1979
Centuries: Year in Review 20th Century
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1890s - 1900s - 1910s - 1920s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s - 1990s - 2000s
1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Births
- February 11 - Brandy Norwood, singer.
Deaths
- August 27 - Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 79, British World War II hero, and three others are killed by a blast on a fishing boat off the Irish coast; two I.R.A. members are accused on August 30.
Events
- January 4 - State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings.
- January 7 - Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime.
- January 16 - Shah leaves Iran after a year of turmoil.
- February 11 - 43 million viewers watch "Elvis!" on ABC.
- February 11 - Ruhollah Khomeini seizes power in Iran.
- March 28 - Conservatives win the British election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
- March 28 - Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., releases radiation
- June 14 - Jimmy Carter and Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement.
- July 17 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami; Sandinistas form a new government on July 19.
- November 4 - Iranian militants seize the U.S. embassy in Teheran and take hostages.
- December 27 - Soviet Union invasdes Afghanistan.
Sport
- January 21 - Super Bowl XIII Pittsburgh Steelers (35) def. Dallas Cowboys (31)