Male Opera Marcus Patrick

Events in 1979 and 17-8

Events in the world in the birth year of Marcus Patrick

• 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 Marcus Patrick (17-8) in history

• Day 17-8 year 1807: Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, began its trip up the Hudson River to Albany.
• Day 17-8 year 1863: Fort Sumter, S.C. was bombarded by Union ships during the Civil War.
• Day 17-8 year 1896: Prospectors found gold in Alaska, a discovery that set off the Klondike gold rush.
• Day 17-8 year 1945: Indonesian nationalists proclaimed independence from the Netherlands.
• Day 17-8 year 1962: 18-year-old Peter Fechter was shot and killed by guards at the Berlin Wall, spurring riots.
• Day 17-8 year 1969: Hurricane Camille devastated the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people.
• Day 17-8 year 1978: The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight landed outside of Paris.
• Day 17-8 year 1987: Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's second in command, committed suicide.
• Day 17-8 year 2008: U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal, breaking the record set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Games. Phelps also set the record for the most golds in a single Olympics.