1979
Related subjects: Years
Background Information
Arranging a Wikipedia selection for schools in the developing world without internet was an initiative by SOS Children. SOS Children is the world's largest charity giving orphaned and abandoned children the chance of family life.
| 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 by topic: |
| Subject |
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| By country |
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| Leaders |
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| Birth and death categories |
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| Establishments and disestablishments categories |
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| Works and introductions categories |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1979 MCMLXXIX |
| Ab urbe condita | 2732 |
| Armenian calendar | 1428 ԹՎ ՌՆԻԸ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6729 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 135–136 |
| Bengali calendar | 1386 |
| Berber calendar | 2929 |
| British Regnal year | 27 Eliz. 2 – 28 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2523 |
| Burmese calendar | 1341 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7487–7488 |
| Chinese calendar | 戊午年十二月初三日 (4615/4675-12-3) — to — 己未年十一月十三日(4616/4676-11-13) |
| Coptic calendar | 1695–1696 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1971–1972 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5739–5740 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 2035–2036 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1901–1902 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5080–5081 |
| Holocene calendar | 11979 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 979–980 |
| Iranian calendar | 1357–1358 |
| Islamic calendar | 1399–1400 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 54 (昭和54年) |
| Juche calendar | 68 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4312 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 68 民國68年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2522 |
| Unix time | 283996800–315532799 |
Year 1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January
- January 1
- United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the International Year of the Child. Many musicians donate to the Music for UNICEF Concert fund including ABBA, who wrote the song " Chiquitita" to commemorate the event.
- The United States and the People's Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations.
- The Canton of Jura comes into existence as the twenty-sixth canton of Switzerland, being formed from the predominantly French-speaking Catholic part of the Canton of Bern.
- January 4 – The State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of the dead and injured in the Kent State shootings.
- January 7 – Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreat west to an area along the Thai border.
- January 8 – The French tanker Betelgeuse explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry, Ireland; 50 are killed.
- January 9 – The Music for UNICEF Concert is held at the United Nations General Assembly to raise money for UNICEF and promote the Year of the Child. It is broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world. Hosted by The Bee Gees, other performers include Donna Summer, ABBA, Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire. A soundtrack album is later released.
- January 16 – Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran flees Iran with his family, relocating to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
- January 19 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell is released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
- January 29 – Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing 2 faculty members and wounding 8 students. Her justification for the action, "I don't like Mondays," inspired the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.
February
- February 1
- Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
- Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
- February 2
- Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious is found dead aged 21 of a heroin overdose in New York City, the day after being released from a 55-day sentence at Rikers Island prison on bail.
- February 3 – Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
- February 7
- February 10 – February 11 – The Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution.
- February 11 – Khomeini seizes power in Iran, overthrowing Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi.
- February 12 – Prime Minister Hissène Habré starts the Battle of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chad's President Félix Malloum.
- February 13 – The intense February 13, 1979 Windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
- February 14
- In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
- Following her 1972 sex reassignment surgery, musician Wendy Carlos legally changes her name from Walter. She later reveals this information in an interview in the May 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine.
- February 15 – A suspected gas explosion in a Warsaw bank kills 49.
- February 17 – The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.
- February 18 – The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30 minutes.
- February 22 – Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
- February 24 – Ethiopia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- February 26 – A total solar eclipse arcs over northern Canada, and a partial solar eclipse is visible over almost all of North America and Central America.
- February 27 – The annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana is canceled due to a strike called by the New Orleans Police Department.
March
- March 1 – Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
- March 4 – The U.S. Voyager I spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
- March 5 – Voyager I makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.
- March 7 – The largest Magnetar ( Soft gamma repeater) event is recorded.
- March 8 – Philips demonstrates Compact Disc publicly for the first time.
- March 13 – Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada.
- March 14 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.
- March 17 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the U.K. collapses, killing 2 workers.
- March 18 – Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Greater Manchester.
- March 25 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Centre, to be prepared for its first launch.
- March 26 – In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty.
- March 28
- In Britain, Jim Callaghan's minority Labour government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election which is to be held on 3 May.
- America's most serious nuclear power plant accident, at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
- March 29 – Sultan Yahya Petra of Kelantan, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Head of State) of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang.
- March 30 – Airey Neave, World War II veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the British House of Commons car park.
- March 31
- The last British soldier (belonging to the Royal Navy) leaves the Maltese Islands, after 179 years of presence. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
- Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song Hallelujah.
April
- April 1
- Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
- The Pinwheel Network changes its name to Nickelodeon and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.
- April 1 – April 18 – Police lock Andreas Mihavecz in a holding cell in Bregenz, Austria and forget about him, leaving him there without food or drink.
- April 2 – Sverdlovsk Anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
- April 10
- A tornado hits Wichita Falls, Texas, killing 42 people (the most notable of 26 tornadoes that day).
- Cambodia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- April 11 – Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda; Idi Amin flees.
- April 13 – The La Soufrière volcano erupts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
- April 15 – 1979 Montenegro Earthquake: A major earthquake (7.0 on the Richter scale) strikes Montenegro (then part of Yugoslavia) and parts of Albania, causing extensive damage to coastal areas and taking 136 lives; the old town of Budva is devastated.
- April 17 – Schoolchildren in the Central African Empire are arrested (and around 100 killed) for protesting against compulsory school uniforms. An African judicial commission later determines that Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa "almost certainly" took part in the massacre.
- April 20 – President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, USA.
- April 22 – The Albert Einstein Memorial is unveiled at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.
- April 23 – Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.
May
- May 1 – Greenland gets home rule.
- May 4 – Counting in the previous day's British general election shows that the Conservatives have won and Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister, ending the rule of James Callaghan's Labour government.
- May 8 – The Woolworth's store in Manchester city centre in England is seriously damaged by fire; 10 shoppers die.
- May 9
- A Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.
- Laos recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- May 10 – The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
- May 21
- Dan White receives a light sentence for killing San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, gay men in the city riot.
- The Montréal Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 4 games to 1 in the best-of-seven series, winning the Stanley Cup.
- May 23 – Afghanistan recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- May 25
- American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U. S. history.
- John Spenkelink is executed in Florida, in the first use of the electric chair in America after the reintroduction of death penalty in 1976.
- Etan Patz, a 6-year-old child, is kidnapped in New York. He is often referred to as the "Boy on the Milk Carton" and the investigation later sprouts into one of the most prolific child abduction cases of all time. This was a cold case until 2010 when it was re-opened.
- May 27 – Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.
June
- June 1
- The Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
- The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, in succession to Ian Smith and under his power-sharing deal.
- The Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA Championship against the Washington Bullets.
- June 2 – Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland on his first official, nine-day stay, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country. This visit, known as nine days that changed the world, brought about the solidarity of the Polish peoples against communism, ultimately leading to the rise of the Solidarity movement.
- June 3
- A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons, making it the largest unintentional oil spill until it was surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010.
- General elections are held in Italy.
- June 4
- June 7 – The first direct elections to the European Parliament begin, allowing citizens from across all then-9 European Community member states to elect 410 MEPs. It is also the first international election in history.
- June 12 – Bryan Allen flies the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
- June 18 – Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
- June 20 – A Nicaraguan National Guard soldier kills ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape.
- June 23 – Sydney: New South Wales Premier Neville Wran officially opens the Eastern Suburbs Railway. It operates as a shuttle between Central & Bondi Junction until full integration with the Illawarra Line in 1980.
- June 24 – Bologna: founding of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, an international opinion tribunal, at the initiative of Senator Lelio Basso.
- June 25 – Belgium: NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.
July
- July 1
- Sweden outlaws corporal punishment in the home.
- The Sony Walkman goes on sale for the first time in Japan.
- July 2 The day the funk died.
- July 3 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
- July 4 – Cape Verde recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- July 8 – Los Angeles passes its gay and lesbian civil rights bill.
- July 9 – A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
- 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
- Kiribati declares independence from the United Kingdom.
- A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.
- Carmine Galante, boss of the Bonanno crime family, is assassinated.
- A fire at a hotel in Saragossa, Spain leaves 72 dead. Worst hotel fire in Europe in decades.
- July 16 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him.
- July 17 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
- July 19
- Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela wins the Miss Universe Pageant; the stage collapses after contestants and news photographers rush to her throne.
- The Sandinista National Liberation Front concludes a successful revolutionary campaign against the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship and assumes power in Nicaragua.
- Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal
August
- August 3 – Dictator Francisco Macías Nguema of Equatorial Guinea is overthrown in a bloody coup d'état lead by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
- August 4 – Opening game of the American Football Bundesliga played between Frankfurter Löwen and Düsseldorf Panther, first-ever league game of American football in Germany.
- August 5 – The Polisario Front signs a peace treaty with Mauritania. Mauritania withdraw from the Western Sahara territory it had occupied, and ceded it to the SADR.
- August 9
- A nudist beach is established in Brighton.
- Raymond Washington, co-founder of the Crips, today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles (his killers have not yet been identified).
- August 10 – Michael Jackson releases his breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.
- August 11 – The former Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya in Western Sahara is annexed by Morocco.
- August 14 – A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the death of 15 sailors.
- August 20 – Grenada recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- August 24 – Ghana recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- August 27 – Lord Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of The Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs: Provisional Irish Republican Army members attack a British convoy at Narrow Water, County Down, killing 18 British soldiers.
- August 28 – The death toll of the previous day's IRA bombing reaches 5 when Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, 83, dies in a hospital as a result of her injuries.
- 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
- September 1
- September 4 – Jamaica recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- September 6 – Nicaragua and Uganda recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- September 7 – The first cable sports channel, ESPN, known as the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, is launched.
- September 8 – México recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- September 9 – The long-running comic strip For Better or For Worse begins its run.
- September 12 – Hurricane Frederic makes landfall at 10:00 p.m. on Alabama's Gulf Coast.
- September 16 – Two families flee from East Germany by balloon.
- September 20 – French paratroopers help David Dacko to overthrow Bokassa in the Central African Republic.
- September 22 – The South Atlantic Flash is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.
- September 30 – The Hong Kong MTR begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka Kwun Tong Line).
October
- October 1 – Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Nigerian Second Republic is established.
- October 1 – October 6 – Pope John Paul II visits the United States.
- October 3 – An EF4 Tornado hits Windsor Locks, CT causing extensive damage to the town.
- October 6 – Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy.
- October 9
- Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record 6 laps, with a lap record on the last lap.
- Lesotho recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- October 12
- Zambia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- Near Guam, Typhoon Tip reaches a record intensity of 870 millibars, the lowest pressure recorded at sea level. This makes Tip the most powerful tropical cyclone in known world history.
- October 14 – A major gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, D.C., involving tens of thousands of people.
- October 15 – Black Monday events, in which members of a political group sack a newspaper office, unfold in Malta.
- October 16 – A tsunami in Nice, France kills 23 people.
- October 17 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the World Series. Willie Stargell is named the Series MVP.
- October 19 – 13 Marines die in a fire at Camp Fuji, Japan as a result of Typhoon Tip.
- October 26 – Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jaegyu.
- October 27 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence from the United Kingdom.
November
- November 1 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urges his people to demonstrate on November 4 and to expand attacks on United States and Israeli interests.
- November 2
- French police shoot gangster Jacques Mesrine in Paris.
- Assata Shakur (née Joanne Chesimard), a former member of Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, escapes from a New York prison to Cuba, where she remains under political asylum.
- November 3 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, 5 members of the Communist Workers Party are shot to death and 7 are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis, during a "Death to the Klan" rally.
- November 4 – Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.
- November 5 – The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio.
- November 6 – At Montevideo, Uruguay, the International Olympic Committee adopts a resolution, whereby Taiwan Olympic and sports teams will participate with the name Chinese Taipei in future Olympics Games and international sports tournaments and championships.
- November 7 – U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy announces that he will challenge President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination.
- November 9
- The Carl Bridgewater murder trial ends with all 4 men found guilty. James Robinson, 45, and 25-year-old Vincent Hickey are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended 25-year minimum for murder. 18-year-old Michael Hickey is also found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite detention. Patrick Molloy, 53, is found guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
- Nuclear false alarm: the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Centre in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early warning radars, the alert was cancelled.
- November 12
- Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran.
- Süleyman Demirel, of AP forms the new government of Turkey (43rd government, a minority government)
- November 14 – Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.
- November 16 – Bucharest Metro Line One is opened, in Bucharest, Romania (from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea stations, 8.63 km).
- November 17 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
- November 20 – A group of 200 Juhayman al-Otaibi militants occupy Mecca's Grand Mosque. They are driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that leaves 250 people dead and 600 wounded.
- November 21 – After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set afire, killing 4 (see Foreign relations of Pakistan).
- November 23 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.
- November 28 – Air New Zealand Flight 901: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus (in Antarctica) on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.
December
- December 3
- Eleven fans are killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- The United States dollar exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark falls to 1.7079 DM, the all-time low so far; this record is not broken until November 5, 1987.
- December 4 – The Hastie fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK's most prolific killer.
- December 5 – Jack Lynch resigns as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey.
- December 6 – The world premiere for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
- December 9 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
- December 12
- A major earthquake and tsunami kills 259 people in Colombia.
- Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
- The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.
- December 21 – A ceasefire for Rhodesia is signed at London.
- December 23 – The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.
- December 24
- The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin which begins the war.
- The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
- December 26 – In Rhodesia, 96 Patriotic Front guerrillas enter the capital Salisbury to monitor a ceasefire that begins December 28.
Date unknown
- The One Child Policy is introduced in China - it has since prevented about 400 million births.
- VisiCalc becomes the first commercial spreadsheet program.
- The first usenet experiments are conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.
- Worldwide per capita oil production reaches a historic peak.
- McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal in June.
- Lego's golden age begins.
- Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEO Lee Iacocca.
Deaths
January
- January 3 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
- January 4 – Vincent Korda, Hungarian art director (b. 1897)
- January 5
- January 8 – Sara Carter, American bluegrass and country singer (b. 1898)
- January 11 – Jack Soo, Japanese-American actor (b. 1917)
- January 13 – Donny Hathaway, African-American musician (Where Is The Love?) (b. 1945)
- January 16
- January 25 – Robertson Hare, English actor (b.1891)
- January 26 – Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
February
- February 2
- February 3 – Aaron Douglas, American painter (b. 1899)
- February 7 – Josef Mengele, German Nazi war criminal (b. 1911)
- February 9 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- February 10 – Edvard Kardelj, Yugoslav communist political leader, economist, partisan and publicist (b. 1910)
- February 12 – Jean Renoir, French film director (b. 1894)
- February 14 – Reginald Maudling, British politician (b. 1917)
- February 15 – George Dunning, cartoon director and animator (b. 1920)
- February 17 – William Gargan, American actor (b. 1905)
- February 22 – Sigrid Schauman, Finnish painter (b. 1877)
- February 23 – W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (b. 1900)
March
- March 1
- March 11 – Victor Kilian, American actor (b. 1891)
- March 15 – Léonide Massine, Russian dancer and choreographer (b. 1896)
- March 19 – Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)
- March 22 – Ben Lyon, American actor (b. 1901)
- March 23 – Ted Anderson, English footballer (b. 1911)
- March 24 – Yvonne Mitchell, English actress (b. 1915)
- March 26 – Jean Stafford, American writer (b. 1915)
- March 28 – Emmett Kelly, American clown (b. 1898)
- March 29 – Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, King of Malaysia (b. 1917)
- March 30
April
- April 1 – Barbara Luddy, American actress (b. 1908)
- April 4
- April 6 – Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect (b. 1893)
- April 10 – Nino Rota, Italian composer (b. 1911)
- April 23 – Blair Peach, New Zealand-born anti-Nazi campaigner (killed by police) (b. 1946)
- April 24 – John Carroll, American actor (b. 1906)
May
- May 2 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- May 6 – Milton Ager, American songwriter (b. 1893)
- May 11
- May 16
- May 22 – Kurt Jooss, German dancer and choreographer (b. 1901)
- May 26 – George Brent, Irish actor (b. 1899)
- May 29 – Mary Pickford, Canadian actress and studio founder (b. 1892)
June
- June 1
- June 2 – Jim Hutton, American actor (b. 1934)
- June 4 – Lazar Lagin, Soviet satirical and children's writer (b.1903)
- June 6 – Jack Haley, American actor (b. 1898)
- June 8 – Muriel Coben, Canadian baseball and curling player (b. 1921)
- June 11 – John Wayne, American actor ( The Searchers, True Grit) (b. 1907)
- June 13
- June 14 – Ahmad Zahir, Afghan singer and composer (b. 1946)
- June 16 – Nicholas Ray, American film director (b. 1911)
- June 17 – Duffy Lewis, American baseball player (b. 1888)
- June 19 – Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
- June 21 – Angus MacLise, American rock percussionist ( Velvet Underground) (b. 1938)
- June 22
- June 25 – Dave Fleischer, American animator (b. 1894)
- June 29 – Lowell George, American rock musician ( Little Feat) (b. 1945)
July
- July 3 – Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
- July 8
- Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- Michael Wilding, English actor (b. 1912)
- Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- July 9 – Roddy McMillan, Scottish actor (b. 1923)
- July 10 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (Boston Pops) (b. 1894)
- July 12 – Minnie Riperton, American R&B singer (Lovin' You) (b. 1947)
- July 13
- July 15 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican President (b. 1911)
- July 16 – Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
- July 22 – Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
- July 28 – George Seaton, American screenwriter and director (b. 1911)
- July 29 – Bill Todman, American game show producer (b. 1916)
August
- August 2
- August 3 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- August 6 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
- August 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
- August 10
- August 12 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
- August 16 – John Diefenbaker, Canadian Prime Minister (b. 1895)
- August 17 – Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
- August 19
- Joel Teitelbaum, Hungarian Rebbe (b. 1887)
- August 20 – Christian Dotremont, Belgian painter and writer (b. 1922)
- August 21 – Stuart Heisler, American film and television director (b. 1896)
- August 22 – James T. Farrell, American novelist (b. 1904)
- August 24 – Hanna Reitsch, German aviator (b. 1912)
- August 25 – Stan Kenton, American jazz pianist (b. 1911)
- August 26 – Alvin Karpis, last of America's depression era criminals. (b. 1907)
- August 27 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, British Viceroy of India (assassinated) (b. 1900)
- August 30 – Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
- August 31 – Sally Rand, American dancer (b. 1904)
September
- September 1 – Doris Kenyon, American actress (b. 1897)
- September 2 – Felix Aylmer, British actor (b. 1889)
- September 4 – Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (b. 1904)
- September 5 – Alberto di Jorio, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1884)
- September 6 – Guy Bolton, British playwright (b. 1884)
- September 7 – Alan Browning, English actor (b. 1926)
- September 8 – Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
- September 9 – Norrie Paramor, British music producer (b. 1914)
- September 10 – Agostinho Neto, Angolan nationalist (b. 1922)
- September 14 – Nur Muhammad Taraki, President of Afghanistan (b. 1917)
- September 20
- Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, King of Malaysia (b. 1907)
- Ludvík Svoboda, president of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)
- September 21 – Bernard L. Austin, American admiral (b. 1902)
- September 22 – Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani journalist and philosopher (b. 1903)
- September 24 – Carl Laemmle, Jr., American film studio executive (b. 1908)
- September 26
- September 27
- September 28 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (b. 1921)
- September 29 – Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea (executed) (b. 1924)
October
- October 1
- October 3
- October 6 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (b. 1911)
- October 10 – Dr Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist (b. 1931)
- October 12
- October 13
- Rebecca Helferich Clarke, English composer and violist (b. 1886)
- Clarence Muse, American actor (b. 1889)
- Archibald Roosevelt, American conservative political activist, son of President Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1894)
- October 15 – Jacob L. Devers, American general (b. 1887)
- October 16 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
- October 17 – S.J. Perelman, American humorist (b. 1904)
- October 22 – Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (b. 1887)
- October 26
- October 27 – Charles Coughlin, radio host and Catholic Priest, (b. 1891)
- October 30
- Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer (b. 1887)
- Rachele Mussolini, Italian, wife of Benito Mussolini (b. 1890)
November
- November 1 – Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
- November 5 – Al Capp, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
- November 6 – Chick Evans, American golf champion (b. 1890)
- November 11
- November 17 – Immanuel Velikovsky, Russian author and psychiatrist (b. 1895)
- November 21
- November 26 – Marcel L'Herbier, French movie-maker (b. 1888)
- November 23 – Merle Oberon, British actress (b. 1911)
- November 29 – Zeppo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1901)
December
- December 3 – Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (b. 1905)
- December 5
- Sonia Delaunay, Russian-French artist (b. 1885)
- Jesse Pearson, American actor (b. 1930)
- December 10 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (b. 1911)
- December 13 – Jon Hall, American actor (b. 1915)
- December 15 – Ethel Lackie, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1907)
- December 22 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer (b. 1902)
- December 23 – Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (b. 1898)
- December 25
- December 27 – Hafizullah Amin, General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, President of Afghanistan (b. 1929)
- December 30 – Richard Rodgers, American composer (b. 1902)
Date unknown
- Dave Line, British author
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg
- Chemistry – Herbert C. Brown, Georg Wittig
- Medicine – Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey N. Hounsfield
- Literature – Odysseas Elytis
- Peace – Mother Teresa
- Economics – Theodore Schultz, Arthur Lewis
