1976 CE

Mao Zedong dies, ending a political era in China; the 1976 Tangshan earthquake kills over 240,000 people; the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal face boycotts and controversy; the 1976 Argentine coup d'état topples Isabel Perón; the MV George Prince ferry disaster kills 78 people in Louisiana; the Soweto uprising erupts against apartheid in South Africa; the 1976 Cavalese cable car crash in Italy kills 43; the debut of VHS transforms home video; and the U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.source
January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.source
January 18 – Full diplomatic relations are established between Bangladesh and Pakistan 5 years after the Bangladesh Liberation War.source
January 27 – The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state.source
February 9 – The Australian Defence Force is formed by unification of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force.source
February 27 – The Polisario Front, Western Sahara's national liberation movement, declares independence of the territory under the name "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic".source
March 4 – The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in Direct rule over Northern Ireland by the Government of the United Kingdom in London.source
April 5 – James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
June 1 – The United Kingdom and Iceland end the Third Cod War, with the UK accepting Iceland's extension of its territorial waters to 200 nautical miles in exchange for defined fishing rights.source
June 2 – The Philippine government opens relations with the Soviet Union.source
June 12 – Alberto Demicheli, a jurist, is inaugurated as a civilian de facto President of Uruguay after Juan María Bordaberry is deposed by the military.source
June 27 – G-6 is renamed "Group of 7" (G-7) with the inclusion of Canada.source
July 2 – North Vietnam dissolves the Provisional Government of South Vietnam and unites the two countries to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.source
July 7 – David Steel becomes leader of the UK's Liberal Party in the aftermath of the scandal which forced out Jeremy Thorpe.source
July 17 – East Timor is declared the 27th province of Indonesia.source
July 27 – The United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with its former colony Uganda in response to the hijacking of Air France Flight 139.source
October 12 – The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party following the latter's death on September 9 from a heart attack.source
October 22 – Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, the 5th President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defense.source
November 2 – 1976 United States presidential election: Jimmy Carter narrowly defeats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.source
November 26 – The Warsaw Treaty Organization joint secretariat is established.source
December 1 – Sir Douglas Nicholls is appointed the 28th Governor of South Australia, the first Australian Aboriginal appointed to vice-regal office.source
December 3 – Patrick Hillery is sworn in after being elected unopposed as the 6th President of Ireland.source
December 5 – The Japanese general election takes place, and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party loses its majority in the 511-member House of Representatives but remains the largest party with 249 seats.source
December 15 – Denis Healey announces to the British Parliament that he has successfully negotiated a £2.3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.source

Conflict & Security

January 27 – Western Sahara War: The First Battle of Amgala breaks out between Morocco and Algeria in the Spanish Sahara.source
February 13 – General Murtala Mohammed of Nigeria is assassinated in a military coup.source
February 26 – The Spanish Armed Forces withdraw from Western Sahara.source
March 24 – A general strike takes place in the People's Republic of the Congo.source
March 27 – The South African Defence Force withdraws from Angola and concludes Operation Savannah.source
March 29 – The military dictatorship of General Jorge Rafael Videla comes to power in Argentina.source
April 5 – Segovia prison break: in Spain's largest prison break since the Spanish Civil War, 29 political prisoners escape from Segovia prison.source
May 16 – The Montreal Canadiens sweep the Philadelphia Flyers in four games to win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey.source
May 31 – Syria intervenes in the Lebanese Civil War in opposition to the Palestine Liberation Organization, which it has previously supported.source
June 27 – Palestinian militants hijack an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew. They take it to Entebbe, Uganda.source
June 29 – The Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe convenes in East Berlin.source
July 10 – Four mercenaries, three British and one American, are shot by firing squad in Angola, following the Luanda Trial.source
July 15 – Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. president at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.source
July 21 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, new British ambassador to the Irish Republic, and Judith Cooke, a Northern Ireland Office private secretary, in Dublin; two others are seriously wounded but survive.source
California State University, Fullerton massacre: seven people are shot and killed, and two others are wounded in a mass shooting on campus at California State University, Fullerton.source
August 1 – Defending F1 World Champion Niki Lauda suffers serious burns in the German Grand Prix after a huge accident that nearly cost him his life.source
August 5 – The clock of "Big Ben" at the Palace of Westminster in London suffers internal damage and requires frequent repairs. The clock is stopped at times on 26 of the next 275 days.source
August 9 – The Selous Scouts of the Rhodesian Army conduct a cross-border raid into Nyadzonya, Mozambique in Operation Eland, an action that led to severe political and diplomatic consequences on Rhodesia.source
August 11 – A sniper rampage in Wichita, Kansas on a Holiday Inn results in 3 deaths while 7 others are wounded.source
August 18 – At Panmunjom, North Korea, two United States soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Korean Demilitarized Zone which has obscured their view.source
September 6 – Cold War: Soviet Air Force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate, on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan, and requests political asylum in the United States.source
September 21 – Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.source
October 6 – Students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand are massacred, while protesting the return of ex-dictator Thanom Kittikachorn by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.source
October 6 – In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford incorrectly declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" (there is at the time).source

Exploration & Expansion

November 15 – The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi.source

Religion & Belief

July 19 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.source

Economy & Finance

March 26 – The Body Shop, the retail chain for skin care products and cosmetics founded by Anita Roddick, opens its first branch in Brighton, England.source
April 1 – Conrail (Consolidated Rails Corporation) is formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that have filed for bankruptcy protection. Conrail takes control at midnight, as a government-owned and operated railroad until 1986, when it is sold to the public.source
April 13 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.source
Price Club, as predecessor of Costco, a worldwide membership-registration-only retailer, is founded in California.source
August 8 – As part of the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger, a dispersal draft is conducted to assign teams for the players on the two ABA franchises which have folded.source
October 13 – The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).source
November 26 – Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.source

Technology & Infrastructure

March 27 – The first 7.4 km mi of the Washington Metro subway system opens.source
March – The Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, is released by Seymour Cray's Cray Research, with the first purchaser being the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in Los Alamos, New Mexico.source
April 1 – Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in California.source
May 24 – Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.source
May 30 – Indianapolis 500 automobile race: Johnny Rutherford wins the (rain-shortened) shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or 408 km mi.source
June 11 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh gathers 126 of the UK's leading engineers at Buckingham Palace to form the Fellowship of Engineering, later to be known as the Royal Academy of Engineering.source
June 26 – The CN Tower is opened in Toronto, the tallest free-standing land structure opens to the public.source
July 6 – The first class of women is inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.source
September 1 – Cigarette and tobacco advertising is banned on Australian television and radio.source
September 15 – Darryl Sittler scores the winning goal in the 1976 Canada Cup for Canada to win over Czechoslovakia in overtime, to win the first Canada Cup in ice hockey.source
October 4 – The InterCity 125 high-speed train is introduced in the United Kingdom.source
The first laser printer is introduced by IBM (the IBM 3800).source

Science & Discovery

April 1 – The Jovian–Plutonian gravitational effect is first reported by British astronomer Patrick Moore.source
May 4 – The first LAGEOS (Laser Geodynamics Satellite) is launched.source
May 13 – The Atari video arcade game Breakout is released.source
July 20 – Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.source
July 31 – NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.source
August 7 – Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.source
September 3 – Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars, taking the first close-up color photographs of the planet's surface.source
September 17 – The space shuttle Enterprise is rolled out of a hangar in Palmdale, California, United States.source
October 19 – The Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 19 years in the United States.source

Health & Medicine

June 27 – The world's first known case of Ebola is recorded in Nzara, Sudan (now South Sudan).source
August 26 – The second known outbreak of Ebola virus occurs in Yambuku, Zaire.source
September 1 – The state of emergency in the Republic of Ireland legally still in force since 1939 is lifted.source
November 6 - Uttawar forced sterilisations: Mass vasectomy of nearly 800 men of Uttawar village, Palwal district, Haryana during India's Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi.source
Random breath testing is introduced in Victoria (Australia).source

Crime & Justice

March 1 – U.K. Home Secretary Merlyn Rees ends Special Category Status for those sentenced for scheduled terrorist crimes relating to the civil violence in Northern Ireland.source
March 1 – Bradford Bishop allegedly murders five of his family members in Bethesda, Maryland. The crime goes undiscovered for 10 days and the suspect is never caught. From 2014 to 2018 he is on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.source
March 4 – The Maguire Seven are found guilty in London of possessing explosives for use by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and subsequently jailed for 14 years; their convictions were overturned in 1991.source
March 20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974.source
April 21 – The Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne, Australia: Bandits steal A$1.4 million in bookmakers' settlements from Queen Street, Melbourne.source
May 9 – Ulrike Meinhof of the Red Army Faction is found hanged in an apparent suicide in her Stuttgart-Stammheim prison cell.source
June 20 – Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. Ambassador.source
June 20 – Czechoslovakia beats West Germany 5–3 on penalties to win Euro 76 when the game ends 2–2 after extra time.source
July 3 – Gregg v. Georgia: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment overturning the Furman v. Georgia case of 1972.source
July 4 – Entebbe Raid: Israeli airborne commandos free 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane at Uganda's Entebbe Airport; Yonatan Netanyahu and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in the raid.source
July 15 – Twenty-six Chowchilla schoolchildren and their bus driver are abducted and buried in a box truck within a quarry in Livermore, California. The captives dig themselves free after 16 hours. The quarry-owner's son and two accomplices are arrested for the crime.source
July 16–20 – Albert Spaggiari and his gang break into the vault of the Société Generale Bank in Nice, France.source
July 20 – American criminal Gary Gilmore is arrested for murdering two men in Utah.source
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 terrorize the city for the next year.source
August 2 – A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found innocent for Andrea's murder, involvement in a plot to kill several people (including Priscilla and a judge), and a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen goes broke afterwards.source
August 6 – Former United Kingdom Postmaster General John Stonehouse is sentenced to 7 years' jail for fraud, theft and forgery.source
August 24 – In Uruguay, the army captures Marcelo Gelman and his pregnant wife. Gelman is later killed and his wife disappears.source
September 16 – Beginning with the Night of the Pencils, a series of kidnappings and forced disappearances followed by torture, rape, and murder of students under the Argentine dictatorship takes place.source
September 24 – Patty Hearst is sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in the armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974 (an executive clemency order from U.S. President Jimmy Carter will set her free after only 22 months).source
October 6 – The Cultural Revolution in China concludes upon the capture of the Gang of Four.source
The New Jersey Legislature passes legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. After signing the bill into law, Governor Brendan Byrne declares "The mob is not welcome in New Jersey!" referring to the Mafia's influence at casinos in Nevada.source

Disasters & Accidents

January 16 – A locomotive crashes into the rear of a commuter train in Glenbrook, Australia, killing one person onboard and injuring ten others in the 1976 Glenbrook rail accident.source
March 9 – A cable car disaster occurs when a supporting cable breaks in Cavalese, Italy, resulting in 43 deaths.source
March 9–11 – Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine, in Letcher County, Kentucky.source
April 13 – The Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion in Lapua, Finland kills 40.source
April 29 – Sino-Soviet split: A concealed bomb explodes at the gates of the Soviet embassy in China, killing four Chinese. The targets were embassy employees, returning from lunch, but on this day they had returned to the embassy earlier.source
May 4 – A train crash in Schiedam, the Netherlands, kills 24 people.source
May 21 – The Yuba City bus disaster, the second-worst bus crash in U.S. history, leaves 28 students and one teacher killed.source
June 2 – A car bomb fatally injures Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.source
June 5 – The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the US, killing 11 people.source
June 6 – The Double Six Crash, a plane crash in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, kills everyone on board, including Sabahan Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens.source
July 10 – Seveso disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, causes extensive pollution to a large area in the neighborhood of Milan, with many evacuations and a large number of people affected by the toxic cloud.source
September 3 – A Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Venezuelan Air Force crashed near Lajes Field, Azores Islands, Portugal, killing all 68 occupants on board.source
September 10 – Zagreb mid-air collision: A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia (modern-day Zagreb, Croatia), killing all 176 aboard.source
September 16 – Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir.source
October 6 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 crashes due to a bomb placed by anti-Fidel Castro terrorists, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados; all 73 people on board are killed.source
October 20 – The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana to Luling, Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew.source

Climate & Environment

February 4 – The 7.5 Guatemala earthquake affects Guatemala and Honduras with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 23,000 dead and 76,000 injured.source
April 19 – A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least 1000 yd m by the tornado and survived uninjured.source
May 6 – An earthquake hits the Friuli area in Italy, killing more than 900 people and making another 100,000 homeless.source
June 13 – Savage thunderstorms roll through the state of Iowa, spawning several tornadoes, including an F-5 tornado that destroys the town of Jordan.source
July 3 – The great heat wave in the United Kingdom, which is currently suffering from drought conditions, reaches its peak.source
July 28 – The Tangshan earthquake flattens Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 people, and injuring 164,851.source
July 31 – The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado floods, destroying more than 400 cars and houses and killing 143 people.source
August 17 – The 8.0 Moro Gulf earthquake hits off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines, triggering a destructive tsunami, killing between 5,000 and 8,000 people and leaving more than 90,000 homeless.source
August 25 – Landslide disaster in Sau Mau Ping, Hong Kong.source
October 19 – The Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is placed on the list of endangered species.source
November 12 – Disappearance of Renee MacRae and her 3-year-old son Andrew from Inverness in Scotland; this becomes Britain's longest-running missing persons case.source
November 24 – 1976 Çaldıran–Muradiye earthquake: Between 4,000 and 5,000 are killed in a 7.3 earthquake at Van and Muradiye in eastern Turkey.source
December 23 – A new volcano, Murara, erupts in eastern Zaire.source

Culture & Society

February 4 – The 1976 Winter Olympics begin in Innsbruck, Austria.source
April 3 – The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 is won by Brotherhood of Man, representing the United Kingdom, with their song Save Your Kisses for Me.source
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.source
May 24 – The Judgment of Paris pits French vs. California wines in a blind taste-test in Paris, France. California wines win the contest, surprising the wine world and opening the wine industry to newcomers in several countries.source
June 4 – The Boston Celtics defeat the Phoenix Suns 128–126 in triple overtime in Game 5 of the National Basketball Association Finals at the Boston Garden. In 1997, the game is selected by a panel of experts as the greatest of the NBA's first 50 years.source
June 25 – Strikes start in Poland (Ursus, Radom, Płock) after communists raise food prices; they end on June 30.source
July 17 – The 1976 Summer Olympics begin in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.source
July 18 – 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci earns the first of seven perfect scores of 10 at the 1976 Summer Olympics.source
July 30 – Bruce Jenner wins the gold medal in the men's decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.source
July 30 – In Santiago, Chile, Cruzeiro from Brazil beats River Plate from Argentina and are the Copa Libertadores de América champions in Association football.source
August 1 – The 1976 Summer Olympics ends in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.source
August 14 – Around 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland.source
August 26 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, resigns from various posts over a scandal involving alleged corruption in connection with business dealings with the Lockheed Corporation.source
August 29 – The first Women in Print Conference is held in Omaha, Nebraska. Over 130 women from 80 feminist organizations and collectives attend the gathering, which was associated with the women in print movement.source
September 6 – Frank Sinatra brings Jerry Lewis's former partner Dean Martin onstage, unannounced, at the 1976 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in Las Vegas, reuniting the comedy team for the first (and only) time in over 20 years.source
November 3 – Carrie, an American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma, is premiered in 17 theaters in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area.source
Marc Brown's Arthur's Nose is published.source

Births

January 27 – Ahn Jung-hwan, South Korean footballer and television personalitysource
March 20 – Chester Bennington, American singer (Linkin Park) (d. 2017)source
March 21 – Rachael MacFarlane, American actress and singer, sister of Seth MacFarlanesource
May 4 – Anza, Japanese actress and singer best known for playing the character of Sailor Moon in some Sailor Moon musicalsource
June 4 – Alexei Navalny, Russian lawyer and political activist (d. 2024)source
August 1 – Iván Duque, Colombian politician, 33rd President of Colombiasource
August 6 – Travis Kalanick, American businessman and computer programmer; co-founder of Ubersource
August 15 – Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian Prime Minister, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prizesource
September 28 – Fedor Emelianenko, Russian mixed martial arts fightersource
November 1 – Sam Presti, American basketball executive, general manager of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder since 2007source
November 9 – Josh Kaufman, American singer-songwriter, winner of The Voice season 6source
November 29 – Chadwick Boseman, American actor and playwright (d. 2020)source
December 1 – Laura Ling, American journalist imprisoned by North Korea in 2009source
December 25 – Tuomas Holopainen, Finnish metal keyboardist (Nightwish)source

Deaths

January 23 – Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, writer and activist (b. 1898)source
January 31 – Ernesto Miranda, American criminal and namesake of the Miranda right (b. 1941)source
February 1 – George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878)source
February 1 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)source
March 31 – The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that patient in a persistent vegetative state in the Karen Ann Quinlan case can be disconnected from her ventilator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985.source
April 4 – Harry Nyquist, American information theory pioneer (b. 1889)source
April 9 – Margaret Brundage, American illustrator (Weird Tales) (b. 1900)source
May 11 – An accident involving a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia takes place in Houston, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 7 people.source
May 31 – Jacques Monod, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1910)source
July 1 – Anneliese Michel, German Roman Catholic woman who was believed to be possessed by demons (b. 1952)source
July 27 – Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, US, begin falling ill with a form of pneumonia: this will eventually be recognised as the first outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees.source
August 29 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi national poet (b. 1899)source
October 9 – Troy H. Middleton, American general and educator (b. 1889)source
November 20 – Trofim Lysenko, Soviet biologist and agronomist of Ukrainian origin (b. 1898)source