At A Glance

16 March 1979 at a glance

Day of the week
16 March 1979 was a Friday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor.
Top Film of 1979
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1979 was Moonraker.
Bestselling Novel of 1979
“The Matarese Circle” by Robert Ludlum was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1979.
Top-Rated TV Show
“60 Minutes” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1979–80 season.
Star sign
The star sign for 16 March is Pisces.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 16 March 1979 fell in the Year of the Goat.
Birthstone
The birthstone for March is Aquamarine.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 16 March 1979 was Waning Gibbous.

On this day: 16 March

  • 1966 Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.
  • 1978 Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.
  • 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war.
  • 1988 Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
  • 1995 Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

Famous people born on March 16

  • Mark Carney, Canadian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Canada (born 1965)
  • Alexandra Daddario, American actress (born 1986)
  • Lauren Graham, American actress and producer (born 1967)
  • Alan Tudyk, American actor (born 1971)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1979 in the United States

A selection from Wikipedia's '1979 in the United States'. Not a complete list.

  • February 20 – This Old House premieres on PBS.
  • March 29 – America's most serious nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
  • April 1 – Nickelodeon debuts on cable television, playing children's television shows 24 hours a day. Pinwheel, which first premiered on the channel C-3 in 1977, was one of the first shows to be broadcast on the channel.
More events of 1979 →Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Life in the US in 1979

President

Jimmy Carter

Gas (per gallon)

$0.86

Loaf of Bread

$0.43

Average House

$62,900

Weekly Wage

$250

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Famous Faces Born in the 1970s

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

Keri Russell23 March 1976ActressView their day →Tupac Shakur16 June 1971Rapper & actorView their day →Zoe Saldaña19 June 1978ActressView their day →Christopher Nolan30 July 1970FilmmakerView their day →Jon Bernthal20 September 1976ActorView their day →Jason Sudeikis18 September 1975Actor & comedianView their day →Milo Ventimiglia8 July 1977ActorView their day →Sarah Paulson17 December 1974ActressView their day →

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

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