Timeline 1977
Return to home
1977 Jan 1, The
California Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act became
effective. The concept originated around 1974. The largest supporter of
POBRA was the ACLU. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law.
(www.porac.org/POBR_ptrfr.htm)(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A1)
1977 Jan 3, Apple Computers
incorporated under Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In March Apple
produced the Apple II, the first pre-assembled, mass-produced PC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R42)
1977 Jan 6, William Gropper
(b.1897), painter and political cartoonist, died. He worked for the
radical publications "The Masses" and "Art Front."
(SFC, 2/5/97,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gropper)
1977 Jan 9, The Oakland Raiders
beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl 32-14 at the Pasadena Rose
Bowl.
(SFC, 12/21/01, WB p.G16)(SFC, 12/28/01, WB p.G7)
1977 Jan 10, The crater walls of
Congo’s Nyiragongo volcano fractured, and a lava lake drained in less
than an hour. The lava flowed down the flanks of the volcano at speeds
of up to 60 miles per hour on the upper slopes, overwhelming villages
and killing at least 70 people.
(SSFC, 1/20/02,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nyiragongo)
1977 Jan 11, France set off an
international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of
involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich
Olympics. In 1999 Mohammed Oudeh, aka Abu Daoud, published an
autobiography in France in which he admitted to playing a mastermind
role in the 1972 Munich hostage episode.
(AP, 1/11/98)(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A14)
1977 Jan 12, Anti-French
demonstrations took place in Israel after Paris released Abu Daoud,
responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9801/12/)
1977 Jan 12, Henri-Georges Clouzot
(b.1907), French film director and producer, died. His films included
“Les Diaboliques” (1955) and “La Verite” (1960).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri-Georges_Clouzot)
1977 Jan 17, The TV sitcom
“Busting Loose” began with Adam Arkin and ran for 24 episodes.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.B7)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0192884/)
1977 Jan 17, Gary Gilmore (36),
convicted in the double murder of an elderly couple, was shot by a
firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first US execution in a
decade. In 1979 Norman Mailer authored his Pulitzer Prize winning book:
“The Executioner’s Song,” the story of Gary Gilmore.
(AP, 1/17/98)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.103)
1977 Jan 17, In Argentina Abel
Madariaga last saw his wife, a surgeon who treated the poor in a Buenos
Aires suburb, being pushed into a Ford Falcon by army officers dressed
as civilians as she walked to a train. He and Silvia Quintela (28) were
members of the Montoneros, a leftist group targeted for elimination by
government death squads. Quintela gave birth to a son the couple had
planned to name Francisco in July 1977, while imprisoned in the Campo
de Mayo, one of the notorious clandestine torture centers in suburban
Buenos Aires. A military intelligence officer, Victor Alejandro Gallo,
brought the baby, his umbilical cord still attached, home to his wife,
Ines Susana Colombo. Silvia disappeared shortly thereafter. In 2010
Abel was reunited with his son and Gallo was arrested on suspicion of
illegal adoption.
(AP, 2/24/10)
1977 Jan 19, In one of his last
acts of office, President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a
Japanese-American who had been suspected of being wartime radio
propagandist "Tokyo Rose" [see Sep 25, 1948].
(AP, 1/19/00)(AH, 10/02, p.28)
1977 Jan 20, President Jimmy
Carter was sworn in and then surprised everyone as he walked from the
U.S. Capitol to the White House.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1977 Jan 20, George Bush left
office as director of the CIA.
(SFEC, 1/16/00, Par p.2)
1977 Jan 21, US President Carter
pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders as long as they had not
been involved in violent acts. Carter also urged 65 degrees as the
maximum heat in homes to ease the energy crisis.
(AP, 1/21/98)(HN, 1/21/99)(HNQ, 11/13/99)
1977 Jan 23, The TV mini-series
"Roots," based on the Alex Haley novel, began a record breaking eight
night broadcast on ABC.
(AP, 1/23/98)(HN, 1/23/99)
1977 Jan 23, Ireland set its
fishing zone at 200 miles.
(http://tinyurl.com/3atw5c)
1977 Jan 27, The Vatican
reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.
(AP, 1/27/98)
1977 Jan 28, A heavy blizzard
began in Eastern Canada and the US. It claimed as many as 100 lives.
This was the only blizzard declared a natural and national disaster by
the American and Canadian governments. In 1978 Erno Rossi authored
“White Death: Blizzard of ’77.”
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-gRb_MuUgg)(www.whitedeath.com/)
1977 Jan 29, Freddie Prinze
(b.1954), American comedian and TV actor, shot himself and died. His
work included the TV show “Chico & the Man” (1974-1977).
(http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0697905/)
1977 Feb 4, In Illinois 11 people
were killed when two cars of a Chicago Transit Authority train fell off
elevated tracks after a collision with another train.
(AP, 2/4/02)
1977 Feb 6, Queen Elizabeth marked
her Silver Jubilee.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1977 Feb 11, A 20.2-kg lobster was
caught off Nova Scotia. This was the heaviest known crustacean to date.
(www.canadiangold.ns.ca/funfacts.asp)
1977 Feb 15, W. Sebok discovered
asteroid #2491.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids/2401%E2%80%932500)
1977 Feb 16, Janani Luwum, the
Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men were killed in what
Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident.
(AP, 2/16/98)
1977 Feb 18, The space shuttle
Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight"
above the Mojave Desert.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1977 Feb 18, In Nigeria soldiers
from the army of Gen'l. Obasanjo raided Kalakuta, the communal home of
singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Fela's mother (77) was thrown from a
2nd-story window and later died from her injuries. The compound was
burned and a fire brigade was prevented from reaching the site. Fela
wrote the song "Coffin for Head of State" to describe how he and his
followers carried her coffin to present it to Gen'l. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1,10)
1977 Feb 21, In NYC 74 Unification
Church couples were wed.
(www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Topics/U-Stuff/BLSS-HST.htm)
1977 Feb 24, Pres. Carter
announced the US was cutting off all military aid to Ethiopia because
of its human rights violations. The unstated reason was the US desire
to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to lure Somalia from the Soviet camp, an
effort which was ultimately successful.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/africa.html)
1977 Feb 28, Eddie "Rochester"
Anderson (b.1905), African-American comedian, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Anderson_(comedian))
1977 Mar 1, The US 200-mile
fishery conservation zone went into effect. The US extended its
territorial waters out to 200 miles to stop fishing by boats of foreign
nations.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6865)(NH,
5/96, p.61)
1977 Mar 2, Bette Davis
(1908-1989) became the 1st woman to receive Life Achievement Award.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/3_2/7/index.html)
1977 Mar 2, Future Tonight Show
host Jay Leno debuted with host Johnny Carson.
(www.lvol.com/bios/e136.html)
1977 Mar 2, The U.S. House of
Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1977 Mar 2, Libya amended its
constitution and changed its name from The Libyan Arab Republic to The
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahirya.
(http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dr_ibrahim_ighneiwa/libyans.htm)
1977 Mar 4, A 7.4 earthquake in
Romania killed about 1,570 people and was felt across southern and
eastern Europe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Bucharest_Earthquake)(AP,
3/4/98)(SFC, 4/28/99, p.A15)
1977 Mar 5, President Carter took
questions from 42 telephone callers in 26 states on a network radio
call-in program moderated by Walter Cronkite.
(AP,
3/5/98)(www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/timeline.php?id=39)
1977 Mar 7, Israeli PM Yitzhak
Rabin met with Pres. Carter in Washington.
(www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/campdavid25/campdavid25_photos.phtml)
1977 Mar 7, Ali Bhutto's Pakistan
People's Party won elections.
(www.storyofpakistan.com/articletext.asp?artid=A142)
1977 Mar 8, The U.S. Army
announced that they had conducted 239 open-air tests of germ warfare.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1977 Mar 9, Pres. Carter proposed
an end to travel restrictions to Cuba, Vietnam, N. Korea and Cambodia
effective as of March 18.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=7139)
1977 Mar 9, Admiral Stansfield
Turner took office as head of the CIA under Pres. Carter.
(www.espionageinfo.com/Cou-De/DCI-Director-of-the-Central-Intelligence-Agency.html)
1977 Mar 9, About a dozen armed
Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one
person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days
later.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1977 Mar 9, Activist Elisabeth
Kaesemann (30), a German sociologist, was abducted in Argentina. Her
bullet-riddled body was later found dumped on the outskirts of Buenos
Aires.
(www.hrw.org/reports/2001/argentina/argen1201-08.htm)
1977 Mar 10, The rings of Uranus
were discovered.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1977 Mar 10, E. Power Biggs
(b.1906), English organist and composer (CBS), died in, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Power_Biggs)
1977 Mar 11, More than 130
hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after
ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.
(AP, 3/11/98)
1977 Mar 12, The Commission on
Judicial Appointments confirmed Rose Elizabeth Bird (40) as
California’s 25th chief justice and the 1st woman to sit on the state’s
Supreme Court. She was sworn in on March 26.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.G8)
1977 Mar 12, Egypt's Anwar Sadat
pledged to regain Arab territory from Israel.
(http://tinyurl.com/37jrq9)
1977 Mar 15, The U.S. House of
Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of
showing its sessions on television.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1977 Mar 16, US president Carter
pleaded for a Palestinian homeland.
(http://tinyurl.com/39b9fc)
1977 Mar 16, In Lebanon Kamal
Jumblatt (60) was killed. He was the leader of Lebanon’s Druze
community, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and a
Socialist-nationalist supporter of Palestinians. Jumblatt was
assassinated by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which he had
legalized as interior minister some years earlier.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/yzgycku)
1977 Mar 17, Marin County
pharmacist Fred Mayer started the first Condom Day at UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A16)
1977 Mar 18, In SF Paul Gaer
transformed Al’s Transbay Tavern on Fourth St. into the Hotel Utah
Saloon. The structure dated back to 1908 and in 2007 marked its 30th
anniversary.
(SFC, 3/15/07, 96H p.4)
1977 Mar 18, Marien Ngouabi, the
military president of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville),
was assassinated.
(AP, 3/18/07)
1977 Mar 18, The Vietnamese
"discovered" and returned to the US the remains of Bruce C. Ducat. For
eleven years, Ducat, alive or dead, was a prisoner of war.
(www.pownetwork.org/bios/b/b107.htm)
1977 Mar 20, Voters in Paris chose
former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French capital's
first mayor in more than a century.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1977 Mar 20, Premier Indira Gandhi
lost her election in India.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-20-CBS-2.html)
1977 Mar 22, President Carter
proposed the abolition of the Electoral College.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1977 Mar 22, Indira Gandhi revoked
emergency rule and resigned as PM of India.
(http://tinyurl.com/32tg72)
1977 Mar 24, Morarji Desai, head
of the Janata Party, became prime minister of India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_India)
1977 Mar 25, In Argentina
political writer Rodolfo Walsh was murdered one day after writing the
“Open Letter to the Military Junta” on the first anniversary of the
military coup. He had reported on tortures, mass killings, and
thousands of disappearances.
(http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3170)
1977 Mar 26, Elvis Costello
released his 1st record "Less Than Zero."
(www.pugetsoundradio.com/forum/b-radiohistory/m-1174918300/)
1977 Mar 27, A KLM Boeing 747,
attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island
of Tenerife. 583 people were killed with 54 survivors.
(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.B7)(AP, 3/27/07)
1977 Mar 28, In the 49th Academy
Awards "Rocky," Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway won.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49th_Academy_Awards)
1977 Apr 1, The U.S. Senate
followed the example of the House by adopting a stringent code of
ethics requiring full financial disclosure and limits on outside income.
(AP, 4/1/02)
1977 Apr 1, Richard Booth
proclaimed Hay-on-Wye, Wales, an independent kingdom with himself as
king and his horse as prime minister. The Oxford graduate had opened a
2nd hand bookstore in the town in 1961.
(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.C8)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)
1977 Apr 4, Egyptian Pres Anwar
Sadat held his 1st meeting with President Jimmy Carter.
(www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/diary/1977/d040477t.pdf)
1977 Apr 5, A group of Chilean
military men in London announced the formation of a "Front of
Democratic Forces of Chile in Exile." Another similar group was formed
in Brussels and shortly later in East Berlin.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1977 Apr 6, Jaime Estevez spoke
from a Moscow broadcast that the purposes of 3 newly formed
Soviet-backed entities was to lead the fight for the overthrow of the
fascist junta in Chile.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1977 Apr 6, The Seattle Kingdome
opened and the Mariners lost their to Angels 7-0. The Seattle Mariners
baseball team were created following the 1970 departure of the
1-year-old Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.B6)(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.B1)(MC, 4/6/02)
1977 Apr 7, Pres. Carter stopped
the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel rods in order to discourage the
proliferation of nuclear weapons.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A18)
1977 Apr 7, The RAF gunned down
Siegfried Bubeck, a West German federal prosecutor, his driver,
Wolfgang Goebel, and the guard Georg Wurster. In 2009 police, using new
DNA evidence, arrested Verena Becker (57), a former German leftist
terrorist on suspicion of involvement in the slayings. Becker had been
arrested a month after the ambush, following a shootout with police.
Prosecutors at the time did not have enough evidence to try her on
charges of involvement in the Buback slaying, but convicted her of
armed robbery and attempted murder stemming from the shootout. She was
sentenced to life in prison. In 1989 she was pardoned of those charges
by German President Richard von Weizsaecker and released from prison.
(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.A8)(AP, 8/28/09)
1977 Apr 8, Israel premier Rabin
resigned as prime minister due to a bank account scandal after it was
revealed that his wife, Leah, had illegally maintained a foreign
currency account containing about $3,000 in the United States.
(SFEC, 4/21/97,
p.D4)(http://i-cias.com/e.o/rabin_yz.htm)
1977 Apr 11, Jacques Prevert
(b.1900), French poet (La puil et le beau), died.
(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Pr%C3%A9vert)
1977 Apr 14, Computer enthusiasts
gathered for the 1st West Coast Computer Faire at the SF Civic
Auditorium. An estimated 20-30 thousand American homes had computers.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.G6)
1977 Apr 15, In Argentina some 20
armed men broke into the home of journalist Jacobo Timerman. He was
seized and held for over a year with beatings, electrical shocks and
solitary confinement.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1977 Apr 19, Alex Haley received a
special Pulitzer Prize for his book "Roots."
(HN, 4/19/99)
1977 Apr 20, The film "Annie Hall"
premiered. Diane Keaton starred in the Woody Allen film Annie Hall. It
was rated #31 by the Amer. Film Inst. in 1998.
(www.variety.com/profiles/Film/main/24544/Annie%20Hall.html?dataSet=1)(SFC,
1/9/97, p.E1)
1977 Apr 20, The US Supreme Court,
in Wooley v. Maynard, said car owners could refuse to display state
mottoes on license plates. The Court ruled that "Live Free or Die" may
be covered on NH license plates.
(AP, 4/20/07)
1977 Apr 21, The musical play
"Annie" opened on Broadway, the 1st of 2,377 performances. Laurie
Beechman (d.1998) made her debut in the show based on the “Little
Orphan Annie” comic strip. Beechman later played Grizabella for 5 years
in “Cats.”
(SFC, 3/10/98, p.A17)(AP, 4/21/08)
1977 Apr 22, Simon Peres became
premier of Israel under Pres. Ephraim Katzir. Peres served until June
21. He served again as premier from 1984-1986, and 1985-1996.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres)
1977 Apr 23, Dr. Allen Bussey
completed 20,302 yo-yo loops in Waco, Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco,_Texas)
1977 Apr 26, NY's famed disco
Studio 54 opened. It closed in March, 1986.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_54)
1977 Apr 27, Bloody riots took
place in Soweto, South Africa.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1977 Apr 28, US regulations
implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act were signed.
Americans with physical disabilities had begun staging protests at
federal buildings in San Francisco, LA and Washington DC. The SF
protest grew to 150 people and lasted 25 days.
(SFC, 5/1/97, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/3xje8f)
1977 Apr 28, Andreas Baader and
members of Baader-Meinhof gang, also known as the "Red Army Faction,"
were jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart,
Germany.
(http://www.baader-meinhof.com/timeline/1977.html)
1977 Apr 28, In Italy the Red
Brigades assassinated Fulvio Croce, the president of the Turin Bar
Association.
(http://tinyurl.com/ywxupv)
1977 Apr 29, Donald Evans
(b.1945), American artist, died in a fire in the Netherlands. His work
included the creation of postage stamp series for imaginary countries.
(WSJ, 2/5/03,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Evans_(artist))
1977 Apr 30, In Argentina 14 women
whose children had disappeared went to the Plaza de Mayo to demonstrate
their cause. Police said they could not stay there so they began to
walk around the pyramid in the center of the plaza. In 2006 they
completed their 1,500th and last demonstration [see Dec 1977].
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.E3)
1977 Apr, Pres. Carter named
Montana Senator Mike Mansfield (1903-2001) ambassador to Japan.
Mansfield had planned to retire but held the post for 10 years.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.E1)
1977 May 4, A large tornado swept
through Pleasant Hill, Mo., hitting the city’s high school and grade
school. Only minor injuries occurred due to superb tornado warnings and
drills.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.D8)
1977 May 5, Ludwig Erhard
(b.1897)), German minister of Economic Affairs (CDU), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Erhard)
1977 May 7, Seattle Slew (d.2002)
won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.
(AP, 5/7/04)
1977 May 8, The trial of Pieter
Menten (b.1899), a former Dutch SS officer and art collector, began in
Amsterdam. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years, but the sentence
was reduced to 10 years in 1980.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9805/08/)(http://tinyurl.com/2n79xl)
1977 May 9, Pink Floyd opened a
2-night stand at the Oakland Coliseum.
(http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/pink-floyd-concert/2923-5541.html)
1977 May 9, James Jones (b.1921),
US writer (From Here to Eternity), died. His work included the pre-WW
II novel "From Here to Eternity." His daughter later wrote the novel "A
Soldier’s Daughter never Cries," which was made into a film with Kris
Kristofferson as James Jones.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjones.htm)(SFEC, 7/12/98, Par
p.17)
1977 May 10, Patti Hearst was
sentenced to 5 years’ probation for her role in the Symbionese
Liberation Army (SLA) crime spree May 16-17, 1974. She still faced a
7-year sentence for armed robbery.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.G7)
1977 May 10, Actress Joan Crawford
(69) died in New York of liver cancer.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC,12/17/97, p.D6)
1977 May 12, Pink Floyd performed
the first quadrophonic concert in London.
(SC, Internet, 10/12/97)
1977 May 14, Capt. Robert Nairac
(29), an underground British soldier, was abducted from a border pub by
an IRA gang, taken across the border into a Republic of Ireland forest,
and shot through the head. In 2008 the Police Service of Northern
Ireland press office confirmed the arrest of Kevin Crilly (57), an IRA
veteran, on suspicion of involvement in Nairac's killing.
(AP, 5/20/08)
1977 May 16 Five people were
killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am
Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade
flying.
(AP, 5/16/97)
1977 May 16, In Mali former Pres.
Modibo Keita (1915-1977) died in prison. His reputation was
rehabilitated in 1992 following the overthrow of Moussa Traore and
subsequent the election of president Alpha Oumar Konare. A monument for
Modibo Keita, was dedicated in Bamako on June 6, 1999.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1687)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modibo_Ke%C3%AFta)
1977 May 17, The state Assembly
voted 54-23 to restore the death penalty. Gov. Jerry Brown pledged to
veto the bill. It had passed the Senate 29-10.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.G8)(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A16)
1977 May 17, Menachem Begin's
Likud-party won election in Israel.
(http://begincenterdiary.blogspot.com/2007/05/another-avner-article-great-emancipator.html)
1977 May 23, Pres. Jimmy Carter
presented an environmental message to Congress: "I am directing to make
a one-year study of the probable changes in the world’s population,
natural resources and environment through the end of the century. This
study will serve as the foundation of our longer-term planning. The
Global 2000 Report sold 1.5 million copies and pronounced a world that
would be more crowded, more polluted, less stable ecologically and more
vulnerable to disruption than the world of 1980.
(SFC, 12/31/00, WB p.1)
1977 May 23, The US Supreme Court
refused to hear appeals of former Nixon White House aides H.R.
Haldeman, John Ehrlichman & John Mitchell in connection with their
Watergate convictions.
(AP, 5/23/04)
1977 May 23, Moluccan extremists
held 105 schoolchildren and 50 others hostage on a hijacked train in
Netherlands. The children were released May 27. The siege ended June 11.
(www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=4024)
1977 May 24, In a surprise move,
the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist
Party's ruling Politburo.
(AP, 5/24/97)
1977 May 25, "Brady Bunch Hour"
last aired on ABC-TV.
(www.tv.com/the-brady-bunch-hour/show/549/summary.html)
1977 May 25, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1977 May 25, Dutch social
democratic party won parliamentary election.
(http://electionresources.org/nl/house.php?election=1977)
1977 May 26, George H. Willig
scaled the outside of the South Tower of New York City's World Trade
Center. He was arrested at the top of the 110-story building.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1977 May 27, New York City fined
"human fly" George H. Willig $1.10 -- one penny for each of the 110
stories of the World Trade Center he scaled the day before.
(AP, 5/27/97)
1977 May 28, 165 people were
killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in
Southgate, Ky.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1977 May 29, Danny Gerard, TV and
film actor, was born in Mount Vernon, NY.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0313944/)
1977 May 29, Janet Guthrie
(b.1938) became the 1st woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500. Her
autobiography, "Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle," was published
in 2005.
(www.janetguthrie.com/biofr.htm)(www.nascar.com/2002/kyn/women/02/02/Guthrie/)
1977 May 29, The NBC 24 hour News
& Information Service ended on radio.
(http://pdxradio.net/feedback/messages/995/2265.html?1096520101)
1977 May 29, USSR performed a
nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk, USSR.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1977 May 29, Goddard Lieberson
(b.1911), composer and president of Columbia Records (1956-1971), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddard_Lieberson)
1977 May 30, Paul Desmond
(b.1924), jazz alto saxophonist, died in NYC.
(http://musicbase.h1.ru/PPB/ppb2/Bio_224.htm)
1977 May 31, The trans-Alaska oil
pipeline was completed after three years of work.
(AP, 5/31/97)
1977 May, Larry Ellison and Robert
Miner founded Oracle Corp. in Belmont, Ca., after they persuaded the
CIA to let them pick up a lapsed contract for a special database
program.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A13)
1977 May, Gary Nardino (1935-1998)
became the president of Paramount Television and inherited the hits
"Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley."
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A15)
1977 May, In Singapore Lee Kuan
Yew (b.1923) won a barely contested bi-election as his People’s Action
Party won every seat in the legislature. Lee then moved against
journalists and human rights activists who had irritated him during the
campaign.
(SFC, 9/21/02, p.A18)(http://rulers.org/indexl2.html)
1977 Jun 1, The Soviet Union
formally charged Jewish human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with
treason. In 1978 he was convicted and imprisoned. In 1986 he was
released to the West.
(AP, 6/1/97)
1977 Jun 2, New Jersey Gov.
Brendan T. Byrne signed a law allowing casino gambling in Atlantic City.
(http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3864697)
1977 Jun 2, Forrest Lewis
(b.1899), American TV and film actor, died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0507189/)
1977 Jun 3, Roberto Rossellini
(b.1906), Italian director died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Rossellini)
1977 Jun 5, The first Apple II
personal computers went on sale.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II)
1977 Jun 5, In the Seychelles
France Albert Rene (b.1935) seized power in a coup. He continued as
president to 2004.
(SFC, 9/4/01,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France-Albert_Ren%C3%A9)
1977 Jun 6, The Washington Post
reported that the US had developed a neutron bomb.
(http://piurl.com/5B)
1977 Jun 6, The US Supreme Court
tossed out automatic death penalty laws.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/431/633/case.html)
1977 Jun 7, Anita Bryant led a
successful crusade against Miami gay rights law.
(http://thecastro.net/parade/parade/parade.html)
1977 Jun 8, Some 5,000 marched
through downtown to protests an anti-gay rights vote in Miami. Voters
in Dade County had repealed a gay-rights ordnance.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.G8)
1977 Jun 8, The final run of the
Paris to Istanbul Orient Express, begun in 1883, took place.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express)
1977 Jun 8, Protocols I and II
were added to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. They prohibited
environmental damage during int’l. and internal armed conflict.
Protocol I prohibited "widespread, long-term and severe damage to the
environment." Guerrilla warfare was affirmed as a legitimate means of
conflict by the Geneva Conventions in 1977, when prisoner of war status
was extended to guerrilla fighters.
(SFC, 8/11/00,
p.A15)(www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/93.htm)
1977 Jun 10, James Earl Ray, the
convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.,
escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee with six others;
he was recaptured Jun 13.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1977 Jun 11, ELO’s "Telephone
Line" reached #7 in the US, giving the band its first gold single.
(http://private.peterlink.ru/vlad/dates70.htm)
1977 Jun 11, Seattle Slew (d.2002
at 28) won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.
(AP, 6/11/97)(WSJ, 5/8/02, p.A1)
1977 Jun 11, A 20-day hostage
drama in the Netherlands ended as Dutch marines stormed a train and a
school held by South Moluccan extremists. Six gunmen and two hostages
on the train were killed.
(AP, 6/11/97)
1977 Jun 12, "Pippin" closed at
Imperial Theater in NYC after 1944 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippin_(musical))
1977 Jun 13, James Earl Ray, the
convicted assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King
Junior, was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a
Tennessee prison.
(AP, 6/13/00)
1977 Jun 15, The first general
election in Spain since 1936 resulted in victory for the UCD (Union of
Democratic Centre).
(HN, 6/15/99)
1977 Jun 16, Werner von Braun
(65), German-born Nazi and American rocket scientist (V1/V2), died of
smoking. In 2005 Bob Ward authored “Dr. Space,” a biography of von
Braun.
(www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/braun.html)(WSJ, 6/16/05,
p.D8)
1977 Jun 16, Soviet Communist
Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president of the
USSR, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously.
(AP, 6/16/98)(HN, 6/16/98)
1977 Jun 19, Pope Paul VI
proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first
male US saint.
(AP, 6/19/07)
1977 Jun 20, The 1st oil of the
Alaska pipeline began to flow south 799 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the
port of Valdez. It reached Valdez on Jul 28.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html)
1977 Jun 21, HR Haldeman, former
White House chief of staff, entered prison.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-6/)
1977 Jun 21, Menachem Begin became
Israel's sixth prime minister at the head of a Likud coalition.
(AP, 6/21/97)(WSJ, 4/29/98, p.A22)
1977 Jun 22, Walt Disney’s film
“The Rescuers” was released.
(www.bcdb.com/bcdb/cartoon.cgi?film=40&cartoon=The%20Rescuers)
1977 Jun 22, John N. Mitchell
became the first former U.S. Attorney General to go to prison as he
began serving a sentence for his role in the Watergate cover-up. He was
released 19 months later. Maurice Stans (d.1998 at 90), Nixon’s
commerce secretary and fund-raiser, was indicted with Mr. Mitchell for
perjury and conspiracy involving a $200,000 contribution by Robert
Vesco, but were acquitted by a jury.
(AP, 6/22/97)(SFC, 4/15/98, p.C3)
1977 Jun 23, The Brazil congress
legalized divorce with a constitutional amendment, despite opposition
from Roman Catholic Church. The amendment would be signed into law by
President Ernesto Geisel.
(www.wiwomensnetwork.org/chrontwo1.html)
1977 Jun 24, The IRS revealed that
Pres. Jimmy Carter paid no taxes in 1976.
(www.kipnotes.com/James%20E.%20Carter.htm)
1977 Jun 26, In Columbia, Tenn.,
42 people were killed when a fire sent toxic smoke pouring through the
Maury County Jail.
(AP, 6/26/97)
1977 Jun 27, The US Supreme Court
struck, in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, down state laws and bar
association rules that had prohibited lawyers from advertising their
fees for routine services.
(AP, 6/27/08)
1977 Jun 27, Illinois reinstated
the capital punishment.
(www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?RecNum=1875&SubjectID=45)
1977 Jun 27, The Republic of
Djibouti gained independence from France with Hassan Gouled as the
first president.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A6)(AP, 6/27/07)(Econ, 3/22/08,
p.55)
1977 Jun 27, H.E. Lee Kuan Yew,
the PM of Singapore, formally opened the Fourth Meeting of the ASEAN
Economic Ministers which was held in Singapore on 27-29 June 1977.
(www.aseansec.org/1287.htm)
1977 Jun 28, The US Supreme Court
allowed Federal control of Nixon tapes and papers.
(www.kipnotes.com/James%20E.%20Carter.htm)
1977 Jun 30, President Jimmy
Carter announced his opposition to the B-1 bomber.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1977 Jun 30, SEATO (Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization), the regional defense organization created to
protect members from communist expansionism, formally ended. The
organization had been created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense
Treaty on Sep. 8, 1954, in response to events in Korea and Indochina
(Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). It members were Australia, France, New
Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and
the United States. Pakistan withdrew in 1968 and France withdrew
financial support. SEATO had one final exercise on Feb. 20, 1976,
formally ending a little over a year later.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)
1977 Jun, In Florida the
Elderhostel site at Eckerd College was founded. It was an education
program for vacationing seniors.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.T12)
1977 Jul 2, Vladimir Nabokov,
Russian-born author, died in Switzerland. In 1996 a 3-volume collection
of his prose work was issued by the Library of America. In 1999 Kurt
Johnson and Steven Coates authored "Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific
Odyssey of a Literary Genius."
(WSJ, 4/22/99, A20)(SFEC, 10/17/99, BR
p.4)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nabokov.htm)
1977 Jul 3, Raymond Damadian
produced the 1st image of a human chest using magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI). In 1970 he found that cancer cells could be
distinguished from healthy tissues using nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR).
(Econ, 12/6/03, TQp.15)
1977 Jul 5, Pakistan's army under
Gen Mohammad Zia ul-Haq seized power. The civilian government was
ousted by the military and martial law was imposed.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.B3)(SFEC, 8/3/97,
p.A15)(www.ppp.org.pk/history.html)
1977 Jul 7, Sir Michael Tippett
(1905-1998), British composer, premiered his 4th opera "The Ice Break,"
which featured a race riot and a psychedelic sequence.
(www.michael-tippett.com/operaintroibreng.htm)
1977 Jul 11, The Medal of Freedom
was awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White
House ceremony.
(AP, 7/11/97)
1977 Jul 11, The CRAY 1-A was
delivered to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This
was Cray Research's first official customer, paying US$8.86 million
($7.9 million plus $1 million for the disks).
(www.cisl.ucar.edu/computers/gallery/cray/cray1.jsp)
1977 Jul 12, President Carter
defended Supreme Court decisions limiting government payments for poor
women's abortions, saying, "There are many things in life that are not
fair."
(AP, 7/12/97)
1977 Jul 13, A 25-hour power
blackout hit the New York City area and looters rampaged in the city
after lightning struck upstate power lines. Some 9 million people were
affected.
(TMC, 1994, p.1977)(AP, 7/13/97)(SFC, 8/15/03, p.A7)
1977 Jul 14, US House Resolution
658 established a permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
(http://intelligence.house.gov/Faqs.aspx)
1977 Jul 20, A flash flood hit
Johnstown, Pa., killing more than 80 people and causing $350 million
worth of damage.
(AP, 7/20/08)
1977 Jul 20, The UN Security
Council voted to admit Vietnam to the world body.
(AP, 7/20/07)
1977 Jul 22, In China Deng
Xiaoping was named vice-premier.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)
1977 Jul 22, The Chinese painter,
Pan Yu-liang (b.1895), died in Paris. The 1997 biographical film "The
Painter" (La Peintre) was based on her biography by Shi Nan.
(SFC, 8/20/97,
p.A1)(www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-11/14/content_732470.htm)
1977 Jul 23, A jury in Washington,
D.C., convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage
siege at three buildings the previous March.
(AP, 7/23/98)
1977 Jul 23, In Sri Lanka Junius
Richard Jayewardene (1906-1996) was elected prime minister. Immediately
thereafter, he drew up a national constitution which created an
Executive Presidency with drastic and unchecked powers, and, on its
adoption into law, became, in 1978, the first Sri Lankan Executive
President.
(SFC, 11/2/96,
p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junius_Richard_Jayewardene)
1977 Jul 27, Lee Miller (b.1907),
American photographer, died of cancer in Sussex, England. As a young
woman in Paris she moved in with Man Ray, American-born surrealist
painter and photographer. In 2005 Carolyn Burke authored “Lee Miller: A
Life.”
(Econ, 12/3/05, p.81)(http://tinyurl.com/9zcyr)
1977 Jul 28, Roy Wilkins turned
over leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People to Benjamin L. Hooks.
(AP, 7/28/00)
1977 Jun 28, The 1st Prudhoe Bay
oil of the Alaska pipeline reached the port of Valdez as construction
of the Trans-Alaskan pipeline was completed.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html)
1977 Aug 1, Francis Gary Powers
(b.1929), US U-2 pilot, died in fiery helicopter crash.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Gary_Powers)
1977 Aug 3, Radio Shack issued a
press release introducing the TRS-80 computer. 25 existed and within
weeks thousands were ordered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80)
1977 Aug 3, Archbishop Makarios
(b.1913), president of Cyprus, died.
(SFC, 3/13/02,
p.A26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makarios)
1977 Aug 4, President Carter
signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy.
(AP, 8/4/97)
1977 Aug 4, In San Francisco some
50 elderly tenants of the International Hotel in Chinatown were
forcefully evicted by police as thousands of protestors filled the
streets. The structure was demolished in 1979 and a hole occupied the
site. In 2004 city officials declared a 2-block corridor on Kearny as
“Manilatown” as construction rose on 14-story Int’l. Hotel Senior
Residences. In 2007 Estella Habal authored “San Francisco’s
International Hotel: Mobilizing the Filipino American Community in the
Anti-Eviction Movement.”
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.A30)(SFC, 8/1/97,
p.A25)(eyewitness)(SFC, 6/8/01, WBa p.6)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A17)(SFC,
7/28/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.M1)
1977 Aug 7, "Shenandoah" closed at
Alvin Theater in NYC after 1,050 performances.
(www.angelfire.com/stars/scottbakula/Theatrecredits.html)
1977 Aug 10, US and Panama
negotiations for a Panama Canal Zone treaty, begun on February 15, were
completed [see Sep 7].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrijos-Carter_Treaties)
1977 Aug 10, Postal employee David
Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, NY, accused of being the "Son of
Sam" gunman responsible for six slayings and seven woundings. Berkowitz
was sentenced to six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences.
(AP, 8/10/07)
1977 Aug 11, The California
legislature restored the death penalty.
(SFC, 5/17/02,
p.G8)(www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=48)
1977 Aug 12, The space shuttle
Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a
Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave
Desert.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1977 Aug 12, NASA launched the
High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 into Earth orbit. It continued
operating until January 9, 1979.
(http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/heao1/heao1.html)
1977 Aug 15, Police in Cape
Girardeau, Missouri, found Mary Parsh (58) and her daughter, Brenda
(27), lying nude side by side on a bed at home, their hands tied behind
their backs. Each had been shot in the head. In 2007 Timothy Krajcir
(63), a graduate from Southern Illinois with a degree in law
enforcement, confessed to their rape and murder and at least 4 more. He
was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1982 killing of a Southern
Illinois University Carbondale student, Deborah Sheppard. and, in
addition, was charged with five counts of murder and three counts of
rape against women in the Cape Girardeau, Missouri, area from 1977 to
1982. In 2008, Krajcir pleaded guilty and was sentenced to another 40
years in prison for the 1978 killing of Marion resident Virginia Lee
Witte.
(AP,
12/12/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Krajcir)
1977 Aug 16, Elvis Presley
(b.1935), The "King" of rock-n-roll, died in the upstairs bedroom suite
at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn. of a drug overdose at 42. Elvis
died of heart failure after years of substance abuse. In 1994 Peter
Guralnick published "Last Train to Memphis," the first of a 2-part
biography on Elvis. In 1998 Guralnick published "Careless Love." More
than 150 books were in print on Elvis in 1997. In 1998 Ernest Jorgensen
published "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music. The Complete Recording
sessions."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Par p.7)(SFEC, 8/3/97, DB p.33)(AP,
8/16/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W1)
1977 Aug 18, In South Africa Steve
Biko and Peter Jones were picked up by police at Grahamstown. They were
arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967.
Biko suffered a major head injury while in police custody, was chained
to a window grille for a day and died on Sep 12.
(WSJ, 2/6/97,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko)
1977 Aug 19, Comedian Groucho Marx
died in Los Angeles at age 86. In 1996 Steven Stolier authored "Raised
Eyebrows." In 2000 Stefan Kanfer authored "Groucho: The Life and Times
of Julius Henry Marx." Simon Louvish authored "Monkey Business: The
Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers."
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.A26)(AP, 8/19/97)(WSJ, 5/12/00,
p.W8)(SFEC, 6/25/00, Par p.16)
1977 Aug 20, The song "Best of My
Love", by the Emotions, topped the US pop charts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_My_Love_(The_Emotions_song))
1977 Aug 20, The United States
launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper
phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples
of music and sounds of nature. It was scheduled to pass Jupiter and
Saturn.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)(MofE, 1978, p.41)(AP,
8/20/97)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1977 Aug 23, The Gossamer Condor 2
flew the first figure-of-eight, a distance of 2,172 meters winning the
first Kremer prize at Minter Field in Shafter, California. It was built
by Dr Paul B. MacCready and piloted by amateur cyclist and hang-glider
pilot Bryan Allen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Condor)
1977 Aug 23, Marxist philosopher
Rudolf Bahro was imprisoned in German DR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Bahro)
1977 Aug 27, "Chicago" closed at
46th St Theater in NYC after 947 performances.
(www.curtainup.com/chicago.html)
1977 Aug 30, Terrorists bombed a
PG&E substation in Sausalito, Ca. Power was cut off for 6,000
customers and storm drains were flooded with some 3,200 gallons of
coolant oil.
(SFC, 8/30/02, p.E2)
1977 Aug 31, Ian Smith, espousing
racial segregation, won the Rhodesian general election with 80% of
overwhelmingly white electorate's vote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia_general_election%2C_1977)
1977 Aug, The Central Committee of
the Chilean Communist Party constituted itself as "The General Staff of
Revolution."
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1977 Aug, Japan’s PM Fukuda
visited 5 ASEAN nations and in Manila promised SE Asia that Japan
forever renounced aggression against its neighbors. This became known
as the Fukuda doctrine.
(Econ, 12/15/07,
p.52)(www.jimin.jp/jimin/english/history/chap8.html)
1977 Sep 1, Ethel Waters (b.1896),
African-American blues and jazz vocalist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Waters)
1977 Sep 3, The "Mary Tyler Moore
Show" was last broadcast on NBC-TV.
(www.sitcomsonline.com/themarytylermooreshow.html)
1977 Sep 3, In Cyprus Spyros
Kyprianou (1932-2002) was elected president with no opposition in order
to serve the remaining term of Archbishop Makarios.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyros_Kyprianou)
1977 Sep 3, Japan's Sadaharu Oh
hit his 756th HR to surpass Hank Aaron's total.
(www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Sadaharu_Oh)
1977 Sep 5, The United States
launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft two weeks after launching its twin,
Voyager 2.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1977 Sep 5, West German
industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer was kidnapped in Cologne by members
of the Baader-Meinhof gang. Schleyer was later killed by his captors.
Schleyer was the president of the German Employers Federation.
(AP, 9/5/97)(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.A1)
1977 Sep 7, Pres. Carter and
Gen'l. Torrijos signed the Panama Canal treaties (the Torrijos-Carter
Treaties) in Washington, DC. The 2 treaties abrogated the Hay-Bunau
Varilla Treaty of 1903 and called for the US to eventually turn over
control of the waterway to Panama. The US Southern Command was
scheduled to withdraw to new Miami headquarters by the end of 1999. The
US agreed to clean up its bases before turning them over. The deal was
negotiated by Sol Linowitz (d.2005).
(AP, 9/7/97)(WSJ, 3/21/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrijos-Carter_Treaties)
1977 Sep 7, Convicted Watergate
conspirator G. Gordon Liddy was released from prison after more than
four years.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1977 Sep 8, Zero Mostel (b.1915),
Brooklyn-born stage and film comedian, died of a heart attack.
(SFC, 12/30/99,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Mostel)
1977 Sep 9, Mary Ann Quigley (17)
was killed near War Memorial Park in Santa Clara, Ca. In 2006 Richard
Armand Archibeque (47) was arrested for her rape and murder based on
DNA evidence. They had been classmates at Santa Clara High School.
(SFC, 12/30/06, p.B2)
1977 Sep 10, Convicted murderer
Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, became the last person to date
to be executed by the guillotine in France.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 9/10/97)
1977 Sep 11, In South Africa Steve
Biko was found by a guard to be semiconscious and foaming at the mouth.
A doctor ordered him transported to a prison hospital in Pretoria.
(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A9)
1977 Sep 12, Robert Lowell
(b.1917), US poet (Near the Ocean), died of a heart attack in NYC. In
2003 Frank Bidart and David Gewanter edited "Robert Lowell: Collected
Poems." In 2005 Saskia Hamilton edited “The Letters of Robert Lowell.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rlowell.htm)(SSFC, 7/13/03,
p.M6)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.73)
1977 Sep 12, In South Africa
Steven Biko died while under police custody. He headed the Black
Consciousness Movement and was the country’s best known political
dissident. He was detained and held in Port Elizabeth and later driven
naked in a truck 700 miles to Pretoria where he died in a prison cell.
In 1997 the five police officers involved in his detention filed for
amnesty. They were retired Col. Harold Snyman, retired Lt. Col. Gideon
Nieuwoudt, Ruben Marx, Johan Beneke, and then Capt. Daantjie Siebert.
In 1999 former Detective Sgt. Gideon Nieuwoudt was denied amnesty
because he denied any crime. This killing was the breaking point and
led to international protests and a UN imposed arms embargo.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A9)(AP,
9/12/97)(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A23)(MC, 9/12/01)
1977 Sep 13, General Motors
introduced 1st US diesel auto, the Oldsmobile 88.
(http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/09/today-in-hist-2.html)
1977 Sep 13, Kilauea volcano began
erupting in Hawaii.
(http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/gallery/kilauea/erz/kiai.html)
1977 Sep 13, Leopold Stokowski
(b.1882)), conductor, died in Hampshire, England. He was the founder of
the New York City Symphony and The American Symphony Orchestra. He
conducted the music for and appeared in Disney’s Fantasia.
(WSJ, 8/6/97, p.A12)(AP,
9/13/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski)
1977 Sep 16, Maria Callas, "our
century’s greatest singer," the American-born prima donna famed for her
lyric soprano and fiery temperament, died in Paris at age 53. In 1998
EMI packaged her entire catalog on 70 compact disks.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.D1)(AP, 9/16/97)(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
1977 Sep 18, Cosmos, a Soviet
nuclear-powered satellite, was launched. It fell onto Northern Canada
on Jan. 24, 1978.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)
1977 Sep 20, The first wave of
Southeast Asian "boat people" arrived in San Francisco under a new U.S.
resettlement program.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1977 Sep 21, After weeks of
controversy over past business and banking practices, President
Carter's embattled budget director, Bert Lance, resigned.
(AP, 9/21/97)
1977 Sep 24, ABC launched the TV
series “The Love Boat.” The series continued to 1986 with Gavin MacLeod
as the commander of the Pacific Princess.
(www.tvland.com/shows/loveboat/main.jhtml)(SSFC,
3/9/08, p.D3)
1977 Sep 26, Sir Freddie Laker
began his cut-rate "Skytrain" service from London to NY. Laker airways
collapsed into bankruptcy in 1982.
(SSFC, 2/12/06, p.B8)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9709/26/)
1977 Sep 26, Israel announced a
cease-fire on Lebanese border.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1977 Sep 27, Japan Airlines Flight
715, a DC-8, crashed into a hill in bad weather while attempting to
land at the Kuala Lumpur Subang Airport. 34 people, including 8 of the
10 crew members and 26 of the 69 passengers, were killed when the
aircraft broke on impact.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines)
1977 Sep 28, The Japanese Red Army
hijacked a Japan Airlines plane over India. The Douglas DC-8, en route
from Paris to Haneda Airport in Tokyo with 156 people on board, stopped
in Mumbai, India. After taking off from Mumbai, five armed JRA members
hijacked the aircraft and ordered it flown to Dhaka, Bangladesh. The
Japanese government freed 6 imprisoned members of the group and paid $6
million in ransom. On October 2 the hijackers released 118 passengers
and crewmembers. The remaining hostages were freed later.
(SFC, 11/9/00,
p.C2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines)
1977 Sep, In Philadelphia Helen
"Holly" Maddux, a Bryn Mawr College graduate from Tyler, Texas, was
murdered and stuffed into a steamer trunk for 18 months until her body
was discovered. Ira Einhorn, "hippie guru" was arrested for the murder
in 1979 but released on bail. He fled to hide in France. Fred Maddux,
Holly's father, committed suicide in 1988. Einhorn was convicted in
absentia in 1993. In June,1997, he was arrested in France. A French
court ruled against extradition and released Einhorn. Einhorn was
arrested in 1998 under a new extradition warrant. The events were
broadcast as a TV crime story in 1999 titled "The Hunt for the Unicorn
Killer." In 1999 The French Supreme Court ruled that Einhorn should be
returned to the US. In 1999 a civil suit ordered Einhorn to pay $907
million to the Maddux family. Einhorn was extradited to the US in 2001.
he was convicted of murder Oct 17, 2002.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A2)(SFC,12/5/97, p.A17)(SFC,
9/22/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(SFC, 5/28/99,
p.D3)(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A8)(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A7)
1977 Oct 3, In India Indira Gandhi
(1917-1984) was arrested for political corruption. She was released the
next day.
(http://tinyurl.com/2xq3bt)
1977 Oct 5, Seamus Costello
(b.1939), founder of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), was
shot to death by an Irish Republican Army member in Dublin.
(AP,
10/11/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Costello)
1977 Oct 12, The US government
passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which required banks to
serve their entire community. The intent was to ensure that adequate
loans were made to low and moderate income neighborhoods and that those
areas had access to bank branches and other banking services.
(www.newrules.org/finance/cra.html)
1977 Oct 12, The US Supreme Court
ruled that communities have a right to prevent commuters from parking
in residential neighborhoods.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.E7)
1977 Oct 12, US Supreme Court
heard arguments in the "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke
(35), a white student denied admission to U of California Med School.
(www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_811/)
1977 Oct 13, A Lufthansa Boeing
737, bound for Frankfurt, was hijacked by Palestinians shortly after
take-off. The plane is diverted to Rome's Fiumicino Airport. Almost all
of the passengers are German vacationers. "This is Captain Martyr
Mohammed speaking," announces one of the hijackers to the Rome
air-traffic controllers. "The group I represent demands the release of
our comrades in German prisons [see Oct 18].
(www.baader-meinhof.com/timeline/1977.html)
1977 Oct 14, Bing Crosby (b.1903),
singer and actor, died on a golf course outside Madrid at age 74. In
2001 Gary Giddins authored "Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The
Early Years: 1903-1940."
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.E4)(AP, 10/14/97)(SSFC, 1/21/01, DB
p.33)
1977 Oct 18, The New York Yankees
won Game 6 and the World Series as Reggie Jackson hit 3 homeruns for
the 8-4 win.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_World_Series)
1977 Oct 18, In West Germany 3
Baader-Meinhof gang members killed themselves in prison. Gudrun Ensslin
(b.1940), a founding leader of the Red Army Faction (RAF), died in
prison. Ensslin's life story was later fictionalized in the film
“Marianne and Juliane” (1981). This date was later used as a title by
artist Gerhard Richter in a 1988 suite of 15 pictures. He created the
series of paintings titled "October 18, 1977" regarded by many as a
"eulogy or requiem" for the Baader-Meinhof group. In 1985 Stefan Aust
authored “The Baader-Meinhof Complex.” In 2009 Aust published an
updated version titled Baader-Meinhof: the Inside Story of the R.A.F.”
(WSJ, 10/11/01, p.A19)(WSJ, 3/1/02, p.A11)(WSJ,
4/3/09, p.A15)(Econ, 5/30/09,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudrun_Ensslin)
1977 Oct 18, West German commandos
stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner that was on the ground in
Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the
four hijackers, Palestinians of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine. In 1996 Suhaila al-Sayeh was sentenced to 12 years in prison
by a German court.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.A17)(AP, 10/17/07)
1977 Oct 19, The body of West
German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, who had been kidnapped by
left-wing extremists, was found in the trunk of a car in Mulhouse,
France.
(AP, 10/19/97)
1977 Oct 19, The supersonic
Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
(AP, 10/19/97)
1977 Oct 20, David Mamet's play,
"Life in the Theater," opened in NYC. It was first produced in Chicago
at the Goodman Theater's Stage Two, opening February 3, 1977.
(www.theatrewesternsprings.com/Actives/archives/LifeTheatre/LifeInTheTheatre.htm)
1977 Oct 20, Three members of the
rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane
near McComb, Miss.
(AP, 10/20/97)
1977 Oct 20, A bloodless military
coup was staged in Thailand. Kriangsak Chomanan was appointed prime
minister, Thailand's 15th since it became a constitutional monarchy in
1932.
(AP, 12/23/03)(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A12)
1977 Oct 22, In West Virginia the
New River Gorge Bridge was opened to traffic.
(www.officialbridgeday.com/facts.html)
1977 Oct 26, The experimental
space shuttle Enterprise glided to a bumpy but successful landing at
Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 10/26/97)
1977 Oct 27, James M. Cain
(b.1892), member of the "hard-boiled" school of crime fiction of the
1930s and 1940s, died in Maryland. Three of his novels, “The Postman
Always Rings Twice” (1934), “Double Indemnity” (1936), and Mildred
Pierce” (1941), were made into classics of the American screen.
(iUniv. 7/1/00)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jmcain.htm)
1977 Oct, Pakistan’s Gen. Zia
ul-Haq (1924-1988) announced the postponement of the electoral plan and
decided to start an accountability process of the politicians.
(www.storyofpakistan.com/person.asp?perid=P020&Pg=2)
1977 Nov 4, Former CIA director
Richard Helms was sentenced for withholding information on CIA
operations in Chile.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.A3)
1977 Nov 5, Guy Lombardo (b.1902),
Canada-born orchestra leader, died in Houston, Texas.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0518456/)
1977 Nov 6, San Francisco
marijuana smokers held "A Day on the Grass" smoke-in at the Civic
Center as the 59th Veterans Day Parade took place.
(SFC, 11/1/02, p.E7)
1977 Nov 6, In Georgia, USA, 39
people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water
through Toccoa Falls Bible College.
(AP, 11/6/97)
1977 Nov 8, In San Francisco 154
candidates ran for 11 district seats for the Board of Supervisors.
Voters elected all 6 incumbent Board of Supervisors: Robert Gonzales,
Gordon Lau, Dianne Feinstein, John Molinari, Quentin Kopp and Ronald
Pelosi; newcomers on the city’s first district-elected board included
Harvey Milk, Carol Ruth Silver, Dan White, Lee Dolson and Ella Hill
Hutch. Dan White, former police officer, was forced to resign from his
job as a firefighter the next month.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.A25)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)(SFC,
11/7/02, p.E2)(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.E2)
1977 Nov 12, New Orleans elected
its first black mayor, Ernest "Dutch" Morial, the winner of a runoff.
(AP, 11/12/07)
1977 Nov 13, The comic strip "Li'l
Abner" appeared in newspapers for the last time as creator Al Capp
(1909-1979) retired. He had started the strip 1934.
(AP,
11/13/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li'l_Abner)
1977 Nov 14, Swami Srila
Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna Hindu sect, died. He passed
succession to 11 separate disciples.
(SFC, 2/13/01,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada)
1977 Nov 15, Pres. Jimmy Carter
welcomed the Shah of Iran to Washington, DC.
(http://tinyurl.com/2rhmfk)(www.kipnotes.com/James%20E.%20Carter.htm)
1977 Nov 15, Megumi Yokota (13)
disappeared after school in Niigata, Japan. It was later suspected that
she, and possibly 9 others, had been kidnapped by North Korea. In 2002
N. Korea admitted the kidnapping.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.A25)(SFC, 9/18/02, p.A10)
1977 Nov 16, Oksana Baiul, Ukraine
figure skater (Olympic-gold-1994), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Baiul)
1977 Nov 17, The "Elephant Man,"
by Bernard Pomerance (b.1940), premiered in London.
(www.answers.com/topic/1977)
1977 Nov 19, The Libyan flag was
adopted, after Libya left the Federation of Arabs Republic, which
consisted of Libya, Egypt and Syria.
(www.worldflags101.com/l/libya-flag.aspx)
1977 Nov 19, Egyptian Pres. Anwar
Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel. Peace talks began
in the Middle East with Sadat going to Israel.
(TMC, 1994, p.1977)(AP, 11/19/97)
1977 Nov 19, A cyclone and tidal
wave hit Andhra Pradesh, India. Entire villages were submerged by tidal
waves with an estimated 10-20 thousand people killed.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)(SFC,
11/1/99, p.A11)(AP, 11/21/02)
1977 Nov 20, Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's
parliament.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1977 Nov 21, The 1st commercial
flight of the Anglo-French Concorde jet was from London to Bahrain.
(www.britishairways.com/concorde/faq.html#4)
1977 Nov 22, Regular passenger
service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began on
a trial basis.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1977 Nov 24, Greeks announced the
discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1977 Nov 28, "Elvis", the stage
musical, starring P.J. Proby, Shakin' Stevens, and Timothy Whitnall
playing The King at three different stages of his life, opened in
London.
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/forevershakin/concerts/1977-79ElvisMusical/)
1977 Nov 28, "The Honeymooners
Christmas," directed by Jackie Gleason, aired on TV.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0445437/)
1977 Nov 28, Trevor Bardette (b.
1902), American film and TV actor, died. His over 172 movies and
seventy-two TV appearances included Old Man Clanton in Wyatt Earp.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Bardette)
1977 Nov 30, Terence Rattigan
(b.1911), English playwright, died. In 1997 Geoffrey Wansell wrote his
biography.
(SFC, 6/23/97,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Rattigan)
1977 Nov, The Simon Wiesenthal
Center was founded with headquarters in Los Angeles as an international
Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the memory of
the Holocaust.
(www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/wiesenthal.html)
1977 Nov, In Argentina Hilda
Palacios, Humberto Brandalisi, Carlos Laja and Ruben Cardozo were
kidnapped. Prosecutors later said they were taken to the clandestine
prison and torture center known as La Perla on the outskirts of Cordoba
and killed the following month. Their bodies were then dumped in the
street to make it look like they died in a shootout with officials. In
2008 former army chief Luciano Benjamin Menendez (81) was convicted of
kidnapping, torturing and killing the left-wing militants. He was
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/27/08)(AP, 7/24/08)
1977 Dec 4, Neil Simon's "Chapter
Two," premiered in NYC.
(http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/simon.html)(http://tinyurl.com/yvtv65)
1977 Dec 4, Jean-Bedel Bokassa
(1921-1996), ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself
emperor in a ceremony duplicating the coronation of Napoleon. It was
believed to have cost more than $100 ($25) million. Bokassa was deposed
in 1979.
(AP, 12/4/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-B%C3%A9del_Bokassa)
1977 Dec 6, SF FBI agents arrested
James "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno (64), a reportedly leading West
Coast Mafia figure.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1977 Dec 7, Peter Carl Goldmark
(b.1906), Hungarian-born engineer, died in the US. He developed the
first commercial color television and the long-playing phonograph
record. Goldmark's LP records were introduced by Goddard Lieberson
(1911-977), who later became president of Columbia Records (1956-1971
and 1973-1975).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carl_Goldmark)
1977 Dec 8, In Argentina Leonie
Duquet, a French nun, was abducted in a commando-style operation by
state security agents. Alice Domon, another French nun, was abducted
later this month, but her remains were never recovered. They were
killed after befriending mothers of detained dissidents, who were among
the first victims of a crackdown on dissent against the 1976-83
dictatorship.
(AP, 12/9/07)
1977 Dec 9, In LA Laker forward
Kermit Washington punched Houston Rocket forward Rudy Tomjanovich
during a basketball game. In 2002 John Feinstein authored "The Punch:
One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever."
(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.M3)
1977 Dec 9, Clarice Lispector
(b.1920), Ukraine-born Brazilian-Jewish writer, died in Brazil. From
1952-1959 she lived in the US. Her books included “The Passion
According to G.H” (1964). In 2009 Benjamin Moser authored “Why This
World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarice_Lispector)
1977 Dec 10, In Argentina Azucena
Villaflor, along with mothers Esther Ballestrino de Careaga and Maria
Eugenia Ponce de Bianco, were kidnapped by state security agents. In
2005 Investigators recovered the remains of Villaflor and 2 colleagues
at a rural cemetery. Villaflor had founded the Mothers of the Plaza de
Mayo, the legendary protest group against Argentina's Dirty War.
(AP,
7/8/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azucena_Villaflor)
1977 Dec 10, On UN Human Rights
Day, the Soviet Union placed 20 prominent dissidents under house
arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned
silent demonstration in Moscow’s Pushkin Square.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1977 Dec 12, Dr. Grethe Rask
(b.1930) from Denmark died of Pneumocystis carinii. She had done
research in Africa. Her symptoms had been manifesting in Dec 1976 and
she was hospitalized in Africa. In November 1977 after a brief
recovery, she decided it was time to go home to die. A colleague saw
the wasting, and did an autopsy, where P. carinii was found. She is
believed to be one of the first documented cases of probable AIDS
infection.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grethe_Rask)
1977 Dec 14, The film "Saturday
Night Fever," starring John Travolta, premiered in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Fever)
1977 Dec 14, The South African
government eased job restrictions on blacks.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1977 Dec 15, Charles Finley sold
his Oakland A’s baseball team to Marvin Davis for a reported $12.5
million. A lease with the Oakland Coliseum was still a problem.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.E8)
1977 Dec 16, The movie "Saturday
Night Fever," starring John Travolta as a Brooklyn disco dancer, opened
in wide release.
(AP, 12/16/07)
1977 Dec 18, Cyril Ritchard
(b.1897), Australia-born actor, died. He was awarded a Tony in 1955 for
Supporting Actor in the musical “Peter Pan.”
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0728509/bio)
1977 Dec 19, Pres. Jimmy Carter
signed into law the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The act
made it a crime for a US citizen to pay bribes to win contracts abroad.
The Lockheed Corp. had bribed Japanese officials for business contracts
and caused a furor that brought down the Tokyo government and inspired
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the US.
(SFC, 4/8/96,
p.A-8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act)
1977 Dec 20, Bodies of women began
to wash up on a beach in southern Argentina. They were among the
leaders of the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo" representing relatives of
thousands of disappeared. The US soon learned that the ruling junta was
responsible. The Carter administration went on to authorize $120
million in military sales and approved over 30 training slots for
Argentine officers at US military installations.
(SFC, 12/17/02,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Domon)
1977 Dec 22, Steve Cauthen
(b.1960), Kentucky-born jockey, won his 355th race at age 16 setting a
new earnings record.
(www.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/tuner.php?channel=357&format=tv&theme=history)
1977 Dec 22, Thomas Helms (26)
climbed to the edge of the observation deck on the eighty-sixth floor
of the Empire State Building, and jumped intending to kill himself on
the streets 1000s of feet below. He only fell twenty feet before
landing on a narrow ledge on the 85th floor. Helms suffered no major
injuries but was knocked unconscious for half-an-hour--adequate time
for an emergency crew to bring him safely inside.
(www.funtrivia.com/en/Humanities/Architecture-1944.html)
1977 Dec 22, Three dozen people
were killed when a 250-foot-high grain elevator at the Continental
Grain Co. plant in Westwego, La., exploded.
(AP, 12/22/97)
1977 Dec 25, Israeli PM Menachem
Begin met Egyptian Pres. Sadat (1918-1981) in Egypt.
(www.washington-report.org/backissues/1098/9810083.html)
1977 Dec 25, Comedian Sir Charles
Chaplin died in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland at age 88. In 2006
Richard Schickel edited “The Essential Chaplin.”
(AP, 4/16/00)(WSJ, 6/23/06, p.W6)
1977 Dec 30, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), serial killer, escaped from jail in Colorado. His absence
was not noticed until the next day. He was re-captured in Florida on
February 15, 1978, after 3 more murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1977 Dec 26, In Brazil law #6,515
established the Divorce Act.
(www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Brazil.htm)
1977 Dec 31, "Bubbling Brown
Sugar" closed at ANTA Theater NYC after 766 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbling_Brown_Sugar)
1977 Dec 31, Cambodia broke
relations with Vietnam.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1977 Dec, In Chicago a gang of
burglars decided to break into the home of Tony Accardo (d.1992), one
of the most powerful men in organized crime history, and rob his
basement vault. 6 men Accardo blamed for the heist were swiftly hunted
down and murdered.
(AP, 6/18/07)
1977 James Castle (b.1899),
Idaho-born self-taught deaf artist, died in Boise.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Charles_Castle)(SFC, 2/27/10, p.E3)
1977 Christopher Alexander and
co-authors laid out practical guidelines to urban design in their book
“A Pattern Language.”
(SFCM, 8/1/04, p.25)
1977 Harvard Prof. Walter J. Bate
(1918-1999) authored a biography of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). In 1978
he won a Pulitzer Prize for the book.
(SFC, 7/27/99,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jackson_Bate)
1977 Wendell Berry authored "The
Unsettling of America," a critique of American agriculture.
(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.M6)
1977 Philip Caputo, a former US
Marine, wrote "A Rumor of War," one of the best nonfiction books on
Vietnam.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.3)
1977 John Cheever (1912-1982),
American writer, authored his novel “Falconer,” which soon became a
best seller.
(WSJ, 3/7/09, p.W8)
1977 "Sadako and the Thousand
Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr was published. It was illustrated by
Ronald Himler.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1977 John Gregory Dunne
(1932-2003) authored his novel "True Confessions." It was about the
Black Dahlia case, a 1947 murder in Los Angeles.
(SFC, 1/1/04, p.A23)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D3)
1977 Gloria Emerson (1929-2004),
Vietnam war correspondent, authored “Winners & Losers: Battles,
Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins From a Long War,” based on
interviews with people involved in the Vietnam War.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.B7)
1977 Timothy Findley (d.2002),
Canadian writer, authored his novel "The Wars," which contrasted social
struggles in Toronto with trench horrors in WW I.
(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A18)
1977 David Hackett Fischer
authored “Growing Old in America.”
(WSJ, 9/14/04, p.B1)
1977 Honey Bruce Friedman
(1927-2005), former wife of Lenny Bruce, authored “The Life and Loves
of Lenny’s Shady Lady.”
(SFC, 9/19/05, p.B3)
1977 Stephen Jay Gould wrote his
first technical book: "Ontogeny and Phylogeny."
(NH, 2/97, p.69)
1977 Fred Hirsch authored “The
Social Limits to Growth.”
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.35)
1977 Howard Lamar edited "The
Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West." In 1998 his updated “New
Encyclopedia of the American West” was published.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, BR p.11)
1977 Lawrence Levine (1933-2006),
professor of history at UC Berkeley, authored “Black Culture and Black
Consciousness: African American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom.”
(SFC, 10/28/06, p.B6)
1977 Hal Lindsey wrote "The Late,
Great Planet Earth."
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A4)
1977 Dr. Stephen J. Mathes
(d.2007), reconstructive surgeon, authored “Clinical Atlas of Muscle
and Musculocutaneous Flaps. In 2007 he produced an 8-volume text on
plastic surgery.
(SFC, 12/20/07, p.B5)
1977 Albert Morse (1939-2006), SF
intellectual property lawyer and representative of cartoonist R. Crumb,
published “The Tattooists.”
(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.B7)
1977 Iris Murdoch (1919-1999),
Irish born writer and philosopher, authored "The Fire and the Sun: Why
Plato Banished the Artists." In 1994 Murdoch was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s Disease. In 1998 her husband, John Bayley, published "Elegy
for Iris."
(WSJ, 2/17/98, p.A20)
1977 Arvid Pardo of Malta
published "The New International Order and the Law of the Sea with
Elisabeth Mann Borgese.
(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A22)
1977 V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad born
writer, authored “India: A Wounded Civilization,” recounting his
travels there in 1975.
(WSJ, 4/4/09, p.W8)
1977 Arthur J. Quinn (d.1997 at
54) wrote "Hell With the Fire Out," a re-creation of the Modoc War
fought in Siskiyou County, Ca., in 1872-1873.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A20)
1977 Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
authored "Dragons of Eden." In 1978 he won a Pulitzer Prize for the
book.
(SFC, 12/21/96, p.A1)
1977 Daniel Schorr (53), CBS
journalist, authored "Clearing the Air," a memoir that included a
secret report on covert US government operations in other nations. In
2001 an updated edition was published titled: "Staying Tuned."
(SSFC, 8/5/01, DB p.63)
1977 Prof. Gordon Willey
(1913-2002) authored "The Origins of Maya Civilization."
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A27)
1977 John Guare wrote his play:
"Landscape of the Body." "It saw life as prey to grotesque violence, of
incident and of language."
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1977 The musical "I Love My Wife,"
a tale of wife-swapping, opened on Broadway. Cy Coleman composed the
music.
(SFC, 11/20/04, p.B6)
1977 Len Frank (1936-1996) and
co-partner John Retsek began to co-host "The Road Show," the first
call-in car radio program that grew from a local 60 minute program to a
2-hour show syndicated nationally.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.B2)
1977 The first SF Lesbian &
Gay International Film Fest was held.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.E1)
1977 The TV series "Shogun" was
first shown.
(SFEM, 6/29/97, p.4)
1977 Jimmy Buffett (b.1946)
recorded "Margaritaville."
(SSFC, 4/28/02, Par p.22)
1977 Kenny Rogers made a hit with
his song "Lucille."
(SSFC, 5/20/01, Par p.22)
1977 The British punk group Clash
released its 1st single "White Riot."
(SFC, 12/24/02, p.A2)
1977 The British group Sex Pistols
ushered in an era of punk rock. The band was originally composed of
Johnny Rotten, Glen Matlock, Steve Jones and Paul Cook. Sid Vicious
replaced Matlock by the time of the Winterland concert in SF.
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.34)
1977 The rock band Kiss went on
their Love Gun tour and were named by a Gallup poll as the most popular
band in the US. Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss and bass
guitar thunder god Gene Simmons were the other founding members. They
became an int’l phenomenon.
(SFC, 7/5/96, DB, p.40)(SFC, 8/29/96, p.B1)
1977 The rock band INXS was formed
in Perth, Australia. Lead singer Michael Hutchence committed suicide in
1997 at a Sydney hotel.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A21)
1977 The Village People recorded
the song "YMCA."
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.E4)
1977 Marcia Tucker (1940-2006)
established the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC on 5th Ave. at
14th Street.
(SFC, 10/20/06, p.B8)
1977 The Alfred P. Murrah Building
was put up in Federal Plaza in Oklahoma City. It was bombed on April
19, 1995 and 169 people were killed including 19 children and 600
injured.
(WSJ, 1/4/96, p.A-8)
1977 Calvin Klein (b.1942)
elevated blue jeans to a fashion sensation by stitching his name on the
back pockets.
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R40)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Klein_%28fashion_designer%29)
1977 Chinese cooking, tennis,
aerobics, CB radio and Evangelicals rose in popularity.
(TMC, 1994, p.1977)
1977 The first Spoleto Festival
USA was held in Charleston, South Carolina. It was founded by Gian
Carlos Menotti, who directed it till 1993.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1977 Bertram Carnow (1922-1996)
founded the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental
Safety and Health.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.B2)
1977 Pablo Heising (1945-2006)
helped found the Haight Street Fair in San Francisco in an effort to
recall the 1967 Summer of Love. He then ran the fair for 29 years and
came to be called the mayor of Haight Street.
(SFC, 1/16/07, p.B5)
1977 The Jane Goodall Institute
for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation was founded in San
Francisco.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, zone 1 p.3)
1977 Jan Mitchell established the
Jan Mitchell Prize for the History of Art. It funded a $15,000 annual
prize for an outstanding book in English or translation that
contributes to the "study and understanding of the visual arts."
(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A20)
1977 Charles Sporck, CEO of Nat’l.
Semiconductor, helped found the Semiconductor Industry Assoc.
(WSJ, 11/7/96, p.B1)
1977 The TransAfrica lobby group
was founded to press the US political establishment on matters
concerning Africa and the Caribbean. Randall Robinson in 1998 published
"Defending the Spirit" a memoir of his efforts in the organization.
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A16)
1977 Julian Levi (1909-1996),
professor of law, was awarded the Rockefeller Public Service award for
his work stabilizing racially changing neighborhoods.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A23)
1977 James Michener (1907-1997),
American writer, was awarded the Presidential medal of Freedom.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, Par
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Michener)
1977 Patsy Paugh was crowned Miss
West Virginia. In 2006 Patsy Ramsey (b.1956), former Miss West Virginia
(1977) and mother of JonBenet Ramsey (1990-1996), died in Roswell, Ga.,
following a long battle with ovarian cancer.
(SSFC, 6/25/06,
p.A2)(www.marquette.edu/org/axd/history.htm)
1977 Amnesty International
(b.1961), a human rights organization founded by Peter Benenson
(1921-2005), won a Nobel Prize.
(HN, 5/28/98)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.85)
1977 Sir Neville Mott (1906-1996)
shared the Nobel Prize with Philip Anderson and John van Vleck for
research on the behavior of electricity in non-crystalline or so-called
"disordered" materials.
(SFC, 8/11/96, p.D5)
1977 Ilya Prigogine (d.2003 at
86), Russian-born Belgian chemist, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A20)
1977 Rosalyn Yalow (b.1921),
American medical physicist, together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew V.
Schally, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
(AP,
10/5/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalyn_Sussman_Yalow)
1977 Vicente Aleixandre
(1898-1984), Spanish poet, won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(AP, 10/8/09)
1977 The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) drafted rules regarding currency exchange rates following
the collapse of the int’l. gold standard and the fixed-exchange-rate
system (1971).
(WSJ, 6/19/07, p.A4)
1977 Pres. Jimmy Carter announced
plans for a neutron bomb that would cancel out Soviet military
superiority in tanks.
(WSJ, 1/9/95, A-10)
1977 The first LLC (limited
liability company) statute was enacted by Wyoming. It was a legal
entity hybrid between a corporation and a partnership that provided
limited liability to all owners while passing income and losses to all
owners.
(Hem, 6/96, p.38)
1977 The US Mail service began
Express Mail in response to private competition.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A6)
1977 The US Federal Office of
Management and Budget revised the race groups for the national census.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)
1977 In the US the traditional
eagle-side quarter was again issued following the 2-year Bicentennial
colonial drummer issue.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)
1977 The US Congress passed the
surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act to help solve problems with
abandoned mines.
(WSJ, 6/4/03, p.A1)
1977 The US Community Reinvestment
Act (CRA) was meant to bring financial services to the poor by
requiring banks to meet their credit needs in the areas they serve.
(Econ, 5/6/06, p.76)
1977 The US federal government
ordered General Electric to dismantle its nuclear reactor in
Pleasanton, Ca. Nuclear fuel research continued.
(SFC, 12/25/03, p.A8)
1977 Christopher Boyce was
convicted of espionage. He had gained access to CIA communications
during his job at TRW and sold classified documents to the Russian
Embassy in Mexico City. His story was told in the 1985 film "The Falcon
and the Snowman." Boyce was paroled in 2003.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A2)
1977 Roman Polanski, film
director, was accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old model at the
home of Jack Nicholson. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual
intercourse with a minor and left the country on bail to film
"Hurricane" in Tahiti, and then fled to Paris.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.E3)
1977 The US Army restored the
Medal of Honor to Dr. Mary Walker. She had been awarded the medal in
1865 for her work as a field doctor in the civil war. In 1917 a
congressional select committee had revoked it.
(SFC, 7/17/96, p.E10)
1977 The US introduced lethal
injections as a more humane alternative to other forms of capital
punishment.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.70)
1977 A controversial theory on the
JFK assassination was published in the Baltimore Sun. Howard Donohue, a
ballistics expert, claimed that an accidental shot by agent George W.
Hickey hit JFK in the back of the head when Hickey stumbled trying to
return fire on the initial attacker. The story was then put into the
book "Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK" (1992) by Bonar Menninger.
(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A9)
1977 The US Sec. of
Transportation, William T. Coleman, under Pres. Carter mandated the
installation of airbags in new cars.
(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.A15)
1977 California banned the
pesticide DBCP after men working at a San Joaquin County chemical plant
were found to be sterile. In 1979 the US EPA prohibited the use of DBCP
nationwide, but export remained legal.
(SFC, 9/25/08, p.B3)
1977 Rose Ann Vuich became
California’s 1st female state senator.
(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.E1)
1977 San Francisco Postmaster Lim
Poon Lee (d.2002) established a post office at 867 Stockton St., in
Chinatown. In 2009 US Congress voted to name the office in honor of Lee.
(SFC, 11/5/09, p.C2)
1977 The Teamsters Union under
Frank Fitzsimmons gave up their efforts to sign up California farm
field workers and accepted the UFW Union as the union for field workers.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.6)
1977 In Eureka Eric Hollenbeck
acquired the old 1904 condemned power plant and started a logging and
sawmill business with $300. He began gathering old logging and
woodworking tools and developed what came to be the Blue Ox Museum. He
later took on at-risk students and planned a campus for 100 students by
fall, 2001.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.C10)
1977 Gene Benedetti (1919-2006)
purchased the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery in northern California and
turned it into Clover Stornetta Farms Inc. He and Lee Levinger hatched
the idea for Clo the Cow, an advertising mascot.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.B5)
1977 Bill Niman (32) and Orville
Schell purchased 200 acres in Bolinas, Ca., to run cattle, starting
their Niman-Schell ranch. They operated under the assumption that meat
could be raised naturally, humanely and sustainably. The partners split
in 1997 and the business became known as the Niman Ranch. In 2007 Hilco
became the chief investor and in 2009 Niman withdrew from the
operations, which never turned a profit.
(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A1)
1977 SF toughened its fire code.
State deadlines gave the city’s high-rises until July 1980 to
comply.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.F2)
1977 The open-air Larkspur Ferry
Terminal, designed by Jacques de Brer (1936-2006), opened near San
Quentin State Prison. He later designed the 280 Metro Center in Colma
(1986).
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/mr868)
1977 The famous 400-year-old
Jeffrey pine on Sentinel Dome in Yosemite, Ca., died due to a severe
drought. In 2003 the tree collapsed.
(SFC, 8/19/03, p.A1)
1977 In California the Marble Cone
fire burned 177,866 acres of trees and brush.
(SFC, 9/20/99, p.A22)
1977 US Rev. Leon H. Sullivan
(d.2001 at 78) drafted guidelines (the Sullivan Principles) to help
persuade American companies to treat their workers in South Africa the
same way as in the US.
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A6)
1977 AT&T installed the 1st
fiber optic cable.
(WSJ, 10/26/00, p.A12)
1977 BankAmericard, Chargex,
Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees united under the new
name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag.
NBI became Visa U.S.A., and IBANCO became Visa International.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_(company))
1977 The S.S. Kresge Co. under CEO
Robert Dewar (d.2000 at 77) was renamed Kmart after its flagship
discount store operation.
(SFC, 9/11/00, p.A22)
1977 The Ford F-Series pickup
truck became the best-selling vehicle in the US.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1977 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1977 Lincoln Versailles as the number 8 worst American-made
car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1977 Jeep, a division of American
Motors, launched a 4-door Cherokee, a forerunner of the SUV boom.
(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1977 The US stopped importation of
the German Volkswagen Beetle because it did not meet safety and
emissions standards.
(AP, 8/27/03)
1977 Microsoft was formed as a
partnership.
(WSJ, 4/4/00, p.A16)
1977 PepsiCo acquired the Pizza
Hut restaurant chain.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.B1)
1977 RCA sold a videocassette
recorder (VCR) for $1,000.
(WSJ, 11/4/99, p.B6)
1977 Rolling Stone Magazine left
San Francisco and moved to Manhattan.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.12)
1977 Yves St. Laurent launched the
perfume Opium.
(Econ, 3/6/04, Survey p.11)
1977 Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv
published a theory for the compression of information. The theory was
extended by Ziv and Aaron Wyner (d.1997 at 58) in 1989. They used
algorithms to find common sections in data, and used symbols to
represent repetitive data.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A19)
1977 CP/M version 2.2 added
expanded disk formatting tables which could allow access to up to 8
(eight) megabytes per drive in up to 8 (eight) total drives. It was
version 2.2 that became the megahit that dominated microcomputing
almost from its outset.
(http://museum.sysun.com/museum/cpmhist.html)
1977 Xerox PARC in Palo Alto held
a "Futures Day" and demonstrated their Alto personal computer and
mouse.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A24)
1977 Xerox launched its laser
printer.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A24)
1977 The first infection from
Cyclospora cayetanensis was reported in the US. It was first named a
"cyanobacterium-like body," but in 1993 it was determined to be a
protozoan parasite and was renamed.
(USAT, 6/28/96, p.5D)
1977 Ebola was reported to have
been transmitted by an accidental needle stick.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A6)
1977 Leon Lederman (now director
of Fermilab) came upon a fifth quark.
(NG, May 1985, J. Boslough, p. 650)
1977 Ann Moore patented the Snugli
baby carrier based on slings she saw used by African women.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1977 Robert Ballard and John B.
Corliss dived 9,000 feet into the Galapagos Rift Zone and found
previously unknown creatures thriving on bacteria from that depended on
sulfur from volcanic vents.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.A3,13)
1977 Gunther von Hagens (b.1945),
German anatomist, invented the process of plastination in which natural
body fluids are replaced by plastic.
(WSJ, 8/5/04, p.D8)
1977 Dr. Elizabeth Williams of
Fort Collins, Colorado, classified the endemic chronic wasting disease
of local deer as a spongiform disease. It was found to be infectious 2
years later and then spread across to 8 states and Canada. Research
later suggested that it could infect people.
(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)
1977 Carl R. Woese,
microbiologist, argued that the Archaea branch of life was distinct
from the Prokarya and Eukarya.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A21)
1977 The viral disease smallpox
was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The
last case of smallpox, spread by variola virus, was reported in
Somalia. Int’l. immunization ceased by 1978 in most countries. In 1997
the related Monkey virus broke out in Zaire.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/19/01, p.A9)
1977 The manufacture of
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) became prohibited in the US, because
of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful
health effects.
(www.epa.gov/glnpo/bnsdocs/stakeholder98/pcbinus.htm)
1977 The Endangered Species Act
(1973) listed the California sea otter as threatened. Their numbers
increased slowly until 1995 and then dropped again.
(PacDis, Fall/’96, p.23)(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.C1)
1977 Researchers aboard the
deep-sea submersible, Alvin, found an array of unknown and unexpected
creatures living beside active volcanic vents in the seafloor in the
absence of sunlight and air. Some of the microbes belonged to the group
known as Archaea.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.4)
1977 In Afghanistan a loya jirga
(grand assembly) convened to establish a democratic state.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A3)
1977 In Argentina Carlos Perez
Companac, head of Perez Companac SA, died. His adopted son Goyo manages
to steer the company forward.
(WSJ, 12/12/95, p.A-15)
1977 In the Bahamas the
People-to-People program was established about this time to help
visitors experience a more personal side of the island and its
inhabitants.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T8,9)
1977 The Brazilian film "Dona Flor
and Her Two Husbands" starred Sonia Braga. It was based on a novel by
Jorge Amado.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1977 In Brazil Edir Macedo
(b.1945) founded The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. In 1990 he
bought Rede Record for $45 million. In 2004 Rede Record broadcast
network began expanding into the TV market taking on the dominant TV
Globo. In 2005 the church founded the PRB political party. By 2007 the
Pentecostal congregation had 2 million members and had expanded to over
100 countries.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, p.A19)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.50)(WSJ,
1/5/07, p.A1)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.31)
1977 The BBC began showing "All
Creatures Great and Small."
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A19)
1977 Sir John Traverner, composer,
converted to the Greek Orthodox faith. This marked a turning toward
simplicity and serenity in his music.
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A18)
1977 Tam Dalyell, British MP for
the Scottish constituency of Linlithgow, posed the so-called West
Lothian question during the debate on Scottish and Welsh devolution.
(Econ, 7/8/06,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Lothian_question)
1977 Britain designated MDMA, the
main ingredient in ecstasy, a Class A drug.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.50)
1977 Bulgaria’s foreign minister
Petar Mladenov became a member of the policy-making Politburo.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.D5)
1977 The Canada Human Rights Act
was passed and required that men and women be paid the same amount for
doing the same work.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A12)
1977 Canada declared an exclusive
economic zone over fisheries within 200 miles of its coast.
(http://tinyurl.com/3ce6f5)
1977 In Canada English was banned
in Quebec.
(SFEC,12/28/97, Z1 p.2)
1977 Innovations made on the
NASDAQ stock exchange were incorporated into Canada's CATS, Computer
Assisted Trading System. After Canada electronic trading moved to the
Paris Bourse and other exchanges such as Brussels and Madrid.
(Hem, 8/95, p.78)
1977 Ernst Zundel (b.1939), German
neo-Nazi, founded a small press publishing house in Canada called
Samisdat Publishers, which issued such pamphlets as “The Hitler We
Loved and Why” and “Did Six Million Really Die?,” both prominent
documents of the Holocaust denial movement. He wrote under the name of
Christof Friedrich. In 2005 he was deported to Germany, where he was
charged for inciting racial hatred. In 2007 he was sentenced to 5 years
in prison.
(SFC, 12/9/00,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Z%C3%BCndel)
1977 Emile Rogier Heier (d.1997 at
55), Belgian-born foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star, was
released from a Colombian prison. He returned to the US and began his
book "Down in Colombia" (2003). He later wrote "Lester Leaps In," a
biography of the jazz saxophonist Lester Young.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.C2)
1977 Chile’s DINA secret police
reporting to Gen. Pinochet was replaced by the National Information
Center (Centro Nacional de Información--CNI).
(www.fas.org/irp/world/chile/dina.htm)
1977 China at this time had some
300-odd museums, most of them little more than displays of Communist
Party propaganda. By year 2000 the number had grown to over 2,000.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.49)
1977 Tassos Papadopoulos
(1934-2008), former leader of the Greek Cypriot guerrilla group EOKA,
submitted a proposal for a federated Cyprus tying together two distinct
zones. The proposal became the basis for all subsequent settlement
initiatives.
(AP, 12/12/08)
1977 In Czechoslovakia the 1976
trial of the Plastic People of the Universe band prompted Vaclav Havel
and Czech dissidents to draft "Charter 77, a human rights manifesto.
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 3/7/99, DB p.35)
1977 Food riots took place in
Egypt and Kamal Addin Hussein, an independent member of the Egyptian
People's Assembly, accused Pres. Sadat of punishing the people. Hussein
was voted out of the Assembly for his statements.
(SFC, 6/22/99, p.A24)
1977 In Egypt agricultural
engineer Shukri Mustafa became the leader of Takfir wal Hijra. The
group began in the 1960s as a splinter group of Muslim Brotherhood, but
did not gain international prominence until 1977. The group’s ideology
was developed in Egypt, where theorists openly advocated using
immigration as a Trojan horse to expand jihad (holy war).
(WSJ, 3/29/04,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takfir_wal-Hijra)
1977 In El Salvador guerrilla
activities by the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
(FMLN) intensified amid reports of increased human rights violations by
government troops and right wing death squads.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A7)
1977 In France the Georges
Pompidou Center, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, opened in
Paris.
(SFEC, 4/20/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/3/00, p.A24)
1977 France’s 1st nuclear plant,
built by Areva, began operations near Colmar. It was rated at 900
megawatts.
(Econ, 9/8/07, TQ
p.26)(www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1369259,00.html)
1977 France banned frog fishing to
protect the local green and red varieties. Poaching remained a problem.
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A1)
1977 In East Germany Rudolf Bahro
(d.1997 at 62), Marxist reformer, smuggled his book out to the West and
was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He wrote: "The
Alternative: A Criticism of the Real Socialism." He was released in
1979 and allowed to resettle in West Germany in 1980.
(SFC,12/12/97, p.B12)
1977 Guatemala’s Pres. Kjell
Eugenio Laugerud announced he would not accept US military aid after
the Carter administration criticized Guatemala's human rights situation
because of forced disappearances, torture and arbitrary executions. It
was largely a symbolic gesture, however, since the aid already was
appropriated for that year.
(AP, 12/12/09)
1977 India had a non-Congress
government but it fell before the end of its 5-year term. Democracy was
restored following a 2-year emergency and Congress was swept from power.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-10)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.93)
1977 The Communist Party of India
came to power in the state of West Bengal.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.63)
1977 Coca-Cola left India when the
new government ordered it to dilute its stake in an Indian unit and
turn over its secret formula. An alternative cola was formulated by
bottler Ramesh Chauhan of the Parle Group under the name Thums Up.
(WSJ, 4/29/98, p.B1)
1977 In Irian Jaya Indonesian
forces put down an uprising. Human rights groups estimated that some
tens of thousands of highlanders were killed while the government said
fewer than 900 deaths resulted.
(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A10)
1977 In northeast Ireland mining
of a large deposit of zinc ore began at Navan. Mining employed about 1%
of the Irish labor force.
(www.mbendi.co.za/indy/ming/ldzc/eu/ir/p0005.htm)
1977 In Israel Ariel Sharon was
elected to parliament and was appointed minister of agriculture in the
Begin government.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1977 More Israeli civilians were
allowed to move into the army installations in Gaza, and new
settlements were established.
(AP, 8/15/05)
1977 In Italy the Red Brigades
abducted a leading businessman. He was freed with a ransom after 81
days. This year the Red Brigades also killed a lawyer, several prison
officials and a journalist.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1977 Ahmad Chalabi (b.1944),
Iraqi-born and US educated banker, founded Petra Bank in Jordan. The
bank collapsed in 1990 following a scandal that involved an Iraqi
account in exile. Chalabi fled Jordan, was convicted in absentia of
bank fraud. He denied any wrongdoing.
(WSJ, 11/7/05, p.A4)
1977 Kamoya Kimenu, asst. to Drs.
Louis and Mary Leakey, and later to their son Richard Leakey, was
appointed curator pf prehistoric sites for the National Museums of
Kenya. In Oct. 1985, the Nat’l. Geog. awarded him with the John Oliver
La Gorce Medal for accomplishment in geographic exploration.
(NG, Nov. 1985, edit.)
1977 Kenya banned all hunting.
Over the next 20 years a half to a third of the wildlife still
disappeared.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A22)
1977 Wangari Maathai established
the Green Belt Movement in Kenya under the auspices of the Maendeleo Ya
Wanawake (National Council of Women of Kenya). The movement organizes
poor rural women in Kenya to plant trees, combating deforestation,
restoring their main source of fuel for cooking, and stopping soil
erosion.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Belt_Movement)(www.greenbeltmovement.org/)
1977 Kenya Airways began operating.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.A5)
1977 Sinaloa, Mexico, became about
this time the birthplace of Mexican drug smuggling.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A14)
1977 Sister Antonia Brenner (50),
an American nun born as Mary Clark in Los Angeles, moved into Mexico’s
La Mesa State Penitentiary, just across the border from San Diego, to
provide aid to prisoners.
(AP, 12/26/05)
1977 The Economist coined the term
“Dutch disease” to describe how the exploitation of natural resources
can cause a decline in other forms of economic activity, particularly
manufacturing. This briefly happened in the Netherlands when natural
gas was discovered (1959).
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.36)
1977 The Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation was established. In 2007 Pres. Umaru Yar’Adua
planned to replace it with 5 new companies.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.51)
1977 North Korea passed a land law
whereby all land was made property of the state and co-operatives, with
no rights for sale or purchase. By 2007 even the government was
involved in apartment transactions to satisfy demand for up-market
housing.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.48)
1977 Pakistan’s Gen. Zia-ul-Haq
said: "The survival of this country lies in democracy and democracy
alone."
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A22)
1977 In Panama Gabriel Lewis
Galindo (1928-1996) was appointed ambassador to the US with the hope of
negotiating the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)
1977 In Romania Gen. Nicolae
Plesita helped stifle striking coal miners in the Jiu Valley whose
unrest posed a threat to Pres. Ceausescu.
(AP, 9/30/09)
1977 Yuri Nikulin (1921-1997)
starred in the Russian film "Twenty Days Without War."
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A24)
1977 Russian Georgii Sviridov
composed his 12 part cycle "Russia Cast Adrift."
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)
1977 The Soviet constitution
adopted article 72, which granted each republic the right to secede
from the USSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republics_of_the_Soviet_Union)
1977 The Soviet Politburo approved
adjustments to the 1943 national anthem, where Sergei Mikhalkov
replaced references to Stalin with phrases glorifying Soviet founder
Vladimir Lenin, who "led us on to Communism's triumph."
(AP, 8/27/09)
1977 Soviet dissident Anatoly B.
Sharansky was arrested [see Jul 14, 1978].
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)
1977 Somalia and Ethiopia engaged
in battle. The Soviet Union provided tanks to both sides. Somalia tried
and failed to push into the Ogaden area of Ethiopia. The Somalis
managed to reach the walled city of Harer, a center for Islam in
Ethiopia.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.19)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.49)
1977 South Africa prepared to
detonate a nuclear device in the Kalahari desert, but the plans were
detected by a spy satellite and cancelled under int'l. pressure led by
Pres. Jimmy Carter. The events were later described by Seymour M. Hersh
in "The Samson Option."
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A3)
1977 Rebel forces from Angola
swept into Zaire and captured much of the copper-rich Shaba province.
Zaire regained control after 3 months with American and other foreign
support.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A11)(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)
1977 Henry Kyemba, a former Uganda
minister in Idi Amin’s government, authored in exile “A State of
Blood,” a description of his years as a minister under Amin.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A22)
1977 The United Nations imposed an
arms embargo against South Africa to pressure it to end apartheid.
(WSJ, 12/19/03, p.A8)
1977-1978 Pol Pot of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, fearing
traitors, purged his own Khmer Rouge, especially in the eastern zone.
Many of his former cadre flee to Vietnam.
(WSJ, 4/17/95, p.A-12)
1977-1978 The Ethiopian Red Terror, or Qey Shibir,
was a violent political campaign in Ethiopia undertaken during the
leadership of the Derg, a socialist military junta. Hirut Abebe-Jiri,
imprisoned and tortured during a purge known as the “Red Terror,” later
set up an organization to archive, translate and index the Derg
files. As many as 100,000 people were killed during the campaign
as Mengistu sought to transform the country into a Soviet-style
workers' state. (Econ, 9/29/07,
p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror_(Ethiopia))(AP, 3/7/10)
1977-1979 Laverne and Shirley was the top ranking
network show on television for two seasons with rankings of 31.6 and
30.5%.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1977-1979 Genentech developed genetic engineering
techniques to create micro-organisms that can produce insulin and
growth hormone.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A10)
1977-1980 Jimmy Carter served as the 39th president
of the US with Walter Mondale as Vice-President.
(TL,1988,p.119)
1977-1981 Adm. Stansfield Turner served as the
director of the CIA under President Jimmy Carter.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A21)
1977-1992 Rev. Rudolph Kos sexually abused a number
of altar boys from 1977-1992, when he was suspended. In 1988 he became
a pastor. In 1997 on Jul 24, a Dallas jury awarded $120 million in
damages against the local Roman Catholic diocese on the grounds that
the Church had ignored evidence of his abuses. He was sentenced to life
in prison in 1998. In 1998 the Diocese agreed to pay $23.4 million to
the nine former altar boys.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A6)
1977-1993 In Missouri a serial killer committed at
least 12 murders during this period. In 2004 Kansas City police used
DNA technology to charge Lorenzo Gilyard with 12 murders.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
Go to 1978