50 Fun Facts About 1979

Which Sony portable cassette player, launched in Japan in July 1979, let people carry music anywhere on headphones?

The Walkman began with Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka, who wanted music on business trips. Engineers built it by modifying the Pressman, a small recorder made for journalists.

What kind of animal swam at President Jimmy Carter's fishing boat in Georgia in April 1979, making front-page news?

A rabbit, hissing as it paddled toward his johnboat, was shooed off when Carter splashed at it with a paddle. Newspapers dubbed the episode the killer rabbit attack.

Which politician became Britain's first woman prime minister after winning the general election of May 1979?

Margaret Thatcher had worked as a research chemist before turning to law and politics. She went on to become the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century.

Which McDonald's product went on sale across the United States in June 1979 after a 1977 trial in Kansas City?

The Happy Meal grew out of a children's menu devised by Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño, who ran McDonald's restaurants in Guatemala. An advertising man then turned it into a boxed meal.

At which nuclear power plant did a stuck valve lead to a partial meltdown in March 1979, prompting thousands to flee?

Three Mile Island's accident came less than two weeks after the premiere of The China Syndrome, a thriller about a reactor emergency. Within days, 140,000 people had left the area.

Which 1979 Ridley Scott film traps the crew of the space tug Nostromo with a deadly creature on board?

Alien won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, with a monster drawn from the nightmarish designs of Swiss artist H. R. Giger. The film also launched Sigourney Weaver's career.

Which abandoned space station fell to Earth in July 1979, scattering debris across Western Australia?

Skylab earned NASA a tongue-in-cheek A$400 littering fine from the Shire of Esperance, where pieces landed. A radio host's listeners finally paid it on the agency's behalf in 2009.

Which board game did newspapermen Chris Haney and Scott Abbott dream up in Montreal in December 1979?

Trivial Pursuit has several origin stories, most of them starting with a game of Scrabble. It went on sale in 1981, two years after the idea.

Which 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner refused the ceremonial banquet and asked that its cost go to the poor?

Mother Teresa had the banquet's $192,000 cost sent to the poor of India instead. She had founded the Missionaries of Charity in the slums of Calcutta in 1950.

Which cable network did Bill Rasmussen launch in September 1979 after he was fired by hockey's New England Whalers?

ESPN went on the air from Bristol, Connecticut, with the first edition of SportsCenter. The idea had started as a monthly cable show about Connecticut sports.

Which exiled cleric flew home from France on a chartered Air France jet in February 1979 to lead Iran's revolution?

Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed by a crowd reported at up to five million people. He had spent more than 14 years in exile, most of them in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf.

Which country's diplomats hid six Americans who evaded capture when the US embassy in Tehran was seized in 1979?

Canada sheltered the six until January 1980, when they flew out posing as a film crew scouting locations for a science-fiction movie. The escape inspired the 2012 film Argo.

Which neighbouring country did Soviet troops invade in the last week of December 1979, starting a nine-year war?

Afghanistan lost its president, who was assassinated in his own palace as the Soviets took over. The invasion prompted a US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Which country became the first Arab state to recognise Israel by signing a peace treaty in Washington in March 1979?

Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured in 1967, under the treaty. The deal grew out of the Camp David Accords of the year before.

Which Middle Eastern strongman, vice president for eleven years, formally took power in his country in July 1979?

Saddam Hussein had already been Iraq's de facto leader for several years when President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigned. He held power until his overthrow in 2003.

Which African dictator fled into exile in April 1979 after Tanzanian troops and rebels captured his capital, Kampala?

Idi Amin had brought the war on himself by trying to annex Tanzania's Kagera Region. He went first to Libya, then Iraq, and finally Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003.

Which cousin of Queen Elizabeth II was killed in August 1979 when the IRA bombed his boat off the Irish coast?

Lord Mountbatten kept the cabin cruiser Shadow V for fishing during his summers at Classiebawn Castle. The boat sat largely unguarded in the harbour at Mullaghmore.

Which communist-ruled country welcomed Pope John Paul II in June 1979 on his first visit home since his election?

Poland surrounded its native son with ecstatic crowds wherever he went. Born Karol Wojtyła in Wadowice, he was the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century.

Which 16-year-old American beat four-time defending champion Chris Evert in the women's final of the 1979 US Open?

Tracy Austin, at 16 years and 9 months, became the youngest major champion of the Open Era. Monica Seles later lowered that mark at the 1990 French Open.

Which British runner set world records at 800 metres, the mile and 1500 metres in the space of 41 days in 1979?

Sebastian Coe set the first two in Oslo and the last in Zurich, becoming the first person to hold all of those records at the same time.

Which planet did the probe Voyager 1 reach in March 1979, less than two years after leaving Earth?

Jupiter's moon Io gave the mission its greatest surprise: erupting volcanoes, the first active ones ever seen on another body in the Solar System.

Which social reformer's face went on a small US dollar coin, new in 1979, that people kept mistaking for a quarter?

Susan B. Anthony was chosen after calls in Congress for a real woman in place of an allegorical Liberty. The coin was so poorly received that production was suspended in 1981.

Which carmaker, run by Lee Iacocca, won $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees from Congress in December 1979?

Chrysler's rescue cleared the Senate four days before Christmas and took effect in January 1980. Iacocca was later credited with returning the company to profit.

Which July 1979 hurricane was the first Atlantic storm to be officially given a man's name?

Bob came ashore in Louisiana as a Category 1 storm. It was also the first hurricane to form in the Gulf of Mexico in the month of July since 1959.

In which desert did a half-hour snowstorm surprise the town of Aïn Sefra in February 1979?

The Sahara town waited until December 2016 for its next snowfall. A blizzard the following month then left drifts up to a metre thick in places.

Which Chinese leader put on a Stetson cowboy hat at a Texas rodeo while visiting the United States in early 1979?

Deng Xiaoping was handed the hat by a teenage barrel rider at a rodeo in Simonton. Earlier that day he had toured the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Which kidnap victim turned bank robber walked free in February 1979 after President Carter commuted her prison sentence?

Patty Hearst, seized by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, had served 22 months. The order freed her eight months before her first parole hearing, and Bill Clinton later pardoned her.

Which Atari arcade game of November 1979, designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg, became the company's best-selling coin-op?

Asteroids knocked Space Invaders off its perch in American arcades and sold more than 70,000 cabinets. It ran on hardware first used for Lunar Lander.

Which 1979 spreadsheet program is often called the killer app that turned the Apple II into a business tool?

VisiCalc came to Dan Bricklin while he watched a presentation at Harvard Business School. Its success helped prompt IBM to bring out the IBM PC two years later.

Which cable channel launched nationwide on April 1, 1979, as the first network aimed entirely at children?

Nickelodeon opened with Pinwheel, a show it had tested on the QUBE cable system in Columbus, Ohio. The channel ran without any advertising until 1984.

Which Francis Ford Coppola war epic, inspired by the novella Heart of Darkness, finally reached cinemas in August 1979?

Apocalypse Now won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, where it was shown unfinished. A shoot planned for five months in the Philippines had dragged on for more than a year.

Which custody drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep was the top-grossing film of 1979 in North America?

Kramer vs. Kramer took more than $173 million on an $8 million budget. It then won five Oscars, including Best Picture and acting awards for both stars.

Which actor played policeman turned vigilante Max Rockatansky in the 1979 Australian film Mad Max?

Mel Gibson's breakthrough was shot for about A$400,000 and earned more than US$100 million worldwide. That set a Guinness record for the most profitable film.

Which 1979 comedy about a man mistaken for the Messiah was rescued by George Harrison after EMI pulled its funding?

Life of Brian was paid for through HandMade Films, a company the former Beatle and his business partner set up for the purpose. Eleven British councils banned the film outright.

Which Muppet opens 1979's The Muppet Movie strumming a banjo and singing before setting off for Hollywood?

Kermit the Frog's opening number, Rainbow Connection, earned an Academy Award nomination. He sings it at home in a Florida swamp before a talent agent turns up.

Which 1979 James Bond film was moved ahead of For Your Eyes Only to cash in on the success of Star Wars?

Moonraker takes Roger Moore's Bond from Venice and Rio de Janeiro into outer space on the trail of a vanished Space Shuttle. NASA was test-flying the real shuttle at the time.

Which CBS action comedy, first shown in January 1979, starred a 1969 Dodge Charger nicknamed the General Lee?

The Dukes of Hazzard was inspired by Moonrunners, a 1975 film about a bootlegging family by the same writer. The series ran for seven seasons and 147 episodes.

Which cartoon dog gained a feisty puppy nephew called Scrappy in 1979, when sinking ratings threatened cancellation?

Scooby-Doo was facing cancellation threats from ABC when Hanna-Barbera added the Great Dane pup. The newcomer got his own name in the show's title that same year.

Which BBC series, first broadcast in February 1979, sends experts around Britain to value the public's heirlooms?

Antiques Roadshow grew out of a 1977 documentary, with a pilot recorded in Hereford. The format has since been remade in countries from Australia to Sweden.

Which English author turned his BBC radio comedy into the 1979 novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Douglas Adams adapted the book from the first four radio episodes, and it sold 250,000 copies in its first three months.

Which singer's 1979 album Off the Wall was his first with producer Quincy Jones, whom he had met making The Wiz?

Michael Jackson became the first solo artist to take four Top 10 hits from one album on the US Hot 100. Two of them, including Rock with You, went to number one.

Which band scored Britain's Christmas number one of 1979 with a protest song featuring a London school choir?

Pink Floyd had children from Islington Green School, close to the band's studio, sing a verse of Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2. It was the group's first UK single since 1968.

Which act's 1979 debut single Rapper's Delight is credited with bringing rap music to a wide audience?

Sugarhill Gang borrowed the groove of Chic's Good Times, and Chic's writers threatened to sue until a settlement gave them songwriting credits.

Which band's My Sharona spent six weeks at number one in the US and was Billboard's top single of 1979?

The Knack, formed in Los Angeles only the year before, took the song from their first album. Singer Doug Fieger wrote it about Sharona Alperin, who later became his girlfriend.

Which British band's 1979 debut single Video Killed the Radio Star later became the first music video shown on MTV?

The Buggles topped sixteen national charts with the song, Britain's among them, yet it only reached number 40 in the United States. MTV aired it at 12:01 a.m. on 1 August 1981.

In which city did a 1979 Disco Demolition Night between games of a baseball doubleheader end in a riot?

Chicago's White Sox had to forfeit the second game after a crate of disco records was blown up on the field at Comiskey Park. Fans who brought a record got in for 98 cents.

Which city's baseball team won the 1979 World Series with Sister Sledge's We Are Family as its theme song?

Pittsburgh's Pirates came back from three games to one down, only the fourth team to do so in a World Series. Willie Stargell, aged 39, was voted its Most Valuable Player.

Which Indiana State forward lost the 1979 NCAA basketball final to Magic Johnson's Michigan State?

Larry Bird's meeting with Johnson drew the highest Nielsen ratings of any basketball game in American history. The pair carried their rivalry into the NBA of the 1980s.

Which English club won the European Cup for the first time in May 1979 by beating Malmö 1–0 in Munich?

Nottingham Forest's winner came from Trevor Francis, Britain's first £1 million footballer. Signed that February, he was not eligible for a European game until the final itself.

Which 22-year-old Spaniard won golf's 1979 Open Championship despite driving into a car park on the 16th hole?

Seve Ballesteros made birdie from the car park anyway and finished three strokes clear of Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw. It was the first of his five major titles.