July 1978

The following events occurred in July 1978:

• Born:
  • Mark Hunter, British rower and 2008 Olympic gold medalist; in Forest Gate, Greater London
  • Aleki Lutui, Tongan rugby union player in the New Zealand league, with 38 caps for the Tonga national team; in Tofoa
• Died: General Kurt Student, 88, Nazi German Luftwaffe officer and convicted war criminal known for creating the Fallschirmjäger paratrooper force and for the 1941 massacre of civilians on Crete

• Born:
  • Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of Estonia from 2016 to 2021; in Tallinn, Estonian SSR, Soviet Union
  • Ganesh Kishan, Indian film actor, winner of two Filmfare Best Actor awards; in Adakamaranahalli, Nelamangala, Karnataka state^[1]

• The Amazon Co-operation Treaty (ACT) was signed.
• Born: Mizuki Noguchi, Japanese long-distance runner and 2004 Olympics women's marathon gold medalist; in Shizuoka Prefecture

• Born: Becki Newton, American actress known for Ugly Betty and The Lincoln Lawyer; in New Haven, Connecticut^[2]

• Born: Nandamuri Kalyan Ram, Indian Telugu cinema film actor and producer known for 118; in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh^[3]

• Born: Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry, American actresses known for Sister, Sister; at Coleman Kaserne U.S. Army Base in Gelnhausen, West Germany^[4]
• Died: Pietro Montana, 88, Italian-born American sculptor

• The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
• Francisco Mendes, Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau since its independence in 1973, was killed in a car accident.

• Born: Erin Morgenstern, American novelist known for The Night Circus; in Marshfield, Massachusetts^[5]

• Abd ar-Razzaq an-Naif, an former Iraqi military officer who was a vocal opponent of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, and who had served as Prime Minister of Iraq for two weeks in 1968, was shot and mortally wounded by members of Saddam's Mukhabarat secret police as he was leaving the Intercontinental Hotel in London. He died the next day.^[6]
• Born:
  • Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, Russian distance runner, gold medalist in the women's 3000m steeplechase competition in the 2008 Olympics, holder of the women's world record from 2003 to 2016; in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
  • Linda Park, South Korean-born American TV actress best known for her portrayal of Hoshi Sato in Star Trek: Enterprise; in Seoul^[7]

• Born: Ray Kay (stage name for Reinert K. Olsen), Norwegian photographer and video director, MTV Video Music Award winner; in Haugesund.

• The explosion of a tanker-truck at a campsite killed 217 tourists in Spain at Costa Daurada.^[8]
• Born:
  • Kim Kang-woo, South Korean film and TV actor known for The Taste of Money and the show The Missing
  • Mattias Gustafsson, Swedish team handball player with 20 caps for the Sweden national team

• Born:
  • Topher Grace (Christopher John Grace), American TV and film actor known for That 70s Show; in New York City
  • Michelle Rodriguez, American film actor known as the female lead in The Fast and the Furious and its sequels; in San Antonio, Texas

• Born: Gary David, Philippine pro basketball player who led the Philippine Basketball Association in scoring for four consecutive years from 2009 to 2013; in Dinalupihan

• Henri Maïdou took office as the last Prime Minister of the Central African Empire, after being appointed by the Emperor Bokassa.^[9] Upon the overthrow of Bokassa and the restoration of the Central African Republic a year later, Maïdou became Vice President in the regime of President David Dacko.
• Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by 10 years in a labor camp, after insisting that the Soviet Union should abide by its commitments in the 1975 Helsinki Accords to improve human rights. Shcharansky was convicted of "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" and on a lesser degree of treason under Articles 70 and 64-a of the penal code for his activity in the Moscow Helsinki Group.^[10]
• Entertainment and Sports Programming, Inc., was incorporated in the U.S. state of Connecticut, with Bill Rasmussen as Chairman of the Board of Directors and with a stated purpose of creating a cable television network for sports telecasts. The network would be launched on September 7, 1979 as ESPN.^[11]
• Died: Maria Grinberg, 69, Soviet Russian pianist^[12]

• "The Longest Walk", a project of the American Indian Movement in support of tribal sovereignty and protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples of the United States, was completed after 205 days and a journey of more than 3,200 miles (5,100 km) from San Francisco to Washington D.C.. After starting on February 11 with a ceremony at Alcatraz Island off of the coast of San Francisco, the walk was completed with a rally of several thousand people in front of the Washington Monument. The U.S. Congress followed by withdrawing several proposed bills from consideration, and the approval of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act by both the House and the Senate on July 27, followed by the signing of the bill into law by U.S. President Carter on August 11.^[13]
• Born: Yuri Nikitin, Ukrainian gymnast and 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the trampolining event; in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union^[14]
• Died: Matthew Walker Sr., 71, African-American surgeon^[15]

• Pope Paul VI, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, became seriously ill at his summer residence at the Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the day after meeting with Italy's President Sandro Pertini. The 80-year-old Pontiff's condition worsened over the next three weeks and he would die on August 6.^[16]

• Born: Justine Triet, French film director known for Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall); in Fecamp, Seine-Maritime departement

• Born:
  • Shane Horgan, Irish rugby union player with 65 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team; in Bellewstown, County Meath
  • Joo Sang-wook, South Korean TV actor known for Special Affairs Team TEN; in Seoul

• Born: Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir, Somali government official, Director of Somalia's HSNQ intelligence agency 2019 to 2021, National Security Advisor tp the President from 2021 to 2022; in Mandera, Kenya^[17]
• 'Died: Malcolm Galloway, 91, founder of the New Zealand Red Cross

• Born: Pavel Datsyuk, Russian ice hockey star and captain of the Russian national team who appeared in five consecutive Winter Olympics (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018), winner of three consecutive Frank J. Selke Trophy awards and four consecutive Lady Byng Memorial Trophy awards in the National Hockey League; in Yekaterinburg (now Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

• Born: Kyoko Iwasaki, Japanese swimmer and 1992 Olympic gold medalist, at age 14 in the 200m breaststroke; in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture

• Born:
  • A. J. Cook (Andrea Joy Cook), Canadian TV actress known for portraying Agent JJ Jareau for more than 15 years on the American crime drama Criminal Minds; in Oshawa, Ontario
  • Dennis Rommedahl, Danish footballer with 126 caps for the Denmark national team; in Copenhagen

• Born: Stefanie Sun (stage name for Sng Ee Tze), popular Singaporean singer, songwriter and actress; in Singapore

• In Acapulco, Mexico, Margaret Gardiner of South Africa was crowned Miss Universe.

• Louise Brown became the first human being to be born after conception through in vitro fertilization, and the original "test tube baby", was delivered at Oldham General Hospital in the British city of Oldham in Greater Manchester.^[18]

• Born:
  • Eve Myles, Welsh TV actress and the female lead in the BBC series Torchwood; in Ystradgynlais, Powys
  • Jehad Muntasser, Libyan footballer with 34 caps for the Libya national team; in Tripoli.

• In the city of Marathwada in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Hindu residents began a riot after the state government had approved the renaming of Marathwada University to "Ambedkar University", in honor of B. R. Ambedkar, a hero among the Dalit caste, formerly referred to as the "untouchables". At least 27 people, mostly Dalits, were killed and the approval of the name change was revoked.^[19] The continued agitation for the renaming of the university would continue until 1994, when a compromise settled on the name "Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University".^[20]

• The 100-member Asamblea Constituyente of Peru opened its first session after being assembled by General Francisco Morales Bermudez, the president of Peru, to write a new constitution to facilitate the South American nation's transition back to democracy after a decade of military rule.
• Voters in the Maldives overwhelmingly approved the installation of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, with almost 93% agreeing that he should be the successor of President Ibrahim Nasir.^[21]

• Carlos Menem, formerly the Governor of Argentina's La Rioja Province was released from the Magdalena prison more than two years after he had been arrested on charges of corruption following the 1976 overthrow of President Isabel Perón.^[22] In 1989, after the restoration of democracy, Menem would be elected as the President of Argentina and serve for more than 10 years, until 1999. Menem would later be arrested on charges of embezzlement in 2001 and 2013, being placed under house arrest each time.^[23]

• On the Japanese island of Okinawa, residents returned to driving on the left side of the road, the law in the rest of Japan, more than 43 years after of having been switched to right-hand traffic when the island had been under American control.
• Convicted murderers Randy Greenawalt and Gary Gene Tison, both serving life sentences at Florence State Prison in the U.S. state of Arizona, was able to escape with the aid of Tison's three sons, Donald, Ricky and Raymond, who were not searched when they arrived for a visit.^[24] Once inside, two of the Tison brothers pulled out a shotgun from a cardboard box they had carried inside. The next day, the escapees murdered a family of four, including two children. After 12 days on the lam, Greenawalt and two of the Tison brothers were captured; Gary Tison fled the scene but was later found dead. Greenawalt would be executed at Florence State Prison in 1997, while the surviving Tyson brothers would have their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
• Farnum Fish, 81, American airplane pilot known as "The Boy Aviator" for having been a licensed pilot at age 15.^[25]

• In Burma (now Myanmar), Operation Nagamin, the forced expulsion of the minority Rohingya people in Arakan State (now Rakhine state) to Bangladesh ended as Burma and Bangladesh signed a repatriation agreement moderated by the United Nations and the International Red Cross. The Burmese military operation had started on February 6 and as many as 250,000 people were forced to flee. After the signing of the pact, more than 180,000 returned from Bangladesh to Burma.^[26]
• Royal assent was given in the United Kingdom to the Scotland Act 1978, providing for residents of Scotland to vote on limited self-government.^[27] The Act also required that at least 40 percent of Scotland's registered voters had to approve of the change in law, rather than a majority of voters who participated in the referendum. The voting, held on March 1, 1979, showed that 51.6% voted yes, but less than 2.4 million of Scotland's 3.7 million registered voters particpated, so the approval was by less than one-third of the electorate.
• North Korean agents kidnapped Kaoru Hasuike and his girlfriend, Yukiko Okudo, from a beach in the town of Kashiwazaki in Japan's Niigata Prefecture, and kept them for the next 24 years.^[28] The two, who married and had children, were allowed to visit Japan in 2002 while North Korea held their daughter and son as hostages. Hasuike and Okudo elected to remain in Japan, and the two children would be allowed to leave two years later. Hasuike would later publish a memoir, Abduction and My Decision, recounting his experience.^[29]
• Born:
  • Tui T. Sutherland, Venezuelan-born American children's book author known for the Wings of Fire series; in Caracas^[30]
  • Will Champion, English drummer for the rock band Coldplay; in Southampton, Hampshire^[31]
• Died: Enoch Light, 70, American dance band leader ^[32]