* 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 – 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

* 1979 – Paul Burgess, Australian pole vaulter

* 1979 – Paul Gallacher, Scottish footballer

In 1979, the film was remade for CBS television by Delbert Mann, starring Richard Thomas of The Waltons as Paul Bäumer and Ernest Borgnine as Kat.

Pope John Paul II visited Chicago in 1979 during his first trip ever to the United States after being elected to the Papacy in 1978.

The Eagles gave nods to disco with " One of These Nights " ( 1975 ) and " Disco Strangler " ( 1979 ), Paul McCartney & Wings did " Goodnight Tonight " ( 1979 ), Queen did " Another One Bites the Dust " ( 1980 ), The Rolling Stones did " Miss You " ( 1978 ), Chicago did " Street Player " ( 1979 ), The Beach Boys did " Here Comes the Night " ( 1979 ), The Kinks did "( Wish I Could Fly Like ) Superman " ( 1979 ), and the J. Geils Band did " Come Back " ( 1980 ).

Just a Gigolo ( 1979 ), an Anglo-German co-production directed by David Hemmings, saw Bowie in the lead role as Prussian officer Paul von Przygodski, who, returning from World War I, is discovered by a Baroness ( Marlene Dietrich ) and put into her Gigolo Stable.

8½ inspired among others: Mickey One ( Arthur Penn, 1965 ), Alex in Wonderland ( Paul Mazursky, 1970 ), Beware of a Holy Whore ( Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971 ), Day for Night ( François Truffaut, 1973 ), All That Jazz ( Bob Fosse, 1979 ), Stardust Memories ( Woody Allen, 1980 ), Sogni d ' oro ( Nanni Moretti, 1981 ), Parad Planet ( Vadim Abdrashitov, 1984 ), La Pelicula del rey ( Carlos Sorin, 1986 ), Living in Oblivion ( Tom DiCillo, 1995 ), 8½ Women ( Peter Greenaway, 1999 ), Falling Down ( Joel Schumacher, 1993 ), along with the successful Broadway musical, Nine ( Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit, 1982 ).

He was an important member of the secretive Cambridge Apostles ; Paul Levy wrote Moore: G. E. Moore and the Cambridge Apostles ( 1979 ) about this connection.

* 1979 – Pope John Paul II first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

* 1979 – Jermaine Paul, American singer-songwriter and musician

* 1979 – Paul Weel, Australian race car driver

On 8 June 1979 Pope John Paul II prayed at her sarcophagus ; and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments officially affirmed her beatification on 8 August 1986.

* 1897 – Paul Alverdes, German writer ( d. 1979 )

Mehmet Ali Ağca (; born January 9, 1958 ) is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison.

* 1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.

* 1979 – Paul Burchill, English wrestler

* 1979 – Paul Robinson, English footballer

* 1888 – Paul Popenoe, American activist ( d. 1979 )

* 1979 – F. Paul Wilson, Wheels Within Wheels