WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO MARCH 1979
Find out what all happened January to March 1979

The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland. (8. January 1979)

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

Formal diplomatic relations are established between China and the United States. (1. January 1979)

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

Don Dunstan resigns as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation. (15. February 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)

The Sino-Vietnamese War begins. (17. February 1979)

Third Indochina War – Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. (7. January 1979)

America's Voyager 1 spacecraft has its closest approach to Jupiter, 172,000 miles. (5. March 1979)

A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania leads to the core overheating and a partial melt down. (28. March 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)

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)

Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered. (7. February 1979)

The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers. (17. March 1979)

The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt. (16. January 1979)

In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200. (14. March 1979)

A Varig 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. (30. January 1979)

An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge. (13. February 1979)

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

Pope John Paul II starts his first pastoral visit to Mexico. (28. January 1979)