What Happened in 1979
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Ayatollah Khomeini Returns to Iran After 15 Years of Exile
From the perspective of nearly 2 1/2 decades, the success of the Islamic revolution in Iran and its monumental impact across the Islamic world may... Read more
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The Bee Gees release Spirits Having Flown
Spirits Having Flown is the Bee Gees' fifteenth original album (thirteenth internationally), released on February 5, 1979. It was the group's first... Read more
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"The Marriage Of Maria Braun" Is Released
The Marriage of Maria Braun (German: Die Ehe der Maria Braun) is a 1979 West German film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It was nominated for... Read more
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Scorpions release Lovedrive
Lovedrive is the sixth studio album by the German heavy metal band Scorpions, released in 1979. Lovedrive was a major evolution of the band's... Read more
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"Norma Rae" Is Released
Norma Rae is a 1979 film which tells the story of a factory worker from a small town in the Southern United States who becomes involved in the... Read more
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"Sheik Yerbouti" by Frank Zappa Is Released
Sheik Yerbouti is a double vinyl album by Frank Zappa featuring material recorded in 1977 and 1978. It was first released on March 3 1979 as the... Read more
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"Hair" Is Released
Hair is a 1979 film adaptation of the 1968 Broadway musical of the same title about a Vietnam war draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of... Read more
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Van Halen Releases "Van Halen II"
Van Halen II is the second album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1979. The actual recording of the album took place less than a... Read more
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Motörhead release Overkill
Overkill is the second album released by Motörhead, in 1979, and their first for Bronze Records. It peaked at number 24 on the UK charts. It had a... Read more
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1979 NCAA Basketball Championship: Magic Johnson of Michigan State defeats Larry Bird of Indiana State
Last Monday night, in the championship game, Michigan State confirmed a notion that had been gaining credence as the NCAA tournament progressed and... Read more
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Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty signed
The treaty demonstrated that Middle East leaders, and not just foreign powers, have the power to transform regional politics. Read more
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Michigan State Beats Indiana State in Final Four
The 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 40 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of... Read more
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Three Mile Island Accident at Nuclear Generating Station
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three... Read more
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Sverdlovsk Anthrax Leak
In all, 96 people were hospitalized for anthrax during the Sverdlovsk outbreak of 1979, including cutaneous cases. Of these 96 hospitalized people,... Read more
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51st Academy Awards
The 51st Academy Awards were presented April 9, 1979 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Johnny... Read more
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"Mad Max" Is Released
Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and Byron Kennedy. The film, starring the... Read more
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Fuzzy Zoeller wins the 43rd Masters Tournament
Fuzzy Zoeller birdied the second playoff hole, No. 11, and became the Masters first sudden-death champion. Ed Sneed, who joined Zoeller and Tom... Read more
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"Manhattan" Is Released
Manhattan is a 1979 romantic comedy film about Isaac Davis (Woody Allen), a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer dating a 17-year-old high... Read more
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Five Prisoners Released from Soviet Union in Exchange for Two Soviet Spies
On 20 May 1978, three Soviet foreign intelligence officers were arrested in New Jersey while collecting an agent's report from a secret cache. One... Read more
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George H.W. Bush Announces his Candidacy for President of the United States
Bush had decided in the late 1970s that he was going to run for president in 1980; in 1979, he attended 850 political events and traveled more than... Read more
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Rod Blagojevich graduates from Northwestern University
Rod Blagojevich graduates from Northwestern University. He attended Tampa University for his first two years of undergraduate studies and spent... Read more
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Margaret Thatcher Becomes the First Female Prime Minister in Great Britain
Margaret Thatcher arrived at her North London constituency early, in good time for glad-handing and a last bit of publicity. But it was well into... Read more
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"Orchestral Favorites" by Frank Zappa Is Released
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa first released in May, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is instrumental and... Read more