The United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of its independence. Six million people view a parade of tall ships from 31 countries on the Hudson River. France gives the United States $4 million in gifts to celebrate the occasion.

Also that year:

• Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are elected president and vice president, respectively.

• North and South Vietnam are reunited as one country after 22 years with Hanoi as the capital. Saigon is renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

• Rocky, a film starring Sylvester Stallone, wins the Oscar for Best Picture.

• Kitts Peak astronomers determine that Pluto is covered with methane ice and may once have been a moon of Neptune.

• Patty Hearst’s trial begins. (She was kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, which she later joined.) Charged with robbing a San Francisco bank, she is found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison. (The sentence was later reduced.)

• A shower of more than 100 meteorites falls in China, including the largest stone ever seen falling onto Earth. The fragments collectively weigh in at 3,894 pounds.

• The Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria, where 1,054 athletes complete from 37 countries.