In December 1979 Lynch announced his resignation as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.

Nonetheless, on 11 December 1979, Charles Haughey was elected Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, almost a decade after the Arms Crisis nearly destroyed his political career.

He was the third leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 until 1979, succeeding the hugely influential Seán Lemass.

Lynch agreed to this and resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil on 5 December 1979, assured that Colley had the votes necessary to win.

He supported George Colley for Taoiseach in the Fianna Fáil leadership contest of 1979, but after Colley's opponent Charles Haughey won out, Haughey still retained Burke in his government position.

In 1979, following Jack Lynch's resignation as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, two candidates fought in the leadership election, George Colley and Charles Haughey.

He was defeated twice for the leadership of Fianna Fáil in 1966 and 1979.

In 1979, Fianna Fáil's economic policies were derailed due to strikes, higher wage demands, and the 1979 energy crisis.

In December 1979, Jack Lynch resigned unexpectedly as Taoiseach and as Fianna Fáil leader.

At the 1979 European elections Blaney topped the poll in the Connacht – Ulster constituency to the annoyance of Fianna Fáil.

Geoghegan-Quinn supported Charles Haughey in the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership election, she was subsequently appointed to the cabinet post of Minister for the Gaeltacht.

In December 1979 Jack Lynch resigned as Taoiseach and as Fianna Fáil leader.

In 1979 Lynch suddenly announced his resignation as Taoiseach and as Fianna Fáil leader.

In the December 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership contest, McCreevy strongly supported the controversial Charles Haughey who narrowly won the post.

Flynn was a supporter of Charles Haughey in the 1979 Fianna Fáil leadership contest.

He stood as a Fianna Fáil candidate at the 1979 local elections.

In 1979 Jack Lynch suddenly announced his resignation as Taoiseach and as Fianna Fáil leader.

He became involved in politics at a young age and became a member of Louth County Council in 1979 as a Fianna Fáil representative.

In 1979 Brennan supported George Colley in the Fianna Fáil leadership contest, caused by the retirement of Jack Lynch.

Charles Haughey had become Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil at the end of 1979, Garret FitzGerald was the new leader of Fine Gael and Frank Cluskey was in charge of the Labour Party.

She was the only female cabinet minister in Irish history until 1979 when Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was appointed to the then junior cabinet post of Minister for the Gaeltacht for Fianna Fáil.

In 1979 Jack Lynch suddenly resigned as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.

In 1979 Molloy supported George Colley in the Fianna Fáil leadership contest.

Later that year, she was one of the Fianna Fáil TDs who criticised the policies of Taoiseach Jack Lynch in relation to Northern Ireland and was a prominent supporter of Charles Haughey, who succeeded him as Taoiseach in December 1979.

In December 1979 Jack Lynch announced his resignation as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader.

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

Following Labour's 1979 general election defeat by Margaret Thatcher, James Callaghan remained party leader for the next 18 months before he resigned and Foot was elected Labour leader on 4 November 1980, beating Denis Healey in the second round of the leadership election ( the last leadership contest to involve only Labour MPs ).

Trudeau announced his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader ; however, before a leadership convention could be held, Clark's government was defeated in the Canadian House of Commons by a Motion of Non-Confidence, in mid-December, 1979.

The victory of the Sandinista National Liberation Front ( FSLN ) in 1979 brought about major changes and gains for women, mainly in legislation, broad educational opportunities, training programs for working women, childcare programs to help women enter the work force and greatly increased participation and even leadership positions in a whole range of political activities.

In 1979 al-Bakr started to make treaties with Syria, also under Ba ' athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two countries.

< imagemap > File: 1970s decade montage. png | From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974 ; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 ; The 1973 oil crisis puts the nation of America in gridlock ; Both the leaders of Israel and Egypt shake hands after the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 ; The 1970 Bhola cyclone kills an estimated 500, 000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan in November 1970 ; The Iranian Revolution of 1979 transformed Iran from an autocratic pro-western monarchy to a theocratic Islamist government under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ; The popularity of the disco music genre peaked during the middle to late 1970s .| 420px | thumb

* The Iranian Revolution of 1979 transformed Iran from an autocratic pro-western monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to a theocratic Islamist government under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

* Margaret Thatcher who had been the United Kingdom's Prime Minister since 1979 resigned as Prime Minister on 22 November 1990 after being challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by Michael Heseltine because of widespread opposition to the introduction of the controversial Community Charge and the fact that her key allies such as Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe resigned over the deeply sensitive issues of the Maastricht Treaty and Margaret Thatcher's resistance to Britain joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

The Soviet Union declared its plan to intervene in Afghanistan on 12 December 1979, and the Soviet leadership initiated Operation Storm-333 ( the first phase of the intervention ) on 27 December 1979.

Under Col. Houari Boumediène ( 1965 – 1979 ) state and army leadership was joined under his dominant and highly authoritarian presidency, but after his death, factionalization and rivalries within the military and political élites has been a major factor in Algerian politics.

When Pierre Trudeau resigned as Liberal leader in 1979 following an election loss, Turner announced that he would not be a candidate for the Liberal leadership.

He became shadow Attorney-General under the leadership of Frank Wilkes, but when Wilkes lost the 1979 election to the Liberal premier, Dick Hamer, Cain challenged him for the leadership, becoming leader in September 1981.

Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the newly-born Islamic Republic, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, dramatically reversed the pro-Western foreign policy of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

As entry into the Western Empire's military was a frequently-used option for " losers of struggles for leadership among the barbarians ", and Ricimer's family would have thus entered the service of Rome .< ref > Sister: Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, ( 1979 ) 1988: 33, following Martindale, Prosopography, 2: 524f ; daughter: Wolfram 1988: 202.

Hewitt's original gondola from Maple Leaf Gardens was dismantled, then dumped into an incinerator in August 1979 to make room for private boxes, under the MLG leadership of Harold Ballard.

In 1979, under the leadership of Pastor J. D. Langford of the First United Pentecostal Church, the Kennett Christian Academy opened its doors with a student body of sixty.

* Also see Rose, Gregory F. " The Swarmy Life and Times of the NCLC ," National Review, March 30, 1979, and Reich, September 21, 1977: " Three and four years ago, the tiny U. S. Labor Party, preaching Marxist revolution, was engaged in a bitter fight with the Communist Party over which was a purer representative of left-wing tradition .< p >" But now the Labor Party, under the same leadership, has moved to the right, has joined with persons in the South who are heirs to George C. Wallace's American Independent Party tradition, is soliciting help from orthodox Republicans and even had an information table at a big GOP fund-raising dinner in the Biltmore here last month.

Lynch's retirement in 1979 saw a leadership battle between Charles Haughey ( the radical republican candidate ) and George Colley ( the party establishment candidate ).