Steven Weinberg publishes “The First Three Minutes”

Jean Bedel Bokassa, dictator of the Central African Republic, changed the nation’s name to the Central African Empire. A year later, he was crowned Emperor in a lavish ceremony costing $20 million, a third of the national GDP. He was overthrown and exiled in 1979 and returned in 1986 for trial on charges of cannibalism, murder, and other charges. He was imprisoned until 1993, when he was released under an amnesty. Shortly before his death in 1996, he informed the world that he was the thirteenth apostle.

At Mao’s death, China-US trade amounted to just $336 million, equal to Honduras-US trade and one-tenth that of Taiwan-US trade. Trade with the United States exploded during the Deng era and continued to grow into the 21st century.

The Apple I is the first personal computer: it is produced in a garage in Cupertino, California by Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak

In the context of supergravity theory, the hypothesis of the existence of a spin 2 particle is advanced: the graviton, the vehicle of the gravitational force.

Stony Brook State University, Long Island. Daniel Freedman, Sergio Ferrara, and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen write the Theory of Supergravity. It also includes the graviton and its partner, the gravitino, thus including gravity. But the calculations yield annoying infinite results that do not bode well for the theory.

Trinity College, Cambridge, UK. A notebook (The Lost Notebook) of 120 handwritten pages by Ramanujan is accidentally discovered. This is Ramanujan’s contribution to string theory. To protect the original symmetry from being destroyed by quantum theory, a certain number of mathematical identities must be miraculously satisfied. These are precisely the identities of Ramanujan’s Modular Function.

Grun discovers phenotypic effects of non-nuclear genes (i.e. not present in chromosomes) such as genes in cellular organelles like mitochondria or free in the cytoplasm

Cohen discovers the existence of Jumping Genes in bacteria: genes that jump from species to species by invading the chromosome of another species.

At Laetoli in Tanzania, Mary Leakey discovers the footprints of a group (perhaps a family) of Australopithecus

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple in Cupertino, California; the symbol derives from Alan Turing’s obsession with the fairy tale Snow White, or from the many apples Steve and Steve ate in the garage that would later become the Apple Corporation. There was also a third partner, Ron Wayne, who, however, backed out after a few days and demanded his share back, haunted by a previous, failed corporate experience.

Steve Wozniak presents the Apple I to the Hoebrew Computer Club. After the presentation, Steve Jobs, who is with Wozniak, is approached by Paul Terrell, owner of a small chain of hardware stores, The Byte Shop. The next day, Jobs, barefoot, goes to Terrell’s store and the two agree on 50 Apple I computers. But Terrell wants them fully assembled, which will lead to the Apple II.

Two mathematicians at the University of Illinois, Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken, solve the four-color problem. Or: Is it possible to draw a political map with a minimum number of colors greater than four? (Without allowing two countries bordering at more than one point to have the same color). Appel and Haken reduce the problem to a computer analysis of 1,500 different base maps. After 1,200 hours of computer time, the computer produces the result: each map can be colored with only four colors. Guthrie’s intuition (1852!) is thus confirmed.

Toronto. The 553-meter-tall Canada National Tower is built.

10 deaths in Italy due to terrorism

Establishment of the CSCE (Conference on Collective Security) in Europe.

Space: 1999 is a science fiction television series born from the fertile imagination of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson; the protagonists are Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse

Whittington also completed his monograph on Opabinia from the Burgess Shale: “Opabinia regalis is not believed to have been a trilobitomorphic arthropod, nor even an annelid. The Burgess Shale contains other undescribed segmented animals of uncertain affinities.” Despite the lack of emphasis, this is a groundbreaking document.

Terrorists attack OPEC headquarters. In Vienna, terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as Carlos, leads a raid on the oil ministers’ conference of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Arab and German terrorists attack, killing three people and taking 63 hostages, including 11 OPEC ministers. Calling his group an “arm of the Arab revolution,” Carlos demands the broadcast of an anti-Israeli political statement and the transportation by bus and plane for the terrorists and hostages. Austrian authorities complied with the demands, and all the hostages were released unharmed to Algeria, where the commando surrendered. OPEC did not convene another summit for the next 25 years. In 1997, Carlos, born in Venezuela, was sentenced to life in prison in France for terrorism.

Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford by shooting him at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco but missed, served a life sentence in prison, but was released on December 31, 2007, at age 77, a few months after Gerald Ford’s death at age 93.

Chile. General Pinochet entrusts economic policy to neoliberal consultants: the Chicago Boys (from the Milton Friedman school of Chicago). This decision is unexpected, and the reason remains unclear: Pinochet is in no way an expert in economics or finance. Nonetheless, it brings considerable prosperity to the Chilean economy, and several elements of this economic policy will be maintained even after Pinochet’s terrible and bloody dictatorship. Hundreds of companies that had been nationalized under Pinochet are re-privatized, but not the former American copper mines, which remain at least 51% owned by the Chilean state. Inflation drops from 600% under Allende to less than 10%. GDP grows by 10% annually.

The Viking 2 probe is launched toward Mars. It will gently descend on Utopia Planitia. The two Viking 1 and 2 probes took 50,000 images from Martian orbit before descending, mapping 97% of the surface. They will conduct biological experiments on the Martian surface to directly search for signs of biological life. The results are always negative, except for one experiment, where there appears to be a typical sign of metabolism. But this result will be debated for years, and further tests, deeper into the Martian atmosphere, far from the surface sterilized by solar radiation, are necessary.