December 1978

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The following events occurred in December 1978:

• The longest road tunnel in the world up to that time, the 14-kilometre (8.7 mi) Arlberg Strassentunnel, opened to traffic in Austria between St Anton am Arlberg in Tyrol and Langen am Arlberg in Voralberg, almost four and a half years after opening on July 5, 1974.^[1]
• ATS-3, the third Applications Technology Satellite geostationary weather satellite, was deactivated more than 11 years after its launch on November 5, 1967. the ATS-3 had transmitted the first full color images of the Earth and had been expected to operate for only three years.^[2]
• The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) was formed in the United States by U.S. President Jimmy Carter with the issuance of Executive Order 12065. The ISOO became part of the National Archives with guidance from the U.S. National Security Council.^[3]
• Born:
  • Jen Psaki, U.S. government official, White House Press Secretary for U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021 and 2022; in New York City^[4]
  • Samvel Shahramanyan, Armenian politician who served for the last four months of 2023 as the fifth and last President of the short-lived Republic of Artsakh during its breakaway from the Republic of Azerbaijan; in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union^[5]
• Died: Botha Sigcau, 65, African paramount chief of a sub-tribe of the Mpondo people in South Africa and the first President of the homeland of Transkei on October 29, 1976, died two years after taking office. He was succeeded briefly by Zwelibanzi Maneli Mabandla who served as acting president until Prime Minister Kaiser Matanzima became President on February 20, 1979.^[6]

• The Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, which would overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot with aid from Vietnam in 1979, was formed by Heng Samrin and 70 other dissidents in Kratié province in Democratic Kampuchea, near the border with Vietnam.^[7]
• Born:
  • Nelly Furtado, Canadian singer known for the song "Promiscuous" and the album Loose; in Victoria, British Columbia
  • Nine Nine (stage name for Tin Zaw Latt), Myanmar Burmese film actor; in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar)

• Died: William Grant Still, 83, American composer

• Pioneer 12, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, launched from the U.S. on May 20, 1978, entered an ellipical orbit around Venus.^[8] It would transmit data for almost 14 years until decaying from orbit and crashing on Venus on October 22, 1992.^[9]
• Dianne Feinstein succeeded the murdered George Moscone, to become the first woman mayor of San Francisco. She would remain in office until January 8, 1988.
• Born: Lars Bystøl, Norwegian ski jumper, 2006 Olympic gold medalist; in Voss^[10]

• Born:
  • Olli Jokinen, Finnish professional ice hockey player for 10 different NHL teams and four European teams between 1995 and 2015; in Kuopio
  • Neil Druckmann, Israeli-born American video game designer; in Tel Aviv^[11]

• The Spanish Constitution officially restored the country's democratic government.^[12]

• Born: Shiri Appleby, American TV actress and the star of Roswell; in Los Angeles
• Died: Alexander Wetmore, 92, American ornithologist and avian palaeontologist

• Born: Ian Somerhalder, American TV actor, known for The Vampire Diaries and Lost; in Covington, Louisiana
• Died: Golda Meir, 80, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and the first woman to hold that post.^[13]

• All five space components of the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe from Pioneer 13, launched by the U.S. on August 8, landed at different areas of the planet Venus, with four probes entering the Venusian atmosphere between 18:45 and 18:56 UTC and descending to their respective targets on the planet.^[14] The largest of the probes was the first to make impact, transmitting data until it crashed at 19:39:53 UTC. The North Probe crashed less than three minutes later, at 19:42:40. The Day Probe was the only one to survive impact, landing at 19:47:59 and then transmitting data for one hour and almost eight minutes. The "Bus" that had carried the probes entered the atmosphere at 20:21 and it signal was lost on its way down.
• Born: Gastón Gaudio, Argentine professional tennis player, winner fo the 2004 French Open; in Temperley^[15]

• Died:
  • Ed Wood, 54, American filmmaker, actor and author profiled in the film of the same name, known for the films Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda?
  • Emilio Portes Gil, 88, President of Mexico from 1928 to 1930^[16]

• In Tehran, capital of Iran, on the holy day of Ashura (Muharram 10, 1399 A.H.), a reported six million protesters, and perhaps as many as nine million, demonstrated against the Shah of Iran as part of the "Muharram protests" that had started on December 2. On historian would comment later that "even discounting for exaggeration, these figures may represent the largest protest event in history."^[17]
• Robert Piest, a 15-year-old employee at a pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois, became the last victim of serial murderer John Wayne Gacy. Piest was lured to Gacy's home on the promise of part-time employment, and then sodomized and murdered. Before disappearing, Piest and told his mother that "some contractor wants to talk to me about a job," and the pharmacy's owner identified Gacy as the contractor who had talked to Piest. The two statements led to Gacy's arrest a few days later.
• Six men robbed more than five million dollars from a Lufthansa airlines cargo facility at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport and got away with $5,000,000 in cash for the largest cash robbery up to that time in U.S. history,^[18] and $875,000 in jewelry, equivalent to more than $28 million as of 2024. The money and jewelry had not been recovered 45 years after the crime.
• Died: Vincent du Vigneaud, 77, American biochemist

• All 28 crewmembers on the West German freighter MS München were killed when the ship was struck by a rogue wave in the North Atlantic Ocean north of the Azores Islands while sailing from Bremerhaven to the U.S. port at Savannah, Georgia.^[19] Although the ship's emergency buoy and five empty lifeboats were found, the ship and its crew remained undiscovered more than 45 years later.
• Voting was held in South Korea for 154 of the 231 members of the Daehanminguk Gukhoe, the nation's parliament. Although the opposition New Democratic Party (Sinmindang) of Yi Cheol-seung won more votes than President Park Chung-hee's ruling Democratic Republican Party (Minjugonghwadang), the NDP received 61 seats compared to the DRP's 68. President Park appointed the 77 non-elected members, subject to the December 21 approval of the National Conference for Unification. Of the 2,581 conference delegates, 2,539 approved the slateof appointees.^[20]
• In Zambia, where President Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party (UNIP) was the only legal political party, voters chose from multiple UNIP candidates in 119 of the 125 districts of the National Assembly, with 732 candidates (or an average of more than three for each district) were approved.^[21] Kaunda, the sole candidate for President, was approved for another 5-year term by almost 81% of the voters in while almost 245,000 people voted "no" to his re-election.^[22]
• Born: Chen Dong, Chinese taikonaut who orbited the Earth in the Shenzhou 11 and Shenzhou 14 space missions; in Luoyang, Henan province^[23]
• Died: Fay Compton (stage name for Virginia Compton-Mackenzie), 84, English stage and film actress^[24]

• At a closed-door session of the Central Working Conference of the Chinese Communist Party, Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping, who had replaced Hua Guofeng as the paramount leader of China, signaled a major change in China's approach to domestic policy, with the speech Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Unite as One in Looking to the Future (解放思想，实事求是，团结一致向前看). In advance of the December 18 session of the Central Committee, Deng told the delegates that "In order to secure a people's deocracy, the legal system must be strengthened. Democracy must be systematized to make it so that the laws do not change due to changes in leadership or due to changes in the opinions or focus of leaders... the laws are incomplete; many laws have not been made... we must focus our efforts on creating criminal law, civil law, procedural law and all necessary types of law.^[25]
• The first Susan B. Anthony dollar in the U.S. was produced, being struck by the Philadelphia Mint.^[26] The coins would not be released until July 2.^[27]

• Died: Salvador de Madariaga, 92, Spanish diplomat, writer, historian, and pacifist

• U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced in a speech on national television that the United States and the People's Republic of China had reached an agreement the day before to establish full diplomatic relations effective January 1. At the same time, the U.S. would sever its relationship with the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan.^[28] The "Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, January 1, 1979" was announced simultaneously by the government of the U.S. and China. Carter told the television audience, "As a nation of gifted people who comprise one-fourth of the population of the Earth, China plays an important role in world affairs— a role that can only grow more important in the years ahead."^[29]
• Died: Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills, 76, American actor

• The collision of two trains in China killed 106 people and injured 218 others. Train 87 was traveling from Nanjing to Xining while Train 368 was on its way from Xi'an to Xuzhou. The two collided near the Yangzhuang railway station.
• The Mystery of Mamo was released in cinemas in Japan.

• Born: Manny Pacquiao, Philippine professional boxer and politician; WBC flyweight champion, 1998-1999, WBC super bantamweight (1999-2001), IBF super bantamweight (2001-2003), WBA, The Ring featherweight (2003-2005), WBC super featherweight (2005-2008), WBC lightweight (2008-2009); WBO and WBA welterweight (2009-2019), WBC super welterweight (2019-2021) champion; in Kibawe, Bukidnon
• Died:
  • Don Ellis, 42, American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader
  • Josef Frings, 91, German Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne^[30]

• Born:
  • Katie Holmes, American TV, film and stage actress; in Toledo, Ohio^[31]
  • Josh Dallas, American TV actor; in Louisville, Kentucky^[32]

• Former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, who had recently won a by-election to be restored to the Lok Sabha parliament, was arrested on charges of breach of privilege and contempt of parliament, and jailed for a week .

• Born:
  • Geremi Sorele Nijtap Fotso, Cameroonian footballer with 118 caps for the Cameroon national team and 2000 Olympic gold medalist; in Bafoussam^[33]
  • Jacqueline Saburido, Venezuelan crusader against drunk driving who appeared world wide after being severely burned in a 1999 crash; in Caracas (d. of cancer, 2019)^[34]

• Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy was arrested after police discovered human remains in his home in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, Illinois. Gacy would be convicted of the murders of 33 young men and boys committed between 1972 and 1978. He would be executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.
• The Soviet space probe Venera 12 made a soft landing on the planet Venus at 03:30 UTC, slightly more than three months after its September 14 launch. It transmitted data to the orbiting flight platform for 110 minutes.^[35] Venera 12 would continue sending signals until April 18, 1980.^[36]

• At the closing ceremony of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Party endorsed the program proposed by Deng Xiaopeng to change policy in order to turn the People's Republic of China into one of the world's major economic powers. The communique published the next day summarized the five-day meeting, with the unanimous endorsement of the Central Committee for the proposition that "Now is an appropriate time to take the decision... shift emphasis of our Party's work, and the attention of the people of the whole country to socialist modernization. This is of major significance for fulfillment of the three-year and eight-year programs for the development of the national economy at the outline for 23 years, for the modernization of agriculture, industry, national ddefense, and science and technology and for the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country." The text added, "The pleanry session calls on the whole Party, the whole army, and the people of all our nationalities to work with one heart and one mind... and carry out the new Long March to make China a modern, powerful socialist country before the end of this century. We are now adopting a number of major new economic measures, conscientiously transforming the system and methods of economic management, actively expanding economic cooperation on terms of equality and mutual benefit with other countries... striving to adopt the world's advanced technologies and equipment, and greatly strengthening scientific and educational work to meet the needs of modernization."^[37][38][39] Deng, who had persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, told the gathering that if the Party, the nation and the country, and the people Chinese people continued to follow the Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong with stubborn mindset and blind superstition, then they would never move forward.^[40] The Party endorsed Deng's plans for a progressive change in economic policy, now referred to as Boluan Fanzheng or "Setting Things Right".
• Argentina began Operation Soberanía ("Operation Sovereignty"), a war against Chile, to seize control of the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva was called off as ships of the Argentine Navy were transporting the 5th Battalion of the Argentina Marines to seize five uninhabited Chilean islands (Horn, Freycinet, Hershell, Deceit, and Wollaston) with plans to cross the border into the Chilean mainland. The invasion was called off on the same evening after calls by Pope John Paul II to the presidents of both nations.
• The new Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), a professional indoor soccer league with six teams, played its first game. The New York Arrows defeated the visiting Cincinnati Kids, 7 to 2, before 10,386 fans at the Nassau County Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.^[41]
• The first Holiday Bowl, a postseason college football game in San Diego, was played as the U.S. Naval Academy defeated Brigham Young University, 23 to 16.^[42]
• Born:
  • Emmanuel Olisadebe, Nigerian-born footballer who had 25 caps as the first black player for the Poland national team; in Warri, Bendel State
  • Joanne Kelly, Canadian TV actress known for Warehouse 13; in Bay d'Espoir, Newfoundland^[43]

• The crash of Alitalia Flight 4128 killed 108 of the 129 passengers and crew as the Italian DC-9 airliner crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea while attempting to land at Palermo after a flight from Rome. Most of the passengers were traveling to Sicily for Christmas.^[44]
• Born: Víctor Martínez, Venezuelan player in the American League from 2002 to 2018, winner of the Silver Slugger Award 2004 and 2014; in Ciudad Bolívar^[45]

• Born: Yıldıray Baştürk, German-born Turkish footballer with 49 caps for the Turkey national team; in Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany^[46]

• Vietnam launched an invasion of Cambodia (at the time, "Democratic Kampuchea") in a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge Communists.

• Venera 11, launched from the Soviet Union on September 9, made a soft landing on the planet Venus at 03:24 UTC, transmitting data until February 1, 1980.^[47]
• Born:
  • Jeremy Strong, American TV actor known for Succession, 2020 Emmy Award and 2021 Golden Globe Award winner; in Boston
  • Paula Seling, Romanian singer; in Baia Mare
  • Miyuki Takahashi, Japanese volleyball player for the Japan women's volleyball team; in Yamagata

• Died: Dr. Alexander Haddow, 64, Scottish entomologist known for discovering the Zika virus in Africa^[48]

• Voters in Spain approved the new constitution in a referendum, officially ending 40 years of legalized military dictatorship.
• Died: Houari Boumédiènne, 46, President of Algeria since 1965, died of the blood disease Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, 39 days after he had lapsed into a coma.

• Born:
  • John Legend (stage name for John Roger Stephens), American musician, songwriter and film, TV and stage producer, winner of 12 Grammy Awards, one Tony Award, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award; in Springfield, Ohio
  • Feng Kun, Chinese volleyball player, captain of the China national women's volleyball team that won the 2004 Olympics and the 2003 World Cup, 2004 Most Valuable Player; in Beijing^[49]

• Born:
  • Angelo Taylor, American track and field athlete, 2000 and 2008 Olympic gold medalist for the 400m hurdles; in Albany, Georgia^[50]
  • Alexis Amore (stage name for Fabiola Melgar Garcia), Peruvian pornographic actress and inductee to the AVN Hall of Fame of Adult Video News; in Lima

• Born: Tyrese Gibson, American R&B singer; in Watts, Los Angeles

• General Gholam Reza Azhari stepped down as Prime Minister of Iran after less than two months in office, ten days after telling U.S. Ambassador to Iran William H. Sullivan, "You must know this and you must tell it to your government. This country is lost because the Shah cannot make up his mind."^[51]
• Born:
  • Yulia Barsukova, Russian rhythmic gymnast, 2000 Olympic gold medalist in the women's individual all-around competition; in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union^[52]
  • Tomomi Miyamoto, Japanese soccer football midfielder with 77 caps for the Japan national women's team; in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture^[53]
• Died:
  • Nicolau dos Reis Lobato, 32, who served as the President of East Timor briefly in 1975 before its takeover by Indonesia, was shot and killed by Indonesian soldiers.^[54][55]
  • Basil Wolverton, 69, American cartoonist known for his detailed "grotesques" style of illustration^[56]