Events, Verisoph

c. 1 August 1976 Cillie Commission appointed into Soweto uprising 0 cit. The apartheid government appointed a commission under Justice Petrus Cillie to investigate the causes of the June 1976 Soweto uprising and the unrest that followed. The commission took evidence for over three years before reporting. politics / society ●●

26 April 1976 Church Committee final report 0 cit. The Church Committee's final reports documented CIA involvement in assassination plots against foreign leaders including Fidel Castro, the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign of surveillance and disruption against Martin Luther King Jr and other activists, and widespread warrantless surveillance of American citizens by the NSA. Its findings led directly to the creation of permanent congressional intelligence oversight committees and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. It remains the benchmark reference for documented US intelligence agency abuses. politics ●●●

December 1976 Bokassa crowns himself emperor of Central Africa 0 cit. Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who had seized power a decade earlier, declares himself emperor and stages a lavish coronation while his country stayed desperately poor. France bankrolled the ceremony and propped up his rule, valuing access to uranium and a foothold in central Africa. His reign grew notorious for brutality, including the killing of schoolchildren who protested. politics / society ●

21 September 1976 Condor assassinates Orlando Letelier in Washington 0 cit. Chilean agents of Pinochet's secret police kill former minister Orlando Letelier with a car bomb in the US capital, also killing his American colleague Ronni Moffitt. It was the deadliest act of foreign state terrorism on US soil at the time and showed Condor's reach beyond Latin America. US investigations later traced the plot to Chile's DINA and its chief, Manuel Contreras. politics / war ●●

24 March 1976 Argentina's junta and the Dirty War 0 cit. A military junta under Jorge Videla seized power and waged a Dirty War that disappeared an estimated thirty thousand people. The United States kept aid and diplomatic ties through the worst years, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is documented telling the generals to move quickly against opponents. Human rights pressure under President Carter later cooled the relationship. politics / war ●●●

1976 The Church Committee documents foundations as pass-throughs 0 cit. The Senate's Church Committee, investigating US intelligence abuses, confirms that the CIA had used private foundations as conduits to fund groups at home and abroad without revealing the source. The findings put the practice in the official record. They gave a factual basis to the worry that grant-makers could be quiet instruments of state power. diplomacy / politics ●●●

1976 Neither confirm nor deny, the Glomar response contested 0 cit. When a reporter sought records about a secret CIA operation to raise a sunken Soviet submarine using the ship Glomar Explorer, the agency refused even to say whether such records existed. Courts accepted this neither confirm nor deny answer, which became known as the Glomar response. It let the government dodge disclosure without ever admitting what it was hiding, and critics say it can swallow the right to know. diplomacy / politics ●

1976 Sunshine laws open the meetings 0 cit. The Government in the Sunshine Act required many federal agencies to hold their meetings in public, part of a wider spread of state and national sunshine laws. The idea was that decisions made in the open are harder to corrupt. These laws pushed transparency beyond documents to the act of governing itself. politics / society ●

1976 Abu Dhabi launches its sovereign wealth fund 0 cit. Abu Dhabi created the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to turn oil income into a diversified global portfolio of stocks, bonds, and property. The emirate manages national wealth the way a large asset manager runs a fund. It became one of the biggest sovereign investors in the world. economy / politics ●●

c. 1976 Pablo Escobar and the rise of the Medellín cartel 0 cit. Pablo Escobar built the Medellín cartel into a machine that shipped cocaine into the United States on an industrial scale. His fortune bought politicians, judges, and police, and made him one of the richest and most feared criminals in the world. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1976 Michael Manley faces alleged foreign destabilisation unproven 0 cit. Jamaica's democratic-socialist prime minister Michael Manley, who aligned with Cuba and the non-aligned movement, believed his government was the target of Western intelligence pressure in the 1970s. Allegations of CIA involvement in Jamaican unrest have long circulated but remain contested and largely unproven in the declassified record. The episode reflects how Caribbean leaders who leaned left drew close outside attention. diplomacy / politics ●

8 January 1976 The Jamaica Accords make floating rates the rule 0 cit. The IMF's members meet in Kingston and agree to amend the Fund's rules, formally accepting floating exchange rates and ending gold's official role in the monetary system. The changes confirmed a world of paper currencies with no metal anchor, in which the dollar remained the reference point by weight of use rather than by law. diplomacy / economy ●●

1976 Sutton extends the thesis to Hitler's rise 1 cit. In Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Sutton argues that some of the same Western financial and corporate interests also helped bring the Nazis to power. Taken with his Bolshevik book, his claim is that a single set of interests backed both communism and fascism as instruments of control. This coordinated-plan reading is Sutton's own, and it is the part historians reject. economy / politics / society ●●●

1976 Reserves and hunting bans restrict Aweer forest use 3 cit. The gazetting of the Boni and Dodori national reserves, together with Kenya's hunting ban, cut the Aweer off from lands and game they had long relied on. Forced toward settlement and farming in a dry, marginal area, many faced food insecurity. The community's foraging economy was steadily squeezed. environment / politics / society ●●

1977 Noguchi and Sakakibara publish 'Analysis of the MoF-BoJ Kingdom' ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1977 MoF officials Yukio Noguchi and Eisuke Sakakibara published a pathbreaking article in Chuo Koron identifying Japan's economic system as the wartime system for total economic mobilization. ●●

7 September 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties 0 cit. Treaties between the United States and Panama providing for the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama by the end of 1999 while guaranteeing its neutrality. They ended nearly a century of US control of the canal zone. diplomacy / politics ●●●

1977 Founding of the International Fund for Agricultural Development 0 cit. IFAD is established as a UN specialized agency in Rome, an outcome of the 1974 World Food Conference, to finance agricultural development and fight rural poverty. diplomacy / economy / society ●●

16 June 1977 Founding of Oracle 0 cit. Larry Ellison and partners found Software Development Laboratories, later Oracle, to build the first commercial SQL relational database. Oracle databases become the standard for corporate data. economy / technology ●●●

4 August 1977 Founding of the Department of Energy 0 cit. In the wake of the 1970s oil shocks, Carter signs the act merging energy agencies and the nuclear weapons complex into a cabinet department that opens on October 1, 1977. The department runs the national laboratories and the nuclear arsenal's production and stewardship. economy / technology ●●●

16 December 1977 Saturday Night Fever ignites disco 0 cit. The film Saturday Night Fever and its Bee Gees soundtrack pushed disco to the top of the charts. Dance floors and mirror balls defined a stretch of the late 1970s. culture ●●●

25 May 1977 Star Wars changes Hollywood 0 cit. George Lucas's Star Wars became a runaway hit and a merchandising powerhouse. It pushed Hollywood toward effects-driven franchises and tie-in products. culture / economy ●●●●

12 September 1977 Steve Biko killed in police custody 0 cit. Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko died from injuries inflicted by South African police, who first claimed he starved himself. His death exposed the brutality of apartheid and made him a martyr of the movement. politics / society ●●

3 August 1977 The MK-Ultra records come to light 0 cit. After most files were destroyed in 1973, surviving records of the CIA's MK-Ultra mind control experiments surfaced through a Freedom of Information request and Senate hearings. The documents detailed drug and behavior experiments often conducted without consent. politics / science ●●●●

20 August 1977 Voyager 1 and 2 launched 3 cit. NASA launched two probes to tour the outer planets, returning close views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Both later crossed into interstellar space, the most distant human-made objects. exploration / science / technology ●●●●

8 July 1977 FBI agents raid Scientology offices 0 cit. More than a hundred FBI agents raided Scientology premises in Los Angeles and Washington and seized documents. The evidence exposed the Snow White conspiracy. politics ●●●

1977 Oracle is named for the prophetic oracle of Greek religion 0 cit. The software company, founded in California in 1977, is named for the oracle, a source of prophecy and truth in Greek religion, most famously the Oracle of Delphi. economy / religion / technology ●●●

1977 Kronos software is named for the Greek figure of time 0 cit. The workforce and timekeeping software firm, founded in Massachusetts in 1977, is named after Chronos, the personification of time in Greek myth, often rendered Kronos. economy / religion / technology ●●

1977 China restores the gaokao 0 cit. After the Cultural Revolution, China brought back the national college entrance exam, the gaokao. It reopened university by merit and became the pivotal test in a vast education arms race. politics / society ●●●●

12 September 1977 Steve Biko dies in police custody 0 cit. Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died of a brain hemorrhage after being beaten by South African security police and then driven, naked and shackled, over 1,100 kilometers to a prison hospital where he died. Police initially claimed his death resulted from a hunger strike, a claim contradicted by the inquest. His death became a rallying point for international opposition to apartheid and to police torture of detainees. politics ●●●

1977 Founding of the Cato Institute 0 cit. Edward Crane, Charles Koch, and Murray Rothbard found the Cato Institute as a libertarian think tank promoting free markets, limited government, and individual liberty. It became one of the most prominent American vehicles for advancing Hayekian and Chicago School policy ideas in Washington. economy / politics ●

November 1977 United Nations imposes mandatory arms embargo 0 cit. The UN Security Council imposed a mandatory international arms embargo on South Africa in response to the killing of Steve Biko and the broader repression of apartheid, the first such binding embargo against a member state. Many Western nations and companies later added economic sanctions and divestment campaigns through the 1980s. The pressure combined with internal unrest to increasingly isolate the apartheid government. diplomacy / politics ●●

19 November 1977 Prince Hall Freemasons initiated at De Goede Hoop Temple 0 cit. On 19 November 1977, following negotiations with the government of Prime Minister John Vorster, members of the Prince Hall Masonic tradition were initiated, passed, and raised at the De Goede Hoop Temple in Cape Town, the first time the Grand Lodge of South Africa admitted non-white members. For most of the apartheid era, from 1948 onward, mainstream South African lodges had been a de facto white-only institution, with Prince Hall-affiliated lodges operating as separate structures serving Black and Coloured members who were barred from joining. politics / society ●●●

27 June 1977 Djibouti becomes independent, France keeps its largest African base 0 cit. France granted independence to Djibouti, its last African colony, while negotiating a defense accord that let it retain what became its largest permanent military base on the continent. The base has remained central to French (and later joint French-US-Japanese-Chinese) military presence in the Horn of Africa, and Djibouti's economy has stayed heavily dependent on rents paid for hosting foreign forces. diplomacy / war ●●

c. 1977 Jamaica and other Caribbean states adopt IMF programs amid 1970s crisis 0 cit. Jamaica's government under Michael Manley, after pursuing more independent economic policies including bauxite-industry nationalization steps, turned to the IMF for balance-of-payments support and accepted conditions requiring currency devaluation and spending cuts. Manley later wrote critically about the experience, arguing it showed how little room newly independent, commodity-dependent economies had to set policy against the preferences of international lenders. economy ●

July 1977 Commander Kenneth Drury convicted of corruption 0 cit. Kenneth Drury, former head of the Flying Squad, is convicted at the Old Bailey and sentenced to eight years in prison for taking bribes from pornographers. His trial is one of the most prominent results of Robert Mark's anti-corruption drive. politics ●●

c. 1977 Dirty squad officers sentenced 0 cit. Former Obscene Publications Squad head William Moody, Wally Virgo, and George Fenwick are sentenced to between ten and fourteen years in prison for corruption, following the Old Bailey trials that grew out of Robert Mark's investigation into the "dirty squad." The case remains one of the largest single blocs of convictions for corruption in Met history. politics ●●

c. April 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement shapes Black feminism 0 cit. A group of Black feminists released a statement arguing that race, class, gender, and sexuality oppress people at the same time. Their idea of interlocking oppression laid the groundwork for later theories of intersectionality. politics / society ●●

1977 The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 0 cit. Bananagate, alongside other corporate bribery scandals of the 1970s, pushed Congress to pass the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law made it a crime for American companies to bribe foreign officials. It marked a first attempt to rein in the corporate statecraft that firms like United Fruit had long practiced abroad. economy / politics ●●

1977 The Economist coins "Dutch disease" 0 cit. The Economist used the phrase "Dutch disease" to describe how the Netherlands' natural gas boom pushed up its currency and hurt its other exports and manufacturing. The pattern generalizes: a sudden rush of resource money can hollow out the rest of an economy, leaving a country more dependent on the one commodity. Economists still use the term for oil and mineral states that fail to build anything beyond the mine or well. economy ●●

1977 The 'Dutch disease' names the resource curse 0 cit. The Economist coins 'Dutch disease' to describe how a natural-gas boom can raise a currency and hollow out a country's other industries. The idea fed into the wider 'resource curse' thesis, later named by Richard Auty, that mineral wealth often brings slower growth, weaker institutions, and dependence on a single export. Economists still debate how strong and how avoidable the effect is. economy / politics ●●

July 1977 Zia-ul-Haq and the Afghan war effort 0 cit. General Zia-ul-Haq seized power, hanged elected leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and imposed hardline Islamist military rule. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States made Zia a central ally, channeling billions in arms and CIA money to the mujahideen through his intelligence service. Cold War need overrode Western concern about his repression and nuclear program. politics / war ●●●

c. 1977 Exxon's own scientists warn of climate change 0 cit. Exxon's internal researchers tell management that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet and that the effects could be serious, according to company documents later made public. The findings broadly tracked the emerging scientific consensus of the time. science ●●●

1977 Chandler names the visible hand of management 0 cit. The historian Alfred Chandler published The Visible Hand, arguing that in big modern business the coordinating work Adam Smith gave to the market's invisible hand was instead done by the visible hand of salaried managers, working through accounting and internal reporting. The book won a Pulitzer and framed how scholars understand managerial capitalism, though later historians have qualified its sweep. culture / economy / society ●●

1977 Have Blue and the secret F-117 stealth fighter 0 cit. Lockheed's Have Blue prototype proved that a strangely angled aircraft could be nearly invisible to radar, leading to the F-117 Nighthawk. The plane flew combat missions for years before the Air Force admitted it existed in 1988, a clear example of how far real black-project technology outran what the public knew. science / technology / war ●●

c. 1977 The Critique: A Nationalist Who Preserved the Colonial Order 0 cit. One reading holds that Kenyatta was a conservative nationalist who kept the colonial state largely intact and threw in his lot with the propertied and loyalist class, betraying the fighters who had bled for the land. The novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o, detained without trial under Kenyatta in 1977, gave this view its sharpest literary form, and historians such as Daniel Branch and David Anderson trace how loyalists rather than rebels inherited power. This is presented here as attributed argument, not settled fact. culture / politics ●●●

July 1977 The Ogaden War and the Cold War switch of patrons 0 cit. Somalia invaded the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region of Ethiopia in 1977, aiming to complete the Greater Somalia project after revolution had weakened Ethiopia. In a dramatic Cold War reversal, the Soviet Union and Cuba switched sides to back Ethiopia's new Marxist government, pouring in advisers, weapons, and Cuban troops. Somalia broke with Moscow and turned to the United States for support, flipping the region's alliances. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

c. 1977 The Red Terror under Mengistu and the Derg 0 cit. As Mengistu Haile Mariam rose to the top of the Derg, the regime unleashed a campaign against rival leftist groups, above all the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party. Neighbourhood squads carried out killings, torture, and mass detention, and families were sometimes made to pay for the bullets used on their dead. Estimates of those killed range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and the figures remain debated. politics / war ●●●

July 1977 The Ogaden War with Somalia 0 cit. Somalia invaded the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region, hoping to seize it while Ethiopia was in revolutionary chaos. In a striking Cold War switch, the Soviet Union and Cuba dropped their former ally Somalia and poured arms and troops into Ethiopia, helping it repel the invasion by 1978. The war cemented the Derg as a Soviet client and reshaped alliances across the Horn of Africa. diplomacy / war ●●

27 June 1977 Djibouti hosts France's largest base in Africa 0 cit. Djibouti gains independence but France keeps a large garrison under a defence pact, its biggest permanent base on the continent. Along with sites in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Chad, it anchors a network of French forces that outlives the colonial era. The bases give Paris the reach to intervene quickly across the region. diplomacy / war ●●

May 1977 Kenya bans hunting and hardens the poaching line 0 cit. Kenya banned all hunting, ending licensed sport hunting but also cementing that any local killing of wildlife was poaching. Communities living beside parks now bore the cost of crop-raiding elephants and lost livestock with no legal way to use wildlife. Enforcement focused on catching African hunters, while the earlier era of licensed white hunters was over. environment / politics / society ●●

31 December 1977 Ngugi wa Thiong'o is detained and Kamiriithu theatre banned 0 cit. After his Gikuyu-language play about class and land was staged by villagers at the Kamiriithu community centre, the writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o was detained without trial for about a year. The authorities later banned performances and razed the open-air theatre. His jailing showed how far the state would go to silence work that reached ordinary people in their own language. politics / society ●●●

1977 Wangari Maathai founds the Green Belt Movement 1 cit. Wangari Maathai launched the Green Belt Movement under the National Council of Women of Kenya, paying rural women to plant trees and restore degraded land. What began as an answer to fuelwood shortages and soil erosion grew into a wide grassroots network. The movement tied care for the land to women's livelihoods and civic organizing. environment / society ●●●

5 June 1977 Wangari Maathai starts the Green Belt Movement 0 cit. Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, organising rural women to plant trees against deforestation and erosion. The work gave women income, standing, and a reason to organise, and it grew into millions of trees and thousands of trained women. It also became a base for challenging the state over land, forests, and democracy. Maathai put women back at the centre of public life around the land they had always worked. economy / society ●●●

December 1977 Ngugi wa Thiong'o detained for a play 0 cit. Ngugi wa Thiong'o was already a leading novelist when he and Ngugi wa Mirii staged the Gikuyu-language play Ngaahika Ndeenda, I Will Marry When I Want, with villagers at Kamiriithu in Limuru. Its sharp view of inequality after independence alarmed the government, which closed the theatre and detained Ngugi without trial in late 1977. In prison he wrote a novel on toilet paper and resolved to write in Gikuyu rather than English. He spent years in exile and argued for African languages in his book Decolonising the Mind. culture / politics ●●●

1977 Kenya's 1977 hunting ban forces the Ogiek toward farming 5 cit. Kenya's nationwide ban on hunting outlawed a core part of Ogiek subsistence and pushed many families into settled agriculture and livestock keeping. Combined with continued eviction from reserved forest, the ban reshaped a way of life built on mobility and the forest. Some Ogiek kept beekeeping alive alongside the new crops. economy / environment / politics ●●

1977 The 1977 hunting ban deepens Waata marginalisation 3 cit. Kenya's total hunting ban finished the outlawing of Waata subsistence begun under colonial game laws. Many struggled to make a living from farming in dry, poor country, and some turned to illegal ivory trading or charcoal burning while others drifted to towns. The Waata slid into poverty and near-invisibility as a distinct people. economy / politics / society ●●

December 1977 Government moves to acquire Kisima Farm land at Timau 1 cit. In late 1977 the Commissioner of Lands issued Gazette notices for compulsory acquisition proceedings over two Timau land portions farmed by Kisima Farm as one unit. A 1978 High Court judgment records that Kisima was also in the process of being sold to Katheri Farmers Co. The case captures Timau as a postcolonial land-transfer arena, not just a settled agricultural landscape. economy / politics ●●●

January 1978 to February 1979 Iranian Revolution wikidata 0 cit. 1978-1979 revolution that overthrew the Iranian monarchy ●●●

1978 Bank of Japan introduces monetary targeting ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1978 the Bank of Japan officially adopted monetary targeting, announcing growth targets for money supply measures such as M2+CD, a framework the author describes as a monetarist smoke screen for its window guidance credit controls. ●●●

December 1978 BoJ declares tighter quantitative control ai_extracted 1 cit. In December 1978 the Bank of Japan declared tighter quantitative monetary control necessary, citing rapidly rising stock prices, sharply higher city-center land prices, and excess money circulating in the private sector. ●●

17 September 1978 Camp David Accords 1 cit. Framework agreements between Egypt and Israel brokered by President Carter after thirteen days of secret talks. They led to the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●●

1978 Founding of Human Rights Watch 0 cit. American activists found Helsinki Watch to monitor Soviet bloc compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Regional watch committees merged in 1988 to form Human Rights Watch. diplomacy / politics / society ●●●

18 December 1978 Deng Xiaoping's reforms begin 0 cit. The Communist Party's Third Plenum endorses Deng Xiaoping's policy of reform and opening. China turns toward markets and foreign trade, beginning the fastest large-scale rise out of poverty in history and China's return as a great power. economy / politics ●●●●

25 October 1978 FISA and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 0 cit. After revelations of domestic spying abuses, Congress requires warrants for foreign intelligence surveillance inside the United States and creates a secret court to issue them. The FISA Court becomes the central legal check, and later a point of controversy, in American surveillance. politics ●●●

18 December 1978 Deng Xiaoping launches reform and opening 0 cit. The Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee endorses Deng Xiaoping's program of market reform and opening to the world. China begins its shift from a planned economy toward state-managed capitalism. economy / politics ●●●●

1978 Space Invaders and the arcade golden age 0 cit. Taito's Space Invaders became a worldwide craze and swallowed coins by the millions. It opened the golden age of the arcade. culture ●●●

1978 Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening 0 cit. In 1978 Deng Xiaoping launched market reforms and opened China to foreign trade and investment. The policy transformed China into one of the world's fastest growing economies. economy / politics ●●●●●

16 October 1978 John Paul II elected pope 0 cit. The Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla became the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years. His election brought a figure from behind the Iron Curtain to the head of the global Church. politics / religion ●●●●

1978 Versace uses the head of Medusa as its emblem 0 cit. Gianni Versace founded his Italian fashion house in 1978 and chose the head of Medusa, the snake-haired Gorgon of Greek myth, as its symbol. He said she stood for a beauty with no way back. culture / economy / religion ●●

1978 Orion Pictures is named for the hunter of Greek myth 0 cit. Orion Pictures, founded in 1978, is named after the constellation Orion, itself named for the giant hunter of Greek mythology. culture / economy / religion ●

25 October 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act enacted 0 cit. Congress passes FISA in direct response to the Church Committee's findings, creating a secret court to approve warrants for domestic surveillance conducted for foreign intelligence purposes. It is intended to prevent the kind of warrantless spying on Americans documented at the FBI, CIA, and NSA during the prior decades. politics ●●●

c. December 1978 Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms begin in China 0 cit. Deng Xiaoping launches market-oriented reforms in China, introducing household responsibility in agriculture and opening the economy to foreign investment and trade. Although rooted in China's own political context rather than Chicago School doctrine, the reforms are often cited alongside Thatcher's and Reagan's as part of the broader global turn toward market liberalization in this period. economy / politics ●●●

29 September 1978 UN Security Council adopts Resolution 435 0 cit. The Security Council approved a settlement plan for Namibian independence, including a ceasefire, withdrawal of South African forces, and UN-supervised elections. Implementation stalled for a decade over South African conditions linking withdrawal to the removal of Cuban troops from Angola. The plan eventually became the basis for the actual transition to independence a decade later. diplomacy ●●

26 October 1978 Congress passes the Ethics in Government Act after Watergate 0 cit. In response to the Watergate scandal, Congress passes a law requiring financial disclosure by senior officials and imposing a cooling-off period before they can lobby their former agencies. It is an early, documented attempt to regulate the revolving door between government service and private industry. politics ●●

c. 1978 Joseph Sickert retracts royal-Masonic Ripper story debunked 0 cit. Joseph Sickert, whose account of a royal cover-up formed the basis of Stephen Knight's theory, tells journalists that his story was a hoax. His retraction is widely cited by historians as further evidence that the Masonic royal-conspiracy version of the Ripper case has no factual foundation. culture ●

c. August 1978 Operation Countryman launched 0 cit. An outside team of officers, mostly from provincial forces, begins Operation Countryman to investigate corruption in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police, following allegations of bribery within the Flying Squad. The investigation is repeatedly obstructed and moved outside London after evidence-tampering concerns; Commissioner David McNee's team was reportedly kept from parts of the inquiry's findings. politics ●●

11 August 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act 0 cit. Congress passed a resolution affirming the right of Native Americans to practice traditional religions, including access to sacred sites and use of sacred objects, after decades in which practices like the Sun Dance and use of peyote in Native American Church ceremonies had been suppressed or criminalized. The act had limited enforcement power and later Supreme Court rulings narrowed its practical protections, prompting further legislation in the 1990s. politics / religion ●●

8 November 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act 0 cit. Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in response to findings that state welfare agencies were removing Native children from their families and placing them with non-Native adoptive and foster homes at drastically disproportionate rates, in some states affecting a quarter to a third of all Native children. The law established tribal jurisdiction and preference standards for custody proceedings involving Native children. It has since been challenged in federal courts, including a 2023 Supreme Court case that upheld it. politics / society ●●

30 May 1978 Madrigal v. Quilligan Goes to Trial 0 cit. Ten Mexican-American women sued doctors at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, alleging they had been coerced or misled into consenting to tubal ligations during labor, often signing consent forms in English that they did not read or speak. Federal Judge Jesse Curtis ruled against the plaintiffs, but the case, filed in 1975, exposed widespread coercive sterilization of Spanish-speaking women and led California to adopt a state consent form printed in Spanish and stricter waiting periods. politics / society ●●●

1 June 1978 Spencer W. Kimball receives revelation ending priesthood ban 0 cit. Church President Spencer W. Kimball and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met and prayed together in the Salt Lake Temple. Church accounts state that in this meeting they received confirmation to rescind the policy barring men of Black African descent from priesthood ordination. religion ●●●

8 June 1978 Church announces end of priesthood ban 0 cit. The First Presidency issued a letter, publicly released June 9, 1978, announcing that all worthy male members could be ordained to the priesthood regardless of race, and that Black members could receive all temple ordinances. This ended the 126-year-old priesthood and temple ban. religion / society ●●●

30 September 1978 Official Declaration 2 canonized as scripture 0 cit. At the Church's general conference, First Presidency counselor N. Eldon Tanner presented the June 1978 revelation extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members regardless of race. Members present sustained it, and it was canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants as Official Declaration 2, formally ending the priesthood and temple ban. religion ●●●

11 June 1978 Joseph Freeman Jr. becomes first Black elder ordained after ban 0 cit. Three days after the First Presidency's announcement, Joseph Freeman Jr. was ordained an elder in the Melchizedek priesthood, becoming recognized as the first man of Black African descent ordained under the new policy. Other Black members were ordained to priesthood offices the same day across the Church. religion / society ●●

c. 1978 "Banana republic" enters everyday language 0 cit. By the late twentieth century "banana republic" had become common shorthand for a corrupt, unstable country whose politics are bent to serve narrow economic interests. A US clothing chain even took the name in 1978, stripping it of its bloody history. The phrase is now often thrown at any government seen as lawless or captured, far from its origins in the fruit trade. culture / politics ●●

September 1978 Egypt realigns to the West under Sadat 0 cit. Anwar Sadat broke with the Soviet Union and, through the Camp David Accords and 1979 peace with Israel, turned Egypt into a major US ally. In return Egypt became one of the largest recipients of American aid, most of it military. The realignment reshaped the balance of the Middle East in the West's favor. diplomacy / politics ●●●

c. 1978 Somalia's Siad Barre switches to the West 0 cit. After falling out with Moscow over the Ogaden War, Somalia's dictator Siad Barre switched sides and became a US client in the Horn of Africa. Washington gained access to the port of Berbera and sent arms and aid in return. The Cold War swap left Somalia awash in weapons that fed its later collapse into civil war. politics / war ●●

August 1978 Daniel arap Moi succeeds Kenyatta 0 cit. When Jomo Kenyatta died in August 1978, Vice President Daniel arap Moi took power and launched the Nyayo era, meaning footsteps, promising to follow Kenyatta's path. A Kalenjin from the Rift Valley, Moi gradually concentrated power in his own hands and would rule for 24 years. His long presidency became defined by patronage, repression, and, eventually, the fight for multiparty democracy. politics ●●

1978 Rhodesia arms Security Force Auxiliaries 0 cit. As white minority rule collapsed, Rhodesia raised Security Force Auxiliaries, known as Pfumo reVanhu, from Africans loyal to the internal settlement government. They were meant to hold rural areas against the guerrilla armies of the liberation war. The auxiliaries were poorly disciplined and drew accusations of abuses against civilians, and they were disbanded after independence brought Zimbabwe in 1980. politics / war ●

1978 FISA and the secret surveillance court 0 cit. In response to the Church Committee, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to require warrants for spying inside the United States. It created a special court that met in secret to approve those warrants. Critics later argued the court almost never said no and lacked any voice for the people being watched. politics ●●

c. 1978 The Counter-View: The Man Who Held the Nation Together 0 cit. A competing reading holds that Kenyatta was a genuine anti-colonial leader, jailed on evidence later shown to be perjured, whose pragmatic reconciliation kept a fragile multi-ethnic nation from collapse in the way neighbouring states fell into coups and civil war. His defenders and biographers, among them Jeremy Murray-Brown, credit the reassurance of settlers and investors with preserving the economy and stability. This too is presented as attributed argument; the historical debate between the two readings remains unresolved. politics / society ●●●

22 August 1978 The Death of Kenyatta 0 cit. Kenyatta died in his sleep at Mombasa on 22 August 1978, still president after fifteen years in power, and was succeeded by his vice-president Daniel arap Moi. He was mourned as Mzee, the revered elder and father of the nation. He left behind a stable, unified state and a bitter argument, still unsettled, over whether that stability was bought at the price of the fighters and the poor. politics / society ●●

March 1978 Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden and its long fallout 0 cit. Backed by Soviet arms and Cuban soldiers, Ethiopia routed the Somali army and drove it out of the Ogaden by March 1978. The defeat shattered the military's prestige and left hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees flooding into Somalia. Estimates of combined dead run into the tens of thousands. The loss triggered a failed coup attempt and pushed Barre toward harsher, more clan-based rule. politics / war ●●●

1978 The Moi era entrenches patronage 0 cit. Daniel arap Moi became president in 1978 and made KANU the sole legal party in 1982. Under his 'Nyayo' philosophy the patronage network shifted to a new inner circle, sometimes called 'Moi's men'. Detention without trial, a compliant judiciary and the security services were used to protect the system. The era set the stage for the largest documented scandals of the 1990s. politics ●●●

1978 Moi builds a Kalenjin-centered coalition 1 cit. When Kenyatta died in 1978, Vice-President Daniel arap Moi took power and over time shifted patronage, security posts, and state resources toward a coalition centered on his Kalenjin community and allied smaller groups. The pattern of an ethnic inner circle controlling the state carried on, only with a different group at the center. Elite competition for that central prize kept ethnicity at the heart of national politics. Moi's rise and the shift in patronage are documented history. economy / politics ●●

22 August 1978 Daniel arap Moi succeeds Kenyatta as president 1 cit. Jomo Kenyatta died in office on 22 August 1978, and his vice president Daniel arap Moi took over, first as acting president and then formally in October. Moi kept Kenya on its capitalist, pro-Western path and its close ties to London and Washington. He would hold power for 24 years. politics ●●●

1978 Communist coup overthrows and kills Afghan President Daoud ai_extracted 1 cit. In April 1978 Mohammed Daoud arrested communist leaders in Kabul after they staged a protest. Soviet-backed officers planted inside the Afghan army shot him dead days later, launching the Marxist revolution that provoked the anticommunist revolt. ●●

December 1978 Deng Xiaoping launches China's reform and opening 0 cit. At a Communist Party meeting in December 1978, Deng Xiaoping set China on a course of market reforms and opening to the outside world. Farms were decontrolled, special economic zones invited foreign investment, and private enterprise slowly returned. This began the transformation that made China a manufacturing power. economy / politics ●●●●

22 August 1978 Kenyatta dies and Moi takes power 0 cit. Jomo Kenyatta died in office at State House in Mombasa, and Vice-President Daniel arap Moi succeeded him. Moi promised to follow in Kenyatta's footsteps, a pledge he summed up in the Swahili word nyayo, meaning footsteps. In power he tightened control over the state and the ruling party rather than loosening it. politics ●●●

1978 Shungwaya: Spear reads a migration as a charter contested 0 cit. The nine Mijikenda peoples of the Kenya coast tell of a single flight south from a northern homeland called Shungwaya to build fortified kaya settlements. In The Kaya Complex and Traditions of Origin and their Interpretation, Thomas Spear used linguistics and archaeology to argue the uniform single-migration story works largely as a shared charter for a common Mijikenda identity, not a plain record of one event. Other scholars still argue a real northern homeland lies behind the tradition, so the case remains contested. culture / society ●●●

October 1978 Daniel arap Moi rises from Baringo to Kenya's presidency 1 cit. Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, a Tugen from the Sacho area of central Baringo, became Kenya's president in 1978 and held office until 2002. His long rule lifted the political standing of the Tugen and the wider Kalenjin and shaped patronage and land politics in the Rift Valley. It marked the shift of national power from Kikuyu to Kalenjin hands for a generation. politics ●●●