By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
January 24, 2005
09:10 AM EST (14:10 GMT)
As a nationwide television audience witnessed the first live flag-to-flag coverage of a 500-mile race, Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison smashed into each other while going for the lead on the final lap, leaving a surprised Richard Petty to cross the finish line the victor in the 21st Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 1979.  |  | NASCAR ACCELERATION | |
| ALSO IN 1979 ... |
| • | At the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty (March 26) |
| • | Ugandan dictator Idi Amin overthrown; Tanzania takes Kampala (April 11) |
| • | Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister (May 4) |
| • | a national guard soldier in Nicaragua kills ABC TV news correspondent Bill Stewart and his interpreter Juan Espinosa. Other members of the news crew capture the killing on tape (June 20) |
| • | A "Disco Demolition Night" publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers (July 12) |
Courtesy: Wikipedia
|
|
Buddy Arrington's Dodge was the only Chrysler product in the 41-car field. On Sept. 7, the Chrysler Corporation asked the U.S. government for $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy. "The Dukes of Hazzard" premiered in 1979, with Tom Wopat and John Schneider starring alongside a 1969 Dodge Charger nicknamed "General Lee." Earle Canavan drove an No. 01 that season, finishing 39th in the Southern 500 with an oil leak. The average price of a new home had reached $71,800 by 1979, so Petty could have used his first-place check for $73,900 to pay off the construction -- and cover the closing costs. With the prime lending rate nearing 15 percent by the end of the year (and inflation at a record 13.3 percent), a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 18 percent and no money down would have cost him $389,552.40. "The Amityville Horror", a movie about a family in a new home built on the site of multiple murders, grossed $86,432,520 in 1979. If Petty had driven from Level Cross, N.C. to Amityville, N.Y., the 592-mile trip would have taken nearly 11 hours at freeway speeds -- or four hours and seven minutes at Petty's winning race average of 143.977 mph. Gas prices also jumped in 1979, starting the year at around 50 cents a gallon and finishing at over $1. Gloria Gaynor's disco anthem "I Will Survive" is on the charts on Feb. 18. When people weren't looking at their quickly dwindling checkbook balances and rapidly rising prices at the pump, they were focused on the events in the Middle East. On Jan. 16, after a year of turmoil, the Shah of Iran left the country and relocated in Egypt. Two weeks later, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile. On Feb. 3, he created the Council of the Islamic Revolution. One week later, the Iranian army mutinied and joined the revolution. On Feb. 11, Khomeini seized power. In July, Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigned and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaced him, setting the stage for the Iran-Irag War that would begin one year later. On Nov. 4, nearly 3,000 Iranians overwhelmed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages, 63 of whom are American. Within 10 days, President Jimmy Carter halted oil imports from Iran and froze Iranian assets in U.S. banks. On Nov. 17, Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black hostages. In 1979, Liverpool hairdressers Mike Score and Frank Maudsley form a band around a synthesizer. In 1982, they hit the charts with "I Ran (So Far Away)." Space was a welcome respite in 1979. On March 5, Voyager I passed Jupiter. On March 25, Space Shuttle Columbia was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center for its first launch. In September, Pioneer 11 passed Saturn. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" earned $82 million at the box office. Atari released "Asteroids," a game originally designed for a handheld computer system called Cosmos. It became Atari's all-time best-seller, in part because players could enter their initials after recording a high score. Nearly 80,000 units were sold in the United States Former U.S. attorney general John Mitchell and former SLA member Patty Hearst were released from prison in 1979. Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" was No. 1 on the charts in 1979. In the spring of 1979, a movie about the possibility of a meltdown at a nuclear power plant -- "The China Syndrome" -- hit theaters. On March 28, a nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., released a small amount of radiation into the air. Current drivers born in 1979:
•Chad Blount (Sept. 4)
•Clint Bowyer (May 30)
•Carl Edwards (Aug. 15)
•Jason White (June 5) → Click here for more Daytona Countdown | 
