* 1911 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, Nobel laureate ( d. 1979 )

* 1979 – Sam Atwell, Australian actor

* 1979 – Christine Smith, American model and actress

* 1979 – Lord Frederick Windsor, British financial analyst

* 1907 – Hardie Gramatky, American author and animator ( d. 1979 )

* 1979 – Claire Danes, American actress

* 1979 – Jordan De Jong, American baseball player

* 1979 – Elena Grosheva, Russian gymnast

* 1979 – Mateja Kežman, Serbian footballer

* 1979 – Jennifer Morrison, American actress and model

* 1979 – Paul Nicholls, English actor

* 1979 – Cristian Ranalli, Italian footballer

* 1979 – Gerardo Torrado, Mexican footballer

* 1979 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland.

* 1886 – Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist ( d. 1979 )

* 1979 – Giovanni Capitello, American actor and producer

* 1979 – Tian Liang, Chinese diver

* 1979 – Sarah Neufeld, Canadian violinist ( Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre )

* 1979 – Aaron Paul, American actor

* 1979 – Rusty Smith, American speed skater

* 1979 – Francesco Bellotti, Italian cyclist

* 1979 – Megumi Okina, Japanese actress and singer

* 1929 – Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist ( d. 1979 )

* 1979 – Michael Kingma, Australian basketball player

* 1979 – Tony Stewart, American football player

The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 March 1979 of Airey Neave, one of Margaret Thatcher's closest political supporters.

Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, DSO, OBE, MC ( 23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979 ) was a British soldier, barrister and politician.

Airey Neave was killed on 30 March 1979, when a magnetic car bomb fitted with a ball bearing tilt switch exploded under his Vauxhall Cavalier at 2: 58 p. m. as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster car park.

It was the first assassination of an MP since Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in 1812 and the last until Airey Neave ’ s assassination by the INLA in 1979.

Neave was assassinated in 1979 in a car-bomb attack at the House of Commons.

* 1979 – Anthony Davidson, British race car driver

Nicaragua's legal system also is a mixture of the English Common Law and the Civil Law through the influence of British administration of the Eastern half of the country from the mid-17th century until about 1905, the William Walker period from about 1855 through 1857, USA interventions / occupations during the period from 1909 to 1933, the influence of USA institutions during the Somoza family administrations ( 1933 through 1979 ) and the considerable importation between 1979 and the present of USA culture and institutions.

Rick Dees, at the time a radio DJ in Memphis, Tennessee, recorded " Disco Duck " ( 1976 ) and " Dis-Gorilla " ( 1977 ); Frank Zappa parodied the lifestyles of disco dancers in " Dancin ' Fool " on his 1979 Sheik Yerbouti album, and " Disco Boy " on his 1976 Zoot Allures album ; and " Weird Al " Yankovic's 1981 eponymous debut album includes a disco song called " Gotta Boogie ", an extended pun on the similarity of the disco subgenre name " boogie " to the American slang word " booger " and its British counterpart " bogey ".

Following the fall of the Shah of Iran and the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979 – 1980, the West became concerned with ensuring the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, and the US received permission for a $ 400 million expansion of the military facilities on Diego Garcia consisting of two parallel runways, expansive parking aprons for heavy bombers, 20 new anchorages in the lagoon, a deep water pier, port facilities for the largest naval vessels in the US or British fleet, aircraft hangars, maintenance buildings and an air terminal, a fuel storage area, and billeting and messing facilities for thousands of sailors and support personnel.

Notable violations of embassy extraterritoriality include repeated invasions of the British Embassy, Beijing ( 1967 ), the Iran hostage crisis ( 1979 – 1981 ), the Japanese embassy hostage crisis at the ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru ( 1996 ), the overrunning of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Egypt ( 2011 ).

The European Democratic Group ( ED ) was formed on 17 July 1979 by British Conservative, Danish Conservative and other MEPs after their success in the 1979 elections.

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma ( born Prince Louis of Battenberg ; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979 ), was a British statesman and naval officer, an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and second cousin once removed to Elizabeth II.

In the 1970s and 1980s, British studios established a reputation for great special effects in films such as Superman ( 1978 ), Alien ( 1979 ), and Batman ( 1989 ).

* 1911 – Merle Oberon, British actress ( d. 1979 )

* 1979 – Lucy Brown, British actress

In the words of his biographer, Pei has won " every award of any consequence in his art ", including the Arnold Brunner Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters ( 1963 ), the Gold Medal for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters ( 1979 ), the AIA Gold Medal ( 1979 ), the first Praemium Imperiale for Architecture from the Japan Art Association ( 1989 ), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and the 2010 Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

* 1979 – Jonathan Greening, British footballer

* 1979 – Rosamund Pike, British actress

He was British Sidecar Champion in 1979 and 1980 at Donington Park.

Around the same time, he appeared in two episodes of a twist-in-the-tale episode of the British TV series, Tales of the Unexpected, with Wendy Hiller ( 1979 ), and Gloria Grahame ( 1980 ).

This huge success of the Krugerrand encouraged other gold-producing countries to mint and issue gold bullion coins of their own, including the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf in 1979, the Australian Nugget in 1981, the Chinese Gold Panda in 1982, the American Gold Eagle in 1986, and the British Britannia coin in 1987.

Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film written, directed and largely performed by the Monty Python comedy team.

The film was a box-office success, grossing fourth-highest of any film in the UK in 1979 and highest of any British film in the United States that year.

Malden was incorporated in the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972, and included in the portion of the colony which became the Republic of Kiribati in 1979.

After substantially increased financial contributions from several NATO countries ( including the United States ), British forces remained in Malta until 1979.