1977

1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	There are over 4 million immigrants to the USA in the period 1970–79, coming mainly from Asia and the Americas.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	The number of one-parent families in the USA increases 79%, representing one in five of all families.
1971–1978	USA, North America, Asia, Europe, South America, Africa [statistics and demography]	Immigration patterns in the USA: 38% from North America (Mexico, Caribbean); 35% from Asia; 19% from Europe; 6% from South America; and 2% from Africa.
15 January 1974 - 12 July 1984	USA [television]	The situation comedy Happy Days, about family life in the 1950s, premiers on US television and runs for 11 seasons.
11 September 1974 - 21 March 1983	USA [television]	Little House on the Prairie, a popular television drama based on the classic series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, starts on US television. It chronicles the Ingalls family's struggles in the American West in the 1870s.
1975–1979	UK [television]	Fawlty Towers, a comedy series starring John Cleese as the rude and disaster-prone Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty, is shown on British television. It also stars Connie Booth, Prunella Scales, and Andrew Sachs.
1976–1981	UK, USA [television]	The Muppet Show, featuring sketches and songs by Jim Henson's puppets – including Kermit and Miss Piggy – is shown on British and US television.
1977	USA [television]	In the USA, 84% of all travel is by private vehicle; 9% of the population walk to their destination, and only 2.4% use public transportation.
1977	USA [science]	US scientist Herbert Boyer, of the firm Genentech, fuses a segment of human DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) into the bacterium Escherichia coli, which begins to produce the human protein somatostatin; this is the first commercially produced genetically engineered product.
1977	USA [sex and sexuality]	Two homosexual men in New York City are diagnosed as having the rare cancer Kaposi's sarcoma. They are later thought to be the first victims of AIDS.
1977	USA [shops and shopping]	In the USA, George Anderson opens the first video rental shop, charging $50 to join and $10 per film a night.
1977	UK [sports]	Skateboarding is becoming more popular in Britain, with the prime minister, James Callaghan, seen riding a board. Some local authorities build skateboard parks, which fall into disuse when the craze wanes.
1977	USA [statistics and demography]	There are 4,311 black elected officials in the USA, up from 1,469 in 1970.
1977	UK [trade]	For the first time, Britain imports more cars than it manufactures.
1977	England [biology]	English biochemist Frederick Sanger describes the full sequence of 5,386 bases in the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of virus phiX174 in Cambridge, England; the first sequencing of an entire genome.
1977	USA [computing]	Apple Computers launches the Apple II personal computer; owners must use their own television screens and store data on audiocassette tapes. It is the first mass-produced personal computer in assembled form.
1977	USA [aircraft]	US inventor Paul MacCready's aircraft Gossamer Condor makes the first human-powered flight and wins the £50,000 Kremer Prize.
1977	USA [economic theory]	The Canadian-born US economist J K Galbraith publishes The Age of Uncertainty.
1977	USA [clothing and fashion]	Over 500 million pairs of denim jeans are sold in the USA, with Levi Strauss the largest producer. This represents a huge increase over a decade: sales in 1967 were around 200 million.
1977	UK [food and drink]	St Ivel Gold, the first low-fat butter substitute in Britain, is launched. It comprises 51% water.
1977	England [health and medicine]	In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is developed by the British gynaecologists Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards. The first IVF baby is born in 1978.
1977	France [museums and galleries]	The Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (Pompidou Centre) in Paris, France, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, is completed.
1977	UK [newspapers]	The circulation of the Sun overtakes that of the competing tabloid Daily Mirror in Britain.
1977	UK [opera]	The opera Mary Queen of Scots by the Scottish composer Thea Musgrave is first performed, in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is based on the play Moray by Amalia Elguera.
1977	England, Scotland [opera]	The opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus by the English composer Peter Maxwell Davies is first performed, in Orkney, Scotland. The text is from Magnus by the Scottish poet George Mackay Brown.
1977	Japan [orchestral music]	The Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu completes his orchestral work A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden.
1977	Estonia [orchestral music]	The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt completes his orchestral work Tabula rasa his Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.
1977	England [painting]	The German-born English artist Frank Auerbach paints Camden Theatre in the Rain.
1977	France [literature and language]	The French social and literary critic Roland Barthes publishes Fragments d'un discours amoureux/A Lover's Discourse.
1977	France [philosophy]	French historian Philippe Ariès publishes The Hour of Our Death.
1977	England, USA [popular music]	The Anglo-American rock group Fleetwood Mac releases the album Rumours, one of the best-selling pop albums to date.
1977	UK [popular music]	Punk music comes to prominence in the UK, with the emergence of bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Buzzcocks, the Damned, and the Stranglers.
7 January 1977	Czechoslovakia [human rights]	Human-rights supporters in Czechoslovakia publish the manifesto ‘Charter 77’, pressing for implementation of the 1975 Helsinki human-rights guarantees given at the 1975 Helsinki conference in Finland.
3 February 1977	Ethiopia [political events]	Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam becomes leader of Ethiopia after killing the existing head of state, General Teferi Bante, and six other leading members of the ruling military council.
12 March 1977	Chile [law and government]	Political parties are banned in Chile and censorship is tightened under General Augusto Pinochet.
20 March 1977	India [elections]	The Congress Party is defeated in the Indian general election and the prime minister Indira Gandhi loses her seat.
23 March 1977	UK [law and government]	The British Labour prime minister James Callaghan and the Liberal leader David Steel agree on a pact between their parties (the ‘Lib–Lab Pact’) to avoid defeat in a confidence motion.
30 April 1977	UK [radio]	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio 1 and Radio 3 launch quadrophonic broadcasts in Britain.
May - November 1977	Australia [cricket]	After failing to win the rights to televise Test cricket in Australia, Kerry Packer, owner of the Australian Channel Nine Television, signs up 66 leading players to participate in his own series of matches; all are barred from Test cricket.
5 June - 11 June 1977	UK [fairs and festivals]	Jubilee week sees nationwide festivities as Britain celebrates 25 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
8 June 1977	Uganda [political events]	Uganda is excluded from the Commonwealth conference for its human-rights abuses.
15 June 1977	Spain [elections]	Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez wins a small majority in Spain's first general election since 1936.
27 June 1977	Djibouti [decolonization]	Djibouti gains its independence from France.
30 June 1977	Asia [political events]	The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a collective military system, is dissolved.
5 July 1977	Pakistan [law and government]	A coup ousts Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as prime minister of Pakistan. He is replaced by General Zia ul-Haq, Bhutto's former army chief of staff.
12 July 1977	USA [medicine]	US medical researcher Raymond Damadian produces the first images of human tissues using an NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) scanner; used to detect cancer and other diseases without the need for X-rays, the scanner is based on the fact that electromagnetic fields cause some atomic nuclei to align themselves. The scanners become commercially available in the USA in 1984.
22 July 1977	China [law and government]	The Chinese Communist Party expels the ‘Gang of Four’, who had tried to seize power after the death of Mao Zedong. Deng Xiaoping is reinstated as deputy premier.
16 August 1977	USA [births and deaths]	Elvis Presley, US rock and roll singer, whose great success changed US popular culture, dies of heart failure (probably associated with drug abuse) at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee (42).
16 August - 17 August 1977	USA [musical performers]	Around 2 million Elvis Presley records sell within one day of his death.
18 August 1977	China [law and government]	The 11th Chinese Communist Party Congress indicates a swing away from hardline Maoism towards economic improvement.
19 August 1977	USA [births and deaths]	Groucho Marx (born Julius Marx), US comedian of stage, film, radio, and television along with two of his brothers, Harpo and Chico, dies in Los Angeles, California (86).
26 October 1977	Somalia [plagues and epidemics]	The last known case of smallpox is reported, in Somalia.
1 November 1977	USA [law and government]	The USA quits the International Labour Organization, which formulates standards for labour conditions, but President Jimmy Carter raises the minimum wage to $2.65 an hour.
4 November 1977	South Africa [political events]	The United Nations (UN) imposes a strict arms embargo on South Africa.
6 December 1977 - 24 March 1978	USA [work and unemployment]	One of the longest strikes in the history of the US coal industry ends when miners receive higher wages and more generous benefits.
25 December 1977	England, USA [births and deaths]	Charlie Chaplin, English actor and director of the silent film era, who gained fame playing a pathetic but humorous character, dies in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland (88).

1977 (redirected from Died in 1977)

1977

1977
(redirected from Died in 1977)