istoryworld
All Events
US director Steven Spielberg has a major success with his second feature film, Jaws
The island of Papua New Guinea wins independence from Australia
School friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen found a software firm, calling it Microsoft
Excavation of the 5200-year-old passage grave at Newgrange in Ireland is completed
Austrian racing driver Niki Lauda wins the first of three Formula One world championship titles
The British group the Sex Pistols launch punk rock, with their first gig at St Martin's School of Art in London
There is political turmoil in Australia after the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismisses prime minister Gough Whitlam
Australian governor-general Sir John Kerr appoints Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister
Franco dies and is succeeded as Spanish head of state by Juan Carlos, heir to the Bourbon throne
English author Ruth Prawer Jhabwala wins the Booker Prize with her novel Heat and Dust
Surinam wins independence from the Dutch, with Johan Ferrier as the first president
Robert Muldoon is prime minister of New Zealand after a National Party ;election victory
In Angola the USA and USSR fund rival guerrilla groups, MPLA and UNITA
The invasion of East Timor by Indonesia begins decades of guerrilla resistance and brutal repression
Canadian novelist Robertson Davies completes his semi-autobiographical Deptford Trilogy
Malcolm Fraser becomes the Australian prime minister, winning the first of three general election victories
Cuban troops, sent by Castro to Angola, clash with South African forces attempting to combat communism
Mikhail Baryshnikov dances in the New York premiere of Twyla Tharp's ballet Push Comes to Shove
Nkomo and Mugabe merge their guerrilla troops in a more effective disruptive force, to be known as the Patriotic Front
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs design and market a personal computer, calling it the Apple
Portugal adopts a democratic constitution after 43 years of dicatorship
Frederick Ashton creates a ballet based on Turgenev's play A Month in the Country, to music by Chopin
Harold Wilson unexpectedly resigns as the British prime minister and is succeeded by James Callaghan
14-year-old Jodie Foster stars as a drug-addicted child prostitute in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver
Mary Leakey and her team find footprints, about 3.6 million years old, of bipedal hominids walking upright at Laetoli in Tanzania
