3:00 a.m.: A Soviet fighter jet shoots down a South Korean Airlines Boeing 747, flight RC135 KE007, off the coast of Japan with 300 people on board. In the following days, a massive hunt for the black box begins, involving Americans, Japanese, and Russians to
In Hamburg, Stern signs agreements for the publication of the diaries: 1200 000USD for USA, UK from Murdoch, 400 000USD from Paris Match, 150 000USD from Grupo Zeta (Spain), 125 000USD from Geillustreerde Pers (Holland), 50 000USD from Norsche Presse (Norway), 50 000USD from Panorama
American Robert K. Jarvick implants the first artificial heart in a human
United States. Forty-five million acres have been reclaimed from the wild, having been abandoned by farmers, despite the fact that American agricultural production continues to steadily increase (+35% in this period). This is an area the size of Washington state. During the same period, the
A two-week Cosmology Seminar in Cambridge. It becomes clear that Alan Guth’s proposed inflation also explains the gigantic density variations we observe today, which we call galaxies. These are tiny oscillations amplified enormously by inflation. This is the theory of the Chaotic Inflationary Universe.
Spectacular Soviet military exercise simulating an all-out attack against the United States and Western Europe. A seven-hour nuclear war is simulated. It opens with a missile launch from a submarine, followed by two SS11 ICBMs launched from ground-based silos, an SS20 IRBM launched and shot
Syria: President Assad (Alawite Shiite) orders a tank assault on the Sunni Syrian rebel city of Hama. Thousands will be killed (estimates range from 1,000 to 20,000) in addition to 1,000 soldiers killed. The city center will be razed and rebuilt.
American William Thurston completes the Geometrization Conjecture: in 3-dimensional space, there are only 8 different geometries, instead of the 3 found in 2-dimensional space. The Geometrization Conjecture implies the Poincaré Conjecture. Most 3-manifolds in 3-space have a hyperbolic structure. The same is true in 2-space:
In 1982, the USSR began testing a satellite positioning system that could compete with the American GPS: the Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema. The 24 satellites were launched three at a time using Proton satellites. The system functioned very similarly to GPS, with an accuracy of
U.S. Secretary of State Caspar Weinberger announces the retirement of the Titan II ICBMs.
Panamanian dictator Torricos dies in a plane crash and his right-hand man, Noriega, takes his place
First Space Shuttle mission (of 135 in total): Columbia STS1; piloted by John Young, who had already flown on Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10 and 16, and would fly again on STS-9. John Young is a legend even among the Apollo astronauts.
The Voyager 1 probe flies by Saturn. Three years after its launch, the US planetary probe “Voyager 1” passes within 116,000 miles of Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system. The photos transmitted from a distance of 950 million miles to its base in
Iran-Iraq War. Long-standing territorial disputes and political unrest in Iran pushed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to invade Iran’s oil-rich province of Khuzestan. After an initial advance, the Iraqi offensive was repelled. In 1982, Iraq voluntarily withdrew and sought a peace agreement, but Ayatollah Komehini renewed
Damascus, Arkansas. 9:30 PM. At the accident site, they are ordered to await instructions from SAC headquarters in Omaha, where they are discussing the situation. This is likely a gross error.
Workers’ demonstrations of what will soon become Solidarnosch (Lech Walesa) in the shipyards of Gdansk, Poland.
American hostage crisis. Jimmy Carter expels all Iranian diplomats from the United States and imposes unilateral sanctions.
Rome. On the steps of the Sapienza University of Rome’s Political Sciences faculty, the Red Brigades assassinated Professor Bachelet with eight gunshots, the last one to the head. His assistant, Rosy Bindi, was with him. Bachelet was a gentle Catholic, always seeking dialogue, even with
Tehran, Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh threatened that “sooner or later Canada will pay for violating Iran’s sovereignty.” In 1982, Ghotbzadeh was executed by an Iranian firing squad, accused of making deals with the West.
Washington, D.C.: Congress passes a resolution honoring Canada for its support in rescuing American diplomats in Tehran. The CIA’s role is not mentioned.
Operation Argo. CIA agent Antonio Mendez travels to the Iranian consular office in Bonn to obtain a visa. He carries with him the Argo portfolio, a science fiction film used as a cover for the American mission to free the escaped diplomats.
Operation Argo. CIA agent Antonio Mendez arrives in Frankfurt, his previous stop in Tehran.
Milan, Via Schievano Massacre. Three policemen were killed by the Red Brigades (Walter Alasia Column) who wanted to “welcome” General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, who had just been transferred to Milan to command the Pastrengo Division. The victims were on duty at the Porta Ticinese
George Gaylord Simpson, the most famous paleontologist of this period, published an article arguing that the end-Cretaceous extinction (of the dinosaurs, for example) should be considered a long and continuous process. That same year, geologist Walter Alvarez and renowned quantum physicist Luis Alvarez published the
In July 1968, Texas Instruments reached an agreement with the island’s government to build the first semiconductor factory in Taiwan. The first integrated circuits were produced in August 1969. By 1980, it had already produced a billion integrated circuits, flooding the world. Meanwhile, in 1973,
In a stadium packed with over 70,000 people, something unprecedented happened on the sidelines. It wasn’t a spectacular play, nor an epic comeback. It was a man in white boots, a miniskirt, and sequins who, for a moment, changed NFL history. Robin Williams, as the
Cossiga, Forlani, Spadolini, Fanfani, Craxi, Goria, De Mita governments (DC-PRI-PSI-PSDI-PLI)
Tehran, Iran. Ross Perot hires mercenaries and, in a raid, manages to free two Iranians from his oil company, prisoners of Islamic revolutionaries.
Tehran, Iran. The Shah’s last prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, is forced to flee Tehran. The Islamic Revolution triumphs in Iran.
Tehran, Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini arrives at the airport and is greeted with triumph.
Deng’s China forges new relations. On January 29, 1979, Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Vice Premier, met with President Jimmy Carter in Washington, with whom he signed a momentous scientific and cultural agreement. Deng Xiaoping oversaw profound transformations in China’s history. Having joined the Chinese Communist Party
Following street protests, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Persia and flew to Aswan, Egypt, personally piloting his Boeing 707. Egyptian President Sadat awaited him in Aswan, then he fled to Europe; finally, suffering from cancer, he was treated in the United States.
Paul VI dies and is succeeded by John Paul I who dies after only 33 days
Launch Complex 533-7, south of Wichita, Kansas. A Titan II nuclear missile is removed for routine maintenance and replaced with another, which is refueled with fuel and oxidizer. Someone forgets to install a filter on the highly toxic oxidizer line, and the O-ring holding the
Richard Feynman was diagnosed with and immediately underwent surgery for gastric liposarcoma. Despite the pain and progressive weakness, Feynman managed to lead a nearly normal life for the next ten years.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first free (i.e., solo) flight
Kurt Gödel dies by starving himself. He suffered from hypochondriacal personality disorders that led him to abstain from eating for fear of being poisoned.
Israel. On May 17, 1977, legislative elections were held in Israel to elect the ninth Knesset. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing party, led by the Likud, won a plurality of seats, ending nearly 30 years of rule by the Left
The most prominent figures of the armed struggle were transferred to a prison on Asinara Island in Sardinia: Giuliano Naria, Alberto Franceschini, Roberto Ognibene, Sante Notarnicola, and the fascist Bertoli. On May 13, 1977, Renato Curcio, the historic leader and ideologue of the Red Brigades,
Uranus’s rings were discovered by a flying observatory, studying the occultation of a star by the planet. Studying the gaps in the rings predicted the existence of Uranus’s satellites in 1985, which were then discovered by Voyager-2 the following year.
The USSR and Chile exchange two inconvenient characters: the dissident biologist Vladimir Bukowski is freed by the Soviets in exchange for Luis Corvalan, secretary of the Chilean Communist Party.
The American National Security Agency (NSA) adopted the 56-bit version of Horst Feistel’s Lucifer cipher (a German emigrant to the United States, an IBM employee), calling it DES (Data Encryption Standard). It would remain the standard for encrypted communications for several decades. The NSA’s concern
General Dynamics delivers the first Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine (USS Los Angeles); 53 were built between then and the end of the century (US Navy)
Chrysler’s 1,500-hp Textron Lycoming AGT-1500 gas turbine-powered XM1 heavy tank project is selected by the U.S. Department of Defense, designated the M1-Abrams; more than 10,000 will be produced.
The Hughes Glomar Explorer (Project Azorian), which recovered K-129, is being preserved. This decision was made by President Ford. Many people have worked hard to ensure this, including Richard Anderson (“The Six Million Dollar Man”) and John Wayne (who often visited on his yacht). Ford
China. Hua Guofeng allies himself with the moderates and arrests the Gang of Four. In this post-Mao scenario, Deng Xiaoping will re-enter the fray.
Mao Zedong dies. Mao Zedong, the father of the Chinese revolution, dies at the age of 83. In 1934, during the long civil war with the Nationalists, Mao managed to break through enemy lines, leading his followers on the “Long March” into northern China. There,
Viking 2 lands on Martian soil (on the opposite side of Viking 1: Utopia Planitia)
Among the policies pushed by Mao in China was acupuncture, promoted by the regime to please poor Chinese communities who couldn’t afford expensive medicines. The wealthy, on the other hand, took antibiotics, vaccines, and everything else we know. Mao himself never personally used acupuncture. In
James Brinney, a research student at Oxford, demonstrates that rotation isn’t necessary to explain the flattening of elliptical galaxies. Their stars, in fact, move in random orbits, while the galaxy’s shape is more a consequence of the formation process. Observations will confirm this thesis, and