On this day

August 12, 1979

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

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Headlines from August 12, 1979

Big Labor, Big Questions

By William Serrin

CHICAGO - The talk of the A.F.L.‐C.I.O.'s Executive Council meeting last week was not, in that traditional labor phrase, wages, hours and working conditions. Capitalism came in for a few catdalls, as usual, but that seemed secondary. The subject was this: Will George Meany, the federation's aging president, seek another term? If not, who will succeed him? And, in other politics, will labor support President Carter, as it has, rather half‐heartedly so far, or will follow the hearts of some labor leaders and push for Senator Edward M. Kennedy next year?

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Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of August 8, 1979, covering August 12, 1979.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Get The Knack by The Knack

    Get The Knack

    The Knack

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    7
  2. 2
    Album cover for Bad Girls by Donna Summer

    Bad Girls

    Donna Summer

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    14
  3. 3
    Album cover for Breakfast In America by Supertramp

    Breakfast In America

    Supertramp

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    20
  4. 4
    Album cover for Candy-O by The Cars

    Candy-O

    The Cars

    Last week
    5
    Peak
    4
    Weeks
    7
  5. 5
    Album cover for Teddy by Teddy Pendergrass

    Teddy

    Teddy Pendergrass

    Last week
    6
    Peak
    5
    Weeks
    8

Notable Births

D. J. Houlton

1979D. J. Houlton, American baseball player[†]

Dennis Sean "D. J." Houlton Jr. is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Yomiuri Giants and in the KBO League for the Kia Tigers.

Ian Hutchinson (motorcyclist)

1979Ian Hutchinson, English motorcycle racer[†]

Ian Hutchinson is an English professional motorcycle road racer specialising in events held on closed public roads, such as the Isle of Man TT, the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix.

Cindy Klassen

1979Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater[†]

Cindy Klassen, is a Canadian retired long track speed skater. She is a six-time medallist having achieved one gold, two silver, three bronze at the Winter Olympics.

Austra Skujytė

1979Austra Skujytė, Lithuanian pentathlete[†]

Austra Skujytė is a retired Lithuanian athlete, competing in both the heptathlon and the decathlon. On 15 April 2005 in Columbia, Missouri, she broke the women's decathlon world record, with a score of 8358. She is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the heptathlon. The latter medal was allocated retrospectively following the disqualification in 2016 of original medalist Tatyana Chernova for historic doping offences.

Notable Deaths

Ernst Chain

1979Ernst Boris Chain, German-Irish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)[†]

Sir Ernst Boris Chain was a German-born British biochemist and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin.

Historical Context for August 12, 1979

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