Important Historical Events of the year 1979, Year 1979 in History

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List of 1979 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1979

What happened in the year 1979?

Date	Event
January 1, 1979	Normal diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and the United States.
January 7, 1979	Third Indochina War: Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
January 16, 1979	Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
January 25, 1979	Pope John Paul II starts his first official papal visits outside Italy to The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.
January 30, 1979	A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.
February 1, 1979	Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.
February 7, 1979	Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
February 11, 1979	The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
February 13, 1979	An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
February 14, 1979	In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
February 17, 1979	The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
February 18, 1979	Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
February 20, 1979	An earthquake cracks open the Sinila volcanic crater on the Dieng Plateau, releasing poisonous H2S gas and killing 149 villagers in the Indonesian province of Central Java.
February 22, 1979	Saint Lucia gains independence from the United Kingdom.
February 26, 1979	The Superliner railcar enters revenue service with Amtrak.
March 5, 1979	Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
March 8, 1979	Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
March 13, 1979	The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts the Prime Minister of Grenada, Eric Gairy, in a coup d'état.
March 14, 1979	Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600 crashes at Doha International Airport, killing 45 people.
March 16, 1979	Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war.
March 17, 1979	The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.
March 19, 1979	The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
March 25, 1979	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, 1979	Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in Washington, D.C.
March 28, 1979	A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania leads to the core overheating and a partial meltdown.
March 28, 1979	The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against James Callaghan's government by 1 vote, precipitating a general election.
March 30, 1979	Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament (MP), is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
April 1, 1979	Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
April 2, 1979	A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
April 4, 1979	Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
April 10, 1979	Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.
April 11, 1979	Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.
April 14, 1979	The Progressive Alliance of Liberia stages a protest, without a permit, against an increase in rice prices proposed by the government, with clashes between protestors and the police resulting in over 70 deaths and over 500 injuries.
May 3, 1979	Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election.
May 4, 1979	Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
May 9, 1979	Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran.
May 21, 1979	White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
May 25, 1979	John Spenkelink, a convicted murderer, is executed in Florida; he is the first person to be executed in the state after the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1976.
May 25, 1979	American Airlines Flight 191: A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, killing all 271 on board and two people on the ground.
May 28, 1979	Konstantinos Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community.
May 30, 1979	Downeast Flight 46 crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17.
June 1, 1979	The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power.
June 2, 1979	Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
June 3, 1979	A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.
June 4, 1979	Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown.
June 9, 1979	The Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney, Australia, kills seven.
June 12, 1979	Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man-powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
June 18, 1979	SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
June 20, 1979	ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan National Guard soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
July 1, 1979	Sony introduces the Walkman.
July 3, 1979	U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
July 9, 1979	A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld outside their home in France in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
July 11, 1979	America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
July 12, 1979	The island nation of Kiribati becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
July 15, 1979	U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".
July 16, 1979	Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
July 17, 1979	Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida, United States.
July 19, 1979	The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
July 19, 1979	The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill.
July 21, 1979	Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk actor, becomes the first Native American to have a star commemorated in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
July 25, 1979	In accord with the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, Israel begins its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.
August 5, 1979	In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake the Bala Hissar uprising against the Leninist government.
August 11, 1979	Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk and crash, killing all 178 aboard both airliners.
August 27, 1979	The Troubles: Eighteen British soldiers are killed in an ambush by the Provisional Irish Republican Army near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, in the deadliest attack on British forces during Operation Banner. An IRA bomb also kills British royal family member Lord Mountbatten and three others on his boat at Mullaghmore, Republic of Ireland.
September 7, 1979	The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for US$1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
September 13, 1979	South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
September 14, 1979	Afghan leader Nur Muhammad Taraki is assassinated upon the order of Hafizullah Amin, who becomes the new General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party.
September 16, 1979	Eight people escape from East Germany to the west in a homemade hot air balloon.
September 20, 1979	A French-supported coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokassa I.
September 22, 1979	A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.
September 29, 1979	The dictator Francisco Macias of Equatorial Guinea is executed by soldiers from Western Sahara.
October 1, 1979	Pope John Paul II begins his first pastoral visit to the United States.
October 1, 1979	The MTR, Hong Kong's rapid transit railway system, opens.
October 6, 1979	Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
October 10, 1979	The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant began operations in Eurajoki, Satakunta, Finland.
October 12, 1979	Typhoon Tip becomes the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded.
October 14, 1979	The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights draws approximately 100,000 people.
October 15, 1979	Supporters of the Malta Labour Party ransack and destroy the Times of Malta building and other locations associated with the Nationalist Party.
October 15, 1979	A coup d'état in El Salvador overthrows President Carlos Humberto Romero and begins the 12 year-long Salvadoran Civil War.
October 17, 1979	Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 17, 1979	The Department of Education Organization Act creates the U.S. Department of Education.
October 18, 1979	The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license.
October 21, 1979	Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.
October 26, 1979	Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea, is assassinated by Korean CIA head Kim Jae-gyu.
October 27, 1979	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
October 31, 1979	Western Airlines Flight 2605 crashes on landing in Mexico City, killing 73 people.
November 1, 1979	In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d'état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara.
November 1, 1979	Griselda Álvarez becomes the first female governor of a state of Mexico.
November 3, 1979	Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States.
November 4, 1979	Iran hostage crisis: A group of Iranian college students overruns the U.S. embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages.
November 9, 1979	Cold War: 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 is cancelled.
November 10, 1979	A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history.
November 12, 1979	Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.
November 14, 1979	US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
November 15, 1979	A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
November 16, 1979	The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semănătoarea in Bucharest, Romania.
November 19, 1979	Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.
November 20, 1979	Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from Pakistani special forces to put down the uprising.
November 21, 1979	The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four.
November 26, 1979	Pakistan International Airlines Flight 740 crashes near King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 156 people on board.
November 28, 1979	Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.
December 3, 1979	In Cincinnati, 11 fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert.
December 3, 1979	Iranian Revolution: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran.
December 4, 1979	The Hastie fire in Hull kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee.
December 9, 1979	The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other).
December 10, 1979	Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
December 12, 1979	The 8.2 Mw  Tumaco earthquake shakes Colombia and Ecuador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 300–600, and generating a large tsunami.
December 12, 1979	Coup d'état of December Twelfth occurs in South Korea.
December 21, 1979	Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.
December 23, 1979	Soviet–Afghan War: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.