Economics: "Group of 30" (G30) forms from international heads of capital
Entertainment: James Joyce publishes (posthumously) Grease movie created Disco comes into vogue
Food: Coke and Pepsi vie for international rights Ben & Jerry's opens
Medicine: Genetically engineered human insulin first produced
First test-tube baby - see England
Politics: Camp David Summit between Israel and Egypt
Religion: Pope Paul VI dies and Pope Paul I appointed (Albino Luciani Belluno) who then dies and Pope John Paul II appointed (Carol) as first Polish Pope
Science: Discovery of Pluto's moon Charon Dinosaur embryos proven
Geneticist Lewis reports experiments with Drosophila show gene layout relative to body plan
Mariner probe visits Mercury Pioneer 11 visits Saturn Pioneer 12 visits Venus
Genetically engineered human insulin first produced
Technology: Velcro hits the market Hayes Corp creates modems Epson introduces dot-matrix printer
TCP/IP Internet Protocol adopted WordStar word processing leads the industry Apple introduces disc drive,
Travel: First transcontinental balloon flight Thor Heyerdahl sails from Iraq to Djibouti (AFR)
Deaths: Hubert Humphrey, Golda Meir, margaret Mead, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I, Charles Boyer, Norman Rockwell, Nicholas Nabokov, US billionaire John D MacArthur,
Radio Shack founder Howard Tandy, John D Rockefeller III, William Lear (jet designer)
Madagascar: Death of Philibert Tsiranana president of Malagasy Republic
Mauritania: President Moktar Ould Daddah ousted
Monaco: Princess Caroline of Monaco marries Philippe Junot
Rhodesia: Civil war continues
South Africa: Helen Joseph jailed for refusing to testify against Winnie Mandela
John Vorster resigns as Prime Minister of South Africa and Pieter Willem Botha rules
Namibia planned as independent government from South Africa
Tanzania: Mary leakey finds hominid footprints at Olduvai Gorge dating 3.65 mya A. afarensis
Zaire: Shaba (Katanga) province invaded – Europeans evacuate – US airlifts troops from Morocco to help repel invaders from Angola, Cuba, and Russia
Americas
Bolivia: Army ousts president - 200th coup in 158 years of independence
Canada: Development of "no-name brands"
Colombia: Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala elected president
Dominica: Independence
Dominican Republic: Antonio Guzman elected President – first peaceful transfer in Dominican history
Guatemala: Guatemalans elect new president but Lucas Garcia continues brutal dictatorship
Guyana: five to fifteen Americans shot by members of the Peoples temple (California cult) – Jim Jones and 917 others die in murder-suicide
Honduras: Military junta takes control
Mexico: Earthquake
Nicaragua: Sandinista rebels fight US-backed government leading to violdence at attempted overthrow of President Anastasio Somoza Publisher Chamorro killed for political reasons
Panama: US ratifies treaties with Panama
Paraguay: Death of president
Asia
General: China and Japan sign trade agreement
Cambodia: Vietnamese invade and oust Khmer Rouge
China: Den Xiaoping advocates economic reforms Premier Chiang Ching-kuo elected president US establishes full diplomatic relations
Beijing adopts Pinyin style of spelling names with Roman letters Government receives report about lowering population
US and China relations restored and relations with Taiwan diminish
India: Air India crash kills 213 Tornado kills 600
Japan: Premier Takeo Fukuda and Chinese Deputy Premier Teng Hsiao-ping attend signing of Japanese-Chinese treaty of peace and friendship - treaty protested by Moscow
Explorer Naomi Uemura makes first solo journey to North Pole Earthquake Nikkei closes above 6000 Tokyo airport opens amid protests
Toshiba develops Japanese word processor
Nepal: Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler first climb Everest without oxygen
North Vietnam: China invades
Philippines: President Ferdinand E Marcos becomes Premier
Solomon Islands: (Solomon Islands of Tuvalu) formerly Ellice Islands become independent
South Korea: US House Committee investigates Korean lobbying scandal
Sri Lanka: Prime Minister Junius Richard Jayawardene becomes president under new system
Vietnam: 25-year peace accord with Soviet Union Mass exodus of "boat people" China invades north
Europe
General: Earthquake in central Europe
Bulgaria: Georgi Markov the dissident shot by ricin pellet by modified umbrella in London
France: Supertanker "Amoco Cadiz" breaks apart off of France spilling 220,000 tons of oil,
Germany: End of production of Volkswagen "Beetle"
Great Britain: Louise Brown (Joy Louise Steptoe), the first test-tube baby is born
Prime Minister James Callaghan decides against holding elections – despite his likelihood to win… eventually leading to Margaret Thatcher
Princess Margaret of Britain and Anthony Armstrong-Jones divorce
Greece: Earthquake
Hungary: Crown of St. Stephen returned after 32 years in US
Ireland: Death of President Cearbhall O' Dalaigh
Italy: Former Premier Aldo Moro kidnapped and murdered by Red Brigades group
President Giovanni Leone of Italy resigns and Pertini elected Red Brigades members convicted in Torino
Portugal: Discord between Portugal's political parties brings vote of no confidence
Soviet Union: Yuri Orlov Anatoly Shcharansky and Alexander Ginzburg convicted of anti-Soviet agitation and convicted
Cosmonauts orbit for over 139 days
Fighter attacks Korean jet over Russian territory Government rescinds citizenships of musicians Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya (wife), Krzysztof,
Spain: King Juan Carlos I ratifies Spain's democratic constitution
Vatican City: First Polish Pope (Karol Józef Wojtyla)
Middle East
General: Preliminary Camp David agreements signed - Begin and Sadat agree on framework for mideast peace negotiated by Carter
OPEC starts raising oil prices
Afghanistan: Military junta takes power
Cyprus: Sprtos Kyprianou the Cypariot lawyer becomes president
Iran: Earthquake measures 7.7 Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi imposes martial rule to end anti-government demonstrations (religious riots)
oil industry shut down by striking workers and self-exiled Moslem leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini appeals for labor strife to topple the Shah –
- modern reforms result in revolt – Abadan movie theater torched killing 377 – martial law
Israel: Wadi Haddad the PLO leader dies (terrorist)
Jordan: King Hussein marries Elizabeth Halaby
Lebanon: Israel invades Arab League separate Syrian and Christian militias and restore peace to Lebanon
Religious civil war continues
Pakistan: President resigns and General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq rules
Turkey: Bulent Ecevit named president
Yemen: South Yemen's President deposed and blown up by pro-Soviet faction
Pacific
General: Small asteroid explodes over South Pacific
Antarctica: First person born in Antarctica - Emilio Palma
Australia: Former Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies dies
Business: Firestone recalls steelbelted radials tires – 10 million Ford Pinto explodes after being struck and complaints rise that Ford knew
US airline deregulation
Crime: David R Berkowitz "Son of Sam" receives life in prison
Ottis Toole meets Henry Lee Lucas and the two commit cannibal murders, including possibly the son of John Walsh
John Wayne Gacey aka "Pogo the Clown" arrested for deaths of 33
Culture: For first time ever women outnumber men in colleges
Entertainment: "Garfield" comic strip begins Last Carol Burnet Show broadcast Superman debuts Ain't Misbehavin' and Evita debut
"Space Invaders" introduced Speak and Spell usues digital speech synthesis in a toy
20/20 debuts with Geraldo Rivera Erma Bombeck publishes "The World According to Garp" by Irving
"The Turner Diaries" Neo-Nazi work by "Andrew MacDonald (William L Pierce)
Environment: Protests of nuclear reactors on the coasts CFC sprays banned in US
Fashion: Versache stages first show start of Adidas craze
Finance: US dollar plunges in value Mandatory retirement raised to 70 Carter authorizes Susan B Anthony dollars
401k retirement started US inflation rises but stocks rise - Carter lowers taxes Banks allowed to charge interest rates depending on their home state
Law: Supreme Court votes to undo "reverse discrimination"
Medicine: CDC experiments with hepatitis B vaccine and asks for promiscuous homosexual men – serum pooled in chimps and many fear this is where HIV crossed over
Prozac approved by FDA US government starts campaign against smoking – Carter decides instead to make tobacco safer
Military: Brigadeer General Margaret A Brewer first female general in US Marines
Politics: Senate ratifies Panama Canal treaties Foreign Intelligence Surveliance Act becomes law by Carter Ethics in Government Act results in partisan fights
Presidential Records Act calls for release of Presidential papers 12 years after administration – should go into effect 1981 but 2001 repealed
Congress extends ERA (Rights Amendment) ratification date until 1982
Washington recognizes China and announces it will sever ties with Taiwan although it negates a 1954 treaty
Religion: Church of God radio evangelist Armstrong excommunicates son – son retorts with charges of money fraud
Sports: Leon Spinks wins heavyweight boxing and Mohammed Ali beats Spinks to win title third time
Chris Evert and Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors lead tennis Affirmed wins Triple Crown Ruling that female reporters cannot be barred from locker rooms
Technology: Oracle Systems makes first relational database for computers
Japanese-born MIT student creates "smart" gel polymers Intel starts microchip production
Transportation: First trans-atlantic crossing by balloon by US
Deaths: Kurt Gödel the Austrian/American mathematician dies of starvation while wife is hospitalized, US Mafia leader Joseph Colombo Sr.,
Edgar Bergen the ventriloquist, The Who drummer Keith Moon of drug overdose Flying Wallendas performer Karl dies in fall
East
General: Great Blizzard of '78 in New England
Connecticut: Hartford CT coliseum collapses under snow - stadium was empty
New Jersey: Oil drilling approved offshore Princeton's Torus test reactor experiments with fusion and reaches temp of 60 million degrees F for 1/20 of a second
New York: Love Canal declared unsafe and evacuated NY Times strike due to sex discrimination
Midwest
Illinois: Prison riot Chicago Daily News closes
Missouri: Christo creates scenic art in Kansas City
South Dakota: Cabrillo Marine Museum completed.
South
General: Longest US coal strike ends after 110 days
Florida: Ted Bundy captured in Pensacola
Georgia: US Porn dealer Larry Flynt shot and paralyzed
West Virginia: Five women submit to sterilization to keep jobs in lead-compound ruch workplace
West and Pacific
Arizona: Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane founde beated to death in his Scottsdale apartment
California: Human insulin produced from recombinant DNA Dan White of San Francisco kills Mayor Moscone and gay supervisor Harvey Milk
Death of studio head Jack L Warner in LA Richard Chase "Vampire of Sacramento" arrested Jim Jones and People's Temple leave for Guyana
Citizens reject initiative (Prop 6) that would have made it illegal for homosexual proponents to teach in schools
CA votes to lower property taxes Jetliner collides with small plane over San Diego and 144 die
Utah: Emanuel David (cult leader) commits suicide in Salt Lake as children thrown off SLC building then mother (11th floor) – one child survives severely injured