Nostalgia Class of 1979

 
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World Events
a
  • Rhodesia's Prime Minister Ian D. Smith and three black leaders agree on transfer to black majority rule (Feb. 15).

  • US Senate approves Panama Canal neutrality treaty (March 16); votes treaty to turn canal over to Panama by year 2000 (April 18).

  • Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro kidnapped by left wing terrorists, who kill five bodyguards (March 16); he is found slain (May 9).

  • Pope Paul VI , dead at 80, mourned (Aug. 6); new Pope, John Paul I, 65, dies unexpectedly after 34 days in office (Sept. 28); succeeded by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland as John Paul II (Oct. 16).

  • "Framework for Peace" in Middle East signed by Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin after 13-day conference at Camp David led by President Jimmy Carter (Sept. 17).

  • Jim Jones's followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana (Nov. 18).
U.S. Events
  • F.B.I. director (Jan. 19).

  • US Supreme Court in Bakke case, bars quota systems in college admissions but affirms constitutionality of programs giving advantage to minorities (June 28).
Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars):   $2,291.40 billion
Federal spending:   $458.75 billion
Federal debt:   $776.6 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars):  $15,064
Consumer Price Index:   65.2
Unemployment:   6.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.13 ($0.15 as of 5/29/78)

Sports
a

Super Bowl
Dallas d. Denver (27-10)

World Series
NY Yankees d. LA Dodgers (4-2)

NBA Championship
Washington Bullets d. Seattle (4-3)

Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Boston (4-2)

Wimbledon
Women: Martina Navratilova d. C. Evert (2-6 6-4 7-5)
Men: Bjorn Borg d. J. Connors (6-2 6-2 6-3)

Kentucky Derby Champion
Affirmed

NCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Duke (94-88)

NCAA Football Champions
Alabama (AP, FW, NFF) (11-1-0) & USC (UPI) (12-1-0)

World Cup
Argentina d. Holland (3-1)


Entertainment
a

Events

  • Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable stereo.

Movies

  • The Deer Hunter, Midnight Express, Heaven Can Wait, Coming Home

Books

  • Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise

  • John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever

  • Barry Hannah, Airships

  • John Irving, The World According to Garp

  • Peter Mathiessen, The Snow Leopard

  • Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon

  • Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language

  • Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance

Science
  • Three Albuquerque, NM, men, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Maxie Anderson, make the first successful transatlantic balloon flight in the helium-filled Double Eagle II. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation

  • Balloon anigoplasty is developed to treat coronary artery disease. Background: Health & Nutrition

  • Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, is born at Oldham Hostpital in London. Background: reproduction

  • Recombinant DNA techniques are used to produce human insulin. Background: genetic engineering

  • A fusion reaction in a reactor at Princeton reaches 60 million degrees Fahrenheit for 1/20 of a second. Background: nuclear energy

Deaths
  • Hubert Humphrey

  • Anastus Mikoyan

  • Norman Rockwell