List of terrorist incidents, 1979
The following is a timeline of acts and failed attempts that can be considered non-state terrorism in 1979.
- United Kingdom, Netherlands, March 22: The IRA kill Richard Sykes, then British Ambassador to the Netherlands, and his Dutch valet, Krel Straub, in a gun attack in Den Haag. The IRA also carried out 24 bomb attacks across Northern Ireland.
- United Kingdom, March 30: A car bomb explodes in the Palace of Westminster car park, killing the driver, Conservative MP for Abingdon, Airey Neave. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) claimed responsibility for the killing.
- Italy, May 3: A group of terrorist of Red Brigades attacked the Lazio-head office of Christian Democracy in Rome, Italy, killing two policemen and wounding one.[1]
- Norway, United States, Israel, July: Norwegian police prevents terrorist attacks against the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Oslo.
- United States, June 9: Puerto Rican nationalist organization FALN exploded a bomb outside of the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.
- Spain, July 29: Basque ETA members bomb two railway stations in
- Ireland, United Kingdom, August 27: Lord Mountbatten, his grandson, Nicholas, his daughter's mother-in-law, Baroness Brabourne, and 15-year-old Paul Maxwell are killed by IRA bomb on board his boat off Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo. The same day two IRA bombs kill 18 British soldiers near Warrenpoint. After the explosions a heavy gun battle ensued between the soldiers and the attackers firing from their position inside the border with the Republic of Ireland. One British tourist was accidentally fired upon by British forces and killed.
- Saudi Arabia, 2 November: Sunni militant group of 200 to 500 men seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The ensuing battle with the authorities left more than 250 people dead, including civilians, troops and terrorists.
- United States, November 4: Iran Hostage Crisis takes place. Iranian Muslim students take over the American Embassy, taking 52 US diplomats hostage for 444 days. (Ended January 20, 1981)
- United States, November 15: American Airlines Flight 444 is attacked by the Unabomber - his bomb gives off large quantities of smoke but fails to detonate.
- Turkey, December 14: An unknown terrorist group shot into a bus returning from NATO munition base in Cakmakli, Tunceli Province, Turkey, killing four American civilians and servicemen, no one claimed responsibility in this incident
