1979

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s – 1970s – 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years:	1976 1977 1978 – 1979 – 1980 1981 1982

1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1979th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 979th year of the 2nd millennium, the 79th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1970s decade.

Events

January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings
February 1 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile
March 4 – The U.S. Voyager 1 spaceprobe photos show Jupiter's rings
April 1 – Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially
May 1 – Greenland is given limited autonomy from Denmark. The new Parliament of Greenland will meet in Nuuk.
June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna
July 12 – Kiribati gains independence from the United Kingdom
July 16 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam al-Tikriti replaces him
August 3 – Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
September 1 – The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km
September 7 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy
September 7 – ESPN starts broadcasting
September 16 – Three families flee from East Germany by balloon
September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa
September 22 – The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test
October 3 – The divorce of Michele Catain, an American crew member and real estate agent, and David Thomas Durboraw, an American businessman, is finalized
October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving many tens of thousands of people
October 16 – 23 people die in Nice, France, when the coastal town is hit by a tsunami
October 21 – 259 Muslim radicals occupy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Saudi-Arabian army goes in to expel them
October 26 – South Korean president Park Chunghee killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu
October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence
October 29 – Pope John Paul II visits Ireland
November 5 – The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio in the United States
December 5 – Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland. He is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
December 15 – Chris Haney and Scott Abbott develop the board game Trivial Pursuit
December 26 – The divorce of Jack Catain Jr., an American businessman, and Marlene Noble, an American apparel sales associate, is finalized