May 22, 1980 — Pac-Man is first released
The highest-grossing and most well-known computer game of all time, Pac-Man was created by the Japanese company Namco. It first...
June 4, 2015
The Past
March 24, 1980 — Archbishop Oscar Romero is assassinated
Oscar Romero was a passionate advocate of social justice and human rights. As the Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador (the...
June 9, 2015
February 19, 1980 – Bon Scott dies
The legendary lead singer of AC/DC from 1973 to 1980, Ronald Belford ‘Bon’ Scott was one of Australia’s greatest ever...
June 14, 2015
January 18, 1980 — Paul McCartney is arrested for marijuana possession in Tokyo
It was a scandal briefly, and then completely forgotten. While passing through customs at Tokyo (on his way to tour...
June 19, 2015
November 5, 1979 — Russell Hoban finishes writing “Riddley Walker”
Russell Hoban was always somewhat peripatetic in his writing interests. While he tended to return to the same themes, he...
July 4, 2015
September 19, 1979 — The Star Hotel in Newcastle closes down
The Star Hotel in Newcastle wasn’t what you would have expected from a town like Newcastle in the late Seventies....
July 9, 2015
August 18, 1979 — Singer James Reyne is hit by a car
So imagine this: it’s the day before your band’s big debut. Your first single is doing well on the charts,...
July 14, 2015
August 1, 1979 — The final episode of “Good Times” screens
“Good Times” was a distinctly Seventies show in many ways, but none moreso than its focus on African-American characters. Along...
July 19, 2015
July 23, 1979 — Ayatollah Khomeini bans western music from Iran
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a decisive turn against Western influences, and a new, theocratic constitution that effectively made...
July 24, 2015
June 11, 1979 — John Wayne dies
Marion Robert Morrison, better known as John Wayne, was The Cowboy. In the course of his fifty year career, he...
July 29, 2015
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