The Year 1979

Three Mile Island Nuclear Powerplant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania suffers a partial core meltdown - the China Syndrome! Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. Cyclist Byron Allen crosses the English Channel in a pedal-powered aircraft called the Gossamer Albatross in a flight lasting 2 hours, 49 minutes. First cellular phone network begins operating in Japan.

On 9th December 1979, the W.H.O. officially declared smallpox to be completely eradicated.
The last naturally occurring case of smallpox was in Somalia in 1977.
This was the first microbial disease ever to be completely eliminated.