1978

Events

January

• January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
• January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey.
• January 6 – The Holy Crown of Hungary is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held since World War II.
• January 10 – Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, a critic of the Nicaraguan government, is assassinated; riots erupt against Somoza's government.
• January 13 – Former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a Democrat, dies of cancer in Waverly, Minnesota, at the age of 66.
• January 18 – The European Court of Human Rights finds the British government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
• January 22 – Ethiopia declares the ambassador of West Germany persona non grata.
• January 24
• * Soviet satellite Kosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
• * Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison since the establishment of the Republic of Ireland.
• January 25–27 – The Great Blizzard of 1978 strikes the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, killing 70.

  February

• February 1 – Film director Roman Polanski skips bail in the United States and flees to France, after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
• February 2 - the Reunion Tower opens in Dallas Texas.
• February 5–7 – The Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 hits the New England region and the New York metropolitan area, killing about 100, and causing over US$520 million in damage.
• February 6 – King Dragon operation in Arakan: Burmese General Ne Win targets Muslim minorities in the village of Sakkipara.
• February 8 – United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.
• February 9 – The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
• February 11
• * Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 44 of the 50 people on board.
• * Somalia mobilizes its troops to deal with an apparent Ethiopian attack.
• * The People's Republic of China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
• February 13 – Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing: A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing a policeman and two civilians, and injuring several other people.
• February 15 – Rhodesia, one of only two remaining white-ruled African nations, announces that it will accept multiracial democracy within 2 years.
• February 19 – Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport: Egyptian Special Forces attempt to rescue several hostages in Larnaca, Cyprus; 20 Egyptian commandos are injured or killed.
• February 25 – The first Legislative Assembly election is held in Arunachal Pradesh, India.
• February 27 – The first global positioning satellite, the Rockwell International-built Navstar 1, is launched by the United States.

  March

• March 1 – Charlie Chaplin's remains are stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
• March 2 – Soyuz 28 is launched on a rendezvous with Salyut 6, with the first cosmonaut from a country other than the US or USSR.
• March 3
• * Ethiopia admits that its troops are fighting with the aid of Cuban soldiers, against Somalian troops in the Ogaden.
• * Rhodesian Bush War: Rhodesia attacks Zambia.
• * The New York Post publishes an article about David Rorvik's book The Cloning of Man, about a supposed cloning of a human being.
• March 8 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
• March 10 – Soyuz 28 lands.
• March 11
• * Coastal Road massacre: Palestinian terrorists kill 34 Israelis.
• * Claude François, French entertainer born 1939, dies by electrocution in his home in Paris.
• March 14 – Operation Litani: Israeli forces invade Lebanon.
• March 15 – Somalia and Ethiopia sign a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.
• March 16 – Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped by the Red Brigades; 5 bodyguards are killed.
• March 17 – An oil tanker, Amoco Cadiz, runs aground on the coast of Brittany.
• March 18
• * Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, is sentenced to death by hanging, for ordering the assassination of a political opponent.
• * California Jam II is held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California, attracting more than 300,000 fans.
• March 22 – Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies, after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• March 26 – The control tower and some other facilities of New Tokyo International Airport, which were scheduled to open on March 31, are illegally occupied and damaged in a terrorist attack by New Left activists, forcing a rescheduling of its opening date to May 20.
• March 28
• * San Francisco's City Council signs the United States's most comprehensive gay rights bill.
• * Stump v. Sparkman : The Supreme Court of the United States hands down a 5–3 decision, in a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.

  April

• April 1
• * New Zealand National Airways Corporation is merged with New Zealand's international airline, Air New Zealand.
• * Dick Smith of Dick Smith Foods tows a fake iceberg to Sydney Harbour.
• * The Philippine College of Commerce, through a presidential decree, is converted to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
• April 2 – Dallas debuts on CBS, and gives birth to the modern day primetime soap opera.
• April 3 – The 50th Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, with Annie Hall winning Best Picture.
• April 7 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter decides to postpone production of the neutron bomb, a weapon that kills people with radiation, but leaves buildings relatively intact.
• April 9 – Somali military officers stage an unsuccessful coup against the government of Siad Barre; security forces thwart the attempt within hours, and several conspirators are arrested.
• April 14 – Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against an attempt by Soviet authorities to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
• April 18 – The U.S. Senate votes, 68–32, to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
• April 18– 30 – The Khmer Rouge massacres 3,157 civilians in Ba Chúc, Vietnam.
• April 20 – A Soviet air defense plane shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902; the plane makes an emergency landing on a frozen lake.
• April 22
• * Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta win the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 for Israel with their song A-Ba-Ni-Bi.
• * The One Love Peace Concert is held at National Heroes Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Bob Marley unites two opposing political leaders at this concert, bringing peace to the civil war-ridden streets of the city.
• April 25 – St. Paul, Minnesota becomes the second U.S. city to repeal its gay rights ordinance, after Anita Bryant's successful 1977 anti-gay campaign in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
• April 27
• * Saur Revolution – Afghanistan's president Mohammad Daoud Khan and his family are murdered; Nur Muhammad Taraki succeeds him, beginning the Afghan conflict.
• * Willow Island disaster – In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia.
• April 30 – The "Democratic Republic of Afghanistan" is proclaimed, under pro-communist leader Nur Muhammad Taraki.

  May

• May 4
• * South African Border War: The Battle of Cassinga occurs in southern Angola.
• * Communist activist Henri Curiel is murdered in Paris.
• May 8
• * Norway opens a natural gas field, in the Polar Sea.
• * Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler make the first ascent of Mount Everest, without supplemental oxygen.
• May 9 – In Rome, the corpse of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, is found in a red Renault 4.
• May 12 – Shaba II: In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining centre of the province of Shaba. The Zairean government asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.
• May 12–13 – A group of mercenaries, led by Bob Denard, oust Ali Soilih in the Comoros; ten local soldiers are killed. Denard forms a new government.
• May 15
• * Students of the University of Tehran riot in Tabriz; the army stops the riot.
• * First Timezone Opens in Perth, Western Australia
• May 17 – Charlie Chaplin's coffin is found some from the cemetery from which it was stolen, near Lake Geneva.
• May 18
• * Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov is sentenced to 7 years' hard labor, for distributing 'counterrevolutionary material'.
• * Sarajevo is selected to host the 1984 Winter Olympics, and Los Angeles is selected to host the 1984 Summer Olympics.
• May 18–19 – Belgian and French paratroopers fly to Zaire, to aid the fight against the rebels.
• May 19–20 – French Foreign Legion paratroopers land in Kolwezi, Zaire, to rescue Europeans in the middle of a civil war.
• May 20 – Mavis Hutchinson, 53, becomes the first woman to run across the U.S.; her trek took 69 days.
• May 22 – Exiled leaders Ahmed Abdallah and Muhammad Ahmad return to the Comoros.
• May 23 – American basketball player center Bill Walton of the Portland Trail Blazers was named the National Basketball Association regular season MVP.
• May 25
• * First Unabomber attack: A bomb explodes in the security section of Northwestern University, wounding a security guard.
• * In a rematch of the previous season, the Montreal Canadiens again defeat the Boston Bruins, this time four games to two, to win the Stanley Cup.
• May 26 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens.
• May 28 – Indianapolis 500: Al Unser wins his third race, and the first for car owner Jim Hall.
• May 29 – Ali Soilih is found dead in the Comoros, allegedly shot when trying to escape.