Timeline Monday 31 December 1979

Events on Monday 31 December 1979 10

• 1958 – 1979 Childhood in Handsworth Grew up in a working-class Jamaican community in Handsworth, Birmingham. Left school at 13 unable to read or write, later crediting the streets and reggae music as his real education.
• 1967 – 1979 Marriage, Family and Education Married Ernest Hegi in 1967 and had two sons. After their divorce in 1984, she would marry Gordon Gagliano in 1998. Earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in English from the University of New Hampshire in 1979.
• 1976 – 1979 Dame Edna Breaks Through Dame Edna became a star in the UK in the 1970s with stage shows Housewife, Superstar! and A Night with Dame Edna. Australian PM Gough Whitlam spontaneously made the character a 'Dame' on television.
• 1978 – 1979 Music Career Released his debut solo album Read My Lips (1978), followed by Fearless (1979), showcasing his rich baritone voice. He would release a third album, Simplicity, in 1981.
• 1978 – 1979 Stripped of Czechoslovak Citizenship Had his Czechoslovak citizenship revoked after the publication of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, which the regime considered an act of dissidence.
• 1979 1979: Jody Scheckter Ferrari South African Scheckter won the title with Ferrari, partnered by the young Gilles Villeneuve. It would be Ferrari's last Drivers' Championship for 21 years.
• 1979 Chicago Jazz Festival Founded Her annual Grant Park tribute evolved into the first official Chicago Jazz Festival in 1979, which became one of the largest free jazz festivals in the world.
• 1979 Hear the Wind Sing Published his debut novel Hear the Wind Sing, written in spare late-night sessions after closing Peter Cat. To find a fresh style, he drafted passages in English on his old typewriter — forcing short sentences and limited vocabulary — then translated them back into Japanese. The book won the Gunzou Prize for new writers.
• 1979 Rehab and Hiatus Entered rehabilitation for substance abuse, leading to a three-year hiatus for the band. 'In the late '70s, I entered rehab,' Beard later told CBS. The break allowed him to get clean and would ultimately extend his career by decades.
• 1979 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Published The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, which brought him international literary fame and led to his Czechoslovak citizenship being revoked.