August, 1979
8/30: In the first recorded event of its kind, a comet collided against the sun, releasing an energy amount equal to that of 1 million hydrogen bombs.  The comet, larger than the Earth, had been trapped by the Sun's gravity and, after the explosion, the debris scattered for millions of miles in the Sun's atmosphere.  Images of comets:  http://www.allgeo.uni-bremen.de/solar/comet.htm#views
(source: The Learning Kingdom