1979

This page refers to the year 1979. For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see 1979 (song).

1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday. It was proclaimed International Year of the Child by the United Nations.

Events

• 1979 energy crisis - occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution
• One Child Policy introduced in China.

January

• January 1 - United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the "International Year of the Child." Many musicians donate to the "Music for UNICEF" fund.
• January 1 - The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.
• January 4 - The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.
• January 7 - Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreat west to an area along the Thai border.
• January 8 - The French tanker Betelgeuse explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry in Ireland; 50 are killed.
• January 9 - The Music for UNICEF Concert is held at the United Nations General Assembly to raise money for UNICEF and promote the Year of the Child. It is broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world.
• January 13 - The YMCA sues the Village People for libel because of their song of the same name.
• January 16 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
• January 19 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
• January 29 - Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing 2 teachers and wounding 8 students.

February

• February 1 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
• February 1 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
• February 3 - Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
• February 7 - Supporters of Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration.
• February 7 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was known to science.
• February 10-February 11 - The Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution.
• February 11 - Khomeini seizes power in Iran.
• February 12 - Prime Minister Hissène Habré starts the battle of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chad's President Félix Malloum.
• February 14 - In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
• February 14 - Following her 1972 sex reassignment surgery, musician Wendy Carlos legally changes her name from Walter. She later reveals this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine. [1]
• February 17 - The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.
• February 18 - The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30 minutes.
• February 22 - Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
• February 26 - A total solar eclipse arcs over northern Canada, and a partial solar eclipse is visible over almost all of North America and Central America. [2]

March

• March 1 - Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
• March 4 - The U.S. Voyager I spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
• March 5 - Voyager I makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.
• March 13 - Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada.
• March 14 - In China, a Hawker-Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
• March 25 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.
• March 26 - In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty.
• March 28 - A nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, releases radiation.
• March 28 - In Britain, Jim Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election.
• March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah, Sultan of Pahang.
• March 30 - Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an INLA bomb in the British House of Commons parking lot.
• March 31 - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.
• March 31 - Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
• March 31 - Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song Hallelujah.

April

• April 1 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
• April 1-April 18 - Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria, and forget him there without food or drink.
• April 2 - A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
• April 4 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
• April 10 - A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42 people (the most notable of 26 that hit that day).
• April 11 - Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
• April 17 - Schoolchildren in the Central African Republic are arrested (and around 100 killed) for protesting against compulsory school uniforms. An African judicial commission later determines that military ruler Jean-Bédel Bokassa "almost certainly" took part in the massacre.
• April 23 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.

May

Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• May 1 - Greenland gets home rule.
• May 4 - Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
• May 8 - The Manchester, UK Woolworth's in city centre is seriously damaged by fire; 10 shoppers die.
• May 9 - Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
• May 10 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
• May 25 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
• May 27 - Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and the second time for car owner Roger Penske.

June

• June 1 - The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal.
• June 2 - Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
• June 3 - A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons, making it the largest unintentional oil spill ever.
• June 3 - General elections are held in Italy.
• June 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's 16th and youngest Prime Minister.
• June 12 - Bryan Allen flies the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
• June 18 - Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
• June 20 - A Nicaraguan National Guard soldier kills ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape.
• June 23 - Sydney: New South Wales Premier Neville Wran officially opens the Eastern Suburbs Railway. It operates as a shuttle between Central & Bondi Junction until full integration with the Illawarra Line during 1980.
• June 25 - Belgium: Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.

July

• July 2 - The Susan B. Anthony dollar is introduced in the U.S.
• July 3 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
• July 9 - A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
• July 11 - NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.
• July 12 - A "Disco Demolition Night" publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.
• July 12 - Carmine Galante, boss of the Bonanno crime family, is assassinated.
• July 16 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.
• July 17 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
• July 19 - The Marxist Sandinistas take control of Nicaragua.
• July 19 - Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal.
• July 24 - The Soviet Union exchanges Gerald Brook for spies Peter and Helen Kroger with the United Kingdom.
• July 31 - Four hundred Iranian pilgrims are killed after clashes with Saudi security forces in Mecca.

August

• August 5 - The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania.
• August 9 - The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton.
• August 14 - A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the death of 15 sailors.
• August 22 - Led Zeppelin releases their album In Through The Out Door.
• August 27 - Lord Mountbatten and 3 others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

September

• September 1 - The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
• September 7 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
• September 7 - ESPN starts broadcasting.
• September 12 - Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
• September 16 - Three families flee from East Germany by balloon.
• September 20 - French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa in the Central African Republic.
• September 22 - The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.
• September 29 - Equatoguinean dictator Francisco Macías Nguema is executed by Moroccan hired men.
• September 30 - The Hong Kong MTR begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka Kwun Tong Line).

October

• October 1-October 6 - Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
• October 9 - Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record 6 laps, with a lap record on the last lap.
• October 14 - A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving many tens of thousands of people.
• October 16 - A tsunami in Nice, France kills 23 people.
• October 21 - Two hundred fifty-nine Muslim radicals occupy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque in Mecca; Saudi Arabian and French security forces go in to expel them.
• October 25 - Great Lakes Airlines is officially incorporated.
• October 26 - South Korean president Park Chung Hee is killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu.
• October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.

November

Iranian students burn the American flag on the wall of the American Embassy in Tehran, shortly after seizing the compound.

• November 1 - Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
• November 2 - French police shoot gangster Jacques Mesrine in Paris.
• November 3 - In Greensboro, North Carolina, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.
• November 4 - Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah back to Iran to stand trial.
• November 5 - The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio.
• November 6 - At Montevideo, Uruguay, the International Olympic Committee adopts a resolution, whereby Taiwan Olympic and sports teams will participate with the name Chinese Taipei in future Olympics Games and international sports tournaments and championships.
• November 7 - U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
• November 12 - Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.
• November 14 - Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.
• November 16 - Bucharest Metro Line One is opened, in Bucharest, Romania (from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea stations, 8.63 km).
• November 17 - Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
• November 20 - A group of around 200 militant Sunni Muslims occupy Mecca's Grand Mosque. They are driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that leaves 250 people dead and 600 wounded.
• November 21 - After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing 4. (see: Foreign relations of Pakistan)
• November 23 - In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
• November 28 - Mount Erebus disaster: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.

December

• December 3 - Eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum (now known as the U.S. Bank Arena) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• December 4 - The Hastie Fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK's most prolific killer.
• December 5 - Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
• December 21 - A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
• December 24 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
• December 24 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
• December 26 - In Rhodesia, 96 Patriotic Front guerillas enter the capital Salisbury to monitor a ceasefire that begins December 28.
• December 27 - The Soviet Union seizes control of Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin.

Unknown dates

• UNICEF declares 1979 the "International Year of the Child".
• VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.
• Guardian Angels civilian patrol group forms in New York City.
• Sprengel Museum opens in Hanover, Germany.
• Windsor Tower was built in Madrid, Spain.
• The first usenet experiments were conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.

Births

January-March

• January 1 - Koichi Domoto, Japanese entertainer (Kinki Kids)
• January 2 - Morena Baccarin, Italian Brazilian actress
• January 3 - Francesco Bellissimo, Italian mangaka
• January 12 - Marián Hossa, Slovak ice hockey player
• January 12 - Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer
• January 16 - Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
• January 20 - Rob Bourdon, American drummer (Linkin Park)
• January 21 - Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby union player
• January 23 - Larry Hughes, American basketball player
• January 24 - Tatyana Ali, American actress
• January 27 - Rosamund Pike, British actress
• February 1 - Julie Augustyniak, American soccer player
• February 9 - Zhang Ziyi, Chinese actress and model
• February 9 - Mena Suvari, American actress
• February 9 - Irina Slutskaya, Russian figure skater
• February 11 - Brandy Norwood, American singer
• February 16 - Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
• February 21 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer
• February 21 - Carlito, Puerto Rican Proffesional Wrestler
• February 22 - Patrick Merrill, Canadian lacrosse player
• March 5 - Flick Shagwell, British porn actress
• March 6 - Erik Bedard, Canadian pitcher
• March 9 - Melina Perez, American professional wrestler
• March 11 - Benji Madden and Joel Madden, twins from Good Charlotte
• March 12 - Pete Doherty, British singer and guitarist (The Libertines and Babyshambles)
• March 30 - Norah Jones, American musician

April-May

• April 4 - Heath Ledger, Australian actor
• April 8 - Alexi Laiho, Finnish guitarist (Children of Bodom)
• April 10 - Rachel Corrie, American activist (d. 2003)
• April 10 - Tsuyoshi Domoto, Japanese entertainer (Kinki Kids)
• April 10 - Sophie Ellis-Bextor, British singer
• April 12 - Claire Danes, American actress
• April 14 - Pierre Roland, Indonesian actor
• April 18 - Vahid Rahbani, Iranian director
• April 18 - Michael Bradley, American basketball player
• April 19 - Kate Hudson, American actress
• April 19 - Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgarian chess player
• April 22 - Daniel Johns, Australian musician (silverchair)
• April 27 - Travis Meeks, American musician (Days of the New)
• April 27 - Will Boyd, American musician
• April 28 - Jorge Garcia, American actor
• May 2 - Roman Lyashenko, Russian hockey player (d. 2003)
• May 5 - Bipasha Basu, Indian actress and model
• May 9 - Rosario Dawson, American actress
• May 9 - Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician
• May 12 - Adrian Serioux, Canadian footballer
• May 18 - Mariusz Lewandowski, Polish footballer
• May 24 - Tracy McGrady, American basketball player
• May 25 - Jonny Wilkinson, British rugby union player
• May 26 - Ashley Massaro, American professional wrestler and model
• May 29 - Casey Sheehan, American soldier (Son of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan)

June-August

• June 5 - Pete Wentz, American bassist and lyricist (Fall Out Boy)
• June 8 - Pete Orr, Canadian baseball player
• June 12 - Wil Horneff, American actor
• June 13 - Nila Håkedal, Norwegian beach volleyball player
• June 18 - Yumiko Kobayashi, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
• June 19 - John Duddy, Irish boxer
• June 23 - LaDainian Tomlinson, American football player
• June 24 - Craig Shergold, British cancer patient
• June 28 - Randy McMichael, American football player
• June 29 - Marleen Veldhuis, Dutch swimmer
• June 30 - Rick Gonzalez, Hispanic-American actor
• July 3 - Ludivine Sagnier, French model and actress
• July 4 - Martin Shearman-Brettle, English composer
• July 5 - Amélie Mauresmo, French tennis player
• July 21 - David Carr, American football player
• July 24 - Stat Quo, American rapper
• July 26 - Johnson Beharry, British war hero
• July 26 - Tamyra Gray, American singer
• July 27 - Jorge Arce, Mexican boxer
• July 27 - Shannon Moore, American Profesional Wrestler
• July 30 - Graeme McDowell, Northern Irish professional golfer
• July 30 - Ian Watkins, lead singer of the Welsh alternative metal band Lostprophets
• August 2 - Elidet Reyes, Media Critic
• August 5 - David Healy, Northern Irish footballer
• August 10 - Joanna Garcia, American actress
• August 10 - Ted Geoghegan, American screenwriter
• August 11 - Bubba Crosby, American baseball player
• August 13 - Taizo Sugimura, Japanese politician
• August 16 - Sarah Balabagan, Filipina prisoner and singer
• August 26 - Jamal Lewis, American football player
• August 28 - Robert Hoyzer, German football referee

September-November

• September 8 - P!nk, American singer
• September 13 - Ivan Miljković, Serbian volleyball player
• September 14 - Stuart Fielden, English rugby league player
• September 15 - Amy Davidson, American actress
• September 17 - Akin Ayodele, American football player
• September 28 - Bam Margera, American skater
• October 1 - Rudi Johnson, American football player
• October 9 - Brandon Routh, American actor
• October 10 - Mya, American singer and actress
• October 13 - Ryan Malcolm, Canadian singer
• October 14 - Stacy Keibler, American professional wrestler
• October 17 - Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish race car driver
• October 20 - John Krasinski, American actor
• October 30 - Yukie Nakama, Japanese actress
• November 1 - Coco Crisp, American baseball player
• November 4 - Audrey Hollander, American pornographic actress
• November 6 - Lamar Odom, American basketball player
• November 7 - Jon Peter Lewis, American singer and songwriter
• November 8 - Aaron Hughes, Northern Irish footballer
• November 13 - Ron Artest, American basketball player
• November 14 - Mavie Hörbiger, German actress
• November 22 - Mohammad Tanzeel-ul-siddiqi al-husaini, Pakistani author
• November 22 - Chris Doran, Irish singer
• November 27 - Ricky Carmichael, American Motocross Champion
• November 27 - The Game, American rap artist
• November 28 - Jamie Korab, Canadian curler
• November 28 - Hakeem Seriki, a.k.a. Chamillionaire American rapper
• November 29 - Jayceon Taylor, a.k.a. The Game, American rapper

December

• December 3 - Rainbow Sun Francks, Canadian actor and singer
• December 3 - Daniel Bedingfield, English pop singer and songwriter
• December 7 - Ayako Fujitani, Japanese actress
• December 12 - Nate Clements, American football player
• December 14 - Michael Owen, English footballer
• December 15 - Adam Brody, American actor
• December 17 - William Green, American football player
• December 18 - Amy Grabow, American actress
• December 23 - Summer Altice, American model and actress
• December 26 - Chris Daughtry, American singer
• December 27 - Carson Palmer, American football player
• December 28 - James Blake, American tennis pro
• December 31 - Elaine Cassidy, Irish actress

Deaths

January-March

• January 3 - Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
• January 5 - Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
• January 8 - Sara Carter, American bluegrass and country singer (b. 1898)
• January 13 - Donny Hathaway, American musician (b. 1945)
• January 26 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
• February 2 - Sid Vicious, English musician (Sex Pistols) (drug overdose) (b. 1957)
• February 2 - Issa Pliyev, Soviet general (b. 1903)
• February 7 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (b. 1911)
• February 9 - Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• February 12 - Jean Renoir, French film director (b. 1894)
• February 14 - Reginald Maudling, British politician (b. 1917)
• February 23 - W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (b. 1900)
• February 28 - Mr. Ed, American talking horse (b. 1949)
• March 1 - Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician (b. 1903)
• March 19 - Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)
• March 23 - Ted Anderson, English footballer (b. 1911)
• March 28 - Emmett Kelly, American clown (b. 1898)
• March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, King of Malaysia (b. 1917)
• March 30 - Airey Neave, British politician (assassinated) (b. 1916)

April-June

• April 4 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan (executed) (b. 1928)
• April 4 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (b. 1903)
• April 10 - Nino Rota, Italian composer (b. 1911)
• April 23 - Blair Peach, New Zealand-born anti-Nazi campaigner (killed by police) (b. 1946)
• May 2 - Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
• May 11 - Barbara Hutton, American socialite (b. 1912)
• May 29 - Mary Pickford, Canadian actress and studio founder (b. 1892)
• June 1 - Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1904)
• June 11 - John Wayne, American actor (b. 1907)
• June 17 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b. 1888)
• June 19 - Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
• June 21 - Angus MacLise, American percussionist, composer, mystic, shaman, poet, occultist, calligrapher and original drummer for the Velvet Underground (b. 1938)
• June 29 - Lowell George, American musician (Little Feat) (b. 1945)

July-August

• July 3 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
• July 8 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• July 8 - Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
• July 10 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (b. 1894)
• July 12 - Minnie Riperton, American singer (b. 1947)
• July 16 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
• July 22 - Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian Footballer (b. 1929)
• July 29 - Bill Todman, American game show producer (b. 1916)
• August 2 - Thurman Munson, baseball player (b. 1947)
• August 3 - Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• August 6 - Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
• August 9 - Walter O'Malley, baseball executive (b. 1903)
• August 12 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
• August 17 - Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
• August 27 - Earl Mountbatten, last British Viceroy of India (assassinated) (b. 1900)
• August 31 - Sally Rand, American dancer (b. 1904)

September-December

• September 5 - Alberto di Jorio, former head of the Vatican Bank and secretary of the 1958 conclave (b. 1884)
• September 8 - Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
• September 10 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan nationalist (b. 1922)
• September 20 - Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, King of Malaysia (b. 1907)
• September 28 - John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
• September 29 - Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea
• October 6 - Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (b. 1911)
• October 10 - Dr Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist (b. 1931)
• October 13 - Rebecca Helferich Clarke, English composer and violist (b. 1886)
• October 16 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
• October 22 - Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)
• October 26 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)
• October 30 - Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer (b. 1887)
• October 30 - Donna Rachele Mussolini, Italian, wife of Benito Mussolini (b. 1890)
• November 1 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• November 17 - Immanuel Velikovsky, Author of "Worlds In Collision" and psychiatrist
• November 29 - Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1901)
• December 3 - Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (b. 1905)
• December 23 - Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (b. 1898)
• December 27 - Hafizullah Amin, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)

Nobel prizes

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

Templeton Prize

• Rev. Nikkyo Niwano

1979 in fiction

Film

• Films set in 1979:
  • Friday the 13th (1980)
  • The Godfather Part III (1990)

Television

• Set in 1979: Doctor Who episode "City of Death" (1979)

External links

• 1979 Coin Pictures

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