Timeline 1978
Return to home
1978 Jan 1, The
US Federal Minimum Wage, set at $2.65 an hour in November 1977, became
effective.
(http://bartlett.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=2063)
1978 Jan 1, US copyright law of
2007 held that the rights to songs written before this date expire 75
years after they were published. US songs written after 1978 would hold
their copyright for 50 years after the death of the songwriter.
(WSJ, 10/30/97, p.B1,11)(www.pdinfo.com/copyrt.htm)
1978 Jan 1, An Air India jet
exploded in midair and killed 213 people near Bombay.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1691)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_855)
1978 Jan 2, In Sri Lanka Junius
Richard Jayewardene (1906-1996) became the first president with true
executive powers. He served as president until 1989.
(SFC, 11/2/96,
p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junius_Richard_Jayewardene)
1978 Jan 3, In India the Congress
Party split and Indira Gandhi became head of the larger faction.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jan 3, Vietnamese troops
were reported to be occupying 400 square miles in Cambodia. North
Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were using Laos and Cambodia as staging
areas for attacks against allied forces.
(HN, 1/3/02)
1978 Jan 4, Said Hammami, the PLO
representative in London, was assassinated. It was initially believed
to be the work of Abu Nidal but was later reported to have been
organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_attributed_to_Abu_Nidal)
1978 Jan 4, Chile’s Gen. Pinochet
held a National Consultation, "in defense of the dignity of Chile,"
which took place one week after it was first announced, on December 27.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Jan 6, John D. MacArthur
(b.1897), US insurance billionaire and philanthropist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._MacArthur)
1978 Jan 6, The Wild-2 comet was
discovered by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild.
(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A8)(www.solarviews.com/eng/cometwild2.htm)
1978 Jan 7, Michael Josselson
(b.1908), Estonia-born director of the Congress for Cultural Freedom,
died. The organization was a CIA front to gain the support of the
non-Communist left for the US. In 2000 Frances Stonor Saunders authored
"The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters."
(SFEC, 7/16/00, BR p.4)
1978 Jan 8, The Israeli government
voted to "strengthen" settlements in occupied Sinai.
(www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/1978)
1978 Jan 10, Diane Feinstein was
elected president of the 11-member SF Board of Supervisors. Harvey Milk
and Dan White took their seats on the board for the first time.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)(SFC, 1/10/03, p.E6)
1978 Jan 10, In Nicaragua Pedro
Joaquin Chamorro Cardenal (b.1924), journalist and editor of La Prensa,
was shot dead. His murder sparked the Sandinista-led uprising that
later toppled Somoza. His wife, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, later
became head of the country and in 1996 published her autobiography:
"Dreams of the Heart." The murder also inspired Susan Meiselas,
photographer, to go to Nicaragua from NY. She spent ten years
photographing events in the area, later published as "Nicaragua." The
Sandinista Party was founded by Carlos Fonseca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Joaqu%C3%ADn_Chamorro_Cardenal)(WSJ,
9/11/96, p.A20)(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A8)
1978 Jan 10, The Soviet Union
launched two cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz capsule for a rendezvous with
the Salyut VI space laboratory.
(AP, 1/10/98)
1978 Jan 11, Two Soviet cosmonauts
aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule linked up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space
station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was already docked.
(AP, 1/11/98)
1978 Oct 12, Nancy Spungen
(b.1958), girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found dead
on the bathroom floor of their NYC hotel room.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Spungen)
1978 Jan 13, Former Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey died in Waverly, Minn., at age 66.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1978 Jan 14, Blossom Rock
(b.1895), actress, died. She played Grandmamma on the TV Addams Family.
She was born as Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald, the sister of the late
actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald.
(www.tv.com/blossom-rock/person/5434/summary.html)
1978 Jan 14, In Japan the 7.0
Izu-Oshima earthquake damaged nine railway and four road tunnels in a
limited area. 25 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A11)(http://tinyurl.com/2uz9wg)
1978 Jan 15, Lisa Levy and
Margaret Bowman, two students at Florida State University in
Tallahassee, were murdered in their sorority house. Theodore Bundy was
later convicted of the crime, and executed.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1978 Jan 16, NASA named 35
candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who
became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who
became America's first black astronaut in space. Six women, out of some
3,000 original applicants, graduated from NASA's rigorous training
program to become the 1st female astronauts in the space program.
(AP,
1/16/98)(www.astronautix.com/astrogrp/nas81978.htm)
1978 Jan 18, Center for Disease
Control isolated the cause of Legionnaire's disease.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1978 Jan 19, Pres. Carter in his
State of the Union Address urged an attack on inflation and an effort
to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world.
(http://stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net/texts/19780119.html)
1978 Jan 20, Columbia Pictures
paid $9.5 million for movie rights to "Annie."
(www.coolquiz.com/trivia/history/index.asp?hdate=01.20)
1978 Jan 21, The Bee Gees'
"Saturday Night Fever" album, released in November, 1977, went #1 for
24 weeks following the release of the Saturday Night Fever film in Dec
1977.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number-one_albums_of_1978_(U.S.))
1978 Jan 24, Cosmos 954, a
4-month-old nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's
atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts
of northern Canada.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)(AP, 1/24/08)
1978 Jan 25, Muriel Humphrey was
appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of her
husband, Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1978 Jan 26, In China Einstein’s
theory of relativity was officially reinstated.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jan 27, The State Supreme
Court ruled that Nazis can display the Swastika in a march in Skokie,
Illinois.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1978 Jan 28, Fire swept through
the historic downtown Coates House hotel in Kansas City, Mo., killing
20 people.
(AP, 1/28/08)
1978 Jan, South Korean actress
Choi Eun Hee (b.1928), while visiting Hong Kong, was kidnapped to North
Korea. Two weeks later her husband, Shin Sang Ok, prominent South
Korean producer and director, was searching for her in Hong Kong when
he was knocked out with chloroform and shipped to North Korea. In 1986
Sang-Ok (d.2006) and his wife, while on a promotional trip, fled to a
US embassy in Vienna.
(http://tinyurl.com/bnoq)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.90)
1978 Feb 1, Harriet Tubman became
the 1st black woman honored on a US postage stamp.
(http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2002/02/daily-02-01-2002.shtml)
1978 Feb 3, Egyptian President
Anwar al-Sadat arrived in Washington DC to discuss the Middle East
peace process with US President Jimmy Carter.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_2525000/2525341.stm)
1978 Feb 6, Muriel Humphrey took
the oath of office as a US senator from Minnesota, filling the seat of
her late husband, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1978 Feb 7, Ethiopia mounted a
counter attack against Somalia.
(HN, 2/7/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War)
1978 Feb 8, The deliberations of
the Senate were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened
debate on the Panama Canal treaties.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1978 Feb 8, The BBC TV show Grange
Hill, a children’s drama created by Phil Redmond, made its debut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grange_Hill)
1978 Feb 9, Kimberly Leach (12)
was killed by Ted Bundy in Lake City, Fla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Leach)
1978 Feb 9, Canada announced it
was expelling 13 Soviet diplomats who it said had tried to recruit a
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.
(HN, 2/9/97)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9802/09/)
1978 Feb 9, In Tanzania cholera
broke out and killed 300 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Feb 14, G. W. Boone and M.J.
Cochran of Texas Instruments received a patent for their Variable
Function Programmed Calculator.
(www.patents4technologies.com/Historical.htm)
1978 Feb 15, Leon Spinks beat
Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight crown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Spinks)
1978 Feb 15, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), American escaped serial killed, was recaptured in
Pensacola, Fla. Bundy eventually confessed to 29 murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1978 Feb 16, The 1st Computer
Bulletin Board System was Ward & Randy's CBBS in Chicago.
(www.historyoftheinternet.com/chap3.html)
1978 Feb 16, China and Japan
signed a $20 billion trade pact, which was the most important move
since the 1972 resumption of diplomatic ties.
(HN, 2/16/98)
1978 Feb 20, The cover of Time
magazine was titled “The Computer Society” and featured a graphic of
human bodies with heads of electronic gizmos.
(www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19780220,00.html)
1978 Feb 22, The US Dept. of
Defense launched the 1st of a constellation of satellites that later
made the backbone of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Ivan A.
Getting (1912-2003), a military scientist, conceived the idea and
Bradford Parkinson of Stanford helped implement the system.
(SFC, 10/18/03,
p.A22)(http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/Programs/gps.html)
1978 Feb 26, Ira Levin's
"Deathtrap" premiered at the Music Box Theater in NYC.
(www.madstage.com/oldshows/MTGPast.html#Deathtrap)
1978 Feb 28, Louise Woodward, the
nanny who allegedly killed Matthew Eappen (1997) in Cambridge, Mass.,
was born in Elton, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Woodward)
1978 Feb 28, Robert Rowe (d.1997)
of Brooklyn killed his wife and 3 children with a baseball bat. He was
tried and later released from a mental institution and became a father
again. In 2001 Julie Salamon authored "Facing the Wind," a narrative of
the Rowe case.
(WSJ, 3/30/01, p.W8)
1978 Feb 28, Consuelo Kanaga
(b.1894), San Francisco photographer, died.
(SFEM, 6/30/96, p.20)(http://tinyurl.com/393wgc)
1978 Feb 28, Spyros Kyprianou was
elected president of Cyprus with no opposition.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/dedcx)
1978 Feb, A top secret Pentagon
document titled "History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear
Weapons" was completed. The report was made public in 1999 and
contained the locations of nuclear weapons minus their nuclear charges.
(SFC, 10/20/99,
p.A7)(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19991020/04-01.htm)
1978 Feb, After China’s Cultural
Revolution ended, some books were gradually unbanned. A few novels by
Balzac were sold openly in Beijing's Xinhua Book Stores.
(www.danwei.org/media_regulation/books_behind_bars_he_dong_on_r.php)
1978 Mar 1, "Timbuktu!" opened at
Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC for 243 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu!)
1978 Mar 2, Sam Shepard’s play
"Curse of the Starving Class" premiered at the New York Shakespeare
Festival.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB
p.37)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Starving_Class)
1978 Mar 2, Soyuz 28 carried 2
cosmonauts to Salyut 6. Czech pilot Vladimir Remek became the first
non-Russian, non-American in space.
(HN, 3/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_28)
1978 Mar 3, The remains of
comedian Charles Chaplin were stolen by extortionists from his grave in
Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. The body was recovered near Lake Geneva
11 weeks later.
(AP, 3/3/98)
1978 Mar 3, In Rhodesia Ian Smith,
Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Rev. Sithole and Senator Chirau signed an
internal settlement to bring black majority rule into effect by Dec 31.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B13)
1978 Mar 4, Chicago Daily News,
founded in 1875, published its last issue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Daily_News)
1978 Mar 6, Pres. Carter invoked
the Taft-Hartley Act for an 80-day cooling off period in a coal strike.
Miners had struck 3 months earlier after coal companies demanded wage
and benefit cuts and refused to be forced back to work. They ended the
strike after 110 days when most company demands were dropped.
(SFC, 10/4/02,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bituminous_Coal_Strike_of_1977-1978)
1978 Mar 6, The US Supreme Court
in its Oliphant decision ruled that tribes could not try non-Indian
defendants in tribal courts. It centered on the arrest of Mark
Oliphant, a non-Indian, by tribal police. He argued that the tribal
court does not have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliphant_v._Suquamish_Indian_Tribe)
1978 Mar 6, Larry Flynt (b.1942),
founder of "Hustler Magazine," was shot and wounded outside a Georgia
courtroom. He was left partially paralyzed. His story was the subject
of the 1996 film "The People vs. Larry Flynt."
(SFEC, 12/15/96, DB
p.41)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0283658/bio)
1978 Mar 8, In Nicaragua General
Raynoldo Perez Vega, the National Guard Chief, was assassinated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Astorga)
1978 Mar 9, In Italy the trial of
the Red Brigade terrorists opened.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Mar 9, National Guard Chief
General Raynoldo Perez Vega was assassinated in Nicaragua.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1978 Mar 10, Richard Hovey (26)
abducted Tina Salazar (8) in Hayward, Ca., as she walked home from
school. He left her by a roadside with fatal wounds later the same day.
She died 8 days later. In 2006 an appeals court overturned his death
sentence saying lawyers failed to inform a psychiatrist of his history
of mental illness.
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.B2)(http://tinyurl.com/384rtk)
1978 Mar 11, Palestinian Arab
terrorists led by Dalal Mughrabi killed 35 people in an attack along
the Tel Aviv coastal highway. The terrorists were identified as
belonging to Fatah; 9 were killed and two captured.
(AP,
3/11/98)(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_terrorism_1970s.php)
1978 Mar 14, An Israeli force of
22,000 invaded south Lebanon, hitting the PLO bases.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1978 Mar 16, The Amoco-Cadiz oil
tanker spilled a record 1.6 million barrels of crude oil off the coast
of France.
(WSJ, 9/13/99,
p.R4)(www.cedre.fr/uk/spill/amoco/amoco.htm)
1978 Mar 16, Red Brigade
terrorists kidnapped Aldo Moro, Italian politician and 5 time PM, and
killed 5 of his bodyguards. Moro, who was planning to form a government
combining his Christian Democrats and the Communist Party, was later
murdered by the RB. Alessio Casimiri a member of the Red Brigades was
sentenced in absentia to life in prison for his role in the abduction.
Casimiri escaped to Nicaragua and opened a restaurant. It was later
reported that police decided not to rescue Moro.
(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/16/97)(SFC, 3/13/98,
p.A12)(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1978 Mar 17, In Zaire 13 opponents
of Pres. Mobutu were executed.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Mar 18, In Pakistan the
Punjab High Court condemned former pres. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to death
on charges of a political murder.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Mar 19, Israeli army took
control of almost all of Lebanon south of Litani River.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1978 Mar 19, The UN Security
Council adopted Resolution 425 demanding that Israel withdraw from
Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1978 Mar 22, Karl Wallenda, the
73-year-old patriarch of "The Flying Wallendas" high-wire act, fell to
his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in
San Juan, Puerto Rico.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1978 Mar 23, The US performed
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1978 Mar 23, UNIFIL forces arrived
in Lebanon setting up headquarters in Naqoura. In response to Israel’s
invasion, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 425 and Resolution
426 calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. The UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created to enforce this mandate,
and restore peace and sovereignty to Lebanon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1978 Mar 27, Bob Fosse's "Dancin'"
opened at Broadhurst Theater in NYC for 1,774 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancin')
1978 Mar 28, Laura Beyerly (16)
was last seen in the Los Altos, Ca., school parking lot. Her remains
were found a year later in the Santa Cruz County hills on property
belonging to the uncle of Scott B. Schultz. In 2006 police in Colorado
arrested Scott B. Schultz, a boy friend with whom she had broken up. In
2007 Schultz faced just one year in jail in a plea deal.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.B1)(SFC, 9/2/06, p.B3)(SFC,
6/16/07, p.B1)
1978 Mar, Wadia Haddad, a
Palestinian wanted for airplane hijackings, died in Iraq showing only
symptoms of leukemia but no signs of poisoning. In 2006 Aaron Klein
authored "Striking Back," which for the first time gave details of the
killing. Klein said Mossad agents had fed Haddad poisoned Belgian
chocolate over six months.
(AP, 5/7/06)
1978 Apr 2, TV show "Dallas"
premiered on CBS as a 5 week mini-series. It was produced by Leonard
Katzman (1927-1996) and ran through May, 1991.
(SFC, 9/9/96,
p.A26)(www.tvguide.com/tvshows/dallas/cast/100107)
1978 Apr 3, In the 50th Academy
Awards "Annie Hall" won as film. Richard Dreyfuss won as best actor
(The Goodbye Girl) and Diane Keaton won as best actress (Annie
Hall).
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271340/)
1978 Apr 6, Nicolas Nabokov
(b.1903), Russian-born American composer, died. His work included the
opera “Rasputin's End” with a libretto by Stephen Spender (1958).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Nabokov)
1978 Apr 7, A Gutenberg bible sold
for a record $2.2 million in NYC. It was bought by Martin Breslauer for
the state museum of Baden Wurttemberg.
(www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=35363264&aid=frg)
1978 Apr 9, In Somalia a coup
attempt failed.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Apr 10, Arkady Shevchenko, a
high-ranking Soviet citizen employed by the United Nations, sought
political asylum in the United States.
(AP, 4/10/03)
1978 Apr 15, In Bologna, Italy, a
rail crash killed 50 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Apr 16, Lucius D. Clay
(b.1897), US General and governor of the US zone in West Germany during
the airlift, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_D._Clay)
1978 Apr 16, A tornado struck in
Orissa, India, and killed 173 people.
(www.bangladeshtornadoes.org/climo/btorcli0.htm)
1978 Apr 17, Carl Sagan
(1934-1996) received the non-fiction Pulitzer Prize for "Dragons of
Eden" (1977).
(www.pulitzer.org/cgi-bin/year.pl?year=1978)(http://tinyurl.com/2snojt)
1978 Apr 18, The U.S. Senate voted
68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on Dec. 31,
1999.
(AP, 4/18/98)(HN, 4/18/98)
1978 Apr 19, In Chile a law was
enacted that gave amnesty to the military.
(WSJ, 12/1/95,
p.A-10)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Apr 20, A South Korean Air
Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia. Flight 902 was
fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. 107
passengers and crew survived after the plane made an emergency landing
on a frozen lake and 2 passengers were killed.
(AP,
4/20/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_902)
1978 Apr 22, Cynthia Waxman (11)
was raped and killed whiled playing in a field in Moraga, Ca. In 2005
DNA evidence revealed that she had been killed by Charles Jackson, a
convict who died at age 64 in Folsom Prison in 2002. Jackson was linked
to at least 6 other victims.
(SFC, 9/30/05, p.B5)
1978 Apr 22, Will Geer (75), TV
and film actor, died. He is best remembered for portraying the wise and
crusty Grandpa Zeb Walton on the long-running The Waltons (1972-1978).
(http://movies.aol.com/celebrity/will-geer/229513/main)
1978 Apr 25, William Clinton (31),
attorney general of Arkansas and candidate for governor, sexually
assaulted Juanita Broaddrick at the Camelot Inn in Little Rock.
Broaddrick made the story public on national TV in 1999.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A1,10)(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A2)
1978 Apr 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled pension plans can't require women to pay more.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/435/702/)
1978 Apr 26, A version of Mark
Twain’s "The Prince and the Pauper" appeared on TV with former Beatle,
Ringo Star.
(www.guba.com/watch/2000907534)(440 Int’l., 4/26/97,
p.3)
1978 Apr 27, Convicted Watergate
defendant John D. Ehrlichman was released from an Arizona prison after
serving 18 months.
(AP, 4/27/97)
1978 Apr 27, In West Virginia 51
construction workers plunged to their deaths when a scaffold inside a
cooling tower at the nuclear Pleasants Power Station on Willow Island
fell 168 feet to the ground.
(AP,
4/27/98)(http://historicmonroe.org/corp/willow-island.htm)
1978 Apr 27, The Afghanistan
revolution began. There was a leftist coup. Afghanistan armed forces
seized power. Pres. Mohammed Daud Khan was killed and Nur Mohammad
Tarakai was installed as president. Babrak Karmal became his deputy
Prime Minister. It was the first country in South Asia to fall while
under communist rule. Assadulah Sarawary became the secret police chief
under the Tarakai regime. In 2006 he faced war crime charges. In 2008
Afghan authorities announced they had found mass graves containing the
remains of ex-president Mohammad Daud Khan and 17 family members and
associates. In 2009 Daud Khan was reburied along with family members on
a hillside overlooking the mountains that surround Kabul.
(HN, 4/27/98)(WSJ, 9/20/01, p.A12)(Econ, 1/21/06,
p.42)(AP, 8/17/08)(AP, 12/4/08)(AP, 3/17/09)
1978 Apr, Jimmy Anselmo opened his
club Jimmy's in New Orleans and featured the uptown Jazz sound.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.145)
1978 Apr, Messrs. Bernard Marcus
and Arthur Blank were fired from Daylin Company, the parent of Handy
Dan Home Improvement Centers. They went on to found Home Depot. Home
Depot went public in 1981.
(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.B5)(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)
1978 May 1, Ernest Morial was
inaugurated as the first black mayor of New Orleans.
(AP, 5/1/97)
1978 May 1, Aram Khachaturian
(b.1903), Georgia-born Armenian composer, died in Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Khachaturian)
1978 May 2, David “Moses” Berg,
Oakland native and founding seer of the Children of God (1968), put
forth a prophecy about his new wife and son: “Davidito and Maria are
going to be end-time witnesses. They are going to have such power they
can call down fire from Heaven and devour their enemies.” In 2005
Davidito killed Angela M. Smith, a woman involved in his upbringing,
and then committed suicide.
(SFC, 1/20/05, p.A1)
1978 May 3, "Sun Day" fell on a
Thursday as thousands of people extolling the virtues of solar energy
held events across the country.
(AP, 5/3/01)
1978 May 4, The South African Air
Force (SAAF) engaged in air to ground combat at the Battle of Cassinga
in Angola.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War)
1978 May 6, On this day at 12:34,
the numbers 12345678 represented the time and day: 12:34 5/6/78. The
next such sequence will occur in 2078.
(SFC, 7/14/96, A1 p.2)
1978 May 9, "Ain't Misbehavin'"
opened at Longacre Theater NYC for 1604 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_Misbehavin')
1978 May 9, The bullet-riddled
body of former Italian PM Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red
Brigades, was found in an abandoned automobile in the center of Rome.
In 2000 French police arrested Alvaro Loiacono in northern Corsica for
his alleged role in the murder.
(AP, 5/9/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
1978 May 10 Britain's Princess
Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18
years of marriage.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1978 May 11, Carol Schmal (23) and
Lawrence Lionberg (29) were murdered in Chicago. Four men were arrested
for rape and murder and 2 of the men were sentenced to death. In 1999
Kenny Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams were
released after a journalism class proved their innocence. The men then
filed a suit and settled with Cook County for $36 million.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A3)
1978 May 12, The US Commerce
Department said hurricanes would no longer be named exclusively after
women.
(AP,
10/12/97)(www.answers.com/topic/united-states-department-of-commerce?cat=biz-fin)
1978 May 13, The last season of
"Columbo," begun in 1971, ended on NBC TV.
(http://tviv.org/Columbo)
1978 May 13, Henry Rono
(b.1952) of Kenya, running for Washington State Univ., set an NCAA
record for 3,000 meter steeplechase (8:05.4).
(www.lewrockwell.com/englund/englund39.html)
1978 May 13, Joie Chitwood
(1912-1988), Texas-born race car driver, set a world record when he
drove a Chevette 5.6 miles on just 2 wheels.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood)
1978 May 14, Gerard Barrett of
Australia won the 68th annual San Francisco Bay to Breakers race in a
record 35 min., 17 sec. There were 9,738 official entrants with some
4,000 unofficial runners. 13 members of the UC Davis track team tied
themselves together and became the first centipede to run in the race.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)(SFC, 5/15/09, p.B4)
1978 May 15, The US Supreme
Court’s Santa Clara Pueblo vs. Martinez decision held that tribal
enrollment issues are an Indian-only matter immune from outside
interference.
(SSFC, 4/20/08,
p.A11)(http://supreme.justia.com/us/436/49/)
1978 May 16, Patricia Hearst (24)
entered the Federal correctional Institute at Pleasanton, Ca., to
resume her 7-year sentence for a SF bank robbery with the SLA.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.E8)
1978 May 17, Women were included
in the White House honor guard for the first time as President Carter
welcomed Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda.
(AP, 5/17/08)
1978 May 18, Russian dissident
Yuri Orlov was sentenced to 7 years in a strict-regime labor camp. The
Russian physicist was arrested Feb 10, 1977.
(www.newyorker.com/search/query?keyword=Orlov%200044%20%20Yuri)
1978 May 19, In Zaire a hundred
Europeans (200 people) were massacred in the mining district of Kolwezi
(formerly Katanga) by the Congolese National Liberation Front. French
and Belgium paratroops were dropped in to restore order.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(TL, 1988, p.119)
1978 May 20, US
counterintelligence authorities reported that the Soviet consulate in
San Francisco's Pacific heights has become a major base for espionage
activity.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.E8)
1978 May 20, The Tokyo
International Airport at Narita opened on a 2,632 acre site on Chiba
Peninsula. The opening was 8 years after it was built due to opposition
by local farmers and univ. students.
(Hem, 8/95,
p.53)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport)
1978 May 21, The Unification
Church of Sun Myung Moon wed 118 couples in England.
(www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Topics/U-Stuff/BLSS-HST.htm)
1978 May 22, Italy legalized
abortion.
(http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/population/abortion/Italy.abo.htm)
1978 May 25, A package bomb
injured Terry Marker, a Northwestern Univ. security guard. It was later
attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1978 May 29, The US Postal Service
issued the first alphabet stamp, the A stamp, when the first-class rate
went from 13 to 15 cents, after being 13¢ for 3 years. The series
ended with the H stamp in 1999 with rates up to 33 cents.
(SFC, 4/20/00,
p.A7)(http://alphabetilately.com/G.html)(www.akdart.com/postrate.html)
1978 May 29, The USSR performed a
nuclear test at Semipalatinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1978 May 31, Hanna Hoch (b.1889),
German photomontage artist of the Berlin Dada movement, died. Her work
included "Cut With the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar
Beer-Belly Epoch of Germany," (1919-1920).
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.E3)(SSFC, 1/27/02,
p.C7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_H%C3%B6ch)
1978 May, The Bahrain Telephone
Company began operating a commercial cellular telephone system. It
probably marks the first time in the world that individuals started
using what we think of as traditional, mobile cellular radio.
(http://tinyurl.com/36e848)
1978 May, The Revolutionary Party
(PRD), under the leadership of Jose Pena Gomez, won the Dominican Rep.
presidential elections.
(SFC, 5/12/98,
p.A21)(www.qsy.com/dominican/domrep01.html)
1978 Jun 1, The TV Crime Drama
"Baretta," starring Robert Blake, aired for the last time on ABC. It
was first telecast on Jan 17, 1975.
(www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/9348/baretta.htm)
1978 Jun 1, The East Wing of the
national Gallery of Art designed by I.M. Pei (b.1917) was dedicated to
the people of the US.
(V.D.-H.K.p.362)(www.nga.gov/collection/20th_intro.shtm)
1978 Jun 6, California voters
overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann amendment, a
primary ballot initiative calling for major cuts in property taxes. It
cut property taxes by 57%. It limited the taxing abilities of local
governments and many city services were reduced as a result. Key fiscal
responsibilities were shifted from counties to the state. Proposition
13 capped the increase in a home's taxable value at 2 percent a year
until it is sold. It also limits a homeowners property tax to 1 percent
of market value.
(AP, 6/6/97)(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 12/27/99,
p.A10)(AP, 7/3/05)
1978 Jun 8, A jury in Clark
County, Nev., ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by
the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
(AP, 6/8/97)
1978 Jun 8, Leaders of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy
of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood. Prophet Spencer
Kimball opened the Mormon priesthood to blacks.
(www.signaturebookslibrary.org/neither/neitherappx.htm)
1978 Jun 9, The Rolling Stones'
"Some Girls" album was released. Shortly after, some of the girls on
the LP's cover--Lucille Ball, Raquel Welch, Liz Taylor--threatened to
sue. After several months, Atlantic caved in and changed the cover.
(www.nolifetilmetal.com/rollingstones.htm)
1978 Jun 10, Affirmed (1975-2001),
ridden by Steve Cauthen, became a Triple Crown winner after winning the
NY Belmont Stakes by a nose over Alyadar.
(AP, 6/10/98)(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A20)(NW, 12/31/01,
p.109)
1978 Jun 10, Algur Hurtle Meadows
(b.1899), Texas oilman, died in a car crash. He left behind a large
collection of Hispanic art at the Virginia Meadows Museum at Southern
Methodist Univ.
(WSJ, 3/2/05,
p.D9)(www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmezk.html)
1978 Jun 11, Joseph Freeman Jr.
became the 1st black priest in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints.
(www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1979/4/1979_4_110.shtml)
1978 Jun 11, Texas Instruments
announced the first single-chip speech synthesizer.
(www.datamath.org/Speech_IC.htm)
1978 Jun 13, The film "Grease,"
starring John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, premiered in NYC.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0077631/releaseinfo)
1978 Jun 13, Israelis withdrew the
last of their invading forces from Lebanon.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1978 Jun 15, Lisa Halaby (b.1951),
American-Arab of New York, married Jordan’s King Hussein and became
Queen Noor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Noor_of_Jordan)(AP, 6/15/97)
1978 Jun 16, President Carter and
Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged instruments of ratification
for the Panama Canal treaties.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1978 Jun 18, The Whitewater
business venture was incorporated. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and his
wife Hillary set up their 50-50 Whitewater venture with Mr. & Mrs.
McDougal. The Clintons lost money in the real estate deal that later
turned into the Whitewater scandal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_(controversy))(WSJ, 8/19/96,
p.A12)(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A19)
1978 Jun 19, America's favorite
lasagna-loving cat, Garfield, created by Jim Davis, first appeared in
newspapers as a comic strip.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield)
1978 Jun 19, "Best Little
Whorehouse..." opened at 46th St NYC for 1584 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4066)
1978 Jun 21, The musical play
"Evita" by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice had its first stage
performance in London’s West End. It featured Elaine Page as Evita.
(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.42)(Hem., 1/97, p.106)(AP,
6/21/98)
1978 Jun 21, Dr. LeMaistre and Art
Dilly flew to New York City with checks totaling $2.4 million to
purchase a complete edition of the two-volume, 1456 Gutenberg Bible.
The Carl H. and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation of NYC had sold the
Gutenberg Bible to the Ransom Center of Texas.
(www.utexas.edu/news/2003/07/22/nr_hrc/)(http://tinyurl.com/32vox7)
1978 Jun 22, Neo-Nazis called off
plans to march in the Jewish community of Skokie, Ill.
(www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1978/ii781111.html)
1978 Jun 22, James Christy, while
working at the United States Naval Observatory, discovered that Pluto
had a moon, which he named Charon.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, Par
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Christy)
1978 Jun 23, Joseph Freeman Jr.,
the 1st black priest in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
went in the Salt Lake Temple with his wife and 5 sons for sacred
ordinances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_(LDS))
1978 Jun 24, There was a coup in
Yemen. Pres. Ahmad Hussein al-Ghashmi was murdered and replaced by
Lt.-Col. Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh was elected president of North Yemen
and began his 2-decade hold on the office. His power was strong in the
cities but in the countryside Sheik Abdulla al-Ahmar held power.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A1)(WSJ,
1/02/00, p.A1)
1978 Jun 25, Argentina, host to
the World Cup, beat Netherlands in the soccer World Cup championship in
Buenos Aires. It was later alleged that the ruling military junta
bribed an opposing team to ensure Argentina’s progress and eventual
victory.
(SFC, 2/4/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_FIFA_World_Cup)(Econ, 8/15/09,
p.32)
1978 Jun 26, There was a coup in
Southern Yemen (formerly Aden). Pres. Salem Rubaye Ali was ousted,
tried and shot. He was succeeded by Ali Nasir Muhammad.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jun 27, Sam Shepard’s play
"Buried Child " had its world premier in San Francisco.
(www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/buried_child.html)
1978 Jun 27, US Seasat 1, the 1st
oceanographic satellite, was launched into polar orbit.
(www.n2yo.com/satellite.php?s=10967)
1978 Jun 27, Soyuz 30 carried 2
cosmonauts (1 Polish) to the Salyut 6 space station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_30)
1978 Jun 28, The US Supreme Court
ordered the medical school at the University of California at Davis to
admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he had been a victim of
reverse racial discrimination. The US court’s Bakke decision allowed
universities to consider race in their decisions only if other factors
were equal. This was raised as an issue of reverse discrimination.
Justice Lewis Powell broke a 4-4 tie with the formulation that Davis’
program was unconstitutional, but that colleges and universities could
still use race as one of several factors to create a diverse student
body.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.A10)(AP, 6/28/97)(SFC, 6/27/98,
p.A16)
1978 Jun 29, Bob Crane (b.1928),
the man who played Colonel Robert Hogan in the TV show "Hogan’s
Heroes," was found bludgeoned to death in Scottsdale, Az. John Henry
Carpenter (d.1998 at 70), a prime suspect, was tried and acquitted in
1990.
(SFC, 9/12/98,
p.C3)(www.franksreelreviews.com/shorttakes/crane.htm)
1978 Jun, The FBI confronted
anthropologist Gilberto Lopez y Rivas of Mexico as a spy for the Soviet
Union. Agents were tipped by US Army Sgt. Joseph Cassidy, who spent
some 20 years as a double agent. In 2000 David Wise authored "Cassidy’s
Run."
(SFC, 4/8/00, p.C1)
1978 Jun, Intel introduced the
8086 16-bit HMOS chip.
(SFC, 7/16/03, p.B1)
1978 Jun, The Afghan guerrilla
(Mujahideen) movement was born.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/chron/index4.html)
1978 Jul 2, The New York Times
produced its last issue using Linotype machinery. In 1980 David Loeb
Weiss (d.2005) produced his documentary “Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu,” which
documented that last production night.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
1978 Jul 2, The Arab League
imposed a boycott on South Yemen.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jul 3, The US Supreme Court,
in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, upheld an
FCC ban on George Carlin's "seven dirty words" and other indecencies on
radio, and TV "when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in
the audience." The ban was upheld on the grounds that broadcasters had
a “uniquely pervasive presence in the lives of all Americans.
(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.A4)(Econ, 7/23/05,
p.14)(http://tinyurl.com/2jeh4j)
1978 Jul 3, The Amazon Pact was
established. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
Suriname, and Venezuela signed the Amazon Pact, a Brazilian initiative
designed to coordinate the joint development of the Amazon Basin.
(http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)
1978 Jul 3, China cut off economic
and technical aid to Vietnam.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978
Jul 4, Memphis fire fighters halted 3-day strike
under a court order. At least 350 fires were reported during the
strike. The city police director charged that the strikers set almost
all of the fires, which broke out mostly in abandoned buildings.
(http://tinyurl.com/34xkkk)
1978 Jul 4, L.I. Chernykh
(b.1935), Russian astronomer, discovered asteroids #3332, #6110 &
#7730.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Chernykh)
1978 Jul 5, In Ghana Gen’l.
Acheampong resigned as head of state. He was succeeded by Lt.-Col. Fred
W.K. Akuffo.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jul 5, A Soviet Soyuz
spacecraft touched down safely in Soviet Kazakhstan with its two-member
crew, including the first Polish space traveler -- Major Miroslaw
Hermaszewski.
(AP, 7/5/98)
1978 Jul 7, China cut off all aid
to Albania after a dispute and left it completely isolated.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(CO, GAAE/Albania)(www, Albania,
1998)
1978 Jul 7, The Solomon Islands
gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.worldstatesmen.org/Solomon_Islands.html)
1978 Jul 9, Nearly 100,000
demonstrators marched on Wash DC for ERA.
(www.now.org/issues/economic/cea/history.html)
1978 Jul 9, American Nazi Party
held a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago.
(www.skokiehistory.info/chrono/nazis.html)
1978 Jul 10, ABC-TV premiered
“World News Tonight” with anchors Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings and
Max Robinson.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/J/htmlJ/jenningspet/jenningspet.htm)
1978 Jul 10, John D. Rockefeller
III (b.1906), US billionaire and philanthropist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller_3rd)
1978 Jul 10, In Mauritania Col.
Mustapha Ould Salek overthrew Pres. Moktar Ould Daddah.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jul 11, Christa Tybus of
London set a 24 hrs hula-hoop record.
(www.recordholders.org/en/list/hulahoop.html)
1978 Jul 11, In Spain 216 people
were killed at a camping site when a tanker truck overfilled with
propylene gas exploded on a coastal highway south of Tarragona.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 7/11/97)
1978 Jul 13, Lee Iacocca was fired
as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II. Iacocca later
joined Chrysler as its president.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl.)(AP, 7/13/97)
1978 Jul 14, Soviet dissident
Natan Sharansky was convicted of treasonous espionage and anti-Soviet
agitation, and sentenced to 13 years at hard labor. He was released in
1986.
(AP, 7/14/98)
1978 Jul 15, President Carter, in
West Germany for an economic summit, presided over a "town meeting"
during which he fielded questions from about 1,000 Berliners.
(AP, 7/15/04)
1978 Jul 15, Bob Dylan performed
before some 200,000 fans at Blackbushe Airport, England, in the largest
open-air concert audience at the time (for a single artist).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbushe_Airport)
1978 Jul 17, In San Marino a
Communist-Socialist coalition became Western Europe’s only communist
led government.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jul 18, Cyrus Vance
(1917-2002), US Sec. of State, met with the Egyptian and Israeli
Foreign Ministers at Leeds Castle, England.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/trvl/ls/13038.htm)
1978 Jul 21, In Bolivia Gen’l.
Juan Pereda Asbun overthrew Pres. Banzer in a coup.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Jul 23, Franklin Bradshow was
killed in SLC, Utah. His daughter, Frances B. Schreuder (d.2004), had
persuaded her son to kill her wealthy father due to "his stinginess."
Schreuder was convicted in 1983.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.B6)
1978 Jul 24, The Beatles’ animated
film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" premiered in the US.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078239/)
1978 Jul 24, Chile’s Air Force
Gen'l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman was demoted. He was the first junta member
to urge the restoration of civilian rule.
(SFC, 9/30/99,
p.A31)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Jul 25, Louise Joy Brown, the
first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England; she'd been conceived
through in-vitro fertilization. In 2004 Robin Marantz Henig authored
"Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies sparked the
Reproductive Revolution.
(TL, 1988, p.119)(AP, 7/25/97)(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.M6)
1978 Jul 25, The Viking 2 Orbiter
to Mars was powered down after 706 orbits.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html)
1978 Jul 28, Price of gold topped
the $200 per oz level for 1st time. Spot gold closed at $201.30.
(www.the-privateer.com/gold/week189.html)
1978 Jul 28, Perth Observatory
discovered asteroid #3188 and #3422.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids_(3001-4000))
1978 Jul 30, To celebrate the 80th
birthday of sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), an exhibition of his work
was held in London’s Hyde Park.
(TL, 1988,
p.119)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore)
1978 Jul 30, Tropical Storm Amelia
formed in the western Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. The storm
moved over land, but continued to intensify to a 50 mph tropical storm.
The storm dissipated over Texas on August 1. Flooding rains due to
torrential rains exceeding 40 inches led to the deaths of 30 people in
Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Tropical_Storm_Amelia)
1978 Jul, Advanced Mobile Phone
Service started operating in North America. AMPS was operational in the
Chicago, Illinois, area.
(http://tinyurl.com/36e848)
1978 Jul -1978 Sep, Floods in
northern India killed 1,291 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Aug 1, Pete Rose of the
Cincinnati Reds, who had tied the National League record of hitting in
44 consecutive games, saw his streak end in a game against the Atlanta
Braves.
(AP, 8/1/98)
1978 Aug 6, There was a bloodless
coup in Honduras.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Aug 6, Pope Paul VI
(1963-78), born as Giovanni Montini, died at Castel Gandolfo at age 80.
(AP, 8/6/97)
1978 Aug 8, The United States
launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the
atmosphere of Venus.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/8/99)
1978 Aug 8, James Ramp (52),
Philadelphia police officer, was killed during a standoff with MOVE. 9
members of MOVE, a Black group that espoused equality with animals and
preached against technology, were convicted. Members of the group
adopted the surname Africa.
(SFC, 3/16/98,
p.A20)(www.odmp.org/officer/10987-police-officer-james-j.-ramp)
1978 Aug 9, A California statewide
Teamsters warehouse workers strike began.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Aug 9, James G. Cozzens
(b.1903), US writer (Guard of Honor, Pulitzer), died. His novels
included “The Last Adam” (1933), “The Just and the Unjust” (1942),
“Guard of Honor” (1948; Pulitzer Prize), “By Love Possessed” (1957),
and “Morning, Noon, and Night” (1968).
(http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/cozzens.html)
1978 Aug 11, “Le Freak” by Chic
was released. In October it topped the US hot 100 chart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C'est_Chic)
1978 Aug 11, Chiefs of state and
foreign dignitaries arrived in Vatican City for the funeral of Pope
Paul VI.
(AP, 8/11/98)
1978 Aug 12, China and Japan
normalized relations. Japan signed a Peace and Friendship Treaty with
China in Beijing.
(www.taiwandocuments.org/beijing.htm)(Econ, 8/23/03,
p.34)
1978 Aug 12, Pope Paul VI, who had
died six days earlier at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1978 Aug 13, In a Palestinian area
of Beirut, Lebanon, a bomb killed 100 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Aug 16, James Earl Ray,
convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill
hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he'd been set up by a
mysterious man called "Raoul."
(AP, 8/16/03)
1978 Aug 16, Antonio Guzman
(1911-1982) assumed office as president of the Dominican Rep. Mindful
of the fate of Juan Bosch sixteen years before, Guzman determined to
move slowly in the area of social and economic reforms and to deal as
directly as possible with the threat of political pressure from the
armed forces.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Guzm%C3%A1n_Fern%C3%A1ndez)
1978 Aug 16, The World Bank under
Robert McNamara issued its first World Development Report (WDR). the
68-page document provided a comprehensive assessment of global
development issues.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/d3xzs6)
1978 Aug 17, The helium-filled
balloon, Double Eagle II, crossed the Atlantic in 6 days. The first
successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Americans Maxie
Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed outside Paris.
(AP, 8/17/97)(HN, 8/17/98)
1978 Aug 17, Afghanistan announced
that defense minister Gen. Abdul Qadir, one of the Apr 27 coup leaders,
has been arrested after the discovery of an alleged plot to overthrow
the government. Qadir also belonged to the Parcham faction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_in_Afghanistan)
1978 Aug 18, Bechtel Corp. hired
Richard Helms, former director of the CIA, as a consultant. Former
government officials George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger were also
recently hired.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Aug 20, In London gunmen
opened fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus. 2 people died and 9 were
injured.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/20/newsid_2546000/2546593.stm)
1978 Aug 21, Charles Eames
(1907-1978), an American polymath artist, died. Together with his wife
he designed numerous objects, furniture and made more than 75 films.
(SFC, 6/6/96,
E1)(www.eamesoffice.com/index2.php?mod=intro)
1978 Aug 22, In Kenya Pres. Jomo
Kenyatta (1963-1978), a leading figure in Kenya's struggle for
independence, died at age 83. He was succeeded by Vice President Daniel
Arap Moi of the Kalengin tribe, head of the Kenya African National
Union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(SFC, 6/18/97,
p.A8)(SFC,11/27/97, p.B6)(AP, 8/22/98)
1978 Aug 22, In Managua,
Nicaragua, a group of the Third Way faction, led by Eden Pastora Gomez
(also known as Commander Zero--Comandante Cero), took over the National
Palace and held almost 2,000 government officials and members of
Congress hostage for two days. Sandinista guerrillas seized hostages at
the Nicaraguan Congress building and after a 2-day siege obtained a
hefty ransom, exile to Panama and the liberation of some 70 jailed
comrades.
(www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/americas/nicaragua/Nicaragua-national-history.htm)(WSJ,
1/8/97, p.A12)
1978 Aug 26, Charles Boyer
(b.1897), French-born film actor (Gaslight, Rogues), committed suicide
in Phoenix, Az., 2 days after his wife's death from cancer. Boyer and
actress Pat Robertson lost their only child in 1965, when their son
shot himself playing Russian roulette.
(http://www.imdb.com)(SSFC, 1/21/07, Par p.2)
1978 Aug 26, Cardinal Albino
Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic
Church following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff took the name
John Paul I. He served only 33 days before dying of a heart attack on
September 28.
(AP, 8/26/97)(RTH, 8/26/99)
1978 Aug 26, Sigmund Jahn became
the first German in space when he blasted off aboard Russia’s Soyuz 31.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1978 Aug 28, Bruce Catton
(b.1899), US historian, died in Frankfort, Michigan. He won a 1954
Pulitzer Prize for history for his book “A Stillness at Appomattox,”
his study of the final campaign of the war in Virginia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Catton)
1978 Aug 28, Robert Shaw (b.1927),
English-born film and stage actor, died of heart attack in Ireland. He
received a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination for his portrayal
of Henry VIII in “A Man for All Seasons” (1966).
(www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=59762)
1978 Aug 31, Emily and William
Harris, founding members of the SLA, pleaded guilty to 4 charges
related to the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst. On Oct 4 they were
sentenced to prison terms.
(SFC, 10/3/03,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army)
1978 Aug 31, Imam Mousa
Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community,
disappeared along with 2 companions during a visit to Libya. In 2008 a
Lebanese prosecutor charged Moammar Khadafy and 6 other Libyan
officials in the disappearance.
(AP,
9/3/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_al-Sadr)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A7)
1978 Sep 3, Pope John Paul I,
Cardinal Albino Luchiani of Venice, was installed as the 264th pontiff
of the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 9/3/97)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA11)
1978 Sep 5-1978 Sep 17, US Pres.
Carter, Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt met at Camp
David, Md.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(TL, 1988, p.119)(SFC, 6/2/97,
p.D5)
1978 Sep 6, Genentech of South San
Francisco, Ca., announced the successful laboratory production of human
insulin using recombinant DNA technology.
(www.gene.com/gene/news/press-releases/display.do?method=detail&id=4160)
1978 Sep 6, In California a fire
destroyed the 4,000-foot-long Island Mountain tunnel of the
Northwestern Pacific Railroad.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, Z1
p.1)(www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,929824)
1978 Sep 6, James Wickwire of
Seattle and Louis Reichardt of San Francisco became the first Americans
to reach the summit of Pakistan's K-2, the world's second-highest
mountain.
(AP, 9/6/03)
1978 Sep 6, Bulgarian defector
Georgi Markov, living in London, was stabbed in the leg by a man
carrying an umbrella; Markov died four days later, an apparent victim
of the Bulgarian secret police using a ricin-coated pellet. The
assassin was later identified as Francesco Gullino (Guillino,
Giullino), code name Piccadilly, an Italian-born Dane, operating under
instructions from Vasil Kotsev, Bulgaria’s top spymaster.
(AP, 9/7/08)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.61)
1978 Sep 7, Keith Moon (b.1946),
English drummer for "The Who" rock group, died of drug OD at 31.
(SFC, 10/17/96,
E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Moon)
1978 Sep 7, Sri Lanka’s new
constitution went into effect. The new Constitution provided for a
unicameral Parliament with legislative power and an Executive
President.
(SFC, 10/11/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Sri_Lanka)
1978 Sep 8, The Shah's troops
opened fire on protesters in Tehran, killing several hundred
demonstrators.
(http://tinyurl.com/hc3fc)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution)
1978 Sep 9, Jack L. Warner
(b.1892), US movie producer, died. He was born as Itzhak Eichelbaum in
London, Ontario, Canada of a Polish-Jewish family, and became the
president and driving force behind the highly successful development of
Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Warner)
1978 Sep 11, Kippi Vaught and
Rhonda Scheffler (17) were kidnapped from a shopping mall in
Sacramento. Their bodies were found 2 days later east of town. Gerald
Gallego (b.1946) and accomplice Charlene Williams (24) began a rape and
murder spree that left 9 women and one young man dead. Williams served
17 years in prison. Gallego was sentenced to death but was still alive
with appeals.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)
1978 Sep 11, Georgi Markov, a
Bulgarian defector, died at a British hospital four days after being
stabbed by a man wielding a poisoned umbrella tip. British
investigative reporter Peter Earle (d.1997 at 71) revealed that Markov
was jabbed by an East German agent with a poison tipped umbrella on
Waterloo Bridge. The original report stated that Markov died of a heart
attack. In 1993 Danish authorities charged a Dane of Italian origin,
Francesco Guillino, with killing Markov. Guillino, who reportedly had
worked for the Bulgarian secret services since 1972, denied any
wrongdoing and eventually was freed. In 2005 journalist Hristo Hristov
authored “Kill Vagabond,” in which he presented new evidence confirming
that the hit was planned and carried out by Bulgaria's communist-era
secret service.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)(AP, 9/11/98)(AP, 6/16/05)(SFC,
6/17/05, p.W5)
1978 Sep 12, The TV sitcom "Taxi"
premiered on ABC television.
(http://www.timvp.com/taxi.html)
1978 Sep 12, The first annual "Day
of Martyrs" was held in South Africa to remember those who gave their
lives in the struggle against apartheid.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xydbn)
1978 Sep 13, The US Navy's F-18
Hornet makes its public debut during rollout ceremonies in St. Louis,
Mo.
(www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/fa18/fa18_milestones.htm)
1978 Sep 14, The Soviet Union
suspended further flights of the supersonic TU 144.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Sep 15, In Thailand PM
Kriangsak Chomanan submitted an amnesty bill for the "Bangkok 18"
left-wing students and labor activists jailed in connection with the
1976 crackdown. He also initiated an amnesty program for former members
of the Communist Party, a reconciliation policy that eventually helped
quash its insurgency.
(AP, 12/23/03)(http://tinyurl.com/2w4xdx)
1978 Sep 15, Willy Messerschmitt
(b.1898), German aircraft builder, died in Munich.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Messerschmitt)
1978 Sep 16, The Grateful Dead
performed at the Great Pyramid of Giza. Hanza El Din (1930-2006),
Nubian oud virtuoso, first played with the Grateful Dead.
(SFC, 5/26/06,
p.B9)(www.archive.org/details/gd78-09-16.sbd.orf.2319.sbeok.shnf)
1978 Sep 16, In northeast Iran a
magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed some 25,000 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 6/22/02)
1978 Sep 17, In the 30th Emmy
Awards winners included All in the Family, Ed Asner & Sada Thompson.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0341210/)
1978 Sep 17, US Pres. Carter,
Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed agreements at
Camp David, Md. Israel promised to withdraw gradually from Sinai and to
establish some form of autonomous Palestinian territory on the West
Bank. Sadat’s astrologer, Hasan al-Tuhami, was the only person Sadat
trusted. In the Camp David Accord "Israel was the winner and Egypt the
Loser." Thus wrote Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his 1997 book: "Egypt’s
Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat’s Story of the Struggle for Peace in the
Middle East."
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(TL, 1988, p.119)(SFC, 6/2/97,
p.D5)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)
1978 Sep 17, The International
Banking Act of 1978 was enacted. It permitted a foreign bank to select
its home state from among the US states in which it operated branches
and agencies on the grandfather date. If a foreign bank's office that
was established or applied for prior to June 27, 1978, is a branch as
defined in the International Banking Act, then it is grandfathered as a
branch.
(WSJ, 11/19/04,
p.A8)(www.bankersonline.com/regs/211/211-601.html)
1978 Sep 17, Rolf Gunther, East
German priest, died from self immolation.
(http://stasi-in-zwickau.de/K/Kaebisch/Pfarrer-Rolf-Guenther/index.htm)
1978 Sep 20, "Eubie!" opened at
Ambassador Theater NYC for 439 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubie!)
1978 Sep 20, John Vorster, prime
minister of white-ruled South Africa since 1966, announced his
resignation.
(AP, 9/20/03)
1978 Sep 25, In Calif. 144 people
were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Boeing 727 and a
Cessna private plane collided over San Diego.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 9/25/97)
1978 Sep 25, Jacobo Timerman was
released by Argentina’s ruling junta under international pressure. His
citizenship was stripped, his newspaper confiscated and he was put on a
plane for Israel.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1978 Sep 26, NY District Court
Judge Constance Baker Motley ruled that women sportswriters cannot be
banned from NYC sports locker rooms.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1978-9/1978-09-27-CBS-17.html)
1978 Sep 26, British unions, fed
up with wage restraints, launched their “winter of discontent,” to the
humiliation of James Callaghan’s government.
(http://web.onetel.net.uk/~davewalton/archive/local/winterofdiscontent.html)(SSFC,
3/27/05, p.A21)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.69)
1978 Sep 28, Rosemary Cobbs (26),
a graduate student at USC in Los Angeles, was beaten and shot to death
by Stevie Lamar Fields (22). Williams had been out of prison for just 2
weeks when he went on a 3-week crime spree. In 2007 a federal appeals
court reinstated his death sentence.
(SFC, 9/11/07, p.D2)(http://tinyurl.com/2osxw8)
1978 Sep 28, The Israeli Knesset
endorsed the Camp David accord.
(http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761590224/Camp_David_Accords.html)
1978 Sep 28, P.W. Botha
(1916-2006) began serving as Prime Minister of the apartheid regime of
South Africa. In 1984 he became president and continued until 1989.
(SFC, 9/18/96,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Willem_Botha)
1978 Sep 28, Pope John Paul I
[Albino Luciano] died after 33 days as pope. He was found dead the next
day in his Vatican apartment.
(www.prose-n-poetry.com/display_work/10583/)(AP,
9/29/97)
1978 Sep 29, Mary Vincent (15),
was raped, maimed and left for dead in a canyon near Modesto, Ca. She
lived and identified Lawrence Singleton as her assailant. He was
convicted but released after serving 8 years of a 14 year sentence. In
1997 he was arrested for the murder of woman, Roxanne Hayes, a
prostitute, in Tampa, Florida. A trial in Dec 1997 ended in a mistrial
and another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998, but
died of cancer in 2001 in a Florida prison hospital.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A1,11)(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC,
2/9/98, p.A22)(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A13)
1978 Sep 29, In West Bengal,
floods killed 150 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Sep 30, Huey Newton
(1942-1989) was convicted in Oakland, Ca., on weapons charges and
launched into a 40 minute harangue calling SF Superior Court Judge
Joseph Koresh (1909-1996) "a renegade Jew."
(SFC, 6/21/96,
p.E2)(www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificapanthers.html)
1978 Sep 30, Edgar Bergen
(b.1903), American actor and ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy), died in
Las Vegas. He was born as Edgar John Bergren in Chicago, Illinois, to a
Swedish family and grew up in Decatur, Michigan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Bergen)
1978 Oct 1, The Pacific island of
Tuvalu gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/tv.html)
1978 Oct 2, Syrian troops pounded
Christian districts of Beirut with heavy artillery and rocket fire
early today, and right-wing officials said Lebanese militias were
fighting back with every weapon they had.
(http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/30thyear/onthisday/10157571.html)
1978 Oct 2, The first Yugo 45 was
handmade. The Zastava Koral, also known simply as the Yugo, was a
subcompact vehicle built in Yugoslavia by Zastava corporation. The Yugo
entered the United States by means of Malcolm Bricklin, who wanted to
introduce a simple, low cost car to that market. In total 141,511 cars
were sold in the US from 1985 to 1991, with the most American units
sold in a year peaking at 48,500 in 1987.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava_Koral)
1978 Oct 3, Ayatollah Khomeini
(1902-1989) left Iraq for Kuwait after the Shah sought his deportation.
He was refused entry in Kuwait and moved to Paris.
(www.iranchamber.com/history/rkhomeini/ayatollah_khomeini.php)
1978 Oct 4, Diane Feinstein,
President of the SF Board of Supervisors, presided over the opening the
Pier 39 complex in a one-piece bathing suit. Warren L. Simmons (d.2006
at 79) developed the project and sold it in 1981. In 1986 Simmons
co-found Chevy’s restaurants.
(SFC, 10/3/03, p.E3)(SFC, 6/23/06, p.B9)
1978 Oct 4, Funeral services were
held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I.
(AP, 10/4/98)
1978 Oct 5, Isaac Bashevis Singer
(1902-1991), Polish-born American author, was named winner of the Nobel
Prize for literature.
(AP, 10/5/98)
1978 Oct 9, Larry Singleton
(1927-2001), rapist, was arrested in Sparks, Nev. He was later
convicted of raping and mutilating Mary Vincent (15) of Las Vegas.
(SFC, 1/1/02,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton)
1978 Oct 9, Jacques Brel (b.1929),
Belgian-born French cabaret singer, died. He was buried at Atuona on
the Marquesas Island of Hiva Oa. An American musical revue of his
songs, “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” debuted in
1968 and has played around the world since.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel)(SSFC,
10/11/03, p.C9)
1978 Oct 10, President Carter
signed a bill authorizing the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
(AP, 10/10/98)
1978 Oct 10, San Francisco City
Hall and the Civic Center area was declared a national landmark.
(SFC, 1/1/99,
p.A13)(www.ceitronics.com/New_pages/timelinepr.html)
1978 Oct 12, Representatives of
Israel and Egypt opened talks in Washington.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/time70s.html#1978)
1978 Oct 12, Nancy Spungen
(b.1958), girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found dead
on the bathroom floor of their NYC hotel room. She had bled to death
from a single stab wound to the abdomen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Spungen)
1978 Oct 12, In Uganda Idi Amin
escaped an 11th assassination attempt.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Oct 16, The College of
Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Wojtyla (58),
Archbishop of Cracow, to become Pope. He took the name John Paul II.
The first non-Italian since Adrian VI of Utrecht died in 1523.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HN, 10/16/98)
1978 Oct 16, An attempted coup
against President Ali Abdullah Saleh of North Yemen was crushed.
(http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/30thyear/onthisday/10160457.html)
1978 Oct 17, President Carter
signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
(AP, 10/17/98)
1978 Oct 18, Jaume Ramon Mercader
del Rio Hernandez (b.1914), aka Jacques Mornard, Spanish Communist and
murderer of Leon Trotsky, died in Cuba. Declassified archives showed
that he was a Soviet agent. In 1940 Mercader fatally wounded Trotsky
with an ice axe in his study at his home in Coyoacan, then a village on
the southern fringes of Mexico City.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Mercader)
1978 Oct 19, The US League of
Savings and Loan Associations reported that the San Francisco Bay Area
had the highest housing costs in the nation.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.E9)
1978 Oct 19, Gig Young (b.1913),
film and TV star, killed his bride of 3 weeks and then committed
suicide in NYC. Young had recently married his fifth wife, a German art
gallery employee named Kim Schmidt (31). He had met Schmidt on the set
of his final film, Game of Death, where she was working as a script
supervisor. Young was born as Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud,
Minnesota.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_Young)
1978 Oct 19, The Afghan flag was
changed. The national flag, also used as state and war flag, was a 1:2
red flag with a yellow Soviet-like emblem in the canton. Red symbolized
the fight against imperialism, feudality and all other kinds of
oppression.
(www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/af1978o.html)
1978 Oct 22, Laugh-in's Judy Carne
was arrested at Gatwick Airport for drug possession.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Carne)
1978 Oct 22, Negotiators for Egypt
and Israel announced in Washington they had reached tentative agreement
on the main points of a peace treaty.
(AP, 10/22/98)
1978 Oct 23, CBS raised long
playing vinyl album prices to $8.98.
(http://www.440.com/twtd/archives/oct23.html)
1978 Oct 23, Sid Vicious attempted
suicide while at Riker's Detention Center in NYC.
(http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/30thyear/onthisday/10162208.html)
1978 Oct 23, Maybelle Carter
(b.1909), Virginia-born country singer, died in Nashville, Tenn. She
was a member of the original Carter Family, which was formed in 1927 by
her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter, who was married to her cousin, Sara,
also a part of the trio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybelle_Carter)
1978 Oct 23, China and Japan
exchanged treaty ratification documents in Tokyo, formally ending four
decades of hostility.
(AP, 10/23/97)
1978 Oct 24, Pres. Carter signed
the Airline Deregulation Act. The main purpose of the act was to remove
government control from commercial aviation and expose the passenger
airline industry to market forces.
(WSJ, 10/5/04,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_Deregulation_Act)
1978 Oct 24, The weather satellite
Nimbus-7 was launched with a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) as
one of its instruments.
(NOHY, 3/90,
p.142)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/earth/nimbus.html)
1978 Oct 24, Mount Usu, 475 miles
north of Tokyo, erupted. Mud flows killed 2 people and 196 homes were
destroyed.
(SFC, 3/30/00,
p.C3)(http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110004665764/en/)
1978 Oct 25, The Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 became public law.
It prescribed procedures for requesting judicial authorization
for electronic surveillance and physical search of persons engaged in
espionage or international terrorism against the US on behalf of a
foreign power.
(www.cnss.org/PL%2095-511.pdf)
1978 Oct 26, Pres. Carter signed
the Ethics in Government Act. It provided for the appointment of
independent counsels. The Supreme Court upheld the law in 1987.
(AP, 8/31/97)(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1
p.6)(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=30049)
1978 Oct 26, In Somalia the 17
leaders of the April coup were executed.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Oct 27, Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named
winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a
Middle East accord.
(AP, 10/27/97)
1978 Oct 27, Typhoon Rita struck
in the Philippines and killed 150 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Oct 29, The US Women’s Army
Corp (WAC) was deactivated.
(AH, 10/02, p.14)(www.armywomen.org/wacHistory.shtml)
1978 Oct 30, Uganda troops
attacked Tanzania. Uganda under Idi Amin went on to annex a
700-square-mile section of Tanzania. Pres. Nyerere sent Tanzanian
soldiers and Ugandan exile volunteers to push back Amin's forces.
(SFC, 10/15/99,
p.D7)(www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/16/1060936102425.html)
1978 Oct, Kathy Keeton Guccione
(1939-1997), associate founder of Penthouse Magazine, launched Omni
Magazine.
(SFC, 9/25/97,
p.B2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Keeton)
1978 Nov 1, The Carter
administration announced a multipart support package for the US dollar.
The Treasury planned to use gold sales, foreign borrowing and a draw on
reserves with the IMF to defend the dollar. The Federal Reserve raised
the discount rate a full point.
(WSJ, 1/18/05, p.A1)
1978 Nov 1, The US Dept. of
Justice filed its first statement of contentions and proof, settling
out detailed charges against AT&T, which eventually led to its
breakup.
(www.porticus.org/bell/att_divestiture.html#chroniclenewsupdate)
1978 Nov 1, In Dallas, Texas,
Jonathan Bruce Reed attacked Wanda Jean Wadle and her roommate,
Kimberly Pursley. He'd apparently entered their apartment by posing as
a maintenance man. In 1979 Reed was convicted and condemned to death
for the rape-slaying of Wanda Jean Wadle at her apartment. In 2009 an
appeals court ruled that Reed could be freed because prosecutors
improperly excluded blacks from his jury in the belief that blacks
empathize with defendants.
(AP, 1/14/09)
1978 Nov 1, Uganda, following its
invasion into Tanzania, formally annexed a section across the Kagera
River boundary.
(www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr75/ftanzaniauganda1978.htm)
1978 Nov 3, Dominica gained
independence from Britain.
(PCh, 1992, p.1065)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1978 Nov 4, US National Security
Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski called the Shah of Iran to tell him that
the US would "back him to the hilt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution)
1978 Nov 4, In Iran Sharif-Emami
(d.1998 at 87 in NYC), prime minister, handed in his resignation after
2 months in office. Shah Pahlavi then appointed Gholam Riza Azhari and
tried a military approach as the nation erupted in revolt.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.C2)(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Iranian_Islamic_revolution)
1978 Nov 5, In Austria 50.5% of
the voters said no to turning on the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant
and the Austrian nuclear power program came to a halt. The plant at
Zwentendorf, begun in 1970, was completed at a cost of 8 billion
Austrian schillings and was intended to be the first of six Austrian
nuclear plants.
(www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn166zwented)
1978 Nov 5, Floods in Tamil Nadu
and Kerala, India, killed 125 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Nov 6, Pres. Carter signed
the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which put the papers of future
presidents in the public domain. It envisioned the release of most
sensitive records 12 years after a president left office. It governs
the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or
received after January 20, 1981 and mandates the preservation of all
presidential records. In 2001 Pres. Bush signed an executive order
allowing either the White House or former presidents to veto the
release of presidential papers.
(SFC, 11/2/01,
p.D3)(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=30124)
1978 Nov 6, The US Bankruptcy
Reform Act revised bankruptcy regulations to allow companies to
reorganize under Chapter 11 of the law, rather than liquidate under
Chapter 7. It replaced the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, sometimes called the
Nelson act, and became effective as of Oct 1, 1979.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_Reform_Act_of_1978)
1978 Nov 6, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi,
the Shah of Iran, appointed a military government. In a nationwide
television address, he admitted to the past mistakes and told the
nation he had heard the sound of their revolution.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1691)(http://bss.sfsu.edu/behrooz/Hist-Revolution.htm)
1978 Nov 7, By this date the CDC
had confirmed 496 sporadic cases associated with outbreaks of
Legionnaire's disease in the US.
(http://tinyurl.com/35af6s)
1978 Nov 7, California voters
approved Proposition 7, a Briggs initiative, which greatly expanded the
kinds of cases in which the death penalty could be imposed. By 2003 the
prison population was 159,390 with and annual budget of $5.3 billion.
Proposition 6, a Briggs initiative calling to prevent gays and lesbians
from teaching in public schools, was defeated.
(SFC, 11/7/03,
p.A21)(www.rosebirdprocon.org/pop/DeathPen.htm)
1978 Nov 7, Janet Flanner
(b.1892), American writer and journalist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Flanner)
1978 Nov 7, Gene Tunney (b.1897),
former heavyweight boxing champ (1926-28), died. In 2006 Jack Cavanaugh
authored “Tunney: Boxing’s Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great
Jack Dempsey.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Tunney)(WSJ,
11/17/06, p.W6)
1978 Nov 8, Jerry Brown was
re-elected as governor of California. Republican Mike Curb was elected
Lt. Gov. State voters rejected restrictions on gay and lesbian teachers
in the 1st statewide plebiscite on such an issue.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.E3)
1978 Nov 8, Norman Rockwell
(b.1894), American artist, died. He had created nearly 4,000
illustrations that included 321 covers for the Saturday Evening Post.
(SFEC, 9/29/96,
T10,11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Rockwell)
1978 Nov 11, Veteran's Day,
originally know as Armistice Day, became a national US holiday in 1938.
It was changed back by Congress in this year to this day rather than
the 4th Monday of October, which had been set in 1968.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.A21)
1978 Nov 15, Margaret Mead
(b.1901), American cultural anthropologist, died in NY. Her books
included “Coming of Age in Samoa.” In 1983 Derek Freeman authored
"Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological
Myth," in which he challenged all of Mead’s major findings.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, BR
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead)
1978 Nov 18, in Jonestown, Guyana,
California Rep. Leo J. Ryan and four other people, investigating the
Jim Jones cult, were killed by members of the Peoples Temple. Greg
Robinson, a SF Examiner photographer, Don Harris, NBC correspondent,
Bob Brown, NBC cameraman, and Patricia Parks, a temple defector, were
shot dead. Congressional aide Jackie Speier survived 5 bullets. The
killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 909
cult members led by Rev. Jim Jones. The suicides included 260 children.
In 1982 John Jacobs and Tim Reiterman authored "Raven: The Untold Story
of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People."
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.22)(AP, 11/18/97)(SFEC, 11/8/98,
p.A18)(SFC, 5/25/00, p.C2)(SSFC, 11/16/03,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones)
1978 Nov 23, In Sri Lanka a
cyclone killed 1,500 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Nov 25, An Icelandic DC-8 jet
crashed and killed 183 Muslim pilgrims in Sri Lanka.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Nov 26, Muslim religious
leaders and politicians seeking to topple Shah of Iran called a general
strike that virtually paralyzed the country.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1978 Nov 26, Albert Miles,
governor of the maze prison, was murdered when gunmen forced their way
into his home and shot him while restraining his wife. Two men were
later convicted of his murder and given life sentences.
(www.palacebarracksmemorialgarden.org/Northern%20Ireland%20Prison%20Service.htm)
1978 Nov 27, San Francisco Mayor
George Moscone and Supv. Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were
gunned down inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White. White used
4 bullets on Moscone and turned himself in at the city’s Northern
Police station and made a 24-minute taped confession. Moscone became
the 3rd US mayor to die in a political killing. Diane Feinstein
automatically became acting mayor of SF. She was then elected by the
board members to serve out Moscone’s term.
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A8)(AP,
11/27/97)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1978 Nov 28, Armida Wiltsey (40)
of Lafayette, Ca., was found raped and strangled near the Lafayette
Reservoir. In 2003 DNA evidence linked Darryl Kemp, a Texas inmate, to
the murder. Kemp had been recently paroled from prison, where he served
time for killing a nurse in 1957. His death sentence in that case was
commuted when the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in
1972. In late 2008 a jury said that Kemp should be executed.
(SFC, 10/4/03, p.A15)(SFC, 1/1/09, p.B3)
1978 Nov 30, In Chile the remains
of 15 disappeared were discovered in Lonquen. The Vicaria publicly
announced the discovery of an illegal burial ground in an abandoned
limestone mine in Lonquén which had been used to conceal the
bodies of 15 people who had disappeared since the onset of the military
regime in 1973.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Nov, Peter Seeburg quit the
Univ. of California and went to work for Genentech, where a crash
program was in process to create a growth hormone drug.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.B2)
1978 Dec 1, Pres. Jimmy Carter
proclaimed 15 new national monuments, eleven under NPS jurisdiction and
two each for the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
(www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/rothman/chap11a.htm)
1978 Dec 2, Streisand and
Diamond's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," went #1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Don't_Bring_Me_Flowers)
1978 Dec 2, Anti-Shah protesters
poured through Tehran chanting "Allah is great."
(http://tinyurl.com/3aaywr)
1978 Dec 3, William Grant Still
(b.1895), the first important black symphonic composer, died.
(WSJ, 12/9/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_Still)
1978 Dec 4, San Francisco got its
first female mayor. The Board of Supervisors voted 6-2 for Dianne
Feinstein to replace the assassinated George Moscone. The Board voted
unanimously to rename Yerba Buena Convention Center after Moscone and
to name a new gay community center after Harvey Milk.
(AP, 12/4/98)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E10)
1978 Dec 5, The American space
probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first
information and picture of the planet to scientists in Mountain View,
Calif.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1978 Dec 5, Afghan Pres. Nur
Mohammad Tarakai, head of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
(PDPA), signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(www.eedi.org.ua/eem/7eng.html)
1978 Dec 8, Golda Meir (80), PM of
Israel from 1969 to 1974, died of cancer in Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/8/97)
1978 Dec 8, Harry Winston
(b.1896), jeweler to the stars, died. He purchased the Hope diamond in
1949 and later donated it to the Smithsonian Institute.
(WSJ, 2/14/96,
p.A-1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Winston)
1978 Dec 10, Edward D. Wood
(b.1924), film director, died in North Hollywood, Ca. His films
included "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959). He became infamous for his
bad movies. In 1994 the film "Ed Wood" by Tim Burton was made in homage.
(AP, 12/10/98)(SFC, 12/25/98,
p.C21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_D._Wood,_Jr.)
1978 Dec 11, Six masked men bound
10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at NY Kennedy Airport & made
off with $5.8 M in cash & jewelry. Nicholas Pileggi wrote "Wise
Guys," which described his participation in the heist. The robbery
inspired the movie "Goodfellas."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_heist)(SFC,
5/10/97, p.A3)
1978 Dec 11, Massive
demonstrations took place in Tehran against the Shah. In Isfahan, Iran,
40 people were killed and 60 wounded during riots against the Shah.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(HN, 12/11/98)
1978 Dec 13, The Philadelphia Mint
began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation
the following July. This was the 1st US coin to honor a woman.
(AP, 12/13/97)(http://tinyurl.com/377b2l)
1978 Dec 14, In Northern Ireland
John Murdie McTier, Belfast Prison officer, was driving home with two
colleagues when a number of shots were fired from a passing car by the
IRA. Both his passengers survived the attack but Mr. McTier died three
days later from his wounds. He was survived by his wife and three small
children.
(www.palacebarracksmemorialgarden.org/Northern%20Ireland%20Prison%20Service.htm)
1978 Dec 15, President Carter
announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to the People’s
Republic of China, i.e. Communist China, on New Year's Day and sever
official relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan).
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 12/15/98)
1978 Dec 15, Cleveland became the
first major US city since the Great Depression to default on its loans.
(AP, 12/15/08)
1978 Dec 15, Aides of Tennessee
Gov. Ray Blanton (1930-1996) were charged with accepting money in
exchange for approving paroles. Two were convicted and sent to prison.
The scandal inspired a book, ''Marie: A True Story'' (1983) by Peter
Maas.
(SFC, 11/25/96,
p.A3)(http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=B049)
1978 Dec 18, The US Supreme Court
ruled in Marquette vs. First Omaha Service Corp. that national
banks can charge customers throughout the country any interest rate
allowed by the institution’s home state. This led financial
institutions to move credit offices to states with no or very high
interest caps.
(SFC, 5/4/05,
p.C1)(http://supreme.justia.com/us/439/299/)
1978 Dec 18, Harold Lasswell
(b.1902), American sociologist, died. He declared that the
communication theorist must always answer the question "Who says what
to whom with what effect?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.356)(www.bookrags.com/biography/harold-dwight-lasswell/)
1978 Dec 20, Former White House
chief of staff H.R. Haldeman was released from prison after serving 18
months for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
(AP, 12/20/98)
1978 Dec 21, Police in Des
Plaines, Ill., arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the
remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of murdering.
27 bodies were found under his house, 2 in the back yard and 4 were
fished out of the nearby Des Plaines River. He was executed in 1994.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A2)(AP, 12/21/98)
1978 Dec 22, The Communist Party
in China issued a communiqué following 2 meetings on the
economy. Teng Hsiao-p’ing (Deng Xiaoping) led the Chinese people in a
Great Leap Forward with a program of economic reform in a market
oriented economy. Deng introduced the "household responsibility system"
in a drought-parched region which allowed farmers to keep some of the
benefits of their labors. Deng Xiaoping announced a new "open door"
policy.
(WSJ, 12/19/94, A-1)(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(WSJ,
5/3/99, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/3y2ljv)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.31)
1978 Dec 22, Rudolf Slavik,
Czechoslovakia-born creator of the Leviathan cocktail (1934), died.
(SSFC, 12/13/09, p.K3)
1978 Dec 25, Guards at the SF De
Young Museum discovered that 4 Renaissance paintings had been stolen.
In 1999 3 of the works, including Rembrandt's "Portrait of a Rabbi,"
were recovered in NYC. "Harbor Scene" by William van de Velde was still
missing.
(SFC, 11/11/99, p.A1,13)(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A27)(SFC,
12/19/03, p.E2)
1978 Dec 25, Vietnam invaded
Cambodia and drove the Khmer Rouge into sanctuaries along the Thai
border, finally ending the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film "The
Killing Fields." It was the first full-scale war between the two
countries since 1917. 400 people were killed in initial clashes.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC,
6/14/97, p.A15)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A11)
1978 Dec 26, In San Jose, Ca.,
Nolan K. Bushnell, inventor of the Pong video game, opened the
20,000-sq.-foot Pizza Time Theater, the world's largest pizza parlor.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.E2)
1978 Dec 20, India's former PM,
Indira Gandhi, was arrested by police after India's Lower House of
Parliament voted to expel her and have her jailed for breach of
privilege and contempt of the Lower House. She was released after 6
days.
(http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Media/10176258.html)
1978 Dec 27, Algerian President
Houari Boumediene, one of the Third World's most prominent and
outspoken leaders, died after 40 days in a coma.
(AP, 12/27/03)
1978 Dec 27, King Juan Carlos
ratified Spain's 1st democratic constitution. A parliamentary monarchy
was established with power in the hands of the legislative branch. Many
powers centralized under Franco were devolved to the 17 autonomous
regions.
(www.igsap.map.es/cia/dispo/ce_ingles_index.htm)(Econ, 1/14/06, p.17)
1978 Dec 27, In South Yemen the
Supreme Council elected a new president. He reversed moves toward
reconciliation with North Yemen and acquiesced to a continued Soviet
military buildup.
(PC, 1992, p.1065)
1978 Dec 30, Ohio State University
fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched
Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl after
Bauman intercepted an Ohio pass.
(AP, 12/30/98)
1978 Dec 31, John McFall
(1918-2006), an 11-term California Democrat, resigned from the US House
of Representatives. In October the House had reprimanded him and 2
other California Democratic colleagues, Edward Roybal and Charles
Wilson, for the questionable handling of money donated by South Korean
businessman Tongsun Park.
(SFC, 3/15/06, p.B7)
1978 Dec 31, Peter Seeburg, one of
3 Univ. of California scientists who had identified the DNA for human
growth hormone earlier in the year, returned to UCSF in a "midnight
raid" and remove genetic material. Seeburg had left the university in
late 1978 to join Genentech giving up rights to his materials, for
which UCSF had filed a patent. In 1990 UCSF filed a patent infringement
suit against Genentech.
(SFC, 5/21/99,
p.B2)(www.mindfully.org/GE/Biotech-Born-Thief-1978.htm)
1978 Dec 31, Taiwanese diplomats
struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in
Washington, marking the end of diplomatic relations with the United
States.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1978 Dec, Nicolao Lobato, East
Timor guerrilla commander, was killed and Jose Alexandre Gusmao was
made the de facto Falintil leader.
(www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/09/08/MN25926.DTL)
1978 Dec, Nestor Cerpa, union
leader, led 50 workers in the occupation of the Cromotex textile
factory in Lima over low wages and layoffs. They held the plant for
more than 6 weeks before the police stormed it. Six workers and a
police officer were killed.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10,12)(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A8)
1978 The "Seated Woman" by
American artist John De Andrea (b.1941) was nude, made of polyvinyl and
utterly realistic.
(TL, 1988,
p.119)(www.artmolds.com/ali/halloffame/john_deandrea.htm)
1978 Hannah Wilke (1940-1993),
NYC-born American artist, began creating her performance art piece "So
Help Me Hannah." It featured her nude before a camera in a variety of
dance-like poses.
(WSJ, 10/21/96,
p.A18)(www.artnet.com/artist/17886/hannah-wilke.html)
1978 Gene Autrey wrote his
autobiography "Back in the Saddle Again."
(SFEC, 10/13/96, DB p.49)
1978 Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997),
Latvia-born Jewish political philosopher and historian, published
"Russian Thinkers." He was the first person of Jewish descent to be
elected to a prize fellowship at the elite All Souls College, Oxford.
(WSJ, 8/24/98,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Berlin)
1978 Sisseal Bok authored "Lying."
She argued that people rationalize their lies by pretending that they
are meant for the good of others when in fact they benefit only the
liar personally. In 2001 Jeremy Campbell authored "The Liar’s Tale" and
Evelin Sullivan authored "The Concise Book of Lying."
(WSJ, 8/9/01, p.A10)
1978 Elias Canetti (1905-1994),
Bulgaria-born Jewish author, wrote "Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a
Visit." In 1981 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(NH, 5/96,
p.68)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Canetti)
1978 Christina Crawford wrote
"Mommie Dearest," the story of her life with her foster mother, actress
Joan Crawford. It was made into a 1981 film.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.D1,6)
1978 Will Eisner (1917-2005)
published “A Contract With God,” the 1st serious book-length comic to
describe itself as a graphic novel.
(Econ, 10/30/04, p.86)(WSJ, 1/10/06, p.D10)
1978 "The Human Factor" by Graham
Green was published. It was a story of espionage loyalty and betrayal.
(TL, 1988, p.119)
1978 Ernest Hilgard (d.2001 at
97), Stanford psychologist, authored "Psychology in America: A
Historical Survey." Hilgard was also a pioneer in the scientific study
of hypnosis.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C4)
1978 John Irving (b.1942) authored
his novel "The World According to Garp."
(SSFC, 7/8/01, DB p.66)
1978 John Janovy published his
book on the Nebraska grasslands: "Keith County Journal."
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.78)
1978 Charles P. Kindleberger
(d.2003), economist, authored "Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History
of Financial Crises.
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A1)(NW, 7/28/03, p.45)
1978 Walter Korn (d.1997 at 89),
chess authority, wrote "America’s Chess Heritage."
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A18)
1978 Larry Kramer authored his
debut novel "Faggots." In 1987 Kramer launched the AIDS activist group
ACT UP.
(NW, 6/11/01, p.45)
1978 Barry Hannah wrote his novel
"Airships."
(WSJ, 10/25/96, p.A15)
1978 Peter Matthiessen wrote "The
Snow Leopard." It was about the precarious status of the leopard and
won a National Book Award.
(SFEC,12/797, p.B11)
1978 John Maynard (1920-2004),
English biologist, authored "The Evolution of Sex."
(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.B7)
1978 James Michener wrote his
novel "Chesapeake."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1978 Iris Murdoch (1919-1999),
Irish-born writer and Philosopher published "The Sea, The Sea." It won
the Booker Prize.
(SFC, 2/9/99,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)
1978 William Pierce (d.2002) wrote
the "Turner Diaries," a novel that describes a race war touched off
when the narrator blows up the FBI headquarters in Washington with a
fertilizer and fuel bomb transported in a truck.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-10)
1978 David Rorvick published "In
His Image: The Cloning of Man," an alleged tale of a successful
cloning. It was ruled a hoax in 1981.
(NH, 9/98, p.11)(SFC, 12/31/02, p.A2)
1978 Prof. Edward Said of Columbia
published "Orientalism." In it he adopted Michel Foucault's view of
oppressive power in Western conceptual systems as a covert instrument
of domination. In 2006 Robert Irwin authored “Dangerous Knowledge,” a
history of Orientalism and a refutation of Said’s thesis.
(WSJ, 9/30/99, p.A26)(WSJ, 11/4/06, p.P10)
1978 Ulysses Grant Sharp Jr.
(d.2001 at 95), US Admiral, authored "Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in
Retrospect." He criticized American strategy and believed the war could
have been won.
(SFC, 12/15/01, p.A25)
1978 Quentin Skinner of Cambridge
Univ. authored "The Foundations of Modern Political Thought."
(Econ, 1/17/04, p.72)
1978 Gore Vidal published his
satirical fantasy "Kalki."
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A12)
1978 Edward O. Wilson published
his Pulitzer Prize winning book: "On Human Nature."
(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A16)
1978 Anne Wooliams (d.1999 at 72),
British ballet director, published "Ballet Studio." A German edition
was published in 1973.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A21)
1978 Bernie Zilbergeld (d.2002),
psychologist, authored "Male Sexuality." In 1999 it was updated and
published as "The New Male Sexuality."
(SFC, 6/20/02, p.A20)
1978 Hugh Leonard (b.1926), Irish
dramatist and journalist, won the Tony Award for best play for his
comedy play: "Da" (1977).
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0094934/)
1978 Walter Kerr (1913-1996),
drama critic, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for criticism.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.C6)
1978 The show "One Mo’ Time" was
staged based on the book by Vernel Bagneris. It was tribute to 1920s
black vaudeville set around backstage banter at a New Orleans Honky
Tonk.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.E1)
1978 The film “Midnight Express”
was about an American drug runner abused by Turkish jailers. It was
based on the real-life story of Billy Hayes (23), an American who spent
five long, agonizing years in a Turkish prison for attempting to
smuggle two kilos of hashish on his way home to the USA in 1970.
(WSJ, 1/15/98,
p.A1)(www.filmreference.com/Films-Mi-My/Midnight-Express.html)
1978 Vivian Fine (1913-2000),
American composer, wrote her opera "The Women in the Garden."
(SFC, 3/29/00,
p.A23)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Fine)
1978 The opera "Le Grande Macabre"
by Gyorgi Ligeti (1923-2006) premiered in Stockholm.
(WSJ, 7/31/97,
p.A16)(www.naxos.com/composerinfo/bio22120.htm)
1978 The TV series "Fantasy
Island" began as an Aaron Spelling production. The show was created by
Gene Levitt (d.1999 at 79) and continued until 1984.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.D3)(SFC, 11/27/99, p.C4)
1978 The TV show "The Paper Chase"
was based on the novel and 1973 movie. It starred James Stephens as a
first-year law student. Showtime cable picked up the series for 36 new
episodes.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.E1)
1978 The British sci-fi TV series
"Dr. Who," which began in 1963, reached the US. It featured a space
traveling Doctor who was hundreds of years old from the planet
Gellifrey. He used a London police call box as the external form of his
space vessel. The interior was spacious with comfortable Edwardian
touches.
(SFC, 5/14/96, E-1)
1978 "Diff'rent Strokes" premiered
on TV and ran to 1984. It co-starred Dana Plato (d.1999 at 34), Todd
Bridges and Gary Coleman.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A19)
1978 Larry King began a late-night
talk show on Mutual Network.
(SFC, 12/30/99, p.E3)
1978 Plastic Bertrand, Belgian
musician, made a hit with "Ca Plane Pour Moi."
(SFC, 11/30/02,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Bertrand)
1978 Jello Biafra (b.1958), born
as Eric Reed Boucher in Boulder, Colo., moved to San Francisco, took on
a new name and co-founded the Dead Kennedys, a punk band that soon
played at the Mabuhay Gardens.
(SFC, 6/14/08, p.E3)
1978 Devo, a new wave band from
Akron, Ohio, recorded "Are We Not Men?" The group played on the theme
of de-evolution and was led by Mark Mothersbaugh.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, DB p.41)
1978 Molly Hatchet, a Southern
rock band, went platinum with their self-titled album. Lead singer
Danny Joe Brown died in 2005 at age 53.
(SFC, 3/15/05, p.B5)
1978 Hans Werner Henze (b.1926),
German composer living in Italy, wrote his ballet "Orpheus."
(SFEC, 1/17/99, DB
p.29)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Werner_Henze)
1978 Waylon Jennings and Willie
Nelson made a hit with their duet: "Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow
Up to Be Cowboys."
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A2)
1978 Billy Joel (b.1949),
American singer, recorded his song “My Life.” It became the theme song
for the TV sitcom “Bosom Buddies,” (1980-1982).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Joel)
1978 Billy Joel (b.1949),
American singer, recorded his song “My Life.” It became the theme song
for the TV sitcom “Bosom Buddies,” (1980-1982).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Joel)
1978 Nicolette Larson (d.1997 at
45) recorded "Lotta Love" by Neil Simon. She was named best female
singer by Rolling Stone magazine.
(SFC,12/18/97, p.C16)
1978 Los Lobos released their
first album: "Just Another Band from East L.A."
(SFEM, 5/11/97, p.20)
1978 Zubin Mehta (b.1936),
India-born conductor, began serving served as music director of the New
York Philharmonic and continued to 1991.
(SFC, 1/6/98,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubin_Mehta)
1978 The Plasmatics punk band made
their debut in New York City clubs. Wendy O. Williams (d.1998 at 48),
the lead singer, was charged a number of times for simulated sex acts
on stage.
(SFC, 4/8/98, p.B2)
1978 The Rockets, a Texas blues
band, was founded by guitarist Anson Funderburgh. The group was joined
by Sam Myers in 1986.
(SFEC,11/2/97, DB p.17)
1978 Kenny Rogers recorded his
album "The Gambler," which featured The Gambler song written by Don
Schlitz (who had recorded it previously). It was one of five
consecutive songs by Rogers to hit #1 on the Billboard country music
charts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(song))
1978 Charles Sawtelle (d.1999 at
52) helped found the Hot Rize bluegrass group, named after an
ingredient in the Martha White Self-Rising Flour. The Hot Rize product
had been promoted for years by bluegrass legends Lester Flatt and Earl
Scruggs.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)
1978 The Sex Pistols performed at
Winterland in San Francisco and broke up shortly after.
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.34)
1978 The Cuban jazz band Irakere
performed at the Newport Jazz Festival.
(SFC, 6/16/96, BR
p.42)(www.apassion4jazz.net/newport.html)
1978 Conductor Yuir Temirkanov
introduced Georgian composer Giya Kancheli’s single movement Symphony
No. 4, "In Memoria di Michelangelo," to the US.
(SFC,12/5/97,
p.C7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giya_Kancheli)
1978 In Virginia the Washington
and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park, a ribbon of open space created
from a railroad’s abandoned right-of-way, was opened.
(NG, 5.1988, intro)
1978 Hill Auditorium at the Univ.
of Michigan, constructed in 1913, was added to the National Register of
Historical Places. The 4,200 seat auditorium was a gift from regent
Arthur Hill.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.15)
1978 In Detroit, Mich., the North
Cass Community Union, which organizes the Dally in the Alley every
year, formed to save the beautiful buildings in the Wayne State Univ.
area from demolition. “The Dally’s a great mix of old and new,” says
Alan Franklin of the Layabouts, a band that has played the festival
since the early years. The union bought a plot of land near Second and
Hancock and planned on rebuilding the Horace Dodge Garage, a Michigan
historic landmark built in 1904 where Dodge, Henry Ford’s chief
engineer, worked on his first motor car.
(www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=503)
1978 Joseph Phelps in California
made a new red wine blend called Meritage from a blend of traditional
Bordeaux grapes.
(SFC, 10/2/96, zz1 p.4)(http://tinyurl.com/2q56ok)
1978 John Mackey began his Whole
Foods Market in a garage in Austin, Texas, under the name SaferWay. In
1980 he merged with a natural grocery store and opened as Whole Foods
Market. The natural foods grocery went public in 1992.
(Econ, 7/30/05,
p.60)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Foods_Market)
1978 In Massachusetts Aveline
(d.2001 at 78) and Michio Kushi founded the Kushi Institute to teach
macrobiotics. Aveline later authored her autobiography "Aveline: The
Life and Dream of the Woman Behind Macrobiotics Today."
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.C2)
1978 Helen Caldicott founded
Physicians for Social Responsibility.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, Z1 p.3)
1978 Faye Wattleton became
president of the Planned Parenthood Federation and continued to 1992.
She wrote her autobiography "Life on the Line" in 1996.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, BR p.1)
1978 Ewart G. Abner Jr. (d.1997 at
74) founded the Black Music Association. He earlier released the first
Beetle record in the US on his Vee-Jay label and at one time headed
Motown Records.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A17)
1978 The National Scrabble
Association was formed to organize and promote national competition in
the game.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.4)
1978 Lawrence Halprin, landscape
architect, presented the winning design for a President Roosevelt
memorial. The specs for the design included that the memorial last
5,000 years. Dedication of the memorial was in 1997. His initial 1974
proposal was accepted following the 1955 joint resolution of Congress
to establish the memorial. In 1998 he published "The Franklin Delano
Roosevelt Memorial," a project history and photo-bio.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A1,13)(SFC, 1/30/98, p.E10)
1978 Vincent Rovetti (d.1997 at
62), soccer and 49er player, set a Guinness Book of World Records mark
for place kicking a football 1,035 times through the uprights at
Candlestick Park in SF in 2 hours and 30 min.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
1978 Argentina won the soccer
World Cup championship.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A12)
1978 Walter Poenisch claimed to
have completed a "swim for peace" from Cuba to the US in 34 hours and
15 min. He used flippers and made the swim unassisted without
independent observers.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A3)
1978 The UN Security Council
passed a resolution that demanded an unconditional Israeli withdrawal
from south Lebanon after a brief Israeli invasion.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-14)
1978 The last US visa for a
retired foreigner to settle in the US was issued.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1)
1978 US Marines discovered Soviet
agents burrowing a tunnel under the US Embassy.
(http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/05/russia.tunnel/index.html)
1978 US net foreign assets this
year equaled 9% of GDP. By 2005 this dropped to net liabilities of 25%
GDP.
(WSJ, 1/18/05, p.A13)
1978 The US Consumer product
Safety Commission (CPSC) banned the use of lead-based paint. Federal
regulations banning lead paint took effect. Sherwin-Williams published
that white lead paint was poisonous as far back as 1904.
(SFC, 3/24/00,
p.A21)(www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/lead/6006.html)
1978 The US government Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 was extended to include 401k
accounts, named after a section of the IRS code. The addition pertained
to employer owned investments and were exempt from several rules
including diversification. Employees were allowed to save pre-tax
dollars and control their investments.
(WSJ, 6/5/96, p.A1,8)(SFC, 8/21/96,
p.A1)(www.bambooweb.com/articles/4/0/401K.html)
1978 Stepwise amendments of the US
federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act had begun. The 1978
amendments, which with a few exceptions became effective in January
1979, broadened coverage considerably. They eliminated the upper age
limit for coverage of federal employees and raised it from 65 to 70 for
all other employees. Mandatory retirement was abolished in the US in
1986.
(www.lib.niu.edu/1979/ii790907.html)
1978 Vandals blew up a section of
the Alaska pipeline, opened in 1977, spilling 700,000 gallons of oil.
No one was arrested.
(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)
1978 Hawaii adopted a master plan
for land use in the state.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.46)
1978 William Steiger, congressman
from Wisconsin, led a drive to reduce the capital gains tax rate from
nearly 50% to 28%. In 1999 this was credited by Brian S. Wesbury in
"The New Era of Wealth" as one of the factors that contributed to the
economic boom of the 1990s.
(WSJ, 12/22/99, p.A16)
1978 Lamar Alexander was elected
governor of Tennessee.
(WSJ, 2/15/96, p.A-16)
1978 Colorado allowed the death
penalty 2 years after the US Supreme Court ended a 40 year moratorium
on capital punishment.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A7)
1978 The Chicago Food Depository
opened with its main mission to feed the hungry. In 1998 it began to
offer chef training classes to help people get jobs.
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.A1)
1978 The 1,000-acre Kentucky Horse
Park opened in Lexington, Kentucky.
(WSJ, 8/15/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Horse_Park)
1978 New Jersey legalized gambling
and ended the Nevada monopoly on casino gaming.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1978 Oregon re-instated the death
penalty for the 3rd time.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A11)
1978 Howard Jarvis led a tax
revolt in California and Prop. XIII established a $7 billion tax
cut.
(TMC, 1994, p.1978)(WSJ, 7/16/96, p.A8)
1978 Richard Crews, a
Harvard-trained California physician, founded the Columbia Pacific
University in Novato. The school was ordered to close in 1997 but
continued to operate under appeal.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A21)
1978 Safari West began as a
private wildlife sanctuary for breeding, education and research. In
1989 Peter Nancy Lang bought the 400-acre Sonoma, Ca., property and
later introduced tours and small-group excursions.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T4)
1978 John Metzer started Metzer’s
Farms in the Gabilan foothills of Salinas, Ca. He initially sold balut
eggs, partially incubated duck eggs with fully formed embryos.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A17)
1978 Esther Wong (1917-2005) began
featuring punk rock music at her restaurant in LA’s Chinatown and Santa
Monica. Madame Wong’s in LA closed in 1985, but her Madame Wong’s West
in Santa Monica continued operating until 1991.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
1978 Richard Fogel (d.2009 at 86)
co-founded Bay City News, a regional wire service for the SF Bay Area.
(SFC, 9/15/09, p.C4)
1978 California-based Mervyns
department store chain merged with Dayton Hudson Corp. (later Target
Corp.).
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B6)
1978 Gold was discovered in Lake
County, Ca., and Homestake Mining established its open pit McLaughlin
Mine. Ore ran out in 2002.
(SFC, 1/30/03, p.A13)
1978 Hundreds of fish near Iron
Mountain, Ca., died from mine pollutants.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1978 California’s Shasta Ski Bowl
was closed after an avalanche destroyed the main ski lift.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A21)
1978 In California elk were
reintroduced to Tomales Point with a herd of 10.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.C1)
1978 Amy Sue Seitz (2) was
kidnapped, raped, mutilated with pliers and murdered by Theodore Frank
in Ventura County, Ca. His diaries noted molestations over 20 years.
Frank was sentenced to death twice but died in prison of a heart attack
in 2001.
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A26)
1978 Huey Newton was convicted on
weapons charges and launched into a 40 minute harangue calling SF
Superior Court Judge Joseph Koresh (1909-1996) "a renegade Jew."
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.E2)
1978 Stokely Carmichael
(1941-1998), American civil rights and black power advocate, changed
his name to Kwame Ture in honor of Kwame Nkrumah and Ahmed Sekou Toure,
2 African socialist leaders in Guinea.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A7)
1978 Howard Stern (b.1954) landed
his first morning show job in Hartford, Connecticut at WCCC-FM and
WCCC-AM, whose progressive rock format promoted Howard's development as
a "free form" personality.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Stern)
1978 The Hearst Corp. launched
Country Living magazine.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1978 Volkswagen began building the
Rabbit in New Stanton, Pa.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl.)
1978 The US steel industry peeked
in 1978 at over 137 million tons. Steel production slipped to less than
90 million tons in 1991. As the steel industry buckled in the 1980s
Pueblo, Colorado, began to diversify its economy.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.B10)(http://tinyurl.com/2ntm9k)
1978 An investigation by the board
of directors of Occidental Petroleum revealed that Armand Hammer had
bribed government officials in 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin
America.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.D7)
1978 PepsiCo acquired the Taco
Bell restaurant chain. Founder McKay sold his 10% interest to PepsiCo
for an estimated $13 million.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.B1)(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.A17)
1978 Toyoichi Tanaka (d.2000 at
54) blended fluid and polymer at MIT to create a gel that came to be
part of a class of smart gels sensitive to changes in temperature,
light, solvents or other stimuli.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.C20)
1978 Radial keratotomy,
popularized by the Russian ophthalmologist S.N. Fyodorov, was
introduced to the US.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R21)
1978 Dr. Fritz Klein (1933-2006),
Austrian-born American researcher in bisexuality, published his Klein
Grid, an expansion of the Kinsey Scale that measures human sexuality.
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.B7)
1978 AT&T scientists conducted
FCC-authorized cell-phone field trials in Chicago and Newark, NJ.
(WSJ, 9/22/95,
p.A-7)(www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/mobilephone.htm)
1978 A paper by Leonard Adleman,
Ron Rivest, and Adi Shamir was published titled A Method for Obtaining
Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems. It is widely known
today by the group's initials RSA.
(Wired, 8/95, p.117)
1978 Hewlett-Packard began
development of the inkjet printer, which eventually became a
commercials success.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
1978 Intel Corp. introduced the
8086 microprocessor. It was a 16-bit microprocessor with 29,000
transistors.
(TAR, 1996, p.22)
1978 Kurt Godel (1906 -1978),
Austrian mathematician, showed that within any logical system, no
matter how rigidly structured, there are always questions that cannot
be answered with certainty, contradictions that may be discovered, and
errors that may lurk.
(V.D.-H.K.p.340)
1978 Robert Miner of Oracle Corp.
developed the world’s 1st relational database program using IBM’s
Structured Query Language.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A13)
1978 Michael Stonebraker at UC
Berkeley with a team of students developed the relational database. He
based his work on a 1970 proposal by IBM researcher Edgar "Ted " Codd,
who called for a database that could organize data in tables that were
logically connected and easy to access.
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.C3)
1978 The "Space Invaders" computer
game became the first video game mega-hit and spurred sales of the
Atari 2600.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.E1)
1978 Edwin Dickinson (b.1891),
American painter, died in Wellfleet, Mass. His work included "The Cello
Player" (1924-1926).
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.B1)
1978 Margarett Sargent
(1892-1978), painter and socialite, died. Her granddaughter, Ms. Moore,
wrote her biography: "The White Blackbird: The Life of the Painter
Margarett Sargent." She had studied under Mount Rushmore’s sculptor,
Gutzon Borglum. From 1916 to 1936 her work was included in as many as
30 shows.
(WSJ, 3/25/96, p.A-15)(WSJ, 4/9/96, p.A-1)
1978 Norman Hammond co-authored
“The Archeology of Afghanistan.”
(WSJ, 3/5/00, p.A22)
1978 In Afghanistan Kabul Mayor
Ghulam Sakhi Noorzad began enacting a master plan for the city
developed by top European engineers. He went into exile with the Soviet
invasion, returned in 2001 and resumed work on the master plan.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)
1978 In Afghanistan fighting began
between the government and a shifting array of rebel groups. Hafizullah
Amin led socialist activists to overtake Kabul. They received aid from
Moscow but not total backing. Mass arrests, tortures, and arrests took
place.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)(SFC, 9/28/96,
p.A8)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1978 Canada implemented security
certificates to detain and expel, without disclosing evidence,
non-citizens suspected of terrorism. On October 22, 2007, the
Conservative government introduced a bill to amend the security
certificate process by introducing a "special advocate", lawyers who
would be able to view the evidence against the accused.
(Econ, 10/24/09,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_certificate)
1978 An estimated 15,000 Chinese
advisors were present in Cambodia during Pol Pot's rule.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A10)
1978 Control of the Cocos Islands
was ceded to Australia by a descendent of the Clunies-Ross family,
which settled the Indian Ocean coral atolls in 1827.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)
1978 The Beijing Film Academy
reopened for the first time since it was closed during the Cultural
Revolution. 4 years later 152 students graduated and were labeled as
the “fifth generation” of film makers to emerge since the birth of
Chinese cinema.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.81)
1978 The Karakoram Highway from
Kashgar, China, to the edge of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, was completed.
(NH, 5/96, p.9)
1978 Deng Xiaoping emerged as
China’s paramount leader. In early 1979 he shut down the Democracy Wall
protest and imprisoned its leaders. His political formula was "one
country, two systems." Yang Shangkun also regained power after 12 years
in prison.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)(SFC, 9/16/98, p.C4)
1978 In China Fang Yi (d.1997 at
81), a guerrilla leader of the Revolution under Mao, became a vice
premier. He accompanied Deng on a tour of the US in 1979.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1978 In China the Time of the
Democracy Wall movement began. For 4 winter months citizens in Beijing
plastered a 200-meter wall with posters calling for freedom and
democracy. Dissident Ren Wanding was jailed from 1979 to 1983 for
having advocated multiparty democracy. In 1996 Wanding was released
after seven years in prison for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square
demonstrations.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C2)(http://tinyurl.com/2w88be)(Econ,
12/13/08, p.30)
1978 The Chinese Academy of
Sciences set up the River Dolphin Research Group in Wuhan. The baiji, a
white river dolphin, was declared a "rare and precious aquatic animal"
the following year.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.a8)
1978 In China the 2000-year-old
massive "bianzhong" bells were unearthed.
(WSJ, 6/25/97, p.A20)
1978 In China the tomb of Zeng Hou
Yi (c400 BCE) was discovered. Artifacts were later exhibited in the
Hubei Provincial Museum.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.C9)
1978 China’s share of the global
GDP was about 1.8%. In 2008 this grew to 6%.
(Econ, 12/13/08, p.30)
1978 In Costa Rica Rodrigo Carazo
Odio (1927-2009) began serving as president and continued to 1982.
(AP, 12/9/09)
1978 UNESCO named the Galapagos
Islands, Ecuador, a World Heritage Site.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
1978 French Pres. Valery Giscard
d’Estaing (b.1926) created the centrist UDF party. He served as
president from 1974 to 1981.
(Econ, 5/20/06,
p.51)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val%C3%A9ry_Giscard_d'Estaing)
1978 Maurice Papon (1910-2007),
French civil servant, began serving as the Budget Minister under PM
Raymond Barre. He continued as Budget Minister until 1981, when
evidence of his role in the Holocaust emerged.
(SFC, 10/13/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Papon)
1978 Gerhard Wessel (1913-2002),
head of the West German BND intelligence agency since 1968, retired. He
was succeeded by Klaus Kinkel.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A18)
1978 In Greece grave robbers at
Aidonia dug into ancient tombs believed to be a 3,500-year-old palatial
cemetery of the Mycenaeneans. The looters plundered 18 graves but left
one undisturbed. Objects from the single pit provided archeologists
evidence to match the objects of an attempted 1993 sale.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.B2)
1978 In Guatemala Fernando Romeo
Lucas Garcia began serving as president and continued to 1982.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.15)
1978 In Indonesia the Istiqlal
mosque was constructed in Jakarta, the largest in the Southern
Hemisphere. It was able to host 120,000 people.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.T7)
1978 In Indonesia the government
dismantled student councils and boosted study loads to curtail
political activity.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A12)
1978 In Indonesia B.J. Habibie was
appointed technology minister by Pres. Suharto.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)
1978 Hedayat Eslaminia and his
family fled Iran. He was a minister of the Shah and reportedly fled
with a fortune. In Jul, 1984, he was kidnapped and slain by his son
Reza in California.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.D7)
1978 In Italy the murders of 4
women were related to Maurizio Minghella (23). In 1982 he was convicted
and sentenced to life in prison for the killings. In 1995 he was given
partial liberty and prosecutors say he then killed 4 prostitutes. In
2002 his trial continued in Turin. In early 2003 he escaped and was
soon captured and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 1/3/03)(http://tinyurl.com/2psh6t)
1978 Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri
Kilegefan (1926-2008) relinquished the position of the President of the
Maldives Republic. He was accused of ruling the country as a dictator
and fled amid public resentment and unproven allegations of corruption
in handling public funds. For the first time in recorded Maldive
history, the head of state of the Maldives ceased to be either a
King-sultan (Queen-sultana) or a descendant of a King-sultan.
(www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_commonwealth.shtml)(AP, 11/23/08)
1978 The Marshallese voted for
independence from other districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(www.unicover.com/OPUBA565.HTM)
1978 A Mexico City utility worker
found a stone slab that lay 15 feet below street level. He had
discovered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The ruins appeared to be
those of the capital's great pyramid, the Templo Mayor.
(www.mexonline.com/templomayor.htm)
1978 In the Philippines Tony Tan
Caktiong formed Jollibee after realizing that customers in his Manila
ice cream parlor liked his soy and sugar seasoned burgers better than
his sundaes.
(http://jollibeephilippines.com/15/success-story-of-jollibee-in-the-philippines/#more-15)
1978 Romania’s Gen. Ion Pacepa, a
top ranking Securitate officer, defected to the United States. Pres.
Ceausescu hired Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal, to
assassinate Pacepa but he failed.
(AP, 9/30/09)
1978 In Russia Alexander I.
Ginzburg (1936-2002), poet, was sentenced to 8 years in prison for his
dissident activities. He served 8 months and then was then exchanged
with 4 others for 2 Soviet spies in the US.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A27)
1978 Russia’s Sayano-Shushinskaya
hydroelectric plant in southern Siberia, the largest in the country,
went into operation.
(AP, 8/17/09)
1978 Chevron discovered oil in
Sudan and sank wells north of Bentiu.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.D3)(WSJ, 10/22/03,
p.A4)(www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/10.htm)
1978 In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan and
some fellow Turkish university students founded the Kurdistan Worker’s
Party, PKK. It was based on a Marxist, separatist platform that
targeted Kurdish landlords as well as Turkish agents.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)(Econ,
11/17/07, p.100)
1978 The UN Security Council
passed a resolution that demanded an unconditional Israeli withdrawal
from south Lebanon after a brief Israeli invasion.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-14)
1978 Gen. Van Tien Dung published
"Our Great Spring Victory." He described how the loss of political will
in Washington helped shape Hanoi's decisions.
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A20)
1978 The Vietnamese government
loosened its policy on bourgeois dance after officials visiting Cuba
witnessed dancers doing the Cha Cha.
(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A24)
1978 Many Chinese "boat people"
who had left Vietnam or been forcibly expelled died after drifting for
weeks at sea.
(TL, 1988, p.119)
1978 In Zaire another coup attempt
was begun in the Shaba province. American and other foreign support
helped Mobutu maintain control.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)
1978 In Zaire (later Congo) there
was a separatist uprising in the southern Katanga province and at least
140 foreigners were massacred at the Kolwezi copper mine. Hundreds of
Katangans also died.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A1)
1978-1979 Time of the Democracy Wall movement. Ren
Wanding was jailed from 1979 to 1983 for having advocated multiparty
democracy. For 4 months citizens in Beijing had plastered a 200-meter
wall with posters calling for freedom and democracy.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C2)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.30)
1978-1979 Three of the largest holding companies in
Colombia bought stock from each other in order to protect themselves
from hostile takeovers. The newly formed Antioquean Syndicate was
composed of: Suramericana de Seguros, Nacional de Chocolates, and
Cementos Argos.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A12)
1978-1983 Hundreds of residents from central
Guatemala fled to the region north of Chajul and declared themselves
neutral to the war. They organized themselves into the Communities of
People in Resistance (CPR) and secretly cultivated their lands. They
did not come out of hiding until 1998.
(SFC, 9/8/97,
p.A8)(www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/6344/)
1978-1984 The Czech "Asanace" (Sanitation) program
focused on some 50 dissidents, signatories of the Charter 77 human
rights manifesto. It resorted to threats and harsh interrogations to
intimidate them and force them to leave the country. In 2001 Czech
Interior Minister Jaromir Obzina (d.2003) was charged with abuse
of power for his role in the operation.
(AP,
1/29/03)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1816619.stm)
1978-1994 In 2006 research on fish trawls from this
period revealed that 5 deep sea species had plummeted by 87%-98% and
that average size of fish had declined in one case by as much as
57%.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.72)
1978-1996 Over 200,000 sq. miles, 12.5%, of the
Amazon rain forest was destroyed.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A10)
1978-1996 The Caspian Sea rose 8 feet due to what
experts believed was an upward thrust of the Earth’s crust beneath the
inland sea. Flooding had resulted over an area of 1.5 mil acres that
includes 200 oil wells in the western region.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-15)
1978-2002 The Indonesian military systematically
forced dozens of East Timorese women to become sex slaves for officers
during its 24-year occupation of the half-island.
(AP, 4/29/03)
1978-2008 India over this period exchanged 949
Pakistani fishermen in exchange for 2,304 Indian fishermen, which each
side had apprehended for wandering into their respective waters in the
disputed Sir Creek area. In early 2009 trade unions said India still
held 357 Pakistani fishermen and that Pakistan held 48 Indian fishermen.
(WSJ, 1/13/08, p.A10)
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