Home > 1970's: Overview > World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

1970

  • Nadine Gordimer's novel A Guest of Honor is published.
  • Yukio Mishima's novel Runaway Horses is published.
  • Graham Greene's novel Travels with My Aunt is published.
  • John Fowles's novel The French Lieutenants Woman is published.
  • Marcel Ophuls's documentary The Sorrow and the Pity premieres.
  • West German chancellor Willy Brandt, following a policy of Ostpolitik) signs nonaggression pacts with the Soviet Union and Poland and begins negotiations with East Germany.
  • Citizens of East Pakistan vote for autonomy from Pakistan.
  • Soviet cosmonauts set a new duration record (seventeen days) for space-flight.
12 Jan.
The Biafran independence movement capitulates to the Nigerian government after a secessionist struggle lasting thirty-one months.
16 Jan.
Col. Muammar el-Gadhafi assumes the post of premier of Libya.
10 Feb.
One person is killed and twenty-three are injured in an Arab terrorist attack in Munich, West Germany.
21 Feb.
On route from Zürich to Tel Aviv, a Swissair jetliner explodes and crashes, killing forty-seven. Arab terrorists are suspected in the blast.
1 Mar.
Rhodesia declares its independence from Britain.
4 Mar.
Fifty-seven sailors are feared lost when the French submarine Eurydice disappears in the Mediterranean.
15 Mar.
Expo '70 opens in Osaka, Japan.
18 Mar.
The Cambodian government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk is overthrown in a military coup led by Gen. Lon Nol.
8 Apr.
Gas explosions in Osaka, Japan, kill 72 persons and injure 282.
30 Apr.
U.S. and South Vietnamese combat troops invade Cambodia.
31 May
An estimated seventy thousand people are killed and seven hundred thousand are left homeless following an earthquake in Peru.
7 June
Swiss voters reject a proposal to expel some three hundred thousand foreign workers.
8 June
Argentine president Juan Carlos Ongania is deposed in a military coup.
19 June
In an electoral upset the British Conservative Party defeats the Labour Party Labour Party, Great Britain. Conservative Party head Edward Heath replaces Harold Wilson as prime minister.
24-27 June
In the heaviest fighting since the 1967 war, Israeli and Syrian troops engage in pitched battles on the Golan Heights.
29 June
The last U.S. and South Vietnamese combat troops leave Cambodia.
21 July
The Aswan High Dam project is completed in Egypt.
27 July
Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar dies at age eighty-one after nearly forty years in power.
7 Aug.
A U.S.-negotiated cease-fire between Israel and the Arab states goes into effect; peace negotiations begin at the United Nations.
6 Sept.
Four New York—bound airliners, carrying over six hundred people, are hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. One plane is diverted to London, and three planes are flown to Jordan. On 9 September another jetliner is hijacked and flown to Jordan. Three days later the passengers are freed and three of the airplanes are blown up.
16 Sept.
King Hussein of Jordan declares martial law.
24 Sept.
The Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna 16 returns to Earth with a collection of Moon rocks.
14 Oct.
Anwar as-Sadat is elected president of the United Arab Republic (Egypt).
24 Oct.
Salvador Allende Gossens, leader of the Socialist Party, is elected president of Chile.
5 Nov.
The Arab-Israeli cease-fire is extended.
13 Nov.
Cyclones and tidal waves destroy coastal East Pakistan; two hundred thousand people are estimated killed and three million people displaced.
25 Nov.
Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima harangues one thousand Japanese troops on the disgrace of defeat in World War II and challenges them to join him in a coup; when they refuse, he commits suicide.
26 Nov.
Pope Paul VI narrowly escapes assassination in the Philippines.
1 Dec.
The Italian parliament approves that country's first divorce law.
4 Dec.
In order to combat an outbreak of kidnapping and lawlessness, the Irish government assumes emergency powers.
11 Dec.
The United States and the Soviet Union sign a treaty on fishing rights off the coast of the Middle Atlantic states.
16 Dec.
Meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, fifty nations sign an agreement making air hijacking a crime subject to severe punishment.

1971

  • E. M. Forster's novel Maurice is published posthumously.
  • Anthony Powell's novel Books Do Furnish A Room is published.
  • Benjamin Britten's opera Owen Wingrave premieres.
  • Federico Fellini's film The Clowns premieres.
  • A cholera epidemic sweeps Bangladesh and leads to worldwide concern.
  • Three Soviet cosmonauts are found dead in their returning spacecraft.
  • The British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market.
  • A worldwide monetary crisis results in the devaluation of the American dollar.
  • Mount Etna produces its most spectacular eruption in forty-three years.
  • New international efforts are made to control biological weapons.
  • The shah of Iran celebrates the twenty-five hundredth anniversary of the Persian empire with a gala, attended by over fifty heads of state, at Persepolis, the ancient Persian capital.
2 Jan.
In Glasgow, Scotland, a crowd barrier at a soccer stadium collapses, killing sixty-six and wounding over one hundred.
25 Jan.
President Milton Obote of Uganda is overthrown in a military coup. Gen. Idi Amin seizes power.
4 Feb.
Rolls-Royce, the British automobile and airplane engine manufacturer, declares bankruptcy.
6 Feb.
The British send six hundred troops to Northern Ireland to stem renewed sectarian violence.
8 Feb.
South Vietnamese troops, with American air cover, invade Laos in an attempt to cut North Vietnamese supply lines.
9 Feb.
The European Economic Community establishes a plan to unify member currencies over a ten-year period.
14 Feb.
The Persian Gulf oil states receive $10 billion from twenty-three Western oil companies in return for five-year oil rights.
19 Feb.
The Soviet newspaper Pravda warns Soviet Jews against espousing Zionism.
21 Feb.
The 380-mile Karakoram highway is formally opened, linking China to Pakistan.
28 Feb.
Male voters in Liechtenstein reject woman suffrage, leaving it the only Western nation denying women the right to vote.
7 Mar.
The Arab-Israeli cease-fire expires.
11 Mar.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India wins a huge majority in national elections.
25 Mar.
President Mohammad Yahya Khan of Pakistan sends troops to East Pakistan and declares martial law.
4 Apr.
In local elections Salvador Allende Gossens's left-wing coalition wins 49.7 percent of Chileans' votes.
27 Apr.
Park Chung Hee wins a third term as South Korean president.
3 May
Erich Honecker replaces Walter Ulbricht as East German Communist Party leader.
19 May
The Soviet Union and Canada sign a friendship agreement.
20 May
In Leningrad nine Soviet Jews are sent to prison camp for "anti-Soviet activity."
21 June
The International Court of Justice at The Hague rules that South Africa must end its administration of South-West Africa.
22 July
Sudanese leader Jaafar Mohammad Nimeiri crushes a three-day military coup.
30 July
A midair collision over Honshu, Japan, kills 162 people.
9 Aug.
India and the Soviet Union sign a friendship treaty.
15 Aug.
Bahrain declares its independence from Britain.
22 Aug.
Gen. Juan José Torres of Bolivia is ousted from the presidency in a military coup.
18 Sept.
Israel and Egypt exchange rocket fire over the Suez Canal.
21 Sept.
Adam Malik of Indonesia is elected president of the twenty-sixth UN General Assembly. Bahrain, Bhutan, and Qatar are accepted for membership.
24 Sept.
Britain expels 105 Soviets suspected of espionage.
3 Oct.
Nguyen Van Thieu wins reelection as president of South Vietnam. He was unopposed in the election.
20-21 Oct.
West German chancellor Willy Brandt wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wins the Nobel Prize for literature.
25 Oct.
With U.S. support the United Nations votes to admit the People's Republic of China and to expel Taiwan.
10 Nov.
Fidel Castro begins a twenty-five-day visit to Chile.
19 Nov.
In Tokyo 1 person is killed and 1,785 are arrested during demonstrations over the return of Okinawa to Japan.
2 Dec.
Following demonstrations in Santiago over food shortages and the visit of Fidel Castro, Chilean president Salvador Allende Gossens decrees a state of emergency.
3 Dec.
War breaks out between India and Pakistan when Pakistan attacks Indian air-fields. The two nations had been feuding over East Pakistan's moves toward independence. On 6 December India recognizes the independence of East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh. On 17 December a cease-fire is declared in the Indian-Pakistani War. On 20 December President Yahya Khan of Pakistan resigns and is replaced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

1972

  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel August 1914 is published.
  • Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities is published.
  • Tom Stoppard's play Jumpers premieres in London.
  • Luis Buñuel's film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie premieres.
  • Five weeks of fighting between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples in Burundi result in an estimated one hundred thousand deaths.
  • Japan, Australia, and New Zealand establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
  • East and West Germany begin to normalize relations.
  • North and South Korea attempt to normalize relations.
22 Jan.
Britain, Norway, Denmark, and Ireland seek admission to the European Economic Community.
24 Jan.
The Soviet Union becomes the first major power to recognize Bangladesh.
30 Jan.
In Northern Ireland thirteen die in renewed rioting.
13 Feb.
The Soviet Union wins eight gold medals as the Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, are concluded.
12 Mar.
Indira Gandhi's Congress Party wins 70 percent of assembly seats in Indian national elections.
30 Mar.
Northern Ireland's prime minister and his cabinet resign following the British Parliament's adoption of a bill enabling Britain to rule Northern Ireland directly.
31 Mar.
North Vietnam launches a military offensive against South Vietnam across the demilitarized zone.
10 Apr.
Seventy nations sign a treaty banning the accumulation of biological warfare weapons.
15 May
The United States returns Okinawa to Japan.
17 May
The West German parliament approves nonaggression treaties with the Soviet Union and Poland.
21 May
A disturbed Hungarian refugee damages part of Michelangelo's Pieta at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
1 June
Iraq and Syria seize the assets of Iraq Petroleum Company, a consortium of Western firms.
13 June
Israeli and Egyptian planes engage in air battles.
3 July
India and Pakistan sign a wide-ranging peace agreement.
18 July
Egypt expels Soviet military advisers and experts.
24 July
UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim appeals to the United States to end its bombing of North Vietnam.
3 Aug.
Due to a dockworkers' strike, Britain declares a state of emergency.
16 Aug.
King Hassan II of Morocco survives an assassination attempt. The next day the Moroccan minister of defense, Gen. Mohammed Oufkir, commits suicide.
26 Aug.
Seven thousand athletes from 120 nations open the twentieth Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.
1 Sept.
After matches held in Reykjavik, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R., winning the world chess championship.
5 Sept.
Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic squad are murdered by Arab terrorists in Munich, West Germany. Five terrorists and a policeman are killed in a subsequent airport shoot-out. Israel responds on 8 September with air raids against ten Arab guerrilla bases in Syria and Lebanon. The Olympic games conduct a memorial service on 6 September and conclude on 11 September.
17 Sept.
According to Uganda, Tanzania has launched an invasion with one thousand troops.
23 Sept.
Following a renewal of terrorism, President Ferdinand Marcos imposes martial law in the Philippines.
26 Sept.
Voters in Norway reject membership in the European Economic Community.
2 Oct.
Danish voters approve membership in the European Economic Community.
13 Oct.
An Aeroflot flight crashes in Moscow, killing 176 people.
17 Oct.
Martial law is declared in South Korea.
24 Oct.
Political opponents of President Allende Gossens stage a "day of silence" to protest his Chilean government.
29 Oct.
Following the hijacking of a German airline, Arab guerrillas win release of three Olympic terrorists.
30 Oct.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau loses his parliamentary majority in Canadian general elections.
2 Nov.
Following three weeks of strikes, President Allende Gossens of Chile restructures his cabinet.
4 Nov.
The Bangladesh national assembly approves a new constitution.
17 Nov.
After seventeen years of exile, former dictator Juan D. Perón returns to Argentina.
21 Nov.
In the Golan Heights the heaviest fighting in two years breaks out between Israel and Syria.
1 Dec.
The Irish Parliament passes a bill designed to crack down on the Irish Republican Army.
14 Dec.
After a twenty-eight-day visit, Juan Perón leaves Argentina, refusing to accept the nomination for the presidency.
23 Dec.
In Managua, Nicaragua, ten thousand people die and 80 percent of the city is destroyed as the result of an earthquake.

1973

  • Iris Murdoch's novel The Black Prince is published.
  • Octavio Paz's volumes of poetry The Bow and the Lyre and Alternating Current are published.
  • Lindsay Anderson's film O Lucky Man premieres.
  • Ingmar Bergman's film Scenes from a Marriage premieres.
  • Robin Hardy's film The Wicker Man premieres.
  • The Soviet Union agrees to abide by the Universal Copyright Convention and to cease publishing pirate editions of Western works.
17 Jan.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos announces the indefinite continuation of martial law.
11 Feb.
Gen. Alfredo Stroessner wins a fifth term as president of Paraguay.
21 Feb.
Israeli jets shoot down a Libyan airliner over the Sinai Peninsula; 106 are killed.
2 Mar.
One Belgian and two U.S. diplomats are murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Khartoum, Sudan.
12 Mar.
China releases John T. Downey, a Central Intelligence Agency agent held in China since 1952.
17 Mar.
Following a bomb attack on the barracks of the presidential guard, President Lon Noi of Cambodia declares a state of emergency.
8 Apr.
Artist Pablo Picasso dies.
21 Apr.
The United Nations Security Council condemns Israel for military attacks in Lebanon and all acts of violence against human life.
11 May
A new sixteen-member cabinet, headed by Premier Joop den Uyl, is sworn in, ending a 163-day political crisis in the Netherlands.
15 May
In Paris gold reaches $128.50 an ounce—a new high.
l June
The Greek Council of Ministers abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic.
7-11 June
West German chancellor Willy Brandt visits Israel.
8 June
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco appoints Adm. Luis Carrero Blanco premier of Spain, but he remains chief of state.
29 June
Troops loyal to Chilean president Salvador Allende Gossens crush an attempted coup.
3 July
The thirty-five-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe begins meetings in Helsinki, Finland.
10 July
Britain grants the Bahamas independence.
17 July
King Mohammad Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is overthrown in a military coup.
21 July
France test-detonates a nuclear device in the Pacific.
2 Aug.
Thirty-two members of the British Commonwealth begin a nine-day conference in Ottawa, Canada.
5 Aug.
Arab terrorists attack the airport in Athens, Greece, killing three and injuring fifty-five.
19 Aug.
George Papadopoulos is sworn in as the first president of Greece.
28 Aug.
Indian officials agree to repatriate ninety thousand Pakistani prisoners taken in the 1971 Indian-Pakistani War.
1 Sept.
Libya nationalizes 51 percent of all assets of oil companies located within the country.
5 Sept.
The fourth Conference of Nonaligned Nations meets in Algiers, Algeria.
11 Sept.
The Chilean government of Salvador Allende Gossens is overthrown by a military junta. Gossens is killed in the coup.
18 Sept.
The twenty-eighth meeting of the United Nations General Assembly votes to admit the Bahamas, East Germany, and West Germany as members.
23 Sept.
Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.
29 Sept.
The Austrian government announces it will no longer permit the group emigration of Soviet Jews. In return Arab terrorists agree to release one Austrian and two Soviet Jews.
6 Oct.
War breaks out between Israel and the combined forces of Egypt and Syria.
16 Oct.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by the Arab states, announces an embargo on all oil destined for the United States and the Western industrialized countries.
24 Oct.
A cease-fire in the Middle East goes into effect.
27 Oct.
In response to the United States forces being placed on worldwide military alert, the United Nations Security Council agrees, with Soviet concurrence, to send a peacekeeping force to the Middle East.
7 Nov.
The United States and Egypt reestablish diplomatic relations, suspended since 1967.
11 Nov.
Israel and Egypt sign a formal cease-fire.
25 Nov.
George Papadopoulos is overthrown as president of Greece in a bloodless military coup.
29 Nov.
Egyptian-Israeli peace talks collapse; machine-gun and mortar attacks between the two sides resume.
17 Dec.
Arab terrorists attack a U.S. aircraft in Rome, killing thirty-one persons.
20 Dec.
In Madrid, Spanish premier Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in a car explosion.
21 Dec.
In Geneva the Arab-Israeli peace conference begins.

1974

  • Patrick White's novel The Eye of the Storm is published.
  • Graham Greene's novel The Honorary Consul is published.
  • Philip Larkin's volume of poetry High Windows is published.
  • Tom Stoppard's play Travesties premieres.
  • David Hare's play Knuckles premieres.
  • Federico Fellini's film Amarcord premieres.
  • Louis Malle's film Lacombe, Lucien premieres.
  • John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago is published in English.
  • During the summer, civil war in Cyprus provokes an international confrontation between Greece and Turkey.
  • In June American president Richard Nixon conducts a whirlwind tour of the Middle East and the Soviet Union.
  • During the summer, floods in India and Bangladesh kill fourteen hundred people.
  • The Soviet Union conducts several Soyuz space-station missions.
  • Bangladesh, Grenada, and Guinea-Bissau are admitted to the United Nations.
  • The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) gains substantial support in the United Nations.
  • India and Pakistan move to normalize relations.
  • The Reverend F. Donald Coggan becomes the 101st archbishop of Canterbury.
  • In Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie attempts to placate a rebellious military by appointing Edalkachew Makonnen premier and increasing army wages.
18 Jan.
Israel and Egypt sign an accord on military disengagement.
19 Jan.
Five Soviet citizens are expelled from China for espionage.
3 Feb.
Communist Party chairman Mao Tse-tung launches a new cultural revolution in China.
13 Feb.
Nobel Prize-winning novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is deported from the Soviet Union.
22 Feb.
Pakistan recognizes Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan.
28 Feb.
Neither the ruling Conservative Party nor the Labour Party gains a majority in British parliamentary elections.
3 Mar.
When a Turkish jumbo jet crashes outside of Paris, 346 people are killed in the worst air disaster in history.
4 Mar.
Liberal Party head Edward Heath resigns as British prime minister and is replaced by Labour Party leader Harold Wilson. The new government ends a two-month-old coal strike on 6 March.
10 Mar.
Premier Golda Meir and a new cabinet assume power in Israel.
2 Apr.
President of France Georges Pompidou dies at age sixty-two.
9 Apr.
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh sign an agreement to repatriate all Pakistani prisoners of war.
12 Apr.
Israel raids several villages in southern Lebanon following an Arab terrorist attack on Qiryat Shemona which killed eighteen.
15 Apr.
President Hamani Diori of Niger is overthrown in a military coup.
22 Apr.
Israel's Labor Party nominates Yitzhak Rabin to replace Golda Meir, who resigned on 10 April as premier.
25 Apr.
Army officers in Portugal announce the end of forty years of authoritarian rule.
6 May
Assuming responsibility for a spy scandal, West German chancellor Willy Brandt resigns. Helmut Schmidt is elected the new chancellor on 16 May.
9 May
Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau loses a vote of confidence. The House of Commons schedules parliamentary elections for 8 July.
18 May
India explodes a nuclear weapon.
19 May
Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is elected president of France.
28 May
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and the Labour Party win the Australian parliamentary election.
29 May
Following the resignation of the coalition government of Northern Ireland, a fifteen-day general strike ends. Great Britain assumes temporary governmental control over the province.
31 May
Israel and Syria sign a troop disengagement agreement.
3 June
The Israeli parliament installs Yitzhak Rabin as the head of a new three-party coalition government.
16 June
The United States and Syria announce that they will resume diplomatic relations.
17 June
China and France conduct separate atmospheric nuclear tests.
24 June
Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces that Great Britain recently conducted underground nuclear tests.
27 June
France and Iran sign a developmental agreement that includes the sale of nuclear reactors to Iran. ninety-five miles east of
28 June
More than two hundred people die in a landslide Bogota, Colombia.
1 July
Following the death of her husband, Juan D. Perón, seventy-eight, Isabel Perón assumes the presidency of Argentina.
7 July
West Germany wins the World Cup, defeating the Netherlands 2-1.
8 July
Pierre Trudeau and the Liberal Party win a majority in Canada's parliamentary elections.
I5 July
In Cyprus the military overthrows the government of Archbishop Makarios.
20 July
Turkish troops invade Cyprus by air and sea.
14 Aug.
Greece withdraws from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
15 Aug.
Mrs. Park Chung Hee, wife of South Korea's president, is killed in an assassination attempt on her husband.
19 Aug.
United States ambassador Rodger P. Davies, fifty-three, is killed in Cyprus.
4 Sept.
The United States and East Germany establish formal diplomatic relations.
10 Sept.
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau, formerly Portuguese Guinea, is granted independence by Portugal.
12 Sept.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1930-1934,1941-1974) is deposed in a military coup.
17 Sept.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, foreign minister of Algeria, is elected president of the twenty-ninth General Assembly of the United Nations.
8 Oct.
Eisaku Sato, former prime minister of Japan, and Sean MacBride of telane, United Nations commissioner for South-West Africa, win the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize.
10 Oct.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson wins a three-seat majority for the Labour Party in Great Britain's second general election of 1974.
14 Oct.
A draft resolution approved by the United Nations General Assembly invites the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in United Nations deliberations.
20 Oct.
A proposal calling for the deportation of half of the foreign population of Switzerland is rejected by Swiss voters.
21 Oct.
Mexico announces the discovery of oil fields in southeastern Mexico.
28 Oct.
Arab heads of state meeting in Rabat, Morocco, can for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
30 Oct.
A Security Council resolution expelling South Africa from the United Nations is vetoed by the United States, Britain, and France.
12. Nov.
The United Nations General Assembly suspends South Africa from participation in the remainder of the 1974 session.
16 Nov.
The United Nations creates the World Food Conference to administer world-wide antihunger programs.
18 Nov.
Premier Konstantinos Karamanlis and his New Democracy Party win the first Greek parliamentary elections held in ten years.
22 Nov.
The United Nations General Assembly grants observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
26 Nov.
Following a series of alleged financial scandals, Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka resigns, to be replaced on 9 December by Takeo Miki.
5 Dec.
Premier Aldo Moro wins a vote of confidence from the Italian senate.
7 Dec.
Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus and resumes control of the government.
8 Dec.
In a national referendum Greek citizens vote to abolish the monarchy.
11 Dec.
Following prolonged fighting, the white minority government of Rhodesia and black nationalists agree to a cease-fire.
25 Dec.
A cyclone destroys 90 percent of Darwin, Australia, and kills fifty people.
28 Dec.
In northern Pakistan fifty-two hundred people are killed in an earthquake.
29 Dec.
The government of Nicaragua agrees with leftist guerrillas to an exchange of political prisoners.

1975

  • V. S. Naipaul's novel Guerrillas is published.
  • Paul Scott's novel A Division of Spoils, which completes the Raj quartet, is published.
  • Gabriel García Márquez's novel Autumn of the Patriarch is published.
  • Mario Vargas Llosa's novel Conversation in the Cathedral is published.
  • Werner Herzog's film Every Man for Himself and God Against All premieres.
  • Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land premieres.
  • Ending five hundred years of colonial rule, Portugal grants independence to Angola, Mozambique, the Cape Verde Islands, and lesser African possessions.
  • The Soviet Union continues to send cosmonauts to its orbiting space station, setting new records for manned spaceflight.
  • The United States and the Soviet Union conduct the joint Apollo-Soyuz space mission—the first time manned spacecraft from different nations rendezvous in space.
  • The United Nations declares 1975 International Women's Year.
17 Jan.
The People's Republic of China adopts a new constitution.
11 Feb.
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to head a British political party when she is elected leader of the Conservatives.
12 Feb.
A South Korean national referendum approves the government of Park Chung Hee.
13 Feb.
Turkish Cypriots declare a separate state in the northern section of Cyprus.
25 Feb.
The Greek government arrests twenty-five military officers charged with plotting a coup.
27 Feb.
A Philippine national referendum supports the martial law declared by President Ferdinand Marcos.
28 Feb.
The European Economic Community signs a trade pact with forty-six developing nations in Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean.
2 Mar.
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi dissolves the political system in Iran and declares it a one-party state for the next two years.
4 Mar.
Ethiopia's military government nationalizes all rural land.
11 Mar.
Portugal's provisional government defeats a military coup.
25 Mar.
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated by a nephew and is succeeded by his half brother Khalid.
13 Apr.
President Ngarta Tombalbaye, who led Chad to independence in 1960, is killed in a military coup.
14 Apr.
Voters in Sikkim approve referendums abolishing the monarchy and merging with India.
17 Apr.
The capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, falls to the Communist army of the Khmer Rouge, ending a five-year civil war.
22 Apr.
A bloodless coup in Honduras ousts Gen. Oswaldo López Arellano.
30 Apr.
The capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, falls to the Communist army of the North Vietnamese, ending the Vietnam War.
11 May
The European Economic Community and Israel sign a trade and cooperation pact.
13-14 May
Cambodia seizes the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez. Following a rescue effort by the U.S. military, the ship and crew are released.
15 May
Following weeks of violence, Portugal declares martial law in Angola.
28 May
Meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, officials of fifteen west African nations agree to form the Economic Community of West African States.
5 June
Egypt formally opens the Suez Canal, closed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
7 June
UN discussions between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders end without an agreement on the future of the island.
9 June
Greece adopts a new constitution.
10 June
Uganda's president Idi Amin releases British citizen Denis Hills, whom Amin had condemned to death for his criticism of Amin.
13 June
Iraq and Iran sign a treaty of reconciliation, fixing national boundaries and ending Iranian support of Iraq's Kurdish rebels.
17 June
The Italian Communist Party polls 33.4 percent of the vote in regional elections.
26 June
Following her conviction for illegal election practices, India's prime minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency and imprisons her political foes.
29 June
The Organization of American States votes to end the ban on diplomatic and commercial relations with Cuba.
4 Aug.
The Japanese Red Army seizes the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, demanding the release of five comrades imprisoned in Japan in exchange for the fifty-three American hostages. On 8 August their terms are met, and the Americans are released.
6 Aug.
The Indian Parliament approves retroactive changes in the election law under which Prime Minister Gandhi was convicted of campaign violations.
15 Aug.
Sheik Mujibar Rahman, president of Bangladesh, is assassinated in a military coup.
18 Aug.
China and Cambodia sign an agreement on economic cooperation.
29 Aug.
Juan Velasco Alvarado, president of Peru, is overthrown in a military coup.
1 Sept.
Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, president of Ecuador, defeats a military coup.
2 Sept.
The nation with the world's fourth largest foreign-aid budget, Canada, announces that it will concentrate its resources on the world's forty poorest countries.
4 Sept.
Israel and Egypt sign an interim agreement on the disposition of the Sinai Peninsula and the Suez Canal.
6 Sept.
An earthquake in eastern Turkey kills 2,312 people.
9 Sept.
After five years of exile in China, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, deposed leader of Cambodia, returns to his nation.
16 Sept.
Papua New Guinea is granted independence and commonwealth status by Great Britain.
1 Oct.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries raises crude oil prices 10 percent.
16 Oct.
After a month-long leave of absence, Isabel Perón returns to the presidency of Argentina.
21 Oct.
A nationwide postal strike in Canada begins.
7 Nov.
Citing retroactive changes in the election code, India's supreme court reverses an earlier conviction of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for election fraud.
10 Nov.
By a vote of seventy-two to thirty-five, the United Nations approves a resolution that condemns Zionism as a form of racism.
11 Nov.
For the first time in history the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, removes the prime minister and dissolves parliament.
25. Nov.
After three hundred years of colonial rule, Suriname is granted independence by the Netherlands.
3 Dec.
The Pathet Lao announce the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a coalition government in Laos.
5 Dec.
Britain ends the practice of detaining suspected terrorists from Northern Ireland without trial.
14 Dec.
In Beilin, Holland, twenty-three captives are released by terrorists demanding the independence of South Moluccas from Indonesia.
21 Dec.
An attempted coup against the Argentine government of Isabel Perón is thwarted.

1976

  • Tom Stoppard's play Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land premieres.
  • François Truffaut's film Small Change premieres.
  • Nicholas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell to Earth premieres.
  • Lina Wertmuller's film Seven Beauties premieres.
  • Manuel Plug's novel Kiss of the Spider Woman is published.
  • Muriel Spark's novel The Takeover is published.
  • Chaos and political maneuvers for power follow the deaths in China of both Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai.
  • Civil war between Communist and non-Communist factions in Angola breaks out.
  • Civil war and sectarian violence plague Beirut and other areas of Lebanon. Syria intervenes with armed troops.
  • India normalizes relations with China.
  • The supersonic Concorde begins transatlantic service.
  • Britain and Iceland engage in a brief "cod war"—a dispute over North Atlantic fishing rights.
  • Vietnam formally reunifies.
  • The Seychelles become independent.
  • Negotiations are conducted to turn Rhodesia over to black majority rule.
  • Liechtensteiner women gain the right to vote in local elections.
l Jan.
Venezuela nationalizes its oil industries.
7 Jan.
Prime Minister Aldo Moro's Italian cabinet resigns.
10 Feb.
Aldo Moro forms a one-party minority government in Italy.
26 Feb.
With the agreement of Spain, Morocco and Mauritania annex the territory of the former Spanish Sahara.
5 Mar.
Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees, dismisses the seventy-eight-seat Northern Ireland Convention and announces that Britain will govern Northern Ireland directly.
16 Mar.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Britain resigns to be succeeded by Foreign Secretary James Callaghan on 5 April.
24 Mar.
President Isabel Perón of Argentina is overthrown in a military coup. Lt. Gen. Jorge Videla assumes power.
25 Apr.
Socialists win a plurality of votes in Portugal's first free parliamentary elections in fifty years.
30 Apr.
The Italian government of Aldo Moro collapses.
5 May
Delegates from 153 nations meet in Nairobi, Kenya, for the fourth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
15-19 May
Violent anti-Israeli riots by Arabs result in the deaths of three protesters.
20-21 May
North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers meet in Oslo, Norway.
16 June
Rioting breaks out in South Africa following protests against the use of the Afrikaans language in South African schools. Three days later, when the riots subside, more than one hundred persons, most of them black, will have died.
22 June
Following national elections, Italian Communists gain forty-nine seats in the chamber of deputies and twenty-three seats in the senate.
23 June
The United States vetoes the admission of Angola to the United Nations.
3 July
Israeli commandos raid Entebbe Airport in Uganda and free ninety-one passengers and twelve crew members of an Air France jet hijacked by Palestinian terrorists on 27 June.
27 July
In Japan former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka is arrested for financial misconduct.
30 July
In Italy Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti leads a new minority government.
7 Aug.
Uganda and Kenya sign a treaty restoring diplomatic relations.
11 Aug.
Palestinian terrorists kill four and wound thirty in the airport in Istanbul, Turkey.
12 Aug.
Thirty-five to forty persons are killed following a week of rioting in South Africa.
20 Aug.
Right-wing extremists murder forty-six people in Argentina in retaliation for the assassination of a retired army general.
1 Sept.
Political upheaval following a proposal to increase prison sentences for members of the Irish Republican Army results in the declaration of a state of emergency.
21 Sept.
The thirty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly elects H. S. Amerasinghe of Sri Lanka as president.
3 Oct.
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's Social Democratic Party wins a narrow majority in West German parliamentary elections.
22 Oct.
President Cearbhall O. Dalaigh of Ireland resigns to be succeeded on 9 November by Patrick J. Hillery.
1 Nov.
President Michel Micombero of Burundi is overthrown in a bloodless military coup. Col. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza assumes power.
15 Nov.
In Quebec's provincial elections René Lévesque's separatist Parti Québécois wins a majority.
26 Nov.
Roman Catholicism is no longer recognized as the state religion of Italy.
15 Dec.
Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica leads his People's National Party to overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections.
17 Dec.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announces a 5 percent incre in wholesale oil prices from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and a 10 percent increase in the cost of oil from the other eleven organization members.
20 Dec.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel dissolves parliament and calls for elections.

1977

  • Günter Grass's novel Der Butt is published.
  • Margaret Drabble's novel The Ice Age is published.
  • John le Carre's novel The Honourable Schoolboy is published.
  • Hugh Leonard's play Da premieres.
  • Kenji Mizoguchi's film A Geisha premieres.
  • Andrej Wajda's film Man of Marble premieres.
  • Great Britain grants independence to the Solomon Islands.
  • Brazil moves toward military rule.
  • The Soviet Union begins a round of diplomatic overtures in black Africa.
  • Djibouti becomes an independent republic.
  • Political violence and instability plague Turkey.
6 Jan.
In Czechoslovakia 240 prominent intellectuals sign Charter 77, demanding human rights as spelled out in the Helsinki accords of 1975.
18 Jan.
Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi announces parliamentary elections in March, the first held since a state of emergency was declared in 1975.
24 Jan.
Discussions over black majority rule in Rhodesia break down.
9 Feb.
Spain and the Soviet Union resume diplomatic relations, suspended since the Spanish Civil War.
23 Feb,
Following President Carter's criticism of his human rights record, Ugandan president Idi Amin forbids two hundred Americans from leaving Uganda. On 1 March he rescinds the travel ban.
7 Mar.
At the opening of the fifty-nine nation Arab-African conference in Cairo, Saudi Arabia announces $1 billion in assistance to black Africa.
20 Mar.
In a surprising defeat Indira Gandhi and her Congress Party lose the Indian parliamentary election. Morarji R. Desai of the Janata Party succeeds Gandhi as prime minister.
27 Mar.
In the Canary Islands two jumbo jets collide, killing more than 570 people, in the worst air disaster in history.
21 Apr.
Following weeks of political unrest, Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto imposes martial law in three cities.
30 Apr.
An oil spill from a platform in the North Sea is finally capped, after twenty thousand metric tons of crude oil had been released.
5-9 May
Leaders of five Western nations and Japan meet in London for economic discussions.
17 May
Menachem Begin's Likud Party wins an upset victory over the Labour Party in Israeli parliamentary elections.
3 June
In Paris discussions regarding the world economic order between wealthy and poor nations end inconclusively.
11 June
Dutch marines storm a hijacked train in northern Holland, where South Molluccan terrorists, seeking independence from Indonesia, held fifty-one hostages, some of whom were schoolchildren. Six terrorists and two hostages are killed in the raid.
5 July
The forty-eight member Organization of African Unity ends a four-day conference in Libreville, Gabon.
31 July
Riots break out during an antinuclear rally in Creys-Malville, France.
26 Aug.
The province of Quebec passes Bill 101, making French the official—and principal—language of the province.
3 Sept.
Former Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder his political opponents.
15 Sept.
South African police arrest twelve hundred black students mourning the mysterious prison death of black nationalist leader Steven Biko on 12 September. His burial, on 25 September, is attended by representatives of thirteen Western nations.
20 Sept.
President Idi Amin of Uganda bans, as "security risks," twenty-seven religious organizations from his country.
26 Sept.
After ten days of heavy fighting between Israeli-backed Christians and Palestinians on Lebanon's southern border, a cease-fire is declared.
28 Sept.
The mysterious Pol Pot, only recently identified as the leader of the Cambodian Communist Party, arrives in Peking for discussions.
3 Oct.
Former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi is arrested on two counts of corruption in office; the charges are later dropped.
10 Oct.
Mairead Corrigan and Betty William, two peace activists from Northern Ireland, are named winners of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize; Amnesty International, the human rights organization, wins the 1977 prize.
31 Oct.
In the United Nations Security Council the Western nations veto a UN resolution seeking to impose strict economic sanctions against South Africa. The United Nations does pass an arms embargo on 4 November.
13 Nov.
Charging that the U.S.S.R. and Cuba supported Ethiopia in its land dispute with Somalia, Somalia expels all Soviet advisers and breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
20 Nov.
In a breakthrough for Middle Eastern peace, Egyptian president Anwar as-Sadat journeys to Jerusalem and addresses the Israeli parliament.
5 Dec.
Hard-line Arab states, meeting in Tripoli, Libya, denounce Egyptian president Sadat's peace overtures to Israel.
26 Dec.
President Sadat of Egypt and Israeli prime minister Begin continue peace discussions in Egypt.
31 Dec.
Cambodia and Vietnam break off diplomatic relations.

1978

  • David Malouf 's novel An Imaginary Life is published.
  • Georges Simenon's novel The Girl with a Squint is published.
  • Iris Murdoch's novel The Sea, The Sea is published.
  • Harold Pinter's play Betrayal premieres.
  • Tom Stoppard's play Night and Day premieres.
  • David Hare's play Plenty premieres.
  • Franco Brusati's film Bread and Chocolate premieres.
  • The cosmonauts of Soyuz 27 spend a record ninety-six days in space.
  • The United Nations hosts a monthlong conference on disarmament.
  • Indochinese "boat people" seek asylum in Malaysia, Thailand, and the United States.
4 Jan.
Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile confirms his dictatorship by plebiscite.
10 Jan.
Following the assassination of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, publisher of the anti-government newspaper La Prensa, rioting engulfs Managua, Nicaragua.
20 Jan.
President Suharto of Indonesia bans several newspapers and moves to suppress student dissent.
24 Jan.
Fragments of a radioactive Soviet satellite crash into a remote area of Canada's Northwest Territories.
7 Feb.
A nationwide general strike that began on 23 January ends in Managua, Nicaragua. On 12 February members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front announce they are preparing for civil war.
16 Mar.
Former Italian premier Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, is kidnapped in Rome by Red Brigades terrorists. The Italian government refuses to release fifteen imprisoned terrorists in return for Moro, and his corpse is discovered on 9 May.
17 Mar.
The Amoco Cadiz runs aground near Brest, France, spilling oil along the Brittany coast in the worst oil spill in history.
18 Mar.
Former Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is sentenced to death for having ordered an assassination attempt on a political opponent.
24 Mar.
Ethiopia declares it has reestablished full control over the southeastern Ogaden region after an eight-month conflict with Somalia.
3 Apr.
China and the European Economic Community sign a five-year trade agreement.
9 Apr.
Following the first parliamentary elections since 1972, antigovernment demonstrators are arrested and charged with sedition in the Philippines.
21 Apr.
In Florence, Italy, paintings valued at over $1 million, including Peter Paul Rubens's masterpiece The Three Graces, are stolen.
30 Apr.
A military coup takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan. Nur Mohammad Taraki heads the new regime.
4 May
South African troops raid guerrilla bases of the South-West Africa People's Organization located in Angola.
11 May
Antigovernment riots, led by Muslim fundamentalists, sweep Iran.
15 May
Peruvians angered at an austerity program implemented by the military government and the International Monetary Fund riot. On 19 May elections are canceled. On 22 May a two-day general strike is called.
18 May
Italy legalizes abortion.
22 May
Belgian troops rescue twenty-five hundred Europeans trapped in fighting between Zaire and the Congo.
23 June
Following a fifteen-week trial, twenty-nine members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to prison in Turin, Italy.
25 June
Argentina defeats the Netherlands, 3-1, to win the World Cup soccer championship.
3 July
China terminates all economic assistance to Vietnam.
14 July
Soviet dissident Anatoly B. Scharansky is sentenced to thirteen years in prison for espionage. Scharansky had been a leading critic of the Soviet policy toward Jewish emigration.
19 July
After many business relocate to English-speaking Ontario, Quebec modifies Bill 101—the 1977 law mandating the use of French in Quebec.
25 July
In England the first successful birth of a human test-tube baby occurs.
10 Aug.
The ten provincial premiers of Canada unanimously reject Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's plan for a new Canadian constitution.
12 Aug.
Japan and China sign a ten-year treaty of peace.
22 Aug.
In Managua, Nicaragua, twenty-five Sandinista guerrillas seize the National Palace, killing six guards and wounding dozens of others. Holding hundreds hostage, they secure the release of fifty-nine prisoners, five hundred thousand dollars in ransom, and safe passage to Panama. In September fighting breaks out between Sandinistas and government troops in several provincial towns.
8 Sept.
Following massive antigovernment demonstrations in twelve cities and hundreds of deaths in Tehran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi declares martial law in Iran.
17 Sept.
Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, Egyptian president Anwar as-Sadat, and U.S. president Jimmy Carter conclude eleven days of peace negotiations at Camp David, Maryland. The discussions end with the signing of a framework for a formal peace treaty to be concluded before the end of the year.
20 Sept.
Italian Red Brigades leader Corrado Alunni is sentenced to twelve years in prison for illegal possession of firearms.
26 Sept.
China and Vietnam end diplomatic talks after China accuses Vietnam of a troop buildup on its border.
28 Sept.
Pieter Willem Botha succeeds B. J. Vorster as prime minister of South Africa.
12 Oct.
Border clashes between Uganda and Tanzania occur over a disputed area known as the Kagera Salient.
31 Oct.
In Iran forty thousand petroleum workers go on strike, halving Iranian oil exports.
2 Nov.
Two Soviet cosmonauts set a new 139-day spaceflight record.
3 Nov.
Vietnam and the Soviet Union sign a twenty-five-year peace treaty.
5 Nov.
Former prime minister Indira Gandhi wins election to India's lower house of parliament.
5 Dec.
Afghanistan and the Soviet Union sign a twenty-year treaty of friendship.
27-30 Dec.
The shah of Iran attempts to quell revolutionary activity by passing the government to Shahpur Bakhtiar, a leading government critic. The Bakhtiar effort fails, and on 30 December he is expelled from the opposition National Front.

1979

  • Milan Kundera's novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is published.
  • V. S. Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River is published.
  • Es'kia Mpthalhele's novel Chirundu is published.
  • John le Carre's novel Smi/ey's People is published.
  • Rolf Schneider's novel November is published.
  • Luchino Visconti's film The Innocent premieres.
  • Volker Schlondorff 's film The Tin Drum premieres.
  • Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films The Marriage of Maria Braun and Third Generation premiere.
  • Caryl Churchill's play Cloud Nine premieres.
  • Brian Clark's play Whose Life Is It Anyway? premieres.
  • Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus premieres.
  • Hugh Leonard's play A Life premieres.
  • Rhodesia continues to move toward black majority rule.
1 Jan.
The United States and China establish formal diplomatic relations.
7 Jan.
The Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh falls to the Kampuchean United Front, ousting the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot.
16 Jan.
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran leaves his nation for a "vacation," widely presumed to be political exile.
19 Jan.
President Anastasio Somoza Debayle rejects a plebiscite, supervised by the Organization of American States, designed to end the civil war in Nicaragua.
1 Feb.
After fifteen years in exile, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran from France to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state.
17 Feb.
Following repeated border clashes, several hundred thousand Chinese troops invade Vietnam.
22 Feb.
Following the assassination of U.S. ambassador Adolph Dubs, and because of an increasing Soviet presence, the United States cuts aid to Afghanistan.
24 Feb.
Fighting breaks out along the border of North and South Yemen.
5 Mar.
China announces the withdrawal of its troops from Vietnam.
13 Mar.
On the small Caribbean island of Grenada, Prime Minister Eric Gairy is ousted in a bloodless coup by Maurice Bishop, leader of the New Jewel Movement.
14 Mar.
India and the Soviet Union sign treaties of economic and scientific cooperation.
18 Mar.
Kurdish rebels in Iraq's northwestern province attack government troops.
26 Mar.
In Washington, D.C., Israel and Egypt sign a peace treaty ending thirty-one years of war.
26 Mar.
Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau dissolves Parliament and sets national elections for 22 May.
27 Mar.
In Afghanistan the pro-Communist Revolutionary Council names Hafizullah Amin prime minister.
28 Mar.
The British House of Commons votes no confidence in the government of Prime Minister James Callaghan, who resigns. Elections are set for 3 May.
29 Mar.
North and South Yemen provisionally agree to end their border conflict and unite under one government.
31 Mar.
The eighteen-nation Arab League denounces Egypt for its peace treaty with Israel.
4 Apr.
Former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is hanged on charges of conspiring to murder a political opponent. Hundreds are arrested the next day in antigovernment protests.
11 Apr.
Tanzanian troops capture the Ugandan capital of Kampala, deposing Ugandan president Idi Amin and installing a new government under Yusufu Lule.
12 Apr.
In Geneva five years of international negotiations conclude in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, reducing world tariffs by an average of 33 percent.
27 Apr.
The United States exchanges two Soviet spies in return for five leading Soviet dissidents, including Aleksandr Ginzburg.
3 May
The Conservative Party defeats the Labour Party in British national elections, making Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher the nation's first woman prime minister.
8 May
Police in El Salvador kill twenty-three and wound seventy during antigovernment demonstrations in San Salvador.
22 May
In Canadian national elections the Progressive Conservative Party wins a plurality of votes. Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark replaces Liberal Party head Pierre Elliott Trudeau as prime minister.
24 May
President Carlos Humberto Romero of El Salvador suspends the constitution and declares a thirty-day state of siege.
2-10 June
Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland.
20 June
President Yusufu Lule of Uganda is ousted in a bloodless coup by Godfrey Binaisa.
11 July
The International Whaling Commission, meeting in London, bans hunting in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and most of the Indian Ocean for ten years.
16 July
Iraqi president Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr resigns, citing poor health, and appoints Saddam Hussein, chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and the armed forces, as his successor.
17 July
President Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua resigns and goes into exile. Two days later the Sandinista rebels take the capital of Managua, ending the Nicaraguan civil war.
23 July
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini bans music broadcasting in Iran, arguing that it has corrupted Iranian youth. The prohibition follows other bans against men and women swimming together, most Western movies, alcohol, and singing by women.
13 Aug.
China announces a new program to limit population growth by discouraging couples from having more than one child.
18 Aug.
Muslim rebels in Afghanistan announce the formation of an insurgent government.
19 Aug.
Two Soviet cosmonauts set a new 175-day spaceflight record.
27 Aug.
The Irish Republican Army explodes a bomb on a fishing boat off the Irish coast, killing Earl Mountbatten of Burma, cousin to Queen Elizabeth of Britain.
13 Sept.
In Peking's Tiananmen Square nearly one thousand people attend a protest against Communist Party privileges.
21 Sept.
Britain and France announce the cancelation of the supersonic Concorde program. Citing prohibitive expenses, they parcel out the remaining seven unsold aircraft to Air France and British Airways.
12 Oct.
President Fidel Castro of Cuba addresses the United Nations, denouncing the United States and calling for grants and loans for developing nations.
IS Oct.
The military government of Gen. Carlos Humberto Romero of El Salvador is overthrown in a military coup.
24 Oct.
The deposed shah of Iran is admitted to a New York hospital for a gallbladder operation and cancer treatments.
26 Oct.
President Park Chung Hee of South Korea is assassinated by the head of the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency.
4 Nov.
Iranian militants storm the United States embassy in Tehran, seizing ninety hostages and precipitating an international crisis which will result in UN economic sanctions against Iran and an increasing U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.
20 Nov.
Several hundred armed Islamic extremists seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca. More than 150 people die when Saudi troops retake the mosque.
21 Nov.
In Pakistan Islamic extremists angered at reports that the United States and Israel were involved in the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca attack the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.
3 Dec.
Puerto Rican nationalists kill two American sailors outside the Sabana Seca naval communications center. On 9 December another attack occurs outside the Roosevelt Roads naval base.
13 Dec.
The Canadian supreme court rules that portions of Quebec's Bill 101, mandating the use of French language in the province, are unconstitutional,
14 Dec.
A vote of no confidence in the Canadian House of Commons topples the Progressive Conservative government of Joe Clark. New elections are scheduled for February 1980.
15 Dec.
The shah of Iran leaves the United States to take up residence in Panama.
27 Dec.
Following a Soviet-inspired military coup that results in the execution of President Hafizullah Amin, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan with tens of thousands of troops.