1976

history

Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

January

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February

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March

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April

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  • April 1 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
  • April 1 - Conrail (Consolidated Rails Corporation) is formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that had filed for bankruptcy protection. Conrail takes control at midnight, as a government-owned and operated railroad until 1986, when it is sold to the public.
  • April 1 - The Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect is first reported by
astronomer Patrick Moore.
  • April 2 - Norodom Sihanouk is forced to resign as Head of State of Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot. Under their control the country becomes known as Democratic Kampuchea.
  • April 3 - The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 is won by Brotherhood of Man, representing the United Kingdom, with their song Save Your Kisses for Me.
  • April 4 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
  • April 5 - James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
  • April 5- Tiananmen Incident: Large crowds lay wreaths at Beijing's Monument of the Martyrs to commemorate the death of Premier Zhou Enlai. Poems against the Gang of Four are also displayed, provoking a police crackdown.
  • April 13 - An explosion in an ammunition factory in Lapua, Finland kills 40.
  • April 16 - As a measure to curb population growth, the minimum age for marriage in India is raised to 21 years for men and 18 years for women.
  • April 21 - The Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne: Bandits steal A$1.4 million in bookmakers' settlements from Queen Street, Melbourne.
  • April 23 - The punk rock group The Ramones release their first self-titled album.
  • April 25 - Portugal's new constitution is enacted.

May

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  • May 1 - Neville Wran becomes Premier of New South Wales.
  • May 4 - The first LAGEOS (Laser Geodynamics Satellite) is launched.
  • May 4 - A train crash in Schiedam, the Netherlands, kills 24 people.
  • May 6 - An earthquake hits the Friuli area in Italy, killing more than 900 people and making another 100,000 homeless.
  • May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof of the Red Army Faction is found hanging in an apparent suicide, in her Stuttgart-Stammheim prison cell.
  • May 11 - U.S. President Gerald Ford signs the Federal Election Campaign Act.
  • May 24 - Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
  • May 25 - U.S. President Gerald Ford defeats challenger Ronald Reagan in 3 Republican presidential primaries: Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon.
  • May 30 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Johnny Rutherford wins the (rain-shortened) shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or 255 miles (408 km).
  • May 31 - Syria intervenes in the Lebanese Civil War in opposition to the Palestine Liberation Organization, whom it had previously supported.

June

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  • June 1 - The UK and Iceland end the Cod War.
  • June 2 - A car bomb fatally injures Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.
  • June 5 - The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the U.S., killing 11 people.
  • June 13 - Savage thunderstorms roll through the state of Iowa spawning several tornadoes, including an F-5 tornado that destroys the town of Jordan, Iowa.
  • June 14 - The trial begins at Oxford Crown Court of Donald Neilson, the killer known as the Black Panther.
  • June 16 - The Soweto riots in South Africa begin.
  • June 17 - The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association agree on the ABA-NBA merger.
  • June 20 - Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. ambassador.
  • June 20 - General elections are held in Italy.
  • June 20 - Czechoslovakia beats West Germany 5-3 on penalties to win Euro 76, when the game had ended 2-2 after extra time.
  • June 25 - Strikes start in Poland (Ursus, Radom, PĹ‚ock) after communists raise food prices; they end on June 30.
  • June 26 - The CN Tower is built in Toronto; the tallest free-standing land structure opens to the public.
  • June 27 - Palestinian extremists hijack an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew. They take it to Entebbe, Uganda.

July

celebration.]] ,

  • July 2 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam unite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
  • July 3 - Gregg v. Georgia: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.
  • July 3 - The great heat wave in the United Kingdom, which is currently suffering from drought conditions, reaches its peak.
  • July 4 - United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, the United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
  • July 4 - The Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) leads 50,000 marchers in Philadelphia to demand a "Bicentennial Without Colonies" and independence for Puerto Rico.
  • July 4 - Entebbe Raid: Israeli airborne commandos free 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane at Uganda's Entebbe Airport; 1 Israeli soldier and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in the raid.
  • July 6 - The first class of women is inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
  • July 7 - German left-wing terrorists Monika Berberich, Gabriella Rollnick, Juliane Plambeck and Inge Viett escape from the Lehrter StraĂźe maximum security prison in West Berlin.
  • July 10 - Three British and 1 American mercenaries are shot by firing squad in Angola.
  • July 10 - An explosion in Seveso, Italy, kills a large number of people.
  • July 12 - Barbara Jordan is the first black person to keynote a political convention.
  • July 15 - Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. President at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
  • 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, Quebec, Canada.
  • July 17 - East Timor is declared the 27th province of Indonesia.
  • July 18 - Nadia Comaneci earns the first of 7 perfect scores of 10 at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
  • 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-Biggs, British ambassador to the Irish Republic.
  • July 26 - In Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan announces his choice of liberal U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker as his vice presidential running mate, in an effort to woo moderate Republican delegates away from President Gerald Ford.
  • July 27 - The United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Uganda.
  • July 28 - The Tangshan earthquake flattens Tangshan,China, killing 242,769 people, and injuring 164,851.
  • July 29 - In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag, killing 1 and seriously wounding another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorize the city for the next year.
  • July 30 - In Santiago, Chile, Cruzeiro from Brazil beats River Plate from Argentina and are the Copa Libertadores de AmĂ©rica champions.
  • July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.
  • July 31 - The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado floods, destroying more than 400 cars and houses.

August

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  • August 1 - The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago becomes a republic, replacing Queen Elizabeth II with a President as its head of state.
  • August 1 - The Seattle Seahawks play their first football game.
  • August 1 - Racing Champion Niki Lauda suffers serious burns in the German Grand Prix.
  • August 2 - A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found innocent for Andrea's murder, involvement in a plot to kill several people (including Priscilla and a judge), and a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen goes broke afterwards.
  • August 4 - The first recognized outbreak of Legionnaires' disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia.
  • August 5 - The Great Clock of Westminster (or Big Ben) suffers internal damage and stops running for over 9 months.
  • August 6 - Former UK Postmaster General John Stonehouse is sentenced to 7 years' jail for fraud, theft and forgery.
  • August 7 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
  • August 14 - Ten thousand Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland.
  • August 14 - The Senegalese political party PAI-RĂ©novation is legally recognized, becoming the third legal party in the country.
  • August 18 - At Panmunjom, North Korea, 2 United States soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Korean Demilitarized Zone which had obscured their view.
  • August 19 - U.S. President Gerald Ford edges out challenger Ronald Reagan to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in Kansas City.
  • August 24 - In Uruguay, the army captures Marcelo Gelman and his pregnant wife. Marcelo is later killed and his wife (and unborn child) disappear.
  • August 25 - Jacques Chirac resigns as Prime Minister of France; he is succeeded by Raymond Barre.
  • August 26 - The first known outbreak of Ebola virus occurs in Yambuku, Zaire.
  • August 26 - Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, resigns from various posts over a scandal involving alleged corruption, in connection with business dealings with the Lockheed Corporation.

September

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October

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  • October 4 - The new Intercity 125 High Speed Train is introduced in the United Kingdom.
  • October 6 - Cubana Flight 455 crashes due to a bomb placed by anti-Fidel Castro terrorists, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados. All 73 people on board are killed. »http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4535661.stm
  • October 6 - Students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand are massacred, while protesting the return of ex-dictator Thanom Kittikachorn by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
  • October 6 - In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" (there is at the time).
  • October 10 - Taiwan Governor Hsieh Tung-ming is injured by a letter bomb from a pro-independence activist.
  • October 12 - The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to Mao Zedong, as Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
  • October 13 - The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).
  • October 19 - The Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States.
  • October 19 - The Battle of Aishiya is fought in Lebanon.
  • October 19 - The Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is placed on the list of endangered species.
  • October 20 - The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, LA to Luling, LA, killing 78 passengers and crew.
  • October 22 - Cearbhall Ă“ Dálaigh, the 5th President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defense.
  • October 25 - Clarence Norris, the last known survivor of the Scottsboro Boys, is pardoned.

November

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  • November 1 - The Engineer Center and School of Military Engineering (ECSME) of theBangladesh Army ('Home of Sappers') is raised and reorganized at Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • November 2 - U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.
  • November 15 - The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.
  • November 19 - Jaime Ornelas Camacho takes office as the first President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal.
  • November 24 - At least 3,840 are killed in a Richter scale magnitude 7.3 earthquake of Van and Muradiye in Turkey.
  • November 25 - In San Francisco, The Band holds its farewell concert, The Last Waltz.
  • November 26 - Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.

December

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Undated

  • The first laser printer is introduced by IBM (the IBM 3800).
  • California's sodomy law is repealed.
  • The term memetics is first proposed by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.
  • Diffie-Hellman cryptography is proposed.
  • Plans to move the Nigerian capital from Lagos to Abuja are approved.
  • The New Jersey State Legislature passes legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. After signing the bill into law, Governor Brendan Byrne declares "The mob is not welcome in New Jersey!" referring to the Mafia's influence at casinos in Nevada.

Ongoing

Births

January–February

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March–April

May–June

July–August

September–October

November–December

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Deaths

January–March

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April–June

July–September

October–December

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Unknown dates

  • Mariano Andreu, Spanish painter (b. 1888)
  • Anna Mae Aquash, Native American activist (found murdered)
  • Mariya Vasil’yevna Klenova, Russian marine geologist (b. 1898)

In Fiction

Ship events

Nobel Prizes

Templeton Prize

See also

Notes

External links


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