After a guerrilla war and the Lancaster House Agreement, Rhodesia became the internationally recognised independent state of Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe as prime minister.
The World Health Assembly officially declares smallpox eradicated, the first human infectious disease to be wiped out.
Citizens of Gwangju rise against Chun Doo-hwan's military regime; the uprising is violently suppressed by the army.
After strikes at the Gdańsk shipyard, Poland's government accepts the right to form independent trade unions, opening the way for Lech Wałęsa's Solidarity movement.
Saddam Hussein's Iraq invades Iran, beginning an eight-year war of attrition that kills hundreds of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands of people flee Vietnam by sea after 1975; many die at sea and others are resettled, mostly in Western countries.
A multi-sided civil war devastates Lebanon for fifteen years, with intervention by Syria, Israel and other foreign forces.
Following Khmer Rouge border attacks, Vietnam invades Cambodia, takes Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979 and overthrows the Khmer Rouge; Vietnamese troops remain until 1989.