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.

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.

Friday 17:

The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA

Saturday 18:

Mao Tse Tung's funeral takes place in Beijing.

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.