• SALT II
• US and China establish full diplomatic relations
• Vietnamese take Phnom Penh, China invades Vietnam
• Ali Bhutto hung
• Soviets invade Afghanistan
• Idi Amin overthrown
• War between Somalia and Ethiopia
• Southern Rhodesia becomes Zimbabwe
• Peace agreement reached between Egypt and Israel
• Shah of Iran deposed
• Militant students seize US Embassy in Teheran
• Trade Act
• Sandinistas force Samozas out of Nicaragua

Winners in Sports

Music Top 10

Most Popular Movies of 1979

Most Popular Books

Fiction:
1. "The Matarese Circle" by Robert Ludlum
2. "Sophie's Choice" by William Styron
3. "Overload" by Arthur Hailey
4. "Memories of Another Day" by Harold Robbins
5. "Jailbird" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Nonfiction
1. Aunt Erma's Cope Book by Erma Bombeck
2. The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet by Herman Tarnower
3. How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years by Howard Ruff
4. Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin
5. The Pritiken Program for Diet and Exercise by Nathan Pritiken

Most Popular Television Shows

Academy Awards

Best Picture: "Kramer vs. Kramer"
Best Director: Robert Benton ... "Kramer vs. Kramer"
Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman ... "Kramer vs. Kramer"
Best Actress: Sally Field ... "Norma Rae"

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year: "What a Fool Believes" ... The Doobie Brothers
Best Song: "What a Fool Believes" ... Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald
Best Album: "52nd Street" ... Billy Joel
Male Vocalist: Billy Joel ... "52nd Street"
Female Vocalist: Dionne Warwick ... "I'll Never Love This Way Again"

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry
The prize was divided equally between: BROWN, HERBERT C., U.S.A., Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, b. 1912 (in London, Great Britain); and WITTIG, GEORG, Federal Republic of Germany, University of Heidelberg, b. 1897, d. 1987: "for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis"

Literature
ELYTIS ODYSSEUS (pen-name of ALEPOUDHELIS, ODYSSEUS), Greece, b. 1911, d. 1996; "for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness"

Peace
MOTHER TERESA, India, b. 1910, d. 1997: Leader of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity.

Physiology or Medicine
The prize was awarded jointly to: CORMACK, ALLAN M., U.S.A., Tufts University, Medford, MA, b. 1924 (in Johannesburg, South Africa), d. 1998; and HOUNSFIELD, Sir GODFREY N., Great Britain, Central Research Laboratories, EMI, London, b. 1919: "for the development of computer assisted tomography"

Physics
The prize was divided equally between: GLASHOW, SHELDON L., U.S.A., Lyman Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, b. 1932; SALAM, ABDUS, Pakistan, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, and Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, Great Britain, b. 1926, d. 1996; and WEINBERG, STEVEN, U.S.A., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, b. 1933: "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including inter alia the prediction of the weak neutral current"

Pulitzer Prizes

Drama: Sam Shepard ... "Buried Child"
Fiction: John Cheever ... "The Stories of John Cheever"
History: Don E. Fehrenbacher ... "The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Poltics"
International Reoprting: Richard Ben Cramer ... "Philadelphia Inquirer"
National Reporting: James Risser ... "Des Moines Register"
Public Service: "Point Reyes (CA) Light"

Tony Awards

Best Play: "The Elephant Man" ... Bernard Pomerance
Best Musical: "Sweeny Todd"
Best Actor: Tom Conti ... "Whose Life is It Anyway?"
Best Actress: Constance Cummings ... "Wings" & Carole Shelley ... "The Elephant Man" Len Cariou ... "Sweeney Todd"
Angela Lansbury ... "Sweeny Todd"