1979

**1979** (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Events

- January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings
- February 1 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile
- March 4 – The U.S. _Voyager 1_ spaceprobe photos show Jupiter's rings
- April 1 – Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially
- May 1 – Greenland is given limited autonomy from Denmark. The new Parliament of Greenland will meet in Nuuk.
- June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna
- July 12 – Kiribati gains independence from the United Kingdom
- July 16 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam al-Tikriti replaces him
- August 3 – Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
- September 1 – The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km
- September 7 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy
- September 7 – ESPN starts broadcasting
- September 16 – Three families flee from East Germany by balloon
- September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa
- September 22 – The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test
- October 3  The divorce of Michele Catain, an American crew member and real estate agent, and David Thomas Durboraw, an American businessman, is finalized
- October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving many tens of thousands of people
- October 16 – 23 people die in Nice, France, when the coastal town is hit by a tsunami
- October 21 – 259 Muslim radicals occupy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Saudi-Arabian army goes in to expel them
- October 26 – South Korean president Park Chunghee killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu
- October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence
- October 29 – Pope John Paul II visits Ireland
- November 5 – The radio news program _Morning Edition_ premieres on National Public Radio in the United States
- December 5 – Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland. He is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
- December 15 – Chris Haney and Scott Abbott develop the board game Trivial Pursuit
- December 26  The divorce of Jack Catain Jr., an American businessman, and Marlene Noble, an American apparel sales associate, is finalized

## Births

- January 2 – Morena Baccarin, Brazilian actress
- January 12 – Marián Hossa, Slovakian hockey player
- January 16 – Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
- January 20 – Will Young, English singer and actor
- January 26 – Sara Rue, American actress
- February 9 – Irina Slutskaya, Russian figure skater
- February 11 – Brandy Norwood, American singer
- February 21 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
- March 8 – Tom Chaplin, English singer (Keane)
- March 9 – Melina Perez, American wrestler
- March 12 – Pete Doherty, English musician
- March 27 – Hiromu Shinozuka, Japanese manga artist
- April 4
    - Heath Ledger, Australian actor (d. 2008)
    - Roberto Luongo, Canadian hockey player
- April 5 – Timo Hildebrand, German footballer
- April 24 – Marie Picasso, Swedish model and singer
- May 9 – Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician
- May 15 – Dominic Scott, Irish guitarist
- May 16 – Prince Carl Philip of Sweden
- May 21 – Shinya Kumazaki, Japanese video game developer
- May 26 – Ashley Massaro, American model and wrestler
- May 29 – Arne Friedrich German footballer
- August 3 – Evangeline Lilly, Canadian actress
- August 16 – Cleo Lemon, American NFL player
- September 13 – Manuel Friedrich, German footballer
- September 17 – Chuck Comeau, Canadian musician
- September 27 – Shep Rose, American
- October 1 - Florin Salam, Romanian singer
- October 3 – John Hennigan, American wrestler
- October 8 – Kristanna Loken, American actress
- November 14 – Michael Owen, English footballer
- November 27 – Hilary Hahn, American violinist
- December 4 - Adrian Zandberg, Polish politician, historian, and programmer. He created the Razem political party
- December 25 - Ferman Akgül, Turkish songwriter and singer
- December 26 – Chris Daughtry, American singer

### January

- January 3 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier  (b. 1887)
- January 5 – Charles Mingus, American bassist (b. 1922)
- January 16 – Ted Cassidy, American actor  (b. 1932)
- January 18 – Gaston Heuet, French long-distance runner (b. 1892)
- January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
- January 27 – Victoria Ocampo, Argentine writer (b. 1890)

### February

- February 2 – Sid Vicious, English musician (b. 1957)
- February 7 – Josef Mengele, Nazism war criminal (b. 1911)
- February 8 – Nikolai Tikhonov, Soviet writer (b. 1896)
- February 9 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian-British engineer (b. 1900)
- February 12 – Jean Renoir, French film director (b. 1894)
- February 17 – William Gargan, American actor (b. 1905)

### March

- March 1 – Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish leader (b. 1903)
- March 7 – Klaus Egge, Norwegian nationalist (b. 1906)
- March 15 – Alexandre Parodi, French Politician (b. 1901)
- March 30 – José María Velasco Ibarra, 24th President of Ecuador (b. 1893)

### April

- April 4 – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, 4th President of Pakistan (b. 1928)

### May

- May 1 – Morteza Motahhari, Iranian philosopher (b. 1919)
- May 2 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemical engineer (b. 1903)
- May 9 – Gabriel Ramanantsoa, 2nd President of Madagascar (b. 1906)
- May 29 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress (b. 1892)

### June

- June 11 – John Wayne, American actor (b. 1907)

### July

- July 3 – Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1988)
- July 8 – Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist (b. 1906)
- July 15 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, 49th President of Mexico (b. 1911)

### August

- August 3 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- August 21 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian football player (b. 1910)
- August 27 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, British statesman and naval officer (b. 1900)

### September

- September 10 – Agostinho Neto, 1st President of Angola (b. 1922)
- September 20 – Ismail Nasiruddin of Terengganu, 4th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (b. 1907)
- September 28 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
- September 29 – Francisco Macías Nguema, 1st President of Equatorial Guinea (executed) (b. 1924)

### October

- October 1 – Preguinho, Brazilian footballer (b. 1905)
- October 8 – Nur Muhammad Taraki, President of Afghanistan (b. 1917)
- October 26 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)

### November

- November 1 – Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
- November 25 – Ky Ebright, American Olympic rowing coach (b. 1894)

### December

- December 27 – Hafizullah Amin, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)

## Nobel Prizes

- Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg for their work on electroweak interactions
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry shared by Herbert C. Brown and Georg Wittig for their work with organoboranes
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by Allan McLeod Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield for their work on X-ray computed tomography
- Nobel Prize in Literature won by Odysseas Elytis, Greek poet
- Nobel Peace Prize won by Mother Teresa
- Nobel Prize in Economics – Theodore Schultz, American economist, and W. Arthur Lewis, Saint Lucian economist