On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Article on island, which has produced a dozen great shipping clans, numbering about 30 millionaire shipping families; notes largest merchant fleet in world, 45 million tons, is in hands of Greeks, and quarter of those Greeks are Oinousans; illus (L)
Article on Energy Dept's telephone hot line for complaints about possible violation of Federal price-control rules for gasoline; number of calls received has risen from 300 a day in early April to 500 a day last week (M)
NATO's concern over economic deterioration and political unrest in Turkey noted; Turkey is near areas of conflict and Soviet influence in Middle East (M)
Named British Home Sec and Deputy Prime Min (S)
FCC to make decision next week on proposals to allow radio stations in major markets to ignore many programming requirements; Media Access Project threatens to sue FCC after its lawyers refuse to disclose how commission members are reaching decisions; Repr Lionel Van Deerlin proposes to deregulate radio industry immediately and TV industry later (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of May 2, 1979, covering May 6, 1979.
The Doobie Brothers
Peaches & Herb
Bee Gees
Supertramp
Bad Company
1979Gerd Kanter, Estonian discus thrower[†]
Gerd Kanter is a retired Estonian discus thrower. He was the 2007 World Champion in the event and won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and bronze in London 2012. His personal best throw of 73.38 m is the Estonian record and the fourth best mark of all time.
1979Jon Montgomery, Canadian skeleton racer and television host[†]
Jonathan Riley "Jon" Montgomery is a Canadian skeleton racer and television host. He won the gold medal in the men's skeleton event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite hosting The Amazing Race Canada since 2013, he is best known in Canada for his spontaneous celebration after winning the gold medal in 2010, when he was caught on camera being handed a pitcher of beer by a fan while a crowd surrounding him cheered and sang O Canada. Writing for CBC in 2020, Montgomery stated "If the beer is all I’m ever remembered for, I consider myself the luckiest fella on Earth."
In 1979, the world population was approximately 4,368,539,528 people[†]