Timeline July 1979

Events in July 1979 12

• 1894 – 1979 Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979) Died 10 July 1979, aged 84 Arthur Fiedler, longtime conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, died in Brookline, Massachusetts. He led the orchestra for half a century, popularizing classical and light orchestral music for mass American audiences through recordings and outdoor concerts. He died on 10 July 1979.
• 1898 – 1979 Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) Died 29 July 1979, aged 81 German-American philosopher Herbert Marcuse, a leading theorist of the Frankfurt School whose writing influenced the New Left and 1960s student movements, died in Starnberg, West Germany. His books One-Dimensional Man and Eros and Civilization shaped radical political thought in Europe and the United States. He died on 29 July 1979.
• 1947 – 1979 Minnie Riperton (1947-1979) Died 12 July 1979, aged 31 American singer Minnie Riperton, known for her five-octave vocal range and the 1975 hit "Lovin' You," died of breast cancer in Los Angeles. She had publicly campaigned for cancer awareness after her diagnosis. She died on 12 July 1979.
• 1979 Intel 8088 — chosen for the IBM PC Intel introduces the 8088 — a cost-reduced 8086 with an 8-bit external data bus — in July 1979. IBM chooses the 8088 for the IBM PC in 1981, primarily because Intel can deliver it faster than Motorola's competing 68000. The decision to use the 8088 for the IBM PC, and IBM's open architecture, creates the x86 PC standard that Intel will dominate for decades. Had IBM chosen Motorola's 68000 — used in the Apple Macintosh — computing history would be fundamentally different.
• 1979 The Kinks release Low Budget Arena rock years Their biggest US album, part of a late-70s American revival.
• 1979 Wimbledon 1979 Men: Björn Borg · Women: Martina Navratilova
• 1979 The Walkman — music goes personal Masaru Ibuka, frustrated that the bulky tape recorder he carries on long plane journeys is too heavy, asks Sony engineers to make a tape player small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. The result — the TPS-L2, launched on 1 July 1979 — changes how humans relate to music. The Walkman is the first device to allow private listening while moving through public space. Sony's marketers initially doubt it will sell without a recording function; Morita insists. First-month sales of 30,000 units (planned: 5,000) prove him right.
• 1979 Walkman launched Sony changes music forever Sony introduced the Walkman in July 1979, allowing people to listen to music privately on the go for the first time, forever changing how we consume music.
• 1979 – present Amélie Mauresmo Momo Two-time major winner and one of the most successful French players of the modern era.
• 1979 Skylab falls to Earth NASA's first space station reenters over Australia The uncontrolled reentry of the US space station Skylab scattered debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on 11 July 1979. NASA had launched Skylab in 1973, but the station's orbit decayed faster than expected. No one was injured, and the town of Esperance issued NASA a symbolic littering fine.
• 1979 Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq Consolidation of power through purge Saddam Hussein forced the resignation of President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and assumed the presidency of Iraq on 16 July 1979. Days later he ordered the execution of dozens of senior Ba'ath Party members accused of disloyalty, cementing his personal control. He would rule Iraq for the next 24 years.
• 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution overthrows Somoza Sandinistas topple the Somoza dictatorship The Sandinista National Liberation Front entered Managua on 19 July 1979 after President Anastasio Somoza Debayle fled the country. The victory ended over four decades of Somoza family rule and installed a Sandinista-led government. It set off a decade of civil conflict as US-backed Contra rebels fought the new regime.