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Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar).
Events of 1978
January
- January 1 - The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law.
- January 1 - Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes into the ocean near Bombay, killing 213.
- January 4 - A referendum in Chile supports the policies of Augusto Pinochet.
- January 6 - The Holy Crown of Hungary (also known as Stephen of Hungary Crown) 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 14–15 - The body of former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda, following his death from cancer.
- January 18 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
- January 19 - Federal Appeals Court Judge William H. Webster is appointed FBI Director.
- January 22 - Ethiopia declares the ambassador of West Germany Persona non grata.
- January 24 - Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
- January 24 - Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
- January 28 - Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento", is arrested.
- January 30 - Blizzards in the U.S. kill 90.
February
- February 1 - A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing 2 garbagemen, a policeman and several others.
- February 1 - Hollywood film director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France, after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
- 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 11 - Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 44 of the 50 people onboard.
- February 11 - Sixteen Unification Church couples wed in New York, New York.
- February 11 - Somalia mobilizes its troops, due to an apparent Ethiopian attack.
- February 11 - The People's Republic of China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
- February 15 - Rhodesia's prime minister Ian Smith and 3 black leaders agree on the transfer to black majority rule.
- February 15 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is captured in Pensacola, Florida.
- February 16 - The Hillside Strangler, a serial killer prowling Los Angeles, claims a 10th and final victim.
- February 16 - The first computer bulletin board system (CBBS) is created in Chicago.
- February 21 - Electrical workers in Mexico City find the remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the city.
March
- March 1 - Charlie Chaplin's remains are stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
- March 2 - Soyuz 28 (Aleksei Gubarev, Vladimir Remek) is launched on a rendezvous with Salyut 6, with the first cosmonaut from a third country (besides the Soviet Union and United States) - Czechoslovak citizen Vladimír Remek.
- March 3 - Ethiopia admits that its troops are fighting with the aid of Cuban soldiers against Somalian troops in Ogaden.
- March 3 - Rhodesia attacks Zambia.
- March 3 - 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 6 - American porn publisher Larry Flynt is shot and paralyzed in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
- March 10 - Soyuz 28 lands.
- March 11 - Coastal Road Massacre: Palestinian terrorists kill 34 Israelis.
- March 14 - Operation Litani: Israeli forces invade Lebanon.
- March 16 - Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped by the Red Brigades; 5 bodyguards are killed.
- March 17 - The 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.
- March 22 - Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- March 24 - The tanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two off Brittany, spilling 50,000 metric tons of crude oil.
- March 28 - Stump v. Sparkman (435 U.S. 349}: 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 - Dick Smith of Dick Smith Foods tows a fake iceberg to Sydney Harbour.
- April 1 - The Philippine College of Commerce, through a presidential decree, is converted to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
- April 3 - The 50th Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California with Annie Hall winning Best Picture.
- April 7 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter decides to postpone production of the neutron bomb - a weapon which kills people with radiation but leaves buildings relatively intact.
- April 8 - Regular radio broadcasts of British Parliament proceedings start.
- 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 10 - Volkswagen becomes the second (after Rolls-Royce) non-American automobile manufacturer to open a plant in the United States, commencing production of the Rabbit, the North American version of the Volkswagen Golf, in New Stanton, Pennsylvania with a unionized (UAW) workforce (the plant closes in 1992.)
- April 14 - 1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against an attempt by Soviet authorities to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
- April 16 - In Cologne, 15,000 former members of the resistance movement demonstrate against Nazism.
- April 18 - The U.S. Senate votes 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
- April 22 - Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta win the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 for Israel with their song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi".
- April 22 - The One Love Peace Concert is held at National Heroes Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Bob Marley unites 2 opposing political leaders at this concert, bringing peace to the civil war-ridden streets of the city.
- April 25 - St. Paul, Minnesota becomes the 2nd U.S. city to repeal its gay rights ordinance after Anita Bryant's successful 1977 anti-gay campaign in Dade County, Florida.
- April 27 - Afghanistan President Daoud Khan is killed during a military coup; Nur Mohammed Taraki succeeds him.
- April 30 - The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is proclaimed, under pro-communist leader Nur Mohammed Taraki.
May
- May 4 - Battle of Cassinga occurs in southern Angola.
- May 4 - Communist activist Henri Curiel is murdered in Paris.
- May 5 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 3,000th major league hit.
- May 8 - Norway opens a natural gas field in the Polar Sea.
- May 9 - In Rome, the body of Aldo Moro, the Italian president of the Christian Democrats, is found in a parked car.
- May 12–13 - A group of mercenaries lead by Bob Denard oust Ali Soilih in the Comoros; 10 local soldiers are killed. Denard forms a new government.
- May 12 - 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 15 - Students of the University of Tehran riot in Tabriz; the army stops the riot.
- May 17 - Charles Chaplin's coffin is found 10 miles from the cemetery it was stolen from, near Lake Geneva.
- May 18 - Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov is sentenced to 7 years hard labor for distributing 'counterrevolutionary material'.
- May 18–19 - Belgian and French paratroopers fly to Zaire to aid the fight against the rebels.
- 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 Mohammed Ahmed return to the Comoros.
- May 25 - A bomb explodes in the security section of Northwestern University, wounding a security guard (the first Unabomber attack).
- 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.
June
- June 1 - The 1978 FIFA World Cup starts in Argentina.
- June 6 - California voters approve Proposition 13, which slashes property taxes nearly 60%.
- June 8 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints extends the priesthood and temple blessings to 'all worthy males', ending a general policy of excluding 'Canaanites' from Priesthood ordination and temple ordinances (see Blacks and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
- June 12 - Serial killer David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
- June 15 - King Hussein of Jordan marries 26-year-old Lisa Halaby, who takes the name Queen Noor.
- June 19 - Cricketer Ian Botham becomes the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take 8 wickets in 1 inning of a Test match.
- June 19 - Garfield, which eventually becomes the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.
- June 20 - A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, killing 45 people, injuring hundreds and damaging some of the city's Byzantine landmarks.
- June 21 - A shootout between Provisional IRA members and the British Army leaves 1 civilian and 3 IRA men dead.
- June 22 - Charon, a satellite of Pluto, is discovered.
- June 23 - Josip Broz Tito is named Yugoslav president for life.
- June 24 - Yemen Arab Republic President Ahmad al-Ghashmi is killed.
- June 24 - The Gay & Lesbian Solidarity March is held in Sydney, Australia to mark 10th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots (which later becomes the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras; later incorporating a festival).
- June 25 - Argentina defeats the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time to win the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
- June 26 - A bombing by Breton nationalists causes destruction in Versailles.
- June 28 - The U.S. scientific satellite Seasat is launched.
- June 28 - University of California Regents v. Bakke: The Supreme Court of the United States bars quota systems in college admissions but affirms the constitutionality of programs which give advantages to minorities.
- June 30 - Ethiopia begins a massive offensive in Eritrea.
July
September
- September 5 - Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin the peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
- September 7 - In London, England, a poison-filled pellet, supposedly injected using an umbrella, poisons Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov, probably on orders of Bulgarian intelligence; he dies 4 days later.
- September 8 - Iranian Army troops open fire on rioters in Teheran, killing 122, wounding 4,000.
- September 16 - General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq officially assumes the post of President of Pakistan.
- September 17 - The Camp David Accords are signed between Israel and Egypt.
- September 19 - Police in the West Midlands of England launch a massive murder hunt, when 13-year-old newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater is shot dead after disturbing a burglary.
- September 20 - General Rahimuddin Khan assumes the post of Martial Law Governor of Balochistan.
- September 25 - PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides with a small private airplane and crashes in San Diego, California; 144 are killed.
- September 25 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello makes its first appearance on Live from the Met, in a complete production of the opera starring Jon Vickers. This is the first complete television broadcast of the opera in the U.S. since the historic 1948 one.
- September 27 - The last Forest Brother guerilla movement fighter is discovered and killed in Estonia.
- September 28 - Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy.
October
November
December
- December 3 - The Southern Crescent passenger train derails at Shipman, Virginia, killing 6, injuring 60.
- December 4 - Dianne Feinstein succeeds the murdered George Moscone as San Francisco, California's first woman mayor (she serves until January 8, 1988).
- December 6 - The Spanish Constitution officially restores the country's democratic government.
- December 11 - Lufthansa heist: Six men rob a Lufthansa cargo facility in New York City's Kennedy airport.
- December 11 - Two million demonstrate against the Shah in Iran.
- December 13 - The first Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation.
- December 15 - Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to go into default since the Great Depression, under Mayor Dennis Kucinich.
- December 16 - Train 87 from Nanjing to Xining collides with train 368 from Xi'an to Xuzhou near Yangzhuang railway station in China, killing 106, injuring 218.
- December 19 - Former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi is arrested and jailed for a week for breach of privilege and contempt of parliament.
- December 22 - The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
- December 22 - Serial killer John Wayne Gacy finally confesses to his lawyers that he raped and killed 33 boys/men after months of denial to authorities. The confession surprised the entire city of Chicago, as Gacy was a family man that was adored by people all over town.
- December 25 - Vietnam launches a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.
- December 27 - The Spanish Constitution is approved in a referendum, officially ending 40 years of military dictatorship.
Undated
Births
