| 18th January 1978 | The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture. |
| 8th April 1978 | Regular radio broadcasts of British Parliament proceedings begin. |
| 8th May 1978 | Norway opens a natural gas field in the Polar Sea. |
| 10th May 1978 | Liverpool FC wins the European Cup, beating FC Bruges 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. |
| 17th May 1978 | Charlie Chaplin's coffin is found ten miles away from the cemetery it had been stolen from, near Lake Geneva. |
| 19th June 1978 | Cricketer Ian Botham becomes the first man in the history of the game to score a century and then take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match. |
| 25th June 1978 | Host nation Argentina defeats the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time to win the 1978 FIFA World Cup. |
| 7th July 1978 | The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom. |
| 25th July 1978 | Louise Brown is born in Oldham in Manchester, becoming the world’s first test tube baby. |
| 6th August 1978 | Pope Paul VI dies in Rome. |
| 26th August 1978 | Pope John Paul I is elected to succeed Pope Paul VI. |
| 7th September 1978 | A poison-filled pellet, supposedly injected using an umbrella, poisons Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov whilst he is working in London. Markov dies four days later and it is alleged that this murder was by order of Bulgarian intelligence. |
| 19th September 1978 | 13-year-old newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater is shot dead after disturbing a burglary. Police in the West Midlands launch a massive murder hunt. |
| 28th September 1978 | Pope John Paul I dies after only thirty-three days of papacy. |
| 1st October 1978 | Vietnam attacks Cambodia. |
| 8th October 1978 | Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60 mph at Blowering Dam, Australia. |
| 7th November 1978 | Indira Gandhi is re-elected to the Indian parliament. |
| 25th December 1978 | Vietnam launches a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia. |