Entertainment: Pac Man invented Bob Marley plays final live performance
Chess player Nigel Short youngest named grand master age 14
Writers: Eudora Welty, Vladimir Nabokov, Stephen Jay Gould (The Panda's Thumb), Norman Mailer
Environment: GE patents oil microbe for cleaning oil Julian L Simon predicts earth more resilient than ecologist Paul Erlich believes – predicts population will rise but prices fall by 1990 ( Simon wins bet)
Medicine: WHO declares smallpox eradicated
improved rabies vaccine Caesarian sections become more common
lithotripsy invented to break kidney stones Antigens in organ transplants investigated
TSS outbreaks lead to labeling tampons Eli Lilly starts using human insulin created by bacteria
Religion: Council for Secular Humanism publishes declaration
Science: 65 million BC extinction explained as asteroid impact Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Hall effect of superconductivity explored Neutrino determined to have mass
Single barium atom captured (and named) Silitons (individual waves with a single peak) shown to travel through optical fibers
Physicists show that charge-parity and time symmetry can be violated Synchrotron radiation increased with undulator
Drosophila mutations published – later Hox genes birth of Kanzi the Bonobo binary black holes predicted
Gene transference in mice achieved Gene repeats explored Production of humen interferon in bacteria
Sports: Winter Olympics in Lake Placid NY
Technology: Personal computers begin to be available Textiles cut with laser beam First cell phone network
Intel and Xerox creates standard for Ethernet International fax standard set Voyager encounters Jupiter
Deaths: Jean Paul Sartre, Yugoslavia's 2nd President Tito (Josip Broz), Peter Sellers (Pink Panther), Shah of Iran, Psychologist Jean Piaget,
Jesse Owens, Otto Frank (father of Anne), Tex Avery (Looney Toons), John Lennon, Alfred Hitchcock, Steve McQueen, Mae West, NM Pueblo potter Maria Martinez, Jimmy Durante,
"Colonel" Harlan Sanders, AC/DC singer Bon Scott, Supreme Court Chief Justice William O Douglas
Africa
General: National Steel strike in African Jungle
Algeria: Earthquake registers 7.7 killing about 3000
Liberia: President William R Tolbert Jr. ousted in military coup,castrated with ears cut off – first ethnic Krahn rules Gen. Sameul K Doe
Madagascar: Malaria outbreak
Mauritania: President resigns and is succeeded by prime minister Mohammed Khouna Ould Haidalla Slavery decreed abolished but practice still continues
Senegal: First president steps down
Tunisia: Prime minister steps down
Uganda: First elections in 18 years but former president Obote back in power
Zimbabwe: Independence after guerrilla war under majority (black) rule under Robert Mugabe and ceases to be Rhodesia
Americas
Brazil: Serra Palada gold mine discovered
Incentives offered to colonists to settle NW part (Amazon) but soil doesn’t support agriculture – leads to deforestation scares of late 80s
Canada: Quebec narrowly votes to stay united Reelection of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau
"Oh, Canada" adopted as official national anthem of Canada
Cuba: Government closes port as a third-million Cubans try to leave
Dominican Republic: Hurricane David kills 22
El Salvador: Civil War to 1992 as violence escalates against religious and human rights leader
Guatemala: Spanish Embassy burned killing 36
Guyana: Adoption of socialist constitution
Haiti: Experimental hormone shots given to men in detention camps and they develop gynecomastia
Nicaragua: US supports Contras Former dictator Anastasio Somoza assassinated
Peru: Fernando Belaunde Terry reelected
Puerto Rico: Governor Luis Muñnoz Marin dies
Suriname: Army sergeants overthrow the government of Premier Henck Arron with several subsequent coups
Uruguay: Voters reject new constitution
Asia
China: "Gang of Four" trial China and US normalize relations Births limited to one child
India: Indira Gandhi re-elected Landslide in Darjeeling
Japan: Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira dies and Zeno Suzuki becomes new prime minister Birthrate falls
Kampuchea: Khmer Republic returns to being called Cambodia then Kampuchea
Philippines: Passenger ferry kills 313 in crash
South Korea: General Chun Doo Hwan takes power in military coup and kills 200+ students and workers
Vietnam: Ton Duc Thang dies
Europe
General: Hormones in beef banned
France: Bomb outside Paris synagogue leaves four dead Academie Française elects first woman to membership
Great Britain: Birth of fictional character Harry Potter
Church of England adopts newer version of Book of Common Prayer updating language Clive Sinclair develops cheap computer (Timex-Sinclair in US)
Alexandra Palace in London destroyed by fire Margaret Thatcher tells Conservatives "U-turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning."
Iceland: Vigdis Finnbogadottir becomes first democratically elected woman anywhere
Italy: Earthquakes kill between 2735 and 4800 Violence as neo-fascists massacre 85 in railway station
Archaeologists excavate Herculaneum
Netherlands: Juliana of Netherlands abdicates and daughter Beatrix succeeds
Poland: Solidarity, the Polish trade union, founded and strikes begin under Lech Walesa
Premier Piotr Jaroszewicz resigns under accusations of corruption Russian troops mass on border after uprising
Train wreck kills 62
Portugal: Former premier Marcello Caetano dies
Soviet Union: Premier Aleksei Nikolaievich Kosygin dies Radio broadcasts jammed to hide Polish unrest
Jimmy Carter proclaims grain embargo against USSR – hurts US First festival of rock music in country Youth riots in Estonia shut down
Spain: Spain and UK agree to reopen border between Gibraltar and Spain (closed 1969)
Sweden: Change in royal succession to favor older sister over younger brother
Switzerland: Swiss tunnel opens after 11 years of construction
Yugoslavia: President (Marshal) Josip Broz Tito dies - demands for independence increase
Middle East
Afghanistan: Soviet invasion
Iran: Iraq invades leading to war to 1988 Death of Shah of Iran ending Pahlevi dynasty that ruled since 1921
US attempts to rescue hostages (Operation Eagle Claw) but helicopters crash and disaster – Ayatollah Khomeini threatens to kill if more attempts tried
Iran grants women right to vote but women protest Islamic dress code Islamic revolution led by Shiite Muslims
Iraq: Oil terminals damaged by Iranian attacks
Israel: "Jesus Family Tomb" found Water shaft excavated
Pakistan: Agha Mohammed Tahha Khan dies
Turkey: Near anarchy until military coup
Pacific
Australia: Aboriginie girls injected with Depo-Provera for contraception without knowledge to control black birth rates
Baby Azaria Chamberlain disappears from Ayers Rock reportedly taken by a dingo
Vanatu: Formerly New Hebrides in S Pacific gains independence after British and French rule
Pres: James E. "Jimmy" Carter Pres: Ronald Reagan elected
General
Archaeology: Gary Jennings publishes guide to reading ancient Aztec pictographs
Art: Jasper johns paints Police charge director Michael Bogdanow with indecency when in "The Romans in Britain" he shows simulated homosexual rape on stage
Crime: Joseph Paul Franklin US serial killer and racist killed 20 and in 1978 tried to kill Larry Flynt Weather Underground activist Bernardine Dohrn turns self in
Entertainment: Rap Music emerges "42nd Street" debuts on Broadway Richard Prior badly burned freebasing cocaine
"Who shot JR" on Dallas becomes national obsession Dr. Ruth Westheimber (Karola Ruth Siegel) debuts "Sexually Speaking" radio program
Bravo Network debuts Writers: Douglas Adams, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum
Environment: Lead paint banned in US Superfund (CERLA) created to clean up hazardous sites
Finance: Banking deregulation in US aims to help consumers but banks raise rates US bankruptcy rates rise
George HW Bush calls Reagan plan "voodoo economics" but later drops opposition Gas prices in US have doubled in last two years
Food: "Scarsdale Diet" creator shot Coke changes some sucrose to high-fructose corn syrup – many sweet foods follow suit Chicken McNuggets debut
Law: US Supreme Court upholds Hyde Amendment of 1976 supporting abortion rights
Illegal to post 10 Commandments in classrooms in US Supreme Court upholds quotas and reverse discrimination
Supreme Court decides manmade life may be patented Court rules that public has a right to trials and newsrooms protected from searches
Medicine: FDA prohibits use of prison inmates in pharmaceutical trials Hepatitis B vaccines in Los Angeles and San Francisco
First AIDS in San Francisco New England Journal of Medicine confirms that some obese are more fuel efficient
Military: Leukemia found among military personnel who participated in 1957's Operation Plumbbob
Carter tries to extend draft to women - military and Congress overrule
News: Ted Turner's CNN makes first broadcast Ted Koppel and "Nightline" debuts
Politics: Carter Doctrine announced US mission to free Iranian hostages fails
US protests Afghan invasion by Soviets Republicans sweep elections in US US Department of Education begins
Religion: Rev. Jerry Falwell campaigns against equal rights amendment
Science: Cosmos by Sagan begins broadcasting Voyager I explored Saturn Universities allowed to patent research
Sports: "Miracle on Ice" Hockey victory of US over USSR Rollerblade Inc. founded patenting in-line skates US boycotts summer Olympics in Moscow
Technology: Introduction of Sony Walkman Personal computers available start of "Silicon Revolution" as computers become widely used
US Solar Maximum Mission launched but doesn’t work until repaired in 1984 IBM achieves 91% accuracy in voice recognition WordPerfect debuts
Hewlett-Packard introduces first laser printer at $100,000 and the size of a desk
Transportation: Chrysler bailout American railroads deregulated
Weather: US heat wave kills between 1250 and 10000
East
Massachusettss: Boston Marathon runner cheats by riding subway
New Jersey: Mafioso Angelo Bruno assassinated in Atlantic City
New York: Love Canal evacuated after EPA reports chromosomal damage in 36 residents Closure of Studio 54 in New York after drug-hammered owner mentions money and IRS raids club
Fire at Stouffer Inn kills 26 John Lennon shot End of Genovese crime family trial in NY with 10-year sentence
Water leak in nuclear reactor plant forces shutdown
Midwest
General: Ohio Valley drought
Missouri: James Polley has head trapped in Fire in the Hole ride in Branson and dies
Times Beach destroyed when man spraying roads with oil to control dust mixes two tainted batches laced with dioxins
– town near Eureka later condemned
Ohio: Cincinnati television hostages – just terrorist James Hoskins dies by suicide
South
Florida: Biscayne Bay National Park created Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay collapses when freighter hits it killing 35
Miami riots after police acquitted in beating
Georgia: Murder spree of black Atlanta children
Kentucky: Harlan Sanders founder of KFC dies
Louisiana: Delcambre salt mine disaster - oil rig drilling hit mine and water flows into hole – reversal of water flow patterns
Boats and trees sucked into hole at Lake Peigneur
West and Pacific
Alaska: Mount McKinley National Park renamed Denali
California: Six earthquakes Channel Islands named National Park Crystal Cathedral completed
Richard Chase the "Vampire of Sacramento" kills himself on San Quentin death row Mothers Against Drunk Driving founded in California (MADD)
Rattlesnake placed in mailbox of lawyer suing the Syanon drug rehab program (cult) Norco bank shootout
New Mexico: 36 hour riot in NM State Pen. – 33 die Very Large Array used for astronomy completed
Nevada: Fire at the Vegas MGM Grand kills four Workers in Las Vegas hospital suspended for betting on patient deaths