1977

Events from the year 1977 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Gerald Ford (R-MI) (until January 20), Jimmy Carter (D-GA) (starting January 20)
* Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY) (until January 20), Walter Mondale (D-MN) (starting January 20)
* Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (MN)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert (D-OK) (until January 3), Tip O'Neill (D-MA) (starting January 4)
* Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT) (until January 3), Robert Byrd (D-WV) (starting January 3)
* Congress: 94th (until January 3), 95th (starting January 3)
==Events==
===January===
* January 1
** The world's first personal computer, the Commodore PET, is demonstrated at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
** The Coalition of Free Men is founded in Columbia, Maryland, in order to create a unified voice in addressing issues concerning men and boys. The organization would later become the National Coalition for Men, America's oldest men's rights organization.
* January 3 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
* January 9
** Super Bowl XI: The Oakland Raiders defeat the Minnesota Vikings 32–14 at Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
** Rock band Toto is founded by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro in Van Nuys, Los Angeles.
* January 17 – In the first execution after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the United States, Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.
* January 19
** Snow falls in Miami, Florida (despite its ordinarily tropical climate) for the only time in its history. Snowfall has occurred farther south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii.
** President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka “Tokyo Rose”).
* January 20 – Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States, and Walter F. Mondale is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
* January 21 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders.
* January 23 – Roots begins its phenomenally successful run on ABC.
* January 28 – The Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 hits Buffalo, New York.
* January 31
** The contiguous U.S. average monthly minimum temperature of 12.52 °F or −10.82 °C is the coldest for any month since nationwide records were first compiled in 1895.
** In contrast to the contiguous U.S., Alaska had to that point its warmest January on record with a mean of 17.4 °F or −8.1 °C being 16.2 °F or 9.0 °C warmer than the 1925 to 1974 average (1.2 °F or −17.1 °C) and 1.8 °F or 1.0 °C warmer than Alaska's previous record warmest January 1937.
===February===
* February 4
** Fleetwood Mac's Grammy Award-winning album Rumours is released.
** Eleven CTA commuters are killed when an elevated train derails from the Loop in central Chicago.
* February 12 – Actress Christa Helm is fatally stabbed on a sidewalk in West Hollywood. The perpetrator is never identified.
* February 18 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747, at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
===March===
* March 9 – Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims take over three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends two days later.
* March 11 – Walt Disney Productions' 22nd feature film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, is released. It is the studio's most critically well-received film in years and the last in the Disney canon in which the late Walt Disney was involved with in any capacity.
* March 15 – Tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the PBS opera series Live from the Met both make their American television debuts. Pavarotti stars in a complete production of Puccini's La Boheme.
* March 18 – United States lifts its ban on travel by U.S. citizens to Cambodia, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam.
* March 26 – The fundamentalist organization Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson.
* March 28 – The 49th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Richard Pryor, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda and Warren Beatty, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. John G. Avildsen's Rocky receives ten nominations, winning Best Picture and Best Director for Avildsen. Rocky is tied with Sidney Lumet's Network for the most nominations, while the latter film and Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men both won four awards each. The late Peter Finch becomes the first posthumous actor Oscar winner, winning for Best Actor.
===April===
* April 4 – Grundy, Virginia, experiences a major flood that causes around $15 million in damages to 228 residential and commercial structures.
* April 5 – Beginning of demonstrations in 10 cities across the U.S., the longest being the 3.5 week sit-in the San Francisco Federal Building to persuade President Jimmy Carter to implement the first Federal civil rights law for people with disabilities, Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, without reinstituting the "separate but equal" doctrine.
* April 7
** The Toronto Blue Jays play their first game of baseball against the Chicago White Sox.
** The Seattle Mariners play their first-ever game of baseball against the California Angels.
* April 21 – Residents of Dover, Massachusetts, report sightings of the so-called "Dover Demon".
===May===
* May 4 – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops rule that divorced Catholics, including those who remarried outside the Church, are no longer automatically excommunicated and can still attend Mass but if they remarry without obtaining a Church annulment, cannot receive Holy Communion and confession.
* May 8 – Suzanne Lacy's extended performance piece about rape, Three Weeks in May begins in Los Angeles and continues until May 24.
* May 16 – A 20-passenger S-61L helicopter topples sideways at takeoff from the roof of the Pan Am Building in Midtown Manhattan. Four passengers are killed by the turning rotors and a woman at street level is fatally struck by a fallen blade.
* May 17 – Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre first opens in San Jose, California.
* May 25 – The movie Star Wars, directed by George Lucas is released as the first film in the Star Wars Saga and the first in the Original Trilogy.
* May 26 – George Willig climbs the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
* May 27 – Space Mountain opens at Disneyland and will become one of the park's most popular attractions.
* May 28 – The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky is engulfed in fire, killing 165 inside.
* May 29 – Indianapolis 500: A. J. Foyt becomes the first driver (to date) to win a record four times.
===June===
* June 4 – Humboldt Park riot in Chicago.
* June 5 – The Portland Trail Blazers defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 109–107 to win the NBA finals 4–2. Bill Walton is named series MVP.
* June 7 – After campaigning by Anita Bryant and her anti-gay "Save Our Children" crusade, Miami-Dade County, Florida voters overwhelmingly vote to repeal the county's gay rights ordinance.
* June 10 – Assassin James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured on June 13.
* June 16 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
* June 20 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules that states are not required to spend Medicaid funds on elective abortions.
* June 22 – Walt Disney Productions' 23rd feature film, The Rescuers, is released to box office success and positive critical reception.
* June 25 – American Roy Sullivan is struck by lightning for the 7th time.
* June 26
** Some 200,000 protesters march through the streets of San Francisco, protesting Anita Bryant's anti-gay remarks and the murder of Robert Hillsborough.
** Elvis Presley performs his final concert, in Indianapolis, Indiana's Market Square Arena. Two previous performances were filmed in Omaha, Nebraska (June 19th) and Rapid City, South Dakota (June 21st) for the TV Special "Elvis In Concert." This special was not televised until October 3 of that year on CBS.
* June 30 – Women Marines disbanded; women are integrated into regular Marine Corps.
===July===
* July 13 – The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and disorder.
* July 19 – Flooding in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, caused by massive rainfall, kills over 75 people and causes billions of dollars in damage.
* July 24 – Led Zeppelin plays their last U.S. concert in Oakland, California at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. A brawl erupts between Led Zeppelin's crew and promoter Bill Graham's staff, resulting in criminal assault charges for several of Led Zeppelin's entourage including drummer John Bonham.
* July 28 – The first oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System reaches Valdez, Alaska.
===August===
* August 3 – United States Senate hearings on MKULTRA are held.
* August 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
* August 9 – Hulk Hogan debuts as The Super Destroyer for Championship Wrestling from Florida when he is defeated by Don Serrano at John Carroll Catholic High School's gym in Fort Pierce, Florida
* August 10 – David Berkowitz is captured in Yonkers, New York, after over a year of murders in New York City as the Son of Sam.
* August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle, named Enterprise, makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).
* August 15 – The 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.
* August 16 – Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 75,000 fans lined the streets of Memphis for this funeral, which occurred on August 18, but wasn't televised until August 20.
* August 20 – Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
===September===
* September 1 – Evangelical pastor Oral Roberts publishes plans to build the 'City of God Hospital' in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The towers are completed in 1981 for $120m ($299m, in 2012)
* September 4 – The Golden Dragon Massacre takes place in San Francisco, California.
* September 5 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
* September 7 – 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.
* September 13 – Soap debuts on ABC and launches the career of Billy Crystal.
* September 18 – Courageous, skippered by Ted Turner, sweeps Australia in the 24th America's Cup yachting race.
* September 19
** Under pressure from the Carter Administration, President Anastasio Somoza Debayle lifts the state of siege in Nicaragua.
** Closure of steelworks in Youngstown, Ohio, is announced.
* September 21 – A nuclear non-proliferation pact is signed by 15 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union.
* September 23 – Jazz-rock group Steely Dan releases their sixth studio album Aja; it becomes their highest charting album at No. 3 and goes on to win a Grammy Award.
* September 29
** Singer-songwriter Billy Joel releases his fifth studio album The Stranger; it becomes the first of several hit albums, spawning five hit singles, going 10× platinum in the U.S., and later ranking at No. 70 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
** The modern Food Stamp Program begins when the Food Stamp Act of 1977 is enacted.
* September 30 – A series of partial government shutdowns occur, finally ending in December.
===October===
* October 1
** Energy Research and Development Administration part of Department of Energy.
** Pelé plays his final professional football game as a member of the New York Cosmos.
* October 6 – Irish American mobster Danny Greene is murdered with a car bomb by the Cleveland crime family in Lyndhurst, Ohio.
* October 12 – The passage of the Community Reinvestment Act.
* October 14 – Anita Bryant is famously pied by four gay rights activists during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. This event resulted in her political fallout from anti-gay activism.
* October 18 – Newly acquired and flamboyantly charismatic slugger Reggie Jackson hits three home runs to lead the New York Yankees to their first World Series championship victory since 1962 over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1977 World Series in six games.
* October 20 – Three members (lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and a backup singer) of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd die in a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, three days after the release of their fifth studio album Street Survivors.
* October 21 – Rock singer Meat Loaf (real name Marvin Lee Aday) releases the album Bat Out of Hell.
* October 24 – A new Peanuts special, It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, airs on CBS. It shows and names "Heather", the Little Red-Haired Girl, thereupon ending the 'mystery'.
===November===
* November 6 – The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39.
* November 8 – San Francisco elects City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the U.S.
* November 13 – The comic strip Li'l Abner ends its 43-year run in newspapers.
* November 15 – Bee Gees' original movie soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever is released in the United States.
* November 22 – British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
* November 27 – The Rankin/Bass animated film The Hobbit premieres on NBC in the United States.
* November 28 – Jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp records "On Green Dolphin Street", the first digitally recorded album to be released commercially in the USA.
===December===
* December 1 – Pinwheel debuts on Channel C-3 (now Nickelodeon).
* December 11 – After losing 26 games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the U.S. National Football League record their very first win; against the New Orleans Saints.
* December 12 – The Lockheed's top-secret stealth aircraft project, designated Have Blue, precursor to the U.S. F-117A Nighthawk, makes its first flight.
* December 13 – Crash of Air Indiana Flight 216: A DC-3 charter plane carrying the University of Evansville basketball team crashes in rain and dense fog about 90 seconds after takeoff from Evansville Dress Regional Airport. 29 people die in the crash, including 14 members of the team and head coach Bob Watson.
* December 16 – Mikhail Baryshnikov's 1976 production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker comes to CBS a year after premiering onstage at the Kennedy Center. This adaptation will become the most popular television production of the work.
* December 19 – The Great Bakersfield Dust Storm begins hits the Southern San Joaquin Valley, in California; resulting in three deaths and $40 million in damages.
* December 21 – The Great Bakersfield Dust Storm ends.
==Memoriam==
===January===
* January 2 – Erroll Garner, jazz pianist (aged 55; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 5 – Onslow Stevens, actor (aged 74; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 6 – William Gropper, artist (aged 79; Manhasset, NY, USA)
* January 14 – Peter Finch, English-born actor (aged 60; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* January 17 – Gary Gilmore, criminal (aged 36; Draper, UT, USA)
* January 23 – Toots Shor, proprietor (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 28 – Burt Mustin, actor (aged 92; Glendale, CA, USA)
* January 29 – Freddie Prinze, actor and comedian (aged 22; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===February===
* February 3 – Pauline Starke, actress (aged 76; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* February 4 – Brett Halliday, mystery writer (aged 72; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
* February 12 – Henry Jordan, American football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (aged 42; Milwaukee, WI, USA)
* February 20 – Ralph Hungerford, naval officer, 33rd Governor of American Samoa (aged 79; Abington, PA, USA)
* February 21 – John Hubley, animator (aged 62; New Haven, CT, USA)
* February 27 – Allison Hayes, actress (aged 46; San Diego, CA, USA)
===March===
* March 3 – Percy Marmont, actor (aged 93; London, England, UK)
* March 8 – Henry Hull, actor (aged 86; Cornwall, England, UK)
* March 10 – E. Power Biggs, English-American organist (aged 70; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* March 11 – Ulysses S. Grant IV, geologist and paleontologist (aged 83; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* March 14 – Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights activist (aged 59; Mound Bayou, MS, USA)
* March 19 – William L. Laurence, Jewish Lithuanian-American journalist (aged 89; Mallorca, Spain)
* March 29 – Charles Nicoletti, gangster (aged 60; Northlake, IL, USA)
===April===
* April 21 – Gummo Marx, vaudeville performer (aged 84; Palm Springs, CA, USA)
* April 23 – Charles D. Herron, United States Army general (aged 100; Honolulu, HI, USA)
===May===
* May 9 – James Jones, author (aged 55; Southampton, NY, USA)
* May 10 – Joan Crawford, actress (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
===June===
* June 16 – Wernher von Braun, German, later American, aerospace engineer and space architect (aged 65; Alexandria, VA, USA)
===July===
* July 9 – Alice Paul, suffragist (aged 92; Moorestown, NJ, USA)
===August===
* August 1 – Francis Gary Powers, U-2 spy plane pilot (aged 47; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 3 – Alfred Lunt, actor (aged 84; Chicago, IL, USA)
* August 5 – Waldo L. Schmitt, biologist (aged 90; Sandy Spring, MD, USA)
* August 9 – George Kenney, World War II United States Army Air Forces general (aged 88; Bay Harbor Islands, FL, USA)
* August 14 – Ron Haydock, actor (aged 37; Victorville, CA, USA)
* August 16 – Elvis Presley, actor, musician and singer-songwriter (aged 42; Memphis, TN, USA)
* August 17 – Delmer Daves, screenwriter and director (aged 73; La Jolla, CA, USA)
* August 19 – Groucho Marx, actor and comedian (aged 86; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 22 – Sebastian Cabot, English actor (aged 59; North Saanich, BC, Canada)
* August 29 – Jean Hagen, actress (aged 54; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===September===
* September 1 – Ethel Waters, singer and actress (aged 80; Chatsworth, CA, USA)
* September 2 – Stephen Dunne, actor (aged 59; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 8 – Zero Mostel, actor (aged 62; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* September 16 – Maria Callas, Greek soprano (aged 53; Paris, France)
* September 24
** Sherm Lollar, baseball player and coach (aged 53; Springfield, MO, USA)
** Frederick Merk, historian (aged 90; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* September 26 – Ernie Lombardi, baseball player and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (aged 69; Santa Cruz, CA, USA)
* September 29 – Robert McKimson, animator and director (aged 66; Burbank, CA, USA)
===October===
* October 2 – Joseph William Woodrough, federal judge (aged 104; Omaha, NE, USA)
* October 3 – Tay Garnett, film director (aged 83; Sawtell, CA, USA)
* October 6 – Danny Greene, Irish American mobster (aged 43; Lyndhurst, OH, USA)
* October 8 – Joe Greenstein, Polish-born strongman (aged 84; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 11 – MacKinlay Kantor, writer, Pulitzer Prize winner (aged 73; Sarasota, FL, USA)
* October 12 – Dorothy Davenport, actress (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 14 – Bing Crosby, pop singer and actor (aged 74; Alcobendas, Spain)
* October 20
** Ronnie Van Zant, lead singer (aged 29; Gillsburg, MS, USA)
** Cassie Gaines, lead singer (aged 29; Gillsburg, MS, USA)
** Steve Gaines, lead singer and guitarist (aged 28; Gillsburg, MS, USA)
* October 27 – James M. Cain, writer (aged 85; University Park, MD, USA)
===November===
* November 3 – Florence Vidor, silent film actress (aged 82; Pacific Palisades, CA, USA)
* November 5 – Guy Lombardo, bandleader (aged 75; Houston, TX, USA)
* November 8 – Bucky Harris, baseball player and manager (aged 81; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* November 9 – Gertrude Astor, film character actress (aged 90; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
* November 16 – José Acosta, baseball starting pitcher (aged 86; Havana, Cuba, USA)
* November 21 – Richard Carlson, actor and screen director (aged 65; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===December===
* December 5 – Rahsaan Roland Kirk, jazz multi-instrumentalist (aged 42; Bloomington, IN, USA)
* December 15 – Wilfred Kitching, 7th General of the Salvation Army (aged 84; London, England, UK)
* December 19 – Nellie Tayloe Ross, 13th Governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927 and director of the United States Mint from 1933 to 1953; first female state governor in the U.S. (aged 101; Washington, DC, USA)
* December 25 – Charlie Chaplin, actor (aged 88; Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland)
==External links==
* 1977 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 20