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 18, 1978, covering October 21, 1978.
Soundtrack
The Who
Boston
Linda Ronstadt
Foreigner
1978Will Estes, American actor[†]
William Estes Nipper, known professionally as Will Estes, is an American actor. He is known for his role from 2010 to 2024 on CBS police drama Blue Bloods as Jameson "Jamie" Reagan, a New York City Police Department officer and the youngest son of the police commissioner, played by Tom Selleck. Prior to that role, he starred as J.J. Pryor, on the NBC drama American Dreams.
1978Joey Harrington, American football player and sportscaster[†]
John Joseph Harrington is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for the Oregon Ducks, where he earned Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year as a senior, and was selected third overall by the Detroit Lions in the 2002 NFL draft. Unable to duplicate his collegiate success, he left the Lions after four seasons. He spent his final three seasons as the primary starter for the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons and a backup with the New Orleans Saints.
1978Henrik Klingenberg, Finnish singer and keyboard player[†]
Henrik "Henkka" Klingenberg is a Finnish keyboardist, keytarist and singer. He joined the Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica in late 2002 and currently resides in Kemi, Finland, when not on tour.
1978Michael McMillian, American actor[†]
Michael McMillian is an American actor and writer, known for his roles as Henry Gibson on What I Like About You, Steve Newlin on the HBO series True Blood, Owen on Hot in Cleveland and Tim in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. McMillian is also the creator and writer of a comic book, Lucid.
1978Anastas Mikoyan, Armenian-Russian civil servant and politician (born 1895)[†]
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was a Soviet statesman, diplomat, and Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the head of state of the Soviet Union. As a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1923 to 1976, he was the only Soviet politician who remained in power from Lenin, through the eras of Stalin and Khrushchev, to his retirement under Brezhnev. His longevity inspired the popular Russian saying "from Ilyich [Lenin] to Ilyich [Brezhnev] without heart attack and paralysis".
1978Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.[†]
Frederick Valentich was an Australian pilot who disappeared while on a 125-nautical-mile (232 km) training flight in a Cessna 182L light aircraft, registered VH-DSJ, over Bass Strait. On the evening of Saturday 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old Valentich informed Melbourne air traffic control that he was being accompanied by an aircraft about 1,000 feet (300 m) above him and that his engine had begun running roughly, before finally reporting: "It's not an aircraft."
In 1978, the world population was approximately 4,292,097,502 people[†]