1977

**1977** (MCMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Events

- January 3 – Apple Computer is incorporated
- February 18 – _2000 AD_, a British comic, is first published
- March 10 – The rings of Uranus are discovered
- April 22 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic
- May 25 – George Lucas' _Star Wars_ opens in movie theaters
- June – Hot Press, an Irish music magazine debuts
- June 16 - President of the Soviet Union Nikolai Podgorny resigns and former President Leonid Brezhnev becomes Head of State of USSR once again, becoming first Russian Head of State to serve in non-consecutive terms.
- June 27 – Djibouti receives its independence from France
- July 13 – The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours
- August 7 – Mount Usu volcano in Japan erupts
- August 16 – Singer, musician and actor Elvis Presley dies of heart attack at the age of 42.
- September 11 – Atari, Inc. releases its Video Computer System in North America
- October 18 – Reggie Jackson hits 3 home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers
- November – Blue Öyster Cult release their album _Spectres_
- November 13 – Shirley Jones and Marty Ingels marry
- December 20 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations

## Births

- January 8 – Amber Benson, American actress (_Buffy the Vampire Slayer_)
- January 13 – Orlando Bloom, English actor (_The Lord of the Rings_ movie trilogy, _Troy_)
- January 28 – Daunte Culpepper, NFL quarterback
- February 2 – Shakira, Colombian musician
- February 3 – Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican singer
- February 14 – Cadel Evans, first Australian Tour de France winner
- March 2 – Chris Martin, English singer (Coldplay)
- March 8 – James Van Der Beek, American actor
- April 9 – Gerard Way, American singer (My Chemical Romance)
- April 14 – Sarah Michelle Gellar American actress (_Buffy the Vampire Slayer_)
- April 23 – John Cena, American professional wrestler, hip hop musician and actor
- May 8 – Bad News Brown, Canadian musician (d. 2011)
- May 19 – Natalia Oreiro, Uruguayan singer
- May 22 – djBJoRN, Canadian/Swedish DJ and producer
- June 8 - Kanye West, Rapper, Fashion Artist
- June 10 – Schapelle Corby, Australian criminal
- July 1 – Naofumi Yamamoto,  Japanese professional wrestler
- July 8 – Milo Ventimiglia, American actor
- July 14 – Princess Victoria of Sweden, heiress apparent of Sweden
- July 17 – M.I.A., English musician
- August 3 – Oscar Pereiro, Spanish cyclist
- August 4 – Yūko Kohara, Japanese manga artist
- August 17 – William Gallas, French footballer
- August 17 – Thierry Henry, French footballer
- August 24 – Robert Enke, German footballer
- August 31 – Jeff Hardy, American wrestler
- September 15 – Angela Aki, Japanese singer
- September 20 – Namie Amuro, Japanese singer
- September 22 - Adonis Stevenson, Haitian-Canadian boxer
- September 26 – Hugo de Jonge, Dutch politician
- November 10 – Brittany Murphy, American actress
- November 16 – Oksana Baiul, Ukrainian figure skater
- December 1 – Melinda Doolittle, American singer
- December 3 – Adam Małysz, Polish ski jumper
- December 7 – Dominic Howard, English musician (Muse)

### January

- January 14 – Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1897)

### February

- February 9 – Queen Alia, Queen of Jordan (b. 1948)
- February 11 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, 5th President of India (b. 1905)

### March

- March 4 – Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1887)

### April

- April 5 – Carlos Prío Socarrás, President of Cuba (suicide) (b. 1903)

### May

- May 5 – Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1897)
- May 10 – Joan Crawford, American actress (b. 1904)
- May 16 – Modibo Keïta, 1st President of Mali (b. 1915)

### June

- June 3 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian movie director, father of Isabella Rossellini, husband of Ingrid Bergman (b. 1906)
- June 16 – Wernher von Braun, German-born American rocket scientist (b. 1912)

### July

- July 2 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian writer (b. 1899)
- July 25 – David Toro, President of Bolivia (b. 1898)

### August

- August 16 – Elvis Presley, American singer (b. 1935)
- August 19 – Groucho Marx, American actor (b. 1890)

### September

- September 16 – Marc Bolan, British pop singer (b. 1947)
- September 16 – Maria Callas, Greek-American soprano (b. 1923)
- September 18 – Paul Bernays, Swiss mathematician (b. 1888)

### October

- October 14 – Bing Crosby, American actor and singer (b. 1903)
- October 18 – Andreas Baader, German terrorist (b. 1943)

### November

- November 14 – A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Indian religion leader (b. 1896)

### December

- December 5 – Katherine Milhous, American illustrator and children's book author (b. 1894)
- December 10 – Adolph Rupp, American basketball coach (b. 1901)
- December 25 – Charlie Chaplin, English actor (b. 1889)

## Nobel Prizes

- Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, and John Hasbrouck Van Vleck
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Ilya Prigogine, Belgian physical chemist
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared by Roger Guillemin, Andrew Schally, and Rosalyn Yalow for their work on neurohormones
- Nobel Prize in Literature won by Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet
- Nobel Peace Prize won by Amnesty International, a group focused on human rights
- Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences – Bertil Ohlin, a Swedish economist and politician, and James Meade, a British economist

## Movies released

- _Annie Hall_, winner of 4 Academy Awards
- _Candleshoe_, starring David Niven, Helen Hayes, and Jodie Foster
- _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_, directed by Steven Spielberg
- _The Gauntlet_
- _The Deep_, directed by Peter Yates
- _The Goodbye Girl_, winning Academy Award for Best Actor for Richard Dreyfuss
- _Saturday Night Fever_, starring John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney
- _Smokey and the Bandit_
- _The Spy Who Loved Me_, the tenth _James Bond_ movie
- _Star Wars_

## Hit songs

- "Alison" – Elvis Costello
- "American Girl" – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- "Amoureuse de la vie" – Dalida
- "Angel In Your Arms" – Hot
- "Another Star" – Stevie Wonder
- "April Sun In Cuba" – Dragon
- "As" – Stevie Wonder
- "Baby What A Big Surprise" – Chicago
- "Barracuda" – Heart
- "Black Betty" – Ram Jam
- "Blue Bayou" – Linda Ronstadt
- "Boogie Nights" – Heatwave
- "California" – Manfred Mann's Earth Band
- "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft" – The Carpenters
- "Captain Sky" – Dalida
- "Carry On Wayward Son" – Kansas
- "Cold As Ice" – Foreigner
- "Come Sail Away" – Styx
- "Complete Control" – The Clash
- "Coyote" – Joni Mitchell
- "Dancing In The Moonlight(It's Caught Me In The Spotlight)" – Thin Lizzy
- "Dancing The Night Away" – The Motors
- "Daytime Friends" – Kenny Rogers
- "Disco Inferno" – The Trammps
- "Do Anything You Wanna Do" – Eddie and the Hotrods
- "Don't Believe A Word" – Thin Lizzy
- "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" – Crystal Gayle
- "Don't Stop" – Fleetwood Mac
- "Down To Zero" – Joan Armatrading
- "Dr Love" – Tina Charles
- "Dreamboat Annie" – Heart
- "Fanfare For The Common Man" – Emerson Lake and Palmer
- "Father Christmas" – The Kinks
- "Feels Like The First Time" – Foreigner
- "Femme est la Nuit" – Dalida
- "Fly Like An Eagle" – Steve Miller Band
- "(Get A)Grip(On Yourself)" – The Stranglers
- "Give A Little Bit" – Supertramp
- "Go Your Own Way" – Fleetwood Mac
- "God Save The Queen" – The Sex Pistols
- "Heard It In A Love Song" – Marshall Tucker
- "Heartsong" – Gordon Giltrap
- "Hello Stranger" – Yvonne Elliman
- "Help Is On It's Way" – Little River Band
- "Here Come Those Tears Again" – Jackson Browne
- "Heroes" – David Bowie
- "Holidays In The Sun" – The Sex Pistols
- "I Need A Man" – Grace Jones
- "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" – Warren Zevon
- "I'm In You" – Peter Frampton
- "In The Flesh" – Blondie
- "Jamming/Punky Reggae Party" – Bob Marley and the Wailers
- "Jet Airliner" – Steve Miller Band
- "Jungle Love" – Steve Miller Band
- "Killing of Georgie, Pt. 1-2" – Rod Stewart
- "Let There Be Rock" – AC/DC
- "Lido Shuffle" – Boz Scaggs
- "Life In The Fast Lane" – The Eagles
- "Like A Huricane" – Neil Young
- "Livin' Thing" – Electric Light Orchestra
- "Living Next Door To Alice" – Smokie
- "Lonely Boy" – Andrew Gold
- "Love Is The Answer" – Utopia
- "Ma Baker" – Boney M
- "Magazine Madonna – Sherbet
- "Mannequin" – Wire
- "Margaritaville" – Jimmy Buffett
- "Maybe I'm Amazed" (live) – Paul McCartney & Wings
- "Memory Motel" – The Rolling Stones
- "More Than A Feeling" – Boston
- "Motorhead" – Motorhead
- "No More Heroes" – The Stranglers
- "Nobody Does It Better" – Carly Simon
- "Peaches/Go Buddy Go" – The Stranglers
- "Pearl's A Singer" – Elkie Brooks
- "Portsmouth" – Mike Oldfield
- "The Pretender" – Jackson Browne
- "Pretty Vacant" – The Sex Pistols
- "Really Free" – John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett
- "Remember... C'était loin" – Dalida & Richard Chanfray as St-Germain
- "Rip To Her Shreds" – Blondie
- "Rockaria" – Electric Light Orchestra
- "Rockin' All Over The World" – Status Quo
- "Rose Of Cimarron(EP)" – Poco
- "Salma Ya Salama" – Dalida
- "Save It For A Rainy Day" – Stephen Bishop
- "Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll" – Ian Dury
- "She's Not There" – Santana
- "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" – The Ramones
- "Smoke On The Water" – Deep Purple
- "Solsbury Hill" – Peter Gabriel
- "Something Better Change/Straighten Out" – The Stranglers
- "Sometimes When We Touch" - Dan Hill
- "Sound And Vision" – David Bowie
- "Things We Do For Love" – 10cc
- "This Is Tomorrow" – Bryan Ferry
- "Ti Amo (Je t'aime)" – Dalida
- "Tie Your Mother Down" – Queen
- "2-4-6-8 Motorway" – Tom Robinson Band
- "Tumbling Dice" – Linda Ronstadt
- "Walk This Way" – Aerosmith
- "Watching The Detectives" – Elvis Costello
- "We Are The Champions" – Queen
- "We Will Rock You" – Queen
- "We Just Disagree" – Dave Mason
- "White Riot" – The Clash
- "Whole Wide World" – Wreckless Eric
- "Wild Side Of Life" – Status Quo
- "Wonderous Stories" – Yes
- "Year Of The Cat" – Al Stewart
- "You And Me" – Alice Cooper
- "You Yesyesyes" – The Residents
- "You're In My Heart" – Rod Stewart
- "You're Moving Out Today" – Carole Bayer Sager
- "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher" – Rita Coolidge
- "Your Song" – Billy Paul

## New books

- _The Amityville Horror_ – Jay Anson
- _Beggarman, Thief_ – Irwin Shaw
- _Bloodline_ – Sidney Sheldon
- _A Bonus_ – Elizabeth Smart
- _The Chancellor Manuscript_ – Robert Ludlum
- _Child of the Morning_ – Pauline Gedge
- _The Complete Book of Running_ – Jim Fixx
- _Daniel Martin_ – John Fowles
- _Dreams Die First_ – Harold Robbins
- _The Honourable Schoolboy_ – John le Carré
- _How to Save Your Own Life_ – Erica Jong
- _Illusions_ – Richard Bach
- _James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me_ – Christopher Wood
- _Oliver's Story_ – Erich Segal
- _The Plague Dogs_ – Richard Adams
- _Rage_ – Richard Bachman
- _Refiner's Fire_ – Mark Helprin
- _A Scanner Darkly_ – Philip K. Dick
- _The Sea, The Sea_ – Iris Murdoch
- _The Shining_ – Stephen King
- _The Silmarillion_ – J. R. R. Tolkien
- _The Slave Girl_ – Buchi Emecheta
- _Song of Solomon_ – Toni Morrison
- _Terms of Endearment_ – Larry McMurtry
- _The Thorn Birds_ – Colleen McCullough
- _The True American, A Folk Fable_ – Melvin Van Peebles
- _The Wars_ – Timothy Findley
- _Rocky Marciano. Biography of A First Son_ – Everett M. Skehan