1976

1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

• January 12 - UN Security Council votes 11-1 to admit the Palestinian Liberation Organization
• January 15 - Would-be Gerald Ford presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison
• January 16 - Trial against jailed members of the Red Army Faction begins in Stuttgart, West Germany
• January 21 - The first commercial Concorde flight took off.
• January 27 - The trial of SLA member Patty Hearst begins. She is found guilty of robbery in March 20

February

• February 4 - In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
• February 4 - 1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria
• February 11 - Clifford Alexander Jr is confirmed as 1st African-American Secretary of US Army.
• February 20 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands
• February 24 - Cuba's current constitution enacted.
• February 27 - Western Sahara declares independence

March

• March 1 - Merlyn Rees ends Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence in Northern Island
• March 3 - Fleetwood Mac records Rumours, which will be a blockbuster album in 1977
• March 9-11 - Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine, Letcher County, Ky
• March 17 - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is retried
• March 20 - Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank
• March 24 - Argentina military forces depose president Isabel Peron
• March 27 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC subway system opens
• March 31 - New Jersey Supreme Court rules that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985

April

• April 1 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
• April 4 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest
• April 5 - British prime minister Harold Wilson resigns and is replaced by Jim Callaghan
• April 13 - An explosion in an ammunition factory in Lapua, Finland kills 40
• April 16 - In India the minimum age for marriage is raised to 21 years for men and 18 years for women; it is to curb population growth
• April 25 - Portugal's new constitution enacted

May

• May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof of RAF is found hanging in an apparent suicide in her cell in Stuttgart-Stannheim prison
• May 11 - President Gerald Ford signs Federal Election Campaign Act
• May 24 - Washington, DC Concorde service begins

June

• June 1 - UK and Iceland end the Cod War
• June 5 - Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the U.S., killing 11 people.
• June 14 - the trial begins at Oxford Crown Court of Donald Neilson, the killer known as the Black Panther.
• June 16 - Soweto riots in South Africa mark the beginning of the end of apartheid
• June 27 - Palestinian extremists hijack an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew. They take it to Entebbe, Uganda, where Israeli commandos storms it on July 4

July

• July 2 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam united to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam - a Communist country
• July 3 - Supreme Court of the United States rules that death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment
• July 4 - United States Bicentennial
• July 4 - Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda's Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages being held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in raid.
• July 7 - German left-wing terrorists Monika Berberich, Gabriella Rollnick, Juliane Plambeck and Inge Viett escape from Lehrterstrasse maximum security prison in West Berlin
• July 10 - Explosion in Seveso, Italy, kills a large number of people
• July 15 – East Timor becomes the province of Indonesia
• July 16-20 - Albert Spaggiari and his gang break into the vault of the Societe Generale Bank in Nice, France
• July 17 - The 1976 Summer Olympics begin in Montreal, Canada.
• July 19 - Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
• July 20 - Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars
• July 21 - A bomb kills Christopher Ewart, British ambassador to the Irish Republic
• July 27 - United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Uganda
• July 28 - Earthquake flattens Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 people, and 164,851 people are heavily injured
• July 29 - In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag killing one and seriously wounding another in the first of a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year.
• July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1

August

• August 2 - A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr, and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel in an incident at Priscilla's Mansion at Mockingbird Lane in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband and one of the richest men in Texas, was tried and found innocent for Andrea's murder. He was later found innocent of a plot to kill several people, including Priscilla and a judge, and a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen went broke afterwards
• August 4 - First outbreak of Legionnaire's disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia
• August 5 - Racing Champion Niki Lauda suffers serious burns in the German Grand prix
• August 6 - Former UK Postmaster General John Stonehouse is sentenced for seven years for fraud
• August 7 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars
• August 14 - 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland
• August 18 - In North Korea at Panmunjom, two US soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the DMZ which had obscured their view

September

• September 3 - Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars takes the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface
• September 6 - Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido in Japan and requests political asylum from the United States
• Military Junta in power in Argentina.
• September 17 - Space Shuttle Enterprise rolled out.
• September 21 - Seychelles joins the United Nations.
• September 21 - Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

October

• October 12 - The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party of China
• October 22 - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, fifth President of Ireland, resigns following accusations by the Minister for Defence.
• October 25 - Full pardon given to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of the Scottsboro Boys.

November

• November 2 - U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbant Gerald Rudolph Ford to become first candidate from deep south to win since the Civil War.
• November 15 - First Megamouth Shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii
• November 26 - Little known company Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.

December

• December 1 - Angola joins the United Nations
• December 3 - Patrick Hillery is elected unopposed as the sixth President of Ireland.
• December 15 - Samoa joins the United Nations

unknown dates

• First laser printer introduced by IBM - the IBM 3800
• Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, invented by Seymour Cray
• California's sodomy law repealed.
• The term memetics first proposed by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.
• Toronto Blue Jays created
• CN Tower built in Toronto - The tallest free standing land structure.
• Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States
• Diffie-Hellman cryptography proposed

Year in topic

• 1976 in film
  • March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film. In one of the best business decisions in film history, Lucas cuts his directing fee by $500,000 to gain ownership of merchandising and sequel rights
  • November 21 - Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone
  • All the President's Men
  • Taxi Driver
  • Carrie
  • Network
  • The Omen
• 1976 in literature
• 1976 in music
  • December 8 - The Eagles releases one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Hotel California
  • Björk's musical career begins
  • The Clash form
  • The Damned form
  • Graffiti artist Lee Quinones begins painting large, intricate murals in New York City; along with Quinones, hip hop artists (rappers, DJs and breakdancers) begin to expand the boundaries of the art form
  • Beginning of Punk rock movement
• 1976 in sports
• 1976 in television
  • January 17 - The Blues Brothers make their debut on NBC's Saturday Night Live
  • April 24 - Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels makes on on-air offer to pay the Beatles $3000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were apparently watching the show together in New York and considered walking down to the studio to accept the check.
  • May 22 - Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels raises his previous offer to The Beatles from $3000 to $3,200.
  • December 1 - Infamous Bill Grundy incident, wherin UK punk group the Sex Pistols cause a storm of controversy and outrage by swearing on television
  • The Olympics, broadcast from Montreal, draw an estimated 1 billion viewers worldwide.
  • The Sonny and Cher Show premieres

Births

January-March

• January 3 - Jason Marsden, actor
• January 6 - Danny Pintauro, actor
• January 7 - Éric Gagné, major league baseball pitcher
• January 7 - Alfonso Soriano, baseball player
• January 21 - Emma Bunton, Spice Girl
• January 28 - Mark Madsen, NBA basketball player
• January 31 - Buddy Rice, race car driver, winner of the 2004 Indianapolis 500
• February 9 - Vladimir Guerrero, Major League Baseball All-Star
• February 10 - Lance Berkman, Major League Baseball All-Star
• February 11 - Brice Beckham, actor
• February 28 - Ja Rule
• March 8 - Freddie Prinze Jr., actor
• March 12 - Sylvia Saint, porn star
• March 20 - Chester Bennington, Linkin Park
• March 21 - Liza Harper, porn star
• March 21 - Justin Pierce, actor
• March 22 - Reese Witherspoon, actress
• March 23 - Keri Russell, actress
• March 24 - Peyton Manning, NFL star, league co-MVP in 2003
• March 25 - Juvenile, singer
• March 27 - Quentin van den Hove, improvisation actor
• March 31 - Josh Saviano, actor (The Wonder Years)

April-June

• April 6 - Candace Cameron, actress
• April 13 - Jonathan Brandis, actor
• April 25 - Tim Duncan, basketball player, two-time NBA MVP
• April 25 - Rainer Schuettler, German tennis player
• April 27 - Daniel Hazen, fraud investigator, RISK (the boardgame) player, trombonist, sensual lover and father of four. Twice nominated for the Marquis de Sade award and holder of the esteemed Wilt Chamberlin Trophy. All-around great guy.
• May 3 - Beto, football player
• May 19 - Kevin Garnett, basketball player (2004 NBA Most Valuable Player)
• May 20 - Ramón Hernández, Major League Baseball All-Star
• May 25 - Miguel Tejada, Major League Baseball All-Star
• May 31 - Colin Farrell, actor
• June 10 - Freddy Garcia, Major League Baseball All-Star

July-August

• July 1 - Patrick Kluivert, Dutch football player
• July 1 - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch football player
• July 3 - Andrea Barber, actress (Full House)
• July 4 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer
• July 6 - 50 Cent, rapper
• July 9 - Fred Savage, actor (The Princess Bride, The Wonder Years)
• July 11 - Lil' Kim, rapper
• July 11 - Eduardo Najera, Mexican-born NBA basketball player
• July 23 - Judit Polgar, best woman chess player in history
• July 24 - Laura Fraser,Scottish actress
• August 6 - Melissa George, actress
• August 9 - Jessica Capshaw, actress (The Practice)
• August 9 - Rhona Mitra, actress (The Practice)
• August 12 - Antoine Walker, basketball player
• August 27 - Carlos Moya, Spanish tennis player

September-December

• September 7 - Stevie Case (Killcreek), video game celebrity
• September 7 - Shannon Elizabeth, actress
• September 10 - Gustavo Kuerten, Brazilian tennis star
• September 11 - Ludacris, rapper
• September 14 - Chauncey Billups, basketball player
• September 20 - Michael Ballack, German football player
• September 22 - Ronaldo, Brazilian football player
• September 25 - Chauncey Billups, basketball player
• September 29 - Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian football player
• October 4 - Alicia Silverstone, actress
• October 10 - Bob Burnquist, Brazilian skateboarder
• October 19 - Michael Young, baseball player
• November 6 - Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
• November 7 - Mark Philippoussis, Australian tennis player
• November 12 - Tevin Campbell
• November 22 - Ken Mondschein, writer
• November 24 - Chen Lu, figure skater
• December 13 - Tom Delonge, Blink-182
• December 15 - Baichung Bhutia, football player
• December 25 - Rhy Thornton, composer

unknown dates

• Blu Cantrell, rapper
• John Collura, The Ataris
• Mike Davenport, The Ataris
• Patrick Riley, The Ataris
• Jeremy Edward Daugherty, born November 17 1976 in Memphis, Tennessee

Deaths

January-February

• January 5 - Mal Evans, Beatles roadie
• January 8 - Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China
• January 10 - Howlin' Wolf, musician
• January 12 - Agatha Christie, English mystery writer
• January 23 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, writer and political and civil rights activist
• January 30 - Mance Lipscomb, popular singer
• February 1 - Werner Heisenberg, physicist
• February 2 - Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (b. 1903)
• February 6 - Vince Guaraldi, musician
• February 9 - Percy Faith, musician, composer
• February 11 - Alice Allen, actress
• February 11 - Lee J Cobb, actor
• February 11 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamicist
• February 11 - Charlie Naughton, actor
• February 12 - Sal Mineo, actor
• February 13 - Lily Pons, opera singer
• February 22 - Florence Ballard, singer with The Supremes

March-December

• March 6 - Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, boxer, actor
• March 7 - Wright Patman, American politician (b. 1893)
• March 14 - Busby Berkeley, choreographer, director (b. 1895)
• March 17 - Luchino Visconti, italian theatre and cinema director
• March 24 - Bernard Montgomery, British Field Marshal
• April 1 - Max Ernst, artist
• April 5 - Howard Hughes, aviation pioneer, film director, eccentric
• April 26 - Sid James, actor
• May 9 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author
• May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof of the Red Army Faction commits suicide
• May 11 - Alvar Aalto, architect
• May 26 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher
• May 27 - Hilde Hildebrand, German actress, (b. 1897)
• June 10 - Adolph Zukor, producer
• June 15 - Jimmy Dykes, Major League Baseball player and manager (b. 1896)
• June 25 - Johnny Mercer, songwriter
• July 4 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (b. 1895)
• August 2 - Stan Farr, boyfriend of Priscilla Davis
• August 2 - Andrea Wilborn, daughter of Priscilla Davis
• September 2 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (b. 1934)
• September 9 - Mao Zedong, Chinese leader
• October 11 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author
• November 12 - Walter Piston, composer
• December 4 - Benjamin Britten, composer
• December 6 - Joao Goulart, president of Brazil

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Burton Richter, Samuel Chao Chung Ting
• Chemistry - William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr
• Medicine - Baruch S. Blumberg, D Carleton Gajdusek
• Literature - Saul Bellow
• Peace - Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan
• Economics - Milton Friedman

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