At A Glance

24 January 1979 at a glance

Day of the week
24 January 1979 was a Wednesday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Le Freak” by Chic.
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 24 January is Aquarius.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 24 January 1979 fell in the Year of the Horse.
Birthstone
The birthstone for January is Garnet.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 24 January 1979 was Waning Crescent.

On this day: 24 January

  • 1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
  • 1978 Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
  • 1986 The Voyager 2 space probe makes its closest approach to Uranus.
  • 1987 About 20,000 protestors march in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States.
  • 1990 Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.

Famous people born on January 24

  • Sharon Tate, American model and actress (1943–1969)
  • Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer (born 1979)
  • Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1941)
  • John Belushi, American actor and screenwriter (1949–1982)

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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