On this day

January 21, 1979

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

Historical Context for January 21, 1979

In 1979, the world population was approximately 4,368,539,528 people[†]

Notable Births

1979Quinton Jacobs, Namibian footballer[†]

Quinton Norman Jacobs is a Namibian former footballer who played as a midfielder.

Melendi

1979Melendi, Spanish singer[†]

Ramón Melendi Espina, known mononymously as Melendi, is a Spanish singer-songwriter. His specialties are rock, flamenco, and rumba styles.

Brian O'Driscoll

1979Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby player[†]

Brian Gerard O'Driscoll is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster and for Ireland. He captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012, and captained the British & Irish Lions for their 2005 tour of New Zealand. He is regarded by critics as one of the greatest rugby players of all time.

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Headlines from January 21, 1979

Relatives of Victims Hunt Among Bodies

By Dena Kleiman Special to The New York Times

HOBOKEN, N.J., Jan. 20 — It was cold and grim along Clinton Street here today. All that was left of the building at No. 131 was a charred frame. A crowd thronged the street, watching firefighters pull bodies from the building's remains. Relatives at the scene were frantically seeking news of their families.

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UNTOLD STORY OF THE

By Sidney Zion AND URI DAN

The story begins in July 1977, when Prime Minister Menachem Begin received a visit in his office from the men who run Israeli intelligence. They came with a thick file on a startling plot: The Libyan dictator, Colonel Qaddafi, had organized an operation to assassinate the Egyptian President, Anwar el‐Sadat. Begin thumbed through the file. Without looking up, he said, ‘Why don't you give this to the Egyptians?’

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Army, Moslem Groups and Politicians Are the Power Centers

By R. W. Apple Jr

TEHERAN, Iran — The photographs of Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi with every American President since Franklin D. Rnoseve:t still lire the staircase of the United States Embassy in Teheran, but the Shah himself is in unpiroclaimed exile, carrying with him a packet of earth 'scooped from his palace garden.

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A Genius of Self‐Regard

By Peter Gay

TO many literate Americans, Hermann Hesse is little more than an exhibit of what went wrong with America's youth in the 1960's. He appears to them as a symptom, rather than the diagnostician, of a great malaise. As

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Cropper's raphic Legacy

By Helena. Harrison

Gropper, William: Sophie Gropper, widow of artist William Gropper, whose paintings will be on view at Adelphi Univ Alumni House Gallery, int on her husband; illus

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In the Footsteps

By Parton Keese

NEW CANAAN DEDICATION, some call it. Businessmen getting off commuter trains, rushing home and changing into short pants, pads, jerseys, gloves and hockey skates, then for an hour and a half chasing a puck around the frozen rink of the Winter Club, getting ready for the game.

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Wrestling Anew

By Unknown Author

ALBANYI DON'T think there ‘ are four people in the whole state government who can really understand the way school-aid-for mula bills work,” one of Governor Carey's top legal aides said'Iast week, freely admitting that he was not among this sifted comoanv. But if the techni- calities are mystifying, the details of school financing - specifically the property tax and the fight over the school‐aid formula that goes to the heart of that fractious battle - are clearly an emotional concern to residents and state legislators in the suburbs.

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Linemen Form Key Matchups

By Michael Katz Special to The New York Times

MIAMI, Jan. 20 — Enough is enough, Jon Kolb decided. The Pittsburgh Steeler's ranch is his castle, and just bow much can any man look at films of Harvey Martin?

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