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An Air India jumbo jet explodes near Bombay, killing 213 people.

Newspaper editor, Donald Woods, escapes from house arrest in South Africa.

The European Court of Human Rights finds Britain guilty of using "inhumane and degrading" interrogation techniques in Northern Ireland, so breaching Article 3 of the Human Rights Convention.

Nancy Spungen is stabbed to death on 12th January at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Her boyfriend, former Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, is arrested on suspicion of murdering her on Thursday, 12th October. He is released on bail and dies of a drug overdose the following February.

New smaller £1 notes are introduced in the UK featuring a portrait of Sir Isaac Newton on one side.

The United States carries out a nuclear test in the Nevada desert on 13th February. Following this the French carry out a nuclear test on Muruora Island on 27th February.

Tom Robinson's Rising Free EP enters the UK singles chart on 18th February. One of the songs on the EP, Sing if You're Glad To Be Gay, is banned by the BBC.

Jack Jones retires as Secretary General of the Transport and General Workers Union.

Car workers at British Leyland's Speke factory vote to end their 17-week strike.

Aldo Moro, five times Prime Minister of Italy, is kidnapped in Rome on 16th March. His dead body is found in a stolen car on 9th May.

Pakistan's former leader, Ali Bhutto, is sentenced to death on 18th March.

On 24th March the shipwrecked oil tanker, Amoco Cadiz, spills 50,000 tons of oil into the English Channel.

Actor Wilfred Pickles dies on 27th March.

On 30th March the Conservative Party hires the largest British-owned advertising company, Saatchi & Saatchi, to revamp its image in time for the next General Election.

On 7th April the US President, Jimmy Carter, calls an indefinite halt to the production of the neutron bomb. President Leonid Brezhnev follows suit.

Motorcycle stunt man Eddie Kidd breaks Evel Knievel's bus record on 8th April by jumping over 14 double-decker buses

On 18th April the US Senate approves the return of the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000.

On 20th April a Korean airliner is shot down in Soviet airspace.

The European Court of Human Rights rules that the use of the birch on young offenders in the Isle of Man is "degrading".

Sandy Denny, formerly a member of Fairport Convention, falls down the stairs at a friend's house and dies from a brain haemorrhage on 21st April, aged 31.

Bob Marley makes his first public appearance in Jamaica since being wounded in an assassination attempt in December 1976, when he and the Wailers perform at the 'One Love Peace Concert' on 22nd April.

England and Wales get a May Day Bank Holiday for the first time.

On 10th May the news is announced from Buckingham Palace that Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon will divorce.

The coffin containing the body of Charlie Chaplin is discovered in a field near the Chaplin family home in Switzerland on Wednesday, 17th May, 11 weeks after being stolen by grave robbers.

French troops rescue 2,000 Europeans being held hostage in Kolwezi, Zaire.

Yachtswoman Naomi James beats the solo round-the-world record by two days, sailing into Dartmouth harbour on Thursday, 8th June after 272 days at sea.

Israeli troops complete their withdrawal from occupied territory in southern Lebanon on 13th June.

Three members of the Provisional IRA - Dennis Brown, William Mailey and James Mulvenna - are killed on 21st June in an exchange of gunfire with the British army at the Ballysillan post office depot in Belfast. A civilian, William Hanna, is killed in the crossfire.

A bomb planted by separatists from Brittany explodes at the Palace of Versailles on 26th June.

On 6th July eleven people are killed and seventeen injured in a fire on the Penzance to Paddington sleeper train.

170 people are killed and more than 100 injured when a tanker carrying liquid gas explodes at a camp site in eastern Spain.

The UK Police get a 45% pay rise.

The strike at the Grunwick film processing plant in Willesden, which had lasted for almost two years, is called off on 14th July. None of the workers who had been sacked during the dispute are reinstated.

Louise Brown, the world's first "test-tube baby", is born at Oldham General Hospital shortly before midnight on Tuesday, 25th July.

Eagle II makes the first successful manned balloon crossing of the Atlantic on 17th August.

The President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, dies in Mombasa on 22nd August.

The Italian cardinal Albino Luciani is elected Pope on Saturday, 26th August. He honours his two predecessors by taking the name Pope John Paul I. 33 days later (29th September) he dies of a heart attack while reading in bed, making him the shortest-reigning Pope in history.

Charles Boyer dies on the same day.

At least two million people are made homeless by severe floods in northern India.

Keith Moon, drummer with The Who, dies from a drug overdose on 7th September.

Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian defector, dies in London on Monday, 11th September, four days after being stabbed in the leg with a poison-tipped umbrella. Coroners later found that he had been injected with ricin.

One of the founder-members of the Baader-Meinhof gang, Astrid Proll, is arrested in London on 15th September.

President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meet with the US President Jimmy Carter for peace talks at Camp David. On Sunday, 17th September, after 12 days of negotiations, they sign the Camp David Accord

Carl Bridgewater, a 13-year-old paperboy, is shot in the head at close range on 19th September when he unwittingly disturbs burglars at an isolated farmhouse near Stourbridge in Staffordshire.

P.W. Botha succeeds John Voster as Prime Minister of South Africa on 28th September. The following day Voster is elected President.

On 6th October Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad from ABBA get married in Stockholm.

French singer-songwriter Jacques Brel dies of cancer on 9th October.

Daniel Arap Moi is sworn in as President of Kenya on 10th October.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

On Sunday, 15th October, wearing T-shirts with the slogan 'A woman's place is on top', Vera Komarkova and Irene Miller become the first women climbers to reach the summit of the Himalayan peak Annapurna I.

Following the death of Pope John Paul I on 28th September, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Cracow, is elected Pope on Monday, 16th October. He takes the name Pope John Paul II.

Smash Hits is published for the first time.

Country singer Maybelle Carter dies on 23rd October.

On 25th October the Queen attends a service of thanksgiving and dedication to mark the completion of Liverpool Cathedral. Building work had begun in 1904.

On Friday, 27th October a gunman, 36-year-old Barry Williams, kills three people on the Bustleholme estate in Wednesbury, before shooting dead a petrol-pump attendant in Nuneaton.

The UK's newest tabloid newspaper, the Daily Star, rolls off the presses in Manchester on 2nd November.

The Caribbean island of Dominica gains independence from the UK on 3rd November.

Following fierce rioting in Tehran on 5th November, the Shah of Iran places the country under military rule.

Artist Norman Rockwell dies on 8th November, aged 84.

On the same day the General Synod of the Church of England rejects proposals to allow the ordination of women priests.

On 18th November 914 members of an American religious sect, the People's Temple, are found dead at their headquarters in Guyana, South America, after an apparent mass suicide. The founder of the sect, Jim Jones, is among the dead.

At a committal hearing on 20th November in Minehead, Somerset, the former leader of the Liberal Party Jeremy Thorpe is charged with conspiring to murder Norman Scott, with whom he is alleged to have had an affair in the early 1960s.

On 22nd November Ford car workers in the UK accept a 17% pay offer and call off their nine-week strike.

On 27th November Dan White, a city supervisor who had recently resigned and wanted his job back, shoots dead George Moscone, the Mayor of San Francisco, and Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man in the United States to win an election for public office.

Following a meeting in Brussels of the nine EEC Heads of State, it is announced that the UK will not to join the European Monetary System.

In a referendum held in Spain on 6th December, voters give their approval to a new democratic constitution. It establishes Spain as a parliamentary monarchy.

Former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, dies on 8th December, aged 80.

Following its defeat in two votes in the House of Commons on the previous day, the UK government narrowly wins a vote of confidence on 14th December by 300 votes to 290.

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Boxing: Leon Spinks defeats Muhammad Ali in Las Vegas to become World Heavyweight Champion. Ali regains the title later in the year when he and Spinks fight each other again in New Orleans.

Horse Racing: Lucius wins the Grand National. Three times winner Red Rum is withdrawn on the eve of the race with a heel injury.

Snooker: Ray Reardon wins his sixth World title.
Doug Mountjoy wins the UK Championship, beating Dennis Taylor 15:9 in the final.

Rowing: Oxford win the Boat Race. The Cambridge boat sinks at Barnes Bridge, a mile from the finish line.

Football: Ipswich Town beat Arsenal 1:0 in the FA Cup final.
Nottingham Forest win the League Cup and end the season as champions of the First Division.
Liverpool beat Bruges 1:0 in the final of the European Cup and become the first British club to win the competition twice in a row.
Argentina win the World Cup final, defeating the Netherlands 3:1 after extra time.

Sailing: Naomi James becomes the first woman to sail single-handed around the world via Cape Horn. By completing her voyage in 272 days she also breaks the record set by Sir Francis Chichester in 1967.

Cricket: Ian Botham is the new star of English cricket. In a test match against Pakistan he scores his third century in seven tests and captures eight wickets for just 34 runs.

Tennis: Martina Navratilova wins the women's singles title at Wimbledon for the first time, beating Chris Evert in the final in three sets (2-6, 6-4, 7-5).
Björn Borg wins the men's singles title for the third time. He defeats Jimmy Connors in the final for the second year in a row (6-2, 6-2, 6-3).
Britain's men qualify for the final of the Davis Cup for the first time since 1937. The British women's team win the Wightman Cup.

Athletics: Steve Ovett, running in the Men's 1,500 metres, wins Britain's only gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in Prague.

Golf: Gary Player wins the US Masters for the third time with a sequence of seven birdies in the final ten holes.
Jack Nicklaus wins the British Open for the third time.