* 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

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the new Islamic government of Iran began an international campaign of assassination that lasted into the 1990s.

Both the F-14 Tomcat and AIM-54 Phoenix missile continue in the service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, although the operational abilities of these aircraft and the missiles are questionable, since the US refused to supply spare parts and maintenance after the 1979 revolution ; except for a brief period during the Iran-Contra Affair.

; AIM-54A: The original model that became operational with the U. S. Navy in about 1974, and it was also exported to Iran in modest numbers before the Iran hostage crisis beginning in 1979.

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 ).

However, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Egypt's relations with Iran have been mostly strained.

* 1979 – The Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.

* 1979 – Islamic revolution of Iran establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Iran hostage crisis of 1979 – 80 marked a major turning point in the use of the term " fundamentalism ".

The Republic was controlled by Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003, into which period falls into the war with Iran and the Gulf War.

Although the reasons for Saddam Husayn's decision to invade Iran were complicated, the leaders of the Baath Party had long resented Iranian hegemony in the Persian Gulf region and had especially resented the perceived Iranian interference in Iraq's internal affairs both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fuelled by fears of Shia Islam insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

* 1979 – The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.

* 1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100, 000 member strong Jewish community of Iran.

The Basij militia founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in November 1979 is composed of 10, 000 regular soldiers, and ultimately draws from about 11 million members, and is subordinate to their Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

* 1979 – Iran hostage crisis: in response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.

* 1979 – Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.

* 1979 – Iran hostage crisis begins: a group of Iranians, mostly students, invades the US embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages ( 53 of whom are American ).

Sometimes called " The Sport of Kings ", it was started by Persians, and was popular in Iran until 1979, after which its popularity there declined sharply due to the Iranian Revolution.

In Iran, the 1979 revolution overthrew the monarchy and created an Islamic Republic based the ideas of Islamic democracy.