Events 1 - 200 of 398
- Jan 1 Air India B747 explodes near Bombay killing 213
- Jan 1 News editor Donald Woods finally arrives in London after escaping the apartheid regime in South Africa
- Jan 1 Los Angeles Police chief Edward Davis retires from police force
- Jan 5 Bülent Ecevit becomes Prime Minister of Turkey for the 3rd time
- Jan 6 1st postage stamp copyrighted by US (Carl Sandburg stamp)
- Jan 6 US hand over St Stephan crown to Hungary
- Jan 7 Angola revises its constitution in include a state security law
- Jan 8 Israeli government votes to 'strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
Election of Interest
Jan 8 Harvey Milk becomes the 1st openly gay person elected to public office in California
Harvey Milk
- Jan 9 Commonwealth of Northern Marianas established
- Jan 10 Soyuz 27 launches, carrying 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station
- Jan 11 Soyuz 27 links with Salyut 6 & Soyuz 26 (1st time 3 spacecraft link)
- Jan 13 NASA select its first American women astronauts
- Jan 15 Theodore Bundy kills Fla State U coeds Lisa Levy & Margaret Bowman
- Jan 16 Soyuz 27 returns to Earth
- Jan 18 Geoff Boycott captains England for the 1st time, v Pakistan at Karachi
- Jan 18 Roof of 3-yr-old Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut collapses (no injuries)
- Jan 18 Thiokol conducts 2nd test firing of space shuttle's SRB
- Jan 19 Judge William H. Webster appointed head of FBI
Volkswagen Beetle
Jan 19 The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America would continue until 2003.
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- Jan 23 Belgian industrial Haron Empain kidnapped in Paris
- Jan 23 Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.
- Jan 24 Carter Executive Order on Intelligence (# 12036)
- Jan 25 Muriel Humphrey (D-Mn) appointed to fill late husband's Senate seat
- Jan 26 Frank Herbert completes his novel "Destination: Void"
- Jan 26 International Ultraviolet Explorer placed in Earth orbit
Event of Interest
Jan 26 Mário Soares forms Portuguese government
Mário Soares
- Jan 26 Strikers riot in Tunisia, killing about 40
- Jan 28 Ted Nugent autographs a fan's arm with his knife
- Jan 29 Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.
- Jan 31 Israel turns 3 milt outposts in West Bank into civilian settlements
Event of Interest
Feb 1 Harriet Tubman is 1st African American woman to be honored on a US postage stamp
Harriet Tubman
Event of Interest
Feb 3 Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter discuss the Middle East peace process in Washington, D.C.
Jimmy Carter
- Feb 5 Blizzard forms in US North East, 100 people killed in New England and New York over 3 days
- Feb 6 Muriel, wife of late Hubert Humphrey (Sen-D-Minn) takes his office
- Feb 6 Snowstorm hits New England, parts of Rhode Island (54" / 137cm)
- Feb 7 Ethiopian offensive in Ogaden desert
- Feb 8 Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes Prime Minister of Kuwait
- Feb 8 Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
- Feb 10 Frank C. Carlucci succeeds John F. Blake as deputy director of CIA
- Feb 11 16 Unification church couples wed in NYC
Event of Interest
Feb 11 China lifts a ban on Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens
- Feb 15 Zaire revises its constitution
- Feb 16 1st Computer Bulletin Board System (Ward & Randy's CBBS, Chicago)
- Feb 17 11 civilians and 1 RUC officer are killed and 30 wounded by a Provisional Irish Republican Army incendiary bomb at the La Mon Restaurant near Belfast
- Feb 19 Brigitte Kraus runs world record 1000 m indoor (2:34.8)
- Feb 20 Egypt announces it is pulling its diplomats out of Cyprus
- Feb 22 2 tankers with propane gas explode killing 15 at Waverly, Tenn
- Feb 26 Ira Levin's "Deathtrap" premieres in NYC
- Feb 27 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- Mar 2 Soyuz 28 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Czechoslovakian) to Salyut 6
- Mar 4 Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, publishes last issue
- Mar 5 Landsat 3 launched from Vandenberg AFB, California
Event of Interest
Mar 6 Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia
Larry Flynt
Event of Interest
Mar 8 The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
Douglas Adams
- Mar 9 Ice Pairs Championship at Ottawa won by Rodnina & Zaitsev (Soviet Union)
- Mar 9 Ladies Figure Skating Champions in Ottawa won by Anett Pötzsch (East Germany)
- Mar 9 Men's Figure Skating Champions in Ottawa won by Charles Tickner (USA)
- Mar 10 Soyuz 28 returns to Earth
- Mar 11 Terrorists attack mail truck at Tel Aviv, 45 killed
- Mar 11 USF-led Bill Cartwright scores 23 points as the Dons oust NC
- Mar 12 Eric Heiden skates world record 1000m (1:14.99)
- Mar 13 Moluccan "suicide commandos" occupies Province house
- Mar 14 Marines terminate Moluccan action in Province house (1 dead)
- Mar 15 -21] operation Litani: Israeli offensive in South Lebanon
- Mar 15 A's trade Vida Blue to Giants for 7 players & $390,000
- Mar 15 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- Mar 16 Amoco Cadiz spills 223,000 tons of crude oil off French coast
- Mar 16 Soyuz 26 returns to Earth
- Mar 16 US Senate accepts Panama Canal treaty
- Mar 16 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Mar 17 Amoco Cadiz tanker spills 1.6 mil gallons of oil off French coast
- Mar 17 Reds don green uniforms for St Patricks Day
- Mar 18 Former Pakistani premier Ali Bhutto sentenced to death
- Mar 19 50,000 demonstrate in Amsterdam against neutron bomb
- Mar 21 San Francisco passes its and the U.S.' most comprehensive homosexual rights bill
- Mar 22 France performs nuclear test
Event of Interest
Mar 22 Robert Frost Plaza, at California, Drumm & Market, San Francisco, dedicated
Robert Frost
- Mar 22 Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Mar 23 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Mar 25 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, UCLA beat Maryland 90-74 in Los Angeles
- Mar 27 Rutles "All You Need is Cash" is shown on British TV
- Mar 28 Daryl Gates becomes the 49th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
- Mar 31 USSR launches Kosmos 1000 navigational satellite
- Apr 1 Philippine College of Commerce becomes the Polytechnic University of the Philippines by presidential decree
- Apr 2 Velcro was 1st put on the market
- Apr 3 European market & China signs trade agreement
- Apr 6 Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh by inn & 193 to win Ranji Trophy
- Apr 7 Guttenberg bible sells for $2,000,000 in New York City
- Apr 7 US President Jimmy Carter defers production of neutron bomb
- Apr 7 US Court of Appeals upholds Commissioner Kuhn's voiding of attempted player sales by A's owner Charlie Finley in June 1976
- Apr 13 Jackson slugs a 3-run HR in the 1st inning, & the field is showered
- Apr 14 David Hare's "Plenty" premieres in London
- Apr 14 Korean Air Lines Boeing 707, fired on by Soviets, crashes in Russia
- Apr 14 WRR-AM in Dallas Texas changes call letters to KAAM
- Apr 14 Thousands of Georgians demonstrate in the capital Tbilisi against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language
- Apr 15 43 die as 2 express trains collide head-on south of Bologna, Italy
- Apr 15 Great Britain performs nuclear test
- Apr 17 63,500,000 shares traded on NY stock exchange (record)
- Apr 17 Pulitzer prize awarded to Carl Sagan for "Dragons of Eden"
- Apr 18 Senate votes to turn Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec 31, 1999
- Apr 19 Yitzhak Navron elected 5th president of Israel
- Apr 22 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Earl Anthony
- Apr 23 Reds Joe Morgan ends record streak of 91 cons errorless games at 2nd
- Apr 23 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Apr 25 Supreme Court rules pension plans can't require women to pay more
- Apr 26 France sends troops to Chad
- Apr 26 NASA launches space vehicle S-201
- Apr 27 Cooling tower collapses at a coal-fired power plant at Willow Island, West Virginia, kills 51
- Apr 27 Afghanistan revolution (National Day), pro-Russian military coup
- May 1 1st African American mayor of New Orleans, Ernest Nathan Morial, inaugurated
- May 1 Naomi Uemura became 1st to reach North Pole overland alone
- May 3 "Sun Day" - solar energy events are held in US
- May 3 First unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail ("spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the US west coast
- May 4 Russian leader Brezhnev visits West-Germany
- May 6 South Africa military goes into Angola
- May 9 Corpse of kidnapped Italian ex-premier Aldo Moro found
- May 9 Fee Waybill of Tubes breaks a leg falling off stage
- May 11 Margaret A Brewer is 1st female general in the US Marine Corps
- May 12 US Commerce Department says hurricane names will no longer be only female
- May 13 Henry Rono of Kenya sets record for 3,000 m steeplechase (8:05.4)
- May 13 Joie Chitwood drives a Chevette 5.6 miles on just 2 wheels
- May 14 First round of the presidential elections in Upper Volta
- May 17 Lee Lacy hits record 3rd consecutive pinch-hit home run
- May 18 Italy legalizes abortion
- May 18 Russian dissident Yuri Orlov exiled to compulsory work
- May 20 3 PFLP members kill a police officer near El Al airlines in Orly Airport, Paris
- May 20 US launches Pioneer Venus 1; produces 1st global radar map of Venus
- May 21 118 Unification church couples wed in England
- May 21 Yamada Mumon Roshi appointed head of Zen Rinzai Sect
- May 23 General strike in Peru
- May 24 Dutch Investment bill (WIR) law goes into effect
- May 24 American management consultant Marilyn Loden first coins the term "glass ceiling" to describe invisible career barriers for women
- May 26 1st legal gambling casino opens in Atlantic City
- May 28 Second round of the presidential elections in Upper Volta. The election is won by incumbent Sangoulé Lamizana.
- May 29 US 1st class postage rises to 15 cents (13 cents for 3 years)
- May 29 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Jun 1 High Council destroys judgment against war criminal Pieter Menten
- Jun 1 The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed
- Jun 4 32nd Tony Awards: "Da" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" win
- Jun 4 Canadian Open Golf (Peter Jackson Classic), Lachute GC: JoAnne Carner wins by 8 strokes from Hollis Stacy
- Jun 4 Liberal Julio Turbay Ayola wins Colombia elections
- Jun 6 Proposition 13 cuts California property taxes 57%
- Jun 8 51st National Spelling Bee: Peg McCarthy wins spelling deification
Event of Interest
Jun 8 Nevada jury rules Howard Hughes "Mormon Will" is a forgery
Howard Hughes
Event of Interest
Jun 9 Johannes Gutenberg's Bible, the first book produced using the printing press, (1 of 21 complete versions) sells for $2.4 million, London
Johannes Gutenberg
- Jun 9 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) strikes down 148 year policy of excluding black men from priesthood
- Jun 10 Costa Rica becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- Jun 11 Christa Tybus of London sets record of 24½ hrs of hula-hoop
- Jun 11 Joseph Freeman Jr is 1st black priest in Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
- Jun 12 David Berkowitz sentenced in NY Supreme Court to 25 yrs to life
- Jun 12 US House of Representatives allows live radio coverage
- Jun 13 Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.
- Jun 14 Sierra Leone adopts constitution
- Jun 15 Belgian government resigns
- Jun 15 Italy's pres Leone resigns due to Lockheed affair
- Jun 15 Soyuz 29 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6; they stay 139 days
Album Release
Jun 16 Ringo Starr releases "Bad Boy" album; Wings releases "I've Had Enough"
Ringo Starr
- Jun 21 The British Army shoots dead 3 Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a passing Ulster Volunteer Force member at a postal depot on Ballysillan Road, Belfast; it is claimed that the PIRA volunteers were about to launch a bomb attack
- Jun 22 James Christy's discovery of Pluto's moon Charon announced
- Jun 22 Neo-Nazis call off plans to march in Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois
- Jun 25 First use of the rainbow flag, symbol of gay pride, made by Gilbert Baker at a march in San Francisco
- Jun 26 Brittany separatists bomb Palace of Versailles in France
- Jun 26 First dedicated oceanographic satellite, SEASAT 1, launched
- Jun 26 Air Canada Flight 189 to Toronto overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers on board perish.
- Jun 27 Henry Rono of Kenya sets record for 3,000 m, 7:32.1
- Jun 27 Soyuz 30 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Polish) to Salyut 6 space station
- Jun 27 US Seasat 1, 1st oceanographic satellite, launched into polar orbit
- Jun 28 Supreme Court orders Cal medical school to admit Allan Bakke a white man claiming reverse discrimination when application was rejected
Event of Interest
Jun 29 US Vice President Walter Mondale begins trip to Middle East
Walter Mondale
- Jun 30 Giants' Willie McCovey becomes 12th to hit 500 HRs
Event of Interest
Jul 1 Former US President Richard Nixon makes 1st public speech since resigning in 1974
Richard Nixon
- Jul 1 Northern Territory of Australia becomes self-governing
- Jul 3 US Supreme Court rules 5-4, FCC had a right to reprimand NY radio station WBAI for broadcasting George Carlin's "Filthy Words"
- Jul 4 Memphis fire fighters halt 3-day strike under a court order
- Jul 5 Soyuz 30 spacecraft touches down in Soviet Kazakhstan
- Jul 5 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Jul 6 Israeli jet fighters swooped over mostly Muslim West Beirut
- Jul 6 A sleeping car catches fire in Taunton, Somerset killing twelve people
- Jul 7 Solomon Islands declares independence from UK
- Jul 8 Sandro Pertini elected the 7th President of the Italian Republic
- Jul 8 Pioneer-Venus 2 Multi-probe launched to Venus
- Jul 9 American Nazi Party holds a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago
- Jul 9 Nearly 100,000 demonstrators march on Washington, D.C. for ERA
- Jul 10 Bloodless military coup in Mauritania, President Moktar flees
- Jul 11 Auto with liquid gas crashes and explodes in Spain, 160 killed