1978: Congress extends deadline for ratification of ERA by three more years
1978: Sixteenth section lands and lieu lands act passed
The act transferred control of sixteenth section lands from county boards of supervisors to local boards of education and required fair-market rental value on those lands. Sixteenth section lands are the portion of each township reserved for support of public education.
1978: Fourth U.S.S. Mississippi commissioned
This nuclear-powered cruiser served during Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991. It was decommissioned in 1997.
1978: Thad Cochran elected to U.S. Senate
He was reelected in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002, and 2008. Cochran served as Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, and the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. He also authored the Mississippi Wilderness Act. He currently serves on the Appropriations Committee, the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and the Joint Committee on the Library.