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April 10, 1979

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

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Headlines from April 10, 1979

Clues to Fetus Found in Mother's Blood

By Lawrence K. Altman

Article on discovery by Stanford University researchers that cells from fetus appear in mother's blood as early as 12th week of pregnancy; finding lends hope to possibility of developing a simple blood test to detect birth defects as partial alternative to amniocentesis; blood test would make Down's Syndrome screening practical for women under 35; Dr Leonard A Herzberg, who headed research team, comments; discovery appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (M)

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Tax‐Free Housing Bonds Boom

By Robert Lindsey Special to The New York Times

Article on growth of tax-free housing bonds issued by municipalities; some bond experts predict that about $5 billion worth of these bonds will be issued in '78 as more local govts discover they have such money-raising authority and act to help home buyers cope with soaring housing costs and conventional mortgage rates that now are approaching 11%; graph shows growth of mortgage revenue bonds from July '78 to Apr '79 (L)

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Pope, in Letter to Priests, Reaffirms Celibacy Rule as Holy Commitment

By Paul Hofmann Special to The New York Times

Pope John Paul II, in lr to all RC priests, urges that they keep faith with their commitment to celibacy and not ask to be released from their vows at moment of crisis; ecclesiastical sources say that virtually none of hundreds of requests for reduction to status of layman have been granted in nearly 6 mos since Pope was elected; unofficial but reliable data show avg of 3,000 priests annually have asked to be allowed to revert to laymen's status in recent yrs; illus of RC Ch official Maximino Romero de Lema, Rome (M)

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Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of April 4, 1979, covering April 10, 1979.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Minute By Minute by The Doobie Brothers

    Minute By Minute

    The Doobie Brothers

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    16
  2. 2
    Album cover for Spirits Having Flown by Bee Gees

    Spirits Having Flown

    Bee Gees

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    8
  3. 3
    Album cover for Dire Straits by Dire Straits

    Dire Straits

    Dire Straits

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    14
  4. 4
    Album cover for Love Tracks by Gloria Gaynor

    Love Tracks

    Gloria Gaynor

    Last week
    4
    Peak
    4
    Weeks
    14
  5. 5
    Album cover for Blondes Have More Fun by Rod Stewart

    Blondes Have More Fun

    Rod Stewart

    Last week
    5
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    16

Notable Births

Iván Alonso

1979Iván Alonso, Uruguayan footballer[†]

Iván Daniel Alonso Vallejo is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the sporting director of Liga MX club Cruz Azul.

1979Kenyon Coleman, American football player[†]

Kenyon Octavia Coleman is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, and New Orleans Saints. He played college football for UCLA Bruins.

Rachel Corrie

1979Rachel Corrie, American author and activist (died 2003)[†]

Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American nonviolence activist and diarist. She was a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was active throughout the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. In 2003, she was in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military was demolishing Palestinian houses at the height of the Second Intifada. While protesting the demolitions as they were being carried out, she was killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer that crushed her.

1979Tsuyoshi Domoto, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor[†]

Tsuyoshi Domoto is a Japanese idol, singer, songwriter, actor, and television personality. Along with Koichi Domoto, he is a member of Domoto, which is a Japanese duo under the management of Starto Entertainment and the record holder of Guinness World Records for having the record of the most consecutive number-one singles since their debut single.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

1979Sophie Ellis-Bextor, English singer-songwriter[†]

Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor is an English singer and songwriter. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded, Ellis-Bextor went solo and achieved success beginning in the early 2000s. Her music is mainstream pop and dance with influences of disco, nu-disco, and 1980s electronic music.

Pavlos Fyssas

1979Pavlos Fyssas, Greek rapper (died 2013)[†]

Pavlos Fyssas, also known by his stage name Killah P, was a Greek rapper, notable for his participation and performance in musical projects, as well as for his anti-fascist activism. He toured well-known venues in Athens and throughout Greece. He was murdered on 18 September 2013 by a member of the neo-fascist group Golden Dawn.

Peter Kopteff

1979Peter Kopteff, Finnish footballer[†]

Peter Kopteff is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a left winger.

Notable Deaths

Nino Rota

1979Nino Rota, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1911)[†]

Giovanni "Nino" Rota Rinaldi was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare screen adaptations, and for the first two installments of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, earning the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974).

Historical Events

1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak

1979Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.[†]

On Tuesday, April 10, 1979, a widespread and destructive outbreak of severe weather impacted areas near the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. Thunderstorms developed over West and North Central Texas during the day within highly unstable atmospheric conditions following the northward surge of warm and moist air into the region, producing large hail, strong winds, and multiple tornadoes. At least 22 tornadoes were documented on April 10, of which two were assigned an F4 rating on the Fujita scale; four of the tornadoes caused fatalities.

Historical Context for April 10, 1979

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