On October 30, 1978, the Committee of 33 is officially incorporated under Washington law as a 501-C nonprofit organization. First established in the 1960s, the elite organization of women, whose membe...
On November 7, 1978, Seattle voters reject Initiative 13 decisively, by nearly two to one. Initiative 13 would have repealed city ordinances protecting employment and housing rights for homosexuals an...
On November 7, 1978, King County Councilman Mike Lowry (1939-2017) wins a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives by defeating incumbent Republican Congressman Jack Cunningham. The race is contentio...
On November 25, 1978, a gathering of more than 2,000 people commemorates the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans at the first Day of Remembrance program, held at the Western Washington Fair gr...
On December 8, 1978, a federal grand jury indicts 15 men in Pierce County, including Sheriff George V. Janovich (1928-2005), for engaging in a widespread racketeering conspiracy. The gang, known as â...
On December 15, 1978, the Smoke Shop on the Tulalip Reservation west of Marysville in Snohomish County makes its first liquor sales. The store's entry into the liquor business comes later than planned...
On January 1, 1979, after nearly four years in Alburquerque, New Mexico, Bill Gates (b. 1955) and Paul Allen (1953-2018) move their fledgling computer-software company to Bellevue. The move returns th...
On January 8, 1979, state representatives elect both Republican Duane Berentson (1928-2013) and Democrat John Bagnariol (ca. 1932-2009) to be Speaker of the House of Representatives. The novel arrange...
On January 12, 1979, Bellingham Police detectives arrest Kenneth A. Bianchi as the prime suspect in the strangulation murders of two Western Washington University students, Karen L. Mandic and Diane A...
On February 3, 1979, Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), arrives in Seattle for a 40-hour visit. Deng, whose name is also sometimes written as "Teng Hsiao-ping," is on the last leg of a ni...
On Tuesday, February 13, 1979, about 7 a.m., the western half of the Hood Canal Bridge sinks during a severe storm. For several hours before the Tuesday the 13th catastrophe, a storm has battered the ...
On February 18 and February 19, 1979, police confront unruly crowds of mostly young people, who pelt them with bottles and rocks, during the closing days of the third annual Fat Tuesday festival in Se...
On February 21, 1979, ferry service between Port Townsend, located on the northeast point of the Olympic Peninsula at the entrance to Puget Sound, and Edmonds, located in southern Snohomish County nor...
On February 26, 1979, writer Annie Dillard (b. 1945) and her husband, Gary Clevidence, watch a rare solar eclipse from a hillside in the Yakima Valley. The day before they drove to Eastern Washington ...
In the predawn hours of March 6, 1979, a Burlington Northern train hauling logs from Lake Kapowsin to the St. Regis Paper Company in Tacoma derails at a bridge over the Puyallup River. The train crew ...
On March 26, 1979, Washington Governor Dixy Lee Ray (1914-1994) signs into law a bill titled "Food Donation Program -- Legal Immunity." The new statute allows for donation of food for use by a nonprof...
On April 18, 1979, the M.V. Liu Lin Hai docks at the Port of Seattle's Pier 91 at Smith Cove. The visit, the first in 30 years by a ship from mainland China to the United States, comes one month after...
In May 1979, the first Women in Trades fair opens at Center House at Seattle Center. The fair celebrates and supports women in nontraditional careers such as electrician, construction worker, plumber,...
On May 21, 1979, Robert Murray becomes superintendent of Seattle City Light upon his confirmation by the City Council. The confirmation process was lengthy and contentious when Murray's lack of experi...
On Thursday, May 24, 1979, Artie Ray Baker, an escapee from a California prison, and his companion Marie Ferreboeuf arrive from Canada at the Lynden Port of Entry in Whatcom County. Baker's car is sel...
On June 1, 1979, the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Washington Bullets 97-93 in Landover, Maryland, to win the team's first (and only) National Basketball Association Championship. Guard Gus Williams sc...
On June 2, 1979, The Seattle Times reviews the Seattle Aquarium's OmniRama Theater, which is expected to open within the following week, and says it "eclipses" the Cinerama, which is at the time the m...
On July 17, 1979, the Major League Baseball All-Stars play in the Kingdome. The best players of the National and American Leagues compete in an annual baseball tradition that began in 1933. The Nation...
On September 15, 1979, seven 2-year-old coho salmon return to the Seattle Aquarium fish ladder to spawn. The salmon were released in May 1978 in the hope of establishing a continuing salmon run at the...