Film director
Roman Polanski skipped
bail in the United States and fled to France, after pleading guilty to
charges of engaging in
sex with a 13-year-old girl.[1]
February 2, 1978 (Thursday)
Kaiser Matanzima, Prime Minister of the semi-independent South African
bantustan of
Transkei, announced that he would break diplomatic relations with
South Africa and ordered all members of the
South African Defence Force to leave the country by March 31. In that Transkei was not recognized by any of the other nations of the world, the diplomatic rift lasted only temporarily.
In the
Central African Republic,
Henri Maïdou, the Minister of Education, Youth, Sports, Arts, and Culture, charged with reforming the nation's school system, announced that school uniforms would be required for all Central African schoolchildren by October 1, to be purchased at the students' expense from Compagnie industrielle ouanguienne des textiles, a textile manufacturer owned by the family of
Emperor Bokassa the First. When a group of high school students protested having to buy the uniforms, Bokassa would
order the deaths of more than 100 of them starting on April 17, 1979.
Serial killer
Velma Barfield committed her sixth and last murder as her boyfriend, Rowland Taylor, died from
arsenic poisoning.[4] An autopsy revealed the cause, and an exhumation of Velma's late husband Jennings Barfield showed traces of arsenic as well. Velma Barfield would be executed on November 2, 1984.
The longest debate in
United States Senate history began when discussion began on whether or not to ratify the
Panama Canal Treaty signed in 1977. The sessions were the first for the full Senate (as opposed to committee and subcommittee hearings) to be broadcast and were transmitted on
radio because the chamber was unprepared for the setting up of television cameras. The debate would last for more than two months before closing on April 18.
Died:Anil Kumar Gain, 59, Indian mathematician and statistician
February 8, 1978 (Wednesday)
The United States Senate allowed regular broadcasting of its proceedings on the radio for the first time, permitting coverage of speeches on whether to ratify the Panama Canal Treaty.[7]
The crash of a Douglas C-47 military transport airplane of the Uruguayan Air Force killed all 44 people on board after going down shortly after taking off from
Artigas on a flight to
Montevideo.[9][10]
The crash of a Columbia Pacific Airlines airplane on takeoff from
Richland, Washington, killed all 17 people aboard. The
Beechcraft 99 was making a short flight to
Seattle and was "seen to begin a steep climb at an angle of 20-45deg." to an altitude of 400 feet (120 m) and "then turned left and descended nose-down at a flightpath angle of about 45deg. until it struck the ground 1669 feet past the runway end and caught fire."[11]
The crash of
Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314 killed 44 of the 50 people on board. The
Boeing 737 went down as it was approaching
Cranbrook, British Columbia, on a flight from
Calgary. Snow on Runway 16 was being plowed in anticipation of Flight 314's arrival scheduled for 1:05 in the afternoon, but the airplane arrived 10 minutes early while the snowplow was still on the runway. When one of the crew noticed the plow, the pilot attempted to climb again and then stalled at 400 feet (120 m).[13]
Rhodesia, one of only two remaining white-ruled African nations (the other being South Africa), announced that it would implement
multiracial democracy within two years.
February 16, 1978 (Thursday)
Born:
Tia Hellebaut, Belgian track and field athlete, and 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the women's high jump; in
Antwerp[18]
Died:Maggie McNamara, 49, American stage, film and TV actress, committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates.[20]
February 19, 1978 (Sunday)
A rescue attempt by Egypt's
Sa'ka Forces to rescue hostages on a hijacked EgyptAir flight failed in
Larnaca on the island of
Cyprus. In addition to the terrorists and some hostages, 20 Egyptian commandos were injured or killed.
Died:Pankaj Mullick, 72, Indian film composer, singer and actor
Died:Debbie Weems, 28, American singer and actress on stage and TV, best known as a recurring cast member on the children's TV show Captain Kangaroo, jumped or fell from a building in New York City.[25]
Died:John Howard, 33, Canadian mountain guide and mountaineer, was killed while climbing the
Athabasca Glacier in the Joffre Group of the
Lillooet Ranges of
British Columbia's
Coast Mountains, when he fell into a
crevasse. Though climbing with a companion, the two made the journey without being linked by a rope and Howard plunged into the crevasse when a
snow bridge collapsed beneath him.[26][27] The 8,369-foot (2,551 m) high
Mount Howard in the Joffre Group was named in his honor on June 11, 1979.[28]
February 24, 1978 (Friday)
Born:Gary (stage name for Kang Hee-gun), South Korean rapper and record producer; in
Jamsil-dong,
Seoul
The owner of the NHL's
Toronto Maple Leafs,
Harold Ballard, angry over a new bylaw of the National Hockey League requiring all uniforms to include a player's name, complied with the letter of the law, if not the spirit, by sending out his team with names stitched on their dark blue jerseys used for away games, but with letters of the same dark blue color. "I've complied with the NHL bylaw," Ballard told reporters in Chicago. "The names are stitched on, three inches high. It's a pity you can't see them."[30]
Voting was held in the South American nation of
Colombia for the 112-member Senate and the 199-member Chamber of Representatives. The
Partido Liberal Colombiano (PLC) won a majority in both chambers, with 62 in the Senate and 111 in the Chamber. The
Partido Conservador Colombiano gained seats but remained in the minority.[32] Voting for President would take place on June 4.
Died:
Camilo Ortega, 27, Nicaraguan revolutionary with the
Sandinista National Liberation Front, was killed by the Nicaraguan National Guard, whose soldiers had discovered the Sandinista hideout in the Las Sabogales neighborhood of the city of
Masaya.
Yasir Hameed, Pakistani cricketer with 176 caps for the Pakistan national team in Test cricket and 147 caps in One Day International Play; in
Peshawar
Benjamin Raich, Austrian alpine skier and winner of two Olympic gold medals in 2006 in the slalom and giant slalom, and three world championships; in
Arzl im Pitztal[34]
Died:Philip Ahn, 72, Asian-American character actor of Korean descent
^"Maggie McNamara, Actress, Dies; In 'Moon Is Blue' on Stage, Screen". The New York Times. March 16, 1978. p. 15.
^"1st Prototype Satellite Launched Successfully". The Sacramento Bee.
Sacramento, California. AP. February 24, 1978. p. 23. The 955-poind spacecraft, launched Wednesday, was reported traveling in its 11,600-mile orbit... The program is scheduled for completion in the 1980s and will consist of 24 satellites that will provide three-dimensional navigation.
^40 Tahun Indonesia Merdeka [40 Years of Indonesian Independence] (in Indonesian). Vol. 3. Indonesian State Secretariat. 1995. p. 1035.
ISBN979-8300-06-8.
^Nohlen, Dieter; Krennerich, Michael; Thibaut, Bernhard (1999). Elections in Africa: A data handbook. Nomos. pp. 765–770.
ISBN0-19-829645-2. Senghor's PS won 82 of the 100 National Assembly seats in accordance with the percentage of the votes.
^Nohlen, Dieter (2005). Elections in the Americas: A data handbook. Vol. II. Nomos. p. 305.
ISBN978-0-19-928358-3.