Explore 4925 historical events from 1970–1979.
Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician, and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Ro…
Cecil Aronowitz, South African-English viola player (born 1916)
Keith John Moon was an English musician who was the drummer for the rock band the Who. Regarded as one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock music, he was noted for his u…
Keith Moon, English drummer (The Who) (born 1946)
Charles Williams was a British composer and conductor, contributing music to over 50 films. While his career ran from 1934 through 1968, much of his work came to the big screen as …
Charles Williams, English composer and conductor (born 1893)
Jack Leonard Warner was a Canadian-born American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spa…
Jack L. Warner, Canadian-American production manager and producer, co-founded Warner Bros. (born 1892)
Michael Gazella was an American Major League Baseball player who played for the New York Yankees on several championship teams in the 1920s.
Mike Gazella, American baseball player and manager (born 1895)
In 1978, a smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom led to the death of Janet Parker, a British medical photographer. She was the last person recorded to have died from this disease…
Janet Parker, English photographer (born 1938)
Bengt Ronnie Peterson was a Swedish racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1970 to 1978. Nicknamed "Superswede", Peterson twice finished runner-up in the Formula One World…
Ronnie Peterson, Swedish racing driver (born 1944)
Christopher Murray Grieve, best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid, was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces …
Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish linguist, poet, and author (born 1892)
Georgi Ivanov Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer. He worked as a novelist, screenwriter and playwright in his native country, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, until his defe…
Georgi Markov, Bulgarian author and playwright (born 1929)
Sir William Hudson was a New Zealand-born engineer who headed construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme for hydroelectricity and irrigation in Australia from 1949 to 1967, when he…
William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (born 1896)
Robert Cliche was a Canadian lawyer, politician and judge.
Robert Cliche, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1921)
Robert Bruce Montgomery was an English crime writer and composer. Known as a composer as Bruce Montgomery, he published his detective novels under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin.
Edmund Crispin, English writer and composer (born 1921)
Wilhelm Emil "Willy" Messerschmitt was a German aircraft designer and manufacturer who designed a number of prominent aircraft for the Luftwaffe and civil aviation.
Willy Messerschmitt, German engineer and academic, designed the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (born 1898)
Étienne Henri Gilson was a French Catholic philosopher and historian of philosophy. A scholar of medieval philosophy, he originally specialised in the thought of Descartes; he also…
Étienne Gilson, French historian and philosopher (born 1884)
Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from Paris to Seoul via Anchorage. On 20 April 1978, the Soviet air defense shot down the aircraft serving the f…
Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace and was forced to make an emergency landing
Hussein bin Talal was King of Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999. A member of the Hashemite dynasty, he is regarded as a 40th-generation direct descendant of the Islamic prop…
King Hussein of Jordan married American Lisa Halaby, who became known as Queen Noor of Jordan (pictured)
A conclave was held on 25 and 26 August 1978 to elect a new pope to succeed Paul VI, who had died on 6 August 1978. Of the 114 eligible cardinal electors, all but three attended. O…
A conclave elected Albino Luciani as Pope John Paul I, succeeding Paul VI.
David Richard Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam, the .44 Caliber Killer and the Phantom of the Bronx, is an American serial killer, serial arsonist and former United States A…
American serial killer David Berkowitz, popularly known as the "Son of Sam", was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison
The rainbow flag or pride flag is a symbol of LGBTQ pride and LGBTQ social movements, as well as a peace symbol. The colors reflect the diversity of the LGBTQ community and the spe…
The rainbow flag (original version pictured) representing gay pride was first flown at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that involved a dispute over whether prefer…
In Regents of the University of California v
Moktar Ould Daddah was a Mauritanian politician who served as the country's first President after it gained its independence from France. Moktar served as the country's first Prime…
Moktar Ould Daddah, the first president of Mauritania, was ousted in a coup d'état led by Mustafa Ould Salek.
In 1978, a smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom led to the death of Janet Parker, a British medical photographer. She was the last person recorded to have died from this disease…
British medical photographer Janet Parker became the last recorded person to die from smallpox, leading to a debate on…
Annie is a musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Thomas Meehan. It is based on the 1924 comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray. The…
Annie opens on Broadway
On the evening of May 28, 1977, a fire occurred at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky. With a total of 165 deaths and over 200 injuries, it is history's seventh-d…
The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, is engulfed by fire, killing 165 people inside