Four decades ago,
the original Star Wars movie was released in theaters, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States, the Trans-Alaska pipeline pumped its first barrels of oil, the cold war was was still going on and much more...
Take a brief look 40 years ago.
- Karl Carstens is nominated by the CDU / CSU parliamentary group of the Federal Assembly as a candidate for the Federal President's election scheduled for May 23, 1979. He is to succeed Walter Scheel, who can not run again after two terms of office.
- There are changes in the Moscow Central Committee of the CPSU. Konstantin Chernenko, a close confidant of state and party leader Leonid I. Brezhnev, is appointed a full member of the party's supreme governing body and thus of the center of power of the Soviet Union.
- The Ethiopian army conquers the city of Keren, the last important bastion of the rebels in Eritrea.