1978 in Rhodesia

Incumbents

• President:
• * until 31 August: John Wrathall
• * 31 August-1 November: Henry Everard
• * starting 1 November: Jack William Pithey
• Prime Minister: Ian Smith

  Events

January

• 3 January - Leopard Rock Hotel in the Vumba Mountains is damaged after a guerilla rocket attack.

  March

• 3 March - The Salisbury Agreement what later became known as the Internal Settlement, aimed at leading to black majority rule signed by Prime Minister Ian Smith, UANC president Bishop Abel Muzorewa, ZUPO president Senator Chief Jeremiah Chirau, and ANC president the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole.
• 14 March - United Nations Security Council Resolution 423 condemned the Rhodesian Internal Settlement
• 21 March - Transitional Government aimed at leading to black majority rule formally established as part of the Salisbury Agreement, Internal Settlement.

  April

• 14 April - Nine black ministers sworn into serve on the Ministerial Council of the Transitional Government.

  May

• 19 May - Two Swiss Red Cross workers and their African assistant are killed by fighters near the Mozambique border.

  June

• 23 June - 12 whites murdered in Vumba. 8 British missionaries and 4 of their children were bayonetted to death at Emmanuel Mission School at Vumba by guerillas. The dead belonged to the Elim Pentecostal Church.
• 24 June - Rhodesia beat Western Transvaal 41-9 in a Currie Cup match played at Hartsfield Rugby Ground, Bulawayo.
• 28 June - Three Zimbabwe African People's Union fighters kill two German missionaries.

  August

• 15 August - The Rhodesia Herald was renamed The Herald.

  Births

Deaths

• 17 June - Archie Dunaway, an American Baptist evangelist, is stabbed to death by fighters at the Sanyati Mission Hospital, 1,120 km west of Salisbury
• 28 June - Clifford Dupont, 1st President of Rhodesia dies aged 72.