What happened in 1977

World2

• Apr 18An annular solar eclipse was visible in Africa, and was the 29th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 138.
• Sep 7Torrijos-Carter treaties: Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The U.S. agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

North America17

• Jan 20Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States after defeating Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
• Apr 4Southern Airways Flight 242 crashes on a highway in New Hope, Georgia, United States, killing 72 people.
• May 25Star Wars is released in the United States by director George Lucas. It immediately became a major pop culture phenomenon, and became a major box office hit for the next 6 years.
• JunApple II releasedA ready-built personal computer from Jobs and Wozniak's Apple. The spreadsheet VisiCalc made it popular as a business tool too. Its CPU was the MOS 6502.
• Jul 13New York City is affected by a complete electricity blackout lasting through the following day that results in citywide looting and other criminal activity, including arson.
• Aug 4U.S. president Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
• Aug 12The NASA Space Shuttle, named Enterprise, makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
• Aug 15The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the Wow! signal for a notation made by a volunteer on the project.
• Aug 20Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
• Aug 26The National Assembly of Quebec passes the Charter of the French Language (Law 101, La charte de la langue française) making French the official language of the Canadian province of Quebec.
• Sep 4The Golden Dragon massacre, involving rival Chinatown gangs, takes place in San Francisco, United States. Five are killed.
• Sep 5Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
• Sep 19Under pressure from the Carter Administration, President of Nicaragua Anastasio Somoza Debayle lifts the state of siege in Nicaragua.
• Oct 1Energy Research and Development Administration combines with the Federal Energy Administration to form United States Department of Energy.
• Oct 26Space Shuttle program: Last test taxi flight of Space Shuttle Enterprise, over California.

2 more in the app

Europe19

• Jan 19An Ejército del Aire CASA C-207C Azor (registration T.7-15) plane crashes into the side of a mountain near Chiva, on approach to Valencia Airport in Spain, killing all 11 people on board.
• Jan 24The Massacre of Atocha occurs, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
• Mar 4The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in the Vrancea Mountains of Romania kills over 1,500 people.
• Mar 27Tenerife disaster: A collision between KLM and Pan Am Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583 people. This becomes the deadliest accident in aviation history.
• Apr 9Spain legalizes the Communist Party of Spain, which had been outlawed since 1939.
• Apr 28A federal court in Stuttgart, West Germany, sentences Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe to life imprisonment.
• Sep 5German Autumn: Employers Association President Hanns Martin Schleyer is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany. The kidnappers kill three escorting police officers and his chauffeur. They demand the release of Red Army Faction prisoners.
• Oct 13German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Flight 181 to Somalia and demand the release of 11 Red Army Faction members.
• Oct 17German Autumn: GSG 9 troopers storm the hijacked Lufthansa passenger plane in Mogadishu, Somalia; three of the four hijackers die.
• Oct 18German Autumn: Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stammheim prison; Irmgard Möller fails (their supporters still claim they were murdered). They are buried on October 27.
• Oct 19German Autumn: Kidnapped industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer is found murdered in Mulhouse, France.
• Oct 27British punk band Sex Pistols release Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols on the Virgin Records label. Despite refusal by major retailers in the UK to stock it, it enters the UK Album Charts at number one the week after its release.
• Nov 19TAP Portugal Flight 425 crashes at Madeira Airport, Funchal, Portugal, killing 131 and leaving 33 survivors.
• Nov 22British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
• Nov 30The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations.

4 more in the app

USSR / Russia4

• Jan 8Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
• Feb 7The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24 (Viktor Gorbatko, Yury Glazkov) to dock with the Salyut 5 space station.
• Sep 20The Petrozavodsk phenomenon is observed in the Soviet Union and some northern European countries.
• Oct 7The Soviet Union adopts its third Constitution. The Soviet National Anthem's lyrics are returned after a 24-year period, with Joseph Stalin's name omitted.

Asia5

• Feb 2The Congress Party of India, led by Indira Gandhi, splits with Jagjivan Ram and other senior leaders, forming Congress for Democracy. This party later merges with the Janata Party.
• Mar 19Results of elections to the Indian Parliament are declared. Indira Gandhi's Congress Party is routed by the opposition Janata alliance.
• Apr 30The Cold War between Cambodia and Vietnam evolves into the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
• May 23Moluccan terrorists take over a school in Bovensmilde, northern Netherlands (105 hostages), and a passenger train on the Bovensmilde–Assen route nearby (90 hostages) at the same time. The children are released on May 26. On June 11, Dutch Royal Marines storm the train, and six terrorists and two hostages are killed.
• Dec 4Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all 100 passengers and crew on board.

Middle East2

• May 1The Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul results in 34 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
• Jul 21The Libyan–Egyptian War, sparked by a Libyan raid on Sallum, begins.

Latin America1

• May 27The 1977 Aeroflot Ilyushin 62 airplane crash in Cuba kills 69 people.

Africa8

• May 14An IAS Cargo Boeing 707 airplane crash in Lusaka, Zambia, kills all six on board.
• May 27A demonstration and coup attempt in Angola takes place. Thousands are killed by the government and Cuban forces.
• Jun 5A bloodless coup installs France-Albert René as President of the Seychelles.
• Jun 27Djibouti receives its independence from France.
• Jul 13Somalia declares war on Ethiopia, starting the Ethio-Somali War.
• Sep 10Murderer Hamida Djandoubi is the last person executed by guillotine in France (at Marseille) and the last legal beheading in the Western world.
• Dec 6South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
• Dec 20Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.

Oceania1

• Jan 18Australia's worst railway disaster at Granville, a suburb of Sydney, leaves 83 people dead.