February 24 – Five men with mild mental-health issues from Yuba City, Californiadisappear in the snow on their way home from a basketball game. In June, four of the bodies are discovered in the Sierra. The fifth, Gary Mathias, is never found. The circumstances surrounding their deaths remains a mystery.
April 2 – The CBS soap opera Dallas is launched. It is set to be aired later this year in several countries, including the United Kingdom by the BBC.[5]
April 7 – President Jimmy Carter decides to postpone production of the neutron bomb – a weapon which kills people with radiation but leaves buildings relatively intact.
April 18 – The U.S. Senate votes 68–32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
April 25 – St. Paul, Minnesota becomes the second U.S. city to repeal its gay rights ordinance after Anita Bryant's successful 1977 anti-gay campaign in Dade County, Florida.
June 9 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints extends the priesthood and temple blessings to "all worthy males", ending a general policy of excluding "Canaanites" from priesthood ordination and temple ordinances.
June 10 – Affirmed becomes only the 11th horse to ever win the Triple Crown by defeating Alydar in the 110th running of the Belmont Stakes.[11]
June 12 – Serial killer David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," is sentenced to 365 years in prison.
August 13 – The 5.8 MwSanta Barbara earthquake affected the central coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing 65 injuries and $12 million in financial losses.
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello makes its first appearance on Live from the Met, in a complete production of the opera starring Jon Vickers. This is the first complete television broadcast of the opera in the U.S. since the historic 1948 one.