WHAT ALL HAPPENED JULY TO DECEMBER 1978
Find out what all happened July to December 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)

Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco's first female mayor. (She will serve until January 8, 1988.) (4. December 1978)

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

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

Pope John Paul II takes possession of his Cathedral Church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, as the Bishop of Rome. (12. November 1978)

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

The Lufthansa heist is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time. (11. 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)

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

Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom. (3. November 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)

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 pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform. (22. December 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)

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

Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60 mph at Blowering Dam, Australia. (8. October 1978)

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

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

Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship. (27. December 1978)