On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of October 4, 1978, covering October 7, 1978.
Boston
Soundtrack
Foreigner
The Who
The Rolling Stones
1978Alison Balsom, English trumpet player and educator[†]
Alison Louise Balsom, Lady Mendes, is an English trumpet soloist, arranger, producer, and music educator. Balsom was awarded Artist of the Year at the 2013 Gramophone Awards and has won three Classic BRIT Awards and three German Echo Awards, and was a soloist at the BBC Last Night of the Proms in 2009. She was the artistic director of the 2019 Cheltenham Music Festival.
1978Alesha Dixon, English singer-songwriter and dancer[†]
Alesha Anjanette Dixon is an English singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She rose to prominence in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B / UK Garage group Mis-Teeq, who had seven UK top 10 hits, two top 10 double platinum albums, and sold over 12 million records worldwide. After Mis-Teeq disbanded in 2005, Dixon signed with Polydor Records to release her debut solo album, Fired Up (2006); due to insufficient commercial reception from its lead singles, "Lipstick" and "Knockdown", she was dropped from Polydor.
1978Zaheer Khan, Indian cricketer[†]
Zaheer Khan is an Indian former professional cricketer who played all formats of the game for the Indian national team from 2000 till 2014. A left-arm fast-medium bowler known for his ability to "move the ball both ways off the wicket and swing the old ball at some pace", he was known for reverse swing with the old ball. Considered one of the best fast bowlers Indian cricket has ever produced, he was the second-most successful Indian pace bowler in Test cricket, behind Kapil Dev.
1978Omar Benson Miller, American actor[†]
Omar Benson Miller is an American actor. He is known for his work as Walter Simmons on CSI: Miami (2009–2012), as Charles Greane on Ballers (2015–2019), as the voice of Raphael on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018–2020) and its 2022 film, and on the CBS comedy series The Unicorn (2019–2021).
1978Aeroflot Flight 1080 crashes after takeoff from Koltsovo International Airport, killing 38.[†]
Aeroflot Flight 1080 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Sverdlovsk, Russia, to Dzhambul, Kazakhstan, that crashed at night shortly after takeoff on 7 October 1978. All 38 passengers and crew were killed in the crash which occurred when one of the engines failed due to icing during initial climb out. At the time, the crash was the second worst in the history of the Yakovlev Yak-40, which had entered operational service with Aeroflot just ten years prior.
In 1978, the world population was approximately 4,292,097,502 people[†]