WHAT ALL HAPPENED NOVEMBER TO DECEMBER 1979
Find out what all happened November to December 1979

Iran hostage crisis: a mob of Iranians, mostly students, overruns the US embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). (4. November 1979)

The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. (27. December 1979)

Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital. (23. December 1979)

Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis. (14. November 1979)

The Hastie fire in Hull kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee. (4. December 1979)

Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra is commissioned. (17. November 1979)

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran. (3. December 1979)

The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semănătoarea in Bucharest, Romania. (16. November 1979)

Greensboro massacre: Five members of the Communist Workers Party are shot dead and seven are wounded by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. (3. November 1979)

The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction. (9. December 1979)

Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran. (19. November 1979)

A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. (15. November 1979)

Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London, England, United Kingdom by Lord Peter Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara. (21. December 1979)

President of Pakistan Zia-ul-Haq confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam. (12. December 1979)

Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran. (12. November 1979)

Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. (28. November 1979)

Geoffrey Boycott became the first Cricketer to be stranded at 99 not out against Australia at Perth. (19. December 1979)

The first European Ariane rocket is launched. (24. December 1979)

The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four. (21. November 1979)

A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history. (10. November 1979)