1978
Deng launches Chinese reform
At a party plenum in Beijing, Deng Xiaoping and his allies won approval for economic reforms that would pull rural China out of collectivization and open the country to foreign investment. Peasants were allowed to sell surpluses. Within a generation eight hundred million Chinese would be lifted out of poverty.
First test-tube baby born
At Oldham General Hospital in England, Louise Brown was delivered by Caesarean, the first child conceived outside a human body. Her parents had tried nine years to have a baby. Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards had spent a decade perfecting in vitro fertilization. A new category of human origin had been invented.
Camp David Accords
After thirteen days sequestered at the American presidential retreat, Jimmy Carter persuaded Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin to sign a framework for peace. Within six months Egypt and Israel had formally ended thirty years of war. Sadat paid for it with his life three years later, shot by Islamists at a parade.
Vietnamese boat people flee
As the postwar Communist regime tightened its grip and persecuted ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese began fleeing by sea in rickety boats. Pirates attacked them, typhoons sank them, and neighboring countries often turned them away. Perhaps two hundred thousand drowned. The rest were resettled in a worldwide relief effort that redrew diasporas.
Jonestown mass suicide
Nine hundred and nine members of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple drank cyanide-laced Flavor Aid in a Guyanese jungle compound. A third were children. A US congressman investigating the cult had been shot earlier that day on the airstrip. The phrase drink the Kool-Aid entered the language as shorthand for the abandonment of judgment.
Harvey Milk assassinated
In San Francisco's City Hall, former supervisor Dan White shot Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay elected official. Milk had been an organizer, a camera shop owner, and a symbol. His murder made him a martyr to the gay rights movement. Candlelight vigils filled the streets that night.
John Paul II becomes pope
After only thirty-three days of his predecessor's brief and mysterious reign, the College of Cardinals elected the fifty-eight-year-old archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, the first non-Italian pope in four hundred and fifty-five years. From Poland under communism, he would bring a sharp political edge to the papacy and help shake Eastern European regimes to their foundations.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1978?
Saeculum lists 8 curated events from 1978. The most significant is Deng launches Chinese reform: At a party plenum in Beijing, Deng Xiaoping and his allies won approval for economic reforms that would pull rural China out of collectivization and open…
What era was 1978 part of?
1978 falls within the Modern Era (1901-2000). World wars, cold war, and the splitting of the atom.
Which regions saw notable events in 1978?
The curated events from 1978 span East Asia, Europe, Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America and North America.