What Happened in 1978 — Events, Births & Deaths

On the orders of the President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, paramilitary forces opened fire on peaceful protesting workers in Multan, Pakistan; it is known as 1978 massacre at Multan Colony Textile Mills.

United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.

The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.

The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.

The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) goes on public display after being returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.

The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.

The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314 crashes at the Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada with 42 deaths and seven survivors.

Hilton bombing: A bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.

The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).

The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30 others, all Protestants.

Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.

The Yuba County Five disappear in California. Four of their bodies are found four months later.

Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Soviet or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.

The late iconic actor Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from his grave in Switzerland.

The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

President Soeharto inaugurates Jagorawi Toll Road, the first toll highway in Indonesia, connecting Jakarta, Bogor and Ciawi, West Java.

Coastal Road massacre: At least 37 are killed and more than 70 are wounded when Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel's Operation Litani.

The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon.

Somalia and Ethiopia sign a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.

Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped; he is later murdered by his captors.

A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.

Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.

Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope suspended between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The first UNIFIL troops arrive in Lebanon for a peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line.

The US Supreme Court hands down 5–3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.

Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.

Tbilisi demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan.

The Ba Chúc massacre begins, which precipitates the Cambodian–Vietnamese War the same year.

John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.

The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Willow Island disaster: In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia.

The President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.

The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.

The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.

The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.

In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga); the local government asks the US, France and Belgium to restore order.

A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near the Russian town of Yegoryevsk, killing two.

The first of a series of bombings orchestrated by the Unabomber detonates at Northwestern University resulting in minor injuries.

The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens its priesthood to "all worthy men", ending a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men.

Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University.

Garfield's first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication.

The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.

Charon, the first of Pluto's satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.

Ahmad al-Ghashmi, the president of the Yemen Arab Republic, is killed when a bomb exploded in a suitcase carried by a South Yemeni envoy.

The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

Hosts Argentina defeat the Netherlands by a score of 3–1 in the final to win their first ever FIFA World Cup.

Air Canada Flight 189, flying to Toronto, overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of the 107 passengers on board perish.

The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, bars quota systems in college admissions.

The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government.

The Solomon Islands becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

President Moktar Ould Daddah of Mauritania is ousted in a bloodless coup d'état.

Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain, killing 216 tourists.

Puerto Rican police shoot two nationalists in the Cerro Maravilla murders.

Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.

The 730: Okinawa Prefecture changes its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal due to toxic waste that had been disposed of negligently.

Three members of the Ulrich family are killed in an accident. This leads to the Ford Pinto litigation.

One hundred fifty Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.

Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

In Iran, the Cinema Rex fire causes more than 300 deaths.

Nicaraguan Revolution: The FSLN seizes the National Congress of Nicaragua, along with over a thousand hostages.

The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Congress, although it is never ratified by a sufficient number of states.

Papal conclave: Albino Luciani is elected as Pope John Paul I.

During the Rhodesian Bush War a group of ZIPRA guerrillas shot down civilian Vickers Viscount aircraft (Air Rhodesia Flight 825) with a Soviet-made SAM Strela-2; of 56 passengers and crew 38 people died in crash, 10 were massacred by the guerrillas at the site.

Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace discussions at Camp David, Maryland.

While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Gullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially designed umbrella.

Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, results in 88 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran.

At the Superdome in New Orleans, Muhammad Ali outpoints Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times.

The 7.4 Mw Tabas earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people are killed.

The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.

The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.

PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, killing all 135 aboard Flight 182, both occupants of the Cessna, as well as seven people on the ground.

Air Caribbean Flight 309 crashes in Residencial Las Casas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing six.

Finnair Flight 405 is hijacked by Aarno Lamminparras in Oulu, Finland.

Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom.

Brother Eddie Villanueva and 15 others from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines begin the Jesus Is Lord Church.

Aeroflot Flight 1080 crashes after takeoff from Koltsovo International Airport, killing 38.

Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 275.97 knots at Blowering Dam, Australia.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

Based on the world's first children's art museum, the Henrik Igityan National Centre for Aesthetics opens in Yerevan.

Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.

Aeroflot Flight 6515 crashes off Syvash, killing all 26 people aboard.

Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

France conducts the Aphrodite nuclear test as 25th in the group of 29 1975–78 French nuclear tests.

A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet makes its first flight, at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, United States.

In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.

Cyclone kills about 1,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka.

The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 goes into effect, realigning many of Europe's longwave and mediumwave broadcasting frequencies.

In San Francisco, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is founded in the Turkish village of Fis.

Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco's first female mayor.

Spain ratifies the Spanish Constitution of 1978 in a referendum.

Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Lufthansa heist is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for the reform and opening up.

Alitalia Flight 4128 crashes into the Tyrrhenian Sea while on approach to Falcone Borsellino Airport in Palermo, Italy, killing 108.

The inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally begins.

Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.

United Airlines Flight 173 crashes in a residential neighborhood near Portland International Airport, killing 10 people.

Ian Holding, Zimbabwean writer

James Franco, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Amanda Sage, American-Austrian painter and educator

Carl Greenidge, English cricketer

Paul Malakwen Kosgei, Kenyan runner and coach

Lúcio, Brazilian footballer

Kenan Thompson, American actor and comedian

Malin Åkerman, Swedish-Canadian model, actress, and singer

Jason Biggs, American actor and comedian

Mirko Šarić, Argentine footballer (died 2000)

Adrienne Frantz, American actress

Bill Hader, American actor and comedian

Maria Menounos, American television personality, professional wrestler, author, and actress

Aramis Ramírez, Dominican baseball player

Urmas Rooba, Estonian footballer

Kurt Nilsen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Neville Roach, English footballer

Daniel James, Jr., American general and pilot (born 1920)

Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)

Mark Robson, Canadian-American director and producer (born 1913)