Cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley

Events in 1979 and 21-2

Events in the world in the birth year of Bryan Lee O'Malley

• Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce fall of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and collapse of Pol Pot regime (Jan. 7).
• Shah leaves Iran after year of turmoil (Jan. 16); revolutionary forces under Muslim leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, take over (Feb. 1 et seq.).
• Conservatives win British election; Margaret Thatcher becomes new prime minister (May 3).
• Carter and Brezhnev sign SALT II agreement (June 14).
• Nicaraguan President General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami (July 17); Sandinistas form government (July 19).
• Iranian militants seize US embassy in Teheran and hold hostages (Nov. 4).
• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan stirs world protests (Dec. 27).

Birthday Bryan Lee O'Malley (21-2) in history

• Day 21-2 year 1613: Michael Romanov was elected Tsar of Russia, marking the beginning of the Romanov Empire
• Day 21-2 year 1878: The first telephone book was issued (New Haven, Conn.).
• Day 21-2 year 1916: Battle of Verdun, the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements of World War I, began.
• Day 21-2 year 1965: Black nationalist leader Malcolm X was assassinated.
• Day 21-2 year 1972: President Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit China.
• Day 21-2 year 1995: Steve Fossett became the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean solo in a balloon.
• Day 21-2 year 2002: It was confirmed that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was dead, allegedly murdered by Islamic militants.
• Day 21-2 year 2012: Eurozone finance ministers reached an agreement on a second, 130-billion bailout for Greece to help with the country's debt crisis.