1979

January 1 - Sino-American relations: United States and the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations
January 4 - State of Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings.
January 7 - Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, and the collapse of the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge retreat to Thailand
January 8 - The French tanker Betelgeuse explodes at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry in Ireland - 50 dead
January 16 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocate to Egypt after a year of turmoil.
January 19 - Former US Attorney General John N. Mitchell released on parole after 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama
January 29 – Brenda Ann Spencer begins to shoot out her window across the street to Cleveland elementary school in San Diego, California. Kills two teachers and wounds 8 students

February 1 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter
February 1 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
February 3 - Khomeini creates the Council of the Islamic Revolution
February 7 - Supporters of Khomeini take over the Iranian law enforcement, courts and government administration
February 10-February 11 - Iranian army mutinies and joins the Islamic Revolution
February 11 - Khomeini seizes power in Iran.
February 14 - In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police
February 17 - The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching he Sino-Vietnamese War.
February 22 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.

March 5 - Voyager I passes Jupiter
March 13 - In Grenada, Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup
March 14 - In China, a Hawker-Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing killing at least 200
March 25 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, was delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch
March 26 - In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty
March 28 - Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, releases radiation
March 28 - In the United Kingdom, Jim Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by one vote, forcing a general election
March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah, Sultan of Pahang.
March 30 - Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by INLA bomb in British House of Commons car park
March 31 - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta

April 1 - Iran's government becomes Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially
April 6 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed
April 10 - A tornado hits in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people. It was the most notable tornado of twenty-six that hit that day.
April 11 - Ugandan dictator Idi Amin overthrown; Tanzania takes Kampala
April 23 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach
May 1 - Greenland gets home rule
May 4 - Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
May 10 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
May 25 - American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.

June 1 - The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, ousting Ian Smith
June 2 - Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country
June 3 - A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons, making it the largest unintentional oil spill ever.
June 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's sixteenth, and youngest, prime minister.
June 12 - Bryan Allen flies the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.
June 18 - Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II agreement in Vienna.
June 20 - a national guard soldier in Nicaragua kills ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape
June 23 - Sydney: New South Wales Premier Neville Wran officially opens the Eastern Suburbs Railway. It operates as a shuttle between Central & Bondi Junction until full integration with the Illawarra Line during 1980.