Timeline 1979
Return to home
1979 Jan 1, The
US Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $2.90 an hour.
(http://tinyurl.com/2udkrd)
1979 Jan 1, China and the United
States held celebrations in Beijing and Washington to mark the
establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Deng
Xiaoping arranged to visit the US. China standardized the
spelling of people and place names using the Pinyin system. Peking thus
became Beijing.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1979 Jan 1, UN Secretary General
Kurt Waldheim signed a proclamation declaring 1979 as the
International Year of the Child.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_the_Child)
1979 Jan 3, The top of the record
charts included: Le Freak by Chic; Too Much Heaven by the Bee Gees; My
Life by Billy Joel; The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1979 Jan 3, Conrad Hilton
(b.1887), American founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Nicholson_Hilton)
1979 Jan 4, Ohio officials
approved an out-of-court settlement awarding $675,000 to the victims
and families in the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, in which
four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops.
(HN,
1/4/99)(http://members.aol.com/nrbooks/chronol.htm)
1979 Jan 4, Charles Mingus (56),
the most accomplished bassist in jazz history, died of Lou Gehrig’s
disease. In 1999 the film "Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog" was
written and directed by Don McGlynn. In 2000 Gene Santoro authored
"Myself when I Am Real: the Life and Music of Charles Mingus."
(WSJ, 4/18/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.E3)(SFC,
5/21/99, p.C3)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.9)(WSJ, 8/22/00, p.A24)
1979 Jan 7, The Vietnamese army
captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh overthrowing the Khmer
Rouge government. The People’s Party, a Hanoi installed Khmer Rouge
faction, took power with Hun Sen as prime minister and Heng Samrin as
president. This finally ended the mass genocide depicted in the 1984
film "The Killing Fields." The Khmer Rouge retreated into sanctuaries
along the Thai border, set up bases and picked up support from Thailand
and China.
(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ,
5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(AP,
1/7/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heng_Samrin)
1979 Jan 8, The US advised the
Shah to get out of Iran.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1979 Jan 9, The Bee Gees performed
“Too Much Heaven,” released in late 1978, as their contribution to the
"Music for UNICEF" fund. It became part of their 13th album and topped
the record charts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Much_Heaven)
1979 Jan 9, The Act of Montevideo
was signed in Uruguay pledging Argentina and Chile to a peaceful
solution and a return to the military situation of early 1977. Cardinal
Antonio Samore (1905-1983), Vatican representative, mediated the Beagle
conflict.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_conflict)
1979 Jan 10, Billy Carter, the
brother of US Pres. Jimmy Carter, made allegedly anti-Semitic remarks.
Billy eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government
and received a $220,000 loan. This led to a Senate hearing over alleged
influence peddling which some in the press dubbed "Billygate."
(http://tinyurl.com/2krnv2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Carter)
1979 Jan 12, Kenneth Bianchi, LA's
Hillside Strangler, was arrested in Bellingham. He and his cousin
Angelo Buono (d.2002 at 67) sexually assaulted and murdered as man as
13 young women (12-28) in 1977-1978, and dumping their bodies on
LA-area hillsides. Bianchi testified against Buono to escape the death
penalty. Buono was convicted on 9 of 10 murder counts and was sentenced
to life in prison.
(SSFC, 9/22/02, p.A7)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A17)
1979 Jan 15, The Soviet Union
vetoed a United Nations resolution and called for the withdrawal of all
Vietnamese troops from Cambodia.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1979 Jan 16, Aaliyeh (d.2001),
R&B singer and actress, was born in Brooklyn and grew up in
Detroit. She was killed (22) in a plane crash in the Bahamas.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A16)
1979 Jan 16, Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlevi fled Iran for Egypt as millions united with Ayatollah Khomeini
calling for his death. The Shah of Iran was overthrown in a revolution
led from exile by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who established a
Muslim Theocracy. Iran was overwhelmingly Shiite, which believes that
authority is invested only in descendants of Muhammad’s son-in-law,
Ali, who is buried in An Najaf, Iraq. The Shah of Iran fled and the
Ayatollah Khomeini took charge.
(NG, 5/88, p.653)(TMC, 1994, p.1979)(HN,
1/16/99)(AP, 1/16/05)
1979 Jan 19, Former Attorney
General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months
at a federal prison in Alabama.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1979 Jan 21, The Pittsburgh
Steelers became the first team to win three Super Bowls as they
defeated the Dallas Cowboys 35-31 in Super Bowl 13.
(AP, 1/22/04)
1979 Jan 21, Neptune became the
outermost planet as Pluto moved closer due to their highly elliptical
orbits.
(www.videocosmos.com/calendar-january2131.shtm)
1979 Jan 22, Abu Hassan (Ali
Hassan Salameh), the alleged planner of the 1972 Munich raid, was
killed by a bomb in Beirut. He was the chief of operations for the
Black September militant Palestinian group.
(HN,
1/22/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_Salameh)
1979 Jan 23, Willie Mays, former
outfielder for the SF Giants, was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.E2)
1979 Jan 23, The USAF's 388th
Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, became the first unit anywhere
to receive the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Lockheed Corp. produced the F-16
fighter jet. It became the first production military aircraft to
incorporate a fly-by-wire control system.
(WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-1)(NPub, 2002,
p.23)(www.f-16.net/timeline_1979.html)
1979 Jan 26, Nelson A. Rockefeller
(70), former Vice President under Ford, died in New York. He was also a
4-time governor of New York.
(AP,
1/26/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Rockefeller)
1979 Jan 28, "The Wiz" closed at
Majestic Theater in NYC after 1672 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wiz)
1979 Jan 29, President Jimmy
Carter commuted the sentence of Patty Hearst (24) from 7 to 2 years.
She had served 23 months in prison.
(HN, 1/29/99)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.E2)
1979 Jan 29, President Carter
formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White
House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.
(AP, 1/29/98)
1979 Jan 29, The 9-part TV
miniseries "Backstairs" premiered. It was based on the 1961 book "My
Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House" by Lillian Rogers Parks
(d.1997 at 100).
(SFC,11/12/97, p.A22)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078565/)
1979 Jan 29, Brenda Spencer
(b.1962), a teenager in San Diego, shot up an elementary school,
killing 2 people and wounding 9. She told police she did it because, "I
don’t like Mondays."
(SFC, 3/6/01,
p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer)
1979 Jan 30, The civilian
government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, who'd been living in exile in France, to return.
(AP, 1/30/98)
1979 Jan, California Judge H.
Warren Knight founded the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services,
Inc. He founded JAMS due to his long-standing commitment to alternate
dispute resolution (ADR).
(www.jamsadr.com/welcome/founder.asp)
1979 Jan, A new Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
constitution was approved in a nearly Whites-only referendum.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Muzorewa)
1979 Feb 1, US Pres. Jimmy Carter
legalized home brewing.
(Hem., 8/96,
p.113)(www.foamrangers.com/glossary_H.html)
1979 Feb 1, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst, whose prison sentence for bank robbery had been
commuted by President Jimmy Carter, left a federal prison at Pleasanton
near SF. She later published "Every Secret Thing."
(AP, 2/1/99)(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A1)
1979 Feb 1, The People's Republic
of China opened its 1st two American Consulates in San Francisco and
Houston.
(SFC, 1/30/04, p.E6)
1979 Feb 1, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15
years of exile.
(AP, 2/1/97)
1979 Feb 2, John Simon Ritchie
(b.1957), better known as Sid Vicious, the bassist for the British Sex
Pistols rock group, overdosed from heroin in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Vicious)
1979 Feb 4, In San Mateo, Ca., a
robbery at the Pay Less Super Drug Store at 666 Concar Drive left 3
young employees dead. Michael Olson (23), Billy Baumgarnter (17) and
Tracy Anderson (16) were all shot in the back of the head. An estimated
$20,000 was stolen. By 2007 the case was still open with no arrests.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/8/08, p.B2)
1979 Feb 4, In Peru police stormed
the union held Cromotex factory in Lima. Union leader Nestor Cerpa was
jailed for a year.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10)
1979 Feb 7, Josef Mengele
(b.1911), Nazi concentration camp doctor and medical experimenter,
accidentally drowned in Bertioga, Brazil. He was secretly buried in
another man's grave in Brazil. [See Jun 6, 1985] In 1985 his identity
was confirmed by DNA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele)
1979 Feb 8, In the Republic of the
Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso (b.1943), a member of the Mbochi minority,
began 13 years of rule as a Marxist dictator.
(WSJ, 12/31/98,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Sassou-Nguesso)
1979 Feb 9, Allen Tate (b.1899),
poet and exponent of the New Criticism, died in Nashville.
(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.W9)(http://tinyurl.com/5g27ry)
1979 Feb 10, The NYC Metropolitan
Museum announced the first major theft in 110-year history, a $150,000
Greek marble head.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1979 Feb 11, In NYC "They're
Playing Our Song" opened at the Imperial Theater and played for 1082
performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They're_Playing_Our_Song)
1979 Feb 11, Followers of
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran, nine days after the
religious leader returned to his home country following 15 years of
exile. Premier Bakhtiar resigned.
(AP, 2/11/97)
1979 Feb 12, Jean Renoir (b.1894),
French actor and director (Rules of the Game), died in Beverly Hills,
Ca. His body was returned to France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Renoir)
1979 Feb 14, Adolph Dubs, the U.S.
ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists
and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(AP,
2/14/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Dubs)
1979 Feb 14, Armed guerrillas
attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1979 Feb 15, The Temple City Kazoo
Orchestra appeared on the Mike Douglas Show.
(http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T75MC69N2IU)
1979 Feb 16, Nematollah Nassiri
(b.1911), Iranian general and head of the Savak intelligence agency
during the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was executed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematollah_Nassiri)
1979 Feb 17, China invaded Vietnam
and began a "pedagogical" war against Vietnam. China completed its
withdrawal on March 19. In China’s border war with Vietnam deputy
commander Zhang Wannian led a victorious division offensive in the
battle of Liang Shan.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/prc-vietnam.htm)(SFC,
9/18/97, p.C2)
1979 Feb 18, The miniseries
"Roots: Next Generations" premiered on ABC TV.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078678/)
1979 Feb 18, Snow fell in the
Sahara Desert of southern Algeria.
(www.distant.ca/UselessFacts/fact.asp?ID=103)
1979 Feb 22, St. Lucia gained full
independence from Britain and Sir John Compton became the first prime
minister.
(PCh, 1992, p.1072)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SFC, 3/22/99,
p.A10)
1979 Feb 23, The US EPA approved
ARCO Petroleum’s petition for the use of MTBE as a 2-5% blend in
gasoline to boost octane .
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A17)(http://tinyurl.com/34a9bg)
1979 Feb 26, A total solar eclipse
cast a moving shadow 175 miles wide from Oregon to North Dakota before
moving into Canada. This was the last total solar eclipse of the 20th
century for the continental US.
(AP, 2/26/99)(SC, 2/26/02)
1979 Feb 27, Jane M. Byrne
confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor
Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. Byrne went on
to win the election.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1979 Feb 28, Ernest Thompson's
play "On Golden Pond," premiered in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3923)
1979 Feb, Texas pacific Group
bought Del Monte Corp. and took it private. They sold a 38% share back
to the public in 1999 at $15 per share.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.D1)
1979 Feb, Farm workers in
California began a mass walkout in the UFW supported great lettuce
strike.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.34)
1979 Mar 1, "Sweeney Todd" with
Angel Lansbury opened at Uris Theater in NYC for 557 performances. The
score was by Stephen Sondheim.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweeney_Todd)(SFEC,
5/31/98, BR p.1)
1979 Mar 3, Mustafa Barzani
(b.1903), Iranian Kurd leader (KDP), died in Washington, DC. He was
succeeded by his son Massoud.
(SFC, 9/4/96, A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Barzani)
1979 Mar 4, "Grand Tour" closed at
Palace Theater in NYC after 61 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3913)
1979 Mar 4, The US Voyager I
obtained the first image of Jupiter's rings.
(http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=v25/v4.html)
1979 Mar 4, Willi Unsoeld,
mountain climber, died in an avalanche on Mt. Rainier, Wa. In 2002
Robert Roper authored "Fatal Mountaineer: The High Altitude Life and
Death of Willi Unsoeld, American Himalayan Legend."
(SSFC, 3/29/02,
p.M3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi_Unsoeld)
1979 Mar 5, Voyager I made its
closest approach to Jupiter (128,400 miles).
(www.jpl.nasa.gov/history/70s/Voyager1_1979.htm)
1979 Mar 6, Chinese forces
occupied Vietnam’s city of Lang Son. They claimed the gate to Hanoi was
open, declared their punitive mission achieved, and withdrew quickly.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War)
1979 Mar 8, Cesar Chavez led some
5,000 striking farmworkers on a march through the streets of Salinas,
Ca.
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1979 Mar 13, European Monetary
System (EMS) entered into force.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1979 Mar 15, In Brazil Gen. Joao
Baptista Figueiredo (d.1999 at 81) began serving as president and
continued to 1985. Aureliano Chaves (d.2003 at 74) served as VP.
Figueiredo was the last of 5 generals to rule during the 1964-1985
dictatorship. He oversaw the transition to democracy begun by his
predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Inflation during his rule rose from 43% a
year to 230% a year when he left office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Baptista_de_Oliveira_Figueiredo)(SFC,
12/25/99, p.B4)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A26)
1979 Mar 18, Iranian authorities
detained American feminist Kate Millett, a day before deporting her and
a companion for what were termed "provocations."
(AP, 3/18/99)
1979 Mar 19, The U.S. House of
Representatives began televising its day-to-day business. Brian Lamb
launched C-Span, a TV public service broadcasting medium that focused
on public affairs without comment or analysis.
(AP, 3/19/97)(SSFC, 3/27/05, Par p.14)
1979 Mar 20, In Rome, Italy, the
Mafia killed Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor. In 1996 Premier Giulio
Andreotti went on trial for allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill the
troublesome journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in
1999. 5 others were also acquitted. In 2002 an appeal court in Perugia
sentenced Giulio Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment for ordering the
murder of Pecorelli.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99,
p.A14)(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)
1979 Mar 21, The Egyptian
Parliament unanimously approved a peace treaty with Israel.
(AP, 3/21/99)
1979 Mar 22, The opera "Miss
Havisham’s Fire" by Dominick Argento premiered at the NYC Opera with
two 80-minute acts. It was based on a character in the 1861 novel
“Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
(WSJ, 7/2/01,
p.A12)(www.historicopera.com/listing_operas.htm)
1979 Mar 22, The Israeli
parliament approved a peace treaty with Egypt.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/begin_closing.html)
1979 Mar 23, Paul McCartney and
Wings released "Goodnight Tonight."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodnight_Tonight)
1979 Mar 26, In the 41st NCAA
Men's Basketball Championship the Michigan State Spartans beat the
Indiana State Sycamores, 75-64, as Magic Johnson outscored Larry Bird,
24-19; this snapped Indiana State's 33-game win streak. In 2009 Seth
Davis authored “When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed
Basketball.”
(http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/moments/9903.html)(WSJ, 3/20/09,
p.W10)
1979 Mar 26, The Camp David peace
treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat at the White House. [see Sep 5-17, 1978]
(AP,
3/26/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords)
1979 Mar 27, The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled 8-1 that police could not stop motorists at random to check
licenses and registrations unless there was reason to believe a law had
been broken.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1979 Mar 28, America's worst
commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the
Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa., almost to meltdown.
Thousands living near the plant left the area before the 12-day crisis
ended, during which time some radioactive water and gases were
released. A combination of mechanical and human factors allowed the
Unit 2 reactor to lose cooling water. It cost more than $1 billion and
more than a decade to remove the damaged nuclear fuel. A 1997 study
indicated increased cancer rates for people living downwind.
(TMC, 1994, p.1979)(SFC, 6/8/96, p.A2)(SFC, 2/24/96,
p.A3)(AP, 3/28/97) (HN, 3/28/98)(MC, 3/28/02)
1979 Mar 28, Michelle Triola
Marvin lost her palimony suit against actor Lee Marvin. She had sought
half of $3.6 million that Marvin earned during their 1964-1970
relationship. A judge awarded her $104,000 so that she could learn new
job skills. In 1981 a California State Court of Appeal rescinded the
award.
(SFC, 1/1/09,
p.B5)(http://law.jrank.org/pages/3295/Marvin-V-Marvin-Palimony-Suit-1979.html)
1979 Mar 29, Larry Singleton was
convicted by a San Diego jury on multiple counts for the 1978 rape and
mutilation of Mary Vincent. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He
was paroled in 1987.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A13)
1979 Mar 29, Emmett Kelly
(b.1898), American circus clown (Weary Willy), died in Arizona.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Kelly)
1979 Mar 29, In China dissident
Wei Jingsheng (b.1950) was first arrested in the crackdown on the
Democracy Wall pro-democracy movement. In his most famous essay, The
Fifth Modernization, Wei argued that modernization was impossible in
China without necessary democratic reform. On December 13, 1995, Wei
Jingsheng (47) was sentenced to 14 years in prison and charged with
"conspiring to subvert the government." In 1997, after a total of 18
years in prison, Wei was taken from his cell and placed on a plane
bound for the United States as a bargain result between then US
President Clinton and the Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
(SFEC,11/16/97,
p.A2)(www.weijingsheng.org/wei/en.html)
1979 Mar 30, Airey Neave, a
leading member of the British parliament, was killed by a bomb planted
by the Irish National Liberation Army.
(AP, 3/30/99)
1979 Mar 30, Anthrax spores leaked
from a secret germ-warfare plant and spread over Sverdlovsk
(Yekaterinburg), Russia. Over the course of 2 months at least 105
people died of anthrax poisoning. [see Apr 2] Reports did not emerge
until October.
(WSJ, 10/11/01,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_Anthrax_leak)
1979 Mar 31, The Arab League
suspended Egypt following its treaty with Israel.
(www.safarix.com/0131900048/ch08)
1979 Mar, Jan Scruggs, a veteran
of Vietnam, saw the movie "The Deer Hunter," and was inspired to build
a memorial to all the men who served in the war. I’m going to build a
memorial to all the guys who served in Vietnam. It’ll have the names of
everyone killed. He garnered the help of two other vets, Robert Doubek
and Jack Wheeler.
(NG, May 1985, p.555)
1979 Mar, In SF Herb Caen wrote
his famous "Newspaper Stuff" column in which he documented the origin
of "etaoin shrdlu," the characters of the 2 left hand columns of the
lower case keyboard of the linotype machine used to indicate needed
corrections, but occasionally appearing in print.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A21)
1979 Mar, Ismail Khan, a Persian
speaking Sunni Tajik and Major in Afghan army, led a
mutiny/insurrection against the Taraki regime's Sawr (or April)
Revolution (Taraki's inspired Afghan societal liberalization and land
reform). Khan's revolt resulted in the slaughter of Soviet Afghan
advisors and their families. This insurrection was met by a brutal
Afghan and Soviet response that killed an estimated 24,000 Heratis in a
single week and destroyed much of the famous Central Asian crossroad
city.
(www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/jul/johnsonJul04.asp)
1979 Mar, China Premier Deng
Xiaoping received Sir Murray McLehose, Gov. of Hong Kong (1971-1982).
McLehose raised the issue of the 1997 end of lease and Deng said Hong
Kong can rest at ease.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_of_the_sovereignty_of_Hong_Kong)
1979 Apr 1, San Francisco’s first
annual St. Stupid’s Day Parade, founded by Ed Holmes, was held in the
Financial district to mock greed.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.B2)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B1)
1979 Apr 1, Assadullah Sarwari
(b.1941), former air force commander under Pres. Khan, became head of
Afghan secret police (AGSA). He was later arrested for involvement in
the arbitrary arrest, torture and mass killing of hundreds of opponents
and spent 13 years in jail before his trial began on Dec 26, 2005.
(www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/assadullah_sarwari_452.html)
1979
Apr 1, Iran proclaimed to be an Islamic
Republic after the fall of the Shah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran)
1979 Apr 2, Israeli PM Menachem
Begin visited Cairo, Egypt, and met with Pres. Sadat.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/time70s.html#1979)
1979 Apr 2, Anthrax was found to
have leaked from the secret lab of Compound 19 in Sverdlovsk (later
renamed Yekaterinburg) in the Ural Mountains. It caused a local
epidemic that killed at least 64/66 people. Pres. Yeltsin acknowledged
the leak in 1992 and allowed a team of researchers to investigate the
site. In 2000 Jeanne Guillemin authored "Anthrax: The Investigation of
a Deadly Outbreak." [see Mar 30]
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)(SFEC, 8/13/00, BR p.7)(WSJ,
9/18/01, p.B1)
1979 Apr 3, Democrat Jane M. Byrne
was elected as the 1st woman mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican
Wallace D. Johnson.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1979 Apr 3, In Belgium Wilfried
Achiel Emma Martens (b.1936) became prime minister for the 1st of 9
times.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfried_Martens)
1979 Apr 4, Bechtel Corp.
announced that it had won a contract to manage construction of a
115-square-mile airport for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The cost was
estimated a $3 billion.
(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
1979 Apr 4, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
(51), the deposed prime minister of Pakistan, was hanged after he was
convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent.
(AP, 4/4/99)(HN, 4/4/99)
1979 Apr 5, The play “Faith
Healer” by Brian Friel opened on Broadway with James Mason as Frank. It
closed after 3 weeks.
(Econ, 2/25/06,
p.88)(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3933)
1979 Apr 6, The U.S. cut off aid
to Pakistan, because of that country’s covert construction of a uranium
enrichment facility.
(HNQ, 11/14/99)
1979 Apr 6, In India the United
Liberation Front of Assam was created to fight for independence from
India. The Ahom tribe was the major ethnic group of Assam.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A11)(AP, 4/6/09)
1979 Apr 8, The 204th and final
episode of "All in the Family" ran on TV.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_in_the_Family)
1979 Apr 9, The 51st Academy
Awards were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA. "Deer Hunter"
won as the best film. Jon Voight won as best actor in “Coming Home.”
Jane Fonda won as best actress in “Coming Home.” Lacy J. Dalton
won the Academy of Country Music’s Best New Female Vocalist Award.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_Academy_Awards)(SFC, 7/7/96, DB
p.28)(SFC, 3/20/02, p.D1)
1979 Apr 10, Nino Rota (b.1911),
Italian composer (Torquemada, Romeo & Juliette), died from cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Rota)
1979 Apr 10, The US Government
established the Taiwan Relations Act which said: "to make clear that
the US decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People's
Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan
will be determined by peaceful means."
(WSJ, 1/31/96,
p.A-18)(www.taiwandocuments.org/tra01.htm)
1979 Apr 10, In Zimbabwe the first
democratic parliamentary elections were held. The United African
National Congress, led by Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (b.1925), won
51 seats. The Zimbabwe African National Union, led by Ndabaningi
Sithole (1920-2000), won 12 seats.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_Rhodesia_general_election,_1979)(SFC,
11/23/07, p.B14)
1979 Apr 11, Chinese diplomats of
Cambodia crossed into Thailand after a 15-day, 125-mile escape from the
Vietnamese Army. In 1992 "Chinese Diplomats in International Crisis
Situations" was authored by Yun Shui. An English translation came out
in 2003.
(AP, 1/13/03)
1979 Apr 11, Idi Amin was deposed
as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces
seized control of Kampala. Amin escaped to Libya and settled into exile
in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/11/97)(SFC, 10/15/99,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin)
1979 Apr 20, Howard K. Smith
(d.2002) resigned as news analyst for ABC over the curtailment of his
commentary.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/384oxz)
1979 Apr 22, Samir Kantar (b.1962)
and 3 PLF terrorists killed three Israelis in the northern city of
Nahariya.
(AP,
10/25/04)(http://shlemazl.blogspot.com/2006/07/hezbollah-about-to-strike-syria.html)
1979 Apr 24, The hit song "Georgia
on My Mind," written in 1930 with lyrics by Stuart Gorrell and music by
Hoagy Carmichael, was declared the state song of Georgia. Georgia-born
singer Ray Charles (1930-2004) made the song famous.
(www.promotega.org/vsu00011/georgia_book.htm)
1979 Apr 25, N. Chernykh,
Soviet-Russian, discovered asteroids #2656: Evenkia & #3653.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Stepanovich_Chernykh)
1979 Apr 28, Carlos Muniz Varela,
a Cuban travel agent and an activist for Puerto Rico's independence,
was killed in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 3/29/06)(www.rocla.org/Actions/MunizVarela.html)
1979 Apr 29, Democracy was
restored in Ecuador. Jaime Roldos Aguilera was elected as president in
a 2nd round of voting. He was killed in plane crash in 1981.
(AP, 4/21/05)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.39)(www.binghamton.edu/cdp/era/elections/ecu79pres.html)
1979 Apr, Bernard A. Goldhirsh
(1940-2003) published the 1st issue of Inc. Magazine.
(www.inc.com/magazine/20030901/legacy.html)
1979 Apr, Bishop Able Muzorewa won
elections in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)
1979 May 1, Elton John and Ray
Cooper performed the first of 5 concerts in Israel. They performed 3
times in Jerusalem and twice in Tel Aviv ending in Tel Aviv on May 6.
(www.vex.net/~paulmac/elton/ej1979.html)
1979 May 1, In recognition of the
evolving political status of the Marshall Islands, the US recognized
the constitution of the Marshall Islands and the establishment of the
Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
1979 May 1, The people of the
Marshall Islands ratified their own constitution and the constitutional
government came into being. In recognition of the evolving political
status of the Marshall Islands, the US recognized the constitution of
the Marshall Islands and the establishment of the Government of the
Republic of the Marshall Islands. Mr. Amata Kabua (1928-1996)
became the first president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amata_Kabua)(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26551.htm)
1979 May 1, Denmark gave home rule
to Greenland, but continued to make key decisions on law and order. The
legislative basis for the Home Rule Administration is Act no 56 of 21
February 1979 which came into force on 1 May 1979 following a
referendum in Greenland.
(WSJ, 1/13/04,
p.A4)(www.gh.gl/uk/govern/organiza.htm)
1979 May 3,
Britain held general elections. Conservative Party leader Margaret
Thatcher was chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister as
the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary
elections. In 2008 Claire Berlinski authored “There Is No Alternative:
Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.”
(AP, 5/3/97)(HN, 5/3/98)(WSJ, 11/18/08, p.A19)
1979 May 3, In the Philippines a
UN Conference on Trade and Development opened as thousands of squatters
around Manila were forcibly moved out of sight.
(SFC, 11/18/96,
p.A12)(www.lawphil.net/executive/execord/eo1978/eo_497_1978.html)
1979 May 4, Margaret Thatcher
(b.1925), leader of the Conservative Party, was sworn in as Britain's
first female prime minister. She continued in office for 3 terms until
1990.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/thatcher_margaret.shtml)
1979 May 5, The recording "In The
Navy" by The Village People reached #9 on the pop singles chart.
(www.1050chum.com/index_chumcharts.aspx?chart=1166)
1979 May 7, An estimated 125,000
people rallied against nuclear power in Washington, DC.
(SFC, 5/7/04, p.F2)
1979 May 8, Radio Shack released
TRSDOS 2.3.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-DOS)
1979 May 9, A disguised bomb
injured John Harris, a Northwestern Univ. graduate student. It was
later attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1979 May 13, In Tehran, Iran, the
Shah and his family, who had fled in January, were sentenced to death.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1979-5/1979-05-13-ABC-8.html)
1979 May 15, In Ghana J.J.
Rawlings (b.1947) led an unsuccessful coup d'état that resulted
in his arrest, imprisonment, and a death sentence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Rawlings)
1979 May 16, Asa Philip Randolph
(b.1889), black labor leader and civil rights pioneer, died in NYC.
Randolph brought the word of trade unionism to millions of African
American households.
(www.aflcio.org/aboutus/history/history/randolph.cfm)
1979 May 19, The recording "Shake
Your Body (Down To The Ground)" by The Jacksons peaked at #5 on the pop
singles chart.
(www.1050chum.com/index_chumcharts.aspx?artist=8900)
1979 May 19, The Regents of the
Univ. of California asked General Motors to stop doing business with
the police and military forces in South Africa.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1979 May 21, Former San Francisco
City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in
the 1978 murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
The verdict set off the "White Night Riots," involving thousands of
protesters outside City Hall. $400,000 worth of property damage
resulted including 14 police cars.
(SFC, 7/11/96, p.C2)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 11/26/98,
p.A19)
1979 May 22, Canadians went to the
polls in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservatives
under Joseph Clark in power, ending the 11-year tenure of PM Pierre
Elliott Trudeau.
(AP,
5/22/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1979)
1979 May 25, 273 people died in
America's worst domestic air disaster when an American Airlines DC-10
crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The
left engine was lost on takeoff. 3 of the dead were on the ground.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(AP, 5/25/07)
1979 May 25, Israel began to
return Sinai to Egypt.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/time70s.html)
1979 May 29, US District Judge
John Wood (b.1916) was assassinated in San Antonio as he was about to
preside in a drug conspiracy trial against Jimmy Chagra. Joe Chagra
(1946-1996), Jimmy’s brother, conspired in the killing and served as a
prosecution witness against Charles V. Harrelson. Joe served 6 1/2 of
10 years. Charles Harrelson (d.2007) was convicted of the murder.
Prosecutors said a drug dealer facing trial had hired Harrelson to kill
the judge, who was known for giving maximum sentences. In 1985
Harrelson’s son Woody began an acting career with a role in “Cheers.”
(SFC, 12/11/96,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Wood,_Jr.)(SFC, 3/21/07,
p.B7)
1979 May 29, Mary Pickford
(b.1892), silent film star, died a wealthy recluse. Her life is
documented in the 1997 book: "Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood"
by Eileen Whitfield. She was married for 42 years to Buddy Rogers
(d.1999).
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/timeline/timeline2.html)(SFC, 4/22/99,
p.D2)
1979 May 29, Bishop Abel Muzorewa
was sworn in as the first black PM of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia - the name
given to the country in the brief period before full independence.
(www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/this_day_in_history/this_day_May_29.php)
1979 May 31, Zimbabwe proclaimed
its independence following a British brokered cease-fire.
(HN, 5/31/98)(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1979 May, Drs. David Seeburg and
David Goeddel used a Univ. of California sample of human growth hormone
for experimental data. A paper later published in Nature attributed all
the data to Genentech research. UC took Genentech to federal court in
1999 for patent infringement.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.B1,2)
1979 May, The National Association
of Immigration Judges was created.
(SFC, 1/31/02,
p.A7)(www.flra.gov/decisions/v12/12-068-3.html)
1979 May, Peter Ompir (b.1904),
American folk artist born as Charles Burns, died.
(SFC, 1/17/07, p.G2)(http://tinyurl.com/32co6m)
1979 Jun 1, Paul McCartney and
Wings released "Old Siam, Sir” on its Back to the Egg album
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Siam,_Sir)
1979 Jun 1, Janice Holt Giles
(b.1905), American historical novelist, died. Her 13 novels included
"Hannah Fowler" and "The Believers."
(WSJ, 7/29/99,
p.A24)(www.cumberlandbooks.com/janiceholtgiles.php)
1979 Jun 1, Werner Forssman
(b.1904), German urologist, (Nobel 1956), died. He was the first to
catheterize a human heart. In 1929, at the age of 25, while doing his
surgical training at Eberswalde, a small town near Berlin, he
introduced a urethral catheter into his own right atrium. Using a
mirror he advanced the catheter under fluoroscopic control and then
climbed the stairs to the x ray department where a chest film was
taken. (http://tinyurl.com/3d9ys3)(http://tinyurl.com/2v4chn)
1979 Jun 1, The Government of
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia took office under the internal settlement negotiated
between the government of Rhodesia and moderate African nationalists.
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (b.1925) served as the first prime minister
under Pres. Josiah Zion Gumede.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Zimbabwe-Rhodesia)
1979 Jun 2, Pope John Paul II,
formerly Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Warsaw, arrived in his native Poland
on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C1)(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D1)(AP, 6/2/97)
1979 Jun 2, Jim Hutton (b.1934),
TV and screen actor, died. In the early 1970s Hutton began working
almost exclusively in television and played the title role of Ellery
Queen in the 1975 made-for-television movie that led to the 1975-76
television series Ellery Queen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hutton)
1979 Jun 3, In the 33rd Tony
Awards: Elephant Man & Sweeny Todd won.
(http://tinyurl.com/2lytw4)
1979 Jun 3, Ixtoc 1, an
exploratory oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, blew and spilled an
estimated 140 gallons of crude oil.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A14)
1979 Jun 4, Charles Joseph Clark
(b.1939), Progressive Conservative, became the 16th Prime Minister of
Canada. He served to March 3, 1980.
(AP, 6/4/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Clark)
1979 Jun 4, In Ghana friends of
J.J. Rawlings (b.1947), led by Major Boakye Djan, overthrew the
military government of General Fred Akuffo in a bloody coup.
(SFC, 12/6/96, p.B1)
1979 Jun 4, South African Pres.
Vorster resigned due to scandal. Marais Viljoen became the last
non-executive State President of South Africa and served until
September 3, 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marais_Viljoen)
1979 Jun 6, Jack Haley (b.1898),
actor, died of cancer. He is best known for his portrayal of the Tin
Man and farm worker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Haley)
1979 Jun 7, Rocker Chuck Berry
(b.1926) was charged with tax evasion. He performed at the White House
at the request of President Jimmy Carter on June 1. A month later he
began a five-month sentence for income tax evasion.
(www.rockhall.com/inductee/chuck-berry)(http://tinyurl.com/3aqzze)
1979 Jun 7, Bhaskara 1, an Indian
Earth resources meteorology satellite, was launched.
(www.csre.iitb.ac.in/isro/bhaskara1.html)
1979 Jun 7-1979 Jun 10, The first
elections to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage were
held. The turnout for the vote was 63%.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1979/index_en.htm)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.56)
1979 Jun 11, Actor John Wayne died
of cancer at age 72. He was born Marion Morrison in Iowa. His 1973
album "America, Why I Love Her" was re-released. The words were
co-written with John Mitchum (d.2001).
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Z1 p.2)(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par
p.2)(SFEC, 2/23/97, BR p.1)(AP, 6/11/97)(SFC, 12/3/01, p.A17)
1979 Jun 12, Cyclist Bryan Allen
(26) flew the manpowered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
This was the first man powered craft to fly across the English Channel.
The bicycle plane was designed by Paul MacCready (1925-2007).
(Hem, Nov.'95, p.138)(AP, 6/12/97)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.A4)
1979 Jun 13, Sioux Indians were
awarded $105 million in compensation for the U.S. seizure in 1877 of
their Black Hills in South Dakota.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1979 Jun 13, Ahmed Zahir (b.1946),
Afghanistan pop star, was killed in a car crash. His death is believed
to have been arranged by Hafizullah Amin.
(Econ, 12/6/03,
p.38)(www.ahmadzahir.com/biography.php)
1979 Jun 16, In Aleppo, Syria,
Captain Ibrahim el-Yousuf, the officer on duty (in charge of
moral and political steering and head of Ba’ath Party Unit) at the
Military Artillery school, committed a massacre, killing 32 cadets and
wounding 54 others. The culprits targeted cadets from the Alawite sect,
however the then minister of information Mr. Ahmad Iskander Ahmad
stated that they included Christians and Sunni Muslims.
Immediately after the massacre, a country-wide campaign was started to
uproot the Muslim Brotherhood organization.
(www.shrc.org.uk/data/aspx/d5/315.aspx)
1979 Jun 18, President Carter and
Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms
limitation treaty in Vienna. The agreement set a ceiling on long-range
bombers and missiles and limited development to only one new land-base
missile system for the duration of the treaty.
(AP, 6/18/97)(HNQ, 11/15/99)
1979 Jun 19, In Mali presidential
and general elections were held. Moussa Traore was elected President
and Mady Sangare was elected as Speaker of the National Assembly.
(www.etat.sciencespobordeaux.fr/_anglais/chronologie/mali.html)
1979 Jun 20, Robin Samsoe (12) was
kidnapped in Huntington Beach, Ca. Her dismembered and decomposing body
was found 12 days later in the Angeles National Forest. Rodney Alcala
was arrested and convicted of the slaying in 1980, but the sentence was
overturned. He was convicted again in 1986 but a judge faulted the
ruling in 2005 and a retrial was scheduled. Alcala pleaded innocent to
4 other sex-torture killings that dated back to 1977.
(SFC, 11/23/05, p.B3)(www.kleph.com/story/ruling.htm)
1979 Jun 20, Nikola Kavaja (d.2008
at 77) hijacked a US passenger jet with the intention of crashing it
into Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters in Belgrade. He abandoned
his hijack mission in Ireland, saying at the time he was not sure of
the exact location of the downtown party office and did not want
innocent civilians to die if the jet missed the target.
(AP,
11/12/08)(www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/europe/12kavaja.html)
1979 Jun 20, ABC News
correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by
a member of President Anastasio Somoza's national guard.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1979 Jun 21, Mayor Diane Feinstein
returned from her visit to China, where she signed a sister-city
relationship with Shanghai. In August Wang Bingnam announced that San
Francisco and Shanghai will become “friendship cities.”
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A3)(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A19)(SFC,
6/18/04, p.F2)(SFC, 8/27/04, p.F2)
1979 Jun 24, Brenda Lynn Judd and
Sandra Colley were kidnapped in Reno, Nevada, by Gerald Gallego
(b.1946) and Charlene Williams. The bodies of Judd (14) and Colley (13)
were found in Dec 1999 in Lassen Ct., Ca. Gallego died in 2002 at age
56.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A15)
1979 Jun 26, Heavyweight boxing
champion Muhammad Ali (b.1942) confirmed to reporters that he'd sent a
letter to the World Boxing Association resigning his title, saying his
third announced retirement was indeed final.
(AP, 6/26/99)
1979 Jun 26-1979 Jun 28, OPEC
raised oil prices an average of 15%, effective July 1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970-1979_world_oil_market_chronology)
1979 Jun 28, OPEC raised oil
prices. The price of a barrel of oil increased 50% since a year earlier.
(www.energy.ca.gov/m+pco/history.html)
1979 Jun 28, Philippe Cousteau
(b.1940), the youngest son of Jacques Cousteau, was killed while
testing a seaplane near Lisbon.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1979 Jun 29, The James Bond film
"Moonraker" premiered in the US.
(www.amazon.com/Moonraker-Irka-Bochenko/dp/B00004RG64)
1979 Jul 1, The Susan B. Anthony
dollar was issued. It was the 1st US coin to honor a woman. The 1st
coin was struck Feb 2 in San Francisco. The SF mint produced 100
million of the coins. Another 400 million were made in Philadelphia and
Denver. It was not widely accepted and production stopped in 1981.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.B5B)(MC, 7/1/02)(SFC, 1/30/04,
p.E6)(SFC, 7/2/04, p.F9)
1979 Jul 3, Dan White, convicted
of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor
George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, was sentenced to seven years
and eight months in prison. He served five years.
(AP, 7/3/9)
1979 Jul 3, Helen Van Slyke,
English writer, died. She left a manuscript that was completed by James
Elward (1929-1996) titled "Public Smiles, Private Tears" that became a
best-seller. It was about a woman’s rise in the world of retail fashion.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/3bzrf3)
1979 Jul 4, Algerian ex-president
Ben Bella (b.1918) was freed after 14 years of detention, but remained
under house arrest. He had served as prime minister from 1962-63, and
as president from 1963-65. Bella was freed on Oct 20, 1980.
(http://www.rulers.org/indexb2.html)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9807/04/)
1979 Jul 6, The B-52s, a New Wave
band based in Athens, Georgia, released "Planet Claire."
{Pop&Rock, GeorgiaUS, USA}
(SFEC, 1/3/99, DB
p.29)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_B-52's_(album))
1979 Jul 9, Voyager II made its
closest approach to Jupiter. Both Voyager I and II probes spotted
volcanoes erupting on the Jupiter’s moon, Io.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/vgrjup.htm)
1979 Jul 10, Conductor Arthur
Fiedler, who had led the Boston Pops orchestra for a half-century, died
in Brookline, Mass., at age 84.
(AP, 7/10/99)
1979 Jul 11, The abandoned 78-ton
US space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up
in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and
Western Australia. Solar storms were blamed for Skylab’s premature fall
back.
(AP, 7/11/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A6)(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A5)
1979 Jul 12, "Disco Demolition
Night" at Comiskey Park, caused fans to go wild. It also caused the
White Sox to forfeit 2nd game of a doubleheader to Tigers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night)
1979 Jul 12, Pop singer Minnie
Riperton (b.1947), famed for her three-octave range, died of cancer.
”Lovin’ You,” Riperton’s international blockbuster, topped the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. She was a member of Stevie Wonder's backup
group, Wonderlove, in 1973.
(http://tinyurl.com/dd5q3)
1979 Jul 12, The Gilbert Islands
gained independence from Britain and became a nation, the Archipelago
of Kiribati. It is a chain of 35 islands that sprawls 1,860 miles from
east to west. Fanning Island was renamed to Tabuaeran.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Kiribati.htm)(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)
1979 Jul 13, A 45-hour siege began
at the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, as four Palestinian
guerrillas killed two security men and seized 20 hostages.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1979 Jul 15, President Carter
delivered his "malaise" speech in which he lamented what he called a
"crisis of confidence" in America.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1979 Jul 16, Saddam Hussein
succeeded Premier al-Bakr and became president of Iraq and chairman of
the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). He established a multilayered
security system with 3-5 secret police units. He later put his son
Qusai in charge of his 10,000 member Special Guards.
(AP, 7/16/97)(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 2/24/98,
p.A9)
1979 Jul 17, Nicaraguan President
Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned and fled to Miami in exile.
(AP, 7/17/97)(HNQ, 6/29/99)
1979 Jul 19, The Nicaraguan
capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after
President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/19/99)
1979 Jul 19, Alexander I. Ginzburg
(1936-2002), Russian-born poet, was flown to the US as part of an
exchange for Soviet spies.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A27)
1979 Jul 19, Two supertankers
collided off Tobago and spilled 260,000 tons of oil. It was the worst
oil spill to date with 88 million gallons spewed.
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R49)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills)
1979 Jul 23, A Miami jury
convicted Theodore Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of
Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa
Levy. In 1980 he was convicted of the murder and rape of Kimberly Leach
(12). Bundy eventually confessed to more than 30 killings and was
executed in 1989.
(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/14.html)
1979 Jul 31, Cesar Chavez began a
12-day march from SF to Salinas to dramatize the 6-month strike of the
United Farm Workers.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.F2)
1979 Aug 3, INS inspectors at the
SF Int’l. Airport stopped 2 male Mexican nationals because their bags
contained cosmetics. The INS soon issued a new directive temporarily
halting its agents from turning back foreign visitors suspected of
being homosexuals.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.F4)
1979 Aug 3, In Equatorial Guinea
Pres. Macias was overthrown and executed by Teodoro Obiang Nguema, his
nephew, security chief and right-hand man. Teodoro Obiang Nguema
assumed power.
(SFC, 5/15/01,
p.A10)(www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/eqguinea.html)
1979 Aug 6, Paul Volcker (b.1927),
appointed by Pres. Carter, took over as the new chair of the US Federal
Reserve Board.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker)
1979 Aug 8, In Iran the
revolutionary prosecutor banned the leading left-wing newspaper,
Ayandegan. 5 days later hezbollahis broke up a Tehran rally called by
the National Democratic Front, a newly organized left-of-center
political movement, to protest the Ayandegan closing.
(http://tinyurl.com/3cssq4)
1979 Aug 8, Iraqi president Saddam
Hussein executed 21 political opponents.
(www.foreignaffairs.org/1979/2.html)
1979 Aug 9, In California Forrest
Silva Tucker, William McGirk and John Waller escaped from San Quentin
prison in a hand made kayak named Rub-a-Dub-Dub. McGirk (38) was
captured Oct 31. Waller was recaptured within months. Tucker was caught
after a few years in Boston in a credit scam but was released in error.
He was later identified as a member of the Massachusetts "Over the Hill
Gang" and in 1999 was caught on suspicion of robbing a Florida bank.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A1,4)(SFC, 10/29/04, p.F11)
1979 Aug 10, Michael Jackson (21)
launched his solo career with “Off the Wall.”
(WSJ, 6/8/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off_the_Wall)
1979 Aug 14, In northern Wisconsin
Rob Pfiel (27) was killed by a shotgun blast to the back of his head. 2
months earlier Rusk County sheriff’s deputies killed his 3 dogs because
they had gotten loose. Rusk County DA Robert Rogers (d.1984), his wife
Cherie Barnard, and 3 brothers were later accused of plotting to kill
Pfiel, who had threatened to get even. In 2005 police arrested 2 of the
Rogers brothers for Pfiel’s murder as well as Barnard.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.B1)(SFC, 10/17/05, p.A1)
1979 Aug 13-1979 Aug 14, A force 9
gale off the southwest coast of Ireland left 15 yachtsmen of the 28th
Fastnet Race dead.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Fastnet_race)
1979 Aug 15, Andrew Young resigned
his position as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations because of the
revelation that he had met with representatives of the Palestine
Liberation Organization without the authorization of President Carter.
(HNQ, 5/29/98)
1979 Aug 17, Vivian Vance
(b.1909), TV and theater actress, died. She played Ethel Mertz in the
“I Love Lucy” show.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Vance)
1979 Aug 18, In Los Angeles singer
Nick Lowe married singer Carlene Carter, the stepdaughter of Johnny
Cash.
(http://tinyurl.com/2s4gxj)
1979 Aug 18, Iran Ayatollah
Khomeini sent the army to attack and occupy Paveh, Sanandaj and Saghez.
Having defeated the Kurds in the cities, he appointed Khalkhali, as
head of security for Kurdistan, who proceeded with a series of summary
trials and executions.
(www.sarbazan.com/Massacre.asp)
1979 Aug 18, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1979 Aug 19, In Cambodia a Phnom
Penh court tried, convicted and sentenced Pol Pot and his deputy, Leng
Sary, to death in absentia for genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime.
A "Hate Day" was created to recall Khmer Rouge crimes. Denise Affonco’s
testimony during the trial was later published as “To the End of Hell:
One Woman’s Struggle to Survive Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.”
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/19/00,
p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2onrxp)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.93)
1979 Aug 20, Bob Dylan proclaimed
his new born-again Christianity with his album "Slow Train Coming." The
album won a Grammy award.
(SFEC, 9/28/97,
p.A3)(www.bobdylan.com/albums/slowtrain.html)
1979 Aug 20, Diana Nyad succeeded
in her 3rd attempt to swim from the Bahamas to Florida.
(AP,
8/20/99)(http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bion1/nyad1.html)
1979 Aug 22, James T. Farrell
(b.1904), author (Young Lonigan), died. In 2004 Robert K. Landers
authored "The Life and Times of James T. Farrell."
(SFC, 2/26/04, p.E1)
1979 Aug 23, Iranian troops
entered Iraqi Kurdish territory.
(www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373658&printthis=1)
1979 Aug 23, Soviet dancer
Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New
York.
(AP, 8/23/99)
1979 Aug 25, "Madwoman of Central
Park West" closed at 22 Steps in NYC after 86 performances.
(www.sondheimguide.com/other.html)
1979 Aug 25, Stan Kenton (b.1911),
orchestra leader (Music 55), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kenton)
1979 Aug 25, Cannie Bullock (8) of
San Pablo, Ca., was raped and killed. DNA evidence in 2002 identified
Joseph Cordova Jr., inmate in a Colorado prison, as the murderer. In
2007 Cordova was sentenced to death.
(SFC, 12/4/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/12/07, p.B2)
1979 Aug 25, Somalia adopted
a 2nd constitution. The first was adopted in 1961 following
independence.
(www.pogar.org/countries/country.asp?cid=17)
1979 Aug 26, Alvin Karpis
(1907-1979), Canadian-born US gangster, died. His autobiography, “The
Alvin Karpis Story,” was completed in 1971.
(WSJ, 7/15/04,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Karpis)
1979 Aug 27, British war hero Lord
Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in his 29-foot
sail boat in Sligo, Ireland; the Irish Republican Army claimed
responsibility. Also killed were his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas,
83-year-old Lady Brabourne, and 15-year-old John Maxwell. Thomas
McMahon (31) was the bombmaker and was jailed at Dublin’s Mountjoy
prison. He was released in 1998 as part of the Northern Ireland peace
agreement. Richard Hough (d.1999) later authored the biography
"Mountbatten: Hero of Our Time."
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)(HN, 8/27/98)
1979 Aug 27, In Sanandaj, Iran, 11
Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30 minute
trial under Shiite cleric Sadegh Khalkhali. Jahangir Razmi, a
photographer for Iran’s independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured the
execution on film. Within hours an anonymous photo of the execution ran
across 6 columns of the paper. On Sep 8 the newspaper was seized by the
Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned holding company. On
April 14, 1980, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 Razmi made
public 27 images from the execution that he had kept hidden.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.A1)
1979 Aug 27, In Northern Ireland
18 British militia died in ambush and bomb attack at Warrenpoint, South
Down.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27/newsid_3891000/3891055.stm)
1979 Aug 28, Konstantin Simonov
(b.1915), Russian war correspondent and poet, died in Moscow. His poems
included “Wait For Me” (1942).
(www.simonov.co.uk/biography.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Simonov)
1979 Aug 30, Hurricane David
devastated the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica as it began a rampage
through the Caribbean and up the eastern seaboard of the United States
that claimed some 1,100 lives.
(AP, 8/30/97)
1979 Aug 30, The comet SOLWIND 1
first appeared on an image, at which time it was located 5.96 solar
radii from the sun. It has been commonly presumed that the comet either
hit the sun, or completely vaporized because of its near approach.
(http://cometography.com/lcomets/1979q1.html)
1979 Aug 31, Sally Rand (b.1904),
exotic dancer and actress, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Rand)
1979 Aug, Twinsburg, Ohio, began
holding an annual festival and parade for twins.
(Econ, 8/14/04, p.70)
1979 Sep 1, A Los Angeles court
ordered Clayton Moore (1914-1999), born as Jack Carlton Moore, to
stop wearing the Lone Ranger mask.
(http://tinyurl.com/2ngftg)(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Clayton_Moore)
1979 Sep 1, Pioneer 11 made the
1st fly-by of Saturn and discovered new moon rings. Ring F of Saturn
was discovered by Lonny Baker at NASA's Ames Research Center from data
sent by Pioneer 11.
(Ind, 7/27/99,
p.1A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11)
1979 Sep 2, Charles Burton
(1942-2002) led a small group down the Thames on a 3-year journey to
follow the meridian line connecting Greenwich to the North and South
Poles. Sir Ranulph Fiennes (b.1944) and his wife Ginnie also took part.
Burton and Fiennes returned to Greenwich Aug 29, 1982.
(SFC, 7/18/02,
p.A26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Fiennes)
1979 Sep 3, Hurricane David struck
along the central Florida coast, leaving several people dead and
millions of dollars in damage.
(AP, 9/3/97)
1979 Sep 6, Pres. Carter
designated the first Sunday of September following Labor Day of each
year as National Grandparents Day.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=32826)
1979 Sep 7, The Entertainment and
Sports Programming Network, ESPN, made its cable TV debut. In 1984 it
was bought by ABC, which was in turn bought by Disney in 1996.
(AP, 9/7/97)(Econ, 8/2/08, SR p.5)
1979 Sep 7, The Chrysler
Corporation petitioned the United States government for $1.5 billion in
loan guarantees to avoid bankruptcy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler)
1979 Sep 7, The Karoo National
Park in South Africa was proclaimed. It officially opened on September
12.
(Nat. Hist., 3/96,
p.60)(www.sanparks.org/about/news/default.php?id=43)
1979 Sep 8, Jean Seberg (b.1939),
actress (Breathless, Airport), committed suicide at 40.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Seberg)
1979 Sep 9, In the 31st Emmy
Awards the winners included: Taxi, Lou Grant, Ron Leibman & Ruth
Gordon.
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1979)
1979 Sep 10, Pres. Agostinho Neto
(b.1922), Angola’s 1st president, died and Jose Eduardo dos Santos was
elected president. Neto was originally embalmed but later cremated.
(SFC, 8/24/01,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostinho_Neto)(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A5)
1979 Sep 10, Four Puerto Rican
nationalists imprisoned for a 1954 attack on the House of
Representatives and a 1950 attempt on the life of President Truman were
granted clemency by President Carter.
(AP, 9/10/99)
1979 Sep 14, Colombia signed an
extradition treaty with the US, but Colombian leaders enacted
legislation that nullified the pact. It became effective march 4, 1982.
(SFC, 10/2/98,
p.B3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradition_treaties)
1979 Sep 16, In Wisconsin the
Madison Press Connection published a detailed explanation of how to
build a hydrogen bomb in an article written by Charles Hansen
(1947-2003) of Mountain View, Ca. In 1988 Hansen published "U.S.
Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History."
(SFC, 9/17/04,
p.F4)(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/HansenRetrospective.html)
1979 Sep 16, Hafizullah Amin took
the presidency of Afghanistan following the killing of Nur Muhammad
Taraki. Amin was later executed and replaced with Babrak Karmal.
(www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/afghan/fafghan1979a.htm)
1979 Sep 17, Gov. Jerry Brown
appointed Steven Lachs as California's 1st admittedly gay judge.
(www.aaronsgayinfo.com/timeline/time70.html)
1979 Sep 18, The Who played the
5th of their 5 concerts at Madison Square Garden.
(www.thewholive.de/konzerte/zeige_konzert.php?GroupID=1&Status=0&Jahr=1979)
1979 Sep 18, Bolshoi Ballet
dancers Leonid & Valentina Kozlov defected to the US.
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_9_73/ai_55739021)
1979 Sep 20, John Riccardo stepped
down as Chrysler’s chairman and was succeeded by Lee Iacocca.
(WSJ, 5/15/07,
p.A14)(www.scripophily.net/chcoca19.html)
1979 Sep 20, In the Central
African Republic Jean-Bedel Bokassa was toppled in a French-backed
coup. 700 French paratroopers took control of Bangui while Bokassa was
away on a state visit to Libya.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)(SFC, 11/4/96, p.A22)(AP,
9/20/99)
1979 Sep 22, A 2-3 kiloton
thermonuclear device was set off in the waters off Bouvet Island, a
little-visited possession of Norway located between the bottom of South
Africa and the Prince Astrid Coast of Antarctica. The list of suspects
quickly narrowed to South Africa and Israel.
(SFCM, 9/25/05,
p.6)(www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/nuke-test.htm)
1979 Sep 22, Abul Ala Mawdudi
(b.1903), Indian-born writer, died. He encouraged terrorism in the name
of Jihad.
(WSJ, 4/4/08,
p.W5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_Ala_Maududi)
1979 Sep 23, The ABC TV show "The
Associates" premiered as a comedy about lawyers. It lasted for
one season.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.E1)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078563/)
1979 Sep 24, CompuServe began
operation as the 1st computer information service.
(www.businesshistorybooks.com/Computers.htm)
1979 Sep 24, Hilla Limann
1934-1998) was elected president of Ghana. She served until 1981.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilla_Limann)
1979 Sep 24, Russian ice skaters
Protopopov and Belousova asked for asylum in Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludmila_Belousova)
1979 Sep 25, The musical "Evita"
opened on Broadway.
(AP, 9/25/97)
1979 Sep 26, The body of a young
woman was found in Blackie’s Pasture in Tiburon, Ca., She had been
stabbed over 40 times with an ice pick and burned. In 2007 DNA evidence
identified her as Tammy Vincent (17). She had testified this year
against several people arrested during a raid in SeaTac, Wash., of 2
establishments believed to be prostitution fronts.
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.B2)
1979 Sep 27, Congress gave final
approval to forming the Department of Education, the 13th Cabinet
agency in U.S. history.
(AP, 9/27/97)
1979 Sep 29, John Paul II became
the first pope to visit Ireland as he arrived for a three-day tour.
(AP, 9/29/99)
1979 Oct 1, The 1977 Panama Canal
Treaties entered into force. The US returned the Canal Zone, but not
the canal, to Panama after 75 years.
(http://mexico.usembassy.gov/bbf/bfdossier_PanamaCanal.htm)
1979 Oct 1, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Boston for the start of a U.S. tour.
(AP, 10/1/99)
1979 Oct 1, Henry Ford II stepped
down as Ford’s chairman and CEO and was succeeded by Philip Caldwell
(b.1920).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Caldwell)
1979 Oct 1, Gen’l. Olusegun
Obasanjo (b.1937), head of Nigeria, relinquished the presidency after
civilian elections. He was jailed by Abacha in 1995 for treason. Shehu
Shagari became the civilian Second Republic president until 1983.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A10)(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A8)(WSJ,
4/15/03, p.A14)
1979 Oct 6, Paul Volcker, new
chairman of the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates sharply to clamp
down on inflation knowing that it would send interest rates soaring.
Volcker held his position until Aug, 1987.
(WSJ, 12/13/99, p.C23)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.11)(WSJ,
1/18/05, p.A13)
1979 Oct 6, Pope John Paul II, on
a week-long U.S. tour, became the first pontiff to visit the White
House, where he was received by President Carter.
(AP, 10/6/97)
1979 Oct 6, Elizabeth Bishop
(b.1911), American poet, died. In 2008 Thomas Travisano and Saskia
Hamilton edited “Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between
Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.”
(Econ, 11/22/08,
p.97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bishop)
1979 Oct 8, "Sugar Babies" opened
at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC and continued for 1208
performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Babies)
1979 Oct 10, Paul Paray (b.1886),
French composer, died at age 93. He was the resident conductor of the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1951-1962) for more than a decade.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Paray)
1979 Oct 10, In Poland an
explosion killed 34 miners at the Dymitrow mine in Bytom. This matched
Poland’s worst mining accident in 1974.
(AP, 11/22/06)(http://tinyurl.com/2qgsmf)
1979 Oct 11, Allan McLeod Cormack
and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield won Nobel Prize for medicine for
developing CAT scan.
(AP, 10/11/04)
1979 Oct 14, In Washington, DC,
some 100,000 gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and supporters marched in
celebration of gay pride and demanded equal rights for homosexuals
under the law.
(SFC, 10/15/04, p.F13)
1979 Oct 17, Mother Teresa of
India, head of the Missionaries of Charity, was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize for her years of work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A13)(AP, 10/17/97)
1979 Oct 17, Pres. Carter signed
legislation creating Dept. of Education.
(www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/jec/chron.phtml)
1979 Oct 17, S.J. Perelman
(b.1904), American humorist and screenwriter (Around the World in 80
Days), died at age 75.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._J._Perelman)
1979 Oct 20, The John F. Kennedy
Library was dedicated in Boston.
(AP, 10/20/99)
1979 Oct 21, Moshe Dayan, Israeli
minister of foreign affairs, submitted his resignation.
(http://tinyurl.com/33p82s)
1979 Oct 22, The US government
allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical
treatment. This decision precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.
(AP, 10/22/97)
1979 Oct 23, Billy Martin
(1928-1989), NY Yankee baseball manager, was involved in a barroom
altercation when he sucker punched Joseph Cooper, a Minnesota
marshmallow salesman. Cooper required 15 stitches. Martin was fired.
(www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/October_23)
1979 Oct 25, In Texas Johnny Penry
raped and stabbed to death Pamela Mosely Carpenter (22). Penry, said to
have an IQ of 51-63, was convicted of murder and faced execution in
2000. The US Supreme Court blocked the Nov. execution. The US Supreme
Court overturned his death sentence in 2001 due to flawed instructions
in his initial conviction.
(www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/newsarchive/2000/20001113penryfacts.htm)(SFC,
6/5/01, p.A1)
1979 Oct 26, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1979 Oct 26, South Korean
President Park Chung-hee was shot to death by the head of the Korean
Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-hah (1918-2006)
became acting president after the assassination of President Park
Chung-hee. The void created by Park's death was filled by Maj. Gen.
Chun Doo-hwan, a Park protege and commander of the powerful Defense
Security Command. Chun staged an internal coup to take control of the
military, then persuaded the new president, Choi Kyuh-hah, to impose
martial law and name Chun chief of the KCIA. Choi was forced to resign
8 months later following a military coup.
(AP,
10/26/97)(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/korea/story/kwangju/)
1979 Oct 29, On the 50th
anniversary of the great stock market crash, anti-nuclear protesters
tried but failed to shut down the New York Stock Exchange.
(AP, 10/29/99)
1979 Oct 29, The miniseries
"Freedom Road" premiered. It was based on a 1944 novel by Howard Fast.
It starred Muhammad Ali and Kris Kristofferson.
(SFC, 3/13/03, p.A21)
1979 Oct 30, President Carter
announced his choice of federal appeals judge Shirley Hufstedler to
head the newly created Department of Education.
(AP, 10/30/97)
1979 Oct 31, The US Archeological
Resources Protection Act, on behalf of endangered antiquities, became
law.
(www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/arch/web/arpa.htm)
1979 Oct
31, A US DC-10, flown by Western Airlines, crashed at Mexico City when
it struck a vehicle and 74 were killed.
{Air Crash, Mexico}
(http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetGOjg/Disasters.htm)
1979 Oct, The Sugar Hill Gang
released "Rapper's Delight," later claimed as the beginning mark for
the Hip-Hop culture.
(SFC, 8/18/99,
p.D3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapper's_Delight)
1979 Oct, In Massachusetts Stephen
Howard Fagan (37) abducted his two daughters, aged 2 & 4, from his
former wife, Barbara Kurth. Fagan told his daughters that their mother
had died and raised them in Florida. He was arrested in 1998 for
kidnapping and brought back to Boston to answer charges.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.A17)
1979 Nov 1, The tanker Burmah
Agate, spilled 10.7 million gallons of oil off Galveston Bay, Texas, in
US's worst oil spill disaster.
(http://tinyurl.com/2jwxd3)
1979 Nov 1, Mamie Doud Eisenhower
(b.1896), wife of former Pres. "Ike" Eisenhower, died at a family farm
in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
(AP,
11/1/99)(www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/me34.html)
1979 Nov 2, Peter Shaffer's play
"Amadeus," premiered in London.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/trivia)
1979 Nov 2, Black militant Joanne
Chesimard escaped from a New Jersey prison, where she was serving a
life sentence for the 1973 slaying of a New Jersey state trooper.
Chesimard moved to Cuba to live as Assata Shakur.
(AP, 11/2/99)
1979 Nov 3, John McGinest was
killed by a shotgun blast in Long Beach, Ca. Thomas Goldstein (30), a
college student who lived nearby, was convicted of the murder following
the testimony of a jailhouse informant. Goldstein was freed in 2004
after judges and an appeal panel concluded he was wrongly convicted.
(SFC, 4/15/08, p.A4)
1979 Nov 3, Five radicals were
killed when gunfire erupted during an anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration
in Greensboro, N.C., after a caravan of Klansmen and Nazis had driven
into the area. Named 'The Greensboro Massacre', the five marchers were
shot to death in broad daylight and another 8 were wounded.
(AP,
11/3/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_massacre)
1979 Nov 4, The US Embassy was
taken over by Iranian students and a hostage crisis began. 90 people,
including 63 Americans, were taken hostage at the American embassy in
Teheran, Iran, by militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini who
demanded the return of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Iran for trial. He
was undergoing medical treatment in New York City. The students held 52
American hostages for 444 days, and were released on the day of the
inauguration President Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981. In 2005 David
Harris authored “The Crisis: The President, the Prophet and the Shah –
1979 and the coming of Militant Islam.” In 2006 Mark Bowden authored
“Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War With
Militant Islam.”
(WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A1)(AP, 11/4/97)(HN,
11/4/98)(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.F4)(WSJ, 4/29/06, p.P10)
1979 Nov 5, Al Capp (b.1909), US
cartoonist, died. He is best known or his Li'l Abner comic strip.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capp)
1979 Nov 5, Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini declared US "The Great Satan."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Satan)
1979 Nov 6, In Iran PM Bazargan
resigned as Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) supported the student
seizure of the US embassy.
(www.britannica.com/eb/topic-272687/Iran-hostage-crisis)
1979 Nov 7, In California Linda
Ann Jozovich disappeared during a work break in Santa Clara County. In
1995 a hiker in the Los Gatos Hills discovered her jawbone and some
teeth. In 2004 her skull and bones were discovered in the same area. In
2007 Terry Childs, a convicted killer serving time in Salinas,
confessed to her murder.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.B4)(SFC, 11/2/07, p.B2)
1979 Nov 8, Bernard Slade's
"Romantic Comedy," premiered in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_Comedy_(play))
1979 Nov 8, ABC-TV aired
"Iran Crisis: American Held Hostage" with Frank Reynolds 4 days after
the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis. The late-night news program
evolved into “Nightline” on March 24, 1980. Ted Koppel (b.1940) soon
became the anchor of nightly news on Iranian Hostages (ABC).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightline)
1979 Nov 9, Robert Taylor
(d.2002), British forester, allegedly encountered a UFO in the woods of
Dechmont Law. He took police to the scene 2 days later and evidence was
gathered that gave some support to his claims.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.95)
1979 Nov 12, President Carter
announced an immediate halt to all imports of Iranian oil and freezes
Iranian assets in US. Executive Order 12170 halted oil imports from
Iran.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis)
1979 Nov 13, Former California
Gov. Ronald Reagan announced in New York his candidacy for the
Republican presidential nomination.
(AP, 11/13/99)
1979 Nov 15, A package bomb aboard
a commercial flight from Chicago exploded and forced an emergency
landing at Dulles Airport. It was later attributed to the Unabomber
Theodore Kaczynski.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1979 Nov 15, The British
government publicly identified Sir Anthony Blunt (d.1983), art
historian, as the "fourth man" of a Soviet spy ring that included Guy
Burgess, Donald Maclean and Kim Philby. Blunt’s work included "Art and
Architecture in France 1500-1700." In 2001 Miranda Carter authored
"Anthony blunt: His Lives."
(AP, 11/15/99)(WSJ, 12/28/01, p.W8)
1979 Nov 16, American Airlines was
fined $500,000 for improper DC-10 maintenance.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1979 Nov 16, Some 200 armed men
and women, Mahadi-ists, seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. They
denounced the monarchy and demanded an end to corrupting modernization
and "foreign ways." Saudi preacher Juhayman al Uteybi led the radicals.
French special forces shot dead all the Wahhabi extremists.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.C3)(WSJ, 11/12/03, p.A18)(WSJ,
9/18/07, p.A8)
1979 Nov 17, Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black American hostages
being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1979 Nov 18, Ayatollah Khomeini
said the rest of the US hostages may be tried as spies if the Shah is
not released.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1979-11/1979-11-18-ABC-2.html)
1979 Nov 20, The first US
artificial blood transfusion occurred at Univ. of Minn. Hospital. The
patient was a Jehovah's Witness, who had refused a transfusion of real
blood because of his religious beliefs.
(www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)
1979 Nov 21, A mob attacked the US
Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing two Americans.
(AP, 11/21/99)
1979 Nov 24, U.S. admitted that
thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1979 Nov 25, Israel returned the
Alma oil field in A-Tour to Egypt.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/time70s.html)
1979 Nov 28, "Young Maverick", a
TV Western Drama, made its debut on CBS.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0752244/)
1979 Nov 28, An Air New Zealand
DC10 en route to the South Pole crashed into Mount Erebus in
Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
(www.planecrashinfo.com/cvr791128.htm)
1979 Nov 30, John Paul II, while
on a pilgrimage to Turkey, became the first pope in 1,000 years to
attend an Orthodox mass.
(www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/sub_index1979/trav_turkey.htm)
1979 Nov 30, Zeppo Marx (b.1901),
US comic, died. Born as Herbert Marx he was the youngest of the 5 Marx
Brothers.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0555688/bio)
1979 Nov, The first annual COMDEX
trade show opened in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. It was a trade show
for business related computer hardware and software. The acronym used
to stand for Computer Dealer Expo, but since 1984, the D has stood for
Distribution.
(Hem, Nov.'95,
p.138)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMDEX)
1979 Nov, Ford bought a 25% stake
in Toyo Kogyo (later Mazda).
(www.performanceprobe.com/text/info/dates.htm)
1979 Dec 2, Some 2,000 Libyans
ransacked the US embassy at Tripoli, Libya, chanting support for the
radical Islamic regime that took power in Iran earlier in the year.
(AP, 12/30/03)
1979 Dec 3, Christie's in
Switzerland auctioned a thimble for a record sum. A London dealer bid
$18,000 for a Meissen porcelain thimble that dated to about 1740.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimble)
1979 Dec 3, In Ohio 11 people were
killed in a crush of fans at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, where
The Who, a British rock group, was performing.
(AP, 12/3/97)(HN, 12/3/98)
1979 Dec 4, The Jeremiah O’Brien
Liberty ship was guided into dry dock at the Bethlehem Yard in SF for a
$1 million project to memorialize it as one of the last WW II Liberty
Ships. The project was led by Rear Admiral Thomas J. Patterson
(1924-2008).
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.B7)
1979 Dec 4, In Saudi Arabia
security forces overran the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which had been
seized on Nov 16. One of two African-American converts, who had
participated in the take-over of the mosque, was killed. The other was
later released and returned to the US. In 2007 Yaroslav Trofinov
authored “The Siege of Mecca.”
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.A8)
1979 Dec 5, Feminist Sonia Johnson
was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church because of her
outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the
Constitution.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1979 Dec 5, Teresa De Simone (22)
was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked in
Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean
Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted and
pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological liar and
any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was released from
prison based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 3/18/09)(http://tinyurl.com/c5jz3y)
1979 Dec 7, Gannet Co. bought
California Marin County’s San Rafael Independent Journal. The Gannet
chain owned 78 daily papers in 30 states.
(SFC, 7/28/00, p.A19)(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)
1979 Dec 7, Walter A. Haas Sr.
(b.1889), former head of Levi Strauss (1928-1955), died in his sleep.
(SFC, 12/3/04,
p.F8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_A._Haas%2C_Sr.)
1979 Dec 9, Archbishop Fulton J.
Sheen, the religious broadcaster for "The Catholic Hour," died in New
York City at age 84.
(AP, 12/9/97)(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A2)
1979 Dec 11, Charles J. Haughey
(1925-2006) was elected in Ireland as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna
Fail. He led 3 administrations 1979-1981, 1982, and 1987-1992. In 2000
he agreed to pay $1.23 million in back taxes for gifts received while
in office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Haughey)(SFC,
4/4/00, p.A12)
1979 Dec 12, In response to the
Iran hostage crisis, the Carter administration ordered the removal of
most Iranian diplomats in the United States.
(AP, 12/12/99)
1979 Dec 12, In South Korea Chun
Doo Hwan led a military coup.
(SFC, 12/16/96, p.A16)
1979 Dec 14, The British punk
group Clash released its “London Calling” album.
(WSJ, 12/21/04,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Calling)
1979 Dec 15, The deposed Shah of
Iran left the US for Panama, the same day the International Court of
Justice in The Hague ruled that Iran should release all its American
hostages.
(AP, 12/15/99)
1979 Dec 16, In South Africa
Eugene TerreBlanche gave instructions to some 40 men to tar and feather
Van Jaarsveld at the University of South Africa, after Van Jaarsveld
had delivered a paper calling for the abolition of the Day of the
Covenant.
(SFC, 6/16/99,
p.B2)(www.doj.gov.za/trc/media/1999/9905/p990510a.htm)
1979 Dec 17, In a case that
aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance
executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami. Four white
police officers were later acquitted of charges stemming from
McDuffie's death.
(AP, 12/17/99)
1979 Dec 18, The UN Convention on
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was
adopted with 10 abstentions. It entered into force on Sep 3, 1981. By
2005 the treaty was endorsed by more than 170 nations, but still
opposed by the US.
(www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm)(SFEC, 10/8/00,
Z1 p.4)
1979 Dec 18, The UN "Agreement
Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and other Celestial
Bodies" opened for signature. It extended a 1967 Space Treaty and
established that the Moon and the other bodies within our solar system
to be the common heritage of mankind. It entered into force on July 11,
1984.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, Par
p.18)(www.islandone.org/Treaties/BH766.html)
1979 Dec 23, Peggy Guggenheim
(b.1898), eccentric American philanthropist, died in Italy. In 2000
playwright Donna Blue Lachman created "The Trouble With Peggy: Pieces
of Guggenheim." In 2002 Anton Gill authored "Art Lover: A Biography of
Peggy Guggenheim."
(WSJ, 1/6/00, p.A20)(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.M3)
1979 Dec 25, Large numbers of
Soviet airborne forces joined stationed ground troops and began to land
in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan)
1979 Dec 25, Egypt began a major
restoration of the Sphinx.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1979 Dec 25, In Tong-du-cheon,
Korea, two US soldiers, David Medina and Reinaldo Roa, approached an MP
station under cover of darkness. Medina and Roa had earlier been
arrested for beating up an elderly Korean store owner. They tossed a
hand-grenade through the front door and several MPs were injured by
shrapnel and other debris. In the ensuing confusion, the suspects
escaped. Roa and Medina were later caught after they bragged about
their feat.
(PSS, 12/30/79)
1979 Dec 26, Robert Ben Madison
(14) founded the virtual Kingdom of Talossa in his Milwaukee, Wisc.,
bedroom and migrated it to the Internet in 1996.
(Econ, 12/24/05,
p.85)(www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/kingdoms_pr.html)
1979 Dec 27, "Knots Landing,"
premiered on CBS-TV.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078638/)
1979 Dec 27, Soviet forces seized
control of Afghanistan after a 2nd leftist coup. The Soviet backed coup
ousted leftists and put a more pro-Moscow regime in power in Kabul.
Babrak Karmal (1929-1996) became the new puppet leader and Soviet
troops bolstered his rule against Muslim resistance fighters.
Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown, was executed and replaced by
Babrak Karmal. Some 15,000 Soviet soldiers reportedly died along with 1
million Afghans.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(WSJ, 12/6/96,
p.A1) (WA, 1997,p.737) (AP,
12/27/97)(http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_afg.html)
1979 Dec 30, Richard Rodgers
(b.1902), composer (Rodgers & Hammerstein), died in NYC. His
Broadway shows included "Oklahoma" and other classics.
(www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/rodgers_r.html)
1979 Dec 31, The DJIA closed the
decade at 838.74.
(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1979 Chris Burden (b.1946) made
his work "The Big Wheel," in which a motorcycle powers a huge flywheel
that enacts the artist’s drive to magnify himself. This was after he
had shot, shocked, impaled and cut himself for attention.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.E4)
1979 Richard Diebenkorn
(1922-1993) painted his "Ocean Park No. 116."
(SFC, 10/9/97,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Diebenkorn)
1979 Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997),
American pop artist, began his "Double Glass" sculpture and finished it
in 1980.
(SFEM, 11/24/96,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein)
1979 Marta Minujin (b.1943),
Argentine artist, made her monumental "The Obelisk of Raising Bread."
It was made of 40,000 panetone and was later distributed to the crowd.
(WSJ, 4/15/98, p.A20)
1979 Sam Shepard (b.1943) wrote
his play: "Buried Child." "It presented life as a blurred nightmare
founded on vague but bloody sacrifice."
(WSJ, 5/16/96,
p.A-12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Shepard)
1979 The play "Bent" was written
by Martin Sherman and first performed in London. It’s Broadway debut
was in 1980. It was about a gay love story set in a Nazi concentration
camp and was made into a film in 1997 that starred Clive Owen, Mick
Jagger and Lothaire Bluteau.
(SFEC,11/23/97, DB p.43)(SFC,11/26/97, p.E8)
1979 August Wilson, playwright,
wrote "Jitney," his first play. It was set in the Hill District of
Pittsburgh and was first performed in 1982.
(WSJ, 8/4/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 4/25/00, p.A24)
1979 Harmony Books published “The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. In the book the
British writer described the Babel fish, a live fish placed in the ear
that translates any form of language.
(www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=133)(SFC,
4/29/98, p.E1)
1979 Architect Christopher
Alexander authored “The Timeless Way of Building”. This book, on the
architecture of towns and buildings, has inspired a lot of software
patterns work.
(www.testing.com/test-patterns/intro.html)
1979 John Chapman and John Siseman
published their 1st edition of “Cradle Mountain Lake St. Clair,” a
hiking guide of Tasmania’s Overland Track.
(www.john.chapman.name/pub-cr.html)
1979 Arthur C. Clarke authored his
science fiction novel “The Fountains of Paradise” about the
construction of a space elevator.
(Econ, 6/10/06, Survey p.4)
1979 Greimas-Courtes, a
semio-structuralist, published his "Dictionnaire."
(SFEC, 12/12/99, BR p.11)
1979 Don E. Fehrenbacher, Stanford
history professor, published "The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in
American Law and Politics."
(SFC,12/18/97, p.C16)
1979 Former US Pres. Gerald Ford
(1908-2006) authored his autobiography “A Time to Heal.”
(WSJ, 1/2/07, p.A1)
1979 Dizzy Gillespie, jazz
trumpeter, published his autobiography: "To Be Or Not to Bop."
(SFEC, 8/29/99, BR p.4)
1979 Peter Griffin (d.1998 at 61),
mathematician, published "The Theory of Blackjack."
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C2)
1979 Leon A. Harris Jr. authored
"Merchant Princes: An Intimate History of Jewish Families Who Built
Great Department Stores."
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A23)
1979 Douglas Hofstadter (b.1945)
authored his book "Godel, Escher, Bach." In 1980 he won the Pulitzer
Prize for general non-fiction.
(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A16)
1979 James Lovelock and Lynn
Margulis published "Gaia." In this book Lovelock proposed that the
Earth is a huge living organism. The name was inspired by William
Golding, author of "Lord of the Flies."
(NOHY, 3/90, p.198-200)(NH, 10/98, p.10)
1979 Donald T. Lunde (1937-2007),
Stanford forensic psychiatrist, authored “Murder and Madness.”
(SFC, 12/25/07, p.B6)
1979 Lyall Watson (1939-2008),
South Africa-born scientist and author, proposed the hundredth monkey
theory in his book: Lifetide: A Biology of the Unconscious.”
(SFC, 7/22/08,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_Monkey)
1979 Catherine MacKinnon authored
her path breaking "Sexual Harassment of Working Women."
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.M6)
1979 Penelope Mortimer (1918-1999)
won the Whitbread Prize for her memoir "About Time." The 2nd part of
her autobiography was published in 1993.
(http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/whitbread.html)
1979 Marge Piercy authored her
science fiction novel "Woman on the Edge of Time," on travel to the
year 2137.
(WSJ, 1/1/00, p.R8)
1979 Norman Podhoretz, editor of
Commentary, authored "Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir," the 2nd
volume of a 3 part series of his memoirs.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.8)
1979 V.A. Pritchett (1900-1997),
English writer, published his collection of short stories "On the Edge
of the Cliff."
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1979 Peter Singer authored
"Practical Ethics." In it he argued that parents should be allowed to
euthanize severely disabled infants. In 1999 Singer was invited to
teach at Princeton.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A10)
1979 "The Life and Crimes of
Charles Sobhraj" was published as was "Serpentine." The 2 books covered
the story of Charles Sobhraj, aka "The Serpent," a criminal jailed in
1975 in India for forgery, fraud and murder. He was released in 1997
and admitted to killing young tourists.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.B1)
1979 Actor Robert Stack
(1919-2003) authored his autobiography "Straight Shooting."
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A1)
1979 Ralph Steadman, caricaturist,
published "Sigmund Freud," illustrations of episodes from Freud’s life
linked with Freud’s "reduced" statements used to explain the workings
of jokes.
(SFEC,10/19/97, BR p.8)
1979 Jose Samarago won the
Portuguese Critics Award and was sent by his editors on a cross-country
road trip during which he authored "Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of
Portugal’s History and Culture."
(SSFC, 3/4/01, BR p.3)
1979 Pennsylvania Prof. William T.
Sanders (d.1008 at 82) authored “The Basin of Mexico: Ecological
Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization.” He wrote the book
following an aerial survey with colleagues Jeffrey R. parsons and
Robert S. Santley.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.B10)
1979 William Styron authored
"Sophie’s Choice." In 1996 he gave composer Nicholas maw permission to
turn it into an opera. The opera premiered Dec 7, 2002 at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden.
(SFC, 12/11/02, p.D5)
1979 Prof. Ezra Vogel of Harvard
authored "Japan as Number One."
(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)
1979 Tom Wolfe wrote his book "The
Right Stuff." It was about US astronauts.
(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)
1979 The British punk group Clash
released its “London Calling” album.
(WSJ, 12/21/04, p.D8)
1979 Elmo and Patsy (the Homestead
Act) recorded "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Got_Run_Over_by_a_Reindeer)
1979 The song "We Are Family" by
Sister Sledge became a hit. It was made the theme song for the 1979
Pittsburgh Pirates.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Family_%28song%29)
1979 Itzhak Perlman and the New
York Philharmonic premiered the Violin Concerto of Earl Kim (d.1998 at
78) at Avery Fisher Hall.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.C2)
1979 Sir Norman Foster, English
architect, designed the 41-story Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank
headquarters in Hong Kong.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.B1)
1979 Ruth Clark (d.1997) published
her newspaper study "Changing Needs of Changing Readers." This sparked
the "news you can use" concept and spread across the US. She was also
part of the team that introduced exit polls in the 1970’s.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1979 The Delta Blues Museum opened
in Clarksdale, Miss.
(HT, 5/97, p.38)
1979 Rosetta Reitz (1924-2008)
founded Roseta Records to remaster and promote recordings by woman in
the early history of jazz. By 1995 she completed 17 albums.
(SFC, 11/18/08, p.B5)
1979 The Pritzker Prize, an Int’l.
for award for Architecture, was begun by Jay Pritzker, founder of the
Hyatt Hotel chain. The first winner was Philip Johnson for his Glass
House in New Canaan, Conn.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.D8)(WSJ,
6/15/99, p.A16)
1979 John Crosbie (d.1994), a
Canadian writer, founded the Save the Puns Foundation.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A17)
1979 The estate of Charles Bremmer
Hogg Jackson, a reclusive Pennsylvania oilman, bequeathed to the
Smithsonian a collection of European weapons and accoutrements, much of
which was related to the Napoleonic wars.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.E3)
1979 Pano’s and Paul’s, a "temple
of cuisine," opened in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia. "Some
people likened it to a bordello."
(Hem., 7/96, p.56)
1979 The Episcopal Church passed a
resolution against ordaining practicing homosexuals.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-1)
1979 Gwen Bell founded the
Computer Museum in Boston. It originally used space in Marlborough,
Mass., and moved to Boston in 1982 when it became a public, nonprofit
educational foundation.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C9)
1979 Jim Ellis (d.2001 at 45) and
Tom Truscott, Duke graduate students, linked computers to share
information and created the Usenet electronic bulletin board.
(SFC, 6/29/01, p.D5)
1979 Larry and Frances Jones
founded Feed the Children, an international relief organization. It
later received an F rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy
(AIP), reporting that only 18% of its cash goes to provide services,
and 60% goes for direct mail, TV, and other promotional activities.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par
p.24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_The_Children)
1979 Gary Larson, Seattle humane
society investigator, began his career as a cartoonist when SF
Chronicle editor George Stanleigh Arnold (d.1997 at 78) purchased his
cartoons. His last "Far Side" cartoon was done in 1995. In 1998 he
published "There’s a Hair in My Dirt." It was a cautionary tale set in
a family of worms.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)(SFC, 5/1/98, p.C1)
1979 Construction began in the
Lompoc Valley for a $3.5 billion space shuttle port at Vandenberg Air
Base. It was finished in 1986 but never used. In 1992 the Air Force
turned it over to NASA, which sold it to Spaceport Systems Int’l.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B7)
1979 The first California Gilroy
Garlic Festival was held. It was founded by Rudolph Melone (d,1998 at
73), president of Gavilan Community College, after he read about the
garlic festival in Arleux, France, which proclaimed itself the "Garlic
Capital of the World."
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A24)
1979 The Los Angeles Angels, owned
by Gene Autry, won their first divisional championship.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A14)
1979 The California state park
system purchased land from Irvine, Ca., for $32.3 million, which became
the Crystal Cove State Park.
(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.G7)
1979 The US Geological Survey
installed an array of seismic monitors in the Geysers region of
northern California. Since 1960 small earthquakes in the region had
increased due to geothermal development.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A1)
1979 Boris Naumoff, owner of a
Twin Peaks liquor store in SF, was murdered. Robert Massie was
convicted but the ruling was overturned in 1985. He was sentenced to
death for the murder in 1989. He was dubbed "The Killer Who Wants to
Die," for requesting his death, but changed his mind. He was also once
on death row for a 1965 murder of a San Gabriel woman, but was paroled
in 1978, when the state’s death penalty law was struck down. His death
sentence was upheld in 1998.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1979 Tim and Nina Zagat began a
mimeographed list of restaurants rated by a few friends that grew into
the Zagat restaurant guides. Their first guide covered restaurants in
NYC. Sales exceeded $20 million in 2002.
(SFC, 3/16/02,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagat's_Survey)
1979 George Soros started the Open
Society Fund, a philanthropic foundation to promote democracy in
Eastern Europe and later countries of the former Soviet Union.
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.A1)
1979 The Los Angeles Angels, owned
by Gene Autry, won their first divisional championship.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A14)
1979 English writer Penelope
Fitzgerald won the Booker Prize for her novel "Offshore."
(WSJ, 4/8/97, p.A20)
1979 Sir Arthur Lewis, an
economist from St. Lucia, won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.90)
1979 Abdus Salam (1926-1990),
Pakistan-born physicist, shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Sheldon
Glashow and Steven Weinberg for work on unifying the electromagnetic
force and the weak nuclear force.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A28)
1979 The US government created a
"watch list" to bar admission of immigrants suspected of acts of
persecution under authority of Nazi Germany or its wartime Axis allies.
(SFC, 12/4/96, p.A3)
1979 Inflation climbed in the US
and gas lines were common.
(TMC, 1994, p.1979)
1979 Gold, fine art, and antiques
rose in value under the inflationary economy. America’s core inflation,
which excludes oil and food, rose at a 7% rate.
(TMC, 1994, p.1979)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.13)
1979 Larry Lee Hillblom and
partner Peter Donnici of DHL filed lawsuits and broke the monopoly of
the US Post Office delivery of mail. They essentially cleared the way
for the birth of the air-courier industry. DHL became an $3 billion
company that provided air courier services to 200 countries.
(WSJ, 5/15/96, p.A-8)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A10)
1979 Arthur Christy, the first
independent council under a new law, spent $182,000 investigating
allegations of drug use by White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan.
No charges resulted.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.6)
1979 The US Congress mandated an
unpublished list of Nazi war criminals to include Japanese who
committed war atrocities.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A12)
1979 There was a public
investigation of the state Court of California under Rose Bird on
charges that the court delayed release of decisions for political
reasons.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A25)
1979 The US House Select Committee
on Assassinations reported that conspiracies were "likely" in John F.
Kennedy’s death.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A16)
1979 In Boston Joseph P. Kennedy
launched the Citizen’s Energy Corp., a tax-exempt social welfare
program that later depended on for-profit subsidiaries. The initial
idea was to ease heating bills during the oil crises. The group signed
its 1st crude oil contract with Venezuela. By 2007 the company had
expanded to 16 states delivering los-cost oil to as many as 400,000
households. In 1987 Kennedy was elected as a Massachusetts
Representative to Congress and served until 1999.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A1,10)(SFC, 2/17/07, p.A3)
1979 PCB’s (polychlorinated
biphenyls) were banned in the US. They had been used in the manufacture
of electronic capacitors and transformers.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A9)
1979 Construction began in
California’s Lompoc Valley for a $3.5 billion space shuttle port at
Vandenberg Air Base. It was finished in 1986 but never used. In 1992
the Air Force turned it over to NASA, which sold it to Spaceport
Systems Int’l.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B7)
1979 The first Gilroy Garlic
Festival was held. It was founded by Rudolph Melone (d,1998 at 73),
president of Gavilan Community College, after he read about the garlic
festival in Arleux, France, which proclaimed itself the "Garlic Capital
of the World." In 1986 Richard Nicholls (1944-2005) took over as
executive director.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A24)(SSFC, 6/19/05, p.A24)
1979 The Los Angeles Angels, owned
by Gene Autry, won their first divisional championship.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A14)
1979 The California state park
system purchased land from Irvine, Ca., for $32.3 million, which became
the Crystal Cove State Park.
(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.G7)
1979 The US Geological Survey
installed an array of seismic monitors in the Geysers region of
northern California. Since 1960 small earthquakes in the region had
increased due to geothermal development.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A1)
1979 Boris Naumoff, owner of a
Twin Peaks liquor store in SF, was murdered. Robert Massie was
convicted but the ruling was overturned in 1985. He was sentenced to
death for the murder in 1989. He was dubbed "The Killer Who Wants to
Die," for requesting his death, but changed his mind. He was also once
on death row for a 1965 murder of a San Gabriel woman, but was paroled
in 1978, when the state’s death penalty law was struck down. His death
sentence was upheld in 1998.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1979 Brenda Spencer, a teenager in
San Diego, shot up an elementary school, killing 2 people and wounding
9. She told police she did it because, "I don’t like Mondays."
(SFC, 3/6/01, p.A4)
1979 The Colorado Supreme Court
found that the public has no right to the use of waters overlying
private lands for recreations purposes without the consent of the
owner. In 1983 the attorney-general cited a 1977 legislative opinion
that floating on rivers while staying off the banks of beds does not
constitute trespass.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.31)
1979 Oregon voters approved a law
stipulating that if the state’s general-fund revenue exceeded budget
estimates by 2% or more, the excess had to go back to taxpayers.
(WSJ, 3/24/06, p.A8)
1979 Chicago closed off 9 blocks
of State St. for a transit only mall. The plan failed and after 9 years
it was refurbished for $24 million and opened to cars.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A1)
1979 Seminole Indians in Florida
won the right to run high-stakes Seminole bingo. Within a decade the
Seminoles were making $100 million a year.
(WSJ, 2/8/00, p.A20)
1979 Bob Charles, a McDonald’s
franchisee in Colorado, helped create the Happy Meal when he added a
toy to children’s orders at his restaurants.
(WSJ, 1/30/06, p.B2)
1979 Ernie Gabiati (1921-2005)
sold his SF Gallo Salame operations to Consolidated Foods Inc. He had
taken over the Roma Sausage operation of his father in 1946 and created
Gallo Salame Inc.
(SSFC, 10/16/05, p.B5)
1979 Thomas Langfitt,
neurosurgeon, got a seat on the board of directors of the Pew
Foundation. He later became president. Together with Ms. Rimel, a
protege, he changed the direction of the foundation and pushed for
strategic grants to America’s press. They strived to help citizens
become less cynical about government and to get more involved.
(WSJ, 10/17/96, p.A6)
1979 A second oil shortage forced
US car buyers to search for smaller vehicles.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1979 Geoffrey Ballard co-founded
Ballard Power Systems to develop, commercialize and market fuel cells.
(Econ, 12/6/03, TQp.15)
1979 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts &
Co., a private equity firm, made the first leveraged buyout of a
publicly traded firm with the purchase of Houdaille Industries for $355
million. By 2007 KKR had completed 145 deals and was among a small
group of megafunds with capital of over $100 billion.
(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.C1)
1979 Robert Metcalf of Xerox Corp.
started 3Com Corp. The company specialized in connecting computers
using the Ethernet system, which he helped develop. The early Ethernet
adapters sold for $5000. In 1994 they sold for $100.
(WSJ,11/14/94, p.R26)
1979 Samuel Maslak founded Acuson
Corp. The company was based on the use of ultrasound, which shoots
sound waves into the body, and then converts the echoes to visible
images.
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.B-3)
1979 Allegheny Airlines was
renamed to USAir.
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.B1)
1979 IBM Corp. was re-instated as
a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-42)
1979 IBM Corp. adopted the Intel
8088 microprocessor for its new personal computer (PC). The chip also
launched DOS, Lotus 1-2-3, and other new software.
(TAR, 1996, p.25)
1979 The Motorola 68000
microprocessor made its debut. It was chosen to be used in the
Macintosh Computer, which introduced the first graphical user interface.
(TAR, 1996, p.26)
1979 International Paper sold its
oil business to Mobil Oil Corp.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R46)
1979 Victor Kiam (d.2001 at 74)
bought Remington for $25 million in a leveraged buyout. "I liked it so
much that I bought the company."
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A17)
1979 R.J. Reynolds acquired Del
Monte for $618 million.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)
1979 Seagate Corp., a manufacturer
of disk drives, was founded by Alan Shugart and Finis Conner. Shugart
was credited with leading an IBM team that invented the floppy disk.
(SFC, 11/15/99, p.A6)
1979 Japan’s Sony Corp. introduced
the Walkman, the 1st personal headphone stereo.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(WSJ, 3/7/05, p.A8)
1979 Mel Zuckerman and his wife
Enid opened Canyon Ranch, America’s first total vacation and fitness
resort, on an old dude ranch in Tucson, Arizona. By 2007 it was
recognized as a premium health-spa of choice for the super rich.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.51)
1979 A conferencing system called
Participate was designed for The Source, the first commercial online
system.
(Wired, 5/97, p.104)
1979 The US Fish and Wildlife
Service established Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge at the
northern end of Key Largo, Florida.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.49)
1979 Bruce Weindruch founded
Informative Design Group, Inc. The original business proposition was to
marry solid historical research with distinctive graphic design to
inform and educate a range of intended audiences. In 1989 it renamed
itself “The History Factory,” a heritage management firm. The company
works with corporations, associations, and large not-for-profits to
help them, identify, capture, maintain, and access their heritage and
history, their artifacts and archives.
(Econ, 9/8/07,
p.66)(www.historyfactory.com/index.aspx?sectionid=106)
1979 Robert Klark Graham
(1907-1997) founded the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank,
in Escondido, Ca.
(SFC,2/17/97,
p.C2)(http://www.boston.com/globe/search)
1979 AIDS was diagnosed for the
first time. When the first cases of AIDS erupted in 1979 the most
important sign was the occurrence of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), the
so-called "gay cancer" appearing on the bodies of some homosexuals
dying of the disease.
(V.D.-H.K.p.354)(www.konformist.com/1999/aids/cantwell2.htm)
1979 Robert Weinberg, Ph.D.,
demonstrated the first biologically active oncogene in human bladder
cancer.
(WSJ, 2/27/04, p.A1)
1979 Dr. J. Robert Warren first
observed an apparent bacterium in the lower part of stomach biopsies.
In 1982 Dr. Barry Marshall managed to grow the slow-growing
Helicobacter pylori bacterium in a culture. In 2005 the Australian
researchers won a Nobel Prize for their work.
(SFC, 8/7/97, p.A11)
1979 The US eliminated polio
within its borders. Most of the world's cases were in India.
(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.B1)
1979 Swedish scientist Bengt
Samuelson identified a natural chemical produced in the body that helps
spawn the severe, breath shortening attacks that are the hallmark of
asthma. He received the Nobel Prize in 1982.
(WSJ, 4/5/96, p.B-1)
1979 The first example of a
gravitational lens was discovered when a suspicious-looking
double quasar was observed.
(NH, 2/97, p.77)
1979 The US Geological Survey
installed an array of seismic monitors in the Geysers region of
northern California. Since 1960 small earthquakes in the region had
increased due to geothermal development.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A1)
1979 Scientists developed the
moment magnitude scale. It succeeded the Richter scale for measuring
earthquakes.
(SSFC, 1/21/07, p.M3)
1979 The Mathematical Sciences
Research Institute was founded on the campus of UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A1)
1979 The U of M Institute for
Social Research (ISR) began its National Survey of Black Americans.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.4)
1979 Aquanaut Sylvia Earle planted
an American flag on the sea floor off Oahu’s Makapu’u Point on the
deepest untethered dive at 1,250 feet.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, p.T5)
1979 Hadrosaur nests were found in
Montana and showed that the reptiles nested in extensive rookeries and
looked after their young for some time after birth.
(T.E.-J.B. p.20)
1979 Martin Pomerantz (1916-2008,
American astrophysicist, built a telescope at the South Pole and
propelled the new field of helio-seismology. In 1995 the National
Science Foundation dedicated the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory in
Antarctica.
(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.B3)
1979 The Belgium government
decided to nationalize its steel companies. Half of them were owned by
Albert Frere (b.1926).
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.64)
1979 On the island of Bonaire,
Netherland Antilles, a Marine Park was legislated to protect everything
living or dead from the high tide mark to a depth of 200 feet.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T8)
1979 The Minimum Critical Size of
Ecosystems Project was established as a collaborative research project
between the Smithsonian Institution and the Brazilian Institute for
Research in the Amazon. It was later renamed the Biological Dynamics of
Forest Fragments project.
(NH, 7/98, p.35)(http://pdbff.inpa.gov.br/iquem.html)
1979 Controls on capital
movement across borders were abandoned by the U.K. and Japan.
France and Italy abandoned controls in the late 1980s.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-44)
1979 In Britain Vickers PLC
acquired the Rolls-Royce company. By this time the "Spirit of Ecstasy"
statuette atop the Parthenon-style metal grill was an established
status symbol.
(WSJ, 10/28/97, p.B1)
1979 Oil production in Brunei
peaked.
(WSJ, 10/25/05, p.A1)
1979 The National Museum re-opened
in Cambodia. It had been closed under the Khmer Rouge rule.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)
1979 Documents from Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, that detailed the genocide by the Khmer Rouge, were
discovered and copied for storage in American libraries.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A16)
1979 The Khmer Rouge took refuge
in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains and fought on for another 19 years.
Their presence in the area acted as a preservative for the natural
wildlife.
(SFC, 4/8/00, p.A14)
1979 Cambodian farmer Neang Say
stumbled onto the Killing Fields, the main execution and disposal site
for the condemned inmates of Tuol Sleng, Pol Pot’s most notorious
prison.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.45)
1979 The Hibernia oil field in the
Grand Banks off Canada was discovered with an estimated 600 million
barrels of oil good for 25 years.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.D5)
1979 In the Central African
Republic some 100 school children were slaughtered following a protest
over expensive uniforms owned by one of the wives of Emp. Jean-Bedel
Bokassa.
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.A2)
1979 Chilean Communist Party Sec.
Gen’l. Luis Corvalan proclaimed from Moscow a new era of acute
violence, and endorsed guerrilla warfare, terrorism and a massive armed
uprising.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1979 In China Deng Xiaoping
launched his "open door" policies and trade reform.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A19)
1979 Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
met with Gyalo Thondup, the brother of the Dalai Lama, beginning nearly
a decade of on and off dialogue over Tibet.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A8)
1979 China and the US formed the
U.S.-China Joint Economic Commission forum to thrash out economic
issues.
(AP, 10/16/05)
1979 China adopted a family
planning policy that limited families to one child. There were a number
of exceptions such as for rural families, fisherman and ethnic
minorities. Single children raised under the policy were to be allowed
2 children.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A8)
1979 The Soviet Union established
a brigade in Cuba.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A7)
1979 In El Salvador guerrilla
warfare broke out in the cities and countryside amid government
repression.
(WSJ, 1/10/05, p.A10)
1979 Martin Bouygues founded
Maison Bouygues to sell prefabricated homes in France. By 1984 the firm
was France’s 2nd largest of its kind.
(Econ, 12/2/06, p.72)
1979 Claude Tabet (b.1924), French
painter and illustrator, died.
(SFC, 1/25/06, p.G2)
1979 In Grenada the New Jewel
Movement of Maurice Bishop overthrew a corrupt government led by Eric
Gairy and allied itself with Cuba. Cuba then gave Grenada millions of
dollars for the construction of the Point Saline International Airport.
US strategists feared the airport would project Cuban air power into
South America.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A10)(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.F5)
1979 Anil Agarwal (25), a scrap
metal merchant in India, founded Vedanta Resources. In 2007 the
company’s market cap reached $10 billion and his personal fortune was
estimated at $5.4 billion.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.72)
1979 In Indonesia Pramoedya Ananta
Toer, outspoken writer, was released after spending 14 years in a labor
camp on the island of Buru. He was never charged with a crime. Upon his
release he wrote and published the "Buru Quartet" of novels. In 1999
his memoir of those years was published in English as "The Mute's
Soliloquey." He was kept under either house or city arrest even after
his release until 1999 when he was allowed a passport to visit New York
City.
(WSJ, 4/30/99, p.W9)
1979 The government of Iran began
fighting the Kurdish Democratic Party.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1979 In Iran Germany began to
build a 1,000-megawatt light-water nuclear reactor at Bushehr. Germany
later abandoned the project and it was given over to Russia.
(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A7)
1979 In Iran the population was
estimated at 34 million and the government urged the populace to breed
an Islamic generation.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D2)
1979 Iraq put its biological
weapons program on hold.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A18)
1979 Saddam Hussein executed some
500 rival party leaders. This was most of the leadership of the
Baathist Party. Said Aburish, author of "A Brutal Friendship: The West
and the Arab Elite Against the Arab People," was quoted on the
execution in 2002. Aburish also later authored a biography of Hussein.
In 2003 a Baath document was found called Punishment Law 111. Section
200, the "execution section," stated that the death penalty is
mandatory for party disloyalty.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)(SSFC,
4/6/03, p.W7)
1979 In Israel the 1st class of
cadets entered Talpiot, a government sponsored program for science
study to be followed by 6 years of paid service in the military. The
cadets were charged with improving the armed services through
technology.
(WSJ, 1/6/07, p.A6)
1979 Toshio Hara, heir to a lumber
and paper fortune, opened the Hara Museum in Tokyo.
(SFC, 10/29/03, p.D8)
1979 In Japan Raymond Bushnell
(d.1998 at 87), lawyer, organized a netsuke display at a private
gallery. Netsuke are miniature sculptures formerly used as toggles for
the strings of purses worn suspended from kimono sashes. He later wrote
7 books on netsuke including: "Collector’s Netsuke" and "Netsuke
Familiar and Unfamiliar."
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A21)
1979 The Japanese oil ship Takeo
Maru sank in a storm off the coast of Sakhalin Island with its tanks
full. The rusty tanks later began leaking and in 2000 a huge slick hit
the port city of Shakhtyorsk.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.D8)
1979 Ireland’s PM Charles J.
Haughey made contraception available to married couples, with a
doctor's prescription, despite the opposition of the Catholic hierarchy.
(AP, 6/13/06)
1979-1996 During this period Ireland’s PM Charles J.
Haughey took some 11.56 million euros in payments for favors.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.117)
1979 In Namibia Nick (d.2001) and
Marieta van der Merwe began taking in injured animals on their 100,000
acre cattle farm. They later turned the farm into a trust called the
Harnas Wildlife Foundation (www.harnas.de/en).
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.G7)
1979 In Nicaragua the Sandinistas
led an insurrection against Gen’l. Somoza.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A1)
1979 Nigeria outlawed gas flaring,
to be phased out over 5 years. The law was not enforced and in 2008
some 20 billion cubic meters of year were flared, out of a global total
of 150 billion.
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.50)
1979 In Northern Ireland John Hume
(b.1937) became the leader of Northern Ireland’s main Catholic party,
the Social Democratic and Labor Party. Hume was also elected this year
to represent Northern Ireland in the European Parliament at Strasbourg.
(SFC, 4/11/98,
p.A8)(www.politics.ie/wiki/index.php?title=John_Hume)
1979 In Northern Ireland Robert
"Basher" Bates pleaded guilty to 10 murders. He was a member of the
Shankhill Butchers, a Protestant gang that kidnapped and tortured
Catholics. He received 14 life sentences but was released in 1996 after
turning state’s evidence and converting to a born-again Christian. In
1997 he was shot to death in revenge.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1979 A North Korean chemist in
2004 reported that he witnessed the death of 2 men this year as the
regime tested chemical weapons on political prisoners.
(AP, 3/4/04)
1979 Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, military
dictator of Pakistan, began his Islamization program. It declared
drinking a “heinous crime” punishable by public flogging and led many
people to turn to drugs.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A16)
1979 Pakistan introduced the
Hudood ordinances, which included a clause stating that to prove rape,
a woman must have at least 4 male witnesses. If the woman fails to
provide proof, she herself faces the charge of adultery.
(SSFC, 7/9/06, p.A18)
1979 Refugee camps were
established around Peshawar, Pakistan, for those fleeing Afghanistan
following the Soviet invasion.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A19)
1979 In the Philippines a UN
Conference on Trade and Development was held and thousands of squatters
around Manila were forcibly moved out of sight.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.A12)
1979 Researchers at Moscow’s
Institute of Nanotechnology began working on an additive to improve
fuel efficiency in car engines. Italians moved the project forward by
using serpentine nanopowders and a product named Clap was expected to
hit markets in December, 2005.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.88)
1979 South Africa privatized
Sasol, a coal-to-liquids facility, and listed it on the Johannesburg
Stock Exchange.
(WSJ, 8/16/06, p.A12)
1979 Osama bin Laden left Saudi
Arabia to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, where he laid the
groundwork for his al-Qaeda network.
(NW, 11/19/01, p.35)
1979 In Spain Pilar Miro, film
director, made "The Cuenca Crime," an expose of Civil Guard torture
with graphic violence. It was censored.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1979 Sweden pioneered a ban on
smacking children.
(Econ, 9/4/04, p.54)
1979 At Davos, Switzerland, the
World Economic Forum became the first nongovernmental institution to
initiate a partnership with China’s economic development commissions.
(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A8)
1979 In Tanzania two new varieties
of cassava root were introduced. They were more resistant to draught
and more poisonous in raw form.
(NH, 7/96, p.13)
1979 Mehmet Ali Agca made a
jailbreak in Istanbul. He was being tried for the killing of Abdi
Ipekci, a leading left-wing columnist. In 1981 he shot Pope John Paul
in Rome. In 2006 Agca was released from prison in Turkey.
(SFC, 12/10/96, p.A10)(AP, 1/12/06)
1979 The UN produced the animated
film "Broom." It won the Cannes Festival Palme D’Or.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E4)
1979 The UN produced the film
"People: A Matter of Balance." It included film footage shot by
director Roberto Rossellini in the Amazon and Africa.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E4)
1979 The UN opened a major branch
in Vienna, Austria, as a third world center. It was promoted by
Chancellor Bruno Kreisky. The complex cost Austria $880 mil. and was
rented to the UN for a nominal annual rent of one dime.
(SFC, 2/17/96, p.A14)(SFC,2/17/97, p.A14)
1979-1980 60 Minutes was the top ranking network show
on television with a ranking of 28.2%.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1979-1980 A recession hit Michigan.
(WSUAN, V.52, p.6)
1979-1980 German film director Rainer Werner
Fassbinder made "Berlin Alexanderplatz," a 15-hour TV opus on Germany
between the wars. It was based on Alfred Doblin's great modernist novel.
(WSJ, 1/14/97,
p.A16)(www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=411)
1979-1980 The Islamic Jihad was founded in Egypt by
Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip. Nafez Azzam was one of the
founders. Control was later moved to Iran with training and funding
from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Leaders included Ramadan
Shalah and Abdullah Shami.
(www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/egyptian_islamic_jihad.htm)(SFC,
6/6/02, p.A12)
1979-1981 James Lees-Milne (1908-1997), English
biographer, kept diaries during this period that were published in 2001
as "Deep Romantic Chasm: Diaries 1979-1981."
(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.63)
1979-1981 In El Salvador an estimated 30,000 people
were killed by army-backed right-wing death squads.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A7)
1979-1983 Ford Motors during this period closed 13
factories and dropped its work force from 191,000 to 101,000 people.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1979-1984 The TV series "Hart to Hart" with Robert
Wager and Stefanie Powers was produced.
(SFC, 8/13/97, Z1 p.3)
1979-1985 The TV series "Dukes of Hazard" played.
Denver Pyle (d.1997 at 77) played Uncle Jesse.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.E2)
1979-1989 The Afghanistan resistance fought off
Soviet troops. It was backed by intelligence services of the US and
Saudi Arabia and nearly $6 billion worth of weapons.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A8)
1979-1992 Habibullah Jalalzoy (b.1946) served as the
head of the interrogations unit within the Afghan military intelligence
under the communist regime. In 2005 Dutch prosecutors demanded a
sentence of 9 years in prison for war crimes and torture.
(AP,
9/26/05)(www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/habibullah_jalalzoy_392.html)
1979-1992 This period in Afghanistan was later
covered in Nelofer Pazira’s 2005 memoir “A Bed of Red Flowers: In
Search of My Afghanistan.”
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.F1)
1979-1995 Lane Kirkland (1922-1999) served as
president of the AFL-CIO. In 2005 Arch Puddington authored “Lane
Kirkland: Champion of American Labor.”
(WSJ, 3/8/05,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_Kirkland)
1979-1997 In the Dominican Rep. Metales y Oxido S.A.,
ran a battery recycling plant in Haina. It left behind fields of lead
powder that sickened local people and caused brain damage in children.
The Dominican government said in 1999 that the site would be cleaned
up, but little was done. In 2007 cleanup efforts began to move forward.
(AP, 6/20/07)
1979-2002 In Panama munitions explosions from the
44,000-acre former US firing range left 24 fatalities over this period.
100,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance were estimated to remain in the
ranges named Empire, Piña and Balboa West.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A3)
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