 8/24 on NBC with Charlotte Rae, Molly Ringwald, John Lawlor in a spin-off of the Diff'rent Strokes sitcom (to 9/10/1988; 209 episodes); Benson 9/13 on ABC with Robert Guillaume, now 41, as butler-turned-lieutenant governor Benson Dubois; Omaha-born actress Inga Swenson, 46, as Gretchen Kraus; Dallas-born actor James Noble, 57, as Gov. James Gatling; René Auberjonois as Clayton Endicott III (to 4/19/1986); Not the Nine o'Clock News 10/17 on BBC with Newcastle-on-Tyne-born comedian Rowan (Sebastian) Atkinson, 24 (to 3/12/1982); Knots Landing 12/27 on CBS with Donna Mills, Ted Shackelford as suburbanites in a spinoff of Dallas (to 5/13/1993, 344 episodes).

Television, theater, and film producer Fred Coe dies of a heart attack at Los Angeles April 29 at age 64.

Radio: A Prairie Home Companion in February on National Public Radio with Anoka, Minn.-born Lutheran (Gary Edward) Garrison Keillor, 30 (to February 1987 with subsequent revival).

Films: Ira Wohl's documentary Best Boy with Philly Wohl, Zero Mostel; James Bridges's The China Syndrome with Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon; Robert Benton's Kramer v. Kramer with Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep; Martin Ritt's Norma Rae with Pasadena, Calif.-born actress Sally Field, 32, as North Carolina textile union organizer Crystal Lee Sutton (see commerce, 1974); Volker Schlondorff's The Tin Drum with David Bennent. Also: Jeanne Moreau's L'Adolescente, with Laetitia Chauveau, Simone Signoret; Robert M. Young's Alambrista! (The Illegal) with Domingo Ambriz as a Mexican farm worker in California; Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now with Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Marlon Brando; Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant with Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson; Peter Yates's Breaking Away with Paul Dooley; Istvan Szabo's Confidence with Ildiko Bansagi, Peter Andorai; Peter Lilienthal's David with Mario Fischel; George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead with David Emge, Tom Savini; Francesco Rosi's Eboli with Gian Maria Volonte as Carlo Levi, Irene Papas; Paul Verhoeven's The Fourth Man with Jeroen Krabbe, Renée Soutendijk; Martin Brest's Going in Style with George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg; Richard Pearce's Heartland with Conchata Ferrell, Rip Torn; George Miller's Mad Max with Mel Gibson; Woody Allen's Manhattan with Allen, Mill Valley, Calif.-born actress Mariel Hemingway, 17, Diane Keaton, Marshall Brickman; Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun with Hanna Schygulla; Gilian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career with Judy Davis; Ted Kotcheff's North Dallas Forty with Omaha-born actor Nick Nolte, 37, Mac Davis; John Hanson and Rob Nilsson's Northern Lights with Robert Behling; Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz; Jonathan Kaplan's Over the Edge with Michael Kramer, Pamela Ludwig, New Rochelle, N.Y.-born actor Matt Dillon, 15; Roman Polanski's Tess of the D'Urbervilles with German-born Polish actress Nastassja Kinski (originally Nakszynski), 18, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson; Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Third Generation with Eddie Constantine, Hanna Schygulla; Shohei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine with Rentaro Kuni, Chocho Miyako; Philip Kaufman's The Wanderers with Ken Wahl, John Friedrich; John Huston's Wise Blood with Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty, Amy Wright, Daniel Shor.

Director Jean Renoir dies of cancer at his Beverly Hills home February 12 at age 84; actress Louise Allbritton of cancer at Puerto Vallarte, Mexico, February 16 at age 59; William Gargan of a heart attack on a flight from New York to San Diego February 16 at age 73 (he contracted cancer of the larynx in 1960, had surgery, mastered "esophageal speech," and has worked with other laryngectomees to help them learn the "controlled belch" to produce sounds while at the same time working with the American Cancer Society to fight smoking); Dolores Costello dies at Fallbrook, Calif., March 1 at age 73; Ben Lyon of a heart attack on the QE2 in the Pacific March 22 at age 77; clown Emmet Kelly of a heart attack at Sarasota, Fla., March 28 at age 80; producer-director Victor Saville at London May 8 at age 83; George Brent of emphysema at Solano Beach, Calif., May 26 at age 75; Mary Pickford after a stroke at Santa Monica May 29 at age 87 (she has not appeared in a film since 1933, when she was 41, and has been quietly drinking herself to death in a bedroom at her Pickfair mansion); émigré director Jan Kadar dies of respiratory failure at Los Angeles June 1 at age 61; John Wayne of stomach cancer at Los Angeles June 11 at age 72; director Nicholas Ray of cancer at New York June 16 at age 67; animation pioneer David Fleischer of a stroke at Calabasas, Calif., June 25 at age 84; actor Michael Wilding at Chichester, England, July 8 at age 66 of injuries caused by a fall; director George Seaton of cancer at Los Angeles July 28 at age 68; actor Kurt Kasznar of cancer at Los Angeles August 6 at age 65; Jean Seberg disappears from her Paris apartment in late August wearing only a blanket and carrying barbiturates. Her body is found in the back seat of her car September 8 in an exclusive section of the city and her death at age 40 is ruled a suicide (FBI director J. Edgar Hoover tapped her telephone in 1970 and leaked rumors to the press with then-president Nixon's approval that Seberg was carrying the child of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale (the baby died in premature birth); Dame Gracie Fields dies of bronchial pneumonia on the Isle of Capri September 27 at age 81; director Dorothy Arzner at La Quinta, Calif., October 1 at age 82; Merle Oberon of a stroke at Malibu November 22 at age 68; Ann Dvorak of cancer at Honolulu December 10 at age 67; Zeppo (Herbert) Marx, last of the Marx Brothers, of lung cancer at Palm Springs, Calif., December 13 at age 78; actor Jon Hall shoots himself at North Hollywood December 13 at age 66 (he has been bedridden for 9 months following surgery for bladder cancer); producer Darryl F. Zanuck dies of pneumonia at Palm Springs December 22 at age 77; Joan Blondell of leukemia at Santa Monica December 26 at age 70.

music

Film musicals: Bob Fosse's All That Jazz with Roy Scheider, Minnesota-born actress Jessica Lange, 30, Ben Vereen; Franc Roddam's Quadrophenia with Phil Daniels, Mark Wingett, Sting.

Russian-born Hollywood composer Dimitri Tiomkin fractures his pelvis in a fall and dies at London November 11 at age 85.

Stage musicals: They're Playing Our Song 2/11 at New York's Imperial Theater, with Hollywood, Calif.-born actress Lucie Arnaz, 19, Robert Klein, book by Neil Simon, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, 1,082 perfs; Sweeney Todd 3/1 at New York's Uris Theater, with Len Cariou as the "demon barber of Fleet Street" (see 1847) play, Angela Lansbury, book by Hugh Wheeler, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, songs that include "Pretty Women," 558 perfs.; A Day in Hollywood & A Night in the Ukraine 3/28 at London's Mayfair Theatre, with Paddie O'Neal, John Bay as Groucho Marx, Franz Lazarus as Chico, music by Lazarus, lyrics by Dick Vosburgh, 588 perfs; Scrambled Feet (revue) 6/11 at New York's Village Gate, with Jeffrey Haddon, 31, John Driver, 32, Evalyn Barron, Roger Neil, skits and songs by Haddon and Driver; Sugar Babies 10/8 at New York's Mark Hellinger Theater, with Ann Miller, Mickey Rooney, songs by Jimmy McHugh, additional lyrics by Arthur Malvin, 1,208 perfs.; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 11/1 at London's Westminster Theatre, with Paul Jones, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice.

Comedian Jack Haley dies of a heart attack at Los Angeles June 6 at age 79; onetime Broadway musical star Vivian Vance at Belvedere, Calif., August 17 at age 70; lyricist Arnold B. Horwitt of cancer at Santa Monica October 20 at age 59; composer Richard Rodgers of throat cancer at his New York apartment December 30 at age 77.

Opera: the New York City Opera appoints a new director—veteran soprano Beverly Sills, now 50, who has sung with the Opera since 1955. Australian coloratura soprano Joan Sutherland, now 52, is named a Dame of the British Empire.

Soprano Marjorie Lawrence dies of cardiac arrest at Little Rock, Ark., January 13 at age 71 (stricken with polio in 1941, she has been confined to a wheelchair ever since); Metropolitan Opera Guild founder Eleanor Robson Belmont dies at New York October 14 at age 100.

Dancer-choreographer Leonid Massine dies at Cologne, West Germany, March 16 at age 83; Philharmonia Orchestra of London founder Walter Legge at Jean Cap Ferrat March 22 at age 72; Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler of a heart ailment at Brookline, Mass., July 10 at age 84; composer Roy Harris after a series of strokes at Santa Monica October 1 at age 81; pianist-conductor Nadia Boulanger at Paris October 22 at age 92.

Popular songs: "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" by Rod Stewart; "What A Fool Believes" by Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald (recorded by the Doobie Brothers); "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer; "Too Much Heaven" by The Bee Gees; The Long Run (album) by The Eagles; "Slow Train Coming" and "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan; Damn the Torpedoes (album) by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers includes the singles "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee"; 52nd Street (album) by Billy Joel; Armed Forces (album) by rebellious British singer-composer Elvis Costello (Declan McManus), 24; C'est Chic (album) by New York-born songwriter and Black Panthers veteran Nile Rodgers, 26, and Bernard Edwards of the manufactured disco group Chic, whose songs "Le Freak" and "We Are Family" gain wide popularity; "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson; Wave (album) by the Patti Smith Group, whose members give their final performance in September at Florence, Italy, for a crowd of 70,000; Just Tammy (album) by Tammy Wynette.

Jazz innovator Charles Mingus dies of a heart attack at Cuernevaca, Mexico, January 5 at age 56 (he has had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [Lou Gehrig's disease]); folk singer Sara Carter of the Carter Family dies at Lodi, Calif., January 8 at age 80; English punk rock star Sid Vicious (John Simon Ritchie), 21, is released on bail at New York February 1 on charges of having fatally stabbed his former girl friend at the Chelsea Hotel in October of last year, he celebrates with a party in another girl's Greenwich Village apartment, and he dies of a heroin overdose February 2; composer Milton Ager dies of cancer at Los Angeles May 6 at age 85; singer-guitarist Lester Flatt of heart failure at Nashville May 11 at age 64; trombonist Walter "Pee Wee" Hunt at Plymouth, Mass., June 22 at age 72; songwriter Van McCoy of cardiac arrest at Englewood, N.J., July 6 at age 39; composer-bandleader Stan Kenton of a stroke at Los Angeles August 25 at age 67; songwriter-vaudeville veteran Benny Davis at North Miami, Fla., December 20 at age 84.

Eleven concertgoers are crushed to death December 3 in a stampede for seats to a concert by The Who at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, casting a pall over the $2 billion per year rock concert business.

The Walkman cassette player introduced in Japan by Sony Corp. in January and in America in July is a $199.95 pocket stereo that makes it possible to hear high-fidelity sound in any location without disturbing one's neighbors. Initially called the Soundabout in America, the TPS-1.2 model has a blue-black plastic casing and an orange button (soon removed) that makes the sound audible through a second pair of earphones. It is the brainchild of Sony chairman Akio Morita, now 58, and will soon have an FM radio version. More than 186 million of the Walkman players will be sold in the next 20 years, and competition will drive the price down to $20.

sports

Pittsburgh beats Dallas 35 to 31 at Miami January 21 in Super Bowl XIII.

Los Angeles Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom drowns April 2 in the waters of Golden Beach, Fla., at age 72; Dallas Cowboys co-owner John D. Murchison dies of a heart attack at Dallas June 14 at age 67.

Maine-born runner Joan Benoit, 21, (Bowdoin '79) enters her first Boston Marathon and beats all other women contestants. She took up running 6 years ago to strengthen muscles weakened in a skiing accident.

Shreveport, La.-born sprinter Evelyn Ashford, 22, overtakes her 1976 Olympic teammate Brenda Morehead to break the 11-second barrier in the women's 100-meter dash June 16 at the Amateur Athletic Union outdoor track and field championships at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California.

Björn Borg wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, Martina Navritolova in women's singles; John McEnroe, 20, (U.S.) wins in men's singles at Forest Hills, Tracy Ann Austin, 16, (U.S.) in women's singles.

Spectacular Bid wins the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, Coastal wins the Preakness.

Former heavyweight boxer "Two Ton" Tony Galento dies of a heart attack at Livingston, N.J., July 22 at age 69.

Britain's annual Fastnet yacht race in the English Channnel and Irish Sea ends in disaster August 14 as gale-force winds and mountainous waves strike more than 300-boats, drowning 15 sailors.

ESPN begins broadcasting to cable television subscribers at 7 o'clock in the evening of September 7 from Bristol, Conn. Former New England Whalers spokesman William Rasmussen has started the ESP Network with three satellite dishes and 70 employees, viewers see the first Sportscenter daily sports news program, followed by a slow-pitch softball doubleheader, but the 24-hour all-sports news channel will broaden its offerings, and it will grow in 20 years to reach 76 million homes, with programming in 21 languages overseas. Collecting revenues from cable companies as well as from advertisers, it will have 2,100 employees, as it covers sports ranging from aerobics, baseball, basketball, bowling, boxing, dart throwing, football, golf, and hockey to sailboat racing, soccer, tennis, and volleyball (see communications, 1995).

New York Yankee catcher Thurman Munson is killed August 2 at age 32 when he crashes his private jet near Canton, Ohio; Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter F. O'Malley dies of congestive heart failure and cancer at Rochester, Minn., August 9 at age 75.

The Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series, defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 3.

Golfer Chick Evans dies at Chicago November 6 at age 89, having established the Evans Scholars Foundation that grants scholarships for caddies to attend college.

everyday life

Reebok running shoes are introduced in the United States by Cambridge, Mass.-born camping equipment distributor Paul B. Fireman, 39, who has attended an international trade fair, noticed some shoes marketed by a 21-year-old Lancashire firm named after a species of African gazelle, joined forces with one James Barclay, and imports 200 pairs of the shoes in three styles, pricing them higher than the priciest Nike (see 1972), Adidas, or Puma shoes but finding good demand (see 1982).

Michelle Triola Marvin, 46, sues March 10 for "palimony." She has taken actor Lee Marvin's last name but never married him and contends that she gave up a promising singing career in 1964 to serve him as cook, companion, and confidante, lived with him until 1970, and is entitled to half the $3.6 million he earned during that period. Marvin, now 55, agrees April 18 to pay her $104,000.

Italian fashion designer Adrienne Vittadini, 36, and her husband, Gianluigi, 41, launch a new knitwear enterprise featuring tunic tops and pull-on skirts and pants that will gain an international following. The firm will continue until 1998.

Couturier Sir Norman Hartnell dies of a heart attack at Windsor, England, June 8 at age 78, having designed wedding gowns and coronation gowns for British queens as well as dresses and uniforms for commoners. "I despise simplicity," he has said. "It is the negation of all that is beautiful."

The video game "Asteroids" picks up on last year's "Space Invaders" with a black-and-white space ace flying shooter game that gains a wide following among U.S. schoolboys (see "PAC-MAN," 1980).

The Magic Cube (Rubik's Cube) goes on sale late in the year at Budapest, where local inventor Erno Rubik, 35, has devised a multi-colored cube with 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible configurations but only one way to have a single color on each side. New York-based Ideal Toys will engage actress Zsa Zsa Gabor to help launch the cube on U.S. television with a Hollywood party in early May of next year, and by 1982 more than 100 million will have been sold.

crime

British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe goes on trial May 8 at London's Old Bailey on charges of hiring an assassin to kill his alleged ex-lover Norman Scott (see 1975). Thorpe wins acquittal after 6 weeks of testimony and deliberation; his career is ruined.

Mafia boss Carmine Galante, 69, has lunch at a Brooklyn, N.Y., café July 12 and is gunned down by hitmen of an underworld rival. Head of a 200-member "family" formerly led by Joseph Bonnano Sr., Galante had hoped to succeed the late Carlo Gambino as the "boss of bosses"; police say he had been marked for execution for more than a year.

New York labor racketeer John "Johnny Dio" Dioguardi dies in a Pennsylvania federal prison January 12 at age 64; alleged gambling czar Joseph Vincent "Newsboy" Moriarty at Jersey City February 24 at age 68; bank robber Alvin Karpis of the old Ma Barker gang of a suspected sleeping-pill overdose at Taormolinos, Spain, August 26 at age 73 (he served 32 years in U.S. federal prisons).

Atlanta youth Edward H. Smith, 14, vanishes July 20; his body, shot in the chest, is found July 28. Alfred J. Evans, 13, vanishes July 25 and his body is also found July 28. Milton Harvey, 14, vanishes September 4; his skeletal remains are found November 8 and his mother presses for a broad investigation of the killings that will continue for almost 2 years as more than 20 local black children, aged 7 to 15, almost all boys, die at the hands of an unknown killer or killers (see 1980).

Use of illegal drugs escalates in America: 34 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds use drugs, up from 1 percent in 1962, 65 percent of high school seniors have tried an illicit drug, 39 percent are using drugs monthly, 11 percent smoke marijuana on a daily basis, and while the death rate for all other age groups has declined it has increased by 8 percent among adolescents. Parents organize efforts that will reduce drug use by two-thirds among adolescents and young adults in the next 13 years while reducing the number of high school seniors who smoke marijuana every day to 2 percent.

A New York State law takes effect September 1 modifying the severe penalties of the law put through by former governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1973 (mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of selling any amount of heroin, cocaine, morphine, or other "hard" drug). Hundreds of persons are serving longer terms for selling or possessing small amounts of drugs than for rape or robbery, the old law has not helped to control the drug traffic, and state courts are backlogged with cases of people standing trial rather than working out plea bargains.

The United States has 21,456 reported murders, half involving handguns, 13 percent involving rifles or shotguns. Canada has 207 shooting deaths, down from 292 such homicides in 1975. France has 1,645 homicides, just over half involving firearms. West Germany has 69 crimes involving murder or robbery with a firearm, Japan has 171. London police discharge firearms only eight times.

architecture, real estate

Chicago's 40-story Xerox Center is completed by German-born architect Helmut Jahn, 40, of C. F. Murphy Associates. Jahn has departed from the rectangular steel and glass office "boxes" that have dominated commercial construction since the end of World War II when the ideas of the late Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took over the world.

The Pritzker Architectural Prize is established by Hyatt Hotels chairman Jay Pritzker, now 57 (see 1957). The $100,000 award will be called the Nobel Prize of architecture.

Hilton Hotels founder Conrad N. Hilton dies of pneumonia at Santa Monica, Calif., January 3 at age 91; architect Pier Luigi Nervi of a heart attack at Rome January 9 at age 87; landowner Robert George Grosvenor, 5th duke of Westminster, at Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, February 19 at age 68 (he has owned 300 acres in the heart of London and his family fortune has been estimated at $1 billion).

environment

An earthquake in eastern Iran January 16 kills an estimated 1,000.

Love Canal in upstate New York continues to create a furor (see 1978). ABC TV's documentary The Killing Ground about the toxic waste issue airs in March, the state begins moving 120 families to motels in July, activists Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden visit the area October 4, but Mike Wallace of the CBS show 60 Minutes refuses to air stories on toxic waste sites (see 1980).

A Mexican offshore oil-well blowout June 3 in the Gulf of Mexico contaminates Gulf fisheries and beaches with millions of gallons of oil in the largest spill ever recorded. After 3 months of uncontrolled spillage, the oil has traveled 600 miles from the hole drilled by Pemex explorers, shaking confidence in the ability of so-called blowout "preventers" and backup systems to protect the environment, straining U.S.-Mexican relations as the State Department conducts delicate negotiations over U.S. purchases of Mexican oil and natural gas. Ixtoc 1 continues to run out of control, defying efforts by the most experienced well cappers. An estimated 3.5 million barrels will have spilled into the sea by the time the flow is stopped in late March of next year.

The tankers Atlantic Express and Aegean Captain collide off Trinidad and Tobago July 19, spilling an estimated 1.02 million barrels of crude oil into the sea. The Burmah Agate burns after a collision in Galveston Bay, Texas, November 1, spilling 62,000 barrels.

Executive order 12148 issued July 20 by President Carter establishes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), merging many heretofore separate disaster-related responsibilities into one group. It absorbs the Federal Insurance Administration, National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration, the Defense Department's Civil Preparedness Agency, and HUD's Federal Disaster Assistance Administration. By the end of the century FEMA will be a 2,500-person agency with more than 5,000 stand-by disaster reservists and a mission to protect the nation from all types of hazards.

Java's 9,548 foot (2,911-meter) Mount Merapi erupts without warning in July (see 1006). Its ashes and lava kill 149 in a village 6,000 feet up its slopes.

marine resources

Sardines return to California waters after an absence of some 40 years.

agriculture

Plant pathologist Elvin C. Stakman dies of a stroke at St. Paul, Minn., January 22 at age 93; King Ranch board chairman Richard M. Kleberg Jr. at Corpus Christi May 8 at age 62.

The number of horses working on British farms falls to 3,575, down from 300,000 in 1950.

nutrition

The February issue of The Physician and Sportsmedicine reports a survey of Big Ten conference football coaches' ideas of nutrition: most still emphasize protein and carbohydrate "supplements," despite lack of sound scientific support for carbohydrate "loading" except for endurance activities, such as marathon running, where it can be useful if undertaken several days before the event. "There are no magical secrets or mysteries about proper nutrition for athletes," says the publication's editor in chief. "Let us not be beguiled by the Pied Pipers of nutrition . . . Let us stop acting like Simple Simons about something as straightforward as, if you will excuse the expression, meat and potatoes." (Most nutritionists recommend that athletes simply increase their caloric intake—eat more rather than eat differently.)

Eating Your Way through Life by Brooklyn, N.Y.-born MIT research nutritionist Judith J. (Joy) Wurtman (née Hirschborn), 42, notes that a varied, balanced diet ordinarily provides a full complement of vitamins and minerals; that the body cannot tell the difference between "natural" vitamins and synthetic ones; that foods contain many nutrients that have not been incorporated into supplements; and that people who restrict their diets for any reason (e.g., religious, ideological, or extreme weight reduction) risk deficiencies, more often of minerals than of vitamins (see dexfenfluramine, 1982).

The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise by Chicago-born California inventor and businessman Nathan Pritikin, 63, recommends a regimen of low-fat, low-cholesterol food combined with exercise. A college dropout who developed a heart problem (he calls it a "coronary insufficiency") in his early 40s, Pritikin put himself on the same kind of diet and claims to have cured himself completely. He opened a Longevity Center at Santa Barbara, Calif., 3 years ago to conduct a 26-day, supervised program (cost: $3,000 plus $1,200 in medical expenses) and will open another one in Florida.

consumer protection

The Food and Drug Administration cracks down in July on misuse of amphetamines as appetite suppressants. Some 3.3 million prescriptions for amphetamines were written in the United States last year, the pills are also made in home laboratories, and many people have become addicted to Dexadrine, Dexoxyn (Dex, or "dexies"), Benzadrine ("bennies"), Biphatamine, or Methedrine ("speed"); a Philadelphia physician is sentenced in September to 2 years in prison and fined $250,000 for distributing 4 million amphetamine pills to patients at his weight-control clinic.

food and drink

The Screwpull corkscrew patented by Texas-born inventor Herbert Allen makes it easy to draw a cork without leaving any in the bottle. Allen has made a fortune inventing tools for the oil industry and parts for jet engines, he never tasted wine until 1951, when he traveled to Europe for the first time, and he went on to assemble one of the best wine cellars in Texas, but his wife's frustration in trying to open a bottle has led him to develop a device that fits over the neck of a bottle and has a Teflon-coated screw that is easily driven into and through the cork, enabling the cork to be removed intact without pulling.

Paris police drop Breathalyzer tests for drivers after a public outcry and protests by restaurant owners that the spot checks are hurting business. Wine is sold legally at highway service stations and some 5 million of France's 53.5 million people are heavy drinkers, 2 million alcoholics. Per-capita consumption of pure alcohol is almost 17 quarts per year, the highest in the world, and alcoholism costs the nation some $4.5 billion per year in medical and social service costs.

restaurants

The New Orleans restaurant K-Paul Louisiana Kitchen opens in Chartres Street with Cajun dishes prepared by chef Paul Prudhomme, 39, formerly of the Commander Palace. Assisted in the front of the house by his wife, K. L. Henrichs, Prudhomme works in the kitchen to prepare jambalaya (with oysters, crabs, and sausages as well as the usual shrimp, rice, green peppers, tomatoes, and spices). Prudhomme will claim that one of his cooks scorched a fish over a too-hot fire, creating "blackened" redfish: others will rush to copy K-Paul's success with the result that Gulf stocks of redfish will be depleted, causing Louisiana regulators to declare a moratorium on catching the species.

The Zagat New York City Restaurant Survey is introduced by local corporate lawyer Timothy Zagat, 40, and his lawyer wife, Nina, who like to eat out and have rated restaurants according to "customer satisfaction" as determined by 150 friends and acquaintances (see Duncan Hines, 1935). The burgundy-covered, pocket-sized Zagat Surveys will grow to cover more than 30 major U.S. and foreign cities with some 75,000 unpaid survey participants, most of them amateur critics who fill out extensive questionnaires, and by 1994 the Zagats will be grossing $7 million, netting about $1.5 million after paying 25 full-time employees and covering other costs.

population

The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6 to 3 January 9 that a 1974 Pennsylvania statute requiring that a physician try to save the life of a fetus is unconstitutional (Colautti v. Franklin). The Court rules 8 to 1 July 2 that a Massachusetts law requiring unmarried, underage girls to get permission from their parents or a court judge before they can have abortions is unconstitutional (Bellotti v. Baird).

Chinese Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping issues orders early in the year for a vigorous strengthening of family-planning policies, with Han couples limited to one child (96 percent of Chinese are Hans). The state calls on all couples to have "only one child if possible, two at the most, with a period of 3 or 4 years between them." The option of having two is dropped within a few months as provincial authorities pass laws requiring that all couples practice family planning and impose severe financial penalties on couples who have two or more children. A Chinese girl who marries is by custom taken into her husband's family and is no longer responsible for her own parents, so for rural families the new state policy raises fears that if their first and only child is a daughter there will be no one to care for them in their old age. Female infanticide has been largely eradicated since 1949, but the new one-child rule revives the practice in some parts of China. Chinese manufacturers produce their first ultrasound machines; within a decade they will be turning out 10,000 per year, another 2,000 will be imported, ultrasound will be used to determine fetal gender, and many females will be aborted (see 1982).

Iran's new theocratic government abolishes family planning. Planning will not be revived for nearly 20 years, but it will then be made free and mandatory.

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980

Anthropology

The fossil footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania, are carefully reburied to preserve them for future anthropologists. See also 1976 Anthropology; 1995 Anthropology.

Lothar Haselberger, while visiting the Temple of Apollo at Didyma (Turkey), discovers the almost complete plans for the temple inscribed in stone on some of the temple walls. The temple planned in 334 bce would have been the largest Greek temple built, although incomplete after 600 years, when work ceased.

Dennis Walsh at the Jodrell Bank Observatory makes the first observation of a gravitational lens -- a galaxy that refracts light because of the gravitational distortion of space (described by general relativity). The lens can amplify or multiply images of suitably placed objects more distant than the lensing galaxy. See also 1987 Astronomy.

Robert Dicke and James Peebles explain the smoothness at a large scale of the universe by assuming space is flat; that is, the density of the universe is equal to the critical density, or just under the level required to halt expansion in the future. They note that this theoretical explanation has not been established by direct observation. See also 2000 Astronomy.

On November 20 meteorite Yamato 791197 is collected in Antarctica. Later it will be recognized as the first meteorite to have landed on Earth and been found by scientists; it originated by being blasted off the face of the Moon. However, by the time Yamato 791197 is known to come from the Moon, other meteorites have already revealed their lunar origin. See also 1982 Astronomy.

On February 24 the United States launches P78-1, which studies solar radiation until it is purposely shot down by the U.S. air force on September 13, 1985, to demonstrate that it is possible to destroy a satellite that way. Still working at the time of its destruction, the satellite is deemed by many scientists to be too valuable to have been used as a target.

In March the Voyager 1 spacecraft discovers a ring around Jupiter. See also 1977 Astronomy; 1980 Astronomy.

The High-Energy Astrophysical Observatory 3 (HEAO-3) picks up gamma-ray signals from Cygnus X-1. See also 1978 Astronomy.

The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, begins operation. Its 3.6-m (142-in.) mirror is set up to work at both optical and infrared frequencies.

Sir Walter Bodner suggests a way to use a combination of chemical studies of DNA with restriction enzymes and studies of heredity in large families to locate gene markers for specific traits.

English-American chemist Herbert Charles Brown and Georg Wittig win the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Brown for his study of boron-containing organic compounds and Wittig for his study of phosphorus-containing organic compounds. See also 1962 Chemistry; 1954 Chemistry.

The High Order Language Working Group (HOLWG) established by the Pentagon studies the possibility of a standard computer language that would replace the about 1000 languages used by the U.S. Defense Department. Frenchman Jean Ichbiah [b. March 25, 1940] and coworkers develop ADA, a computer language named for Lady Ada Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who, legend has it, was the first computer programmer). It will be used by the U.S. armed services and NATO forces. See also 1843 Computers.

The first commercial network of cellular telephones is set up in Tokyo, Japan. Later in the year Bell Labs tests a cellular system on 2000 users in Chicago, Illinois. See also 1946 Communication; 1983 Communication.

Philips and Sony bring the video disk to market. Images and sound are recorded digitally as analog tracks in the surface of the disk, which are read by a laser as the disk rapidly rotates. See also 1995 Communication.

Sony Corporation introduces the Walkman, the first completely portable sound system designed to play audio cassettes and to be listened to with earphones. The first version has two earphone jacks and a button to press to stop the sound for conversation, since Sony assumes that few will want to listen alone. Within a year it becomes apparent that solitary listening is the reason for the Walkman's being and the extra phone jack and cutoff button are dropped.

Hayes begins selling a modem that connects computers directly to a phone line for communicating with other computers. See also 1958 Communication.

Daniel Bricklin [b. 1951], a computer scientist and accountant, and programmer Robert Frankston develop VisiCalc (Visible Calculator), the first spreadsheet program for the microcomputer; VisiCalc enables personal computer users to develop business applications without learning a programming language. By 1985 800,000 copies will be sold. See also 1978 Communication; 1980 Communication.

The first handheld video game comes on the market.

In June the Apple II Plus is introduced. It has BASIC built into the read-only memory (ROM) instead of supplied on a separate cassette tape.

Work begins on the Rogun Dam (in Tadzhikstan, Russia) near the borders of Russia, Afghanistan, and China. At 335 m (1098 ft) it will become the highest dam in the world. See also 1936 Construction; 1983 Construction.

Work begins on the 44-story apartment tower over New York City's Museum of Modern Art. It becomes one of the world's tallest buildings to be constructed from cast-in-place concrete.

The nuclear reactor at Unit 2 of Three Mile Island loses its water buffer and undergoes a partial meltdown through operator error on March 28; a small amount of radioactive material escapes the containment dome, but the reactor itself is irreparably damaged; no one is injured. See also 1957 Ecology & the environment; 1986 Ecology & the environment.

James Lovelock [b. Letchworth Garden City, England, July 26, 1919] publishes his Gaia hypothesis, which argues that Earth resembles a living organism -- a self-regulating entity with complex feedback mechanisms between organisms and the physical environment.

Peter LeComber and coworkers from the University of Dundee (Scotland) show that amorphous silicon can be used to build thin-film transistors that control liquid-crystal displays.

In September Motorola introduces the 68000 microprocessor chip; it has a 24-bit capacity for reading memory and can address 16 megabytes of memory; it will be the basis of the Macintosh computer developed by Apple. See also 1984 Electronics.

Steven Hofstein invents the field-effect transistor, using metal oxide technology (MOSFET). See also 1970 Electronics.

Robert S. Boyer and J. Strother Moore develop the Boyer-Moore Theorem Prover (a.k.a. Nqthm, which stands for New, Qualified Theorem Prover). It uses recursive function theory and heuristic techniques to automate proofs, specifically proofs by mathematical induction, using a computer. See also 1575 Mathematics.

A severe anthrax epidemic breaks out in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union, killing 64 people; U.S. experts think that it is the result of an accident at a germ warfare facility, but Soviet doctors claim it results from contaminated meat. Evidence released in 1988 tends to confirm the Soviet claims.

Human insulin is synthesized by genetic engineering methods. The human gene for insulin is inserted in the genome of Escherichia coli, which then produces the protein. See also 1976 Biology; 1980 Medicine & health.

In March Herbert Needleman releases an influential study that shows that small amounts of lead in children's blood and teeth correlate with lower IQ test scores, suggesting that low-level lead poisoning can reduce intelligence. See also 1978 Ecology & the environment; 1980 Ecology & the environment.

Allan Cormack of South Africa and the United States and Godfrey Hounsfield of England win the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their invention of computed axial tomography. See also 1957 Medicine & health; 1972 Medicine & health.

Four groups at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg produce convincing evidence for the existence of the gluon, a particle that carries the color force between quarks (which also produces the strong force between such particles as protons and neutrons), confirming the theory of quantum chromodynamics. See also 1972 Physics.

Hans Dehmelt and three assistants capture and photograph a single atom, the first time this feat has ever been accomplished. See also 1980 Physics.

Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow of the United States and Abdus Salam of Pakistan win the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the link between electromagnetism and the weak force of radioactive decay. See also 1967 Physics.

Skylab, an early U.S. space station that had been abandoned, falls into the atmosphere as a result of an intense solar wind caused by increased sunspot activity; it breaks into pieces that land in western Australia but cause no damage. See also 1973 Transportation.

Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin begin the Soyuz 32 mission on February 25; the mission carries the crew to Salyut 6 and sets a new endurance record of 175 days in space. Nikolai N. Rukavishnikov and Georgi Ivanov, the first Bulgarian in space, begin the Soyuz 33 mission on April 10; engine failure prior to docking forces early termination after two days. The Soyuz 34 mission is launched without a crew on June 6 and returns after 74 days with the crew from Salyut 6.

The first of the European Space Agency's Ariane rockets successfully lifts off on December 24 from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket is designed to launch satellites into orbit for various customers, including the European Space Agency, but commercial users as well. See also 1985 Transportation.

Paul MacCready's human-powered airplane the Gossamer Albatross flies across the English Channel. See also 1977 Transportation; 1988 Transportation.

The German experimental train propelled and levitated by magnets (a maglev train) is exhibited at an international exhibit in Hamburg, where it carries more than 50,000 passengers along a short test track. See also 1977 Transportation.

Drama and Theater

• Christopher Durang: Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You. Durang gains a popular success in this witty satire on the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church as an elderly nun offers her peculiar interpretation of church dogma.
• John Guare: Bosoms and Neglect. Guare explores the relationship between a mother and her son in this witty, darkly comic psychoanalytic satire. It is the sparest and most naturalistic of Guare's full-length plays and manages only four performances on Broadway. However, when restaged in Boston, it is hailed as "brilliant" and too "fiercely uncompromising" for Broadway.
• Arthur Kopit: Wings. Originally written as a radio play and first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1978, Kopit's drama about the recovery of a stroke victim employs innovative staging techniques to replicate the healing process.
• Bernard Pomerance (b. 1940): The Elephant Man. The New York City-born playwright who immigrated to London in the 1970s achieves his greatest success with this play based on the true story of Englishman John Merrick, afflicted with a deforming genetic disorder.
• Stephen Sondheim: Sweeney Todd. Sondheim's controversial musical, derived from an 1847 melodrama about a London barber who kills his customers and converts them into pie ingredients, divides critics because of its sordid and violent subject matter. However, it wins the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and several Tony Awards; it would subsequently enter the opera repertoire.
• Ernest Thompson (b. 1949): On Golden Pond. Thompson's first full-length play dramatizes crotchety former college professor Norman Thayer's coming to terms with his mortality and his recognition of the power of love and family at the Thayers' summer cottage. Thompson wins the Best Play Award from the Broadway Drama Guild and would later receive an Academy Award for his screenplay of the popular 1981 film adaptation. The Vermont-born Thompson had been an actor and screenwriter. His play The West Side Waltz would reach Broadway in 1981.
• Michael Weller: Loose Ends. Serving as a kind of 1970s complement to Moonchildren (1972), his drama about the 1960s, Weller treats former youthful idealists who must adjust to the demands of marriage, careers, and families. The play captures with skill the changing zeitgeist.
• Tennessee Williams: A Lovely Sunday for Crève Coeur. Williams's drama is set in St. Louis during the Depression and concerns a spinster teacher's reaction to the engagement of the man with whom she has been conducting a flirtation. Combining slapstick comedy and pathos, as well as recycling old themes, the play lasts less than a month in its New York run.
• Lanford Wilson: Talley's Folly. The second of the playwright's dramas about the Talley family treats the courtship of Sally Talley by a Jewish accountant. Like other plays in the series, it brilliantly conflates the conflicts in individuals' lives with family histories and the social manners and mores of the times. The play wins the Pulitzer Prize and would also claim the New York Drama Critics Circle Award after transferring from off-Broadway to Broadway in 1980.

Fiction

• James Baldwin: Just Above My Head. Baldwin's final novel treats a homosexual gospel singer from Harlem and his family relationships. The book displays a calmer, more accepting perspective, and Baldwin, following publication, would remark that he had come "full circle," that "From Go Tell It on the Mountain to Just Above My Head sums up something of my experience... that sets me free to go someplace else".
• John Barth: Letters. Barth's experiment in epistolary fiction traces the history of the novel while at the same time recapitulating his own literary career by revisiting characters from his previous novels. The final letter in the volume is Barth's address to the reader, heralding the more naturalistic style of his subsequent novels.
• Donald Barthelme: Great Days. Several of the stories in this collection, including the title work (adapted as a play in 1983), "The Crisis," "The Apology," and "The New Music," are composed entirely of undifferentiated dialogue.
• Frederick Buechner: The Book of Bebb. Buechner's tetralogy brings together Lion Country (1971), Open Heart (1972), Love Feast (1974), and Treasure Hunt (1977), chronicling the activities of Leo Bebb, former Bible salesman, founder of the Church of Holy Love, Inc., and president of the Gospel Faith College, a religious diploma mill. Many believe Buechner's comic satire on the business of religion in America to be his finest work.
• Octavia E. Butler (b. 1947): Kindred. The California writer's most widely read fantasy novel concerns a contemporary African American woman who is transported to antebellum Maryland, contrasting contemporary racial attitudes with those held during slavery.
• John Cheever: The Stories of John Cheever. A comprehensive collection of one of the century's masters of the short story. Praised by Joan Didion and others, Cheever's stories explore the gap between his characters' expectations and the reality of their lives. He sees absurdity in his characters and in everyday life, yet he never loses respect or affection for them or their predicaments.
• Stanley Elkin: The Living End. Elkin's fantasy triptych connects three versions of the afterlife. Elkin's greatest commercial success as well as his most controversial work, it unsettles many readers' beliefs about God, heaven, and hell.
• Jim Harrison (b. 1937): Legends of the Fall. Harrison, a Michigan-born poet and novelist, receives his first major popular success and critical acclaim for this collection of novellas, described by reviewer Jerome Klinkowitz as "three short novels about revenge, redemption, and sorrow." The title work, about a Montana farmer who goes mad after his brother is killed in World War I, would be adapted as a film in 1995. His other novels include Warlock (1981), Dalva (1988), and The Road Home (1998).
• John Hawkes: The Passion Artist. Having admitted to being "tired of being called America's best unknown writer," Hawkes makes a bid for a wider readership by reducing his customary demands on his readers. The story concerns protagonist Konrad Vost's relationships with various women.
• Joseph Heller: Good as Gold. Heller follows the unrelentingly depressing Something Happened with a freewheeling, and often belabored, comedy that combines a Philip Roth-like Jewish family farce with a satire on academic life and contemporary politics.
• John Knowles: A Vein of Riches. In a narrative and stylistic departure, Knowles produces a novel set in his native West Virginia in the early years of the twentieth century to depict the corrupting influences of capitalism.
• Norman Mailer: The Executioner's Song. Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning "true-life" novel about Gary Gilmore, the first person to be executed (in 1977) in the United States for more than a decade, shows the author skillfully mining the territory of the "nonfiction novel" and the contemporary American cultural landscape.
• Bernard Malamud: Dubin's Lives. Malamud depicts the life of a prominent American biographer caught between his passion and his honesty in a love affair with a younger woman. Malamud calls the book his "attempt at bigness, at summing up what he... learned over the long haul."
• Mary McCarthy: Cannibals and Missionaries. In one of the first novels to treat modern terrorism, McCarthy depicts a group of prominent liberals and art collectors who fly to Iran and become hostages of the PLO.
• Mary Morris (b. 1947): Vanishing Animals and Other Stories. This volume, winner of the Rome Prize in Literature, concentrates on the childhood and adolescent reminiscences of its characters. Anne Tyler, among others, expresses admiration for Morris's exploration of the ambiguous relationships among her characters and the author's tactful, precise use of language. The Chicago-born writer's other books include the novels Crossroads (1983), The Waiting Room (1989), and A Mother's Love (1993).
• Jayne Anne Phillips (b. 1952): Black Tickets. The West Virginia-born writer's third story collection, preceded by Sweethearts (1976) and Counting (1978), establishes her as one of the finest chroniclers of the generation that came of age in the 1970s. A fourth collection, Fast Lanes, would appear in 1984.
• Mary Robison (b. 1949): Days. Robison's first story collection treating the mundane lives of unexceptional characters in a stripped-down, deadpan style connects her with the so-called minimalist school of writers, which includes Ann Beattie and Raymond Carver. It would be followed by two collections--An Amateur's Guide to the Night (1983) and Believe Them (1988)--and the novels Oh! (1981) and Subtraction (1991). Born in Washington, D.C., Robison was a student of writer John Barth at Johns Hopkins.
• Philip Roth: The Ghost Writer. Roth's novel treats writer Nathan Zuckerman's relationship with a famous Jewish writer and his alleged affair with a younger woman whom Zuckerman imagines to be Anne Frank. Subsequent Zuckerman novels would follow--Zuckerman Unbound (1981) and The Anatomy Lesson (1983)--collected with The Ghostwriter and an epilogue, "The Prague Orgy," as Zuckerman Bound (1985).
• Gilbert Sorrentino (b. 1929): Mulligan Stew. A tour de force that is, according to John Leonard, "literally a synthesis of almost everything Sorrentino had read and written in the past twenty-five years," Sorrentino's comic novel takes the form of a literary thriller written by a pretentious, untalented writer whose characters rebel and take their revenge. The Brooklyn-born writer's other books include Steelwork (1970), Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (1971), and Aberrations of Starlight (1980).
• Scott Spencer (b. 1945): Endless Love. Spencer's third novel treating a teenager's obsessive sexual relationship gains its author both critical acclaim and popularity. His subsequent novels include Waking the Dead (1986), Secret Anniversaries (1990), and Men in Black (1995).
• Wallace Stegner: Recapitulations. Stegner returns to the character of Bruce Mason from The Big Rock Candy Mountain, showing him as a former American diplomat returning to the Utah of his childhood to face his past.
• William Styron: Sophie's Choice. Styron draws praise and criticism for his novel about a young writer's involvement with a damaged concentration camp survivor. Connecting the Holocaust with slavery in America, Styron is both accused of misappropriating a subject for fictional effect and applauded for being one of the first American writers to deal with the moral and psychological consequences of the Holocaust.
• John Updike: Problems and Other Stories and Too Far to Go. The first of Updike's 1978 story collections treats various adversities of middle age; the second gathers the stories dealing with the marital relationship between Joan and Richard Maple, Updike's representative American couple. Updike also publishes The Coup, a freewheeling satire that concerns government mismanagement in the fictional African nation of Kush, as well as America's compulsion to dispense its largesse.
• Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: Jailbird. Vonnegut covers the Watergate scandal in this satirical novel about a fictional conspirator trying to rebuild his life.
• James Welch: The Death of Jim Loney. Welch's second novel is about the self-destruction of an alienated, alcoholic mixed-blood protagonist in Montana, who is unable to exist comfortably in either the white or the Indian world.

Literary Criticism and Scholarship

• Sandra M. Gilbert (b. 1936) and Susan Gubar (b. 1944): The Madwoman in the Attic. The scholars' first collaboration is a groundbreaking work of feminist criticism that examines the methods nineteenth-century women writers employed to cope with restrictions imposed by a male-dominated society. Gilbert, an English professor at the University of California at Davis, and Gubar, a professor of English at Indiana University, would continue their collaboration with The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women (1985) and No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century (1988-1994).

Nonfiction

• Lauren Bacall (b. 1924): Lauren Bacall: By Myself. The actress (born Betty Joan Perske) wins the National Book Award for this best-selling autobiography, which deals intimately with her relationship with Humphrey Bogart and her years since his death.
• Robert Dallek (b. 1934): Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945. Dallek's Bancroft Prize-winning study is hailed by reviewer Basil Rauch as "much the most detailed, thoughtful, and objective study of Roosevelt as a maker of foreign policy that we are likely to have in our time." The historian would subsequently publish biographies of Lyndon Johnson (The Lone Star Rising, 1991) and John F. Kennedy (An Unfinished Life, 2003).
• Joan Didion: The White Album. This essay collection devoted to the author's native California takes its name from the title of the popular Beatles album. One track on the album, "Helter Skelter," provides a theme for the demonic La Bianca-Tate murders in Los Angeles in 1969, which Didion in turn uses as a kind of leitmotif in the collection.
• David Halberstam: The Powers That Be. The second volume of a trio of books dealing with power in America, which had begun with The Best and the Brightest and continued with The Reckoning (1986), on the auto industry, examines the ways in which media giants such as CBS, the Washington Post, Time, and the Los Angeles Times shape American politics and society.
• Douglas R. Hofstadter (b. 1945): Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. The professor of computer science at Indiana University explores human consciousness and the connections among mathematician Kurt Gödel's Incomplete Theorem, the art of M. C. Escher, and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Despite its complex subject, it wins the Pulitzer Prize and sells more than 100,000 copies in the year following its publication.
• Zora Neale Hurston: I Love Myself When I Am Laughing, and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive. This collection of selections from Hurston's autobiographical works, folklore, essays, and stories, edited by Alice Walker, stimulates interest in Hurston and her works.
• Henry A. Kissinger (b. 1923): The White House Years. Kissinger wins the National Book Award for his account of his various roles in the Nixon administration. It would be followed by Years of Upheaval (1982), treating the last years of the Nixon presidency, and Years of Renewal (1994), describing the Ford administration.
• Christopher Lasch (1932-1994): The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. Lasch, a professor of history at the University of Rochester, considers the family, education, sex and mores, and sports to present a thesis that contemporary Americans have retreated into a disengaged self-absorption. Winner of the American Book Award, the book would be followed by a sequel applying his theories, The Minimal Self (1984).
• Leon F. Litwack (b. 1929): Been in the Storm So Long. The University of Wisconsin history professor's study of the end of slavery in the American South wins both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It is the first comprehensive history of slavery that makes use of the thousands of slave narratives collected by interviewers from the Federal Writers Project during the New Deal.
• Catharine A. MacKinnon (b. 1946): Sexual Harassment of Working Women. MacKinnon, a legal scholar and law professor, breaks new legal ground by arguing that sexual harassment of women in the workplace is a violation of existing civil rights statutes.
• Edmund Morris (b. 1940): The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Morris, who was born in Kenya and was an advertising copywriter in London before coming to the United States in 1968, receives both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for the first volume of his masterful biography (Theodore Rex would appear in 2001). The book impresses Ronald Reagan so much that he grants Morris unprecedented access, which Morris would use to produce Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999).
• Adrienne Rich: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966-1978. This work collects Rich's essays and speeches dealing with feminism and literature. It includes "Vesuvius at Home: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson" and "When We Dead Awaken," urging female self-determination.
• Telford Taylor (1908-1998): Munich: The Price of Peace. Drawn from the author's experiences as chief prosecution counsel at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the book analyzes the diplomatic failure of the Munich Conference, where Adolf Hitler and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain met in 1938. The book is described as a "masterful synthesis and an original contribution" and wins the National Book Critics Circle Award.
• Tom Wolfe: The Right Stuff. Wolfe's biggest-selling nonfiction book covers the background, selection, and training of the first seven U.S. astronauts and the fraternity of test pilots. The book makes a cultural hero out of Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, and adds the phrases the right stuff and pushing the envelope to the popular lexicon.
• Donald E. Worster (b. 1941): Dust Bowl. Worster, a professor of American studies at the University of Hawaii, wins the Bancroft Prize for his study, which identifies aggressive capitalistic greed as the root cause of the problems faced by Plains farmers during the 1930s.

Poetry

• John Ashbery: As We Know. In one of Ashbery's most experimental collections, the verse alternates between several two-line poems and the long poem "Litany," printed in double columns and "meant to be read as simultaneous but independent monologues."
• Robert Bly: This Tree Will Be There for a Thousand Years. Bly returns to the pastoral scene of his first collection, Silence in the Snowy Fields (1963), in a collection of meditations on the duality of consciousness: the poet's consciousness, "which is insecure, anxious, massive, earth bound, persistent, cunning, hopeful; and a second consciousness which is none of these things."
• James Dickey: The Strength of Fields. The title work is written for and delivered at President Jimmy Carter's inaugural. It and other poems in the collection feature a renewed faith in humanity and an acceptance of pain and death.
• Anthony Hecht: The Venetian Vespers. Hecht's most ambitious poem is the title work of this collection, a long meditation of an American who has come to Venice to reassess his life and times.
• Donald Justice (1925-2004): Selected Poems. The Florida-born poet wins the Pulitzer Prize for this collection, made up of works from this three previous collections--The Summer Anniversaries (1961), Night Light (1967), and Departures (1973)--along with new and previously uncollected works.
• Philip Levine: Seven Years from Somewhere and Ashes. Levine's two collections show a shift in subject and method from portraits and narratives to lyrical retrospectives on the poet's early life, evident in poems such as "Here and Now" and "The Life Ahead." Ashes wins the National Book Award.
• Robert Pinsky: An Explanation of America. Pinsky's second volume is a book-length poem, which ranges over the history of America. Critic Michael Hamburger remarks that it "seems to defy not only all the dominant trends in contemporary poetry but all the dominant notions--both American and non-American--of what is expected of an American poet."
• Timothy Steele (b. 1948): Uncertainties and Rest. Steele's first collection shows his use of traditional meter and rhyme, which will establish his reputation as one of the leading proponents of what critics label the New Formalism. The Vermont-born poet's other books would include Sapphics Against Anger and Other Poems (1986), Sapphics and Uncertainties: Poems, 1970-1986 (1995), and Missing Measures: Modern Poetry and the Revolt Against Meter (1990).
• Louis Zukofsky: A. The great poem Zukofsky had started in 1927 appears in its final form posthumously. Hugh Kenner calls it "the most hermetic poem in the language, which they will still be elucidating in the 22nd century." Ranging widely over personal and historical events, many of the poem's sections are regarded as masterpieces.

For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see 1979 (song).

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1940s  1950s  1960s  – 1970s –  1980s  1990s  2000s
Years:	1976 1977 1978 – 1979 – 1980 1981 1982

1979 by topic:

Subject:      Archaeology – Architecture – Art

Aviation – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) Meteorology – Music (Country, Metal) Rail transport – Radio – Science – Spaceflight

Sports – Television – Video gaming

Countries:   Australia – Canada – Ecuador – India Ireland – Malaysia – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Philippines – Singapore – South Africa Soviet Union –UK – United States – Zimbabwe – Italy

Leaders:    Sovereign states – State leaders

Religious leaders – Law

Categories: Births – Deaths – Works – Introductions

Establishments – Disestablishments – Awards v • d • e

1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar).

Contents:
Events of 1979 -  Jan. . Feb. . March . April -  May . June . July  .  Aug. -  Sept. . Oct. . Nov. .  Dec. -  Undated . Ongoing . Fictional Births Deaths Nobel prizes -  Templeton Prize See also -  Notes -  External links

Events of 1979

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.
• January 1 – The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.

January
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• January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.
• 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 – 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 of Iran 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 21 – Super Bowl XIII: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 35–31 at the Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
• January 29 – Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing 2 faculty members and wounding 8 students. Her response to the action, "I don't like Mondays," inspired the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.
• January 31 – The police under directions of Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister of the CPM-led government of West Bengal, surround and open fire on unarmed refugee settlement of Morichjhapi island in Sunderbans, West Bengal, India. Hundreds are killed but the official government death toll is 36.^{[clarification needed]}

February

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• February 1 – Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
• February 1 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
• February 3 – Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
• February 7 – Supporters of Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration; the final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.
• February 7 – Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was known to science.
• February 10–February 11 – The Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution.

• February 11 – Khomeini seizes power in Iran.
• 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.
• February 14 – 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 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, Louisiana is canceled due to a strike called by the New Orleans Police Department.
• February 28 – Mr. Ed, the 'talking horse' featured in the television show of the same name, dies.

March

March
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• March 1 – Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
• March 4 – The U.S. Voyager I spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
• March 5 – Voyager I 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 Compact Disc publicly for the first time.
• March 13 – Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada.
• 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, Lancashire.^[1]
• March 25 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. 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, Jim Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election.
• March 29 – America's most serious nuclear power plant accident, 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).
• March 31 – Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song Hallelujah.

April

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• April 1 – Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
• April 1–April 18 – Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria, and forget about, leaving him there without food or drink.
• April 1 – The Nickelodeon Television Channel, a children's cartoon channel, launches as The Pinwheel Network.
• April 2 – Sverdlovsk Anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
• April 10 – A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42 people (the most notable of 26 that day).
• April 11 – Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
• 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.
• April 22 – The Albert Einstein Memorial is unveiled at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.
• April 23 – Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.

May

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May 4: Thatcher

• May 1 – Greenland gets home rule.
• May 4 – Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
• May 8 – The Manchester, England Woolworth's in city centre is seriously damaged by fire; 10 shoppers die.
• May 9 – A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
• May 10 – The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
• May 21 – San Francisco gays riot after hearing the verdict for Dan White, assassin of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
• May 21 – The Montréal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1 in the best-of-seven series, winning the Stanley Cup.
• May 25 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing 271 on board and 2 people on the ground.
• May 25 – John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of death penalty in 1976.
• May 27 – Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.

June

June
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• June 1 – The Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
• June 1 – The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal.
• June 1 – The Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.
• June 2 – Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
• 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 ever.
• June 3 – General elections are held in Italy.
• June 4 – Joe Clark becomes Canada's 16th and youngest Prime Minister.
• June 4 – Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General 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 (Italy): foundation of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, an international opinion tribunal, 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

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• July 1 – Sweden outlaws corporal punishment in the home.
• July 2 – The Susan B. Anthony dollar is introduced in the U.S.
• 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 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 – Kiribati declares independence from the United Kingdom.
• July 12 – A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.
• July 12 – Carmine Galante, boss of the Bonanno crime family, is assassinated.
• July 12 – A fire at a hotel in Saragossa, Spain leaves 72 dead. 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, Florida.
• July 19 – Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela wins the Miss Universe Pageant; the stage collapses after contestants and news photographers rush to her throne.
• July 19 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.
• July 19 – Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal

August

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• August 5 – The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania.
• August 9 – The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton.
• August 9 – Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is shot and killed 5 months after his arrest for quadruple murder (his killers have not yet been identified).
• August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
• August 14 – A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the death of 15 sailors.
• 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 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs: Provisional Irish Republican Army members attack a British convoy at Narrow Water, County Down, 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

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• 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.
• September 7 – The Entertainment Sports Programming Network, known as ESPN, debuts.
• 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 Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.
• September 30 – The Hong Kong MTR begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka Kwun Tong Line).

October

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• October 1 – Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Nigerian Second Republic is established.
• October 1–October 6 – Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
• October 6 – Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy, causing interest rate fluctuations and economic recession.
• October 9 – Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record 6 laps, with a lap record on the last lap.
• October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving many 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 Marines die in a fire at Camp Fuji, Japan as a result of Typhoon Tip.^[2]
• October 26 – Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jaegyu.
• October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.

November

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• 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.
• November 2 – Assata Shakur (née Joanne Chesimard), a former member of 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.
• 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 Olympics Games and international sports tournaments and championships.
• November 7 – U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
• November 9 – The Carl Bridgewater murder trial ends 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.^[3]
• November 9 – Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert was cancelled.^[4]
• 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.
• 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 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 – A group of 200 Juhayman al-Otaibi militants occupy Mecca's Grand Mosque. 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 (see Foreign relations of Pakistan).
• 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 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
Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

• December 3 – Eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• December 3 – 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 for 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 and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
• December 12 – A major earthquake and tsunami kills 259 people in Colombia.
• December 21 – A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
• December 23 – The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.
• December 24 – The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
• December 24 – 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.
• December 27 – The Soviet Union seizes control of Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin.

Undated

• The One Child Policy is implemented in China in this year.
• VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.
• The first usenet experiments are conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.
• Worldwide per capita oil production reaches an historic peak.
• Rock music star Ozzy Osbourne seen his career peak, becomes the "prince of darkness".
• McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal in June.
• Lego's golden age begins.
• Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca.

Ongoing

• 1979 energy crisis
• Cold War

Fictional

• The Final Episode of the 70's-based Comedy, That '70s Show takes place in December 31, 1979.
• Paul Erdman's The Crash of '79 takes place in 1979

Births

1979 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1979 MCMLXXIX
Ab urbe condita	2732
Armenian calendar	1428 ԹՎ ՌՆԻԸ
Bahá'í calendar	135 – 136
Berber calendar	2929
Buddhist calendar	2523
Burmese calendar	1341
Byzantine calendar	7487 – 7488
Chinese calendar	戊午年十二月初三日 (4615/4675-12-3) — to — 己未年十一月十三日 (4616/4676-11-13)
Coptic calendar	1695 – 1696
Ethiopian calendar	1971 – 1972
Hebrew calendar	5739 – 5740
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2034 – 2035
- Shaka Samvat	1901 – 1902
- Kali Yuga	5080 – 5081
Holocene calendar	11979
Iranian calendar	1357 – 1358
Islamic calendar	1399 – 1400
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 54 (昭和54年)
Korean calendar	4312
Thai solar calendar	2522
Unix time	283996800 – 315532799
v • d • e

January–February

• January 1 – Brody Dalle, Australian singer
• January 1 – Koichi Domoto, Japanese entertainer (Kinki Kids)
• January 2 – Morena Baccarin, Italo-Brazilian actress
• January 4 – Charity Rahmer, American actress
• January 6 – Bernice Liu, Hong Kong actress
• January 7 – Bipasha Basu, Indian actress and model
• January 8 – Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian football goalkeeper
• January 10 – Chris Smith, American rapper (Kris Kross)
• January 10 – James Lloyd, British actor
• January 11 – Siti Nurhaliza, Malaysian singer
• January 12 – Marián Hossa, Slovak ice hockey player
• January 12 – Lee Bo-young, South Korean actress and model
• January 12 – Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer
• January 15 – Drew Brees, American football player
• January 16 – Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
• January 17 – Sharon Chan, Hong Kong actress
• January 18 – Jay Chou, Taiwanese singer, song producer and actor
• January 18 – Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer
• January 20 – Rob Bourdon, American rock drummer (Linkin Park)
• January 20 – Asaka Kubo, Japanese gravure idol
• January 21 – Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby union player
• January 23 – Larry Hughes, American basketball player
• January 24 – Tatyana Ali, American actress
• January 27 – Daniel Vettori, New Zealand cricketer
• January 27 – Rosamund Pike, British actress
• January 29 – BJ Flores, American boxer
• January 31 – Jenny Wolf, German speed skater
• February 1 – Julie Augustyniak, American footballer
• February 2 – Yuichi Tsuchiya, Japanese actor
• February 2 – Philip Venables, British composer
• February 2 – Fani Halkia, Greek athlete
• February 8 – Martin Rowlands, Irish footballer
• February 9 – Zhang Ziyi, Chinese actress and model
• February 9 – Irina Slutskaya, Russian figure skater
• February 11 – Brandy Norwood, American singer and actress
• February 12 – Antonio Chatman, American football player
• February 12 – Jesse Spencer, Australian actor
• February 13 – Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer
• February 13 – Mena Suvari, American actress
• February 15 – Gordon Shedden, Scottish race car driver
• February 16 – Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
• February 18 – Tyrone Burton, American actor
• February 19 – Mariana Ochoa, Mexican singer and actress
• February 21 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer
• February 21 – Carly Colón, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
• February 22 – Patrick Merrill, Canadian lacrosse player
• February 25 – László Bodnár‎, Hungarian footballer
• February 28 – Sébastien Bourdais, French racing driver
• February 21 – Christopher Hayes, American Journalist

March–April

• March 4 – Ben Fouhy, New Zealand flatwater canoeist
• March 4 – Geoff Huegill, Australian swimmer
• March 4 – John Lawler (John Fratelli), Scottish singer (The Fratellis)
• March 5 – Tang Gonghong, Chinese weightlifter
• March 6 – Érik Bédard, Canadian pitcher
• March 8 – Tom Chaplin, British singer (Keane)
• March 9 – Melina Perez, American professional wrestler
• March 11 – Benji Madden and Joel Madden, American musicians (Good Charlotte)
• March 12 – Pete Doherty, British singer and guitarist (The Libertines, Babyshambles)
• March 14 – Nicolas Anelka, French footballer
• March 14 – Gao Ling, Chinese badminton player
• March 15 – Kevin Youkilis, American baseball player
• March 17 – Samoa Joe, American wrestler
• March 18 – Adam Levine, American singer (Maroon 5)
• March 20 – Freema Agyeman, British actress
• March 20 – Molly Jenson, American musician
• March 23 – Bryan Fletcher, American football player
• March 25 – Lee Pace, American actor
• March 25 – Natasha Yi, Korean-American actress and model
• March 25 – Traxamillion, American producer rapper
• March 25 – Gorilla Zoe, American rapper
• March 26 – Jason McGill, American writer
• March 30 – Norah Jones, American musician
• March 31 – Amey Date, Indian playback singer
• April 3 – Grégoire, French singer-songwriter
• April 4 – Heath Ledger, Australian actor (d. 2008)
• April 8 – Alexi Laiho, Finnish rock guitarist (Children of Bodom)
• April 9 – Keshia Knight Pulliam, American actress
• April 9 – Mario Matt, Austrian alpine skier
• April 10 – Rachel Corrie, American activist (d. 2003)
• April 10 – Tsuyoshi Domoto, Japanese entertainer (Kinki Kids)
• April 10 – Sophie Ellis-Bextor, British singer
• April 10 – Dre, American producer
• April 11 – Michel Riesen, Swiss ice hockey player
• April 12 – Claire Danes, American actress
• April 12 – Jennifer Morrison, American actress
• April 13 – Baron Davis, American basketball player
• April 14 – Pierre Roland, Indonesian actor
• April 14 – Rebecca DiPietro, American model
• April 16 – Christijan Albers, Dutch racing driver
• April 17 – Sung Si Kyung, South Korean pop/ballad singer
• April 18 – Michael Bradley, American basketball player
• April 18 – Yusuke Kamiji, Japanese actor
• April 18 – Anthony Davidson, English racing driver
• April 19 – Kate Hudson, American actress
• April 19 – Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgarian chess player
• April 21 – James McAvoy, Scottish actor
• April 22 – Daniel Johns, Australian musician (Silverchair)
• April 23 – Lauri Ylönen, Finnish singer (The Rasmus)
• April 23 – Jaime King, American actress
• April 23 – Yana Gupta, Indian actress of Czech origin
• April 24 – Laurentia Tan, Singaporean Paralympic equestrienne
• April 25 – Andreas Kuettel, Swiss ski jumper
• April 26 – Janne Wirman, Finnish keyboardist (Children of Bodom)
• April 27 – Travis Meeks, American musician (Days of the New)
• April 28 – Bahram Radan, Iranian actor
• April 30 – Casey Mongoven, American composer

May–June

• May 1 – Mauro Bergamasco, Italian rugby union player
• May 2 – Jason Chimera, Canadian ice hockey player
• May 2 – Roman Lyashenko, Russian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
• May 4 – Wes Butters, English broadcaster
• May 6 – Kerry Ellis, English actress
• May 6 – Gerd Kanter, Estonian discus thrower
• May 9 – Rosario Dawson, American actress
• May 9 – Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician
• May 12 – Adrian Serioux, Canadian soccer player
• May 13 – Carl Philip, Prince of Sweden
• May 16 – Jessica Morris, American actress
• May 18 – Mariusz Lewandowski, Polish footballer
• May 19 – Andrea Pirlo, Italian footballer
• May 22 – Maggie Q, American actress
• May 23 – Matt Flynn (musician), drummer for the alternative band, Maroon 5
• May 24 – Tracy McGrady, American basketball player
• May 25 – Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby union player
• May 26 – Ashley Massaro, American wrestler and model
• May 29 – Casey Sheehan, American soldier, son of peace activist Cindy Sheehan (d. 2004)
• May 29 – Brian Kendrick, American wrestler
• May 30 – Mike Bishai, Canadian ice hockey player
• June 5 – Pete Wentz, American musician and lyricist
• June 8 – Pete Orr, Canadian baseball player
• June 9 – Émilie Loit, French tennis player
• June 12 – Dallas Clark, American football player
• June 12 – Jodie Prenger, British actress
• June 12 – Robyn, Swedish singer-songwriter
• June 13 – Nila Håkedal, Norwegian beach volleyball player
• June 14 – Paradorn Srichaphan, Thai tennis player
• June 15 – Yulia Nestsiarenka, Belarusian athlete
• June 16 – Ari Hest, American singer-songwriter
• June 18 – Chris Neil, Canadian ice hockey player
• June 18 – Yumiko Kobayashi, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
• June 19 – John Duddy, Irish boxer
• June 19 – Kate Tsui, Hong Kong actress
• June 22 – Sandra Klösel, German tennis player
• June 23 – LaDainian Tomlinson, American football player
• June 24 – Craig Shergold, British cancer patient
• June 24 – Petra Nemcova, Czech model
• June 26 – Ryan Tedder, American singer (OneRepublic)
• June 28 – Randy McMichael, American football player
• June 29 – Barış Akarsu, Turkish musician (d. 2007)
• June 29 – Marleen Veldhuis, Dutch swimmer
• June 30 – Rick Gonzalez, American actor

July–August

• July 2 – Diana Gurtskaya, Georgian singer
• July 2 – Ayiesha Woods, American singer
• July 3 – Sayuri Katayama, Japanese actress, singer and lyricist
• July 3 – Ludivine Sagnier, French model and actress
• July 5 – Amélie Mauresmo, French tennis player
• July 5 – Shane Filan, Irish singer (Westlife)
• July 7 – Gucci Mane, American rapper
• July 9 – Ella Koon, Hong Kong actress
• July 14 – Axel Teichmann, German cross-country skier
• July 15 – Travis Fimmel, Australian fashion model and actor
• July 16 – Kinya Kotani, Japanese singer
• July 18 – Rick Baxter, American politician
• July 21 – David Carr, American football player
• July 24 – Lee Si-yeon, South Korean actress
• July 24 – Stat Quo, American rapper
• July 24 – Rose Byrne, Australian actress
• July 26 – Johnson Beharry, British recipient of the Victoria Cross
• July 26 – Derek Paravicini, British pianist
• July 26 – Tamyra Gray, American singer
• July 26 – Peter Sarno, Canadian ice hockey player
• July 27 – Jorge Arce, Mexican boxer
• July 27 – Shannon Moore, American professional wrestler
• July 30 – Graeme McDowell, Northern Irish professional golfer
• July 30 – Show Luo, Taiwanese singer
• August 1 – Honeysuckle Weeks, British actress
• August 1 – Jason Momoa, American actor
• August 3 – Evangeline Lilly, Canadian actress
• August 5 – David Healy, Northern Irish footballer
• August 4 – Patryk Dominik Sztyber, Polish metal musician
• August 8 – Azumi Kawashima, Japanese idol and AV idol
• August 10 – Joanna Garcia, American actress
• August 10 – Ted Geoghegan, American screenwriter
• August 11 – Bubba Crosby, American baseball player
• August 13 – Taizō Sugimura, Japanese politician
• August 15 – Dan Marshall, Canadian hockey player
• August 16 – Sarah Balabagan, Filipina prisoner and singer
• August 19 – Oumar Kondé, Swiss footballer
• August 22 – Matt Walters, American football player
• August 24 – Elva Hsiao, Taiwanese singer
• August 26 – Jamal Lewis, American football player
• August 26 – Cristian Mora, Ecuadorian footballer
• August 27 – Giovanni Capitello, American filmmaker/actor
• August 28 – Robert Hoyzer, German football referee
• August 28 – Yuki Maeda, Japanese singer
• August 30 – Tavia Yeung, Hong Kong actress
• August 30 – Niki Chow, Hong Kong actress
• August 31 – Mickie James, American professional wrestler
• August 31 – Yuvan Shankar Raja, Indian film composer

September–October

• September 1 – Neg Dupree, British comedian
• September 2 – Ron Ng, Hong Kong actor
• September 4 – Maxim Afinogenov, Russian ice hockey player
• September 5 – John Carew, Norwegian footballer
• September 5 – Stacey Dales, Canadian basketball player and sportscaster
• September 6 – Ned Collette, Australian singer and musician
• September 8 – Pink, American singer
• September 12 – Jay McGraw, American author, son of TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw
• September 13 – Ivan Miljković, Serbian volleyball player
• September 14 – Stuart Fielden, English rugby league player
• September 14 – Kamya Panjabi, Indian television actress
• September 15 – Amy Davidson, American actress
• September 16 – Fanny, French singer
• September 17 – Akin Ayodele, American football player
• September 18 – Alison Lohman, American actress
• September 19 – Noémie Lenoir, French supermodel
• September 20 – David Long, New Zealand musician
• September 23 – Lote Tuqiri, Australian rugby union player
• September 24 – Justin Bruening, American actor and model
• September 24 – Erin Chambers, American actress
• September 25 – Rashad Evans a fighter in the MMA sport UFC
• September 26 – Naomichi Marufuji, Japanese professional wrestler
• September 28 – Bam Margera, American skateboarder
• September 30 – Clio-Danae Othoneou, Greek actress, musician and pianist
• October 1 – Rudi Johnson, American football player
• October 1 – Marko Stanojevic, English-born Italian rugby union player
• October 3 – John Hennigan, American professional wrestler
• October 3 – Matt Davis (comedian), American stand-up comedian
• October 4 – Rachael Leigh Cook, American actress
• October 7 – Susan Eldridge, American supermodel
• October 9 – Vernon Fox, American football player
• October 9 – Brandon Routh, American actor
• October 10 – Mýa, American singer and actress
• October 10 – Wu Zun, Bruneian actor, model, and singer
• October 10 – Nicolas Massu, Chilean tennis player
• October 11 – Gabe Saporta, Uruguayan singer (Cobra Starship)
• October 13 – Ryan Malcolm, Canadian singer
• October 13 – Mamadou Niang, Senegalese footballer
• October 14 – Stacy Keibler, American professional wrestler
• October 16 – Erin Brown, American actress
• October 17 – Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish race car driver
• October 19 – Ne-Yo, American singer and songwriter
• October 20 – Paul O'Connell, Irish rugby union player
• October 20 – John Krasinski, American actor
• October 23 – Vanessa Petruo, German pop singer
• October 23 – Jorge Solis, Mexican professional boxer
• October 24 – Ben Gillies, Australian drummer
• October 28 – Martin Skoula, Czech ice hockey player
• October 30 – Yukie Nakama, Japanese actress

November–December

• November 1 – Coco Crisp, American baseball player
• November 1 – Milan Dudić‎, Serbian footballer
• November 3 – Tim McIlrath, American rock singer, songwriter (Rise Against)
• November 3 – Pablo Aimar, Argentine footballer
• November 4 – Audrey Hollander, American pornographic actress
• November 6 – Lamar Odom, American basketball player
• November 6 – Myolie Wu, Hong Kong actress
• November 7 – Jon Peter Lewis, American singer and songwriter
• November 8 – Aaron Hughes, Northern Irish footballer
• November 9 – Dania Ramirez, Dominican-American actress
• November 12 – Cote de Pablo, Chilean actress
• November 13 – Ron Artest, American basketball player
• November 14 – Mavie Hörbiger, German actress
• November 14 – Olga Kurylenko, Ukrainian model and actress
• November 17 – Matthew Spring, English footballer
• November 19 – Larry Johnson (American football), American football player
• November 20 – Ericson Alexander Molano, Colombian gospel singer
• November 21 – Kim Dong Wan, South Korean singer and actor
• November 22 – Mohammad Tanzeel-ul-siddiqi al-husaini, Pakistani author
• November 22 – Chris Doran, Irish singer
• November 23 – Ivica Kostelic, Croatian alpine skier
• November 23 – Kelly Brook, English actress/model
• November 27 – Ricky Carmichael, American motorcycle and stock car racer
• November 27 – Hilary Hahn, American violinist
• November 28 – Jamie Korab, Canadian curler
• November 28 – Hakeem Seriki, American rapper (Chamillionaire)
• November 29 – Jayceon Taylor, American rapper (The Game) & Dave Rearden
• December 3 – Rainbow Sun Francks, Canadian actor and singer
• December 3 – Rock Cartwright, American football player
• December 3 – Daniel Bedingfield, English pop singer and songwriter
• December 3 – Kanako Hoshino, Japanese singer
• December 5 – Evonne Hsu, Taiwanese singer
• December 7 – Ayako Fujitani, Japanese actress
• December 7 – Sara Bareilles, American singer, songwriter and pianist
• December 8 – Raymond Lam, Hong Kong actor
• December 9 – Olivia Lufkin, English-Japanese singer, songwriter
• December 14 – Michael Owen, English footballer
• December 15 – Adam Brody, American actor
• December 16 – Trevor Immelman, South African golfer
• December 16 – Flo Rida, American rapper
• December 17 – William Green, American football player
• December 17 – Matt Murley, American hockey player
• December 18 – Amy Grabow, American actress
• December 23 – Summer Altice, American model and actress
• December 26 – Mzbel, Ghanaian singer
• December 26 – Dimitry Vassiliev, Russian ski jumper
• December 26 – Chris Daughtry, American singer and guitarist
• December 27 – Carson Palmer, American football player
• December 28 – James Blake, American tennis pro
• December 29 – Diego Luna, Mexican actor
• December 30 – Milana Terloeva, Chechen journalist and author
• December 31 – Elaine Cassidy, Irish actress
• December 31 – Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance)

Deaths

January–March

Richard Beckinsale

• January 3 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
• January 4 – Vincent Korda, Hungarian art director (b. 1897)
• January 5 – Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
• January 5 – Billy Bletcher, American actor (b. 1894)
• January 8 – Sara Carter, American bluegrass and country singer (b. 1898)
• January 11 – Jack Soo, Japanese-American actor (b. 1917)
• January 13 – Donny Hathaway, African-American musician (Where Is The Love?) (b. 1945)
• January 16 – Peter Butterworth, English actor (b.1919)
• January 25 – Robertson Hare, English actor (b.1891)
• January 16 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)
• January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
• February 2 – Sid Vicious, English musician (Sex Pistols) (drug overdose) (b. 1957)
• February 2 – Issa Pliyev, Soviet general (b. 1903)
• February 3 – Aaron Douglas, American painter (b. 1899)
• February 7 – Josef Mengele, German Nazi war criminal (b. 1911)
• February 9 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• February 12 – Jean Renoir, French film director (b. 1894)
• February 14 – Reginald Maudling, British politician (b. 1917)
• February 17 – William Gargan, American actor (b. 1905)
• February 23 – W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (b. 1900)
• March 1 – Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician (b. 1903)
• March 1 – Dolores Costello, American actress (b. 1903)
• March 11 – Victor Kilian, American actor (b. 1891)
• March 15 – Léonide Massine, Russian dancer and choreographer (b. 1896)
• March 19 – Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)
• March 22 – Ben Lyon, American actor (b. 1901)
• March 23 – Ted Anderson, English footballer (b. 1911)
• March 24 – Yvonne Mitchell, English actress (b. 1915)
• March 26 – Jean Stafford, American writer (b. 1915)
• March 28 – Emmett Kelly, American clown (b. 1898)
• March 29 – Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, King of Malaysia (b. 1917)
• March 30 – Airey Neave, British politician (assassinated) (b. 1916)

April–June

Mary Pickford

John Wayne

• April 1 – Barbara Luddy, American actress (b. 1908)
• April 4 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan (executed) (b. 1928)
• April 4 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (b. 1903)
• April 10 – Nino Rota, Italian composer (b. 1911)
• April 23 – Blair Peach, New Zealand-born anti-Nazi campaigner (killed by police) (b. 1946)
• April 24 – John Carroll, American actor (b. 1906)
• May 2 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
• May 6 – Milton Ager, American songwriter (b. 1893)
• May 11 – Joan Chandler, American actress (b. 1923)
• May 11 – Lester Flatt, American bluegrass and folk singer (b. 1914)
• May 11 – Barbara Hutton, American socialite (b. 1912)
• May 16 – Robert Florey, French screenwriter (b. 1900)
• May 16 – A. Philip Randolph, African-American civil rights leader (b. 1889)
• May 22 – Kurt Jooss, German dancer and choreographer (b. 1901)
• May 26 – George Brent, Irish actor (b. 1899)
• May 29 – Mary Pickford, Canadian actress and studio founder (b. 1892)
• June 1 – Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1904)
• June 1 – Ján Kadár, Czechslovakian film director (b. 1918)
• June 1 – Jack Mulhall, American actor (b. 1887)
• June 2 – Jim Hutton, American actor (b. 1934)
• June 4 – Lazar Lagin, Soviet satirical and children's writer (b.1903)
• June 6 – Jack Haley, American actor (b. 1898)
• June 11 – John Wayne, American actor (True Grit) (b. 1907)
• June 13 – Darla Hood, American actress (b. 1930)
• June 14 – Ahmad Zahir, Afghan singer and composer (b. 1946)
• June 16 – Nicholas Ray, American film director (b. 1911)
• June 17 – Duffy Lewis, American baseball player (b. 1888)
• June 19 – Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
• June 21 – Angus MacLise, American rock percussionist (Velvet Underground) (b. 1938)
• June 22 – Louis Chiron, Monacan Grand Prix driver (b. 1899)
• June 25 – Dave Fleischer, American animator (b. 1894)
• June 29 – Lowell George, American rock musician (Little Feat) (b. 1945)

July–September

• July 3 – Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
• July 8 – Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• July 8 – Michael Wilding, English actor (b. 1912)
• July 8 – Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• July 10 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (Boston Pops) (b. 1894)
• July 12 – Minnie Riperton, American R&B singer (Lovin' You) (b. 1947)
• July 13 – Corinne Griffith, American actress (b. 1894)
• July 13 – Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and graphic artist (1913)
• July 15 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican President (b. 1911)
• July 16 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
• July 22 – Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
• July 28 – George Seaton, American screenwriter and director (b. 1911)
• July 29 – Bill Todman, American game show producer (b. 1916)
• August 2 – Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician, founder of the APRA Party (b. 1895)
• August 2 – Thurman Munson, American baseball player (b. 1947)
• August 3 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• August 6 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
• August 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
• August 10 – Dick Foran, American actor (b. 1910)
• August 12 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
• August 16 – John Diefenbaker, Canadian Prime Minister (b. 1895)
• August 17 – Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
• August 19 – Mary Millington, British porn star (b. 1945)
• August 19 – Joel Teitelbaum, Hungarian Rebbe (b. 1887)
• August 22 – James T. Farrell, American novelist (b. 1904)
• August 24 – Hanna Reitsch, German aviator (b. 1912)
• August 25 – Stan Kenton, American jazz pianist (b. 1911)
• August 26 – Alvin Karpis, last of America's depression era criminals. (b. 1907)
• August 27 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, British Viceroy of India (assassinated) (b. 1900)
• August 31 – Sally Rand, American dancer (b. 1904)
• September 1 – Doris Kenyon, American actress (b. 1897)
• September 2 – Felix Aylmer, British actor (b. 1889)
• September 4 – Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (b. 1904)
• September 5 – Alberto di Jorio, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1884)
• September 6 – Guy Bolton, British playwright (b. 1884)
• September 8 – Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
• September 9 – Norrie Paramor, British music producer (b. 1914)
• September 10 – Agostinho Neto, Angolan nationalist (b. 1922)
• September 14 – Nur Muhammad Taraki, President of Afghanistan (b. 1917)
• September 20 – Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, King of Malaysia (b. 1907)
• September 20 – Ludvík Svoboda, president of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)
• September 22 – Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani journalist and philosopher (b. 1903)
• September 24 – Carl Laemmle, Jr., American film studio executive (b. 1908)
• September 26 – John Cromwell, American film director and actor (b. 1887)
• September 26 – Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor (b. 1911)
• September 27 – Gracie Fields, British actress (b. 1898)
• September 27 – Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish Guitarist (Paul McCartney & Wings) (b. 1953)
• September 28 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
• September 29 – Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea (executed) (b. 1924)

October–December

• October 1 – Dorothy Arzner, American film director (b. 1897)
• October 1 – Roy Harris, American composer (b. 1898)
• October 6 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (b. 1911)
• October 10 – Dr Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist (b. 1931)
• October 12 – Katharine Blodgett, American Scientist and inventor (b. 1898)
• October 13 – Rebecca Helferich Clarke, English composer and violist (b. 1886)
• October 13 – Clarence Muse, American actor (b. 1889)
• October 13 – Archibald Roosevelt, American conservative political activist, son of President Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1894)
• October 16 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
• October 17 – S.J. Perelman, American humorist (b. 1904)
• October 22 – Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)
• October 26 – Park Chung-Hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)
• October 30 – Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer (b. 1887)
• October 30 – Donna Rachele Mussolini, Italian, wife of Benito Mussolini (b. 1890)
• November 1 – Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• November 5 – Al Capp, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
• November 6 – Chick Evans, American golf champion (b. 1890)
• November 11 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Russian film composer (b. 1894)
• November 17 – Immanuel Velikovsky, Russian author and psychiatrist (b. 1895)
• November 21 – Marie Byles, Australian conservationist (b. 1900)
• November 21 – Paul Wexler, American actor (b. 1929)
• November 23 – Merle Oberon, British actress (b. 1911)
• November 29 – Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1901)
• December 3 – Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (b. 1905)
• December 10 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (b. 1911)
• December 13 – Jon Hall, American actor (b. 1915)
• December 15 – Ethel Lackie, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1907)
• December 22 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer (b. 1902)
• December 23 – Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (b. 1898)
• December 25 – Joan Blondell, American actress (b. 1906)
• December 25 – Jordi Bonet, Canadian artist (b. 1932)
• December 25 – Lee Bowman, American actor (b. 1914)
• December 27 – Hafizullah Amin, General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)
• December 30 – Richard Rodgers, American composer (b. 1902)

Unknown dates

• Dave Line, British author

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg
• Chemistry – Herbert C. Brown, Georg Wittig
• Medicine – Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey N. Hounsfield
• Literature – Odysseas Elytis
• Peace – Mother Teresa
• Economics – Theodore Schultz, Arthur Lewis

Templeton Prize

• Rev. Nikkyo Niwano

Notes

1. ^ BBC “On this Day”
2. ^ US Marine Corps
3. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/9/newsid_2516000/2516015.stm
4. ^ False Alarms on the Nuclear Front

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