Editing 1979

{{Yearnav}}

==Events==
*January 7 - The [[Khmer Rouge]] is removed from power in Cambodia by Vietnamese forces, ending the [[Cambodian Genocide]]. The [[Cambodian People's Party]] is subsequently installed as the ruling party and declares the formation of the '''People's Republic of Kampuchea'''.
*January 7 to February 11 - The [[Iranian Revolution]]: [[Ruhollah Khomeini]] overthrows [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], putting an end to 2,500 years of the Persian monarchy and turning Iran into a theocracy.
*January 17 - [[Anastasio Somoza Deybale]] is overthrown as President of Nicaragua by the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front]], who subsequently establish the [[Junta of National Reconstruction]] to govern the country.
*January 29 - [[Brenda Spencer]] kills two people and injures nine in a sniper shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California.
*February 8 - [[Denis Sassou Nguesso]] is elected President of the People's Republic of the Congo.
*March - [[Gene Leroy Hart]] is acquitted for the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders.
*March 30 - Airey Neave, British Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is assassinated via car bomb in London by the [[Irish National Liberation Army]].
*April 11 - [[Idi Amin]] is overthrown as President of Uganda after Tanzanian military forces capture the capital of Kampala.
*April 22 - The [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]] is formed.
*April 26 - [[Ahmad Abu Bakar of Pahang]] is elected Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
*July 16 - [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]] resigns as President of Iraq. Vice President [[Saddam Hussein]] subsequently assumes the presidency..
*July 22 - Saddam Hussein carries out a public purge of the [[Ba'ath Party]], allegedly to expose traitors within the party.  68 Party members are executed for committing treason.
*July 24 - [[Ted Bundy]] is found guilty for three murders committed in Florida and is sentenced to death.
*July 29 - Train station and airport bombings in Madrid kill 7 and injure hundreds. The [[ETA]] claims responsibility.
*August 10 - The [[Supreme Council of Government]] junta of Ecuador is dissolved.
*August 27 - Two [[Irish Republican Army]] bombings take place. One targets a British Army convoy in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland and another targets Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl of Mountbatten and his family off the coast of Mullaghmore, Ireland. A total of 22 people are killed, including 18 British soldiers and 4 civilians.
*September 20 - [[Jean-Bédel Bokassa]] is deposed as Emperor of Central Africa by French paratroopers. The Central African Republic is restored.
*September 21 - [[José Eduardo dos Santos]] is elected President of Angola.
*September 29 - [[Francisco Macías Nguema]], President of Equatorial Guinea, is overthrown and executed by his nephew [[Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo]], who declares himself president.
*October 8 - [[Nur Muhammad Taraki]] is assassinated on [[Hafizullah Amin]]'s orders.
*October 15 - The [[Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador]] comes to power in El Salvador. Beginning of the Salvadoran Civil War.
*October 26 - [[Park Chung-hee]], President of South Korea, is assassinated at the Blue House in Seoul by [[Kim Jae-gyu]], head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.
*November 3 - A [[Greensboro Massacre|shootout]] involving members of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], the [[American Nazi Party]], and the U.S. Communist Workers' Party breaks out in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four members of the CWP and one other individual were killed, and eleven other demonstrators and a Klansman were wounded.
*November 4 - Beginning of the [[Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line|Iran hostage crisis]].
*November 15 - [[Ted Kaczynski|The Unabomber]] attacks American Airlines Flight 444 after planting a bomb in the plane's cargo hold. Nobody is killed but 12 people are injured.
*November 20 - The Grand Mosque of Mecca is seized by a group of [[militant Islam]]ists lead by [[Juhayman al-Otaybi]] in protest of the rule of the [[House of Saud]]. The militants hold the mosque against the Saudi Royal Army for 14 days before finally standing down after several of their leaders are killed.
*December 20 - The [[National Renewal Alliance]] is dissolved.
*December 21 - [[Robert Mugabe]] and [[Ian Smith]] sign the Lancaster House Agreement, ending the Rhodesian Bush War. Zimbabwe is formally granted independence from the United Kingdom.
*December 24 - The Soviet-Afghan War begins with the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
*December 27 - [[Hafizullah Amin]] is assassinated by the [[KGB]].
*Unknown - [[Kurdish Hezbollah]] is founded by [[Hüseyin Velioğlu]].

==Births==
===Villain births===
*January 1 - [[Saleh Ali al-Sammad]]
*January 26 - [[Natasha Cornett]]
*February 13 - [[Anders Behring Breivik]]
*April 5 - [[Nasim Najafi Aghdam]]
*May 9 - [[Aaron Alexis]]
*May 22 - [[Abdul Malik al-Houthi]]
*May 28 - [[Abdulaziz al-Omari]]
*June 4 - [[Christopher Dorner]]
*June 20 - [[Scott Freeman]]
*July 22 - [[Eduardo Sencion]]
*August 16 - [[Brandy Stutzman]]
*September 11 - [[Nathan Gale]]
*November 21 - [[Saeed al-Ghamdi]]
*December - [[Sirajuddin Haqqani]]
*December 10 - [[Steve Stephens]]
*December 21 - [[Sharon Carr]] & [[Jarrod Ramos]]
*Unknown - [[Frank Gilliard Allison]]

===Victim births===
*February 27 - Tegan Davis
*May 6 - Junny Rios-Martinez, Jr.
*June 6 - Shanda Sharer
*June 23 - Rachael Runyan
*August 30 - Christina Benjamin
*November 1 - Charlie Keever
*November 8 - Jennifer Daugherty

==Deaths==
===Villain deaths===
*January 17 - [[Tommy DeSimone]] ''(disappeared; presumed deceased)''
*January 22 - [[Ali Hassan Salameh]]
*February 7 - [[Josef Mengele]]
*June 4 - [[Gene Leroy Hart]]
*June 7 - [[Asa Carter]]
*July - [[James Camb]]
*July 12 - [[Carmine Galante]]
*August 11 - [[Antonina Makarova]]
*August 26 - [[Alvin Karpis]]
*September 10 - [[Agostinho Neto]]
*September 29 - [[Francisco Macías Nguema]]
*October 8 - [[Nur Muhammad Taraki]]
*October 26 - [[Park Chung-hee]]
*December 27 - [[Hafizullah Amin]]

===Victim deaths===
*March 30 - Airey Neave 
*September 1 - Cary Ann Medlin
*July 29 - Dorothea Fertig
*August 27- Earl Louis Mountbatten, Lady Doreen Brabourne, Nicholas and Paul Brabourne