On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 1978, the world population was approximately 4,292,097,502 people[†]
1978Chris Capuano, American baseball player[†]
Christopher Frank Capuano is an American former professional baseball pitcher whose professional playing career spanned from 2000 through 2016. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees, and was an All Star in 2006.
1978Jakub Dvorský, Czech game designer[†]
Jakub Dvorský is a designer and video game creator from Brno, Czech Republic. In 2003, he founded Amanita Design, a small independent game developing studio based in the Czech Republic.
1978Thomas Jones, American football player[†]
Thomas Quinn Jones is an American actor and former professional football player. He played as a running back for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Jones played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers, earning consensus All-American honors in 1999. He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals seventh overall in the 2000 NFL draft, and played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in addition to the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, and Kansas City Chiefs. He retired among the top 25 leading rushers in NFL history, and a member of the 10,000 rushing yards club. In September 2019 he was nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
1978In Iran, the Cinema Rex fire causes more than 400 deaths.[†]
The Cinema Rex fire happened on 19 August 1978 when the Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran was set ablaze, killing between 377 and 470 people. The event started when four individuals, who were militants motivated by Islamic extremism, doused the building with airplane fuel before setting it alight. The attack was responsible in part for triggering the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which saw the overthrow of the ruling dynasty under the Iranian monarch and a related outbreak of mass violence.