Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
Years:	1974 1975 1976 - 1977 - 1978 1979 1980

1977 by topic:

Subject:      Archaeology - Architecture - Art

Aviation - Film - Home video - Literature (Poetry) Meteorology - Music (Country, Metal) Rail transport - Radio - Science

Sports - Television - Video gaming

Countries:      Australia - Canada - India - Ireland

Malaysia - New Zealand - Norway - Pakistan - Singapore South Africa - Soviet Union - UK - Zimbabwe

Leaders:    Sovereign states - State leaders

Religious leaders - Law

Categories: Births - Deaths - Works - Introductions

Establishments - Disestablishments - Awards v • d • e

Also: 1977 (album) by Ash.

Year 1977 (MCMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1977 Gregorian calendar).

Events of 1977

January

• January 1 - The Australian state of Queensland abolishes death duties.
• January 10 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. President

• January 10 - Ocean Park opens in Hong Kong.
• January 15 - Kälvesta air disaster: A Swedish airliner crashes into a residential area of Stockholm, killing all 22 on board.
• January 17 - Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah (the first execution after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the USA).
• January 18 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
• January 18 - Australia's worst railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, leaves 83 people dead.
• January 18 - SFR Yugoslavia Prime minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and 6 others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• January 19 - U.S. 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 farther south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii.
• January 20 - Jimmy Carter succeeds Gerald Ford as the 39th President of the United States.
• January 21 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders.
• January 23 - Roots begins its phenomenally successful run on ABC.
• January 24 - Massacre of Atocha during the Spanish transition to democracy.
• January 27 - Record company EMI sacks the controversial United Kingdom punk rock group the Sex Pistols
• January 29 - Actor Freddie Prinze dies from a self inflicted bullet wound.
• January 28 - Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 hits Buffalo, NY

February

• February 4 - Fleetwood Mac's Grammy-winning album Rumours is released.
• February 7 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24 (Viktor Gorbatko, Yuri Glazkov) to dock with the Salyut 5 space station.
• 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, at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• February 18 - Prog 1 of 2000AD, currently the UK's longest running comic, is launched. Issue dated 26th February 1977
• February 28 - State Opening of the New Zealand Parliament, by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

March

• March 4 - The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake kills 1,500.
• March 5 - Formula One driver Tom Pryce dies after colliding with a track marshal at the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami.
• March 8 - State Opening of the Australian Parliament, Canberra by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
• March 9 - Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims take over 3 buildings in Washington, DC, killing 1 person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends 2 days later.
• March 12 - The Centenary Test between Australia and England begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
• March 15 - Tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the PBS opera series Live from the Met both make their American television debuts. Pavarotti stars in a complete production of Puccini's La Boheme.
• March 26 - Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson
• March 27 - Tenerife disaster: a collision between KLM and PanAm Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583 (the worst single aviation accident on record).

April

• April 1 - Hay-on-Wye declares independence as a publicity stunt.
• 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 - The Toronto Blue Jays play their first-ever game of baseball against the Chicago White Sox.
• April 8 - Punk band The Clash's debut album The Clash (album) is released in the UK on CBS Records.

• April 11 - London Transport's Silver Jubilee buses are launched.
• April 22 - First use of optical fiber to carry live telephone traffic.
• April 27 - The Guatemala City air disaster kills 28 people.
• April 28 - A Stuttgart court sentences Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe to life imprisonment.

May

• May 1 - Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul: 34 dead, hundreds injured
• May 3 - HMS Invincible is launched at Barrow-in-Furness by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
• May 7 - Pierre Elliot Trudeau does a pirouette behind the back of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
• May 7 - Marie Myriam wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1977 for France with her song L'oiseau et l'enfant ("The Bird and the Child").
• May 14 - The 1977 IAS Cargo Boeing 707 airplane crash in Lusaka, Zambia kills all 6 on board.
• May 14 - In Milan, Italy, during a far-left demonstration, a hooded person shoots at the police, killing a policeman, Antonio Custra. The scene is photographed and the picture [1] of the hooded man shooting in the middle of the street will appear in many magazines around the world.
• May 17 - The Likud Party, led by Menachem Begin, wins the elections in Israel.
• May 17 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom commences her 1977 Silver Jubilee tour in Glasgow.
• May 23 - Scientists report using bacteria in a 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. On June 11, Dutch Royal Marines storm the train; 6 terrorists and 2 hostages are killed.
• May 25 - Star Wars opens in cinemas and subsequently becomes the then-highest grossing film of all time.
• May 26 - George Willig climbs the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
• May 27 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom opens the new Air Terminal Building at Edinburgh Airport.
• May 27 - The 1977 Aeroflot Ilyushin 62 airplane crash in Cuba kills 69 people.
• May 28 - In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 inside.
• May 29 - Indianapolis 500: A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win a (to date) record 4 times.

June

• June 5 - A coup takes place in Seychelles.
• June 5 - The first Apple II computers go on sale.
• June 6-June 9 - Jubilee celebrations are held in the United Kingdom to celebrate twenty-five years of Elizabeth II's reign.
• June 7 - After campaigning by Anita Bryant and her anti-gay "Save Our Children" crusade, Miami-Dade County, Florida voters overwhelmingly vote to repeal the county's gay rights ordinance.
• June 10 - James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee (he is recaptured on June 13).
• June 15 - Spain has its first democratic elections, after 41 years under the Franco regime.
• June 16 - Oracle Corporation was incorporated in Redwood Shores, California as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
• 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 the fake documentary "Alternative 3", which enters into the conspiracy theory canon.
• June 25 - American Roy Sullivan is struck by lightning for the 7th time.
• June 26 - Some 200,000 protesters march through the streets of San Francisco, protesting Anita Bryant's anti-gay remarks and the murder of Robert Hillsborough.

July

• July 1 - American actress Liv Tyler is born in New York City, New York.
• July 1 - CKO a now-defunct Canadian all news radio network began broadcasting on this date.
• July 5 - General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq overthrows Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the very first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• July 13 - The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and other disorder.
• July 14 - Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden is born.
• July 15 - Anti-drug campaigner Donald Mackay disappears near Griffith, New South Wales (presumed murdered).
• July 19 to July 20 - Flood in Johnstown, PA caused by massive rainfall, kills over 75 people and causes billions in damage.
• July 22 - The purged Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power nine months after the "Gang of Four" was expelled from power in a coup d'état.
• July 24 - Led Zeppelin play their last U.S. concert in Oakland, CA at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. A brawl erupts between Led Zeppelin's crew and promoter Bill Graham's staff resulting in criminal assault charges for several of Led Zeppelin's entourage including drummer John Bonham.
• July 26 - Robert Plant is contacted by his wife and told their son Karac has died, which causes the cancellation of the remainder of Zeppelin's U.S. tour and the band would not re-emerge until 1979.
• July 28 - The first oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System reaches Valdez, Alaska.
• July 30 - Left-wing German terrorists Susanne Albrecht[2], Brigitte Mohnhaupt[3] and a third person assassinate Jürgen Ponto[4], chairman of the Dresdner Bank in Oberursel, West Germany.

August

• August 3 - United States Senate hearings on MKULTRA are held.
• August 3 - The Tandy Corporation TRS-80 Model I computer is announced at a press conference.
• August 4 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
• August 10 - David Berkowitz is captured in Yonkers, New York, after over a year of murders in New York City as the Son Of Sam.
• August 12 - The NASA Space Shuttle, named Enterprise, makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).
• 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 a notation made by a volunteer on the project.
• August 15 - Herbert Kappler escapes from the Caelian Hill military hospital in Rome.
• August 16 - Elvis Presley dies at the age of 42.
• August 16 - Australian rock group INXS is formed.
• August 17 - Vivian Vance dies from breast/bone cancer at age 70
• August 20 - Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

September

• September 3 - The Commodore PET computer is first sold.
• September 5 - Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
• September 5 - German Autumn: Employers Association President Hanns-Martin Schleyer is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany. The kidnappers kill 3 escorting police officers and his chauffeur. They demand the release of Red Army Faction (RAF) prisoners.
• September 6 - Steve Biko suffers a massive head injury in police custody in South Africa, later dying.
• September 7 - Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The U.S. agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
• September 8 - INTERPOL issues a resolution against the piracy of video tapes and other material, which is still cited in warnings on opening pre-credits of videocassettes and DVDs today.
• September 10 - Hamida Djandoubi's is the last guillotine execution in France.
• September 16 - Talking Heads' debut album Talking Heads: 77 is released.
• September 18 - Courageous (U.S.), skippered by Ted Turner, sweeps Australia (Australia) in 24th America's Cup.
• September 21 - A nuclear non-proliferation pact is signed by 15 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union.
• September 28 - The Porsche 928 debuts at the Geneva Auto Convention.
• September 29 - The Modern Food Stamp Program began when the Food Stamp Act of 1977 was signed into law.

October

• October 1 - Pelé plays his final professional football game as a member of the New York Cosmos.
• October 13 - German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 Red Army Faction members (see Lufthansa Flight 181).
• October 14 - Bing Crosby died of heart attack.
• October 14 - David Bowie releases his album "Heroes".
• October 17-October 18 - German Autumn: GSG 9 troopers storm a hijacked Lufthansa passenger plane in Mogadishu, Somalia; 3 of the 4 hijackers die.
• October 18 - German Autumn: Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stammheim prison; Irmgard Möller fails (their supporters still claim they were murdered). They are buried October 27.
• October 18 - Reggie Jackson blasts 3 home runs to lead the New York Yankees to World Series victory.
• October 19 - German Autumn: Kidnapped industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer is found killed in Mulhouse, France.
• October 20 - Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd die in a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi three days after the release of their album Street Survivors.
• October 21 - The European Patent Institute is founded.
• October 26 - The last natural smallpox case is 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 - Hong Kong police forces attack the ICAC headquarters.
• October 28 - Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols is released in the United Kingdom.
• October, exact date unknown - Atari 2600 game system is released.

November

• November 1 - 2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, is discovered by Charlie Kowal.
• November 2 - The worst storm in Athens' modern history causes havoc across the Greek capital and kills 38 people.
• November 6 - The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia fails, killing 39.
• November 8 - Greek Archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
• November 8 - San Francisco elects City Supervisor Harvey Milk who is the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the US.
• November 19 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, seeking a permanent peace settlement.
• November 22 - British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
• November 22 - First three nodes of the ARPAnet are connected, in what would eventually become the Internet.

December

• December 1 - First flight of Lockheed's top-secret stealth aircraft project designated Have Blue, precursor to the U.S. 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 Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all the 100 passengers and crew aboard the flight.
• December 13 - A DC-3 charter plane carrying the University of Evansville basketball team to Nashville, Tenn., crashes in rain and dense fog about 90 seconds after takeoff from Evansville Dress Regional Airport. Twenty-nine people die in the crash, including 14 members of the team and its head coach Bob Watson.
• December 16 - Mikhail Baryshnikov's production of The Nutcracker, adapted from his stage version, and in which he stars with Gelsey Kirkland and the American Ballet Theatre, is shown on television for the first time by CBS. It later moves to PBS, where it becomes an annual attraction for many years. The production eventually becomes the most popular video version of the ballet.

Undated

• 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.
• The Usu volcano erupts in Japan.
• Chiara Lubich is awarded the Templeton Prize.
• Soviet National Anthem's lyrics are returned after a 24 year period, with Joseph Stalin's name omitted.

Ongoing

• Cold War

Births

January-February

• January 2 - Gavin Mahon, English footballer
• January 2 - Ales Pisa, Czech ice hockey player
• January 3 - Mayumi Iizuka, Japanese voice actress (seiyū)
• January 3 - A. J. Burnett, American baseball player
• January 7 - Michelle Behennah, British model
• January 7 - John Gidding, American actor and architect
• January 7 - Dustin Diamond, American actor
• January 8 - Amber Benson, American actress
• January 11 - Nadia Turner, American singer
• January 13 - Orlando Bloom, British actor
• January 18 - Curtis Cregan, American actor
• January 20 - Melody, a Belgian singer
• January 22 - Hidetoshi Nakata, Japanese footballer
• January 25 - The-Dream , singer
• January 26 - Vince Carter, American basketball player
• January 28 - Lyle Overbay, American baseball player
• January 28 - Daunte Culpepper, American football player
• January 28 - Joey Fatone, American musician
• January 31 - Mark Dutiaume, Canadian hockey player

• February 2 - Gavin DeGraw, American musician
• February 2 - Shakira, Colombian musician
• February 2 - Jessica Wahls, German pop singer
• February 3 - Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican musician
• February 5 - Ben Ainslie, British sailor
• February 5 - Ahmad Merritt, American football player
• February 7 - Paul Comrie, Canadian ice hockey player
• February 8 - Bridgette Kerkove, American actress
• February 8 - Yucef Merhi, Venezuelan artist
• February 8 - Barry Hall, Australian rules footballer
• February 11 - Randy Moss, American football player
• February 11 - Mike Shinoda, American musician
• February 16 - Ian Clarke, Irish computer scientist
• February 18 - Sean Watkins, American guitarist and songwriter
• February 19 - Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer
• February 20 - Stephon Marbury, American basketball player
• February 21 - Kevin Rose, American television host
• February 23 - Kristina Šmigun, Estonian skier
• February 24 - Floyd Mayweather Jr., boxing champion
• February 27 - Ji Sung, South Korean actor

March-April

• March 1 - Rens Blom, Dutch athlete
• March 2 - Chris Martin, British musician (Coldplay)
• March 2 - Heather McComb, American actress
• March 3 - Ronan Keating, Irish singer
• March 4 - Ana Guevara, Mexican track and field athlete
• March 4 - Daniel Klewer, German footballer
• March 4 - Jason Marsalis, American jazz musician
• March 4 - Russell Taylor, British cartoonist
• March 5 - Wally Szczerbiak, Spanish-born basketball player
• March 6 - Santino Marella, American wrestler
• March 6 - Keith O'Neill, Irish-born rugby impersonator
• March 7 - Ronan O'Gara, Irish rugby player
• March 7 - Mitja Zastrow, German-born swimmer
• March 8 - James Van Der Beek, American actor
• March 10 - Bree Turner, American dancer and actress
• March 10 - Colin Murray, British radio disc jockey
• March 10 - Matt Rubano, bassist of Taking Back Sunday.
• March 11 - Becky Hammon, American basketball player
• March 11 - Jason Greeley, Canadian singer
• March 15 - Joe Hahn, American DJ (Linkin Park)
• March 15 - Norifumi Yamamoto, Japanese Mixed Martial Artist
• March 16 - Ben Kenney, bassist of the American alternative rock band Incubus
• March 16 - Alyson Kiperman, American actress
• March 18 - Zdeno Chara, Czechoslovakian (now Slovakia) hockey player
• March 23 - Sammy Morris, National Football League Running Back
• March 24 - Darren Lockyer, Australian rugby league player
• March 27 - Vitor Meira, Brazilian race car driver
• March 27 - Roger Velasco, American actor

• April 1 - Vitor Belfort, Brazilian Mixed Martial Artist
• April 4 - Stephen Mulhern, Musician, CITV Presenter
• April 9 - Gerard Way, American singer (My Chemical Romance)
• April 12 - Tobias Angerer, German cross-country skier
• April 14 - Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress
• April 14 - Chandra Levy, American federal government intern (d. 2001)
• April 15 - Dejan Milojevic, Serbian basketball player
• April 16 - Fredrik Ljungberg, Swedish footballer
• April 21 - Jamie Salé, Canadian figure skater
• April 23 - Mariusz Pudzianowski, Polish strongman
• April 23 - Andruw Jones, Antillean baseball player
• April 23 - John Cena, American professional wrestler, actor and singer
• April 24 - Carlos Beltrán, Puerto Rican baseball player
• April 24 - Siarhiej Bałachonaŭ, Belarusian writer
• April 26 - Jason Earles, American actor
• April 26 - Tom Welling, American actor

May-June

• May 3 - Ben Olsen, American footballer
• May 4 - Emily Perkins, Canadian actress
• May 5 - Choi Kang-hee, South Korean actress
• May 8 - Joe Bonamassa, American musician
• May 8 - Pepe Sánchez, Argentine basketball player
• May 9 - Choi Jeong-yoon, South Korean actress
• May 10 - Nick Heidfeld, German race car driver
• May 11 - Victor Matfield, South African rugby player
• May 11 - Janne Ahonen, Finnish ski jumper
• May 12 - Graeme Dott, Scottish snooker player
• May 12 - Rebecca Herbst, American actress
• May 13 - Samantha Morton, British actress
• May 14 - Roy Halladay, American baseball player
• May 14 - Ada Nicodemou, Australian actress
• May 17 - Kandi Burruss, American R&B Singer
• May 19 - Brandon Inge, American baseball player
• May 20 - Matt Czuchry, American actor
• May 23 - Ilia Kulik, Russian figure skater
• May 24 - Tamarine Tanasugarn, Thai tennis player
• May 26 - Misaki Ito, Japanese actress
• May 26 - Luca Toni, Italian footballer
• May 27 - Abderrahmane Hammad, Algerian athlete
• May 27 - Tommie van der Leegte, Dutch soccer player
• May 28 - Elisabeth Hasselbeck, American talkshow host
• May 30 - Rachael Stirling, British actress
• May 31 - Phil Devey, Canadian baseball player
• May 31 - Domenico Fioravanti, Italian swimmer
• May 31 - Debbie King, British television presenter
• May 31 - Scott Klopfenstein, American musician
• May 31 - Greg Leeb, Canadian ice hockey player
• May 31 - Joachim B. Olsen, Danish athlete
• May 31 - Eric Christian Olsen, American actor
• May 31 - Joel Ross, British disc jockey
• May 31 - June Sarpong, British television presenter
• May 31 - Moses Sichone, Zambian footballer
• May 31 - Petr Tenkrát, Czech ice hockey player

• June 1 - Danielle Harris, American actress
• June 2 - Zachary Quinto, American actor
• June 4 - Jordan Bratman, American celebrity
• June 7 - Marcin Baszczyński, Polish footballer
• June 8 - Kanye West, American rapper and record producer
• June 9 - Roopa Mishra, Indian civil servant
• June 9 - Peja Stojakovic, Serbian basketball player
• June 13 - Selwyn Ward, American actor
• June 14 - Chris McAlister, American football player
• June 16 - Kerry Wood, baseball player
• June 19 - Peter Warrick, American football player
• June 20 - Aaron Moule, Australian rugby league player
• June 21 - Jochen Hecht, German ice hockey player
• June 23 - Jason Mraz, American singer-songwriter
• June 27 - Raúl, Spanish footballer
• June 27 - Arkadiusz Radomski, Polish footballer
• June 28 - Mark Stoermer, American guitarist for The Killers rock band

July-August

• July 1 - Jarome Iginla, Canadian hockey player
• July 1 - Liv Tyler, American actress
• July 7 - Felix Vasquez
• July 2 - Ricardo Medina, Jr., American actor
• July 8 - Milo Ventimiglia, American actor
• July 8 - Wang Zhizhi, Chinese basketball player
• July 11 - Edward Moss, American impersonator
• July 12 - Peter Schaefer a Canadian Ice Hockey player in the NHL
• July 12 - Airin Older, American musician
• July 14 -