1977: Encyclopedia II - 1977 - Events

1977 - Events

1977 - January

• January 10 - Major eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in eastern Zaire.
• January 17 - Gary Gilmore executed by a firing squad in Utah
• January 18 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious "legionnaire's disease"
• January 18 - Australia experiences its worst railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, in which 83 people died.
• January 19 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka "Tokyo Rose").
• January 19 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that this occurred, and the farthest south a snowfall has been recorded in the United States.
• January 20 - Gerald Rudolph Ford, 38th President of the United States is succeeded by Jimmy Carter.
• January 21 - President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders.
• January 27 - Record company EMI sacks the controversial UK punk rock group the Sex Pistols.

1977 - February

• February 7 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24.
• February 11 - A 20.2-kg (44-lb.-9-oz.) lobster is caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest known crustacean).
• February 18 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.

1977 - March

• March 1 - Sara Lowndes Dylan files for divorce from her husband of 11 years, Bob Dylan
• March 4 - 1977 Bucharest Earthquake - kills more than 1,500
• March 9 - Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims take over three buildings in Washington, DC, killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends two days later.
• March 27 - A collision between KLM and PanAm Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583, worst plane crash ever

1977 - April

• April 1 - Hay-on-Wye declares independence
• April 7 - German Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light near his home in Karlsruhe. "The Ulrike Meinhof Commando" later claims responsibility
• April 7 - Toronto Blue Jays play their first-ever game of baseball against the Chicago White Sox
• April 28 - Stuttgart court sentences RAF members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe to life imprisonment

1977 - May

• May 17 - The Likud lead by Menachem Begin wins the elections in Israel.
• May 23 - Scientists report using bacteria in lab to make insulin
• May 23 - Moluccan terrorists take over a school in Bovensmilde, northern Netherlands (105 hostages) and a passenger train in Bovensmilde-Assen route nearby (90 hostages) at the same time. June 11 Dutch Royal Marines storm the train - six terrorists and two hostages are killed
• May 25 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opens in theaters.
• May 26 - George Willig climbed the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
• May 28 - In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 inside.
• May 29 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win a to date record four times.

1977 - June

• June 5 - A coup takes place in Seychelles.
• June 5 - The first Apple II computers went on sale on this date.
• June 7 - After campaigning by Anita Bryant and her anti-Gay "Save Our Children" crusade, Dade County, Florida voters overwhelmingly vote to repeal the county's Gay rights ordinance, igniting a wave of violence against Gays across the United States.
• June 6-June 9 - Jubilee celebrations are held in the United Kingdom to celebrate twenty-five years of Elizabeth II's reign.
• June 10 - James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee (he was recaptured on June 13).
• June 15 - Spain has its first democratic elections after 41 years under the Franco regime.
• June 20 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules that states are not required to spend Medicaid funds on elective abortions.
• June 20 - Anglia Television broadcasts fake documentary "Alternative 3". it enters into conspiracy theory canon.
• June 22 - Robert Hillsborough, a Gay San Franciscan, is brutally stabbed to death just steps from his home by four youths, calling him "fag" and "queer" and allegedly shouting "this one's for Anita Bryant".
• June 25 - US man Roy Sullivan in struck by lightning for the 7th time
• June 26 - Some 200,000 Gays march through the streets of San Francisco, protesting Anita Bryant's homophobia and Robert Hillsborough's murder.

1977 - July

• July 4 - Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty is sensationally sacked by the club's directors.
• July 5 - Military coup in Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto the very first elected Prime Minster of Pakistan overthrown.
• July 13 - The New York City Blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours and results in looting and other disorder.
• July 15 - Anti Drugs Campainer Donald Mackay disappears near Griffith N.S.W (New South Wales) presumed Murdered
• July 22 - The purged Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power as the "Gang of Four" is expelled from the Communist Party of China.
• July 28 - First oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System reaches Valdez, Alaska
• July 30 - Left-wing German terrorists Susanne Albrecht[1], Brigitte Mohnhaupt[2] and a third person assassinate Jürgen Ponto[3], chairman of the Dresdner Bank in Oberursel, West Germany

1977 - August

• August 3 - United States Senate Hearing on MKULTRA.
• August 4 - US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy
• August 12 - NASA space shuttle makes its first test flight off the back of a jetliner
• August 15 - The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by The Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "WOW!" signal for notation made by a volunteer on the project.
• August 16 - Elvis Presley dies at 42 at his home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.
• August 19 - Groucho Marx dies.
• August 19 - Indonesia Earthquake and Tsunami of 1977
• August 20 - Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft

1977 - September

• September 5 - Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay
• September 5 - Hanns-Martin Schleyer, President of the Employers Association, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany. Kidnappers kill three escorting police officers and his chauffeur. They demand release of Red Army Faction prisoners
• September 6 - (approx) - Steve Biko suffers a massive head injury in police custody in South Africa.
• September 7 - Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The US agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century
• September 8 - INTERPOL issues a resolution against piracy of video tapes and other material, which is still cited in warnings on videotapes and DVDs now.
• September 10 - Hamida Djandoubi is the last guillotine execution in France.
• September 11 - The last "wild" infection of smallpox is reported in Somalia.
• September 12 - Steve Biko dies of his injuries.
• September 21 - Nuclear-proliferation pact, curbing spread of nuclear weapons, is signed by 15 countries including the United States and USSR.
• September 28 - Porsche 928 debuts at the Geneva Auto Convention

1977 - October

• October 13 - Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction. See German Autumn
• October 17-October 18 - GSG-9 troopers storm a hijacked Lufthansa passenger plane in Mogadishu, Somalia - three of the four hijackers die
• October 18 - Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stammheim prison. Irmgard Möller fails. Their supporters continue to claim they were murdered. Bodies are buried October 27
• October 19 - Kidnapped industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer is found killed in Mulhoull, France
• October 20 - Three members of rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd die in charter plane crash
• October 21 - The European Patent Institute is founded
• October 26 - The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination and, by extension, of modern science.

1977 - November

• November 6 - The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39
• November 19 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he meets with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement (much of the Arab world is outraged by the visit).
• November 22 - British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service

1977 - December

• December 1 - First flight of Lockheed's top-secret stealth project aircraft designated Have Blue, the precursor to the US F-117A Nighthawk.
• December 4 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor.
• December 4 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashed in Johor, Malaysia, killing 100.
• December 14 - Releasing of Saturday Night Fever film.

1977 - Unknown dates

• 2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, discovered by Charlie Kowal.

• Color TV Game 6 is created by Nintendo.

• Portugal's traditional naming conventions change such that children's surnames can come from either the mother or the father, not just from the father.

• Chiara Lubich is awarded the Templeton Prize.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki