February 1979 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Feb 1 American publishing heiress Patty Hearst is released from prison for bank robbery

Event of Interest

Feb 1 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile

Feb 1 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Feb 3 US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne
Feb 3 US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner
Feb 4 End of last 3+day D/N game for 15 yrs (WSC, SCG)
Feb 5 Costliest single periodical ad, $3.2 million, Gulf + Western in Time
Feb 6 Supreme court of Lahore affirms death sentence against Premier Bhutto
Feb 7 Colonel Benjedid Chadli succeeds president Boumedienne in Algeria
Feb 7 Faoud Bacchus scores 250 for WI v India at Kanpur
Feb 8 Denis Sassou-Nguesso becomes the President of the Republic of the Congo for the first time
Feb 8 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Feb 9 Beginning of James Clavell's novel "Whirlwind"
Feb 9 Nigeria amends constitution
Feb 11 Iran's premier Bakhtiar resigns, Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power
Feb 12 Bakhtiar resigns as prime minister of Iran after losing support of the military
Feb 12 Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched
Feb 13 Formation of Guardian Angels crime fighters in New York City
Feb 13 Washington State's Hood Canal Bridge breaks up in windstorm
Feb 14 In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police
Feb 15 Paul Shirley (21) of Australia, sucked a lifesaver for 4 hrs 40 mins
Feb 15 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Feb 16 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk
Feb 17 China invades Vietnam, marking the start of the Sino-Vietnamese War
Feb 18 -52°F (-47°C), Old Forge, New York (state record)
Feb 18 NASA launches space vehicle S-202
Feb 18 President Zia ur-Rahman's National Party wins elections in Bangladesh
Feb 18 Snow falls in Sahara Desert
Feb 20 11 'loyalists' known as the "Shankill Butchers" are sentenced to life in prison for 19 murders; the gang was named for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians in Belfast
Feb 21 Japan launches Hakucho X-ray satellite & Corsa-B (550/580 km)
Feb 22 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's Primate & Cat Building is dedicated (Cleveland, Ohio)
Feb 22 St Lucia gains independence from Britain
Feb 23 Frank Peterson Jr named 1st black general in Marine Corps
Feb 24 Highest price ever paid for a pig, $42,500, Stamford, Texas
Feb 24 War between North & South Yemen begins
Feb 25 Soyuz 32 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station is launched
Feb 26 Last total eclipse of Sun in 20th century for continental US
Feb 28 Ernest Thompson's "On Golden Pond" premieres in NYC

Birthdays in History

Feb 4 Andrei Arlovski, Russian mixed martial artist
Feb 5 Paulo Gonçalves, Portuguese rally racing motorcycle rider (FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship 2013), born in Gemeses, Portugal (d. 2020)
Feb 7 Nicola Campedelli, Italian football coach, born in Cesena, Italy
Feb 7 Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni journalist, Nobel Peace Prize winner (2011), and human rights activist, born in Taiz Governorate, North Yemen (now Yemen Arab Republic)
Feb 13 Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian terrorist, born in Oslo, Norway
Feb 28 Michael Bisping, English mixed martial artist, born in Nicosia, Cyprus

Deaths in History

Feb 6 Alain Teister, Dutch sculptor/writer, dies at 47
Feb 6 Arthur van Schendel, Dutch art historian, dies at 68
Feb 7 Josef Mengele, concentration camp doctor, drowns
Feb 8 Nikolay Semyonovich Tikhonov, Russian poet and writer (against Pasternak), dies at 82
Feb 9 Allen Tate, American poet (Mr Pope & Other Poems), dies at 79

Dennis Gabor (1900-1979)

Feb 9 Hungarian-British engineer and physicist (invented holography, Nobel Prize 1971), dies at 79

Feb 14 Adolph Dubs, US ambassador to Afghanistan, murdered
Feb 16 Mehdi Rahimi, Iranian general and military governor of Tehran under the Shah of Iran, executed by a firing squad during the Islamic Revolution at around 57
Feb 16 Nematullah Nassiri, Iran general/head of Savak, executed
Feb 23 W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician, dies at 78
Feb 28 Mr Ed, talking horse, dies
Feb 28 Paul Alverdes, German writer (Pfeiferstube), dies at 81