January 1979

January 1, 1979 (Monday)

• The United States and the People's Republic of China established full diplomatic relations in a ceremony held in Beijing with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping leading the Chinese dignitaries, and the new liaison to China, Leonard Woodcock on behalf of the United States. At the same time, U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance welcomed the new Chinese liaison to the U.S., Chai Tse-min, in Washington.
• Thirty-one of the 35 crew of the American-owned, Cyprus-registered tanker ship Master Michael died when the ship sank in the Caribbean Sea after catching fire during a storm. Four survivors were able to jump ship and swim to a nearby Italian vessel, the tanker Ilici, but a fifth crewmember drowned. Many of those killed had leapt into the ocean without life jackets and drowned. The Master Michael was not carrying an emergency life raft.
• The University of Alabama Crimson Tide, second-ranked team in American college football, defeated the #1-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions, 14 to 7, in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, in a rare #1 vs. #2 postseason matchup whose winner was likely to be recognized by the NCAA as the national champion of the 1978 season. At the time, the NCAA had no playoff to determine a champion and relied upon the "polls and bowls" system, recognizing the results of surveys of sportswriters and of coaches of major college football programs. Unbeaten and independent of a college athletic conference, Penn State had accepted the invitation to the Sugar Bowl to meet once-beaten Alabama, champions of the Southeastern Conference. A successful defense by Alabama on fourth down prevented Penn State from tying the game, and likely retaining its #1 ranking, when the Nittany Lions were stopped only from the goal line.
• Switzerland's Canton of Jura, the 26th of the European nation's independent cantons, came into existence being carved from the northern section of the Canton of Bern. Bern had a majority population of German-speaking Protestants, and the French-speaking Roman Catholic residents of Bern voted on September 24 for separation.
• Following a deal agreed to during 1978, French carmaker Peugeot completed a takeover of Chrysler Europe, the overseas subsidiary of the U.S. manufacturer Chrysler.
• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, made his first public appearance in more than two months and said in an interview that he had no intention of leaving the country, but that he would take a vacation after a new civilian government was formed.
• Marion Barry, Jr., the first national chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was sworn in as the new Mayor of Washington D.C.
• Born: Vidya Balan, Indian film actress and six-time Filmfare Award winner; in Palghat

  January 2, 1979 (Tuesday)

• A draft constitution for the creation of a biracial government in Rhodesia to make the transition from white minority rule to a government of the African majority was published, declaring that name for the independent nation would be "Zimbabwe Rhodesia".
• Earl Campbell, Houston Oilers running back is chosen both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the American Football Conference by the Sporting News, a weekly publication. He was the first player to win both awards since Jim Brown of Cleveland in 1957.
• Born: Jagmeet Singh, Canadian political leader and president of the New Democratic Party since 2017; in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario

  January 3, 1979 (Wednesday)

• The Chinese Communist Party and the government of the People's Republic officially endorsed the right of disgruntled citizens to put up "big-character posters" that had been appearing in five Chinese cities since December, in the form of an editorial in the CCP newspaper Jenmin Jih Pao. "Let the people say what they wish," the newspaper declared. "The heavens will not fall. A range of opinions from people are good for a revolutionary party leading the Government. If people become unwilling to say anything, that would be bad. When people are free to speak, it means the Party and the Government have strength and confidence."
• Spanish Army General Constantino Ortin Gil, the military governor of the Madrid Province, was assassinated by two gunmen of the Basque separatist group E.T.A. General Ortin was preparing to enter the apartment building where he lived when he was shot by two men. The killing came a day after Basque terrorists had killed Major Jose Maria Herrera Hernandez, an assistant to the military governor of the Basque province of Guipúzcoa.
• Nancy Lopez who earned a record $189,813 as a rookie on the LPGA tour, is selected as the Associated Press female athlete of the year award.
• Died: Conrad N. Hilton, 91, American hotelier who built the Hilton Hotels chain worldwide

  January 4, 1979 (Thursday)

• The U.S. state of Ohio agreed to pay $675,000 to families of four people killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard in the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970. The estates of the four dead students were paid $15,000 apiece, while wounded students received payments ranging from $22,500 to $350,000.
• The collision of two express trains in Turkey killed at least 56 people, and critically injured 32 after a blizzard caused automatic switches to freeze and malfunction, putting both trains on the same east-west railroad track between Ankara and Istanbul. The accident occurred at 11:00 at night "in an isolated Anatolian village 40 miles west of Ankara".
• Ron Guidry the slender New York Yankees left-hander authored one of the most remarkable pitching seasons in Major League Baseball history, was named Male Athlete of the Year for 1978 by the Associated Press.
• Born: Kevin Kuske, German bobsledder with four Olympic gold medals and five world championships; in Potsdam, East Germany

  January 5, 1979 (Friday)

• Future U.S. President George H. W. Bush filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to declare himself a candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1980.
• Died:
• *Pyotr Vtorov, 40, Soviet environmental scientist and pioneer in biogeography; from leukemia
• *Les Lear, 60, Canadian football player and head coach, as well as the first Canadian-trained player to play American football in the National Football League, later an inductee into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
• *Billy Bletcher, 79, American voice actor, who voiced Pete in Walt Disney's cartoons.

  January 6, 1979 (Saturday)

• Shapour Bakhtiar was sworn into office, along with a cabinet of ministers, as the new Prime Minister of Iran, providing the first civilian government for Iran in more than a year.
• An attack by the Zimbabwe African People's Union on a Rhodesian Security Forces ammunition stockpile set off explosions that killed 19 soldiers and wounded 13.
• 4 children were brutally murdered in their home in Geylang Bahru, Singapore. The childrens’ ages ranged from 5 to 10 years old.

  January 7, 1979 (Sunday)

• Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, fell to the Vietnamese Army and the Vietnamese-backed Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, bringing an end to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War and the nationwide genocide of the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. A radio announcement broadcast from Hanoi declared "The regime of dictatorial, militarist domination of the Pol Pot—Ieng Sary clique has completely collapsed. Pol Pot and about 700 of members of his government retreated westward to an area along the Thai border, ending large-scale fighting and the Cambodian Genocide of almost four years. The next day, the new government announced that United Front had installed a 14-member People's Revolutionary Council of Cambodia, led by the Council's president, Heng Samrin.
• Born:
• *Bipasha Basu, Indian film actress; in New Delhi
• *Christian Lindner, German politician and leader of the Freie Demokratische Partei ; in Wuppertal, West Germany

  January 8, 1979 (Monday)

• Fifty people were killed in an explosion at Whiddy Island in Ireland's Bantry Bay when the French tanker Betelgeuse exploded at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry. The blast killed all 41 crewmen on the Betelgeuse and nine dockworkers. Emergency teams with hoses quickly acted to keep two storage tanks at the terminal, containing three and a half million barrels of crude oil, from being set afire by lumps of hot metal from the ship, preventing what would have been a much larger explosion. "Appalling though it was," the London Observer noted later, "last week's disaster at Bantry Bay, which cost 50 lives, could have been much, much worse."
• Born:
• *Sarah Polley, Canadian TV and film actress and director; in Toronto
• *Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian soccer football goalkeeper with 114 appearances for the national team; in Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia
• *Seol Ki-hyeon, South Korean soccer football winger and South Korean national team member; in Jeongseon-eup, Gangwon Province

  January 9, 1979 (Tuesday)

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would start a promotional campaign for U.S. physicians and the American public to prescribe and use generic drugs as an alternative to brand-name pharmaceutical products. Joseph A. Califano Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, which administered the Medicare and Medicaid programs, said in a statement that studies "have repeatedly demonstrated that consumers needlessly pay huge premiums to purchase brand-name drugs instead of their generic versions."
• Taiwan would be allowed self-government and be allowed its own armed forces, if its leaders agreed to become a province in the People's Republic of China, according to Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, who made the statement to a group of four visiting United States senators. In a televised address two days later, Taiwan's Prime Minister Sun Yun-suan told viewers, "Those who place their trust in Communist falsehood will face a tragic end. The peace talks proposed by the Chinese Communists are merely another form of class struggle. Plainly, they seek to induce us to surrender."
• An agreement was signed in Rome between the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile to back off from the confrontation between their navies over three islands in the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of South America, claimed by both nations. The negotiations had been moderated by Cardinal Antonio Samorè, a diplomat from the Vatican, and The Act of Montevideo was signed by Dante Caputo for Argentina and Jaime del Valle for Chile.
• The Music for UNICEF Concert was held at the United Nations General Assembly to raise money for UNICEF and to promote the Year of the Child. It was broadcast the following day in the United States and around the world. Hosted by the Bee Gees, other performers included Donna Summer, ABBA, Rod Stewart and Earth, Wind & Fire. A soundtrack album was later released.