Timeline

1978

Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.

Jul

25

Inventions & Science

World’s first “test tube” baby born

On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces.

AMANDINE-TEST-TUBE

Picture taken 24 February 1982 in the Antoine Beclere' s maternity hospital at Clamart, in the outskirts of Paris, of the three French doctors, René Frydman, Jacques Testart and Emile Papiernik (L to R) showing a photograph of Amandine, the first test-tube baby born this day, whose birth has been the result of their collaboration. Photo prise le 24 février 1982 à l'Hôpital Antoine Béclère de Clamart des médecins René Frydman, Jacques Testart et Emile Papiernik (de G à D), montrant des photos d'Amandine, premier bébé-éprouvette français. Amandine fête vendredi ses 25 ans, loin des projecteurs médiatiques braqués à sa naissance le 24 février 1982, moins de quatre ans après celle de Louise Brown, premier bébé au monde conçu par fécondation in vitro (FIV), née le 25 juillet 1978. (Photo by MICHEL CLEMENT / AFP) (Photo by MICHEL CLEMENT/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Nov

18

1970s

Mass suicide at Jonestown

On November 18, 1978, Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children.

Aftermath Of The Jonestown Tragedy

An unidentified man a strap onto a stack of aluminum coffins for shipment to the United States, following the more than 900 deaths in the mass suicide staged in Jonestown by members of the People's Temple and their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, Georgetown, Guyana, November 23, 1978. A group of photographers and police officers stand in the background. (Photo by New York Times Co./Neal Boenzi/Getty Images)

Getty Images

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