July to December
JULY
TR Dallas releases Who Shot JR Ewing?to capitalise on the hysteria generated by the end of season cliffhanger in the popular Dallasseries.
The answer to the year’s biggest TV question was Kristin Shepard, JR’s sister-in-law and mistress.
Evonne Goolagong beats Chris Evert to take her second Wimbledon title, nine years after her first win there. Björn Borg wins his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title, beating John McEnroe.
Pope John Paul II visits Brazil for the first time and more than 1.5 million people turn out to see him. Seven people die in a stampede to see the pontiff.
The small island nation of New Hebrides in the South Pacific Ocean gains independence from Britain and France and renames itself Vanuatu.
AUGUST
Eighteen people die in the Buttevant rail disaster in Cork. The train is en route from Dublin to Cork with 230 bank holiday passengers when it runs into a siding at Buttevant station. It hits a stationary ballast train and injures more than 70 people. The 11 dead are from Ireland, Britain, America and Austria.
A fire in the Central Hotel, Bundoran, claims the lives of 10 people at the height of the tourist season. The casualties include an entire family of four. Five of the 10 victims are children, one only 18 months old.
Baby Azaria Chamberlain vanishes from a campsite near Uluru (then called Ayers Rock) in Australia. It is likely she has been taken by a dingo, but her disappearance leads to what will be the most publicised trial in Australian history. Parents Lindy and Michael Chamberlain are convicted over the baby’s death in 1982 and Lindy is jailed, but the couple are later exonerated after evidence indicates a dingo attack.
A third inquest, in 1995, records an open verdict, but moves are afoot to hold a fourth. The parents, now divorced, want the inquest to declare a dingo was responsible for the death. This could take place in the early months of 2011.
SEPTEMBER
Galway beat Limerick in the All-Ireland hurling final, taking the title for the first time in 57 years. The Kerry team make it three in a row when they beats Roscommon in the football final.
The Republic of Ireland and the People's Republic of China exchange ambassadors for the first time.
Madame Gong Pusheng takes up residence in Dublin while John Campbell is posted to Peking.
Iraq invades Iran, triggering the bitter eight-year war which destabilises the region and devastates both countries. The then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claims he is invading because of a territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway which forms the boundary between the two countries. At least half a million people will die in the war, with upper estimates stretching to 1.5 million.
OCTOBER
Ms Justice Mella Carroll becomes the first woman to be appointed to the bench of the High Court. She adopts a less formal and pompous style on the bench, asking that she be addressed as "judge" rather than "my lord", or "your lordship". She will preside over many high-profile criminal trials, including that of Catherine Nevin. She spends 25 years on the High Court bench, dying just weeks after her retirement in 2006.
James Callaghan announces his resignation as leader of the Labour Party in Britain, having lost the previous year's election to Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives. He hands over to Michael Foot.
British heiress Dr Rose Dugdale is released from Limerick Prison, having served six years. She has received two sentences for receiving the Beit paintings stolen from Russborough House and for her role in an IRA helicopter attack on Strabane RUC station. She doesn't court publicity after her release from prison but is involved with Sinn Féin and also lends her support to the Shell to Sea campaign.
The Polish government recognises the Solidarity trade union, following strikes at the Gdansk shipyard led by Lech Walesa. Ten years later, he will be elected president of Poland.
NOVEMBER
The controversial Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 comes into force, giving people the right to buy contraceptives with medical prescriptions.
It has been famously described by Charles Haughey as "an Irish solution to an Irish problem".
Five years later, the Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act 1985 will be enacted.
It will allow the sale of condoms without a prescription to people aged 18 and over.
Former actor and Californian governor Ronald Reagan (left) defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter in the US presidential election.
He will be the 40th president of the United States. At 69 years old, Reagan is the oldest elected president and, on his death at 93 years, he will have lived longer than any other president.
The National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE) opens its doors in Glasnevin, Dublin, and admits its first 200 students to the college.
It will be awarded university status in 1989 and renamed Dublin City University.
DECEMBER
American missionary Jean Donovan and three nuns Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, are murdered by a military death squad in El Salvador while doing charity work during the country's civil war.
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher arrives in Ireland for a meeting with taoiseach Charles Haughey at Dublin Castle. It is the first visit by a British prime minister since independence and the taoiseach describes it as a "historic breakthrough".
Former taoiseach Jack Lynch is awarded the freedom of Cork, his native city.
Breakfast television gets the green light in Britain as the Independent Broadcasting Authority announces that the breakfast contract will go to TV-am.