1978

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Events edit

January 14 - the serial killer Ted Bundy breaks into the Chi Omega sorority, his rapes and kills Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, and attacks Karen Chandler, Kathy Kleiner, and Cheryl Thomas.
January 29 - Muammar Gaddafi invades Chad in an attempt to annex the Aouzou Strip.
March 6 - Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist and serial killer, attempts to kill Larry Flynt, founder and publisher of pornographic magazine Hustler. Flynt survived the attack, but was left paralyzed from the waist down.
March 11 - The Coastal Road massacre takes place in Tel Aviv, Israel when Fatah militants hijack a bus and kill 38 occupants in a failed attempt at a prisoner exchange with the Israeli government.
March 15 - The Derg emerges victorious in the Ogadan War. The Soviet Union ceases its support of Somalia.
March 16- The Red Brigades kidnap the leader of the Italian Christian Democracy Aldo Moro, and because the congress did not want to negotiate for his release, Aldo Moro was assassinated by the organization on May 9.
April 6 - Gene Leroy Hart is arrested and charged with the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders that took place at Camp Scott in Mayes County the previous year.
April 18 - The Khmer Rouge invades Vietnam.
April 27 to 28 - The Saur Revolution: the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, lead by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and supported by the Soviet Union, takes power in Afghanistan, declaring the formation of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
May 25 - The first attack attributed to the Unabomber takes place when a mail bomb is sent to Buckley Crist, a professor of materials engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Crist is injured but survives the attack.
June 15 - William Luther Pierce publishes The Turner Diaries.
June 29 - Actor Bob Crane is found bludgeoned to death inside his Scottsdale, Arizona apartment. The crime is never officially solved.
July 18 - Ali Abdullah Saleh is named President of North Yemen.
July 21 - Hugo Banzer is deposed as President of Bolivia in a military coup lead by several of his own officers.
August 22 - Daniel arap Moi is named President of Kenya following the death of Jomo Kenyatta.
September 17 - The Camp David Accords are signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, establishing peace between Israel and Egypt.
October 9 - Idi Amin invades Tanzania.
October 9 - P.W Botha is elected Prime Minister of South Africa.
November 18 - Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple cult commit mass suicide in their private settlement of Jonestown in Guyana by drinking poison-laced Flavor Aid. A total of 918 people die.
November 27 - The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is founded.
November 27 - San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk are both assassinated by Dan White.
December - Deng Xiaoping emerges as the Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China.
December 2 - NAMbLA is founded.
December 11 - The Lufthansa heist, masterminded by Jimmy Burke, is pulled off when Henry Hill and Tommy DeSimone, along with five other cohorts, steal $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry from JFK International Airport in New York City, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.
December 25 - Beginning of the Cambodian-Vietnamese War.

Births edit

Villain births edit

January 5 - Sabrina Harman
January 7 - Israel Keyes
January 21 - Diane Zamora
March 8 - Mohammed Bouyeri
March 22 - Benjamin Nathaniel Smith
May 9 - Marwan al-Shehhi
May 11 - Richard Spencer
July 18 - Crystal Mangum
July 27 - Lauren Debenedetta
August 12 - Pazuzu Algarad
October 11 - Jeremy Strohmeyer
October 15 - DeWayne Craddock
November 27 - Jelani Maraj
December 11 - Éric Borel
December 20 - Waleed al-Shehri
Unknown - Scott Beierle

Victim births edit

January 31 - Amy Ayers
February 17 - Jacob Wetterling
March 17 - Eva Mireles
March 26 - Deanna Cremin
April 2 - Nick Berg
May 18 - Kelly Anne Bates
June 6 - Judith Barsi
June 21 - Elizabeth Christine Pena
June 28 - Caroline Beranek
July 12 - Victor Daniel Barbosa (9/11 Victim)
July 7 - Heather Church
August 15 - Jennifer Ertmen
September 3 - Brian King
November 6 - Prince Nirajan of Nepal
November 21 - Jeff Hall
December 11 - Amy Mihaljevic
December 30 - Jun Lin
Unknown - Rie Fujii

Deaths edit

Villain deaths edit

February 9 - Herbert Kappler
April 10 - Hjalmar Mäe
July 1 - Kurt Student
September 11 - Robert Garrow
November 18 - Jim Jones
December 18 - Parnell Edwards

Victim deaths edit

May 9 - Aldo Moro
June 29 - Bob Crane
November 18 - Leo Ryan
November 27 - George Moscone & Harvey Milk