1978: Test-Tube Baby, Jonestown Suicide, Panama CanalBy Patrick Mondout
The birth of the first "test-tube" baby, the murder-suicides
of the followers of Jim Jones, and the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty
were the major stories of 1978.
Major Stories
January 15: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Denver
Broncos 27-10 in Super Bowl
XII.
February 19: In a tragic mix-up, Cypriot
National Guard members fired on and killed 15 Egyptian commandos trying to
rescue those aboard a Cypriot airliner held hostage by Palestinian
terrorists.
March 17: In the worst oil spill on record,
Amoco's Cadiz runs aground near Brest, France.
April 6: President Carter signs a bill raising
the mandatory retirement age to 70.
May 9: Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro,
who had been kidnapped on March 16, is found dead in Rome.
June 6: Proposition 13 passes in California
ensuring new residents will pay more than their fair share of property
taxes.
June 16: President Carter and Panamanian
President Torrijos formally sign an agreement which will cede control of
the Panama Canal to the Panamanias.
July 25: Louise Brown, the first
"test-tube" baby, is born in Britain.
September 25: A PSA
727 collides with a Cessna and crashes in San Diego. Seven people on
the ground and all 137 aboard both plains are killed.
November 18: The murder-suicides of 912
followers of religious leader Jim Jones in Guyana shocks the world.
December 15: Cleveland becomes the first U.S.
city since the depression to default.
December 28: A United
Airlines DC-9 runs out of gas and crashes six miles short of the
runway in Portland, Oregon. Ten of 181 aboard are killed. |
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}
.gif)
(180).jpg)
