1976 - What happened in 1976 ?

January 1976

Thursday 01:

NBC introduces its new logo: an abstract N, similar to the Nebraska Educational Television Network logo.

Monday 05:

Cambodia is renamed Democratic Campuchea.

Monday 12:

UN Security Council votes 11-1 to allow the Palestinian Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights).

Thursday 15:

Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

Wednesday 21:

The first commercial service Concorde flight took off.

February 1976

Monday 02:

Groundhog Day gale of 1976 hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.

Wednesday 04:

1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.

Friday 20:

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.

Tuesday 24:

Cuba : national Constitution proclaimed

Friday 27:

The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

March 1976

Wednesday 03:

Fleetwood Mac records Rumours, which will be a blockbuster album in 1977.

Tuesday 09:

42 people die in a Cavalese cable-car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.

Saturday 20:

1976 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of the armed robbery of a San Francisco, California bank.

Wednesday 24:

Argentina's military forces depose president Isabel Perón.

Saturday 27:

The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC subway system is opened.

April 1976

Thursday 01:

Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The Central Railroad of New Jersey is bankrupt and Conrail takes over it's operations.

Saturday 03:

In The Hague, Netherlands, Brotherhood of Man wins the twenty-first Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Save Your Kisses For Me".

Sunday 04:

Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.

Monday 05:

In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident.

May 1976

Tuesday 11:

The last episode of the TV medical drama Marcus Welby, M.D. is aired.

Thursday 13:

The New York Nets defeat the Denver Nuggets and win the American Basketball Association championship, 112-106, in the final ABA game ever played.

Monday 24:

London to Washington, DC Concorde service begins.

June 1976

Saturday 05:

Collapse of the Teton Dam in Idaho, United States.

Monday 14:

The Gong Show debuts on NBC.

Saturday 19:

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden marries Silvia Sommerlath.

Tuesday 22:

Canadian House of Commons abolishes capital punishment.

Tuesday 29:

The Seychelles became independent from the United Kingdom.

July 1976

Saturday 03:

Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan.

Monday 19:

Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.

Tuesday 20:

The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.

Tuesday 27:

Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka is arrested on suspicion of violating foreign exchange and foreign trade laws in connection with the Lockheed scandal.

Saturday 31:

NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1

August 1976

Monday 02:

An intruder breaks into Priscilla Davis's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas and kills Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr.

Saturday 07:

Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.

Saturday 14:

The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.

Saturday 21:

Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea

Monday 23:

A major earthquake in China kills thousands of people.

September 1976

Friday 03:

Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars and takes the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface.

Friday 10:

A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia killing 176

Wednesday 15:

Soyuz 22 carries two cosmonauts into earth orbit for eight days.

Saturday 18:

Mao Tse Tung's funeral takes place in Beijing.

Tuesday 28:

R&B singer Stevie Wonder releases the classic double album Songs in the Key of Life.

October 1976

Wednesday 06:

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.

Wednesday 13:

The first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle was obtained by Dr. F.A. Murphy, now at U.C. Davis, who was then working at the C.D.C..

Friday 22:

Red dye #4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.

Tuesday 26:

Transkei declares its "independence" from South Africa

Thursday 28:

John D. Ehrlichman, former domestic policy adviser of President Nixon and convicted Watergate felon, arrives at the Swift Trail Camp minimum-security facility in southeastern Arizona.

November 1976

Tuesday 02:

U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford to become first candidate from deep south to win since the Civil War.

Monday 15:

René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favour of independence.

Wednesday 24:

The Band gives its last public performance; Martin Scorsese is on hand to film it (see: The Last Waltz).

December 1976

Friday 03:

Patrick Hillery becomes the sixth President of Ireland.

Wednesday 08:

The Eagles release one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Hotel California.

Wednesday 15:

Samoa becomes a member of the UN

Sunday 26:

Foundation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist).

Thursday 30:

The Smothers Brothers play their last show (Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas).