What happened in 1979

World8

• Mar 16End of major hostilities in the Sino-Vietnamese War.
• Jun 1The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal, in the unrecognized republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
• Sep 12Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
• Sep 22Vela incident: The "South Atlantic Flash" is observed near the Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean, thought to be a nuclear weapons test conducted by South Africa and Israel.
• Dec 12The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.
• Dec 12The NATO Double-Track Decision: is the decision of NATO from December 12, 1979, to offer the Warsaw Pact a mutual limitation of medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles combined with the threat that in case of disagreement NATO would deploy more middle-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe, following the so-called "Euromissile Crisis".
• Dec 21Lancaster House Agreement: A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
• VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.

Japan3

• Apr 7In Japan, Yoshiyuki Tomino directs Mobile Suit Gundam, the first series of the metaseries of the same name.
• JulWalkman releasedSony released a small cassette player without a recording function. The habit of carrying music outside and listening alone spread around the world.
• Dec 15The directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki, The Castle of Cagliostro, is released in Japan.

North America25

• Mar 19C-SPAN, an American television channel focusing on government and public affairs, is launched.
• Mar 26In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign an Egypt–Israel peace treaty.
• Mar 28America's most serious nuclear power plant accident occurs, at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
• Apr 1Nickelodeon launches from QUBE's Pinwheel experiment and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.
• May 25American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.
• May 25Etan Patz, six years old, is kidnapped in New York. He is often referred to as the "Boy on the Milk Carton" and the investigation later sprouts into one of the most famous child abduction cases of all time. This is a cold case until 2010 when it is re-opened. In April 2017, Pedro Hernandez is convicted of the murder and kidnapping and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Jun 15McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal in the United States in a nationwide advertising campaign after testing the product since February in franchises in the U.S. state of Missouri.
• Jun 18Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
• Jul 3U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan.
• Aug 10Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7× platinum album.
• Sep 7The first cable sports channel, the Entertainment Sports Programming Network (better known as ESPN), is launched in the United States.
• Oct 12Near Guam, Typhoon Tip reaches a record intensity of 870 millibars, the lowest pressure recorded at sea level. This makes Tip the most powerful tropical cyclone in known world history.
• Nov 3Greensboro 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.
• Nov 30The Wall, a rock opera concept album by Pink Floyd, is first released.
• Dec 6The world premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

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Europe19

• Jan 1United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the International Year of the Child. Many musicians donate to the Music for UNICEF Concert fund, among them ABBA, who write the song Chiquitita to commemorate the event.
• Feb 7Nazi criminal Josef Mengele suffers a fatal stroke and drowns while swimming in Bertioga, Brazil. His remains are found in 1985.
• Mar 1Philips publicly demonstrate a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• Mar 8Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
• Apr 151979 Montenegro earthquake: A 6.9 shock affects Montenegro (then part of Yugoslavia) and parts of Albania, causing extensive damage to coastal areas and taking 136 lives; the old town of Budva is devastated.
• May 1Greenland is granted limited autonomy from Denmark, with its own Parliament sitting in Nuuk.
• Jun 2Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland on his first official, nine-day stay, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country. This visit, known as nine days that changed the world, brings about the solidarity of the Polish people against Communism, ultimately leading to the rise of the Solidarity movement.
• Jun 71979 European Parliament election: The first direct elections to the European Parliament begin, allowing citizens from across all nine (at this time) member states of the European Communities to elect 410 MEPs. It is also the first international election in history.
• Aug 6Bauhaus releases their debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", considered to be the first gothic rock release.
• Aug 17The controversial religious satirical film Monty Python's Life of Brian premieres in the United States.
• Aug 27The Troubles: Lord Mountbatten of Burma and two others are killed in a bombing on his boat in the Republic of Ireland by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Mountbatten was a British fleet admiral, statesman and an uncle of The Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs, killing 18 British soldiers. Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne would die in a hospital the following day from injuries sustained in the bombing.
• Oct 12The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first novel by Douglas Adams, is published in the United Kingdom
• Nov 16Bucharest Metro Line One is opened, in Bucharest, Romania (from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea stations, ).
• Nov 23The Troubles: In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten of Burma in August. He was released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
• Dec 24The first European Ariane rocket is launched.

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USSR / Russia2

• Apr 2Sverdlovsk anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. It is a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.
• Dec 24The Soviet Union covertly launches its invasion of Afghanistan – 3 days later, PDPA general secretary Hafizullah Amin is executed in Operation Storm-333 and Babrak Karmal replaces him, beginning the war.

Asia12

• Jan 7Cambodian–Vietnamese War: The People's Army of Vietnam and Vietnamese-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreat west to an area along the Thai border, ending large-scale fighting.
• Jan 16Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
• Feb 17The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.
• Mar 29Sultan Yahya Petra of Kelantan, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Head of State) of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang.
• Apr 4Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is executed by hanging for the murder of a political opponent.
• Jun 1The Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
• Aug 11The Machchu-2 dam in Morbi, India, collapses, killing between 1800 and 25000 people in one of the worst ever dam failures.
• Sep 30The MTR in Hong Kong begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System, the Kwun Tong Line.
• Oct 1The MTR, the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong, opens.
• Oct 26Park Chung Hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jae-gyu.
• Dec 12Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-hah, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
• The One-child policy is introduced in China – it contributes to the country's sex-ratio imbalance. It was loosened in 2013.

Middle East12

• Feb 7Iranian Revolution: Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts, and government administration; the final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.
• Feb 14In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
• Mar 8Thousands of women participate in the International Women's Day Protests in Tehran, 1979 against the introduction of mandatory veiling during the Iranian revolution.
• Mar 31Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song Hallelujah.
• Apr 1Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
• Jul 221979 Ba'ath Party Purge: Iraqi president Saddam Hussein arranges the arrest and later execution of nearly seventy members of his ruling Ba'ath Party.
• Nov 1Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
• Nov 4Iran hostage crisis begins: 500 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.
• Nov 12Iran 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.
• Nov 14Iran 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.
• Nov 17Iran 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.
• Nov 20Grand Mosque seizure: A group of 200 Juhayman al-Otaybi militants occupy Mecca's Masjid al-Haram, the holiest place in Islam. They are driven out by Saudi military forces after bloody fighting that leaves 250 people dead and 600 wounded.

Latin America9

• Feb 22Saint Lucia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• Apr 13The La Soufrière volcano erupts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
• May 9The Salvadoran Civil War begins.
• Jun 3Ixtoc I oil spill: A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons, making it the largest unintentional oil spill until it is surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
• Jul 21Nicaraguan Revolution: The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the Somoza dynasty and assumes power in Nicaragua.
• Oct 27Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence from the UK.
• Oct 31Western Airlines Flight 2605 crashes upon landing at Mexico City International Airport, killing 72 occupants plus one on the ground; 16 people on board survive.
• Nov 5All Saints' Massacre: The military junta in Bolivia initiates a violent crack-down on its opponents.
• Dec 12The 8.2 Tumaco earthquake shakes Colombia and Ecuador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 300–600, and generating a large tsunami.

Africa8

• Jan 22Uganda–Tanzania War: Battle of Mutukula: The Tanzanian military captures the Ugandan border town of Mutukula after a short battle.
• Mar 10Uganda–Tanzania War: Battle of Lukaya: The Ugandan military, a Libyan expeditionary force and allied Palestine Liberation Organisation militants begin a counter-offensive against Tanzanian troops in south-central Uganda. The Ugandan-led alliance retakes Lukaya after a short clash with the Tanzanian military.
• Apr 11Uganda–Tanzania War: Fall of Kampala: Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
• May 15Uganda–Tanzania War: Battle of Lira: Tanzania and its Uganda National Liberation Front allies capture Lira, Uganda, from the forces of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
• Jun 4Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown.
• Aug 3Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
• Sep 13South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
• Sep 29The overthrown dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is convicted of genocide and executed by firing squad.

Oceania3

• Jul 12The Gilbert Islands become fully independent of the United Kingdom as Kiribati.
• Nov 25The last cargo of phosphate was shipped from Banaba Island in Kiribati in the South Pacific Ocean, bringing an end to the island's chief industry.
• Nov 28Air New Zealand Flight 901: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus in Antarctica on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.