Editing 1979 (section)

===August===
{{main|August 1979}}
* [[August 3]] – Dictator [[Francisco Macías Nguema]] of [[Equatorial Guinea]] is overthrown in a bloody [[coup d'état]] led by [[Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo]].
* [[August 4]] – Opening game of the ''[[German Football League|American Football Bundesliga]]'' played between [[Frankfurter Löwen]] and [[Düsseldorf Panther]], first-ever league game of [[American football]] in Germany.<ref name="Turn" >{{cite book|author=Annette R. Hofmann|title=Turnen and Sport|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q__8CmcZBZMC&pg=PA224|publisher=Waxmann Verlag|isbn=978-3-8309-6381-3|page=224}}</ref>
* [[August 5]] – The [[Polisario Front]] signs a peace treaty with [[Mauritania]]. Mauritania withdraws from the [[Western Sahara]] territory it had occupied, and cedes it to the [[SADR]].
* [[August 6]] – [[Bauhaus (band)|Bauhaus]] releases their debut single "[[Bela Lugosi's Dead]]", considered to be the first [[gothic rock]] release. 
* [[August 8]] – Two American [[commercial diver]]s, Richard Walker and Victor Guiel, die of [[hypothermia]] after their [[diving bell]] [[Wildrake diving accident|becomes stranded]] at a depth of over {{Convert|160|m}} in the [[East Shetland Basin]]. The legal repercussions of the accident will lead to important safety changes in the diving industry.<ref name="Limbrick">{{cite book|title=North Sea Divers – a Requiem|last=Limbrick|first=Jim|pages=160–162|location=Hertford|publisher=Authors OnLine|year=2001|isbn=0-7552-0036-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPp68NAoUF0C&pg=PA160}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Into the Lion's Mouth: The Story of the ''Wildrake'' Diving Accident|last=Smart|first=Michael|location=[[Medford, Oregon]]|publisher=Lion's Mouth Publishing|year=2011|isbn=978-0-615-52838-0}}</ref>
* [[August 9]] – [[Raymond Washington]], co-founder of the [[Crips]], today one of the largest, most notorious gangs in the United States, is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; the killers have not yet been identified.
* [[August 10]] – [[Michael Jackson]] releases his breakthrough album ''[[Off the Wall]]''. It sells 7&nbsp;million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7× platinum album.
* [[August 11]]
** The former Mauritanian province of [[Tiris al-Gharbiyya]] in [[Western Sahara]] is annexed by [[Morocco]].
** The [[1979 Machchhu dam failure|Machchu-2 dam]] in [[Morbi]], India, collapses, killing between 1800 and 25000 people in one of the worst ever [[dam failure]]s.
* [[August 14]] – [[1979 Fastnet race|A freak storm during the Fastnet Race]] results in the deaths of 15 sailors.
* [[August 17]] – The controversial religious satirical film ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'' premieres in the United States.
* [[August 27]] – [[The Troubles]]: [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Mountbatten of Burma]] and two others are killed in a bombing on his boat in the Republic of Ireland by the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA). Mountbatten was a British fleet admiral, statesman and an uncle of [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|The Duke of Edinburgh]]. On the same day, the [[Warrenpoint ambush]] occurs, killing 18 British soldiers. [[Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne]] would die in a hospital the following day from injuries sustained in the bombing.
* [[August 29]] – A national referendum is held in which [[Somalia|Somali]] voters approve a new liberal constitution, promulgated by [[Siad Barre|President Siad Barre]] to placate the United States.