1979

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Welcome to Retroville! It’s 1979!

IN THE NEWS:

  • American Airlines DC-10 Flight 191 goes down at O’Hare Airport just after takeoff killing all 271 people aboard
  • Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to the families of the four dead in the Kent State University shooting by the Ohio National Guard
  • Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini takes over Iran forcing the Shah to flee the country
  • Margaret Thatcher becomes British Prime Minister
  • Three Mile Island nuclear facility near Harrisburg, PA, experiences an accident releasing radiation into the air and narrowly avoiding a meltdown
  • President Carter and Soviet Premiere Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II Agreement
  • On April 10 one of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history hit Wichita Falls leaving 3,000 homes destroyed, 20,000 people homeless, injuring 1,740 people, and leaving 60 people dead
  • Sandinistas oust Nicaraguan President Debayle in a military coup
  • Iranian militants seize the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and hold hostages
  • Synthetic insulin is introduced
  • Pittsburgh Pirates defeat Baltimore Orioles to win the World Series
  • Tracy Austin becomes the youngest player (16) to win the U.S. Open
  • Actor John Wayne dies at 72
  • Emmett “The Sad Clown” Kelly dies

ON THE RADIO:

  • CBS Radio Mystery Theater
  • Sears Radio Theater
  • Stairway to the Stars
  • Turk Murphy Jazz Band

ON TELEVISION:

  • WKRP in Cincinnati
  • Taxi

FADS & FASHION:

  • Big Trak
  • Strawberry Shortcake dolls
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture action figures
  • Intellivision

WHAT THINGS COST:

  • Car: $6,847
  • Gasoline: 88 cents per gallon
  • House: $71,800
  • Bread: 43 cents per loaf
  • Milk: $1.50 per gallon
  • Postage Stamp: 15 cents
  • Average Annual Salary: $22,316
  • Minimum Wage: $2.90 per hour

ACADEMY AWARD – BEST PICTURE:

  • Kramer vs Kramer – drama by Robert Benton starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep

TONY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL:

  • Sweeney Todd – based on the book by Hugh Wheeler, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, choreographed by Larry Fuller, starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou

PULITZER PRIZES:

  • The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (fiction)
  • Buried Child by Sam Shepard (drama)
  • The Dred Scott Case by Don E. Fehrenbacher (history)
  • Days of Sorry and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker (biography)
  • Now and Then by Robert Penn Warren (poetry)
  • On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson (non-fiction)

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:

  • Mother Teresa, India, 1914-1997, leader of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity

TOP SONGS:

  • Hot Stuff by Donna Summer
  • Da Ya Think I’m Sexy by Rod Stewart
  • Babe by Styx