1976 in the United States

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Decades:
  • 1950s
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
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Events from the year 1976 in the United States. Major events include Jimmy Carter defeating incumbent president Gerald Ford in the presidential election of that year, the incorporation of Apple Computer Company and Microsoft, and the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan could be disconnected from her ventilator.

Incumbents[]

Federal Government[]

  • President: Gerald Ford (R-Michigan)
  • Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller (R-New York)
  • Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Minnesota)
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert (D-Oklahoma)
  • Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana)
  • Congress: 94th

Events[]

January[]

  • January 5 – Beatles associate Mal Evans is fatally shot by police amid a disturbance at his Los Angeles home.
  • January 14 – The Lutz family flees from 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York, in the United States, 28 days after having moved in on December 18, 1975, inspiring the story The Amityville Horror.
  • January 15 – Would-be Gerald Ford presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison.
  • January 18 – Super Bowl X: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 21–17 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
  • January 19 – Jimmy Carter wins the Iowa Democratic Caucus.
  • January 23 – Hugo the Hippo, the first animated film of 20th Century Fox is released in theaters.
  • January 27 – The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state.
  • January 30 – Live from Lincoln Center debuts on PBS.

February[]

  • February 5 – Nearly 2,000 students become involved in a racially charged riot at Escambia High School in Pensacola, Florida; 30 students are injured in the 4-hour fray.
  • February 11 – Clifford Alexander, Jr. is confirmed as the first African-American Secretary of the United States Army.

March[]

  • March 1 – Bradford Bishop allegedly murders five of his family members in Bethesda, Maryland. The crime goes undiscovered for 10 days and the suspect is never caught. In 2014, he is placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
  • March 9–11 – Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine in Letcher County, Kentucky.[1]
  • March 17 – Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is arrested in New Jersey.
  • March 20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a bank.
  • March 27 – The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro subway system opens.
  • March 29 – The 48th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, George Segal, Goldie Hawn and Gene Kelly, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, broadcast on ABC for the first time. Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest receives nine nominations and wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Forman. Isabelle Adjani becomes the youngest actress to be nominated for Best Actress until 2004, while George Burns becomes the oldest actor to win Best Supporting Actor until 2012, as well as the oldest awardee in general until 1989 and the final person born in the 19th century to win an acting award.
  • March 31 – The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that persistent vegetative state patient Karen Ann Quinlan can be disconnected from her ventilator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985.

April[]

April 1: Conrail
  • April 1
    • Conrail (Consolidated Rails Corporation) is formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that had filed for bankruptcy protection. Conrail takes control at midnight, as a government-owned and operated railroad until 1986, when it is sold to the public.
    • Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.[2]
  • April 13 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

May[]

  • May 11 – U.S. President Gerald Ford signs the Federal Election Campaign Act.
  • May 24 – Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
  • May 25 – U.S. President Gerald Ford defeats challenger Ronald Reagan in three Republican presidential primaries: Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon.
  • May 30 – Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Johnny Rutherford wins the (rain-shortened) shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or 255 miles (408 km).

June[]

  • June 2 – A car bomb kills Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.
  • June 5 – The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the U.S., killing 11 people.
  • June 13 – Savage thunderstorms roll through the state of Iowa spawning several tornadoes, including an F-5 tornado that destroys the town of Jordan, Iowa.
  • June 16 – Francis E. Meloy, Jr., the newly appointed United States Ambassador to Lebanon, is assassinated in Beirut.
  • June 17 – The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association agree on the ABA-NBA merger.
  • June 20 – Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon.

July[]

July 4: United States Bicentennial
  • July 3 – Gregg v. Georgia: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.
  • July 4
    • United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, the United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
    • The Puerto Rican Socialist Party leads 50,000 marchers in Philadelphia to demand a "Bicentennial Without Colonies" and independence for Puerto Rico.
  • July 6 – The first class of women is inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
  • July 15
    • Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. President at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
    • Twenty-six Chowchilla schoolchildren and their bus driver are abducted and buried in a box truck within a quarry in Livermore, California. The captives dig themselves free after 16 hours. The quarry-owner's son and two accomplices are arrested for the crime.
  • July 18 Nadia Comaneci makes history by becoming the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 for her routine on the uneven bars at the Montreal Olympics.
  • July 20
    • Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars, taking the first close-up color photos of the planet's surface.
    • American criminal Gary Gilmore is arrested for murdering two men in Utah.
  • July 26 – In Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan announces his choice of liberal U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker as his vice presidential running mate, in an effort to woo moderate Republican delegates away from President Gerald Ford.
  • July 29 – In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag, killing one and seriously wounding another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorize the city for the next year.
  • July 31
    • NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.
    • The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado floods, destroying more than 400 cars and houses.

August[]

August 18: Axe murder incident
  • August 1 – The Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers play their first football game.
  • August 2 – A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's estranged husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found not guilty in 1977.
  • August 4 – The first recognized outbreak of Legionnaires' disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia.
  • August 7 – Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
  • August 18 – At Panmunjom, North Korea, two United States soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Korean Demilitarized Zone which had obscured their view.
  • August 19 – U.S. President Gerald Ford edges out challenger Ronald Reagan to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in Kansas City.

September[]

September 3: Viking 2 lands on Mars
  • September 3 – Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
  • September 6
    • Cold War: Soviet Air Force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate, on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan, and requests political asylum from the United States.
    • Frank Sinatra brings Jerry Lewis's former partner Dean Martin onstage, unannounced, at the 1976 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in Las Vegas, Nevada, reuniting the comedy team for the first (and only) time in over 20 years.
  • September 17 – The space shuttle Enterprise is rolled out of a Palmdale, California hangar.
  • September 21 – Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
  • September 24 – Patricia Hearst is sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in a 1974 bank robbery (an executive clemency order from U.S. President Jimmy Carter will set her free after only 22 months).

October[]

  • October 6 – In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" (there is at the time).
  • October 13 – The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).
  • October 18 – Ford officially launches volume production of Fiesta car at its Valencia plant.
  • October 19 – The Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States.
  • October 20 – The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana to Luling, Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew.
  • October 21 – The Cincinnati Reds sweep the New York Yankees in four games to win the 1976 World Series.

November[]

November 2: Jimmy Carter elected President
  • November 2 – U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.
  • November 15 – The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.
  • November 25 – In San Francisco, The Band holds its farewell concert, The Last Waltz.
  • November 26 – Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.

December[]

  • December 8
    • The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is established by the five Latinos in the United States Congress: Herman Badillo of New York, E. de la Garza and Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, Edward R. Roybal of California, and the nonvoting Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, Baltasar Corrada del Rio.
    • Hotel California by The Eagles is released.
  • December 20 – Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago for 21 years, dies while in office.

Undated[]

  • California's sodomy law is repealed.
  • The New Jersey State Legislature passes legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. After signing the bill into law, Governor Brendan Byrne declares "The mob is not welcome in New Jersey!" referring to the Mafia's influence at casinos in Nevada.

Ongoing[]

  • Cold War (1947–1991)
  • Détente (c. 1969–1979)
  • Capital punishment suspended by Furman v. Georgia (1972–1976)
  • 1970s energy crisis (1973–1980)

Births[]

  • January 2
    • Cletidus Hunt, American football player
    • Phil Radford, environmental, clean energy and democracy leader
  • January 4 – Ted Lilly, baseball player
  • January 6
    • Danny Pintauro, actor[3]
    • Johnny Yong Bosch, actor, voice artist, martial artist, and musician
  • January 8
    • Jenny Lewis, actress and singer (Rilo Kiley)
    • Josh Meyers, actor and comedian, brother of Seth Meyers
    • Carl Pavano, baseball player
  • January 10 – Adam Kennedy, baseball player
  • January 13 – Michael Peña, actor and musician
  • January 20 – Michael Myers, American football player
  • January 21 – Mike Daisey, monologist, author and actor
  • January 22 – James Dearth, American football player
  • January 27
    • Clint Ford, voice actor
    • Fred Taylor, American football player
  • January 29 – Chris Castle, singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • January 30 – Andy Milonakis, Internet and MTV star
  • January 31
    • Buddy Rice, race car driver
    • Paul Scheer, actor and comedian
  • February 17 – Scott Williamson, baseball player and coach
  • February 24
    • Crista Flanagan, actress and screenwriter
    • Zach Johnson, golfer[4]
    • Matt Skiba, singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • March 10 – Christa Pike, murderer and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the US during the post-Furman period[5]
  • March 19 – Derek Chauvin, police officer who murdered George Floyd
  • March 20 – Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park (died 2017)
  • March 22
    • Kathryn Jean Lopez, journalist
    • Kellie Shanygne Williams, actress
    • Reese Witherspoon, actress, producer and entrepreneur
  • March 23
    • Jayson Blair, disgraced The New York Times reporter known for plagiarism and fabrication
    • Michelle Monaghan, American actress[6]
    • Jeremy Newberry, American football player
  • March 24 – Peyton Manning, American football player
  • March 26 – Amy Smart, actress and fashion model
  • April 2 – Evan McMullin, CIA operations officer
  • April 16
  • April 18 – Melissa Joan Hart, actress, producer, and director
  • April 20 – Joey Lawrence, actor, musician, and game show host
  • June 5 – Torry Holt, American football player and sportscaster
  • June 8 – Eion Bailey, actor
  • June 19 – Scott Avett, singer-songwriter, banjo player, guitarist and pianist
  • June 20 – Rob Mackowiak, baseball player and coach
  • July 8 – – David Kennedy, guitarist and songwriter
  • July 15 – Gabriel Iglesias, comedian, actor and producer
  • July 24 – Rashida Tlaib, politician
  • August 6 – Soleil Moon Frye, actress and producer
  • August 11 – Will Friedle, actor, voice actor, writer and comedian
  • August 12
    • Antoine Walker, basketball player
    • Wednesday 13, rock musician
  • August 14 – Alex Albrecht, television personality
  • August 17 – Scott Halberstadt, former actor
  • August 19 – Michael M. Wartella, underground cartoonist
  • August 23 – Scott Caan, actor
  • August 25 – Damon Jones, basketball player and coach
  • August 30 – Lillo Brancato, Jr., actor
  • September 12 – Bizzy Bone, rapper
  • September 19
    • Raja Bell, basketball player[7]
    • Jay Electronica, rapper and producer
    • Alison Sweeney, actress and television host
  • October 4 – Alicia Silverstone, actress
  • October 25 – Kristin Rossum, murderer and former toxicologist[8]
  • November 5 – Ben Quayle, lawyer and politician
  • November 19 – Jack Dorsey, computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur
  • November 29 – Chadwick Boseman, actor and playwright (d. 2020)
  • December 20 – Aubrey Huff, baseball player and radio host

Deaths[]

See also: Deaths in 1976
  • January 15 – Jim Graner, sports anchor (born 1919)
  • January 21 – John Gould Moyer, naval officer, 31st Governor of American Samoa (born 1893)
  • January 23 – Paul Robeson, bass baritone (born 1898)
  • January 31 – Ernesto Miranda, defendant in Miranda v. Arizona (born 1941)
  • February 1
    • Leland H. Jenks, economic historian (born 1892)
    • George Whipple, scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1878)
  • February 12 - Sal Mineo, film actor in Rebel Without a Cause (born 1939)
  • February 22 – Florence Ballard, singer (The Supremes) (born 1943)
  • February 26 – Joseph Weil, con man (born 1875)
  • March 15 – Jo Mielziner, set and lighting designer (born 1901)
  • March 25 – Josef Albers, Modernist painter (born 1888 in Germany)
  • April 5 - Howard Hughes, business magnate, aviator pilot and film producer (born 1905)
  • April 9 – Phil Ochs, protest singer and songwriter (born 1940)
  • April 14 – William H. Hastie, judge and politician (born 1904)
  • June 6 – J. Paul Getty, industrialist (born 1892)
  • June 20 – Lou Klein, baseball player and coach (born 1918)
  • August 26 – Lotte Lehmann, soprano (born 1888 in Germany)
  • August 28 - Anissa Jones, TV child actress who played 'Buffy Davis' in the late 60s-early 70s sitcom Family Affair (born 1958)
  • September 10 – Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter and novelist (born 1905)
  • October 9 - Bob Moose, baseball player (born 1947 - died on his 29th birthday)
  • October 15 – Carlo Gambino, mafioso (born 1902 in Italy)
  • November 11 – Alexander Calder, sculptor (born 1898)
  • November 28 – Rosalind Russell, film actress (born 1907)
  • December 2 – Danny Murtaugh, baseball player and manager (born 1917)
  • December 12 – Jack Cassidy, actor and singer (born 1927)
  • December 20 – Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago from 1956 (born 1902)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Partridge, KY Double Mine Disaster, Mar 1976". GenDisasters. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  2. ^ Mitchell K. Hall (2008). "Chronology". Historical Dictionary of the Nixon-Ford Era. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6410-8.
  3. ^ John Willis (2003). John Willis' Theatre World. Crown Publishers. ISBN 9781557834775.
  4. ^ Andrew Podnieks (2008). Golf Now!. Firefly Books. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-55407-259-0.
  5. ^ Marshall, Natalie (1 February 2016). She Devil: The True Story of Christa Pike. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781523798667 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Film Review: Special. Visual Imagination Ltd. 2005. p. 26.
  7. ^
    • Career statistics and player information from NBA.com
  8. ^ Davis, Carol Anne (April 11, 2011). Doctors Who Kill: Profiles of Lethal Medics. Allison & Busby. ISBN 9780749010072 – via Google Books.

External links[]

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