360What happened in 1979?
4 moments from 1979 on 360n60, each told in 60 words or fewer.
- On this day · 5 March 1979
Voyager 1 flies past Jupiter
On 5 March 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter. It revealed volcanoes erupting on the moon Io, the first active volcanoes seen beyond Earth, and faint rings around the planet. Voyager 1 later left the solar system and is the most distant human-made object.
- On this day · 8 March 1979
Philips shows the compact disc
On 8 March 1979, the Dutch company Philips demonstrated a prototype compact disc player to the press in Eindhoven. Developed with Sony, the CD stored music as digital code read by a laser, with no hiss or scratches. CDs went on sale in 1982 and became the main way to buy music for two decades.
- On this day · 12 June 1979
A pedal-powered plane flies across the English Channel
On 12 June 1979, the cyclist Bryan Allen pedalled the Gossamer Albatross, a very light aircraft with a propeller driven by bicycle pedals, from England to France. The 36 km flight took almost three hours and won a prize for the first human-powered crossing of the Channel.
- 1979 · from The first call from a handheld mobile phone
The first automated cellular network launches in Japan