The year 1979 was a year to remember. Many significant things happened in 1979.  Three Mile Island threatened disaster, there was turmoil in Iran and peace was coming to the Middle East. There were even changes in basketball.

• In 1979 Saddam Hussein was elected president of Iraq and chairman of Revolutionary Command Council.
• Oil spills pollute ocean waters in Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (Jan. 1, June 8, July 21).
• Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings (Jan. 4).
• On January 19 Israeli forces retaliate for a terrorist bombing of a Jerusalem marketplace with a strike into Lebanon killing 40 Palestinians.
• On March 26 Israel and Egypt sign a peace treaty at The White House. The treaty between Israel and Egypt was named for the U.S. presidential retreat,Camp David, in Maryland where the agreement was hammered out; it was called "The Camp David Accords".
• March 28 there was major nuclear accident at the facility on Three Mile Island outside of Harrisburg, Pa.
• In Vienna, President Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement limiting strategic weapons. The U.S. Congress would ultimately fail to ratify the treaty, but both side abide by its terms anyway.
• The U.S. Department of Education was established on May 4, 1980 by Congress. John Wayne dies of lung and stomach cancer at Los Angeles, June 11, at age 72.
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• Voyager I discovers faint ring system around Jupiter.
• Billie Jean King recorded her 20^th Wimbledon championship title on July 7.
• Visicalc, first spreadsheet software introduced.
• The NBA adopted the three point shot.
• Mafia boss Carmine Galante is gunned down in a "mob hit" on July 12 in a Brooklyn, N.Y. café.
• A bomb planted by Irish Republican Army terrorists explodes August 27 on the fishing boat of Lord Mountbatten off the coast of County Sligo, killing the 79-year-old cousin of Elizabeth II with his grandson and a 15-year-old passenger.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series, defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 3.
• Debut of the Garfield comic strip.
• Sony introduces the Walkman.
• On January 16 Shah leaves Iran after year of turmoil and after 37 years on the Peacock Throne. Revolutionary forces under Muslim fundamentalist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, take over. Khomeini had returned after 15 years of exile to establish a socialist Islamic republic.
• On November 4 Iranian Militants seized the US embassy in Tehran, Iran taking more than 100 US citizens hostage. They demanded the Shah of Iran be returned for trial. The Crisis would last for more than a year.
• In recognition of her efforts, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1979.
• Pope John Paul II travels to the United States, the first time a pope has set foot on American soil.
• In September Lee Elder became the first African American to be a play for the US in the Ryder Cup (golf).
• The Center for Disease Control reported the first known cases of AIDS.
• February 1 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. Later she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in the final weeks of his term.
• Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
• In New York City on January 26, 1979 Nelson Rockefeller died as a result of a heart attack during an intimate encounter.
• On March 29, 1979 the Congressional Committee concluded in their report that a conspiracy was probable, but Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shot that killed John F. Kennedy.
• Minnie Riperton died July 12, 1979 from breast cancer. Born November 8, 1947. A singer with an amazing five-octave range; "Lovin' You", she was the mother of Saturday Night Live's Maya Rudolph.
• On October 24th, 1979 South Korean President Park Chung Hee was shot to death by his close friend and Korean Intelligence Agency (KCIA) director Kim Jae-kyu in an apparent coup attempt.
• On September 7 ESPN starts broadcasting.
• The American Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
• On October 14 the first gay rights march in the United States takes place in Washington, DC, involving perhaps as many 100,000 people.
• The Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin is introduced in the US.

• Super Bowl - Pittsburgh d. Dallas (35-31)

  World Series - Pittsburgh d. Baltimore (4-3)

• In 1979, the first Post-it notes are invented.