At A Glance
8 April 1979 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 8 April 1979 was a Sunday.
- 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 8 April is Aries.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 8 April 1979 fell in the Year of the Goat.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for April is Diamond.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 8 April 1979 was Waxing Gibbous.
On this day: 8 April
- 1968 BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after takeoff. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.
- 1974 Hank Aaron passes Babe Ruth as the all-time leader in career home runs by hitting his 715th home run off of Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
- 1975 Voyageurs National Park is established by the U.S. Congress.
- 1990 The conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis is elected in the Greek parliamentary election.
- 1993 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-56.
Famous people born on April 8
- Patricia Arquette, American actress and director (born 1968)
- Chris Kyle, American sniper and memoirist (1974–2013)
- Robin Wright, American actress, director, producer (born 1966)
- Julian Lennon, English singer-songwriter (born 1963)
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.
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.
Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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