1977

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For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album).

1977 (MCMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar).

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Events

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January

January 10 - Major eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
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--despite its ordinarily tropical climate--for the only time in its history. Snowfall has occurred further south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii.
January 20 - President Jimmy Carter succeeds Gerald Rudolph Ford, inaugurated as the 38th President of the United States.
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.

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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.

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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 12 - Centenary Test between Australia and England begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
March 15 - The television show Three's Company debuts on ABC
March 27 - A collision between KLM and PanAm Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583, worst plane crash ever

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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

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May

May 17 - The Likud led 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 opens in cinemas (later renamed as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope).
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.

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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 is 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.

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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 Campaigner 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

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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.
August 19 - Indonesia Earthquake and Tsunami of 1977
August 20 - Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft

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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 16 - Talking Heads release debut album Talking Heads: 77.
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

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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.
October 28 - Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols is released in the UK.