George Lucas directs the film Star Wars, which signals a new, more polished science-fiction genre in films. Elsewhere that year:

• President JimmyCarter pardons most of the draft evaders of the Vietnam War period.

• The space shuttle Enterprise successfully completes several test flights and landings.

• The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the spanking of students by school officials is not a violation of the pupils’ Constitutional rights.

• The tomb of Philip II, King of Macedon and father of Alexander the Great, is discovered in Greece.

• The Temple Scroll, longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1949, is published in Israel.