WHAT ALL HAPPENED JUNE TO DECEMBER 1978
Find out what all happened June to December 1978

In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White. (27. November 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)

The Northern Territory in Australia is granted Self-Government. (1. July 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)

King Hussein of Jordan marries American Lisa Halaby, who takes the name Queen Noor. (15. June 1978)

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

While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella. (7. September 1978)

President Moktar Ould Daddah of Mauritania is ousted in a bloodless coup d'état. (10. July 1978)

The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed. (1. June 1978)

Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title 3 times at the Superdome in New Orleans. (15. September 1978)

Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" is born. (25. July 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)

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

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

The Solomon Islands becomes independent from the United Kingdom (7. July 1978)

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

The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. (5. December 1978)

Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut, on board Soyuz 31. (26. August 1978)

PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, resulting in the deaths of 144 people. (25. September 1978)

Los Alfaques Disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists. (11. July 1978)