1979

Events from the year 1979 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Jimmy Carter (D-GA)
* Vice President: Walter Mondale (D-MN)
* Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (MN)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tip O'Neill (D-MA)
* Senate Majority Leader: Robert Byrd (D-WV)
* Congress: 95th (until January 3), 96th (starting January 3)
==Events==
===January===
* January 1 – The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.
* January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of those who were dead or injured from the Kent State shootings.
* January 9 – The Music for UNICEF Concert is held at the United Nations General Assembly to raise money for UNICEF and promote the Year of the Child. It is broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world. Hosted by the Bee Gees, other performers include Donna Summer, ABBA, Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire. A soundtrack album is later released.
* January 19 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
* January 21 – Super Bowl XIII: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 35–31 at Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
* January 29 – Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing two faculty members and wounding eight students. Her response to the action, “I don’t like Mondays,” inspired the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.
* January 31
** Averaged over the contiguous United States, this is the coldest month since at least 1880 with a mean temperature of 21.90 °F or −5.61 °C as against an 1895 to 1974 mean of 29.99 °F or −1.12 °C.
** The maximum temperature at 31.90 °F or −0.06 °C is also the coldest on record for any month and the only occasion when the area-averaged contiguous U.S. mean maximum has fallen below freezing.
===February===
* February 5 – Bee Gees' album, Spirits Having Flown is released in the United States.
* February 13 – The intense February 13, 1979 Windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
* February 14 – In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
* February 20 – This Old House premieres on PBS.
* February 26 – A total solar eclipse occurred in North America.
* February 27 – The annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana is canceled due to a strike called by the New Orleans Police Department.
* February 28 – With a statewide water-equivalent precipitation average of only 0.72 inches (18.3 mm), this is Alaska’s driest month since records began in 1925, and first driest month since being admitted to statehood in 1959.
===March===
* March 4 – The U.S. Voyager I space probe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
* March 25 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.
* March 26 – In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty.
* March 29 – America's most serious nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
===April===
* April 1 – Nickelodeon debuts on cable television, playing children's television shows 24 hours a day. Pinwheel, which first premiered on the channel C-3 in 1977, was one of the first shows to be broadcast on the channel.
* April 2 – Major League Baseball umpires go on strike, forcing replacements from the minor leagues, college and high school to be used for the first seven weeks of the season. Union umpires return to work May 18.
* April 9 – The 51st Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Johnny Carson, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cimino. The film is also tied with Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait in receiving nine nominations each. The ceremony marks the final public appearances of actors Jack Haley and John Wayne; they would both die two months later.
* April 10 – A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42.
* April 20 – President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
* April 22 – The Albert Einstein Memorial is unveiled at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.
===May===
* May 1 – The unemployment rate drops to 5.6%, the low point for the late 1970s business cycle and the lowest since July 1974.
* May 9 – A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
* May 21
** In San Francisco, gay people riot after hearing the verdict for Dan White, assassin of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
** The Montreal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1 in the best-of-seven series, winning the Stanley Cup.
* May 25
** American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing 271 on board and 2 people on the ground. It is the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States.
** John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of death penalty in 1976.
** Six-year-old Etan Patz disappears in New York City. The incident helps spark the missing children's movement.
* May 27 – Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.
===June===
* June 1 – The Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.
* June 2 – McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal, there was no toy as seen from the commercial.
* June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
* June 20 – A Nicaraguan National Guard soldier kills ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape.
===July===
* July 2 – The Susan B. Anthony dollar is introduced in the U.S.
* July 3 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
* July 8 – Los Angeles passes its gay and lesbian civil rights bill.
* July 11 – NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.
* July 12 – A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers. Local Rock Radio station WLUP attended the event
* July 15 – President Jimmy Carter speaks to Americans about ‘’a crisis of confidence.’’ The speech will come to be known as ‘’the malaise speech,’’ though Carter never used the word ‘’malaise.’’
* July 17 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
* July 19 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.
===August===
* August 2 – New York Yankees catcher and team captain Thurman Munson is killed in an airplane crash at age 32 during touch-and-go landings in Canton, Ohio.
* August 6 – The 5.7 Mw Coyote Lake earthquake affected the South Bay and Central Coast areas of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing 16 injuries and $500,000 in damage.
* August 9 – Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is shot and killed 5 months after his arrest for quadruple murder (his killers have not yet been identified).
* August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
* August 29 – A national referendum is held in which Somali voters approve a new liberal constitution, promulgated by President Siad Barre to placate the United States.
===September===
* September 1 – The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
* September 12 – Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
* September 16 – The Sugarhill Gang release Rapper's Delight, the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
* September 23 – The largest anti-nuclear demonstration to date is held in New York City, where almost 200,000 people attend.
===October===
* October 1 – Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
* October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving many tens of thousands of people.
* October 15 – The 6.4 Mw Imperial Valley earthquake affected Southern California and northern Baja California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing 91 injuries and $30 million in damage.
* October 17
** President Jimmy Carter signs a law establishing the Department of Education.
** 1979 World Series: The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles, 4 games to 3, to win their 5th World Series Title.
===November===
* November 1 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
* November 2 – Assata Shakur (ne' Joanne Chesimard), a former member of Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, is liberated from a Clinton, New Jersey prison and soon shuttled off to Cuba where she remains under political asylum.
* November 3 – Greensboro massacre in Greensboro, North Carolina, five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.
* November 4 – Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.
* November 6 – Kentucky Fried Chicken magnate and former Boston Celtics owner John Y. Brown Jr. is elected Governor of Kentucky.
* November 7 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
* November 9 – Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert was cancelled.
* November 12 – Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.
* November 14 – Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.
* November 17 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
* November 21 – After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing four (see Foreign relations of Pakistan).
===December===
* December 3
** Eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before a The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
** The United States dollar exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark falls to 1.7079 DM, the all-time low so far; this record is not broken until November 5, 1987.
* December 6 – The world premiere for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
* December 8 – U.S. Representative David C. Treen is elected Governor of Louisiana, becoming Louisiana's first Republican Governor in over 100 years.
* December 21 – Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca.
==Memoriam==
===January===
* January 3 – Conrad Hilton, hotelier (aged 91; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 5
** Billy Bletcher, actor (aged 84; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Charles Mingus, musician (aged 56; Cuernavaca, Mexico)
* January 8 – Sara Carter, singer-songwriter and harp player (aged 80; Lodi, CA, USA)
* January 11 – Jack Soo, Japanese-born actor (aged 61; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 13 – Donny Hathaway, musician (aged 33; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 14 – Thomas DeSimone, gangster (aged 28; NY, USA)
* January 15 – Charles W. Morris, philosopher and semiotician (aged 77; Gainesville, FL, USA)
* January 16 – Ted Cassidy, actor (aged 46; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (aged 70; New York City, NY, USA)
===February===
* February 2 – Sid Vicious, English musician (aged 21; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 9 – Allen Tate, poet and essayist (aged 79; Nashville, TN, USA)
* February 17 – William Gargan, actor (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
===March===
* March 1 – Dolores Costello, actress (aged 75; Fallbrook, CA, USA)
* March 11 – Victor Kilian, actor (aged 88; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 14 – Will Mastin, vaudevillian (aged 100; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 18 – Marjorie Daw, actress (aged 77; Huntington, Beach, CA, USA)
* March 22 – Ben Lyon, actor (aged 78; Honolulu, HI, USA)
* March 26 – Jean Stafford, writer (aged 63; White Plains, NY, USA)
* March 28 – Emmett Kelly, clown (aged 80; Sarasota, FL, USA)
===April===
* April 4 – Edgar Buchanan, actor (aged 76; Palm Desert, CA, USA)
* April 24 – John Carroll, actor (aged 72; Hollywood, CA, USA)
===May===
* May 6 – Milton Ager, songwriter (aged 85; Inglewood, CA, USA)
* May 8 – Talcott Parsons, sociologist (aged 76; Munich, (West) Germany)
* May 11
** Joan Chandler, actress (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)
** Barbara Hutton, socialite (aged 66; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* May 16 – A. Philip Randolph, African American labor union leader (aged 90; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 29 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress and producer (aged 87; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
===June===
* June 1 – Jack Mulhall, actor (aged 91; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 6 – Jack Haley, actor (aged 81; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 11
** Loren Murchison, Olympic athlete (aged 80; Lakewood, NJ, USA)
** John Wayne, actor and film director (aged 72; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 13 – Darla Hood, actress (aged 47; North Hollywood, CA, USA)
* June 25 – Dave Fleischer, animator (aged 84; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===July===
* July 4 – Theodora Kroeber, writer and anthropologist (aged 82; Berkeley, CA, USA)
* July 6 – Van McCoy, accomplished musician; noted for his 1975 hit The Hustle (aged 39; Englewood, NJ, USA)
* July 7 – Morris Talpalar, sociologist (aged 79; Calverton, NY, USA)
* July 8
** Elizabeth Ryan, 30 Grand Slam Tennis Champion (aged 87; Wimbledon, England, UK)
** Robert Burns Woodward, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (aged 62; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* July 10 – Arthur Fiedler, conductor (Boston Pops) (aged 84; Brookline, MA, USA)
* July 12 – Minnie Riperton, rhythm and blues singer (Lovin' You) (aged 31; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 13 – Corinne Griffith, actress and author (aged 84; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* July 28 – George Seaton, screenwriter and director (aged 68; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* July 29 – Herbert Marcuse, German-American philosopher, sociologist and political theorist (aged 81; Starnberg, (West) Germany)
===August===
* August 2 – Thurman Munson, baseball player (aged 32; Green, OH, USA)
* August 9 – Walter O'Malley, baseball executive (aged 75; Rochester, MN, USA)
* August 10 – Dick Foran, actor (aged 69; Panorama City, CA, USA)
* August 21 – Stuart Heisler, film and television director (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 22 – James T. Farrell, novelist (aged 75; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 25 – Stan Kenton, jazz pianist (aged 67; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 26 – Alvin Karpis, criminal (aged 72; Torremolinos, Spain)
* August 30 – Jean Seberg, actress (aged 40; Paris, France)
* August 31 – Sally Rand, dancer (aged 75; Glendora, CA, USA)
===September===
* September 1 – Doris Kenyon, actress (aged 81; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* September 24 – Carl Laemmle Jr., film studio executive (aged 71; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 26
** John Cromwell, film director and actor (aged 92; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
** Arthur Hunnicutt, actor (aged 69; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 29 – Rudy Lavik, sports coach and administrator (aged 87; Mesa, AZ, USA)
===October===
* October 1 – Dorothy Arzner, film director (aged 82; La Quinta, CA, USA)
* October 6
** Elizabeth Bishop, poet (aged 68; Boston, MA, USA)
** Chapman Revercomb, politician and lawyer (aged 84; Charleston, WV, USA)
* October 13 – Rebecca Clarke, British-born viola player and composer (aged 93; NY, USA)
* October 15 – Jacob L. Devers, U.S. Army general (aged 92; Washington, DC, USA)
* October 22 – Joseph T. Ferguson, politician (aged 87; Columbus, OH, USA)
* October 27 – Charles Coughlin, Canadian-American priest (aged 88; Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA)
===November===
* November 1 – Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States as wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower (aged 82; Washington, DC, USA)
* November 5 – Al Capp, cartoonist (aged 70; South Hampton, NH, USA)
* November 9 – Louise Thaden, aviation pioneer (aged 73; High Point, NC, USA)
* November 19 – Dewey Jackson Short, politician (aged 81; Washington, DC, USA)
* November 23 – Judee Sill, singer and songwriter (aged 35; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 30 – Zeppo Marx, actor and comedian (aged 78; Rancho Mirage, CA, USA)
===December===
* December 7 – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, British-born astronomer and astrophysicist (aged 79; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* December 9 – Fulton J. Sheen, Roman Catholic bishop and venerable (aged 84; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 10 – Ann Dvorak, actress (aged 68; Honolulu, HI, USA)
* December 13 – Jon Hall, actor (aged 64; North Hollywood, CA, USA)
* December 15 – Ethel Lackie, Olympic swimmer (aged 72; Newbury Park, CA, USA)
* December 16 – Murray Gurfein, judge of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 22 – Darryl F. Zanuck, film producer (aged 77; Palm Springs, CA, USA)
* December 23
** Peggy Guggenheim, art collector (aged 81; Camposampiero, Italy)
** Ernest B. Schoedsack, film producer and director (aged 86; Los Angeles County, CA, USA)
* December 25
** Joan Blondell, actress (aged 73; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
** Lee Bowman, actor (aged 64; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 30 – Richard Rodgers, composer (aged 77; New York City, NY, USA)
==External links==
* 1979 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 20