Chronopin: upcoming release dates, events and other important dates

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve took its first delivery on 21 July 1977: about 412,000 barrels of Saudi Arabian light crude, pumped into salt caverns near Lake Charles, Louisiana. Construction had started that April, when the government bought up existing caverns along the Gulf Coast rather than wait to dig its own.

Engineers quietly finished weeks of overnight welding that fixed a hidden wind-bracing flaw in Manhattan's Citicorp Center, averting a possible collapse.

Sally Schmitt opened the restaurant in a stone building in Napa Valley in 1978 and built her menus around local, seasonal produce. Thomas Keller bought it in 1994 and it now holds three Michelin stars.

From 1 January 1979 Washington recognised the People's Republic as the sole legal government of China and withdrew recognition from Taipei, ending thirty years in which the United States had treated the Republic of China on Taiwan as the government of all China.

Four weeks after relations began, Deng Xiaoping stood on the South Lawn for a full arrival ceremony — the first visit to Washington by a leader of Communist China. He went on to charm Congress and the press, and to be photographed in a ten-gallon hat at a Texas rodeo.

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a war? Teenager Amuro Ray sees his life shattered when war comes to his home.

Three months after breaking relations with Taipei, Congress wrote the substitute into law: an unofficial relationship run through the American Institute in Taiwan, arms 'of a defensive character', and a declared US capacity to resist any resort to force against Taiwan. It has governed the question ever since.

The World Health Assembly certified that smallpox had been wiped from the earth - the only human disease ever eradicated. The last natural case had been in Somalia in 1977, and the campaign that found it had traced and vaccinated outwards from every case for a decade.

An earthquake at 8:32 a.m. local time dropped the volcano's weakened north face away in the largest subaerial landslide on record, uncorking a lateral blast toward Spirit Lake. Fifty-seven people were killed.

Tokyo Movie Shinsha's Tomorrow's Joe 2 continues the boxing manga adaptation, following a downhearted Joe Yabuki as he wanders away from the gym before an old rival helps pull him back into the ring.

Launched as the William J. DeLancey and later renamed Paul R. Tregurtha, the Great Lakes' longest ship began hauling cargo with its maiden voyage on 10 May 1981.

The CDC's weekly report carried five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia in previously healthy young men in Los Angeles, two of them already dead. It is the first published account of what became AIDS, four years before the virus behind it was agreed on.

The Daicon III Opening Animation screens at the Nihon SF Taikai convention in Osaka, the first of two self-funded fan short films that a young Hideaki Anno, Hiroyuki Yamaga, and Takami Akai made under the amateur group Daicon Film before founding Gainax.

In September 1982, Volvo Trucks built the first Volvo-branded truck ever assembled in North America, a Volvo F7, at its newly acquired New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia. The factory has produced every Volvo truck sold in North America ever since.

The Antonov An-124 Ruslan, still one of the largest cargo aircraft ever built, first flew over Kyiv on 26 December 1982, years before it entered airline service.

The first Spago opened in 1982 on the Sunset Strip and made Wolfgang Puck a name outside kitchens, largely by putting the wood-fired pizza oven where the dining room could see it and topping the pizzas with smoked salmon rather than tomato. The restaurant later moved to Beverly Hills, where it still trades, and the brand grew into a group.

German heavy-vehicle maker Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik developed and launched the Self-Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT), the modular, multi-axle hauler that became the industry standard for moving exceptionally heavy loads. Its name is now used generically across the heavy-transport industry.

Topcraft's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind releases in Japanese theaters, Hayao Miyazaki's post-apocalyptic adventure adapting his own manga about Princess Nausicaä's struggle to bridge humanity and a poisoned, insect-guarded wilderness.

Pirelli introduced the P Zero on the Lancia Delta S4 Stradale, the tire that gave rise to the Ultra High Performance category; the first generation followed in 1987 to equip the Ferrari F40. It launched the company's 'Perfect Fit' strategy of bespoke tires for premium automakers.

The year is Universal Century 0087. Seven years have passed since the end of the One Year War. In its zeal to stamp out any remaining opposition, the Earth Federation has organized the Titans, an elite fighting force.

Goku Son is a young boy who lives in the woods all alone—that is until a girl named Bulma runs into him in her search for a set of magical objects called the "Dragon Balls." Since the artifacts are said to grant one wish to whoever collects all seven, Bulma hopes to gather them and wish for a perfect boyfriend.

It is the year 0088 of the Universal Century in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. The badly damaged assault cruiser Argama docks at the run-down space colony of Shangri-La for much-needed repairs.

Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky opens in Japanese theaters, Hayao Miyazaki's adventure following orphaned engineer's apprentice Pazu and a girl named Sheeta as they search for the legendary floating city of Laputa.

A limnic eruption released 100,000-300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from a crater lake in northwestern Cameroon. Heavier than air, the cloud rolled downhill and suffocated everyone and everything within 25 km.

A biker-gang OVA following Eguchi Yousuke, leader of a high-school motorcycle gang who moonlights in the school's handicrafts club, and the misfits who ride with him.

Ages ago, the goddess Athena was served by fighters called Saints who channeled the power of the Cosmos within them. Now a youth named Seiya has trained to become a Saint himself by earning the mystical Cloth of Pegasus.

Alain Passard bought the rue de Varenne dining room where he had once cooked as a young chef from its owner Alain Senderens in 1986, and reopened it under his own sign as Arpège - a musical name, from a family of musicians. He later did something close to unthinkable for a three-star French kitchen and took red meat off the menu, rebuilding the cooking around vegetables from his own gardens.

The driverless Docklands Light Railway opens to passengers, giving London's redeveloping docklands a low-cost automated metro built largely on disused rail viaducts.

The direct-to-video Legend of the Galactic Heroes begins release, an epic space-opera OVA chronicling the war between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance through rival commanders Reinhard von Lohengramm and Yang Wenli.

Grave of the Fireflies opens in Japanese theaters, a Studio Ghibli war drama following two orphaned siblings, Seita and his young sister Setsuko, struggling to survive in the final months of World War II.

My Neighbor Totoro follows sisters Satsuki and Mei as they settle into a new countryside home and discover Totoro, a gentle forest spirit only children can see.

TMS Entertainment's Soreike! Anpanman, based on Takashi Yanase's picture books, began its decades-long run on Nippon TV, making the bean-bun superhero Japan's defining preschool anime.

Gainax's Gunbuster (Top wo Nerae!), the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, follows aspiring pilot Noriko Takaya as she trains to crew a giant robot defending Earth from an advancing alien species.

The six-episode OVA Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket begins release, following a boy on the neutral space colony Side 6 whose fascination with the One Year War turns serious once Zeon commandos infiltrate his home searching for a hidden Federation mobile suit program.

Toei Animation begins broadcasting Dragon Ball Z, the sequel series to Dragon Ball following an adult Goku, his son Gohan, and the Z Fighters against escalating threats like Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu.

Kiki's Delivery Service follows a young witch, Kiki, as she leaves home at thirteen to complete her training year in a new city, opening a flying delivery service with her talking cat Jiji.

The 34-meter, five-loop Olympia Looping premiered at Munich's Oktoberfest on 17 September 1989, becoming the largest portable roller coaster ever built and the only one with five inversions.

In 1990, Orange County opened the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in the hills above Irvine, California, which grew into the ninth-largest landfill in the United States.

Momoko Sakura is an elementary school student who likes popular idol Momoe Yamaguchi and mangas. She is often called "Chibi Maruko-chan" due to her young age and small size.

The Rocky Mountaineer's first scheduled luxury rail journey left Vancouver for the Canadian Rockies with 200 guests aboard, launching what became one of the world's most iconic train trips.

The Exorcist III is a 1990 American supernatural psychological horror film written for the screen and directed by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1983 novel Legion. It is the third installment in The Exorcist film series and the final installment in Blatty's "Trilogy of Faith" after The Ninth Configuration (1980), serving as a follow-up and direct sequel of The Exorcist (1973).

Hours after announcing allied air attacks on Iraq, President Bush ordered the first emergency sale in the reserve's history. The Energy Department released its sales notice on 17 January 1991 and eventually sold 17.3 million barrels to 13 companies, half of what it offered: bids for sour crude came in too low to accept.

Crayon Shin-chan begins its television run on TV Asahi, an irreverent slice-of-life comedy following five-year-old Shinnosuke "Shin-chan" Nohara and his family in Kasukabe, Saitama.

Munich Airport opened at its current site on 17 May 1992, replacing Munich-Riem, and is one of only two European airports to hold Skytrax's 5-Star rating.

The direct-to-video Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still begins release, a seven-episode OVA reviving Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1960s manga/tokusatsu property with a retro-futurist mecha story about the secret organization Big Fire's plot for world domination.

Developer Triple Five Group opened the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, debuting 330 stores and an indoor amusement park inside the largest shopping mall in the United States.

Shin-Ei Animation's feature-length Crayon Shin-chan TV specials, extended event episodes built around the mischievous five-year-old Shinnosuke Nohara, began airing at the end of 1992.

Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, a Japanese-Indian animated adaptation of the Hindu epic, releases in Japanese theaters, retelling the exile of Prince Rama and his quest to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana.

The TV special Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks tells the tragedy of an alternate future where the androids have all but wiped out humanity, following a grown Trunks as he trains under a dying Gohan before traveling back in time.

The direct-to-video Kyou kara Ore wa!! begins release, a delinquent-school comedy OVA adapting Hiroyuki Nishimori's manga about two transfer students, Itou and Takashi, who reinvent themselves as tough guys at a new school.