At A Glance

16 January 1978 at a glance

Day of the week
16 January 1978 was a Monday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Baby Come Back” by Player.
Top Film of 1978
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1978 was Grease.
Bestselling Novel of 1978
“Chesapeake” by James A. Michener was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1978.
Top-Rated TV Show
“Laverne & Shirley” (ABC) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1978–79 season.
Star sign
The star sign for 16 January is Capricorn.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 16 January 1978 fell in the Year of the Snake.
Birthstone
The birthstone for January is Garnet.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 16 January 1978 was First Quarter.

On this day: 16 January

  • 1969 Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
  • 1979 Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
  • 1984 A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.
  • 1991 Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
  • 1992 El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.

Famous people born on January 16

  • Aaliyah, American singer and actress (1979–2001)
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda, American actor, playwright, and composer (born 1980)
  • Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer (born 1959)
  • Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor (born 1985)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1978 in the United States

A selection from Wikipedia's '1978 in the United States'. Not a complete list.

  • February 6 – The first Home Depot opens in Marietta, Georgia.
  • April 2 – The CBS soap opera Dallas is launched. It is set to be aired later this year in several countries, including the United Kingdom by the BBC.
  • April 3 – The 50th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope for the final time, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Woody Allen's Annie Hall wins Best Picture, with Allen winning Best Director.

Life in the US in 1978

President

Jimmy Carter

Gas (per gallon)

$0.63

Loaf of Bread

$0.39

Average House

$55,700

Weekly Wage

$234

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1970s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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