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September 1978

Month of 1978 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

September 1978
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The following events occurred in September 1978:

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September 17, 1978: Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin conclude Middle East peace agreement after negotiations at Camp David U.S. presidential retreat
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September 25, 1978: Crash of PSA Flight 182 kills 144 people in San Diego
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September 1, 1978 (Friday)

  • Home Theater Network (HTN), the second pay television film channel in the U.S., premiered as a lower-priced ($3.75 per month) competitor to the existing Home Box Office (HBO). Initially shown on New England Cablevision in Portland, Maine, and on for four hours a day, HTN limited its telecasts to films with a "G" or "PG" rating.[1] Unable to increase its viewership sufficiently to meet its expenses, HTN would continue until its shutdown on January 31, 1987.[2]
  • The Speedway bombings, random explosions of homemade bombs, began in the Indianapolis suburb of Speedway, Indiana, at 9:50 in the evening with a blast from inside a trash container outside the Hi-Fi Buys store in the Speedway Shopping Center, where windows and a car windshield were shattered, followed 10 minutes later by one in a dumpster behind the Speedway motel and a third at 10:45 in a residential neighborhood.[3]
  • Born: Adam Yahiye Gadahn, American-born terrorist member of al-Qaeda; as Adam Pearlman in rural Oregon (killed in drone strike, 2015)
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September 2, 1978 (Saturday)

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September 3, 1978 (Sunday)

September 4, 1978 (Monday)

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September 5, 1978 (Tuesday)

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September 6, 1978 (Wednesday)

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September 7, 1978 (Thursday)

  • Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov was fatally poisoned by a Bulgarian intelligence agent who approached him at a street corner in London and used an umbrella to inject a pellet into Markov's leg.[34] Markov died four days later.[35][36] An autopsy found a platinum pellet, smaller than the head of a pin and shown by a microscope to have small holes within it.[37]
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Keith Moon
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September 8, 1978 (Friday)

  • Iranian Army troops killed 122 rioters in Tehran and wounded 4,000 others after firing on the crowd.[40]
  • Died: Ricardo Zamora, 77, Spanish footballer and goalkeeper who managed the Spain national team from 1920 to 1936

September 9, 1978 (Saturday)

  • Simultaneous attacks were started across Nicaragua by the Sandinistas, a rebel organization attempting to end decades of rule of the Central American nation by the Somoza family, led by President Anastasio Somoza.[41] The Sandinistas took control of the cities of Masaya and Esteli.[42] By Wednesday, the group had control of northern Nicaragua and its three largest cities, Leon, Esteli and Chinandega.[43] Nicaragua's National Guard suppressed the rebellion by September 20 at the cost of more than 1,000 lives.[44]
  • The Soviet space probe Venera 11 was launched from Baikonur at 8:25 in the morning local time (0329 UTC) to explore the planet Venus, and would land there on December 25, returning data for 95 minutes.[45]
  • Born: Gina Gogean, Romania artistic gymnast, world champion in the vault (1994, 1996); floor exercise (1995, 1996, 1997), and the balance beam (1997); in Câmpuri[46]
  • Died:

September 10, 1978 (Sunday)

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The fatal crash at the Italian Grand Prix

September 11, 1978 (Monday)

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September 12, 1978 (Tuesday)

September 13, 1978 (Wednesday)

September 14, 1978 (Thursday)

  • The National Emergencies Act of 1976, passed on September 14, 1976, became effective, terminating four different states of emergency that had been declared in 1933 (to prevent bank failures), 1950 (during the Korean War), 1970 (during a postal strike) and 1971 (an economic policy declaration), ending the power of the U.S. President "to institute martial law, seize property and restrict travel" as well to "send armed forces into action abroad, take control of communications facilities and even set the stage for secret rules and regulations by closing the Federal Register.[70]
  • In the Philippines, 17 people near Manila were killed when a Philippine Air Force airplane crashed into the Barrio Santos neighborhood, along with 15 of the 24 people on the aircraft. The Fokker F-27 airplane was attempting to land at Nichols Air Base during a thunderstorm and was carrying members of the security staff of President Ferdinand Marcos, who had accompanied him to birthday celebrations.[71][72]
  • After only 17 days in office, the government of Portugal's Prime Minister Alfredo Nobre da Costa and his 14-member cabinet were forced to resign when a vote of no confidence passed, 140 to 123 in the Assembly of the Republic.[73]
  • The U.S. TV science fiction comedy Mork & Mindy, starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber, premiered on the ABC network and would become the surprise hit of the 1978-79 U.S. prime time season as the third most popular program of the year. Despite the show's success, its producers decided to change the format the following season and ratings would decline dramatically, with cancellation in 1982 after four seasons and 91 episodes.
  • Born:

September 15, 1978 (Friday)

September 16, 1978 (Saturday)

September 17, 1978 (Sunday)

September 18, 1978 (Monday)

  • Pegasus 1, at 3,200 pounds (1,500 kg) one of the heaviest satellites ever launched into space, fell out of orbit after more than 13 years and burned up as it plummeted through Earth's atmosphere over northern Angola,[89] with one large fragment plunging into the Atlantic Ocean off of the Angolan coast.[90]
  • The American TV situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati, about a fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, premiered on the CBS network for the first of 90 episodes over four years. The last original episode would be telecast on April 21, 1982.[91]
  • Born: Billy Eichner, American TV actor, comedian and producer known for Difficult People; in Queens, New York City[92]

September 19, 1978 (Tuesday)

  • Two days after the signing of the Camp David Accords, U.S. President Jimmy Carter made one of the most important decisions of his presidency and held a meeting at the White House with Chai Zemin, the Director of the Liaison Office of the People's Republic of China in Washington, to discuss relations between the two nations. After conferring with Chai, Carter ordered Leonard Woodcock, the U.S. liaison in Beijing, to inform the Chinese government of a change in U.S. foreign policy, and to establish full diplomatic relations by January 1, 1979. The conferences thereafter would be kept a secret for almost three months before a joint announcement from both Washington and Beijing that the U.S. and the PRC would exchange ambassadors and that the U.S. would sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China at Taiwan.[93]
  • The Solomon Islands was admitted as the newest member of the United Nations.[94]
  • Born: Mariano Puerta, Argentine tennis player who reached the finals of the 2005 French Open but was banned from the sport for eight years because of doping; in San Francisco, Córdoba[95]
  • Died: Carl Bridgewater, 13, a newspaper carrier in England, was shot dead when he inadvertently disturbed a burglary.

September 20, 1978 (Wednesday)

September 21, 1978 (Thursday)

September 22, 1978 (Friday)

  • In the UK, 15,000 autoworkers went on strike against Ford of Britain, at the direction of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU).
  • A U.S. Navy P-3 Orion fell apart while flying near the town of Poland, Maine, when an over-pressurized fuel tank caused one of its wings to separate from the craft, followed by part of the tail section, the other wing and the engines. All eight people aboard were killed.[108][109]
  • Born: Harry Kewell, Australian footballer with 58 caps for the Australia national team; in Sydney[110]
  • Died: A. J. Bakunas, 27, American stuntman, died one day after attempting to regain the world record for highest jump from a structure. Bakunas was in Lexington, Kentucky, where he had been part of the filming of the movie Steel, when he jumped from a height of 323 feet (98 m) from a tall building, with plans for his fall to be stopped by an inflated airbag. The bag split upon impact and he was fatally injured.[111]

September 23, 1978 (Saturday)

September 24, 1978 (Sunday)

September 25, 1978 (Monday)

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Artist's Rendition of the Initial collision (top) and GIF of the Radar tracking of PSA Flight 182 (bottom)
  • In San Diego, California, 144 people were killed when Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collided with a small private airplane while attempting to land. At the time, the PSA 182 crash was listed as the worst air disaster in U.S. history, killing 128 passengers and seven crew on the airliner, both the flight instructor and the pilot on the Cessna 172, and 10 people near Balboa Park in San Diego's North Park neighborhood.[122] The Boeing 727 crashed at the intersection of Nile Street and Dwight Street, and through houses as far as Boundary Street.[123]
  • Testimony before the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations resolved a mystery of almost 15 years about the "umbrella man" who could be seen on film footage opening an umbrella at the moment of the fatal shot during the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Ending speculation that he sending a signal to shooters, Louie Steven Witt, an insurance salesman in Dallas, said that his purpose was to protest against Kennedy with a symbol of appeasement, said that "If the Guinness Book had records for people being in the wrong place at the wrong time and doing the wrong thing, I'd be number one in that category without even a runner-up."[124]
  • LIFE, a news and picture magazine, which had published as a popular weekly from 1936 to 1972, returned to regular publication as a monthly.[125]
  • Born: Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgian politician, 16th Prime Minister of Georgia, in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR[126]
  • Died: Bret Morrison, 66, American radio actor and cabaret singer, best known for portraying the title character on the show The Shadow.[127]

September 26, 1978 (Tuesday)

  • Air Caribbean Flight 309 crashed on takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico, after narrowly missing a collision with Eastern Airlines Flight 75, which was landing at the same airport. The wake turbulence from the Eastern Airlines L-1011 Tri-Star jet was powerful enough that the pilot of the smaller Air Caribbean Beechcraft 18 lost control and the aircraft plummeted into a tavern in the San Juan barrio of Santurce. All six people on the Air Caribbean plane were killed, and several people in the tavern were injured, two of them fatally.[128][129]
  • South Korea launched its first ballistic missile, "Korea-1", a Nike Hercules surface-to-air rocket with a range of 90 miles (140 km), and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. President Park Chung Hee had previously ordered the development of short-range missiles and a nuclear weapons program that he forecast to be operational by 1983. After Park's assassination in 1979, his successor, Chun Doo-hwan, discontinued further spending on the two programs.
  • In a vote by parliamentary members of South Africa's ruling National Party, Defense Minister P. W. Botha was selected to be the new party chairman to succeed the outgoing John Vorster, and effectively became the designated successor to Vorster as Prime Minister of South Africa. On the first ballot, none of the three candidates received the 87 votes required for a majority, with P. W. Botha having 78, Black Affairs Minister Cornelius "Connie" Mulder 72 and Foreign Minister Pik Botha 22. Pik Botha withdrew and in the second vote P. W. Botha defeated Mulder, 98 to 74.[130]
  • Died: Manne Siegbahn, 91, Swedish physicist and 1924 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy[131]

September 27, 1978 (Wednesday)

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Graveside of August Sabbe, the last Estonian partisan
  • August Sabbe, the last of the Estonian partisans who had resisted the Soviet Union's annexation of Estonia since 1940, was discovered, by two KGB agents who had been posing as fishermen. Sabbe, who had been the remaining member of the "Forest Brethren" ("Metsavennad") had hidden in the woods for more than 30 years before being tracked down by the Soviet intelligence service to his birthplace at the village of Paidra in the Estonian SSR and had jumped into the Vohandu River rather than to be arrested, and drowned at the age of 69.[132]
  • Pope John Paul I made his last public appearance, speaking to and entertaining a crowd at his fourth weekly papal audience.[133]
  • Born: Ani Lorak, popular Ukrainian singer; in Kitsman, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union

September 28, 1978 (Thursday)

  • Pope John Paul I died after only 35 days as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. According to a spokesman for the Vatican, the Pope died a about 11 o'clock at night and his death was not discovered until 5:30 the next morning when his household staff arrived to wake him up.[134] Almost 40 years later, an Italian journalist would publish findings that Pope John Paul had complained of chest pains the night before, and had severe pain in his chest at 7:00 in the evening while reciting the vespers along with his secretary, Bishop John Magee. Although the pain lasted for five minutes, the Pope directed that his physician, Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, not be called.[135]
  • Born: Dane Boedigheimer, American Internet personality, actor and musician, in Itasco County, Minnesota[136]

September 29, 1978 (Friday)

  • United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, was passed, creating the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) for the eventual independence of the trusteeship territory of South-West Africa (now Namibia). The transition process would not begin until a ceasefire in 1988, with UNTAG providing security during the withdrawal of troops and supervision of elections in advance of Namibia's independence in 1990.[137]
  • Outgoing Prime Minister John Vorster was elected by a joint session of both houses of South Africa's parliament (the House of Assembly and the Senate) as the new State President of South Africa, a largely ceremonial post, with voting along party lines and 173 of the 204 votes coming from the National Party. Sir de Villiers Graaf of the New Republic Party was a distant second with 19, and Guerenino Bozzoli of the Progressive Party had 12.[138]
  • Born: Kurt Nilsen, Norwegian singer; in Bergen

September 30, 1978 (Saturday)

  • Finnair Flight 405 was hijacked by Aarno Lamminparras in Oulu in Finland.[139] After collecting a $206,000 ransom, Lamminparras released 45 of his 48 hostages, taking with him the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer on a flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.[140]
  • Born: Candice Michelle (ring name for Candice Michelle Beckman), American professional wrestler and model and 2007 WWE Women's Champion; in Milwaukee
  • Died: Edgar Bergen, 75, American ventriloquist, comedian and radio star known for his program (with his dummy, Charlie McCarthy) on The Chase and Sanborn Hour on the NBC Radio Network, was found dead in his room at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, where he had been booked for a two-week performance.;[141] Bergen's death came only nine days after he had announced his retirement and his donation of the Charlie dummy to the Smithsonian Institution[142] and the day after his third performance during the booking.

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