1977

1977
Events
January
• The Commodore PET was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, in January. This was the world’s first personal computer.

• Inheritance tax was abolished on 1st January, by the Australian state of Queensland.

• The Apple Computer Inc. was incorporated on 3rd January.

• Ocean Park was opened on 10th January in Hong Kong.

• The firing squad in Utah executed Gary Gilmore on 17th January. This was the first execution since the reintroduction of the death penalty in the U.S.

• Previously unknown bacterium that had now been identified by scientists as the cause of mysterious Legionnaire’s disease on 18th January.

• A plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina killed SFR Yugoslavia Prime Minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and 6 others were killed on 18th January.

• For the first and last time in history snow fell in Miami, Florida on 19th January. Snowfall had only previously occurred farther south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii.

• Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States on 20th January after succeeding Gerald Ford.

• On 23rd January the Roots began their phenomenally successful run on ABC.

• Punk rock group, the Sex Pistols, were sacked by their record company, EMI, on 27th January.

• The Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 hit Buffalo, New York, and the Niagara Region of Southern Ontario on 28th January.
February
• Grammy winning album Rumours, by Fleetwood Mac’s was released on 4th February.

• The Soviet Union launched the Soyuz 24 to dock with the Salyut 5 space station on 7th February.

• The heaviest known crustacean, a 20.2kg lobster was caught of the Nova Scotia on 11th February.

• Prog. 1 of 2000 AD was launched on 18th February.

• The New Zealand Parliament, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on 28th February.
March
• Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia opened the Australian parliament on 8th March.

• Around twelve armed Hanafi Muslims took over 3 building in Washington, D.C. they killed 1 person and kept over 130 people hostage from 2 days. The incident began on 9th March.

• The rings of Uranus were discovered on 10th March.

• Tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the PBS opera series Live from the Met, both made the American television debuts on 15th March. Pavarotti stared in a complete production of Puccini’s La Boheme.

• Dr. James Dobson founded Focus on the Family on 26th March.

• On 27th March, a collision between KLM and Pan Am Boeing 747 at Tenerife, Canary Islands killed 583. This was known as the Tenerife disaster and was the worst single aviation that had been recorded.
April
• The small market town of Hay on Wye declared independence from the UK as a publicity stunt on 1st April.

• On 4th April, in Grundy, Virginia experienced a major flood that made around $15 million in damages to 228 residential and commercial structures. To date the town is still recovering.

• German Federal Prosecutor, Siegfried Buback and his driver were shot by 2 Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light near his home in Karlsruhe on 17th April. The “Ulrike Meinhof Commando” later claimed responsibility.

• The Clash, debut album by The Clash’s was released in the UK on CBS records on 8th April.

• On 11th April, London Transport’s Silver Jubilee buses were launched.

• Sightings of an eerie monster were reported by residents of Dover, Massachusetts on 21st April.

• Live telephones traffic was carried via optical fiber on 22nd April.

• Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe, were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Stuttgart court on 28th April.
May
• The Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul, on 1st May, resulted in 34 deaths, hundreds of injuries.

• The Grateful Dead played at Cornell University’s Barton Hall in Ithaca, NY on 8th May.

• On 17th May, the Likud Party, led by Menachem Begin, won the elections in Israel.

• Also on 17th May, Queen Elizabeth II commenced her 1977 Silver Jubilee tour in Glasgow.

• It was reported by scientists on 23rd May, that they were using bacteria in a lab to make insulin.

• Star Wars became the highest grossing film of all time on 25th May, when it began showing in cinemas.

• The South Tower of the World Trade Center was climbed by George Willig on 26th May.

• The new Air Terminal Building at the Edinburgh Airport was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 27th May.

• The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky was engulfed in fire on 28th May. The fire killed 165 people.
June
• The first Apple II series computers went on sale on 5th June.

• The United Kingdom held Jubilee celebrations between 6th and 9th June, for Elizabeth II’s 25 years of Elizabeth II’s reign.

• Voters in Miami-Dade County, Florida voted to repeal the county’s gay rights ordinance on 7th June, after Anita Bryant campaigned her anti-gay “Save Our Children” crusade.

• The Supremes disbanded after they performed their last concert at Drury Lane in London, England on 12th June.

• Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates incorporated Oracle Corporation in Redwood Shores, California as Software Development Laboratories on 16th June.

• Anglia Television broadcasted the fake documentary, Alternative 3 on 20th June. This entered into the conspiracy theory canon.

• Lightning struck American Roy Sullivan for the seventh time on 25th June.

• Elvis Presley performed his last ever concert on 26th June, in Indianapolis, Indiana’s Market Square Arena.

• The Yorkshire Ripper murdered 16 year old shop assistant Jayne Macdonald, in Leeds, West Yorkshire on 26th June.

• Around 200,000 people protested, marching through the streets of San Francisco on 26th June. They were protesting Anita Bryant’s anti gay remarks and the murder of Robert Hillsborough.

• On 30th June women were integrated into regular Marine Corps.
July
• New York City suffered from a blackout which lasted for 25 hours on 13th July. It resulted in looting and other disorder.

• Donald Mackay, an anti drug campaigner was presumed murdered after he disappeared near Griffith, New South Wales on 15th July.
• Excessive rainfall between 19th and 20th July, in Johnstown, PA, cause flooding. The floods killed over 75 people and caused billions in damage.
• On 22nd July, Deng Xiaoping, purged Chinese Communist leader was restored to power 9 months after the “Gang of Four” was expelled from power in coup d’état.

• Valdez, Alaska received oil for the first time via the Trans-Alaska pipeline system on 28th July.
August
• The Tandy Corporation TRS-80 Model I computer was announced at a press conference on 3rd August.

• The legislation that created the United States Department of Energy was signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter on 4th August.

• Uruguay’s military controlled - government announced that it would return the nation to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 for a President and Congress on 9th August.

• The NASA Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on 12th August.

• A radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, received a radio signal from deep space on 15th August. This was named the “WOW!” signal for a notation made by a volunteer on the project.

• Elvis Presley, king of rock died in his home in Graceland on 16th August. He died aged 42. During his funeral, 75,000 fans lined the streets of Memphis.

• The Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched on 20th August by the United States.
September
• The first Commodore PET was sold on 3rd September.

• Voyager 1 was launched on 5th September after a brief delay.

• INTEROL issued a resolution against the piracy of video tapes and other material on 8th September. These can still be cited in warnings on opening pre-credits of DVDs and videocassettes.

• Marc Bolan, a glam rock pioneer died in a car crash in Barnes, London on 16th September.

• On 20th September, Fonzie Jumps the Shark on Happy Days and Charles Emerson Winchester III made his first appearance on M*A*S*H in Fade Out, Fade In.

• 15 countries signed a nuclear non-proliferation on 21st September, this included the U.S. and Soviet Union.

• The Geneva Auto Convention was where the Porsche 928 debuted on 28th September.

• The Food Stamp Act of 1977 was enacted on 29th September. This was when the modern Food Stamp Program began. This allowed low and no income people living in the U.S. to be provided assistance.

October
• Pele played his final professional football game as a member of the New York Cosmos on 1st October.

• A Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia was hijacked on 13th October by four Palestinians, who demanded the release of 11 Red Army Faction members.

• The Atari 2600 game system was released on 14th October.

• Also on 14th October, during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa, Anita Bryant was pied by four gay rights activists. This resulted in her political fallout from anti-gay activism.

• Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, on 20th October; this was 3 days after the release of their fifth studio album, Street Survivors.

• The European Patent Institute was founded on 21st October.

• On 26th October, the last natural smallpox case was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC considered this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination and, by extension, of modern science.

• Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols was released in the United Kingdom on 28th October.
November
• Charlie Kowal discovered the 2060 Chiron on 1st November. This was the first of the outer of the solar system asteroids, known as the Centaurs.

• 38 people were killed after the worst storm in modern history hit Athens caused havoc across the Greek capital on 2nd November.

• The tomb of Philip II of Macedon was discovered by Greek archeologist Manolis Andronikos on 8th November.

• Harvey Milk was elected by San Francisco to be the City Supervisor on 8th November. He was the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the U.S.

• Saturday Night Fever was released by the Bee Gees on 10th November. This was the best selling album of all time.

• British Airways introduced regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service on 22nd November.

• Also on 22nd November, TCP/IP test succeeded connecting 3 ARPANET nodes, in what eventually became the Internet protocol.

• The Rankin/Bass made for TV animated film The Hobbit premiered on NBC in the United States on 27th November.
December
• The children’s cartoon channel, Nickelodeon Television Channel, launched as The Pinewheel Network on 1st December.

• The Lockheed’s top secret stealth aircraft project designated Have Blue, precursor to the U.S. F-117A Nighthawk, made its first flight on 1st December.

• The Central African Republic president, Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowned himself Emperor on 4th December.

• On 16th December, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s 1976 production of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet The Nutcracker came to CBS a year after premiering onstage at the Kennedy Center. This adaption became the most popular television production of the work.
Date unknown
• 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.

• After a 24 year period, the Soviet Nation Anthem’s lyrics were returned, with Joseph Stalin’s name omitted.

• Women integrated into regular Navy.