1978

1978
January
• The United States copyright law had changes made to it after the Copyright Act of 1976 took effect on 1st January.

• The 42nd government was formed, in Turkey, by Bülent Ecevit, of CHT on 5th January.

• The Holy Crown of Hungary was returned on 6th January, to Hungary from the United States, which is where it was held since the World War II.

• The United Kingdom government were found guilty for mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland by the European Court of Human Rights on 18th January. The however were not found guilty for torturing the prisoners.

• William H. Webster, Federal Appeals Court Judge was appointed FBI director on 19th January.

• The Earth’s Atmosphere was burnt by the Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 on 24th January. It resulted in scattering debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories.

• The first couple of prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland got married on 24th January. Their names were Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher.

• The Great Blizzard of 1979 took place between 25th and 27th January. It struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, killing 70 people.

• Richard Chase, also known as the Vampire of Sacramento was arrested on 28th January.
February
• On 1st February, Hollywood film director Roman Polanski skipped bail and fled to France. He pled guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13 year old girl.

• The United States Senate proceedings were broadcast on the radio for the first time on 8th February.

• An apparent Ethiopian attack resulted in Somalia mobilising its troops on 11th February.

• The People’s Republic of Chine lifted a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens on 11th February.

• Serial killer Ted Bundy was captured on 15th February, in Pensacola, Florida.

• Los Angeles serial killer, known as the Hillside Strangler, claimed his tenth and final victim on 16th February.

• Chicago created the first computer bulletin board system on 16th February.

• The Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan remains were found on 21st February by Electrical workers in Mexico City. The remains were in the middle of the city.
March
• Charlie Chaplin’s remains were stolen from Cosier –sur – Vevey, Switzerland on 1st March.

• The Soyuz 28 was launched on a rendezvous with Salyut 6, with the first cosmonaut from a third country on 2nd March.

• Ethiopia admitted on 3rd March that their troops were fighting with the aid of Cuban soldiers against Somalian troops in Ogaden.

• Zambia was attacked by Rhodesia on 3rd March.

• A book about a supposed cloning of a human being, “The Cloning of Man” by David Rorvik, was the topic of an article published by The New York Post. The article was published on 3rd March.

• Larry Flynt, an American porn publisher was shot and paralysed in Lawrenceville, Georgia on 6th March.

• The Soyuz 28 landed on 10th March.

• Lebanon was invaded by Israeli forced on 14th March.

• The oil tanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground on the coast of Brittany on 17th March.

• Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was sentenced on 18th March to death by hanging for ordering the assassination of a political opponent.

• A member of the Flying Wallendas, Karl Wallenda, died on 22nd March after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


April
• New Zealand’s Domestic airline, New Zealand National Airways Corporation and New Zealand’s international airline, Air New Zealand, merged on 1st April.

• Annie Hall won the Best Picture award at the 50th Academy Awards, which were held on 3rd April, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.

• The production of the neutron bomb was postponed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter on 7th April. The neutron bomb is a weapon that kills people with radiation but leaves the buildings relatively intact.

• Regular radio broadcasts of British Parliament proceedings started on 8th April.

• Volkswagen became the second non-American automobile manufacturer to open a plant in the United States on 10th April. They commenced production of the Rabbit, t he North American version of the Volkswagen Golf, at the Volkswagen Westmoreland Assembly Plant near Stanton, Pennsylvania with a unionised workforce.

• Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta sung “A-Ba-Ni-Bi”, and won the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 for Israel on 22nd April.

May

• On 4th May the Battle of Cassinga occurred in southern Angola.

• Communist activist Henri Curiel was murdered in Paris on 4th May.

• A natural gas field in the Polar Sea was opened in Norway on 8th May.

• The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen was made by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler on 8th May.

• The corpse of former Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, was found on 9th May in a red Renault 4.

• Student of the University of Tehran rioted in Tabriz on 15th May. The riot was stopped by the army.

• Charles Chaplin’s coffin was found on 17th May about 15km from the cemetery from which it was stolen, near Lake Geneva.

• Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov was sentenced on 18th May to 7 years hard labour for distributing counterrevolutionary material.

• The first woman to run across the U.S. was Mavis Hutchinson. She finished her mission on 20th May and it took her 69 days to complete it.

• The first legal casino in the eastern United States opened on 26th May.
June
• Argentina hosted the 1978 FIFA World Cup which began on 1st June.

• Property taxes were slashed by nearly 60% after California voters approved Proposition 13 on 6th June.

• 26 year-old Lisa Halaby became Queen Noor after marrying King Hussein of Jordan on 15th June.

• Ian Botham was the first man in the history of Cricket to score a century and take 8 wickets in 1 inning of a Test match. The match took place on 19th June.

• Garfield, the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, made its debut on 19th June.

• Charon, a satellite of Pluto was discovered on 22nd June.

• The Gay and Lesbian Solidarity March was held in Sydney, Australia on 24th June to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

• Argentina won the FIFA World Cup on 25th June after defeating the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time.

• The U.S. satellite Seasat was launched on 28th June.
July
• The Amazon Cooperation Treaty was signed on 3rd July.

• The Solomon Islands gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 7th July.

• A tanker-truck exploded at a campsite in Costa Daurada, Spain on 11th July, killed over 200 tourists.

• The world’s first test tube baby was born in Oldham, Greater Manchester, UK, on 25th July. She was named Louise Brown.
August
• Pope Paul VI died in Rome on 6th August.

• The first balloon to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean was the Double Eagle II. It flew from Presque Isle, Maine to Misery, France on 17th August.

• Pope John Paul I became the 263rd Pope on 26th August.
September
• Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat began the peace process at Camp David, Maryland on 5th September.

• A poison filled pellet that was suspected to have been injected using an umbrella, poisoned Bulgarian defector, Georgi Markov in London, England on 7th September. It was assumed that this was the orders of Bulgarian intelligence. He died 4 days after the incident.

• 122 people were killed and a further 4.000 were wounded after Iranian Army troops opened fire on rioters in Teheran on 8th September.

• General Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq became the president of Pakistan on 16th September.

• Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David Accords on 17th September.

• Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello made its first appearance on Live from the met, on 25th September, in a complete production of the opera starring Jon Vickers. This was the first complete television broadcast of the opera in the U.S. since the historic 1948 one.

• After only 33 days of papacy, Pope John Paul I died on 28th September.
October
• Vietnam attacked Cambodia on 1st October.

• Also on 1st October, Tuvalu became independent from the United Kingdom.

• A massive short circuit in Seasat’s electrical system on 10th October ended the satellite’s scientific mission.

• Daniel Arap Moi became the president of Kenya on 14th October.

• Also 14th October, a bill was signed by Jimmy Carter which meant that home-brewing of beer was made legal in the United States.

• Pope John Paul II became the 264th pope on 16th October. He was the first Polish pope in history.

• The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was held on 20th October. This was a protest march and commemoration of the Stonewell Riots.

• The Nobel Peace Prize was won on 27th October, by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. This was awarded to them for their progress towards achieving a Middle East accord.
November
• Dominica gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 3rd November.

• Rioters sacked the British Embassy in Tehran on 5th November.

• Indira Gandhi was re-elected to the Indian Parliament on 7th November.

• California voters defeated the Briggs Initiative on 7th November which would have prohibited gay school teachers.

• Former Supervisor Dan White assassinated, City Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone on 27th November in San Francisco, California.

• Labour problems resulted in suspension of the publication of the Times from 30th November 1978 until 13th November 1979.
December
• Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco, California’s first female mayor on 4th December, after the murder of George Moscone. She served until 8th January 1988.

• The Spanish Constitution officially restored the country’s democratic government on 6th December.

• On 19th December, former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi was arrested and jailed for a week for breach of privilege and contempt of parliament.

• The Constitution of Spain was approved in a referendum, on 27th December. This officially ended 40 years of military dictatorship.
Date unknown
• The invention of artificial insulin was in 1978.

• In David Rorvik’s book In His Image, he claimed to have participated in a creation of a human clone.

• Abortion was legalised for the first time in Italy in 1978.

• Mainland China introduced the One Child Policy.

• Construction began on the Seoul Subway Line 2 in Seoul, Korea in 1978.

• Ford initiated a recall for the Pinto because of a public outcry that resulted from deaths associated with gas tank explosions.