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News and Events of 1978

Year by Year: 1900-2012 View a 1978 calendar

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.302 billion
population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize:
Menachem Begin (Israel) and Anwar el-Sadat (Egypt)

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Rhodesia's Prime Minister Ian D. Smith and three black leaders agree on transfer to black majority rule (Feb. 15).
US Senate approves Panama Canal neutrality treaty (March 16); votes treaty to turn canal over to Panama by year 2000 (April 18).
Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro kidnapped by left wing terrorists, who kill five bodyguards (March 16); he is found slain (May 9).
Pope Paul VI , dead at 80, mourned (Aug. 6); new Pope, John Paul I, 65, dies unexpectedly after 34 days in office (Sept. 28); succeeded by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland as John Paul II (Oct. 16).
"Framework for Peace" in Middle East signed by Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin after 13-day conference at Camp David led by President Jimmy Carter (Sept. 17).
Jim Jones's followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana (Nov. 18).

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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: James Earl Carter, Jr.
Vice President: Walter F. Mondale
Population: 222,584,545
Life expectancy: 73.5 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 51.4
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 46.4

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President Carter chooses Federal Appeals Court Judge William H. Webster as F.B.I. director (Jan. 19).
US Supreme Court in Bakke case, bars quota systems in college admissions but affirms constitutionality of programs giving advantage to minorities (June 28).

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Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars):   $2,291.40 billion
Federal spending:   $458.75 billion
Federal debt:   $776.6 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars):  $15,064
Consumer Price Index:   65.2
Unemployment:   6.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.13 ($0.15 as of 5/29/78)

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Sports

Sports Links

Pro Football Summary

Pro Basketball Summary

Pro Baseball Summary

Super Bowl

Dallas d. Denver (27-10)

World Series

NY Yankees d. LA Dodgers (4-2)

NBA Championship

Washington Bullets d. Seattle (4-3)

Stanley Cup

Montreal d. Boston (4-2)

Wimbledon

Women: Martina Navratilova d. C. Evert (2-6 6-4 7-5)
Men: Bjorn Borg d. J. Connors (6-2 6-2 6-3)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Affirmed

NCAA Basketball Championship

Kentucky d. Duke (94-88)

NCAA Football Champions

Alabama (AP, FW, NFF) (11-1-0) & USC (UPI) (12-1-0)

World Cup

Argentina d. Holland (3-1)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson
Music: Déjà Vu for Percussion Quartet and Orchestra, Michael Colgrass
Drama: The Gin Game, Donald L. Coburn

Oscars awarded in 1978
Academy Award, Best Picture: Annie Hall, Charles H. Joffe, producer (United Artists)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Isaac Bashevis Singer (US)

1978 Emmy Awards

1978 Tony Awards

Grammys awarded in 1978
Record of the Year: "Hotel California," Eagles
Album of the Year: Rumours, Fleetwood Mac (Warner Bros.)
Song of the Year: "Love Theme From A Star Is Born" (Evergreen), Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams, songwriters

Miss America: Susan Perkins (OH)

More Entertainment Awards...

Events

Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable stereo.

Movies

The Deer Hunter, Midnight Express, Heaven Can Wait, Coming Home

Books

Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever
Barry Hannah, Airships
John Irving, The World According to Garp
Peter Mathiessen, The Snow Leopard
Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language
Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Peter Mitchell (UK), for contributions to the understanding of biological energy transfer

Physics: Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson (both US), for work in cosmic microwave radiation; Piotr L. Kapitsa (USSR), for basic inventions and discoveries in low-temperature physics

Physiology or Medicine: Daniel Nathans, Hamilton Smith (both US), and Werner Arber (Switzerland), for discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics

Three Albuquerque, NM, men, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Maxie Anderson, make the first successful transatlantic balloon flight in the helium-filled Double Eagle II. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
Balloon anigoplasty is developed to treat coronary artery disease. Background: Health & Nutrition
Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, is born at Oldham Hostpital in London. Background: reproduction
Recombinant DNA techniques are used to produce human insulin. Background: genetic engineering
A fusion reaction in a reactor at Princeton reaches 60 million degrees Fahrenheit for 1/20 of a second. Background: nuclear energy