January
02 – 22 die as hurricane winds rock Britain.
05 – The Khmer Rouge drafts a new constitution in Cambodia, renaming it Democratic Kampuchea.
05 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police investigating a domestic dispute.
05 – Ten Protestant men are shot dead by IRA gunmen as they are returning home from work in a minibus in Northern Ireland. The attack happens on the Whitecross to Bessbrook Road in South Armagh as the men, all textile workers, return from a factory six miles from Bessbrook. Up to a dozen attackers ambush the mini-bus.
06 – Following 15 sectarian murders within a week in Northern Ireland, the British government sends in the elite SAS (Special Air Service).
07 – A British naval frigate is involved in another collision with an Icelandic gunboat in the Atlantic. HMS Andromeda is dented when the Icelandic gunboat, Thor, sails close to the bow. Thor sustains a hole in its hull.
08 – Chou En-Lai, Prime Minister of China, dies of cancer in Peking aged 78.
08 – The Indian government postpones parliamentary elections and announces the indefinite continuation of the state of emergency first imposed in June 1975.
10 – Chicago blues legend Howlin’ Wolf dies in Chicago, aged 65.
12 – The Queen of the Detective Story, Dame Agatha Christie, dies aged 85, just after publishing Poirot’s latest case, Curtain, in which the Belgian’s “little grey cells” are laid to rest. The lights are dimmed outside the St Martin’s Theatre in London, where The Mousetrap is in its 25th year.
15 – The Roman Catholic Church reiterates its condemnation of sex outside marriage and says that homosexuality cannot be condoned under any circumstances.
18 – The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in Super Bowl X.
19 – Jimmy Carter wins the Iowa Caucus, receiving 26.6% of the vote. His closest rival, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh, got 13.1%
19 – Rock promoter Bill Sargent offers The Beatles $30 million to reunite. They decline.
21 – British Airways and Air France start scheduled Concorde passenger flights. Two flights take off from London and Paris simultaneously, bound for Bahrain and Rio de Janeiro. Permission to fly in the USA is not granted until 24 May when the plane starts flights to Washington DC and, in 1977, to New York City, its most successful route.
21 – Emma Bunton (Baby Spice of The Spice Girls) is born.
22 – New Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser reinstates God Save The Queen as the National Anthem, scrapping Advance Australia Fair.
23 – Singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson dies.
28 – 100 British mercenaries fly to Angola to join the FNLA forces.
29 – Twelve IRA bombs explode during the night in the West End of London. Four of them are outside employment agencies and another is found in Selfridge’s department store in Oxford Street. A taxi driver is injured in an explosion at the junction of Foubert’s Place and Kingly Street.
31 – Pope Paul VI warns that the growing feminist movement could depersonalise women or cause them to become masculine.
February
01 – 119 Picasso paintings are stolen in Avignon, France.
02 – The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, England, is opened.
04 – A violent 7.6 magnitude earthquake devastates Guatemala, killing over 22,000 people.
04 – Winter Olympics XII opens in Innsbruck, Austria.
04 – Patty Hearst‘s much-publicised bank robbery trial opens. She testifies that she participated under threat of death from her SLA captors. Although expert psychiatric testimony supports her contentions, she is found guilty on 20 March and sentenced to seven years in prison.
05 – A riot breaks out at Escambia High School in Pensacola, Florida, over the use of a Confederate-themed mascot and other symbols.
08 – 14 British mercenaries are executed by a firing squad in Angola.
09 – Prince Charles takes command of the minehunter HMS Bronington – his first command in the Royal Navy.
11 – Skater John Curry wins Britain’s first Olympic gold in figure skating in Innsbruck, Austria. It is the country’s first medal at the winter games for 12 years.
12 – An IRA prisoner at Wakefield Prison, England, dies after a 61-day hunger strike.
12 – Actor Sal Mineo is stabbed to death outside his apartment in West Hollywood. He is 37.
15 – More violence erupts between police and anti-busing demonstrators in Boston, USA.
18 – Sculptor Carl Andre’s controversial pile of bricks goes on show at the Tate Gallery in London.
18 – Race Relations Bill comes into force in the UK.
18 – President Ford issues an executive order curtailing domestic surveillance of US citizens by the FBI and CIA.
19 – Iceland breaks off diplomatic relations with Britain over the “cod war” fishing rights dispute.
20 – Rough Trade record shop opens in Ladbroke Grove, London, W11.
21 – Israel withdraws from Sinai as UN troops move into the buffer zone.
22 – Original lead singer of The Supremes, Florence Ballard, dies of a heart attack, aged 32. At the time of her death, Ballard is living on welfare with her three children.
23 – English painter L S Lowry, renowned for painting matchstick men and women, dies.
24 – Cuba adopts a new constitution, which defines the island nation as a socialist republic.
28 – President Ford denounces Fidel Castro as ‘an international outlaw’ because he intervened in the Angolan civil war.
March
01 – Former US Foreign Service Officer Bradford Bishop kills his mother, life and three children at their home in Bethesda, Maryland. He flees and is never apprehended.
04 – Anne Maguire, from Willesden, North London, is convicted of possessing nitro-glycerine, which was passed on for use by IRA terrorists to make bombs. Maguire is jailed for 14 years. Her husband, Patrick Maguire, is also sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Her two younger sons, Vincent, 17, and Patrick, 14, are given five and four years, respectively. Mrs Maguire’s brother, William Smyth, brother-in-law Patrick “Giuseppe” Conlon, and family friend Patrick O’Neill, are each sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. All serve full prison terms before their convictions are quashed in 1991.
05 – EMI Records simultaneously re-releases all 22 Beatles singles. Seven enter the UK charts again.
09 – 42 people, including 15 children, are killed at the ski resort of Cavalese near Trento, in the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy when the steel line supporting their cable car snaps.
09 – A methane gas explosion at the Scotia Mine in Letcher County, Kentucky, kills 15 coal miners. Two days later, a second explosion kills a group of miners and inspectors.
16 – Harold Wilson resigns from the British Premiership. The announcement comes without warning this morning. Wilson drives to Buckingham Palace, tells the Queen, and then instructs his press secretary, “Tell the lobby correspondents you’ve got a little story that might interest them”. The news stuns and baffles the political world, and speculation about what lies behind it rages throughout the day.
17 – The New Jersey Supreme Court orders a new trial for Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter.
19 – Paul Kossoff of the rock band, Free, dies of drug-induced heart failure in his sleep on a flight from London to New York, aged 26.
19 – Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon announce their separation after 16 years of marriage.
20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed bank robbery and using a firearm to commit a felony in relation to her involvement in the 1974 robbery of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco, despite her protestations that she was a hostage of the SLA at the time and feared for her life.
21 – French singer and actress Claudine Longet – the former wife of singer Andy Williams – is arrested and charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich, at his home in Aspen, Colorado. Longet claims the gun accidentally discharged as Sabich was showing her how it worked. The jury convicts her of negligent homicide and sentences her to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail.
21 – Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter is released from jail.
24 – Supreme Court rules that blacks and other minorities are entitled to retroactive job seniority.
24 – Distinguished British WWII commander Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery dies. His funeral service is held with full military honours in St George’s Chapel, Windsor on 1 April.
24 – Argentina’s president, Isabel Peron, aged 45, is deposed in the small hours of the morning in a bloodless coup by military leaders. Isabel, who has held office since the death of her husband, Juan, in 1974, was flying in a helicopter from Government House to her home in a Buenos Aires suburb when the crew flew instead to the metropolitan airport where she was arrested by a General. She drew her revolver but was quickly disarmed.
29 – The US Supreme Court upholds states’ right to enact laws making homosexual acts illegal, even between consenting adults in their own homes.
31 – The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that Karen Ann Quinlan, still surviving with an artificial respirator, may be disconnected from the device as her family wishes. On 19 May, it is removed and, breathing independently, she is taken to a chronic-care facility.
April
01 – German-born French artist Max Ernst dies.
01 – The Apple Computer company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in a Silicon Valley garage.
03 – ‘Rag Trade’ wins the Grand National in England.
05 – James Callaghan becomes the new British Prime Minister after Harold Wilson‘s unexpected resignation.
05 – Howard Hughes, the world’s most notorious recluse, dies of a stroke as his private jet flies him from Mexico to Texas. Hughes, aged 70, was preparing to see specialists about an undisclosed ailment. His fortune is estimated at $1.5 billion.
09 – Folk singer Phil Ochs hangs himself in his sister’s home in Queens, New York, having suffered bipolar disorder and alcoholism problems.
10 – Peter Frampton‘s double album Frampton Comes Alive tops the US charts becoming the most successful live LP in rock history.
11 – Frank Sinatra is photographed at a concert in the company of two notorious Mafiosi; Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano.
13 – The American $2 bill is reissued on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday after being discontinued in 1966.
25 – The British Post Office makes its last collection on a Sunday.
26 – British Carry On star and comedian Sid James dies.
27 – An unknown person leaves a document purporting to be the will of Howard Hughes at the Mormon Church’s headquarters. One of Hughes’ assistants calls it “a very clever forgery”.
30 – Elizabeth Taylor divorces Richard Burton for a second time, having remarried him in Botswana in October 1975.
May
03 – Paul McCartney‘s band Wings make their US concert debut.
06 – An earthquake strikes the northeast region of Italy, almost destroying the town of Gemona. 900 people lose their lives.
10 – UK Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe resigns after allegations of a homosexual affair.
13 – Fighting between Muslim and Christian forces breaks out again in Lebanon as the civil war ceasefire collapses.
14 – Former Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf dies after being electrocuted while cleaning his guitar at home in West London.
15 – Three Ulster policemen are killed and another seriously injured by a Provisional IRA booby trap explosion at Belcoo, County Fermanagh. A bomb also destroys a bar in Belfast killing two people and injuring over 50.
19 – Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard crashes his Bentley 50 miles north of London. Police investigators charge him with possession of cocaine and marijuana.
20 – British nationals living in Rhodesia are advised by the British High Commission in Zambia to leave the country for their own safety.
21 – A chartered bus carrying 53 members of a choir from Yuba City High School crashes through a guardrail in Martinez, California, and falls 21½ feet to the ground. Twenty-nine die, including the choir advisor. All other passengers, including the driver, are injured.
24 – Supersonic Concordes of Air France and British Airways fly to Washington DC, inaugurating their first commercial flights to North America from London and Paris.
24 – California wines win every category over French varietals in a competition dubbed the “Judgement of Paris”.
25 – The first Star Wars film, starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, is released.
28 – The US and USSR sign a nuclear test pact limiting underground tests to a maximum of 150 kilotons. The pact also allows the US to inspect Soviet test sites.
31 – As the Lebanese civil war heats up, Syria sends approximately 5,000 troops into Northern Lebanon.
June
01 – Britain and Iceland agree terms to end the “cod war”.
04 – Indian youth Gurdip Singh Chaggar, 18, is stabbed to death in Southall, west London, by five youths. His murder causes angry demonstrations by Asian immigrants in the area on 6 June. The four youths appear in court in Ealing on 8 June, accused of murder.
06 – American oil millionaire J Paul Getty dies at his home near Guildford, Surrey (England), aged 83.
06 – 30,000 people are made homeless in eastern Idaho, USA when the recently completed Teton Dam across the Snake River collapses. At least 25 square miles are estimated to be underwater.
06 – The Boston Celtics eclipse the Phoenix Suns 87-80 to win their 13th NBA title.
10 – Paul McCartney and Wings establish the record for the biggest indoor concert crowd, 67,100, in Seattle.
13 – Dan Bolles, a reporter who investigates fraud schemes and organised crime for The Arizona Republic newspaper, dies from injuries he receives in a car bomb attack in Phoenix. The killing prompts journalists from around the country to expose widespread corruption in the state.
13 – Virtually every home and business in Jordan, a small town in central lowa, is destroyed by an F5 tornado. Remarkably, all the residents of the town survive.
14 – The US Supreme Court refuses to review cases about the desegregation of Boston schools and allows the lower court rulings upholding busing as a legitimate measure of integrating public schools to stand.
16 – The incoming American ambassador to Lebanon, Francis E Meloy Jr, and US Economic Counselor Robert O. Waring are kidnapped by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and killed in Beirut. The US government subsequently calls for all Americans to leave the war-torn city.
17 – The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association agree to merge.
18 – Three days and nights of rioting, burning and looting in South Africa’s black townships leave 100 dead and over 1,000 injured. After John Vorster, the Prime Minister, announces that the security forces have been told to restore order “at all costs”, police begin to open fire on crowds without warning.
19 – The Viking I spacecraft reaches Mars and goes into orbit.
21 – Two Arabs buy the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London, for £9 million on behalf of a group of private investors in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
22 – The USSR launches Salyut V space laboratory into orbit.
25 – Idi Amin becomes president of Uganda “for life”.
26 – The CN Tower opens in downtown Toronto, Ontario, and becomes the world’s tallest freestanding structure for 32 years.
26 – London hits record temperature of 95° F (35° C) as Britain swelters in a heatwave.
27 – Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijack an Air France plane in Athens and force it to fly to Entebbe in Uganda. The Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was a conspirator in the hijacking and provided armed guards for the plane (which had begun its journey in Israel) while at the airport. The hijackers release all non-Israelis and non-Jews and threaten to blow up the plane unless 54 convicted terrorists are released. Israel stages a daring rescue on 3 July.
27 – The G6 become the G7 when Canada join the forum.
28 – In Angola, four British and American mercenaries are sentenced to death, and nine others receive long terms of imprisonment. Despite pleas of clemency from the Queen and the British Prime Minister, the four mercenaries are executed by firing squad on 10 July.
28 – The Seychelles, a British colony since the 19th century, becomes an independent nation.
29 – Communist party leaders meet in East Berlin and endorse the independence of each national Communist party.
30 – Three gunmen who held eight people captive in the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, in September 1975, are found guilty and sentenced to prison for 21 years, 18 years and 17 years respectively.
July
02 – North and South Vietnam are reunited as one nation, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with Hanoi as the capital.
02 – Government troops quash an attempted coup d’état in Sudan.
02 – Reversing decisions dating back to 1972, the US Supreme Court declares the death penalty to be a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment and returns the decision to rule on its imposition to the states.
03 – Members of the Israeli Defence Forces set off in five planes for Entebbe Airport in Uganda. In addition to 200 paratroopers, the planes also carry a black Mercedes and some Land Rovers, to be used as a decoy by posing as a VIP visiting the airport.
03 – For the first time in seven years, Brian Wilson joins The Beach Boys in concert. Wilson (barely) plays the piano and sings a hushed version of In My Room.
03 – To the delight of the teenage girls who have mobbed his every move since he made his first impact on Wimbledon, the 20-year-old Bjorn Borg from Sweden, his long blond hair held in place by a headband, beats Ilie Nastase of Romania 6-4, 6-2, 9-7 to become the youngest champion for 45 years.
04 – America celebrates its 200th birthday in a mood of festive introspection. A million people in Washington cheer as lasers write in the sky “1776-1976: Happy Birthday, USA”. 10,000 people become US citizens in mass ceremonies, and 15 tall ships sail into New York Harbor.
04 – Israeli commandos rescue over 100 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. During a 35-minute battle, 20 Ugandan soldiers and all seven hijackers die along with three hostages. The leader of the assault force, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, is also shot dead by a Ugandan sentry. The Israelis destroy 11 Russian-built MiG fighters, which amounts to a quarter of Uganda’s air force.
04 – The Ramones make their London debut at the Roundhouse, supported by The Flamin’ Groovies and The Stranglers.
04 – Nine people are killed when a coach veers across the M4 motorway near Swindon during a thunderstorm and hits four oncoming cars.
07 – Queen Elizabeth II visits the USA.
07 – David Steel becomes the leader of the British Liberal Party, in succession to Jeremy Thorpe, who resigned in May.
07 – Soyuz 21, launched on 6 July with two Soviet cosmonauts on board, docks with Salyut 5, an orbital space station.
10 – The town of Seveso near Milan in northern Italy is devastated by the release of poisonous dioxin gas from a nearby pesticide plant. The town is evacuated, but crops are ruined, thousands of animals die, and there will be a huge rise in abnormal births locally.
10 – In Angola, the four sentenced British and American mercenaries are executed by firing squad.
11 – Vittorio Occorsio, Rome’s Public Prosecutor, is shot dead on his way to court by political terrorists from the extreme right Ordine Nuovo.
12 – Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian at California State University, Fullerton, shoots and kills seven coworkers. He is later found to be mentally ill.
12 – The American television game show Family Feud premieres on ABC.
14 – Former Georgia Governor James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr wins the Democratic nomination.
15 – Twenty-six children and their school bus driver are abducted in Chowchilla, California, and held in a truck that has been buried in a quarry. They escape after 16 hours. The three kidnappers – all young men from wealthy families seeking ransom money – are sentenced to long prison terms.
15 – Senator Walter Mondale is nominated as Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate.
17 – The XXI Olympic Games open in Montreal, Canada, under a political cloud as Taiwan withdraws over the IOC’s insistence that they not use the name ‘China’ and Tanzania leads a boycott in protest of New Zealand’s continued rugby competitions with South Africa. 32 nations decline to participate, and six Eastern European athletes will defect before the games close.
18 – 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci becomes the first person to score a perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal.
19 – Sagarmatha National Park (which includes Mount Everest) is established in Nepal.
20 – America’s Viking 1 spacecraft lands on Mars and sends back to Earth the first close-up pictures of the planet’s surface. The craft lands on the Chryse Plain after an 11-month journey. It will analyse soil and search for living organisms.
21 – An unidentified bacterial outbreak strikes an American Legion convention in Philadelphia, infecting 180 across the state and eventually killing 29. By January 1977, the Centers for Disease Control identify a new bacterium responsible for the so-called ‘Legionnaires’ disease ‘.
27 – Three years and four months after he was ordered to leave the US by the Immigration Department, John Lennon is finally granted Green Card No. A17-597-321, making his US residency official.
28 – The UK breaks off relations with Uganda.
29 – The Chinese city of Tangshan is virtually destroyed by a huge earthquake. The Chinese government estimates between 240,000 and 250,000 people die in the earthquake.
29– The first shooting attributed to David Berkowitz (aka Son of Sam) takes place in the Pelham Bay neighbourhood in the Bronx. Donna Lauria, 18, is killed, and her friend, Jody Valenti, 19, is wounded.
29 – Fire destroys the famous pierhead at the end of the world’s longest pier, in Southend on the UK’s south-east coast. A hundred people use boats and the train, which runs the length of the mile-and-a-quarter (2,145m) pier, to escape.
31 – Torrential rain in the US floods the Big Thompson Canyon, 40 miles north of Denver, Colorado, killing 144 people, injuring hundreds, and causing more than $30 million in damages.
August
01 – Formula 1 ace Niki Lauda is critically injured and severely burnt in the West German Grand Prix in Nürburgring.
01 – 139 people die in a flash flood in Colorado, USA.
02 – German movie director Fritz Lang dies at the age of 85. of 75. His best-known film is the futuristic silent classic Metropolis, which he made in 1927.
05 – The famous Big Ben clock in London comes to a halt at 3:45 am when the frame of the winding gear fractures. It will be out of action for repairs until May 1977.
06 – John Stonehouse, former Labour MP for Walsall North, is found guilty of theft and conspiracy and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.
06 – The Drought Act 1976 comes into force in Britain as the country experiences the century’s hottest (and driest) period.
07 – The Viking II spacecraft reaches Mars and goes into orbit.
07 – More than 20,000 women – both Protestant and Catholic – march for peace in Northern Ireland. Many of them have lost family members in the escalating violence in Ulster.
15 – 188 fans are arrested – mostly on drug charges – at a Jethro Tull gig at the Coliseum in Los Angeles.
17 – A severe earthquake and tidal waves in the Philippines result in between 5,000 and 8,000 deaths.
18 – Jacques Chirac, prime minister of France, resigns. Raymond Barre takes over.
18 – A Soviet spacecraft, Luna 24, lands on the Moon at the Sea of Crises. It returns to Earth on 22 August with samples of lunar rock and soil.
19 – The US Republican National Convention narrowly nominates Gerald Ford for re-election over Ronald Reagan. Senator Robert Dole is nominated as vice president.
19 – British actor Alastair Sim dies aged 75.
21 – The first European punk rock festival is held at Mont-de-Marsan near Bordeaux, France. Acts on the bill include The Damned, the Count Bishops, Nick Lowe, the Pink Fairies, Eddie & The Hot Rods, the Tyla Gang, and Hammersmith Gorillas.
21 – Renée Richards wins her first tournament as a women’s tennis player in the US. She was previously a male naval officer called Richard Raskind,
23 – 95 passengers and the crew of six of an Egyptian Boeing 737 which was hijacked during a flight from Cairo to the resorts of Luxor and Aswan are freed unhurt when Egyptian Army commando units storm the aircraft at Luxor airport and arrest three terrorists from the Palestine Revolution Movement.
27 – The European Commission of Human Rights accuses the UK of torture in Northern Ireland.
29 – Bluesman Jimmy Reed dies at the age of 50.
30 – More than 100 police officers are taken to hospital after clashes at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London. Around 60 carnival-goers also need hospital treatment after the clashes, which lead to the arrest of at least 66 people. In a subsequent trial, 17 black youths face 79 charges.
30 – Blue Hills, Australia’s longest-running radio serial ends.
September
01 – All cigarette and tobacco advertising is banned on radio and television in Australia.
01 – Ohio Representative Wayne Hays resigns from the House of Representatives in the wake of a sex scandal involving him and former secretary Elizabeth Ray.
01 – Lou Adler, the president of Ode Records, is kidnapped from his home in Malibu, California, and released the same day, after handing over $25,000 to the kidnappers.
02 – Percy Shaw, the inventor of Cat’s Eyes (which mark the centre of roads at night), dies.
03 – Earthmen get another close look at Mars as Viking II lands on the red planet. The probe transmits colour pictures of the planet’s surface and tests the soil for signs of life.
03 – A 60-hour riot in Hull Prison (UK) ends after £1 million in damage is caused. About 100 prisoners began rioting three days ago in a protest against alleged brutality by staff.
05 – During Jerry Lewis’ live MDA Labor Day Telethon, Frank Sinatra brings Lewis’ former partner Dean Martin on stage as a surprise, reuniting the duo for the first time in 20 years.
05 – The Muppet Show is broadcast for the first time on the British channel ATV.
07 – Former Beatle George Harrison is found guilty of having subconsciously plagiarised the Chiffons‘ hit He’s So Fine when composing his single My Sweet Lord.
09 – Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the God-like leader of Communist China and its 800 million people (a quarter of the world’s population), dies in Peking aged 82. It is believed he died from a series of strokes.
10 – 176 die in the world’s worst mid-air collision in Yugoslavia when a British Airways Trident en route from London to Istanbul collides at 33,000 feet with a Yugoslav DC-9.
15 – India fights population growth by introducing sterilisation.
16 – Episcopalian leaders approve the ordination of women into the priesthood.
17 – The Space Shuttle is unveiled. As the world’s first reusable spacecraft, it is designed to be launched like a rocket, then return from space and land like an aeroplane. The shuttle Enterprise is used for test purposes and demonstrations only, and will end up in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, without ever having been in space.
17 – In light of recent revelations of abuse of power by the country’s intelligence agencies, a special committee to review the assassinations of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr is created by the House of Representatives.
20 – A general election in Sweden results in the defeat of the Social Democratic Party after 44 years in power.
20 – The 100 Club in London’s Oxford Street is the venue for the first Punk Rock Festival in Britain. The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Vibrators, Subway Sect and Siouxsie & The Banshees perform.
22 – The FDA bans the use of red dye #4 – common in foods, drugs and cosmetics – because of its carcinogenic properties.
22 – Charlie’s Angels debuts on ABC television in the US. A feathered hairdo craze soon follows.
23 – A fire on HMS Glasgow – one of the Royal Navy’s latest guided-missile destroyers – kills eight men. The ship is being fitted out at a shipyard near Newcastle-upon-Tyne and was due to start sea trials shortly.
23 – The first presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter takes place at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
24 – Patricia Hearst is sentenced to seven years in jail for her participation in a 1974 bank robbery.
24 – Southern Rhodesia leader Ian Smith stuns white Rhodesians as he announces a two-year plan for transition to black majority rule. Mr Smith makes it clear he is only accepting the plan under pressure and is not happy with the conditions.
27 – Carter and Ford face off in a televised debate before an audience of 90 million viewers. Although neither candidate is a clear-cut victor, Carter scores well a week later when Ford blows the second debate by declaring, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe”.
29 – Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shoots his bass player while firing at the door the musician is standing behind. The bass player lives to sue his boss.
30 – California passes the first state “right to die” law, which grants adults the right to authorise physicians to turn off their life-support system if death is imminent.
October
01 – Hurricane Liza devastates La Paz (Mexico) and other nearby areas, with the loss of more than 1,200 lives.
04 – The British Rail ‘Inter-City 125’ High Speed Train (HST) passenger service commences when the first of twenty-seven 125 mph diesel trains begin daily runs between London and the West Country and London and South Wales. The prototype train had actually set a world speed record for diesels of 143 miles an hour.
04 – Former Cleveland Indians outfielder Frank Robinson becomes professional baseball’s first black manager.
05 – American doctor Dr John Merritt receives FDA approval to prescribe marijuana to patients suffering from severe glaucoma.
06 – The army seizes power in Thailand in a bloody coup.
06 – The second presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter takes place in San Francisco. In the debate, Ford famously says, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.”
07 – Convicted murderer Gary Mark Gilmore receives a death sentence in Utah and demands swift execution by firing squad. A three-month legal contest, intense press coverage and a suicide attempt will follow.
07 – EMI signs The Sex Pistols, giving them an advance of £40,000.
11 – Mao Tse-Tung‘s widow, Jiang Qing, is arrested in Beijing, China, along with the rest of the ‘Gang of Four‘ who rose to power during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and dominated Chinese politics during the early
1970s. They will be given lengthy prison terms,
13 – A chartered Boeing 707 cargo plane kills 91 people when it smashes into a busy street in Santa Cruz, a city in the west of Bolivia, shortly after taking off from Santa Cruz airport.
14 – Scientists finally identify the disease that has killed more than 300 people in Zaire. It’s a viral infection they call Green Monkey Fever.
15 – Two men from the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) are each jailed for 35 years in connection with the murders of members of the Miami Showband in Belfast in July 1975. The UDR soldiers were members of the outlawed paramilitary organisation the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
18 – The funeral of Carlo Gambino, the ‘boss of the bosses’ in the Mafia, takes place in New York. Mr Gambino, considered the most powerful of the leaders of the American Mafia, died in his sleep at his home on Friday. It is thought he suffered a heart attack.
19 – The chimpanzee is placed on the endangered species list.
20 – 80 die in the USA when a Norwegian tanker strikes a Mississippi ferry.
21 – Cincinnati Reds beat the New York Yankees in four straight games to win the World Series in the USA.
22 – The Soviet spacecraft Venera IX reaches Venus and goes into orbit around it. A capsule is released, which reaches the surface and transmits TV pictures for 53 minutes. Surface temperatures are recorded at 485ºC.
26 – The Queen opens the £16 million National Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames in London.
29 – In Selby, Yorkshire, the Duchess of Kent opens the first coalfield to be developed in 70 years.
November
02 – Jimmy Carter of Plains, Georgia, is elected 39th President of the United States. His Vice President will be Walter Mondale. Carter beat incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford by 297 Electoral College votes to 240. In the popular vote, Carter won by the narrow margin of 40.8 million votes to 39.1 million.
12 – Normalisation talks begin in Paris between the US and Vietnam, although US opposition to Vietnam’s application for UN membership is a sore point.
15 – A megamouth shark is captured 25 miles off the northernmost point of Oahu, Hawaii, after it becomes entangled in the anchor of a US Navy ship. Only about 100 megamouths have been seen or captured since.
15 – Fleetwood Mac release the album Rumours.
16 – Seven men who took part last year in an £8m robbery at the Bank of America in Mayfair, London, receive jail terms totalling nearly 100 years.
18 – Dadaist painter, photographer and film-maker Man Ray dies, aged 86.
19 – The Sex Pistols release Anarchy In The UK.
21 – The film Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone, is released.
22 – Rocker Jerry Lee Lewis is charged with drunk driving after driving his Rolls-Royce into a ditch. The next day he is arrested at the gates of Graceland, waving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis. It takes five police officers to extract Lewis from his Lincoln Continental. Weapon possession and public intoxication charges are levelled against him.
24 – The province of Van in Turkey is devastated by a severe earthquake. 3700 people lose their lives.
25 – American/Canadian rock group The Band hold their farewell concert at Winterland in San Francisco. They are assisted by rock aristocracy, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Muddy Waters, Stephen Stills, Paul Butterfield, Dr John, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Hawkins, Ronnie Wood, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, The Staple Singers and Ringo Starr. Martin Scorsese films the event and releases it as The Last Waltz.
30 – The Utah Board of Pardons agrees to execute Gary Gilmore in accordance with his wishes.
December
01 – The Sex Pistols appear on Today, where presenter Bill Grundy baits the band into swearing on the air. The resulting uproar will cause the band to be banned from performing in all but five cities on their upcoming British tour. By January, no concert hall or club in the UK will book the band. Grundy is suspended by his bosses for encouraging the outbursts.
03 – Seven gunmen shoot up Bob Marley‘s home in Kingston, Jamaica, in what appears to be a politically motivated attack. Marley is wounded, and his wife Rita and manager Don Taylor are also shot. Miraculously, no one is killed even though the house is filled with family, friends, and band members.
04 – Tommy Bolin, ex-Deep Purple and The James Gang, dies of a heroin overdose in Miami.
04 – Benjamin Britten, considered to be Britain’s leading composer, dies aged 63.
He has been fighting ill health since a heart operation in 1973.
05 – A fire destroys or damages all but one of the Royal Australian Navy’s twelve fixed-wing anti-submarine aircraft. The fire starts in one aircraft and spreads to 10 others in the same hangar at the Nowra base, south of Sydney. The planes had just been topped up with high-octane fuel. The loss – which is believed to be the result of an act of sabotage – is estimated at $3 million.
08 – American rock band, The Eagles, release their Hotel California album.
11 – KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is knocked out by an electric shock during a show at the Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida. During the same show, Gene Simmons’s hair catches fire, but the band finishes the performance.
13 – A Pan Am Boeing 747 makes the longest non-stop passenger flight from Sydney to San Francisco in 13 hours, 14 minutes.
17 – The longest-running play in London, The Mousetrap, reaches its 10,000th performance.
21 – Ruben “Hurricane” Carter and John Artis, whose 1974 triple homicide convictions had spawned public outcry and protest, are again found guilty of the murders of James Oliver, Fred Nauyaks and Hazel Tanis.
24 – Takeo Fukuda becomes the prime minister of Japan.
28 – Texas bluesman Freddie King dies.
28 – Winnie Mandela is released from prison after wild rioting and 26 deaths in South Africa.
Also this year . . .
- XXI Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada
- XII Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria
- Apple Computers is founded in the USA by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak
- Rina Messinger (Israel) is crowned Miss Universe
- Britain experiences worst drought in 250 years
- ‘Van der Hum’ wins Melbourne Cup