How Do We Solve Today’s Most Intractable Global Problems? Some Answers May Be Found in 1979.

Each day over the course of 2019, I have read The New York Times archive from 1979, tweeting front-page, headline news as events unfolded forty years prior.

Much has changed over the past four decades and, somewhat surprisingly, much has remained the same. 

Although the specific characters in 2019 — heroes and villains, peacemakers and warmongers, elected officials and their critics, etc. — have fresh identities, they are in many respects the same men and women who filled those roles back when Barack Obama was still an 18-year-old student and Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” was topping the popular music charts.

What can the study of history teach us? 

For one thing, very few important developments are without precedent. The dire warnings of global catastrophe that emanated back in 1979 did not, for the most part, come to pass. Forty years from now, will the naysayers of 2019 be any more accurate in their prognostications?

"For 2020, I am examining front-page headlines in The New York Times from 75 years ago - 1945. You can join me in looking at the news from this momentous year on Twitter, here."

How did those facing “intractable” problems four decades back wind up managing them? And can we profit from a review of their successes and failures?

The world, thankfully, is a lot more resilient than we sometimes credit it. As we enter a new year and a new decade, we can do so comforted by the knowledge that like our parents, grandparents, and all those who came before them, we will use our inspiration, motivation, creativity, and common experience to guide us through the many storms we now face.

In looking back, rest assured, we can look forward to finding wise guidance for the present and future.

These were some of the biggest news stories and newsmakers from 1979:

Iran

Photo: Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran. www.wsj.com

The Iranian Revolution dominated news headlines throughout the year. When 1979 started, the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was still in power, but his hold was tenuous. By the time January was over, the Shah had fled to Egypt, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had returned from his French exile to seize control of the country.

Despite some initial tension, with recently installed Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar refusing to yield control of the government to the Ayatollah, by the end of February - with the support of the army - the Ayatollah was in charge of Iran. 

[In a twist of fate, Bakhtiar entered exile in France, not far from where the Ayatollah had been living. In 1991, Bakhtiar was assassinated by Iranian agents at his home, while under police protection.]

A wave of political executions followed in Iran. While initially targeting members of the Shah’s government, the new Iranian regime started executing civilians in May, including Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian.

The Iranians spent the summer and fall fighting rebellious minorities, including the Kurds, Arabs, and Azerbaijanis.

"1979 was also a year of deep sorrow and combat in Rhodesia."

In October, the deposed Shah flew to the United States for medical treatment - originally said to be for a gallbladder procedure, but soon revealed to be cancer treatment.

In protest, on November 4, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran, taking embassy workers hostage. For the rest of the year, the saga of the hostages, as well as the deteriorating state of U.S.-Iranian relations, was front-page news.

Initially, the Iranian government pledged to help the United States get the hostages safely home. Soon, the veneer fell away. Within a week, Ayatollah Khomeini had fired his civilian, West-leaning, prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan. The position of prime minister would go unfilled until August 1980.

While Iran initially continued to export oil to the United States, President Jimmy Carter soon rejected Iranian oil and froze Iranian assets in the U.S. ($400 million were unfrozen during the presidency of Barack Obama, with a promised interest payment of $1.3 billion).

As 1979 came to a close, the hostages had yet to be freed, even though the Shah left the United States for Panama (he would eventually return to the U.S., where he died in July 1980). Despite initially letting some outside visitors see the hostages (including U.S. Representative George Hansen (R-ID), and three American clergy members at Christmas), relations between the two countries would not improve, with Iran threatening spy trials for the hostages.

On the last day of 1979, UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim departed on a diplomatic mission to Iran that would ultimately fail. On April 7, 1980, the United States and Iran formally severed ties.

The hostages wouldn’t be freed until January 20, 1981.

The Economy

The United States faced rampant inflation throughout 1979. The inflation rate rose 0.9% from January 1 to January 31, and 10.2% in the year ending in March 1979. Paul Volcker, the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, was named by Carter in July 1979 to lead the Federal Reserve Board. Volcker’s policies succeeded in combating inflation, but not until the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Volcker died in December 2019.

The United States also faced an oil shortage for much of the year. This led to long lines at the pumps and federal regulations on the industry and on usage.

"Carter lost re-election in 1980. Forty years later, it’s not clear that the same will happen to President Trump."

President Carter sparred with his own Department of Energy, firing Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger in July. Earlier that month, President Carter, in a nationally televised (and much-maligned) address, promised the American people that they were only facing a “crisis of confidence.” Perhaps intending to invoke President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural address, in which Roosevelt promised “the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror,” Carter’s “malaise” speech, as it came to be called (he never actually used that word) seemed to blame the American people for the country’s woes.

In response to the energy crisis, Congress ultimately passed an oil windfall profit tax in April 1980, a year after Carter first proposed it in combination with an end to industry price controls.

Three Mile Island

Photo: President Carter visits Three Mile Island. www.papost.org

The nuclear facility at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, suffered a partial meltdown on March 28. President Carter visited the facility on April 1, before the radiation had been contained (it clearly did not impact his health - Carter, now aged 95, is still alive 40 years later).

The meltdown was deemed a regulatory failure, and politicians debated the safety of nuclear energy. The facility remained operational until its closure in September 2019.

China and Taiwan

On January 1, 1979, the United States officially recognized communist China, not nationalist Taiwan, as the legitimate government of mainland China. Furthermore, President Carter abrogated the U.S.’s mutual-defense treaty with Taiwan without Congressional authorization and asserted that there was no need for the U.S. to codify any security aid to Taiwan because Carter supported Taiwan’s people. 

As of 2019, the U.S. still does not recognize Taiwanese independence, although ties between the two have significantly warmed under the presidency of Donald J. Trump.

1980 Election

Photo: Senator Kennedy challenged President Carter for the 1980 Democratic Party nomination. www.time.com

Hanging over President Carter throughout the entire year was the threat of a primary challenge (which materialized on November 7) by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and concerns about losing in the 1980 general election. 

Kennedy failed to gain the party nomination (although he did receive Secret Service protection for much of the campaign). Ultimately, President Carter lost the 1980 general election to former Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA), who declared his candidacy on November 13.

Other national leaders who, in 1979, declared their candidacy for the presidency included: 

• Former Texas Governor John Connally (January 24)
• U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut (March 12)
• Former CIA Director George Bush (May 1)
• U.S. Senator Bob Dole of Kansas (May 14)
• U.S. Congressman John Anderson of Illinois (June 8)

Presidential Cabinet

President Carter, seeking to refresh his beleaguered presidency, asked, on July 17, his cabinet members to resign. He accepted the resignations of the following officials:

• Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal (replaced by G. William Miller)
• Attorney General Griffin Bell (replaced by Benjamin Civiletti)
• Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph A. Califano, Jr. (replaced by Patricia Roberts Harris, who herself was replaced as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by Maurice Landrieu)
• Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams (replaced by Neil Goldschmidt)
• Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger (replaced by Charles Duncan, Jr.)

President Carter also appointed Hamilton Jordan as his first chief of staff to bring order to a chaotic White House. Jordan would be plagued throughout 1979 by (never proven) accusations of cocaine use.

1979 also saw the creation of the Department of Education, headed by federal judge Shirley Hufstedler. Interestingly, the House of Representatives had initially approved the creation of the department by allowing school prayer and banning school busing. Those plans were voted down in the Senate.

Israel and Egypt

Photo: Israel and Egypt celebrate the signing of a peace treaty. www.theatlantic.com

The Iranian hostage crisis and the energy crises overshadowed President Carter’s greatest achievement of the year - peace in the Middle East.

In the quarter-of-a-century from 1948 and 1973, Israel and Egypt fought five declared wars against each other, averaging one every half-decade. In the forty years since 1979, they haven’t fought a single one.

On March 26, 1979, the two countries, represented by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, signed the Camp David accords in President Carter’s presence, signaling the end of three decades of belligerency. For making peace with Israel, Sadat would be assassinated in 1981 by members of his military.

Carter’s success in the Middle East was undermined by his July 6 refusal to sell promised airplanes to Egypt after Saudi Arabia, angered by the peace deal, refused to come through with agreed-upon financing for Egypt. In addition, on July 23, Carter condemned Israel’s use of American-made planes to bomb terror sites in Lebanon, leading to tensions between the two countries. 

On August 15, The New York Times reported the news that U.S. Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young had secretly met with the Palestinian Liberation Organization without reporting it to his superiors at the State Department. Young, who resigned, defended his actions and announced that he would continue to engage with the PLO. He would go on to serve as mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990.

That same week, the U.S. announced it was dropping a proposed UN human rights resolution opposed by both Israel and Egypt.

In September, the U.S. criticized Israel’s new policy of letting its citizens build homes in the West Bank, leading to a shouting match - in front of reporters - between Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Assistant Secretary of State Harold H. Saunders, who were at a dinner party.

After Saunders asserted that “Bombing is not a policy,” Weizman retorted, “Don’t teach us what to do. You lose everywhere. You lost Angola. And Iran and Ethiopia.” The exchange dominated the front page of the September 19 edition of The New York Times.

Aside from a brief incident in November, in which Israel arrested the mayor of Nablus, leading to Arab protests, Israel wasn’t regularly written about on the front page of the paper for the rest of the year. 

Vietnam

Photo: Vietnamese boat people. www.independent.co.uk

The United States withdrew its forces from Vietnam in 1973, and the war there officially ended in 1975. But four years later, Vietnam was once again making headline news. On January 4, The New York Times announced that Vietnam had invaded Cambodia, ruled by the communist Khmer Rouge.

The invasion ended the Cambodian Genocide, which, over the past three years, had killed two million Cambodians. Vietnam, supported by the USSR (and opposed by communist China), would remain in Cambodia for a decade, after which the Khmer Rouge returned to power. Its dictator, Pol Pot, died in 1998 under Khmer Rouge house arrest. The regime collapsed the following year. 

Also in 1979, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled their homes, by boat, for other countries, escaping the oppressive communist regime that had taken control of the entire country at the end of the Vietnam War. The front page of The New York Times regularly contained stories about the hardships faced by the boat people, but also stories on how Israel and the United States were helping the Vietnamese refugees.

Rhodesia

1979 was also a year of deep sorrow and combat in Rhodesia. The British colony was in its final year of a 15-year civil war that would see it replaced in April 1980 by the independent Republic of Zimbabwe.

The process wasn’t easy, especially in its final months. In February, rebels shot down Air Rhodesia Flight 827, killing 59. In June, a short-lived government - Zimbabwe Rhodesia - led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, would launch a raid on rebels Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, that killed 22 people. Zimbabwe Rhodesia similarly invaded Mozambique in September.

The U.S. maintained sanctions on Rhodesia throughout the year.

Rebel leader Robert Mugabe, who would become Zimbabwe’s first prime minister, died in September 2019.

Nicaragua

Photo: Murdered ABC-TV reporter Bill Stewart. www.abcnews.com

The nationalist government of Nicaragua, led by Anastasio Somoza, was overthrown in a revolution that culminated with Somoza’s flight to Miami on July 17, and his government’s collapse two days later.

Despite the Cold War alliance between the Somoza government and the United States, and the targeted killing of ABC-TV reporter Bill Stewart on June 20, President Carter had been publicly calling on Somoza to step down since June 24 (Carter proposed having the Organization of American States take control of the country - something the rebels rejected).

Somoza’s socialist successor, Daniel Ortega, served as head of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990 and has again since 2007.

Panama

On October 1, control of the Panama Canal was ceded to Panama, despite the initial reservations of the House of Representatives. The U.S. gave up its last stakes in the Canal in 1999.

"The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t been to a World Series since the 1979 contest."

Chrysler

On July 31, Chrysler requested $1 billion in federal aid. The plea of the embattled automotive company, to be chaired by President and CEO Lee Iacocca beginning September 20, faced loud opposition from General Motors (which would require a $13.4 billion government bailout in 2008).

In addition, the United Auto Workers opposed a cost-savings wage-freeze plan proposed by Chrysler leadership, whose members soon accepted an annual salary of $1.

Chrysler ultimately received a promise in January 1980 of $1.5 billion in government loans, following the December 18 approval of the House of Representatives and the December 19 approval of the Senate. The U.S. government required the loan to be repaid by the end of 1990.

SALT II

In January, President Carter proposed an arms reduction deal with the USSR, which was not well-received by Congress. 

Although Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev signed this agreement, known to history as the second Strategic Arms Limitations Talks treaty, it was never ratified by the Senate.

Part of the Senate’s concern was the recent deployment of Soviet troops to Cuba in an “advisory” capacity. Although U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance met with Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynin to discuss the presence of the troops, they remained in place. 

DC-10s

Photo: American Airlines Flight 191, moments before crashing. www.chicago.cbslocal.com

On May 25, 1979, the U.S. suffered its worst-ever aviation disaster. American Airlines Flight 191, flying from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to Los Angeles International Airport, crashed on takeoff, killing 273 people (initially reported as 272 people).

An FAA investigation of DC-10s, the model of the crashed aircraft, found problems with the plane’s engine, which led to the aircraft being grounded from June 6 to July 14.

A DC-10 crash of a Western Airlines flight in Mexico City killed 74 people on October 31, and a DC-10, operated by Air New Zealand, crashed into Antarctica’s Mount Erebus on November 28, killing all 257 on board.

The DC-10 was retired from passenger service by the now-defunct Northwest Airlines in 2007.

Billy Carter

Photo: President Carter and his brother, Billy (l). www.cbsnews.com.

President Carter’s younger brother, Billy, was a thorn in the administration’s side in 1979. In addition to Billy spending time in Libya, which was under U.S. sanctions, the White House had to distance itself from Billy’s open anti-Semitism and deal with a campaign finance fraud investigation stemming from Billy’s involvement in Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign. And that was all before Tax Day.

Perhaps the most humorous Billy Carter incident of 1979 - although not for the president - involved Billy urinating on the tarmac at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport while in the presence of an Arab diplomat. This, too, made the front page of The New York Times, along with a quote from the White House that President Carter was “embarrassed.”

Billy Carter died of pancreatic cancer in 1988, age 51.

Bella Abzug

Billy Carter was not President Carter’s only annoyance in 1979. In January, former U.S. Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY), then co-chair of the National Advisory Committee on Women, “attempted to lecture” President Carter on the role of the committee at a committee meeting. She also issued a press release ahead of the meeting criticizing Carter’s economic policies and the impact they had on women. Carter fired Abzug, prompting 23 of the 39 members of the committee to resign in protest.

In December, the National Organization of Women endorsed any candidate except for Carter for president in 1980.

Afghanistan

Photo: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. www.cnn.com

Afghan politics had been a recurring, if minor, story on the front page of The New York Times in 1979.

The country faced an Islamic rebellion against its communist government throughout the year, as well as intrigue within the government itself.

Afghanistan had been aligned with the west before a 1978 coup brought communist leader Nur Muhammad Taraki into power.

On September 14, Hafizullah Amin, the head of a rival communist faction, overthrew Taraki in a coup, subsequently having him murdered. Despite Amin being a communist, he was opposed by the USSR, which was horrified by his oppressive measures, believing it reflected poorly on the entire communist ideology.

On December 22, The New York Times reported that Soviet troops had amassed at the Afghan border. Within the week, the USSR had invaded Afghanistan, had Amin killed (he was replaced by a third communist leader, Babrak Karmal, considered friendlier to the Soviet Union).

The United States announced its opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan, which the USSR claimed was only intended to help the government fight the rebels.

The United States secretly supported the rebels, known as the Mujahideen, under President Reagan. The war haunted the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s, much as the Vietnam War had in the United States, and is seen as contributing to the USSR’s collapse in 1991. 

The USSR left Afghanistan in 1989, but Afghanistan’s communist government survived until 1992, when an Islamic government replaced it. That government was overthrown by the Taliban in 1996, which ruled the country until the U.S. invasion in 2001.

Alexander Godunov

On August 24, The New York Times reported that Soviet Bolshoi dancer Alexander Godunov had defected to the United States. His wife, also with the Bolshoi troop, tried to fly back to the Soviet Union, but the U.S. government wouldn’t let her plane depart until it was sure that she was returning voluntarily. This led to several days of diplomatic wrangling before she was allowed to return home. The couple later divorced.

Atomic Bomb

On October 26, The New York Times reported that - a month earlier - an atomic bomb was believed to have been detonated over the Indian Ocean, near South Africa. South Africa denied having an atomic bomb, and the U.S. government said that it was “inconclusive” as to whether an atomic bomb had been detonated at all. Within two days, the story was off the front page of the paper. Today, many people believe that the alleged explosion was an Israeli nuclear test.

Uganda

In 1979, the Tanzanian government successfully invaded Uganda and overthrew its murderous (and rumored cannibalistic) dictator Idi Amin, who was ousted on April 11. Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003. 

Solar Eclipse

On February 26, the United States experienced a total solar eclipse. As The New York Times noted, it would be the last one until 2017.

The United States will experience its next total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

Markita Andrews

Photo: Markita Andrews. www.nytimes.com

Markita Andrews, age 7, made it to the front page of The New York Times on May 8, as the young lady who sold the most boxes of Girl Scout cookies in Manhattan - 1,148.

New York Times reporter Francis X. Clines, who left the paper at the end of 2017, wrote of Ms. Andrews: “Remember the name. She could be the next Annie, or Gloria Steinem.”

By 1986, when she published her first book at age 14 (“How to Sell More Cookies, Condos, Cadillacs, Computers- and Everything Else”), Markita Andrews had sold more than 30,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, making her the top Girl Scout cookie salesperson - ever.

Today, Ms. Andrews, now married and using her husband’s surname, works as an executive at a regional office of a multinational conglomerate.

New Leaders

Some prominent officials who took office in 1979 included:

• Bill Clinton as governor of Arkansas (January 9)
• Jane Byrne as mayor of Chicago (April 16)
• Margaret Thatcher as prime minister of the UK (May 4)
• Joe Clark as prime minister of Canada (June 4)
• Saddam Hussein as president of Iraq (July 16)

Assassinations and Murders

Photo: Louis Mountbatten, Earl of Burma. www.wikipedia.org

Israel assassinated terrorist leader Abu Hassan on January 22 in a car bombing. He had orchestrated the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs was killed on February 14 in a kidnapping attempt-gone-wrong.

Former Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed on April 4 by his country’s new government, following his ouster in a 1977 coup.

On May 10, Dr. Charles Frankel, who served as Assistant Secretary of State under President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was killed alongside his wife and two neighbors at their respective homes in Bedford Hills, NY, as part of a series of robberies. In 1980, two men were convicted for the slayings.

Also in May, six-year-old Etan Patz was kidnapped while walking to school. His body was never found. Patz’s killer wasn’t identified until 2012, and received a life sentence in 2017, with the possibility of parole in 2042. Patz’s name only appeared on the front page once - June 25 - marking a month since his disappearance.

On May 29, federal judge John H. Wood, Jr. was assassinated in San Antonio, TX, on orders of a drug cartel. His killer, Charles Harrelson, was eventually arrested and spent the rest of his life in prison. Harrelson’s son, age 17 at the time, is prominent film and television actor Woody Harrelson.

On August 27, Louis Mountbatten, Earl of Burma, was killed after the IRA planted a bomb in his fishing boat. Also killed was Mountbatten’s teenage grandson and a friend of his grandson’s. In a separate bombing that same day, 18 British soldiers were killed.  

South Korean president Park Chung Hee was assassinated on October 26, amid pro-democracy student protests. His killer was Kim Jae Kyu, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, who would be executed for the assassination the following year.

The New York subway system experienced a rash of robberies and murders early in 1979, leading Mayor Ed Koch to increase the NYPD’s presence on the subways. By the end of the year, crime had fallen to the point that Koch felt comfortable withdrawing the added NYPD officers.

Deaths

Notable deaths in 1979 included:

• Conrad Hilton, 91, founder of Hilton Hotels (January 3)
• Nelson A. Rockefeller, 70, former vice president of the United States (January 20)
• Sid Vicious, 21, member of the band Sex Pistols (February 2)
• Mary Pickford, 87, Best Actress recipient at the 2nd Academy Awards (May 29)
• John Wayne, 72, Best Actor recipient at the 42nd Academy Awards (June 11)
• Thurman Munson, 32, New York Yankees catcher and team captain (August 2)
• S.I. Newhouse, 84, media mogul (August 29)
• Mamie Eisenhower, 82, former first lady of the United States (November 1)
• Al Capp, 70, Li’l Abner cartoonist (November 5)
• Darryl F. Zanuck, 77, three-time Academy Award-winning film producer (December 22)
• Richard Rodgers, 77, an Emmy-, Grammy-, Oscar-, and Tony-award winning Broadway and film composer (December 30)

Tragically, Hurricane David, which hit the Caribbean in early September, was reported as killing 400 people in the Dominican Republic (300 of whom were in a church shelter). Ultimately, thousands were killed in the storm, whose name has been retired.

Sports Champions

• Super Bowl: Pittsburgh Steelers over Dallas Cowboys
• March Madness: Michigan State over Indiana State
• Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens over the New York Rangers
• NBA Finals: Seattle SuperSonics over the Washington Bullets
• World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates over Baltimore Orioles

Year in Review

So what has changed and what has stayed the same since 1979?

First, the similarities: 

• Geopolitics are largely unchanged. On June 29, President Carter visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The next day, he and the South Korean government called for talks with North Korea. In the past 40 years - almost to the day - little has changed. On June 30, 2019, President Trump visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone, actually - briefly - stepping into North Korea. Talks between the countries remain stalled as of the end of the year.

Beginning in early September 1979, the Dalai Lama embarked on a 49-day tour of the United States. On September 5, The New York Times reported that the Tibetan leader doubted he would see a quick end to his exile. Forty years later, the Dalai Lama still hasn’t returned home.

Despite an attempt by the Reagan Administration to simultaneously restore pro-American governments in Nicaragua and Iran (ending in the Iran-Contra scandal), the socialists remain in charge of Nicaragua, and the clerics in Iran.

In fact, on December 31, 2019, pro-Iranian protesters stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, before being repelled. Forty years later, little has changed.

• The president is embattled. In 1979, President Carter faced widespread criticism for his handling of the economy and foreign relations, a Congress that was reluctant to pass his domestic programs (but ultimately did), and high-turnover in his cabinet.

In 2019, the economy is booming, but the president is similarly beleaguered. Allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress have led to impeachment in the House of Representatives. Although President Trump has seen the House pass his initiatives (including the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the creation of the United States Space Force), it was not without serious stalling.

Furthermore, 2019 has seen the appointment of new secretaries of defense, the interior, labor, energy, and homeland security, as well as a new attorney general and a new White House chief-of-staff.

• Gun violence is still an issue, as it was in 1948, which I reported on last year. On January 29, 1979, 11 people were shot at an elementary school in San Diego, two of them - adults - dying. The shooter, a teenage girl, remains in prison as of 2019.

On March 10, 1979, a Long Island store owner shot six people, including his own daughter, before killing himself.

On November 3, 1979, 12 people were shot - four fatally - at an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in Greensboro, NC.

In 2019, 46 people were shot (22 fatally) at a Walmart in El Paso, TX. Thirty-six people were shot (nine fatally) at a bar in Dayton, OH. Thirty-two people were shot (seven fatally) in a spree across West Texas. And that was just in August. Gun violence remains a serious and growing problem in the United States.

The differences:

• The president now has full party support. In 1979, the Democratic Party was divided. President Carter faced a serious primary challenge and struggled to get his legislative agenda passed, despite controlling both houses of Congress.

In 2019, President Trump - under siege as he is - has the support of his party. Not a single Republican member of the House of Representatives broke ranks to support Trump’s impeachment, something that our two previously impeachment presidents - Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton - couldn’t boast.

Some minor Republican Party figures are primarying Trump, but the president is expected to be unanimously renominated. According to Gallup, Trump had an 87% job approval rating among Republicans halfway through 2019 (it is currently at 89%, having remained consistent throughout the year). Carter had a 34% approval rating among Democrats midway through 1979 (after the Iranian hostage crisis, it rose to 62%).

Carter lost re-election in 1980. Forty years later, it’s not clear that the same will happen to President Trump.

• In 1979, communist China was moving away from its Maoist past. The country had expressed remorse for Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s genocidal actions.

China announced its intention to bring billions of dollars worth of U.S. imports into its country. Deputy Premier Teng Hsiao-ping toured the U.S., saying that he wanted peace with Taiwan and marveling at U.S. industrial plants.

In 2019, the United States has engaged in a trade war with China. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been compared to Mao and has stated his willingness to use force against Taiwan. In 1979 China seemed to be moving towards western ideals. In 2019, that trend has taken an uncertain turn.

On December 31, the United States announced a pause - or end - to the trade war, with President Trump expected to sign a deal on January 15, 2020. Perhaps a detente, à la 1979’s, is coming.

• The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t been to a World Series since the 1979 contest. Along with the Seattle Mariners (who have never been to a World Series), they’re one of two teams with the longest World Series-appearance drought.

For 2020, I am examining front-page headlines in The New York Times from 75 years ago - 1945. You can join me in looking at the news from this momentous year on Twitter, here.