1976

1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday.

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 18 - The Scottish Labour Party is formed
January 19 - Jimmy Carter wins the Iowa Democratic Caucus.
January 21 - The first commercial Concorde flight takes off.
January 25 - 12 PIRA bombs explode in London's East End
January 27 - The trial of SLA member Patty Hearst begins. She is found guilty of robbery on 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 15 - The 1976 Constitution of Cuba is adopted by the national referendum.
February 20 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands
February 24 - Cuba's current constitution enacted.
February 27 - Western Sahara declares independence
February 28 - Spain gives up territories in Sahara but retains its enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta

March

March 1 - Merlyn Rees ends Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence in Northern Ireland
March 4 - The Maguire Seven were found guilty of the offence of possessing explosives and were subsequently jailed for 14 years.
March 4 - The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London via the British parliament.
March 9-March 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 16 - Harold Wilson resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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 26 - Toronto Blue Jays created.
March 27 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC subway system opens
March 29 - Military junta of general Jorge Videla comes to power in Argentina
March 31 - New Jersey Supreme Court rules that coma patient Karen Ann Quinlan could be disconnected from her ventilator. 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 - James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
April 5 - Large crowds lay wreaths at Beijing's Monument of the Martyrs in commemoration of the death of Premier Zhou Enlai. Poems against the Gang of Four are also displayed. This was followed by a police crackdown and became known as the Tiananmen Incident
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 - Punk rock group The Ramones release their first album
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 - Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 revolutionizes world of wine.
May 24 - Washington, DC Concorde service begins
May 30 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Johnny Rutherford wins the shortest rain-shortened race in event history to date, at 102 laps, or 255 miles (410.38 km).

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 20 - Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the US military, following the murder of the US ambassador.
June 20 - General elections in Italy
June 20 - Czechoslovakia beat West Germany 5-3 on penalties to win Euro 76, after the game had ended 2-2 after extra time.
June 25 - Polish June starts, strikes in Poland (Ursus, Radom, Płock) after communists declared rising of food prices, strikes end on June 30
June 26 - CN Tower built in Toronto - The tallest free-standing land structure opens to the public.
June 26 - Two unmarked cars drove onto Jumping Bull property, and a fire fight began. Two FBI agents and one Indian male were killed, starting one of the largest manhunts in the history of the FBI.
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 storm it on July 4
Sismik incident starts when the Turkish survey ship Sismik entered Greek waters.

July

Tall ship.jpg|thumb|Italian tall ship Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor during the United States Bicentennial celebration. ]]

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 on Gregg v. Georgia and decides that 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
July 4 - Israeli airborne commandos free 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane at Uganda's Entebbe Airport; 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 - Three British and one American mercenaries were shot by firing squad in Angola.
July 10 - Explosion in Seveso, Italy, kills a large number of people
July 15 - Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. President at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
July 16-July 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 17 - East Timor is declared the 27th province of Indonesia
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 - Tangshan 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 30 - In Santiago, capital of Chile, Cruzeiro from Brazil wins River Plate from Argentina and are the Copa Libertadores de América champions.
July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1

August

August 1 - the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago becomes a republic, replacing Queen Elizabeth II with an elected president as their Head of State.
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 5 - The Great Clock of Westminster (or Big Ben) suffers internal damage and stops running for over nine months
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 14 - The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.
August 18 - In North Korea at Panmunjom, two US soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the 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, an army captures Marcelo Gelman and his pregnant wife. Marcelo is later killed and his wife and child disappeared.

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 9 - Death of the Chairman of the People's Republic of China Mao Zedong .
September 10 - A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia) killing all 176 aboard.
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.
September 24 - Patricia Hearst was sentenced to 7 years in prison for her role in a 1974 bank robbery. An executive clemency order from U.S. President Jimmy Carter set her free after only 22 months.

October

October - The Damned release New Rose - the first ever single released / marketed as "punk rock".
October 6 - Cubana Flight 455 crashes due to a bomb placed by anti-Castrist militants, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados. ^*
October 6 - Students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom are massacred by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
October 7 - 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 was at the time).
October 10 - Taiwan Province Governor Hsieh Tung-ming was injured by a bombing letter from a pro-independence activist.
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 19 - Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States
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 Ó Dálaigh, fifth President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted 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 incumbent Gerald Rudolph Ford, to become the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.
November 15 - First megamouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.
November 26 - 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 1 - The Sex Pistols achieve public notoriety as they unleash several four-letter words live on Bill Grundy's TV show.
December 3 - Attempted assassination of Bob Marley at 56 Hope Road. In the shooting, Marley received two gunshot wounds, but his manager Don Taylor took a majority of the bullets. Both lived.
December 3 - Patrick Hillery is elected unopposed as the sixth President of Ireland.
December 15 - Samoa joins the United Nations.
December 20 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago for 21 years, dies.
December 23 - New volcano, Murara, began erupting in eastern Zaire.

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.
Diffie-Hellman cryptography proposed
Plans to move the Nigerian capital from Lagos to Abuja are approved.
Ebola is first discovered in Zaire
Women For Sobriety established.
Industrial Records founded
Hillsdale Elementary in West Chester, PA opened its doors for the first time to students.

Births

January

January 2 - Cletidus Hunt, American football player
January 2 - Paz Vega, Spanish actress
January 6 - Danny Pintauro, American actor
January 7 - Éric Gagné, Canadian Major League Baseball player
January 7 - Alfonso Soriano, Dominican Major League Baseball player
January 8 - Jenny Lewis, American actress and musician (Rilo Kiley)
January 19 - Marsha Thomason, British actress
January 20 - Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
January 21 - Emma Bunton, English musician (Spice Girls)
January 25 - Mia Kirshner, Canadian actress
January 28 - Mark Madsen, American basketball player
January 30 - Andy Milonakis, Internet and MTV star
January 31 - Buddy Rice, American race car driver

February

February 2 - James Hickman, British swimmer
February 4 - Cam'ron, Harlem, New York rapper
February 5 - Abhishek Bachchan, Indian Actor
February 9 - Vladimir Guerrero, Dominican Major League Baseball player
February 10 - Lance Berkman, baseball player
February 12 - Silvia Saint, Czech actress
February 15 - Brandon Boyd, American musician (Incubus)
February 16 - Tooru "Kyo" Nishimura Vocalist of Visual Kei band (Dir En Grey)
February 20 - Ed Graham, British drummer (The Darkness)
February 25 - Rashida Jones, American actress, writer, model, musician
February 29 - Ja Rule, American rapper

March

March 5 - Sarunas Jasikevicius, Lithuanian basketball player
March 8 - Freddie Prinze Jr., American actor
March 19 - Rachel Blanchard, Canadian actress
March 20 - Chester Bennington, American musician (Linkin Park)
March 22 - Teun de Nooijer, Dutch field hockey player
March 22 - Reese Witherspoon, American actress
March 23 - Keri Russell, American actress
March 24 - Aaron Brooks, American football player
March 24 - Peyton Manning, American football player
March 25 - Juvenile, American rapper
March 26 - Amy Smart, American actress

April

April 6 - Candace Cameron, American actress
April 13 - Jonathan Brandis, American actor (d. 2003)
April 18 - Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
April 20 - Joey Lawrence, American actor
April 22 - Michał Żewłakow, Polish footballer
April 25 - Tim Duncan, West Indian basketball player
April 25 - Rainer Schuettler, German tennis player

May

May 3 - Beto, Portuguese footballer
May 4 - Jason Michaels, baseball player
May 15 - Tyler Walker, baseball player
May 15 - Jacek Krzynówek, Polish footballer
May 19 - Kevin Garnett, American basketball player
May 20 - Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
May 25 - Miguel Tejada, Dominican Major League Baseball player
May 31 - Colin Farrell, Irish actor

June

June 8 - Lindsay Davenport, American tennis player
June 10 - Freddy Garcia, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
June 13 - Lindsay Archer, American Fantasy Artist
June 13 - Jason 'J' Brown, English musician (5ive)
June 23 - Brandon Stokley, American football player
June 23 - Patrick Vieira, French football player

July

July 1 - Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer
July 1 - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer
July 3 - Andrea Barber, American actress
July 4 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer
July 5 - Bizarre, American rapper
July 5 - Nuno Gomes, Portuguese footballer
July 5 - Marina Dias, Brazilian supermodel
July 5 - Mike DeWolf, member of the band Taproot
July 8 - Ellen MacArthur, English yachtswoman
July 9 - Shelton Benjamin, American professional wrestler
July 9 - Fred Savage, American actor
July 11 - Eduardo Nájera, Mexican basketball player
July 13 - Al Santos, American actor/model
July 20 - Alex Yoong, Malaysian race car driver
July 23 - Judit Polgar, Hungarian chess player
July 24 - Nate Bump, American baseball player
July 31 - Annie Parisse, American actress

August

August 6 - Melissa George, Australian actress
August 9 - Jessica Capshaw, American actress
August 9 - Rhona Mitra, English actress
August 9 - Audrey Tautou, French actress
August 8 - JC Chasez, American singer
August 11 - Ben Gibbard, American musician
August 12 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player
August 13 - Roddy Woomble, Scottish musician
August 14 - Alex Albrecht, American television personality
August 15 - Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
August 18 - Alex Katunich, Original bassist for the band Incubus
August 19 - Michael M. Wartella, American underground cartoonist
August 27 - Carlos Moyà, Spanish tennis player
August 27 - Mark Webber, Australian race car driver
August 27 - Sarah Chalke, American actress

September

September 1 - Jada Fire, American pornographic actress
September 6 - Naomie Harris, British actress
September 7 - Stevie Case, American video game celebrity
September 8 - Abi Titmuss, British TV presenter and model
September 8 - Sjeng Schalken, Dutch tennis player
September 10 - Gustavo Kuerten, Brazilian tennis player
September 12 - Maciej Żurawski, Polish footballer
September 15 - Hatake Kakashi, Fictional Character in Anime: "Naruto"
September 16 - Tina Barrett, English singer (S Club 7)
September 19 - Isha Koppikar, Indian actress
September 20 - Yui Horie, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
September 22 - Ronaldo, Brazilian footballer
September 24 - Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, Senior Vice-President of Creative Writing - WWE
September 25 - Chauncey Billups, American basketball player
September 26 - Michael Ballack, German footballer
September 29 - Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian footballer

October

October 1 - Blu Cantrell, American rapper
October 1 - Dora Venter, Hungarian pornographic actress
October 4 - Alicia Silverstone, American actress
October 6 - Taylor Hicks, American singer
October 7 - Gilberto Silva, Brazilian football player
October 10 - Bob Burnquist, Brazilian skateboarder
October 15 - Yoon Son-ha, South Korean actress
October 18 - Azlea Antistia, pornographic actress
October 19 - Michael Young, baseball player
October 19 - Joy Bryant, American actress
October 23 - Cat Deeley, British TV presenter
October 23 - Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor
October 25 - Steve Jones, Northern Irish footballer
October 29 - Stephen Craigan, Northern Irish footballer

November

November 1 - Matt Chapman, creator of Homestar Runner
November 6 - Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
November 6 - Catherine Clark, Canadian journalist (also daughter of former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark)
November 7 - Mark Philippoussis, Australian tennis player
November 11 - Mike Leon Grosch, German singer and finalist of Deutschland sucht den Superstar 3
November 12 - Mirosław Szymkowiak, Polish footballer
November 19 - Jun Shibata, Japanese singer and songwriter
November 20 - Dominique Dawes, U.S. Olympic gymnast
November 22 - Ville Valo, a Finnish singer for the band HIM
November 24 - Lu Chen, Chinese figure skater
November 27 - Jaleel White, American actor
November 29 - Anna Faris, American actress

December

December 1 - Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
December 8 - Dominic Monaghan, actor
December 12 - Dan Hawkins, British guitarist (The Darkness)
December 13 - Tom Delonge, American musician (Blink-182)
December 13 - Radosław Sobolewski, Polish footballer
December 15 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
December 17 - Takeo Spikes, American football player
December 18 - Koyuki, Japanese actress and model
December 29 - Katherine Moennig, American actress

Deaths

January

January 8 - Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1898)
January 10 - Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)
January 12 - Agatha Christie, English writer (b. 1890)
January 23 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, writer, and activist (b. 1898)
January 30 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (b. 1895)

February

February 1 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
February 1 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878)
February 2 - Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (b. 1903)
February 6 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician (b. 1928)
February 9 - Percy Faith, Canadian-born musician and composer (b. 1908)
February 11 - Lee J Cobb, American actor (b. 1911)
February 11 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamicist (b. 1894)
February 11 - Charlie Naughton, Scottish actor (b. 1886)
February 12 - Sal Mineo, American actor (b. 1939)
February 13 - Lily Pons, American soprano (b. 1898)
February 20 - René Cassin, French judge, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1887)
February 20 - Kathryn Kuhlman, American evangelist and faith healer (b. 1907)
February 22 - Florence Ballard, American singer (The Supremes) (b. 1943)

March

March 4 - Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (b. 1886)
March 6 - Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, American boxer and actor (b. 1903)
March 7 - Wright Patman, American politician (b. 1893)
March 14 - Busby Berkeley, American choreographer and director (b. 1895)
March 17 - Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre and film director (b. 1906)
March 19 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (b. 1950)
March 24 - Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (b. 1897)

April

April 1 - Max Ernst, German artist (b. 1891)
April 4 - Harry Nyquist, American information theory pioneer (b. 1889)
April 5 - Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, and eccentric (b. 1905)
April 9 - Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (b. 1903)
April 18 - Henrik Dam, Dutch biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
April 26 - Sid James, South African actor (b. 1913)

May

May 9 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (b. 1920)
May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof, German terrorist (b. 1934)
May 11 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (b. 1898)
May 14 - Keith Relf, British musician (The Yardbirds) (b. 1943)
May 26 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (b. 1889)
May 27 - Hilde Hildebrand, German actress, (b. 1897)
May 31 - Jacques Monod, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1910)

June

June 10 - Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-born film producer (b. 1873)
June 15 - Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (b. 1896)
June 25 - Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (b. 1909)
June 30 - Firpo Marberry, baseball player (b. 1898)

October

October 5 - Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
October 15 - Carlo Gambino, American Gangster (b. 1902)
October 11 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (b. 1897)

November

November 11 - Alexander Calder, Sculptor (b. 1898)
November 12 - Walter Piston, American composer (b. 1894)

December

December 2 - Danny Murtaugh, baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
December 4 - Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913)
December 6 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (b. 1918)
December 20 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
December 28 - Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman (b. 1903)

Nobel Prizes

Templeton Prize

Cardinal Suenens

1976

Gourt Home::Gourt :: 1976

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Unknown dates

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Nobel Prizes

Templeton Prize