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Robert A. Freitas

Robert A. Freitas

Robert A. Freitas Jr. is a Senior Research Fellow, one of [http://www.imm.org/#IMMpeople four researchers], at the nonprofit foundation Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) in Palo Alto, California. He holds a 1974 Bachelor's degree majoring in both physics and psychology from Harvey Mudd College, and a 1978 Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from [http://www.scu.edu/ Santa Clara University]. He has written more than 150 technical papers, book chapters, or popular articles on a diverse set of scientific, engineering, and legal topics. He co-edited the 1980 NASA feasibility analysis of self-replicating space factories and later authored the first detailed technical design study of a hypothetical medical nanorobot ever published in a refereed medical journal. In 1977-78 Robert Freitas created the concept Sentience Quotient (SQ) as a way to describe the information processing rate in living organisms or computers. For a discussion see Freitas article "Xenopsychology" linked below, first published in the April 1984 edition of [http://www.analogsf.com Analog Science Fiction and Fact] magazine Freitas is authoring Nanomedicine, the first multiple-book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of hypothetical molecular nanotechnology and hypothetical medical nanorobotics. Volume I was published in October 1999 by [http://www.landesbioscience.com/ Landes Bioscience] while Freitas was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing . He published Volume IIA in October 2003 with Landes Bioscience while serving as a Research Scientist at [http://www.zyvex.com/ Zyvex] Corp., a nanotechnology company headquartered in Richardson, Texas, during 2000-2004. Freitas is now completing Nanomedicine Volumes IIB and III and is consulting on hypothetical diamond mechanosynthesis and hypothetical molecular assembler design at IMM. Also in 2004, Robert Freitas and Ralph Merkle coauthored and published [http://www.MolecularAssembler.com Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines], the first survey of the field of physical and hypothetical self-replicating machines ever published. The book is [http://www.molecularassembler.com/KSRM.htm available online] in HTML format.

See also


- K. Eric Drexler, Ralph Merkle

External links


- [http://www.rfreitas.com/ Robert Freitas's website] (including his [http://www.rfreitas.com/index.htm#Publications publications])
- [http://www.nanomedicine.com Nanomedicine website] Freitas' Nanomedicine book series on medical nanorobotics, freely available online
- [http://www.imm.org/ Institute for Molecular Manufacturing website]
- [http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Respirocytes.html A paper on Respirocytes (artificial red cells)] by Freitas (first medical nanorobot design paper ever published)
- [http://www.rfreitas.com/Microbivores.htm A paper on Microbivores (artificial white cells)] by Freitas
- [http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm Xenopsychology] (including the Sentience Quotient) by Freitas
- [http://www.molecularassembler.com/ Molecular assembler website]
- [http://wikisource.org/wiki/Advanced_Automation_for_Space_Missions Report on self-replicating space factories] 1980 NASA Study edited by Freitas
- [http://www.MolecularAssembler.com/KSRM.htm Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines] first survey of field, by Freitas and Merkle
- [http://www.nanotech-now.com/whos-who.htm Who's Who in the Nanospace] Freitas, Robert Freitas, Robert

California

California is a state located on the west coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous state in the U.S., as well as the most physically diverse, with the highest and the lowest points in the lower 48 states located within 150 miles of each other. If California were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world (after the rest of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and France; see economy of California). The state's official nickname is "The Golden State" in reference to California's 1849 Gold Rush. California's U.S. postal abbreviation is CA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Calif. As one of the most demographically diverse states in the nation, California is a dominant force in American culture as well as the nation's economy. It has some of the nation's largest cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco, and is responsible for many legal and technological innovations. The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The name comes from Las sergas de Esplandián (Adventures of Splandian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California. (For further discussion, see: Origin of the name California.)

History

:Main articles: History of California, History of California (20th century) The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was Francis Drake in 1579. Beginning in the late 1700s, Spanish missionaries set up tiny settlements on enormous grants of land in the vast territory north of Baja California. The missions played a dominant role in the decimation of California's indigenous population. Upon Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, and they were quickly dissolved and abandoned. In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War, the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which featured a golden bear and a star. The Republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and claimed California for the United States. Following the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican portion, Baja (lower) California was later divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The western part of the U.S. portion, Alta (upper) California, was to become the state of California. In 1848, the Spanish-speaking population of distant upper California numbered around 4,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with Americans and a few Europeans in the great California gold rush. In 1850, the state was admitted to the Union of the USA. During the American Civil War, popular support in California was divided 70% for the South and 30% for the North, and although California officially entered on the side of the North, many troops went east to fight for the Confederacy CSA. At first, travel between the far Pacific West to the eastern population centers was time-consuming and dangerous, requiring either long ocean voyages, or difficult transcontinental passages. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of Americans came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Citrus, oranges in particular, was widely grown, and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today. During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965 the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. From 1965 to the present, the population demographic changed radically and became one of the most diverse in the world. The state is generally liberal-leaning, technologically and culturally savvy, and a world center of engineering businesses, the film and television industry and, as mentioned above, American agricultural production.

Law and government

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other independently elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by referendum, recall, and ratification. The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California State Legislature consists of a 40 member Senate and 80 member Assembly. Senators serve four year terms and Assembly members two. The terms of the Senators are staggered so that half the membership is elected every two years. The Senators representing the odd-numbered districts are elected in years evenly divisible by four, i.e., presidential election years. The Senators from the even-numbered districts are elected in the intervening even-numbered years, in the gubernatorial election cycle. California's legislature is organized in such a way that the party caucus leaders wield great power and can usually speak on behalf of their caucuses. Many important legislative decisions are thus not made on the floor of the legislature but in back-room deals by the "Big Five", which comprises the governor and the Democratic and Republican leaders of each chamber. For the 2005–2006 session, there are 48 Democrats and 32 Republicans in the Assembly. In the Senate, there are 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans. The current Governor is the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose current term lasts through January 2007. Schwarzenegger was only the second person in the history of the United States to be put into office by a recall of a sitting governor (the first was the 1921 recall of North Dakota Governor Lynn J. Frazier). Schwarzenegger replaced Governor Gray Davis (1999–2003), who was removed from office by the October 2003 California recall election. The state's capital is Sacramento. During California's early history under European control, the capital was successively located in Monterey (1775–1849), San Jose (1849–1851), Vallejo (1852–1853), Benicia (1853–1854), and San Francisco (1862). The capital moved to Sacramento temporarily in 1852 when construction on a State House could not be completed in time in Vallejo. The capital's final move to Sacramento was on February 25, 1854 where it has been permanently, except for a four-month temporary move in 1862 to San Francisco, due to severe flooding in Sacramento. California's giant judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). It is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. Judges of the trial courts, the Superior Courts in each county, may be appointed by the Governor or elected directly by the voters, depending on when the vacancy occurs. Superior Court judges serve six-year terms, after which they may run for re-election. Unlike the retention elections for Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices, Superior Court judges run for re-election in open races, in which other qualified candidates may run as challengers. California's legal system is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few features from Spanish civil law. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country. At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53 representatives, as of 2005. It has 55 electoral votes in the U.S. Electoral College. (As California is the most populous state in the Union, its counts of Congressmen and Presidential Electors are, of course, also the largest.) The two U.S. Senators from California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans represent the state in the U.S. House of Representatives. While California is among the most Democratic and liberal states in the nation because of the large concentration of voters in populous areas, much of California is politically very conservative, notably the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, Orange and San Diego counties, and most inland, eastern, and rural areas. Democratic bastions are mostly coastal and include the entire San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Salinas, Santa Barbara, and Imperial County. The state has supported Democrats in the last four presidential elections. In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush received a majority of votes in more than half the state's 58 counties, but still lost California's 55 electoral votes to John Kerry, who won 54.3% of the popular vote, by a margin of 10 percentage points. See also: List of California Governors, U.S. Congressional Delegations from California, List of California counties, List of California ballot propositions

Geography

California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. The state has strikingly beautiful natural features, including an expansive central valley, tall mountains, hot deserts, and hundreds of miles of scenic coastline. With an area of 411,000 km² it is the third largest state in the U.S and larger than Germany in size. Most major cities cling to the cool seacoast along the Pacific, notably Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana/Orange County, and San Diego. However, the capital, Sacramento is in the Central Valley. California has extremely varied geography. In the center of the state lies the Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to the east, the volcanic Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. Mountain-fed rivers, dams, and canals provide water to irrigate the Central Valley. With dredging, several of these rivers have become sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities, notably Stockton, California, are seaports. The hot, fertile Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows a large portion of America's food, yet near freezing temperatures are not uncommon during winter which sometimes wipe out portions of crops. The bottom part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San Joaquin Valley while the upper half is known as the Sacramento Valley. In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning Snowy Range in Spanish), containing the highest peak in the contiguous lower 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in the Sierra are the world famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume. To the east of the Sierra are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential seabird habitat. To the west is Clear Lake, California's largest freshwater lake by area. The Sierra Nevada receives arctic temperatures in the winter and holds several dozen small glaciers, including the most southern glacier in the United States (Palisade Glacier). California has about 35% of its total surface area covered by forests. California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. Though other states have a higher percentage of their land area covered by forests, in terms of total area, California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Most of the forest is found in 2 places. First, in the northwestern part of the state and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Smaller forests, mainly consisting of oaks, can be found along the coast ranges of California closer to the coast, and also in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Smaller areas of pine forests can be found in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains of Southern California and also in the mountain areas of Central San Diego Country. Deserts in California make up about 25% of the total surface area. In the south lie the Transverse Ranges and a large salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave. To the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America. The lowest point of Death Valley and the peak of Mount Whitney are less than 200 miles apart. The hiking trek between the two points has been attempted, several times, most notably by Lee Bergthold. Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with the Coachella Valley routinely experiencing extreme high temperatures during the summer. Finally, along the densely-populated but long California coast lie a number of major metropolitan areas, including San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Climates near the Pacific Ocean are remarkably moderate compared with inland climates. Winter temperatures never reach freezing (snow is unheard of) and summer temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (27 °C). California is famous for its earthquakes, due partly to the presence of the San Andreas Fault. While more powerful earthquakes in the United States have occurred in Alaska and along the Mississippi River, California earthquakes are notable in their frequency and location in highly populated areas. Some people believe, eventually, a huge earthquake will result in the splitting of coastal California from the continent, either to sink into the ocean or form a new landmass. The fact that this scenario is completely implausible from a geologic standpoint does not lessen its acceptance in public conventional wisdom, or its exploitation by the producers of science fiction and fantasy media. Notable movies in which the possible destruction of much of California by an earthquake includes the titles Earthquake, A View to a Kill, Escape from L.A. and Superman. California is also home to several volcanoes, some active such as Mammoth Mountain. Other volcanoes include Lassen Peak, which erupted from 1914 and 1921, and Mount Shasta.

Climate

Different regions of California have very different climates, depending on their latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast. Most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with rainy winters and dry summers. The influence of the ocean generally moderates temperature extremes, creating warmer winters and substantially cooler summers, and the cold oceanic California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. As one moves away from the coast, the climate becomes more continental, with colder winters and markedly hotter summers. The temperature gradient between immediate coast and low-lying inland valleys in the north is about 7 °F (4 °C) in winter, coast being warmer, and in summer roughly 25 °F (14 °C) but opposite. In the south, the figures are approximately 4 and 23 °F (2 °C and 13 °C), respectively; however 4 °F and 35 °F (2 °C and 20 °C) between Santa Barbara and Death Valley. Westerly winds from the ocean also bring moisture, and the northern parts of the state generally receive higher rainfall than the south. California's mountain ranges influence the climate as well: moisture-laden air from the west cools as it ascends the mountains, dropping moisture; some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate with rainfall of 15–40 inches (400–1000 mm) per year. The Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate, but with greater temperature extremes than the coastal areas; parts of the valley are often filled with thick fog, similar to that found in the coastal valleys. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer. On the east side of the mountains is a drier "rain shadow." California's desert climate regions lie east of the high Sierra Nevada and southern California's Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges. The low deserts east of the southern California mountains, including the Imperial and Coachella valleys and the lower Colorado River, are part of the Sonoran Desert, with hot summers and mild winters; the higher elevation deserts of eastern California, including the Mojave Desert, Owens Valley, and the Modoc Plateau, are part of the Great Basin region, with hot summers and cold winters. Death Valley, in the northern portion of the Mojave Desert on the east side of the state, is the hottest spot on the Western Hemisphere, with high temperatures over 120 °F common in the summer. The highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, 134 °F (56.6 °C), was recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. Temperatures of 130 °F or higher have been recorded as recently as 2005. The 24-hour average July temperature in Death Valley is 101 °F (38 °C) (1961--1990 standard).

Ecology

Ecologically, California is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. California's diverse geography, geology, soils and climate have generated a tremendous diversity of plant and animal life. The State of California is part of the Nearctic ecozone, and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions, and is perhaps the most ecologically diverse state in the United States. California has a rather high percentage of endemic species. California endemics include relict species that have died out elsewhere, including the redwoods and the Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus). Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions. California's great abundance of species of California lilac (Ceanothus) is an example of adaptive radiation. Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat. Furthermore, California is home to the largest trees in the world, the Giant Sequoias. California's native grasses were perennials, which stayed green year-round in most of the state's subclimates. After European contact, these were generally replaced by invasive species of European annual grasses; and, in modern times, California's hills turn a characteristic golden brown in summer and fall. California's nickname The Golden State is in reference to the California Gold Rush, and not to the golden brown summer hillsides as is sometimes stated.

Economy

California Gold Rush California Gold Rush] California has the fifth largest economy in the world. It is responsible for 14% of the United States' gross domestic product (GDP). The gross state product (GSP) is about $1.5 trillion ($1,500,000,000,000, as of 2004), making it greater than that of every other U.S. state, and most countries in the world (by Purchasing Power Parity). The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next, is agriculture, (including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). This is followed by aerospace; entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume, although many movies are still made in California; and light manufacturing including computer hardware and software, and the mining of borax. Per capita personal income was $33,403 as of 2003, ranking 12th in the nation. Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley has the most extreme contrasts of income, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. While some coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S., notably San Francisco and Marin County, the non-agricultural central counties have some of the highest poverty rates in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, are currently emerging from economic downturn caused by the dot.com bust, which caused the loss of over 250,000 jobs in Northern California alone. Recent (Spring 2005) [http://uclaforecast.com economic data] indicates that economic growth has resumed in California, although still slightly below the national annualized forecast of 3.9%. The international boom in housing prices has been most pronounced in California, with the median property price in the state rising to about the half-million dollar mark in April 2005.

Demographics

Population

As of 2004 California had a population of 35,893,799. The state had 9,400,000 foreign-born residents (26.5% of the population), of which an estimated 2,209,000 were illegal aliens (illegal aliens accounted for nearly one-fourth of the foreign-born population and 6.2% of the total state population). California is the most populous state—more than 12 percent of Americans live in the state. California's population is larger than all but 33 countries; more populated than Canada.

Racial and Ancestral Makeup

The Census Bureau considers race and Hispanic origin to be two separate categories. Hispanics must not only select "Hispanic"; they must also select a race such as White or Asian, or, simply "some other race." This makes interpreting Census data difficult. Thus, for the sake of simplicity, the data below does consider Hispanic origin to be its own category. It therefore shows only non-Hispanic members of each group: non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Eskimos, non-Hispanic people of two or more races, etc. For more information on race and the Census, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28U.S._Census%29 here].
2000 Census [http://www.census.gov/popest/states/asrh/tables/SC-EST2003-03/SC-EST2003-03-28.pdf] 2003 Estimate [http://www.census.gov/popest/states/asrh/tables/SC-EST2003-03/SC-EST2003-03-28.pdf]
White 47.4% 45.2%
Hispanic/Latino 32.4% 34.3%
Asian 11.0% 11.4%
Black 6.5% 6.3%
Two or More Races 1.9% 1.9%
Native American and Inuit 0.5% 0.5%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.3% 0.3%
 
California lacks a majority ethnic group. It is the third minority-majority state, after Hawaii and New Mexico. Non-Hispanic Whites are still the largest group, but are no longer a majority of the population due to high levels of immigration in recent years. Hispanics make up over one-third of the population; in order, other groups are Asians, Blacks, and Native Americans. Because of high levels of immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico, and higher birth rates among the Hispanic population, Hispanics are predicted to become a majority in the state around 2040. California has the second-largest Asian population (percentage-wise) of any state, Hawaii having the largest. The largest ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), Filipino, German, Irish, and Asian. Mexicans and Chicanos predominate in Southern California, the Central Valley, Salinas, and parts of the San Francisco Bay area. Irish and German ancestries are dominant in the eastern Sierra Nevada, the far north, and the North Coast. San Francisco has the greatest concentration of Asians in the continental United States, with Chinese numerous in San Francisco, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties and Filipinos particularly numerous in San Mateo county.

Languages

As of 2000, 60.5% of California residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 25.8% speak Spanish. Chinese is the third most spoken language at 2.6%, followed by Tagalog at 2.5% and Vietnamese at 1.3%. The indigenous languages of California number more than one hundred, but most are in danger of language death, despite revitalization efforts. Since 1986, the California Constitution has specified English as the common and official language of the state. The politics of language, particularly concerning language policy regarding the teaching and official use of immigrant languages is a major political issue in the state.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of California:
- Christian – 75%
  - Protestant – 38%
    - Baptist – 8%
    - Presbyterian – 3%
    - Methodist – 2%
    - Lutheran – 2%
    - Other Protestant or general Protestant – 23%
  - Roman Catholic – 34%
  - Other Christian – 3%
- Jewish – 2%
- Other Religions – 3%
- Non-Religious – 20% As with many other western states, the percentage of California's population identifying themselves as "non-religious" is comparatively high in relation to the rest of the U.S.

Important cities and towns

Image:Sacramento from Riverwalk.jpg|Sacramento Image:DowntownLosAngeles.jpg|Los Angeles Image:Sandiego.arp.750pix.jpg|San Diego Image:Lightmatter sanfrancisco.jpg|San Francisco Image:SanJoseDowntownIMG016elf wb.jpg|San Jose Image:Long Beach, CA at night.jpg|Long Beach Image:La2-oakland.jpg|Oakland Image:Anaheimdland.jpg|Anaheim The state of California has 478 cities, the majority of which are within one of the large metropolitan areas. 68% of California's population lives in its two largest metropolitan areas, Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Population greater than 10,000,000 (urbanized area)
  - Los Angeles/Long Beach (Greater Los Angeles)
- Population greater than 5,000,000 (urbanized area)
  - San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose/Santa Rosa (San Francisco Bay Area)
- Population greater than 2,500,000 (urbanized area)
  - San Diego
  - Orange County
  - Inland Empire (Riverside/San Bernardino)
- Population greater than 1,000,000 (urbanized area)
  - Fresno
  - Sacramento
- Population greater than 500,000 (urbanized area)
  - Bakersfield
  - Stockton
  - Oxnard/Ventura (Ventura County)
- Population greater than 250,000 (urbanized area)
  - Visalia/Tulare/Porterville (Tulare County)
  - Modesto
  - Salinas/Monterey (Monterey County)
  - Santa Barbara/Goleta/Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County)
  - Palmdale/Lancaster (Antelope Valley)
  - Indio/Palm Springs (Coachella Valley) For a list of important suburbs within the above areas, see List of urbanized areas in California (by population).

25 wealthiest places in California

Thanks to the state's powerful economy, certain California cities are among the wealthiest on the planet. The following list is ranked by per capita income: 1 Belvedere, California - Marin County - $113,595
2 Rancho Santa Fe, California - San Diego County - $113,132
3 Atherton, California - San Mateo County - $112,408
4 Rolling Hills, California - Los Angeles County - $111,031
5 Woodside, California - San Mateo County - $104,667
6 Portola Valley, California - San Mateo County - $99,621
7 Newport Coast, California - Orange County - $98,770
8 Hillsborough, California - San Mateo County - $98,643
9 Diablo, California - Contra Costa County - $95,419
10 Fairbanks Ranch, California - San Diego County - $94,150
11 Hidden Hills, California - Los Angeles County - $94,096
12 Los Altos Hills, California - Santa Clara County - $92,840
13 Tiburon, California - Marin County - $85,966
14 Sausalito, California - Marin County - $81,040
15 Monte Sereno, California - Santa Clara County - $76,577
16 Indian Wells, California - Riverside County $76,187
17 Malibu, California - Los Angeles County - $74,336
18 Del Monte Forest, California - Monterey County - $70,609
19 Piedmont, California - Alameda County - $70,539
20 Montecito, California - Santa Barbara County - $70,077
21 Palos Verdes Estates, California - Los Angeles County - $69,040
22 Emerald Lake Hills, California - San Mateo County - $68,966
23 Loyola, California - Santa Clara County - $68,730
24 Blackhawk-Camino Tassajara, California - Contra Costa County - $66,972
25 Los Altos, California - Santa Clara County - $66,776
Note: Marin County ranks as the wealthiest county in the United States based on per capita personal income.

Education

Image:Berkeley glade afternoon.jpg|UC Berkeley Image:Stanford campus aerial photo.jpg|Stanford Image:USC Bovard Auditorium enh.jpg|USC Image:RHall.JPG|UCLA Image:Tower Hall and MDA.JPG|San Jose State Image:UCSD_lib1024.jpg|UC San Diego Image:Millikan Library.jpg|Caltech Image:Csulb pyramid.jpg|CSU Long Beach California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires 40% of state revenues to be spent on education. The preeminent state university is the University of California, which employs more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the world and is considered one of the finest public higher-education systems in the country. The nine general UC campuses are in Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Davis, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Riverside, and Merced. The University of California, San Francisco, teaches only graduate health-sciences students, and the Hastings College of Law, also in San Francisco, is one of UC's four law schools. The UC system is intended to accept students from the top 12.5% of college-bound students, and provide most graduate studies and research. The University of California also administers federal laboratories for the Federal Department of Energy: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The California State University system provides education for teachers, the trades, agriculture and industry. With over 400,000 students, the CSU system is the largest university system in the United States. It is intended to accept most college-bound high-school students, while carrying out some research, especially in applied sciences. Lower-division course credits are frequently transferable to the University of California. The California Community Colleges system provides vocational education, remedial education, and continuing education programs. It awards certificates and associate degrees. It also provides lower division general-education courses, whose credit units are transferable to the CSU and UC systems. It is composed of 109 colleges organized into 72 districts. The system serves a student population of over 2.9 million. Notable private universities include Stanford University, the University of Southern California (USC), and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (which administers the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA). California has hundreds more private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions. This leads to many unique entertainment and educational opportunities for residents. For example, Southern California, with one of the highest densities of post-secondary institutions in the world, has a very large base of classically trained vocalists that compete in large choir festivals. Near Los Angeles, there are numerous art and film institutes, including the CalArts Institute. Public secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. They accept students from roughly age 14 to 18, with mandatory education ceasing at age 16. In many districts, junior high schools or middle schools teach electives with a strong skills-based curriculum, for ages from 11 to 13. Elementary schools teach pure skills, history and social studies, with optional half-day kindergartens beginning at age 5. Mandatory full-time instruction begins at age 6. The primary schools are of varying effectiveness. The quality of the local schools depends strongly on the local tax base, and the size of the local administration. In some regions, administrative costs divert a significant amount of educational monies from instructional purposes. In poor regions, literacy rates may fall below 70%. One thing they all have in common is a state mandate to teach fourth grade students about the history of California, including the role of the early missions; most schools implement this by requiring students complete a multiple medium project.

Sports

California's large population has helped to make it home to many professional sports teams, including fifteen major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. However, since the re-location of the Los Angeles Raiders and Los Angeles Rams in the 1990s, it could be argued that no one city is able to lay claim to a "Grand Slam" (i.e. having a team in each of the four leagues) unless Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose are counted as being in a single metropolitan area.

Major league teams

Major League Baseball
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Oakland Athletics
- San Diego Padres
- San Francisco Giants National Basketball Association
- Golden State Warriors
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Sacramento Kings National Football League
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
- San Francisco 49ers National Hockey League
- Anaheim Mighty Ducks
- Los Angeles Kings
- San Jose Sharks

Other teams

Arena Football League
- San Jose Sabercats
- Los Angeles Avengers Major League Soccer
- Club Deportivo Chivas USA
- Los Angeles Galaxy
- San Jose Earthquakes Women's National Basketball Association
- Los Angeles Sparks
- Sacramento Monarchs

Transportation

Sacramento MonarchsCalifornia's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of freeways, expressways, and highways, all maintained by Caltrans and patrolled by the California Highway Patrol, except for the numbered expressways in Santa Clara County which were built and maintained by the county itself. Californians typically take to the roads for their commutes, errands, and vacations, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Almost all California highways are non-toll roads. Notable exceptions are any major bridges. As for air travel, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state's 58 counties. California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland handles most of the ocean containers passing through Northern California. Port of Oakland ]] Intercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak. Los Angeles and San Francisco both have subway networks, in addition to



Harvey Mudd College

Harvey Mudd College is a highly selective, private college of science, engineering, and mathematics, located in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the Claremont Colleges. The school is informally known as Harvey Mudd as well as just Mudd. Students at Mudd are known as Mudders. The college is one of the most selective in the nation; the median entering SAT score is about 770 (out of 800) in mathematics, and 1470 (out of 1600) overall. A third of the student body are National Merit Scholars, and about 40 percent of graduates go on earn a Ph.D.—the highest rate of any college or university in the nation. Harvey Mudd College has a unique mission which, to paraphrase, is: to educate scientists, engineers, and mathematicians well-versed in the social sciences and humanities so that they better understand the impact of their work on society. The college offers four-year degrees in chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, and engineering, as well as interdisciplinary degrees in mathematical biology, and a joint major in either computer science and mathematics, or biology and chemistry. Students may also elect to complete an Independent Program of Study (IPS) made up of courses of their own choosing. Usually between two and five students graduate with an IPS degree each year. Finally, students may choose an off-campus major offered by any of the other Claremont Colleges, provided they also complete a minor in one of the technical fields in which Mudd offers majors. Claremont Colleges Because of its mission statement, Harvey Mudd places an unusually strong emphasis on general science education outside one's major, with a full one-third of courses in this area, known as the "common core." Students are required to take another one-third of their courses in the humanities, keeping with the school's tradition of science with a conscience. The final one-third is composed of courses in the student's major. The integration of research and education is an important component of the educational experience at Harvey Mudd; by the time they graduate, every student has had some kind of research experience, in the form of a senior thesis or a Clinic Program experience. The undergraduate focus of HMC means that, unlike many other science and engineering institutions, undergraduates at HMC get unique access to research positions over the summer and during the school year. A unique aspect of an HMC education is the Clinic Program, in which teams of students work for a year on a project supplied by a company, make regular reports to the company, and, at the end of the year, deliver a product. There are Clinic projects in engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, and other majors. This kind of real-world experience gives students a first-hand look at a particular industry, and gives the company an inexpensive team of four students, many of whom they recruit after graduation. The college is named after Harvey Seeley Mudd, one of the initial investors in the Cyprus Mines Corporation. Although involved in the planning of the new institution, Mudd died before it opened. Harvey Mudd College was funded by Mudd's friends and family, and named in his honor. Harvey Mudd College is contiguous to the other Claremont Colleges, and students at these colleges may take classes at any of them, though classes in the student's major are normally taken at their own college. Athletics teams from Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College compete as one team. Male athletic teams are called the Stags, and women's teams are called the Athenas. The teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Harvey Mudd College dormitories

The official names for the dorms are Mildred E. Mudd Hall ("East"), West Hall ("West"), North Hall ("North"), Marks Residence Hall ("South"), J. L. Atwood Residence Hall ("Atwood"), Case Residence Hall ("Case"), Ronald and Maxine Linde Residence Hall ("Linde"), and Frederick and Susan Sontag Residence Hall ("Sontag"). Atwood and Case were occasionally referred to as New Dorm and New Dorm II up until the addition of Linde and Sontag; Mildred E. Mudd Hall and Marks Hall are almost invariably referred to as East and South. When Case was being built some students decided as a prank to move all of the survey stakes exactly six inches to the north. They did such a precise job that the construction crew didn't notice until after they had laid the foundation, but California earthquake law forced them to reinspect the new location at some significant expense. Furthermore, the plumbing has never worked quite right. Case is also very occasionally known as Seventh dorm (despite being the sixth dorm built) or as the Pink Dorm due to the fact that the cinder blocks used in its construction are rather shrimp-colored. It is notable that South Dorm is in the northwest corner of the quad. "East" was the first dorm, but it wasn't until West was built to the west of it that it was actually referred to as East. Then North was built, north of East. When the fourth dorm (Marks) was built, there was one corner of the quad available (the northwest) and one directional name (South) left. It got both, and to this day South is more 'north' on the compass than North dorm is. The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth dorms are Atwood, Case, Linde, and Sontag, respectively. They were collectively referred to as "the Colonies" by some students, a reference to the fact that they are newer and are at the far end of the campus, a full two blocks away from the academic buildings; these dorms are now more commonly referred to as "the Outer Dorms." The college purchased an apartment building adjacent to the newer dorms to house additional students, but it was demolished to make room for the newest dorm, Sontag. Due to the fact that students from all four classes can live in each of the dormitories, several of the dorms have accumulated long-standing traditions and even 'personalities.' Two examples of these traditions are the parties Long Tall Glasses (a formal affair thrown by North) and TQ Nite (a tequila-centered party thrown by West). However, the personalities of the dorms morph over time as Mudd alumni are apt to find out upon visiting their alma mater years after they've graduated.

Architecture

The original buildings of campus were designed by Edward Durell Stone. Most are covered with thousands of square concrete features, called "warts" by the students, which would be perfectly suited to buildering except that, while some are set into the wall, others are simply glued on. In addition, these warts have the unusual usefulness of being great 'shelves' for unicycles and skateboards. One can walk towards Galileo Hall and see the warts (especially those on the inside of the buildings) being used to stack unicycles and skateboards. Interestingly enough, the unofficial mascot of Harvey Mudd (featured on many college handbooks and other publications) is one of these concrete blocks with a smile, arms, and legs, named "Wally the Wart." Most of the computer labs and many classrooms are located in the basements (called the Libra Complex) of the concrete-block buildings.

Transportation on campus

In the early 1970s the first unicycles appeared on campus. By 1972 there were four of them. The notion caught on, and for a time there were dozens on campus. For many students it was a "rite of passage" to learn to ride. The unicycling club, known as Gonzo Unicycle Madness, was formed and to this day organizes an annual eight mile plus ride (each way) known as "The Foster's Run," to "The Donut Man" donut shop in Glendora (originally known as "Foster's Donuts" hence the name of the event) for strawberry donuts. Upon return to the campus, the ritual of the "shakedown" takes place (dismounting and then repeatedly jumping up and down in the dormitory courtyard); a necessary procedure after a unicycle ride of nearly twenty miles, especially for those riders of the masculine gender. At irregular intervals club members also meet to play unicycle hockey. In the early 1990s though the ridership of unicycles waned at the college. Currently there is a very small number of Mudders who continue to ride unicycles. However, despite this drop in popularity, unicycling continues to be an integral part of the Mudd mythos. Other than walking, the leading form of transportation among Mudders is skateboarding. Because the paths of Mudd are smooth and the route to the academic building on one side of campus from the dorms is so straightforward, skateboarding to class is very popular—and Mudders as a whole skate more than the students of any of the nearby Claremont Colleges.

Rivalry with Caltech

There is a long-standing rivalry between Harvey Mudd and the nearby Caltech; except this rivalry is basically unacknowledged by Caltech. For example, in one prank, students from Mudd [http://people.bu.edu/fmri/somers/cannon.html stole a memorial cannon from Fleming House at Caltech] (originally from the National Guard) by dressing as maintenance people and carting it off on a flatbed truck for "cleaning;" Though thought a coup by the Mudd students, most Caltech students were in fact happy to see the cannon gone, as Fleming House is considered unpopular and obnoxious by most of the campus. Fleming students got it back by having their school President threaten legal action. In another prank, Mudd students made a slight modification to a freeway sign that read as follows:
California Institute of Technology Pasadena City College Next Exit
Their prank was quite subtle; they put parentheses around "Pasadena City College," so it read:
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena City College) Next Exit
The modified sign therefore implied that Caltech was in fact the same as Pasadena City College, a much less prestigious institution.

More pranks

Pranks at Harvey Mudd are known for being clever, amusing, technically precise, and reversible (by policy, pranksters must leave contact information, and reverse the prank within 24 hours if told to do so). One student returned from a long weekend away to discover his room filled from floor to ceiling with inflated plastic garbage bags. The pranksters had used high-powered fans to inflate them. Once the Dean of Students discovered that some Mudders had moved everything in his office exactly 20 meters south of its original location - placing it on the grass in the middle of campus. Everything in his office was perfectly organized and functional - even his telephone and Internet connection worked. It was a pleasant day, so he spent the day outside. Another prank involved removing everything from a student's room, lining the walls with plastic, filling it two feet deep with water, and adding about 200 goldfish.

The HMC honor code

HMC students developed, live by and self-enforce an Honor Code. The Honor Code states: :"Each member of ASHMC [Associated Students of Harvey Mudd College] is responsible for maintaining his or her integrity and the integrity of the college community in all academic matters and in all affairs concerning the community." The Honor Code is so well followed that the college entrusts the students to 24-hour per day access to all buildings including labs and timed take-home closed-book exams. (See external links below for more information.)

Famous alumni


- Gael Squibb, 1961, former director of NASA/JPL's Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate, and veteran leader of numerous unmanned NASA missions.
- Michael G. Wilson, 1963, executive producer of the James Bond films.
- Rick Sontag, 1964, founder and former owner of Unison Industries, a leading manufacturer of airplane parts.
- Don Chamberlin, 1966, co-inventor of SQL (database query language) and IBM representative to the working group developing the XML query language.
- Robert Kelley, 1967, Nuclear physicist and one of 2,200 members of the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2005.
- Donald Murphy, 1968, head of the Applied Materials Research Department at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his research on a variety of electronic materials.
- Walt Foley, 1969, founder of Accel Technologies, Inc.
- Richard Jones, 1972, former US Ambassador to Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, and Chief Policy Officer and Deputy Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
- George "Pinky" Nelson, 1972, astronaut, flew on three space shuttle missions, and was the first American to walk in space without a tether to a spacecraft.
- Joseph Costello, 1974, chairman and CEO of think3, and former president and CEO of Cadence Design.
- Bruce Nelson, 1974, inventor of the remote procedure call for computer communications.
- Susan Lewallen, 1976, a member of the British Columbia Centre for Epidemiologic and International Ophthalmology and ophthalmologist for Third-World countries.
- Ned Freed, 1982, co-author of the MIME email standard (RFCs 2045-2049).
- Jonathan Gay, 1989, creator of Flash software.
- Stan Love, 1989, astronaut, currently a "capcom" or communications officer with the International Space Station.
- Scott Stokdyk, 1991, winner of the 2005 Academy Award for visual effects for Spider-Man 2, and nominee for Hollow Man and Spider-Man.
- Michael Elkins, 1993, computer scientist, creator of the Mutt email client.
- Sage Weil, 2000, inventor of the webring concept.
- Karl Mahlburg, 2001, a mathematician who proved Freeman Dyson's "crank conjecture" about certain congruences involving partition functions.

More trivia


- Harvey Mudd College leads the nation in percentage of graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D. - well over 40% in recent years. Over 65% go on to earn at least a Master's degree.
- In 1997, Harvey Mudd College became the sole American undergraduate-only institution ever to win 1st place in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. [http://icpc.baylor.edu/past/icpc97/Report.html] No American school has won the world competition since then. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/09/BUG9EC5LBI1.DTL]

External links


- [http://www.hmc.edu/ Harvey Mudd College - Official site]
- [http://www.hmc.edu/org/gonzo/ Gonzo Unicycle Madness]
- [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Harvey%20Mudd%20College%20Honor%20Code The HMC Honor Code - research report]
- [http://www.hmc.edu/org/ashmc/policies/jb-db.html The HMC Honor Code - ASHMC home page] Category:Universities and colleges in California Category:Independent Colleges of Southern California Category:Claremont Colleges Category:Schools established in the 1950s

1978

1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar).

Events

January


- January 1 - The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law.
- January 1 - Air India's Boeing 747 explodes near Bombay - 213 dead.
- January 4 - Referendum in Chile supports policies of Augusto Pinochet.
- January 6 - The Hungarian Holy Crown (also known as Stephen of Hungary Crown) returned to Hungary from the United States where it was held after World War II.
- January 7 - Emilio Palma is born in Antarctica, making his birth the southernmost in history.
- January 10 - Assassination of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, who had criticized the Nicaraguan government. Riots erupt against Somoza's government.
- January 18 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
- January 19 - Federal Appeals Court Judge William H. Webster appointed as Director of the FBI.
- January 22 - Ethiopia announces the ambassador of West Germany as Persona non grata.
- January 23 - Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer.
- January 24 - Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns in Earth atmosphere and its debris is scattered over Canadian Northwest Territories
- January 28 - Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento", is arrested
- January 30 - Blizzards in the USA kill 90.

February


- February 1 - Film director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
- February 8 - Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcasted on radio for the first time.
- February 11 - 16 Unification Church couples wed in New York City.
- February 11 - Military mobilization in Somalia due to an apparent Ethiopian attack.
- February 11 - The People's Republic of China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
- February 13 - Hilton bombing: A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two garbagemen, a policeman and several others. Many believe that ASIO was responsible.
- February 15 - Rhodesia's prime minister Ian Smith and three black leaders agree on the transfer to black majority rule.
- February 15 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is captured in Florida.
- February 16 - The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
- February 21 - Electrical workers in Mexico City find an Aztec monolith in the middle of the city.

March


- March 1 - Charlie Chaplin's remains are stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland but are recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva.
- March 1 - Broadway play Timbuktu opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.
- March 3 - Ethiopia admits that its troops are fighting with the aid Cuban soldiers against Somalian troops in Ogaden.
- March 3 - Rhodesia attacks Zambia.
- March 3 - New York Post publishes an article about David Rorvik's book The Cloning of Man about a supposed cloning of a human being
- March 6 - US porn publisher Larry Flynt is shot and paralysed
- March 11 - Palestinian terrorists on the Tel Aviv Haifa highway kill 34 Israelis.
- March 15 - The United States Senate approves the Panama Canal neutrality treaty; votes to turn the canal over to Panama by the year 2000 on April 18.
- March 16 - Israeli forces invade Lebanon.
- March 16 - Former Italian premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped by Red Brigades, who kill five bodyguards; he is found dead on May 9.
- March 17 - The oil tanker Amoco Cadiz runs aground on the coast of Brittany.
- March 18 - Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the assassination of a political opponent.
- March 22 - Karl Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- March 24 - The tanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two off Brittany spilling 50,000 metric tons of crude oil.
- March 28 - The US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.

April


- April 1 - Dick Smith of Dick Smith Foods tows a fake iceberg to Sydney Harbour.
- April 8 - Regular broadcasts of proceedings in British Parliament start.
- April 16 - In Cologne, 15,000 former members of the resistance movement demonstrate against National Socialism.
- April 18 - The US Senate votes 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31 1999.
- April 27 - President of Afghanistan, Daud Khan is killed during a military coup - Mohammed Takain succeeds him.
- April 30 - The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is proclamed, under pro-communist leader Nur Mohammed Taraki.

May


- May 4 - – Communist activist Henri Curiel is murdered in Paris.
- May 5 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 3000th major league hit.
- May 8 - Norway opens a natural gas field in the Polar Sea.
- May 9 - In Rome, the body of Aldo Moro, the Italian president of the Christian-Democrats, is found in a parked car.
- May 12-May 13 - Group of mercenaries lead by Bob Denard oust Ali Soilih in the Comoros - 10 local soldiers killed. Denard forms a new government
- May 12 - In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining centre of the province of Shaba. The government of Zaire asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.
- May 15 - Students of the University of Teheran riot in Tabriz - an army stops the riot.
- May 17 - Charles Chaplin's coffin is found ten miles from the cemetery it was stolen from, near Lake Geneva.
- May 18 - Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov is sentenced for seven years hard labor for distributing counterrevolutionary material.
- May 18-May 19 - Belgian and French paratroopers fly to Zaire to aid the fight against the rebels.
- May 20 - Mavis Hutchinson, 53, becames the first woman to run across the USA - trek took 69 days.
- May 22 - Exiled leaders Ahmed Abdallah and Mohammed Ahmed return to the Comoros
- May 25 - A bomb explodes in the security section of Northwestern University - security guard is wounded. The first bomb of the Unabomber case.
- May 26 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens.
- May 29 - Ali Soilih is found dead, allegedly shot when trying to escape

June


- June 6 - Californians in referendum approve Proposition 13 for a nearly 60% slash in property tax revenues.
- 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 blacks from priesthood and temples since 1849 (see Blacks and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
- June 12 - Serial killer David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
- June 15 - King Hussein of Jordan marries 26-year-old Lisa Halaby.
- June 19 - Cricketer Ian Botham becomes the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.
- June 19 - Comic Strip Garfield debuts in newspapers.
- June 21 - An outbreak of shooting between Provisional IRA members and the British Army leaves one civilian and three IRA men dead.
- June 22 - Discovery of Charon, a satellite of Pluto, announced.
- June 23 - Josip Broz Tito is named for Yugoslav president for life.
- June 24 - President of Yemen Arab Republic Ahmad al-Ghashmi is killed.
- June 25 - Argentina defeats Netherlands 3-1 after extra time to win the 1978 World Cup.
- June 26 - The bombing of Breton nationalists causes destruction in Versailles.
- June 28 - The Supreme Court of the United States, in the Bakke case, bars quota systems in college admissions but affirms constitutionality of programs giving advantage to minorities.
- June 30 - Ethiopia begin a massive offensive in Eritrea.

July-August


- July 7 - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
- July 25 - First human birth, girl Louise Brown, from in vitro fertilization (the test tube baby).
- August 6 - Pope Paul VI dies at age of 80.
- August 7 - United States President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal.
- August 12 - Sino-Japanese relations: The Treaty of Peace and Friendship is signed between Japan and the People's Republic of China.
- August 15 - Foundation of Mirapuri - The City of Peace and Future Man in Europe, Italy.
- August 17 - Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Preque Isle, Maine
- August 19 - Fire in Rex Cinema in Tehran - 477 dead.
- August 20 - Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London.
- August 20 - In Abadan, Iran, nearly 400 are killed when Muslim extremist arsonists set fire to a crowded theater.
- August 25 - The Shroud of Turin goes on public display for the first time in 45 years.
- August 25 - US Army sergeant Walter Robinson "walks" across the English Channel in 11 hours 30 minutes using homemade water shoes
- August 26 - Albino Cardinal Luciani succeeds Pope Paul VI as Pope John Paul I.

September-October

Pope John Paul I
- September 1 - Dublin Institute of Technology is established.
- September 5 - Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
- September 8 - Riots in Teheran - Iranian army troops open fire - 122 dead, 4000 wounded.
- September 11 - The tip of an umbrella poisons Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov, probably on orders of Bulgarian intelligence. He dies four days later.
- September 17 - Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt
- September 19 - British Police launch a massive murder hunt when newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater is shot dead after disturbing a burglary.
- September 25 - PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides with a small private airplane and crashes in San Diego, California resulting in the death of 144.
- September 28 - Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy.
- October 1 - Vietnam attacks Cambodia.
- October 7 - Wranslide in NSW; the Wran government is re-elected with a increased majority.
- October 8 - Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60mph at Blowering Dam, Australia.
- October 10 - US President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law that authorizes the minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
- October 14 - Daniel arap Moi becomes president of Kenya.
- October 16 - Karol Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II.
- October 27 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord.

November-December


- November 3 - Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- November 5 - Riots and demonstrations in Teheran - the British embassy is sacked.
- November 7 - Indira Gandhi re-elected to Indian parliament.
- November 17 - The Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS.
- November 18 - Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.
- November 19 - The first US Take Back the Night march occurs in San Francisco.
- November 20 - Military coup in Spain fails.
- November 27 - In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.
- November 30 - Publication of The Times suspended - industrial relations problems until November 13 1979.
- December 4 - Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco, California's first woman mayor (she served until Friday, January 8, 1988).
- December 11 - Lufthansa heist - Six men rob a Lufthansa cargo facility in New York City's Kennedy airport.
- December 11 - Massive anti-Shah demonstration in Iran - 2 million demonstrators.
- December 13 - First Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation.
- December 15 - Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to go into default since the Great Depression, under the mayoral administration of Dennis Kucinich.
- December 25 - Vietnam launches a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.
- December 27 - The Spanish Constitution is approved in referendum officially ending 40 years of military dictatorship.

Unknown dates


- The Hillside Strangler, a stealthy serial killer, is on the prowl in Los Angeles.
- The Usu volcano erupts in Japan.
- Eagles' Hotel California was nominated for a Grammy award.
- Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was nominated for a Grammy award.
- Artificial insulin is invented.
- David Rorvik claims he has participated in a creation of a human clone in his book In His Image.
-