1978 Facts: You Will Think Twice After Reading This!

43 years ago, there were some fantastic innovations in the field of science and technology.

1978 was termed to be a viral year for pop culture. Entertainment had its fair share of developments, from disco hits to superhero movies; it was a wild ride for the pop industry and pop culture history.

With so much going around the world today in terms of technology, fashion, science, art, and culture, do you ever wonder if it was all the same years ago? Or was it better before? Let's talk about one such past year, 1978.

1978 was a year that amounted to several hits and misses. Many countries developed nuclear arms, while many introduced new reforms to cater to the fundamental rights of their citizens.

New inventions and breakthroughs happened in the field of science, and we bet you will find it amazing to know just how far we have come. So head straight into the article for more details!

If you find the 1978 facts of United States of America interesting. Why not have a look at the 1977 fun facts and 1980 fun facts.

Economic Policy Changes: China

Forty-three years ago, what do you think was happening around the world?

Well, politically looking, a lot of scandals surrounded the US government as several officials lost their job in bribery and conspiracy scandal while posing themselves as middle Eastern businessmen as they set up a business by the name Abdul Enterprises, Ltd. Israel and Egypt sought to better their relations and secure peace by signing IP the Camp David records in September.

In November, the US performed one of its critical nuclear arms tests and Jimmy Carter was the President during that time.

South Africa, too, had its first nuclear arms test in 1978. Naomi Umera became the first human to reach the North Pole in May 1978.

A popular game by the name Arcade Space Invaders got released in 1978. The game of Space Invaders became so popular that the machines in Arcade corporation took about four billion quarters!

The most remarkable fact, however, was the birth of Louise Brown.

Louise Brown was the first test-tube baby that was born in England, the United Kingdom using in vitro fertilization technique. There is a lot more pop culture news to remember too, but before that, let's look at some of China's economic reforms during 1978.

The Chinese government adopted a 10-year ambitious or rather too ambitious plan in the first half of 1978 and started using all of the resources provided to achieve rapid economic growth. Back then, China lacked detailed information on the economy and so decided to focus on increasing its investment plans.

One of the many economic changes done by China in 1978 was to start participating and contributing to the international economy. They started towards foreign trade, which had been stopped abruptly in the late 1960s and has implemented more diplomatic initiatives for Western countries.

China's economic policies in 1978 were also being reformed for establishing better diplomatic relations with the United States. Four modernization policies focused on the development of agriculture, industry, science, and technology were put as the country's topmost priority and all other tasks below it.

Liberalization policies were being implemented everywhere, but it was more prominent in India, where the economy was being made more flexible by creating policies that expanded the role of foreign and private investment during the early 1980s and late 1970s.

Oil Crisis

1978 was pretty famous for some quirky, witty, and funny quotes too. Some of them include, “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily” by John Belushi, who said this in Nation Lampoon's Animal House.

John Belushi said as Bluto in the same show another popular line “Toga! Toga!” “Food Fight.” “Za Plane! Za Plane Boss!” was told in Fantasy Island by Tatto.

“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son” by John Vernon in the same show National Lampoon's Animal House also became an instant hit among audiences. The hippie dessert duo, Ben and Jerry also decided to open their first ice cream parlor.

Did you know that their first ice cream parlor was opened in Burlington, Vermont, inside a refurbished gas station!

But apart from these happy events was a rather concerning and serious event, the oil crisis. Let's read about that.

An oil crisis had occurred previously in 1973 before the 1978-79 oil crisis. This second crisis was more inclined towards the Iranian revolution and other Middle Eastern events along with a greater oil demand worldwide.

The Oil Crisis was more prominent during 1979 and was also known as the global energy crisis. It was an oil crisis that took place during the Iranian revolution.

The global oil supply was decreased by approximately four percent, and so the crude oil's price drastically increased. In fact, the oil price that year was as high as $39.50 per barrel for a whole year.

Throughout early 1978 the Federal Reserve tried to sustain a healthy monetary policy to combat unemployment and other issues. Still, the rapid rise of oil prices in mid-1979 and almost doubling during April 1979 proved all their policies to be futile.

Amidst this crisis, did you know that $1 in 1978 is now equivalent to $4.24? Which is an increase of about $3.24 in 43 years! So try estimating the present-day cost of eggs that cost 79 cents in 1978 and milk that was prised as 91 cents in 1978.

Development In: Writing, Education And Filmmaking

1978 like any other year, was a mix of strange and happy things. Talking about strange facts, a man called Jim Jones influenced 900 people of a church to commit suicide in Guyana!

Another murder case was the killing of George Moscone and Harvey Milk by Dan White. The court declared Dan White to lack metal capacity from consuming too many twinkies!

Another extraordinary event was the disappearance of pilot Fredrick Valenitch's plane whilst a UFO encounter that was referred by him as strange aircraft. Apart from such strange events, there were many happier moments that involved tremendous development in education, writing, and filmmaking.

Filmmaking was mainly influenced by counter-culture, and so was its development. The Beijing film academy that was closed for a long time reopened in 1978, and several famous figures passed out in the 1980s to make good quality films.

Speaking about writing, several developments in terms of books came to light. Books like 'Success' by Martin Amis, Sitt Marie Rose by Etel Adnan, Jake's Thing by Kingsley Amis, and Parasangada Gendethimma by Srikrishna Alanahalli were instant hits.

Education saw development in 1978 in terms of different policies implemented for the welfare of children. One such was the policy framework of 1978-87 implemented by Jayaprakash Narayan in India. Similar policies were implemented worldwide as well.

Here are some fun facts about 1978 pop culture before you leave!

Tv shows were a rage in 1978, and back-to-back shows of some very popular actors left their mark on the audiences. Shows like 'Charlie's Angel's', 'Three's Company', 'Mork Meets Robin Williams', and 'Happy Days' were immensely loved.

Marlon Brando, a famous actor, was paid a whopping $3.7 million for just twelve shooting days for playing the part of superman's father in the superhero flick 'Superman'. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were adored for their suits in one of the Saturday Night Live sketch.

On the same show, John Travolta was introduced in of their limited edition episodes. In fact, John Travolta was the choice of several movies as the lead actor back in 1978.

In the movies section, the star wars holiday special became a hit. Because of the Star Wars universe, several actors like Bea Arthur, Wookie, and Art Carney became popular. This movie also had the original main actors feature in their episode IV.

Several fashion icons were also popular in 1978 for their impeccable fashion sense. This included Barbara Bach, Loni Anderson, Kim Basinger, Adrienne Barbeau, Dyan Cannon, Kate Jackson, and Valerie Bertinelli. A famous rock star by the name of Keith Moon was reported dead due to an overdose of medicine.

Along with fashion and movies comes music and there were some melodious tracks that 1978 was famous for, let's have a look! 'Shadow Dancing' by Andy Gibb, 'Night Fever' by Bee Gees, 'How Deep Is Your Love', by the singer of Night Fever Bee Gees, and MacArthur Park by Donna Summer was some of the billboard hits.

The Punks' famous band came for their American tour in 1978 to the States and soon after split after their gig in San Francisco.

Tony Brown: American Activist, Television Producer

1978 was also the lucky year for sports as several people won accolades for their home country. In the US, open golf Andy North, won awards in golf at the same time the New York Yankees became the world series champions in baseball.

A rather funny incident that took place was the popularization of nachos as Howard Cosell commented about nachos being his delicious new snack in a Monday night football game.

The noble peace prize found its way to the Israeli prime minister and prime minister of Egypt in 1978. Before we venture into some more 1978 facts, here is a piece about Tony Brown.

William Anthony Brown was a businessman, producer, College Dean of Hampton University, President/CEO, and also an American journalist. As a commentator, William Anthony was very well known for his television show Tony Brown's Journal.

Tony was born on 11 April 1933 in West Virginia. As a child, he was excellent in academics, took part in plays in school. His childhood was completely in segregation and poverty, which later fueled his activism and view on the U.S. Government.

Also, the announcement of the intimate fall tour was made in 1978 by Menachem Begin in October.

Did you know the post-it notes that are such a popular stationary item today were invented in 1978? This product was a part of the marketing campaign, Post N Peel, and was actually a test mode product before becoming famous.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 1978 facts, then why not take a look at 1983 facts, or 1990s facts.