On this day

May 21, 1978

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from May 21, 1978

2 RUSSIANS ARRESTED BY F.B.I FOR SPYING

By David Binder; Special to The New York Times

FBI Dir Webster announces that 3 Soviet citizens caught picking up classified documents have been arrested on espionage charges; 3, seized in Woodbridge, NJ, are Rudolf P Chernyayev and Valdik A Enger, employees at UN Secretariat, and Vladimir P Zinyakin, who is released after being identified as attache to Soviet Mission to UN with diplomatic immunity; FBI confirms that US Navy officer was informant who supplied Russians with information on Navy's underwater warfare projects after Navy sifted materials to screen out highly sensitive material; 3 reptdly were observed picking up material on at least 7 occasions beginning Oct 22 '77; case is said to be unrelated to recent defection to US of Arkady N Shevchenko, UN Secretariat's Under Sec Gen and superior of Enger; Chernyayev and Enger illus (M)

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Newfoundland: A ‘World of Comfortable Englishness’

By Roy Bongartz

After an all‐night mystery voyage on a luxurious Swedish‐built ocean liner through a wall of fog one arrives at a cluster of misty lights glowing feebly in the soft, closed‐in morning grayness of the shore of Newfoundland, at Port aux Basques. The fog lifts briefly to reveal a few modest frame houses perched here and there in the stony tundra.

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Plan in the Works To Protect Coastline

By Joanne A. Fishman

IN compliance with a Federal mandate to devise plans to protect and coordinate growth along its 32,000 miles of coastline, the state will soon unveil its program to create five coastal‐management zones, one of which will cover Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

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Ballet Theater Steps Lively

By John Gruen

The scene was decidedly domestic: a smiling mother holding her three‐month‐old baby boy in her lap, feeding him spoonfuls of baby food, while in the nearby kitchen the child's father warmed a bottle in a pan of water on the stove. Soft words spoken in Russian crossed the mother's lips as she urged the infant to eat. And when the bottle was brought to complete the meal, an aura of contentment fell on the family group.

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Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of May 17, 1978, covering May 21, 1978.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Saturday Night Fever by Soundtrack

    Saturday Night Fever

    Soundtrack

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    39
  2. 2
    Album cover for London Town by Wings

    London Town

    Wings

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    2
    Weeks
    6
  3. 3
    Album cover for Slowhand by Eric Clapton

    Slowhand

    Eric Clapton

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    2
    Weeks
    26
  4. 4
    Album cover for Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione

    Feels So Good

    Chuck Mangione

    Last week
    7
    Peak
    4
    Weeks
    30
  5. 5
    Album cover for Earth by Jefferson Starship

    Earth

    Jefferson Starship

    Last week
    5
    Peak
    5
    Weeks
    10

Notable Births

1978Max B, American rapper and songwriter[†]

Charley Wingate, better known by his stage name Max B, is an American rapper and singer. He is best known for his solo Public Domain and Million Dollar Baby series of mixtapes, and introducing the term "wavy" as a slang in popular lexicon.

Briana Banks

1978Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model[†]

Briana Banks is a German pornographic actress and model. She was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for June 2001. She is a member of the AVN Hall of Fame and XRCO Hall of Fame.

Jamaal Magloire

1978Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player and coach[†]

Jamaal Dane Magloire is a Canadian former professional basketball player who currently serves as basketball development consultant and community ambassador for the Toronto Raptors. He played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers, New Jersey Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, and Toronto Raptors. The 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m), 265 lb center was selected out of the University of Kentucky by the Charlotte Hornets, with the 19th overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft, after withdrawing his name from the previous draft. He was voted into the NBA All-Star Game in 2004, becoming the second Canadian All-Star in NBA history.

Historical Context for May 21, 1978

In 1978, the world population was approximately 4,292,097,502 people[†]