Sporting Spectators (Jan. 15): The first National Football League championship game shown during prime time -- Super Bowl XII between the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos -- gets an estimated 86 million viewers. The game is the second-most-watched program in TV history, after the final episode of the "Roots" miniseries in 1977. Dallas won in a 27-10 upset.

Honored Abolitionist (Feb. 1): The U.S. Postal Service issues a stamp bearing the likeness of Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave and abolitionist. It is the first stamp to honor a black woman.

Racial Quotas Illegal (June 28): In a case that will have ramifications extending into the 21st century, the Supreme Court rules that the University of California must admit Allan P. Bakke to its medical school. Bakke, who is white, claimed his civil rights were violated when he was refused admission to the school because of racial quotas designed to increase the number of minority students. The decision upholds the constitutionality affirmative action but maintains that rigid quotas for minority admissions are illegal.

Test Tube Miracle (July 25): Aldous Huxley, in his 1932 sci-fi classic "Brave New World," imagined a society in which "babies are mass-produced from chemical solutions in laboratory bottles." The birth of Louise Joy Brown by Caesarean section on July 25 in Oldham, England, is sufficient evidence for some that Huxley's dark fancies are coming true. Baby Louise is the first human being conceived outside the womb -- in a procedure called "in vitro fertilization." For the Browns, who were unable to conceive, extrauterine conception is not a nightmare, but a miracle.

Toxic Town (Aug. 7): The Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, N.Y., is considered environmentally unfit for human habitation and is declared a disaster area by President Carter. From 1947 to 1952, the Hooker Chemical Co. dumped tons of toxic waste into an abandoned industrial canal in the area. In 1953, the company filled in the canal and sold it for $1 to Niagara Falls. The city built a school on the dump site and housing developments soon followed.

	Sadat, Carter and Begin at Camp David

Camp David Accords (Sept. 16-17): A Middle East peace conference at Camp David, Md., is attended by President Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. On Sept. 17, Sadat and Begin sign an agreement at the White House to conclude a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel within three months. The Camp David accords will lead to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt on March 26, 1979, and win the Nobel Peace Prize for Begin and Sadat, though not for Carter.

Taking Charge (Oct. 6) Hannah Gray becomes the first female president of a major American university when she is installed at the University of Chicago.

	Pope John Paul II

Polish Pope (Oct. 17): The new pontiff -- born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland -- is the first non-Italian to be elected pope in 456 years and is the first Pole. And at 58, he is the youngest pope since Pius IX took office in 1846. Like his predecessor, Wojtyla is a theological conservative and social progressive, and -- in honor of John Paul I -- he takes the name John Paul II. His facility with languages and his energy and charisma make John Paul II wildly popular even outside the church.

Mass Suicide (Nov. 18): In the jungle of Guyana, a flamboyant, charismatic cult leader named James Warren "Jim" Jones engineers the assassination of a visiting California congressman and four members of his entourage, the mass suicide by cyanide-laced Kool-Aid of 913 of his People's Temple followers, and his own death by self-inflicted gunshot.

The Killing Fields (December): With the invasion of Cambodia by neighboring Vietnam, the full horror of the three years of genocide by the ultranationalist Khmer Rouge begins to emerge. Mass graves, huge piles of skulls and other human bones, and the accounts of eyewitnesses who escaped the terror of the killing fields provide a detailed picture of the three years of genocide. The number of dead is estimated at between 1 million and 3 million.