Top News Stories from 1976
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)
More World Statistics... - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot becomes prime minister (and virtual dictator) of Cambodia after Prince Sihanouk steps down (April 2).
- Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda's Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers killed in raid (July 4).
- 19-month civil war ends in Lebanon after threatening to escalate to global level (Nov.).
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Gerald R. Ford
Vice President: Nelson A. Rockefeller
Population: 218,035,164
Life expectancy: 72.9 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 52.9
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 48.2
More U.S. Statistics... - US Supreme Court rules that blacks and other minorities are entitled to retroactive job seniority (March 24).
- Ford signs Federal Election Campaign Act (May 11).
- US Supreme Court rules that death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment (July 3).
- Nation celebrates Bicentennial (July 4).
- Mysterious disease strikes American Legion convention in Philadelphia, eventually claiming 29 lives (Aug. 4).
- Jimmy Carter elected US President (Nov. 2).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $1,819.00 billion
Federal spending: $371.79 billion
Federal debt $629.0 billion
Consumer Price Index: $56.9
Unemployment: 7.7%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13
Sports
Super Bowl
Pittsburgh d. DallasWorld Series
Cincinnati d. NY YankeesNBA Championship
Boston d. PhoenixStanley Cup
Montreal d. PhiladelphiaWimbledon
Women: Chris Evert d. E. Cawley (6-3 4-6 8-6)Men: Bjorn Borg d. I. Nastase (6-4 6-2 9-7)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Bold ForbesNCAA Basketball Championship
Indiana d. MichiganNCAA Football Champions
Pittsburgh (12-0-0) 1976 Summer OlympicsEntertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
Music: Air Music, Ned Rorem
Drama: A Chorus Line, Conceived by Michael Bennett
Academy Award, Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas, producers (United Artists)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Saul Bellow (US)
Record of the Year: "Love Will Keep Us Together," Captain and Tennille
Album of the Year: Still Crazy After All These Years, Paul Simon (Columbia)
Song of the Year: "Send in the Clowns," Stephen Sondheim, songwriter
Miss America: Tawney Elaine Godin (NY)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The Steadicam is used for the first time in Rocky.
- Philip Glass completes Einstein on the Beach, the first widely known example of minimalist composition.
- NBC broadcasts Gone with the Wind and scores record-breaking ratings.
Movies
- Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network, All the President's Men
Music
- Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach,
Books
- Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
- Judith Guest, Ordinary People
- Alex Haley, Roots
- Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
- Robert Lowell, Selected Poems
- Gabriel García Márquez, Autumn of the Patriarch
- Gore Vidal, 1876
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: William N. Lipscomb, Jr. (US), for work on the structure and bonding mechanisms of boranes
Physics: Burton Richter and Samuel C. C. Ting (both US), for discovery of subatomic particles known as J and psi
Physiology or Medicine: Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek (both US), for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - Air France and British Airways begin the first regularly scheduled commercial supersonic transport (SST) flights. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
- Viking I lands on Mars. Background: US Unstaffed Planetary and Lunar Programs
- The US Navy tests the Tomahawk cruise missile.
- Richard Leakey discovers a 1.5 million year old Homo erectus skull in Kenya. Background: human evolution
- Cosmic string theory first postulated by Thomas Kibble. Background: Astronomy
