1977

For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album).

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1974 1975 1976 - 1977 - 1978 1979 1980

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar).

Events

January-February

January 1 - First woman Episcopal priest ordained.
January 6 - Record company EMI sacks the controversial UK punk rock group the Sex Pistols
January 18 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious "legionnaire's disease"
January 18 - Australia experiences its worst railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, in which 83 people died.
January 19 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka "Tokyo Rose").
January 19 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that this occurs.
January 20 - Gerald Rudolph Ford, 38th President of the United States is succeeded by Jimmy Carter.
January 21 - President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders.
February 7 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24.
February 11 - A 20.2-kg lobster is caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest known crustacean).
February 18 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.

March-April

March 1 - Sara Lowndes Dylan files for divorce from her husband of 11 years, Bob Dylan
March 4 - An earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500
March 9 - Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims take over three buildings in Washington, DC, killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends two days later.
March 27 - Collision between KLM and PanAm Boeing 747's at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583
April 1 - Hay-on-Wye declares independence
April 7 - German Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light near his home in Karlsruhe. "The Ulrike Meinhoff Commando" later claims responsibility
April 7 - Toronto Blue Jays play their first-ever game of baseball against the Chicago White Sox
April 28 - Stuttgart court sentences RAF members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carle Raspe to life imprisonment

May-June

May 23 - Scientists report using bacteria in lab to make insulin
May 23 - Moluccan terrorists take over a school in Bovensmilde, northern Netherlands (105 hostages) and a passenger train in Bovensmilde-Assan route nearby (90 hostages) at the same time. June 11 Dutch Royal Marines storm the train - six terrorists and two hostages are killed
May 28 - In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 inside
June 5 - A coup takes place in Seychelles.
June 5 - The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale.
June 10 - James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee (he was recaptured on June 13).
June 15 - Spain has its first democratic elections after 41 years under the Franco regime.
June 20 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules that states are not required to spend Medicaid funds on elective abortions.
June 20 - TV-program Alternative Three shown in British television

July-August

July 13 - The New York City Blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours and results in looting and other disorder.
July 20 - A flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, caused by thunderstorms, kills over 70 people.
July 22 - The purged Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power as the "Gang of Four" is expelled from the Communist Party of China.
July 25 - About 9 pm a group of three boys were at play in a residential back yard. Two large birds approached, and chased the boys. Two escaped unharmed, but the third boy, ten-year-old Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds reportedly clamped his shoulder with its claws, then lifted Lowe about two feet off the ground, carrying him some distance. Lowe fought against the bird, which released him.
July 28 - First oil through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System reaches Valdez, Alaska
July 30 - Left-wing German terrorists Susanne Albrect, Brigitte Mohnhaupt and a third person assassinate Jrgen Ponto, chairman of the Dresdener Bank in Oberursel, West Germany
August 3 Two months after the Apple II and Commodore PET ship, Tandy announces the TRS-80
August 4 - US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy
August 12 - NASA space shuttle makes its first test flight off the back of a jetliner
August 15 - The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by The Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "WOW!" signal for notation made by a volunteer on the project.
August 16 - Rock singer Elvis Presley dies in Tennessee.
August 20 - Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft

September

September 5 - Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay
September 5 - Hanns-Martin Schleyer, President of the Employers Association, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany. Kidnappers kill three escorting police officers and his chauffeur. They demand release of Red Army Faction prisoners
September 6 (approx) - Steve Biko suffers a massive head injury in police custody in South Africa.
September 7 - Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The US agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century
September 8 - INTERPOL releases copyright laws that govern the reproduction of video tapes & other material.
September 11 - The last "wild" infection of smallpox is reported in Somalia.
September 12 - Steve Biko dies of his injuries.
September 21 - Nuclear-proliferation pact, curbing spread of nuclear weapons, is signed by 15 countries including the United States and USSR.
September 28 - Porsche 928 debuts at the Geneva Auto Convention

October-December

October 13 - Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction
October 18 - Three Palestinian hijackers are killed when a German anti-terrorist squad storms a Lufthansa aircraft at Mogadishu Airport
October 18 - Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stannheim prison. Irmgard Mller fails. Their supporters continue to claim they were murdered. Bodies are buried October 27
October 19 - Kidnapped industrialist Hans-Martin Schleyer is found killed in West Berlin
October 20 - Three members of rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd die in charter plane crash
November 6 - The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39
November 19 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he meets with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement (much of the Arab world is outraged by the visit).
November 22 - British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service
December 4 - Jean-Bdel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor.
December 4 - A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 is hijacked and then blown up in mid-air over the Straits of Johor, killing 100.

Unknown dates

A collection of work by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, is published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien.
Swedish music group ABBA passes The Beatles as having most records sold.
2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, discovered by Charlie Kowal.
Don Novello first appeared on Saturday Night Live.
2000 AD the UK sci-fi comic is launched, featuring Judge Dredd.

Year in topic

1977 in film

Annie Hall
Dot And The Kangaroo (Aus)
Storm Boy (Aus)
The science fiction saga Star Wars, later renamed to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, makes its first outing to the cinema and makes George Lucas and the team at Lucasfilm a staggering $461 million.
John Travolta discoed in Saturday Night Fever.
In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network.
Annie Hall picks up an Academy Award for Best Picture and All The President's Men wins Jason Robards the Supporting Actor and an Art Direction for George Jenkins and George Gaines.

1977 in literature
1977 in music

February 4 - Fleetwood Mac releases Rumours, which is a blockbuster album (recorded on March 3, 1976).
Kenny Rogers tops the charts with the country classic "Lucille", the first of more than 20 number 1 hit singles on the country and/or pop charts for the former First Edition star.
DJ_Kool_Herc classifies and introduces a new movement in America, calling it Hip hop.
The Talking Heads release their debut album, .
The Police formed

1977 in rail transport

Auto-Train Corporation launches and then discontinues Auto Train service to Louisville, Kentucky.

1977 in sports

May 29 - Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
Creation of the WilliamsF1 Formula One racing team by Frank Williams.
October 1 - Football (soccer) legend Pel plays the last game of his storied career, a friendly match between his current team, the New York Cosmos, and his old Brazilian club Santos, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Pel played the first half for the Cosmos and the second half for Santos.