WHAT ALL HAPPENED MARCH TO JUNE 1979
Find out what all happened March to June 1979

The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch. (25. March 1979)

President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed. (4. April 1979)

The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN. (19. March 1979)

Etan Patz, who is six years old, disappears from the street just two blocks away from his home in New York City, prompting an international search for the child, and causing the U.S. President Ronald Reagan to designate May 25 as National Missing Children's Day (in 1983). (25. May 1979)

Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings takes power in Ghana after a military coup in which General Fred Akuffo is overthrown. (4. June 1979)

Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people. (10. April 1979)

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (4. May 1979)

SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union. (18. June 1979)

The Federated States of Micronesia become self-governing. (10. May 1979)

Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000 member strong Jewish community of Iran. (9. May 1979)

The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power. (1. June 1979)

Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters. (5. March 1979)

White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. (21. May 1979)

Konstantinos Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community. (28. May 1979)

Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility. (30. March 1979)

Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time. (8. March 1979)

ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime. (20. June 1979)

The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien). (31. March 1979)

A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded. (3. June 1979)

The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada. (13. March 1979)