WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO MAY 1978
Find out what all happened February to May 1978

President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels. (28. April 1978)

Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history. (16. March 1978)

Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking a communist coup d'état in Afghanistan. (17. April 1978)

Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped and later killed by his captors. (16. March 1978)

Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. (11. February 1978)

Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethiopian-Somali War. (15. March 1978)

The Israeli Defense Force invades and occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani. (14. March 1978)

The Philippine College of Commerce, through a presidential decree, becomes the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. (1. April 1978)

The first Ironman Triathlon competition takes place on the island of Oahu and is won by Gordon Haller. (18. February 1978)

Coastal Road massacre: At least 37 are killed and more than 70 are wounded when Al Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel's Operation Litani. (11. March 1978)

Korean Air Lines Flight 902 is shot down by the Soviet Union. (20. April 1978)

Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone. (1. May 1978)

The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler. (8. May 1978)

The US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity. (28. March 1978)

Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter. (7. April 1978)

Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat. (19. February 1978)

Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28. (2. March 1978)

1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language. (14. April 1978)

The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4" an hour. (6. February 1978)

The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30. (17. February 1978)