WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1978
Find out what all happened May to December 1978

With the crew investigating a problem with the landing gear, United Airlines Flight 173 runs out of fuel and crashes in Portland, Oregon, killing 10. As a result, United Airlines instituted the industry's first crew resource management program. (28. December 1978)

Air Canada Flight 189 to Toronto overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers on board perish. (26. June 1978)

David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer in New York City, is sentenced to 365 years in prison for six killings. (12. June 1978)

150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War. (13. August 1978)

Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression. (16. December 1978)

Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523. (16. October 1978)

In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple cult to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo J. Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier. (18. November 1978)

World News Tonight premieres on ABC. (10. July 1978)

Puerto Rico police assassinate two nationalists in the Cerro Maravilla murders. (25. July 1978)

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupies national palace in Nicaragua. (22. August 1978)

The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt. (17. September 1978)

The Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party is founded. (1. October 1978)

Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft. (21. October 1978)

U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan (15. December 1978)

Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine. (17. August 1978)

The Solomon Islands join the United Nations. (19. September 1978)

The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. (25. June 1978)

Altaf Hussain founds the students' political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University. (11. June 1978)

The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars quota systems in college admissions. (28. June 1978)

Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. (16. October 1978)