1979

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

1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. It was also the last year of the 1970s.

Events

Picture of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1

• January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings
• February 1 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile
• March 4 – The U.S. Voyager 1 spaceprobe photos show Jupiter's rings
• April 1 – Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially
• May 1 – Greenland is given limited autonomy from Denmark. The new Parliament of Greenland will meet in Nuuk.
• June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna
• July 16 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam al-Tikriti replaces him
• August 3 – Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
• September 1 – The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km
• September 7 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy
• September 7 – ESPN starts broadcasting
• September 16 – Three families flee from East Germany by balloon
• September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa
• September 22 – The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test
• October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving many tens of thousands of people
• October 16 – 23 people die in Nice, France, when the coastal town is hit by a tsunami
• October 21 – 259 Muslim radicals occupy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Saudi-Arabian army goes in to expel them
• October 26 – South Korean president Park Chunghee killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu
• October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence
• October 29 – Pope John Paul II visits Ireland
• November 5 – The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio in the United States
• December 5 – Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland. He is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
• December 15 – Chris Haney and Scott Abbott develop the board game Trivial Pursuit

Births

Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan

• January 2 – Morena Baccarin, Brazilian actress
• January 12 – Marián Hossa, Slovakian hockey player
• January 16 – Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
• January 20 – Will Young, English singer and actor
• January 26 – Sara Rue, American actress
• February 9 – Irina Slutskaya, Russian figure skater
• February 11 – Brandy Norwood, American singer
• February 21 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
• March 8 – Tom Chaplin, English singer (Keane)
• March 9 – Melina Perez, American wrestler
• March 12 – Pete Doherty, English musician
• March 27 – Hiromu Shinozuka, Japanese manga artist
• April 4
  • Heath Ledger, Australian actor (d. 2008)
  • Roberto Luongo, Canadian hockey player
• April 5 – Timo Hildebrand, German footballer
• April 24 – Marie Picasso, Swedish model and singer
• May 9 – Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician
• May 15 – Dominic Scott, Irish guitarist
• May 16 – Prince Carl Philip of Sweden
• May 26 – Ashley Massaro American model and wrestler
• May 29 – Arne Friedrich German footballer
• August 3 – Evangeline Lilly, Canadian actress
• August 16 – Cleo Lemon, American NFL player
• September 13 – Manuel Friedrich, German footballer
• September 17 – Chuck Comeau, Canadian musician
• October 3 – John Hennigan, American wrestler
• October 8 – Kristanna Loken, American actress
• November 14 – Michael Owen, English footballer
• November 27 – Hilary Hahn, American violinist
• December 26 – Chris Daughtry, American singer

Deaths

• January 3 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
• January 16 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)
• January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, American politician and businessman (b. 1908)
• February 2 – Sid Vicious, English musician (b. 1957)
• February 7 – Josef Mengele, Nazism war criminal (b. 1911)
• March 30 – José María Velasco Ibarra, 24th President of Ecuador (b. 1893)
• April 4 – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani politician
• May 25 – American Airlines Flight 191 casualties
• June 11 – John Wayne, American actor (b. 1907)
• July 3 – Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1988)
• August 3 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• September 28 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
• September 29 – Francisco Macías Nguema, first President of Equatorial Guinea (executed) (b. 1924)
• October 26 – Pak Chŏng Hŭi, President of the Republic of Korea (b. 1917)
• November 1 – Mamie Eisenhower, American First Lady (b. 1896)
• November 25 – Ky Ebright, American Olympic rowing coach (b. 1894)
• December 27 – Hafizullah Amin, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)

Nobel Prizes

• Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg for their work on electroweak interactions
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry shared by Herbert C. Brown and Georg Wittig for their work with organoboranes
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by Allan McLeod Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield for their work on X-ray computed tomography
• Nobel Prize in Literature won by Odysseas Elytis, Greek poet
• Nobel Peace Prize won by Mother Teresa
• Nobel Prize in Economics – Theodore Schultz, American economist, and W. Arthur Lewis, Saint Lucian economist

Movies released

• 10
• Alien, important for science fiction types of movie
• The Amityville Horror based on Jay Anson's novel
• Apocalypse Now, written by Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius
• Kramer vs. Kramer, winner of 5 Academy Awards
• Monty Python’s Life of Brian
• The Muppet Movie
• Mad Max
• Rocky II
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• The Warriors, a cult movie

Hit songs

Freddie Mercury in 1977

• "A Message To You Rudi/Nite Klub" – The Specials
• "Accidents Will Happen" – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
• "After the Love Has Gone" – Earth, Wind & Fire
• "Ambition" – Vic Goddard and the Subway Sect
• "Bad Case Of Loving You(Doctor Doctor)" – Robert Palmer
• "Bang Bang" – B.A. Robertson
• "Bat out of Hell" – Meat Loaf
• "Boogie Wonderland" – Earth Wind and Fire with the Emotions
• "Born To Be Alive" – Patrick Hernandez
• "Boys Don't Cry" – The Cure
• "Boys Keep Swinging" – David Bowie
• "Breakfast In America" – Supertramp
• "Bright Side Of The Road" – Van Morrison
• "California Über Alles" – The Dead Kennedys
• "Can You Feel The Force" – The Real Thing
• "Can't Stand Losing You" – The Police
• "Chiquitita" – ABBA
• "Comme disait Mistinguett" – Dalida
• "Computer Games" – Mi-Sex
• "Cool for Cats" – Squeeze
• "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" – Queen
• "Cruel To Be Kind" – Nick Lowe
• "Dance Away" – Roxy Music
• "Death Disco" – Public Image Limited
• "Do Anything You Wanna Do" – Thin Lizzy
• "Does Your Mother Know?" – ABBA
• "Don't Do Me Like That" – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• "Don't Stop Me Now" – Queen
• "Dreaming" – Blondie
• "Driver's Seat" – Sniff and the Tears
• "Duchess" – The Stranglers
• "Electricity" – OMD
• "Eton Rifles" – The Jam
• "Every Day Hurts" – Sad Cafe
• "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" – The Buzzcocks
• "Gangsters" – The Specials AKA
• "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" – ABBA
• "Girls Talk" – Dave Edmunds
• "Go West" – Village People
• "Gonna Get Along Without You Now" – Viola Wills
• "Goodbye Stranger" – Supertramp
• "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio" – Edwin Starr
• "He must have been eighteen" – Dalida
• "Helwa Ya Baladi" – Dalida
• "Here Comes The Summer" – The Undertones
• "Highway to Hell" – AC/DC
• "I Don't Like Mondays" – The Boomtown Rats
• "I Only Wanna Be With You" – The Tourists
• "I Have A Dream" – ABBA
• "Il faut danser reggae" – Dalida
• "In The Navy" – Village People
• "Into The Valley" – The Skids
• "Is It Love You're After?" – Rose Royce
• "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" – Joe Jackson
• "Jimmy Jimmy" – The Undertones
• "Just The Way You Are" – Barry White
• "Just What I Needed" – The Cars
• "Lady Writer" – Dire Straits
• "Lay Your Love On Me" – Racey
• "Let me dance tonight" – Dalida
• "Let's Go" – The Cars
• "London Calling" – The Clash
• "Lucky Number" – Lene Lovich
• "Making Plans For Nigel" – XTC
• "Milk And Alcohol" – Dr. Feelgood
• "Monday, Tuesday... Laissez-moi danser" – Dalida
• "Morning Dance" – Spyro Gyra
• "Oliver's Army" – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
• "On My Radio" – The Selector
• "One Step Beyond" – Madness
• "On The Inside – Lynne Hamilton
• "Parisenne Walkways" – Gary Moore
• "Problemorama (L'Argent... L'Argent...)" – Dalida
• "Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 3)" – Ian Dury and the Blockheads
• "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" – Steely Dan
• "Roll Over Beethoven(EP)" – Chuck Berry
• "Roxanne" – The Police
• "Sarah" – Thin Lizzy
• "Slap And Tickle" – Squeeze
• "Smash It Up" – The Damned
• "Something Else/Friggin' In The Riggin'" – The Sex Pistols
• "Spiral Scratch(EP)" – The Buzzcocks
• "Stop Your Sobbing" – Pretenders
• "Sultans Of Swing" – Dire Straits
• "Take Me To The River" – Talking Heads
• "Tears Of A Clown/Ranking Full Stop" – The Beat
• "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan" – Marianne Faithfull
• "The Cost Of Living(EP)" – The Clash
• "The Logical Song" – Supertramp
• "The Long Run" – The Eagles
• "Transmission" – Joy Division
• "Union City Blue" – Blondie
• "Up The Junction" – Squeeze
• "Vedrai Vedrai" – Dalida
• "Voulez-Vous" – ABBA
• "We Are Family" – Sister Sledge
• "Whatever You Want" – Status Quo
• "Wonderful Christmastime" – Paul McCartney
• "You Decorated My Life" – Kenny Rogers
• "You Needed Me" – Anne Murray

New books

Douglas Adams in 2008

• Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• V. C. Andrews – Flowers in the Attic
• David Attenborough – Life on Earth
• L. Sprague de Camp, editor – The Blade of Conan
• Stephen King – The Dead Zone