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.

Saturday 07:

Darryl Sittler sets NHL record with ten points in one game.

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.

Monday 15:

Rock group KISS releases the legendary album Destroyer.

Saturday 20:

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

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.

Wednesday 16:

Apartheid: A non-violent march by 15000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd and kill 566 children.

Saturday 19:

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden marries Silvia Sommerlath.

Tuesday 29:

The Seychelles became independent from the United Kingdom.

July 1976

Friday 02:

North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Wednesday 21:

Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA

Sunday 25:

The first performance of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach

Wednesday 28:

The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude flattens Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.

Thursday 29:

In New York City, the "Son of Sam" kills one person and seriously wounding another in the first of a series of attacks.

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 21:

Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea

Monday 23:

A major earthquake in China kills thousands of people.

Thursday 26:

Raymond Barre becomes Prime Minister of France.

September 1976

Wednesday 01:

The Meadowlands racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey opens.

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.

Monday 06:

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 in the United States.

Sunday 19:

A Turkish Boeing 727 hits a mountain in southern Turkey killing 155

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.

Tuesday 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

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..

Saturday 23:

US president Jimmy Carter, in a Playboy magazine interview, states that "I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me."

Tuesday 26:

Transkei declares its "independence" from South Africa

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).