On this day
July 12, 1979
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Headlines from July 12, 1979
CORRECTION
An article in Business Day reported incorrectly yesterday that Trans World Airlines planned to end service from the United States to Cairo and Tel Aviv. The airline dropped nonstop flights effective June 22 but other service to those cities will continue, a spokesman said
Harvard Study Urges Conservation And Solar Use Over Synthetic Fuel
Harvard Business School study says US can reduce its oil imports much faster by Improved efficiency of economy--that is, by conservation and by accelerating transition to solar energy than by relying on programs to develop synthetic fuels; Dr Robert Stobaugh, co-editor of report, comments; other authors noted (M)
Redesign: A Taste For Drama
Article on interior design of fashion designer Ronaldus Shamask's 19th-century town house on Upper East Side, NYC; Shamask redesigned rooms and worked with architectural consultant William Hodgson on terrace renovation; illus (M)
When Children Are Houseguests For a Weekend
WE descend upon my brother‐in‐law's house once a year for a long weekend in the country. We fill his refrigerator with Hawaiian Punch and his good glass bowl with Doritos. The kids know they have to toe the line around Uncle Rick, but somehow they manage to spill something sticky, stuff the wrong things down the disposal system and forget to put TV Guide back where they found it. Uncle Rick survives the summer invasion, determined never to have children of his own.
Music on My Birthday
Billboard 200
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of July 11, 1979, covering July 12, 1979.
- 1
Bad Girls
Donna Summer
- Last week
- 1
- Peak
- 1
- Weeks
- 10
- 2
Breakfast In America
Supertramp
- Last week
- 2
- Peak
- 1
- Weeks
- 16
- 3
I Am
Earth| Wind & Fire
- Last week
- 4
- Peak
- 3
- Weeks
- 5
- 4
Cheap Trick At Budokan
Cheap Trick
- Last week
- 5
- Peak
- 4
- Weeks
- 21
- 5
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
- Last week
- 3
- Peak
- 3
- Weeks
- 15
Notable Births
1979Nikos Barlos, Greek basketball player[†]
Nikolaos "Nikos" Barlos is a Greek retired professional basketball player and coach. During his playing career, at a height of 2.03 m tall, he played at both the small forward and power forward positions.
Notable Deaths

1979Olive Morris, Jamaican-English civil rights activist (born 1952)[†]
Olive Elaine Morris was a Jamaican-born British-based community leader and activist in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. At the age of 17, she claimed she was assaulted by Metropolitan Police officers following an incident involving a Nigerian diplomat in Brixton, South London. She joined the British Black Panthers, becoming a Marxist–Leninist communist and a radical feminist. She squatted buildings on Railton Road in Brixton; one hosted Sabarr Books and later became the 121 Centre, another was used as offices by the Race Today collective. Morris became a key organiser in the Black Women's Movement in the United Kingdom, co-founding the Brixton Black Women's Group and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent in London.
1979Minnie Riperton, American singer-songwriter (born 1947)[†]
Minnie Julia Riperton was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for her 1974 single "Lovin' You", her five-octave vocal range, and her use of the whistle register.
Historical Events
1979The island nation of Kiribati becomes independent from the United Kingdom.[†]
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
Historical Context for July 12, 1979
In 1979, the world population was approximately 4,368,539,528 people[†]