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1979 in the United States

Events from the year 1979 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

State governments

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

  • July 2 – The Susan B. Anthony dollar is introduced in the U.S.
  • July 3 – President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
  • July 8 – Los Angeles passes its gay and lesbian civil rights bill.
  • July 11 – NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.
  • July 12 – A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers. Local Rock Radio station WLUP attended the event
  • July 15 – President Carter speaks to Americans about ‘'a crisis of confidence.'’ The speech will come to be known as ‘'the malaise speech,’’ though Carter never used the word ‘'malaise.'’
  • July 17 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
  • July 19 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.

August

  • August 2 – New York Yankees catcher and team captain Thurman Munson is killed in an airplane crash at age 32 during touch-and-go landings in Canton, Ohio.
  • August 6 – The 5.7 Coyote Lake earthquake affected the South Bay and Central Coast areas of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing 16 injuries and $500,000 in damage.
  • August 9 – Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is shot and killed 5 months after his arrest for quadruple murder (his killers have not yet been identified).
  • August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7× platinum album.
  • August 29 – A national referendum is held in which Somali voters approve a new liberal constitution, promulgated by President Siad Barre to placate the United States.

September

October

November

December

December 1, 1978 to February 28, 1979

  • This is the coldest winter over the contiguous US since at least 1895 with a mean temperature of as against an 1895/1896 to 1973/1974 seasonal mean of . Except for normally frigid upstate Maine, all of the conterminous United States was below average for the winter, an occurrence previously seen only in 1898/1899 and 1909/1910.
  • Both the contiguous US winter mean maximum temperature at (1895/1896 to 1973/1974 mean ) and the minimum temperature at (1895/1896 to 1973/1974 mean ) are the coldest since at least 1895.

Ongoing

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January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

See also

Notes

References

External links