January to June: the way we were.
January
Roy Jenkins becomes president of the European Commission on January 3rd, the same day as the IMF lends Britain £2,300 million to prop up sterling. Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as 39th US president on January 20th. The next day he pardoned Vietnam "draft dodgers", young Americans who refused to fight a war in which they did not believe.
Czechoslovakia, the Charter 77 group of intellectuals, began campaign for democratic freedom guaranteed by the Helsinki Accords, to which their government had signed up. EMI sacked punk rockers Sex Pistols (right) on January 27th.
Alex Haley's TV drama serial Roots began and went on to attract huge audiences worldwide.
February
The design of the Pompidou Centre for the Arts in Paris raised eyebrows when it was unveiled on February 2nd. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours Grammy-award winning album was released on February 4th.
The Soviet Union moved ahead in the space race by launching Soyuz to dock with the Salyut 5 space station. The US responded by sending the test space shuttle Enterprise on February 18th on its maiden flight sitting on top of a Boeing 747 in California.
The best Ireland could offer was a crater on Mercury named after WB Yeats on February 24th, though nine bean rows were nowhere to be seen.
March
Popular singer Ronan Keating was born in Dublin on March 3rd. Brian Faulkner, last prime minister of Northern Ireland, died in a riding accident on the same day. He had just been made Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick and had held the title for 24 days. On March 27th, a collision between KLM and PanAm Boeing 747s on the ground at Tenerife on the Canary Islands killed 583 people, the worst single aviation accident on record.
On March 28th, Rocky wins best film Oscar, Peter Finch (posthumously, he died in January) best actor and Faye Dunaway best actress.
April
Irish-bred horse Red Rum won the Aintree Grand National for the third time on April 2nd. German federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver were shot by two Red Army Faction members on April 7th.
Punk rockers The Clash's debut album The Clash was released on April 8th in the UK on CBS Records.
Cardinal Conway, Catholic primate of all Ireland, died on April 17th.
First use of optical fibre to carry live telephone calls took place on April 22nd.
Former British MP and lawyer Geoffrey Bing, a persistent thorn in the side of Ulster unionism, died on April 24th.
May
The Likud Party, led by former terrorist Menachem Begin, won the election in Israel on May 17th.
"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . .", the first Star Wars film opened on May 25th, and went on to take $185 million at the box office.
Abbey Theatre actor Harry Brogan, whose film career included Shake Hands with the Devil, Young Cassidy, and the Siege of Sidney Street,but who was best known in Ireland for his Sean O'Casey roles, died on May 20th.
Bob Paisley's Liverpool won the European Cup, convincingly beating German champions Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 at the Olympic stadium in Rome on May 25th.
June
Dublin-born artist Francis Bacon declined a British decoration, the Companionship of Honour, on June 4th.
Actor Stephen Boyd, born William Millar in Glengormley, Co Antrim, winner of a Golden Globe award for his role in Ben-Hur, died of a heart attack in California on June 2nd.
The first Apple II computers went on sale on June 5th. Jubilee celebrations began in the UK on June 6th to celebrate 25 years of Elizabeth II's reign.
On June 10th, James Earl Ray, convicted killer of Martin Luther King, escaped from a Tennessee prison but was recaptured on June 13th. Spain's first democratic election for 41 years was held on June 15th.