The Year 1976
History and Politics
Chou En-lai, Premier of the People's Republic of China dies.
Venezuela nationalizes the petrleum industry.
Spain relinquishes colonial control of Spanish Sahara; Morooco and Mauritania divide
the territory, ignoring the Sahara's nationalists' proclamation of independence.
Daniel P. Moynihan resigns as US Ambassador ti the UN, replaced by William W. Scranton.
US and USSR sign treaty limiting the size of nuclear underground explosions set off for
peaceful purposes; it provides some on-site inspection of compliance.
Lebanon's parliment elects Christian leader Elias Sarkis as President.
Brit. Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns; James Callaghan succeeds him.
The US celebrates its Bicentennial.
North and South Vietnam are reunited as one country after 22 years
of seperation; called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; with Hanoi
as its capital; Saigon renamed Ho Chi Mihn City.
Seychelles Islands, former British colony, declare their independence.
Gen. Antonio Ramalho Eanes is elected President in Portugal's
first free presidential election in half a century.
Portuguese Timor votes to become the 27th province of Indonesia.
Thailand's government falls in a coup by the military.
Blacks in S. Africa battle armed police as waves of rioting and violence against apartheid and government
policies spread from Soweto to Johannesburg and Cape Town in black townships and white areas.
President Ford and Jimmy Carter debate 3 times on national television.
The Republic of Transkei is proclaimed, the first of S. Africa's black homelands to attain its independence.
Syrian troops and Lebanese Christians battle Palestinian guerrillas and Lebanese Moslems in southern
Lebanon; the Syrian army takes control of Beruit, Tripoli, Sarda, and the highways between the cities.
Senators Walter F. Mondale and Robert J. Dole meet in a TV debate,
first ever between vice presidential candidates.
Mao Tse-tung, leader of the People's Republic of China, (1949-1976)
and the founder of the Chinese Communist Party dies.
Civil war in Angola causes more than 9,000 refugees to flee Namibia (South-West Africa)
Jimmy (James Eral, Jr) Carter is elected 39th President of the US.
Hua Kuo-feng is appointed Premier of People's Republic Of China and Chairmen
of the Chinese Communist Party; a coup attempt br Mao Tse-tung's widow and 3
other counterrevolutionaries, the Gang of Four, is crushed.
Takeo Fakuda is elected Prime Minister of Japan.
Jose Lopez Portillo succeeds Luis Echeverra Alvarez as President of Mexico.
The Central African Republic is renamed the Central African Empire by president for life Jean Bedel Bokassa.
Science, Technology, Growth
USSR Soyuz spacecraft docks successfully with the orbiting Salyut space station.
New atomic particle is detected by US scientists, headed by Leon Lederman, at the Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.; known as "upsilon," the partcle is thought
to belong to a new family of atomic fragments, named psions, first observed in late 1974.
The National Academy of Science reports that gases from spray cans
can cause damage to the atmosphere's ozone layer.
First detailed obsevations of the surface of Venus are recorded
at the Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico.
Landing vehicles from US spacecrafts Viking I and II set down safely on Mars and transmitt to earth first
closeup photos of the surface; scientific experiments remain inconclusive about the existence of life on Mars.
Scientists at MIT announce construction of a functional
synthetic gene, complete with regulatory mechanisms.
Discovery of viral cause of multiple sclerosis.
Archeologists discover in northern Syria the ancient civilization of Ebla that flourished 4,400 years ago.
Nobel Prize for Economics: Milton Friedman (US)
Nobel Prize for Physics: Burton Richter (US) and Samuel C. C. Ting (US)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry: William N. Lipscomb (US)
Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology: Baruch S. Blumberg (US) and Daniel C. Gajdusek (US)
Alexander S. Wiener, (US) serologist and co-discoverer (with Karl Landsteiner) of the Rh blood factor dies.
Daily Life
Montreal Canadians defeat Philidelphia Flyers to win hockey's Stanley Cup.
Howard Hughes, (US) reclusive billionaire & head of a vast business empire dies.
12th Winter Olympics held at Innsbruck, Austria; USSR team wins 13 gold medals.
World's first scheduled supersonic passenger service is inaugurated when 2 Concord jets take off simultaneously
from London and Paris; Britian & France begin trans-atlantic supersonic service to Washington.
Pittsburgh Steelers defeat Dallas Cowboys, 21-17 to win Super Bowl.
Isreali airborn commandos rescue 103 hostages held at Entebbe Airport, Uganda, by 7 pro-Palestinian
hijackers of an Air France jetliner; 31 persons die in the raid.
US Air Force Academy admitts 155 women, ending the all-male tradition at the US military acadamies.
J. Paul Getty, (US) oil billionaire dies.
Boston Celtics win NBA, New York wins ABA, 4 ABA tems merge with the NBA when the ABA disbands.
Jerry Pate, a rookie on the PGA tour, wins the US and Canadian Opens.
"Bold Forbes" wins Belmont and Kentucky Derby.
Hurricane Belle hits the east coast of the US; estimated $23.5 million in damages.
Summer Olympics held in Montreal; 32 African and Asian countries withdraw because of political issues;
USSR takes 47 gold medals. E. Germany 40, and US 34; 14 year old Rumanian Nadia Comaneci wins 3 gold
medals, gaining 7 perfect scores, the first time such marks awarded in Olympic gymnastics.
Mysterious illness kills 29 people who attend a state American Legion comvention in
Philidelphia; 151 others are stricken by "Legionnaires' disease."
"Smokey the Bear," US national symbol of fire prevention, dies at the National Zoo in Washington DC.
Cincinnati Reds defeat New York Yankees, 4 games to 0, to win World Series.
Two airliners coolide over Yugoslavia killing all 176 persons aboard in aviations worst mid-air collision.
Jimmy Connors (US) wins US Open; Bjorn Borg (Swed) wins Wimbledon;
Chris Evert wins (US) wins Wimbledon & US Open.
Italy wins the Davis Cup.
Violent earthquakes strike northeastern Italy, Peking, and Tientsin in China, Mindanao in the
Phillippines, eastern Turkey, Bali, and Guatemala; an estimated 780,000 die.
Henry (Hank) Aaron retires as a baseball player, holding the US major league record of 755 career home runs.
Tanker "Argo Merchant" runs aground off Nantucket, Mass., spilling millions of gallons of oil.
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