1979

1979 (MCMLXXIX) was .
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 Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'etat 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 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
Births
January 2 - Morena Baccarin, Brazilian actress
January 12 - Marian 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 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
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 26 - Chris Daughtry, American singer
Deaths
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 - Jose Maria 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'ichiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist (b. 1906)
July 15 - Gustavo Diaz 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 Macias 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