| World Events |
- Rhodesia’s Prime Minister Ian D. Smith and three black leaders agree on transfer to black majority rule (Feb. 15).
- US Senate approves Panama Canal neutrality treaty (March 16); votes treaty to turn canal over to Panama by year 2000 (April 18).
- Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro kidnapped by left wing terrorists, who kill five bodyguards (March 16); he is found slain (May 9).
- Pope Paul VI , dead at 80, mourned (Aug. 6); new Pope, John Paul I, 65, dies unexpectedly after 34 days in office (Sept. 28); succeeded by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland as John Paul II (Oct. 16).
- “Framework for Peace” in Middle East signed by Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin after 13-day conference at Camp David led by President Jimmy Carter (Sept. 17).
- Jim Jones’s followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana (Nov. 18).
| U.S. Events |
- F.B.I. director (Jan. 19).
- US Supreme Court in Bakke case, bars quota systems in college admissions but affirms constitutionality of programs giving advantage to minorities (June 28).
| Economics |
US GDP (1998 dollars): $2,291.40 billion
Federal spending: $458.75 billion
Federal debt: $776.6 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars): $15,064
Consumer Price Index: 65.2
Unemployment: 6.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13 ($0.15 as of 5/29/78)
| Sports |
Super Bowl
Dallas d. Denver (27-10)
World Series
NY Yankees d. LA Dodgers (4-2)
NBA Championship
Washington Bullets d. Seattle (4-3)
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Boston (4-2)
Wimbledon
Women: Martina Navratilova d. C. Evert (2-6 6-4 7-5)
Men: Bjorn Borg d. J. Connors (6-2 6-2 6-3)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Affirmed
NCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Duke (94-88)
NCAA Football Champions
Alabama (AP, FW, NFF) (11-1-0) & USC (UPI) (12-1-0)
World Cup
Argentina d. Holland (3-1)
| Entertainment |
Events
- Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable stereo.
Movies
- The Deer Hunter, Midnight Express, Heaven Can Wait, Coming Home
Books
- Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
- John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever
- Barry Hannah, Airships
- John Irving, The World According to Garp
- Peter Mathiessen, The Snow Leopard
- Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
- Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language
- Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance
| Science |
- Three Albuquerque, NM, men, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Maxie Anderson, make the first successful transatlantic balloon flight in the helium-filled Double Eagle II. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
- Balloon anigoplasty is developed to treat coronary artery disease. Background: Health & Nutrition
- Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, is born at Oldham Hostpital in London. Background: reproduction
- Recombinant DNA techniques are used to produce human insulin. Background: genetic engineering
- A fusion reaction in a reactor at Princeton reaches 60 million degrees Fahrenheit for 1/20 of a second. Background: nuclear energy
| Deaths |
- Hubert Humphrey
- Anastus Mikoyan
- Norman Rockwell
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