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October 1976

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October 20, 1976: Seventy-eight people drown in U.S. ferryboat accident[1]
October 6, 1976: The Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen) are arrested in China, bringing an end to the Cultural Revolution

The following events occurred in October 1976:

October 1, 1976 (Friday)

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NOAA colorized photo of Liza
  • Hurricane Liza killed more than 600 people in Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, striking the resort city of La Paz, Baja California Sur where 350 people died, and another 280 in the surrounding area.[2]
  • The U.S. state of California became the first in the United States to grant terminally ill hospital patients the right to the "living will", where they could opt to withdraw life-sustaining procedures if there was no hope of recovery. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law after it had passed both houses of the California state legislature.[3]
  • U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz was reprimanded by President Gerald Ford, after racist jokes and remarks that Butz had made against African-American people, were printed in the magazine New Times. Ford summoned Butz to the White House for "a rare public upbraiding of a Cabinet official" and Butz apologized to the lone black U.S. Senator, Edward Brooke. While most newspapers avoided quoting the joke directly, the statement was described as saying that black people wanted "only three things" and that "The things were listed, in order, in obscene, derogatory and scatological terms."[4]
  • The alcohol industry in the United States switched to the metric system in identifying the volume of liquor.[5] Notably, the fifth, (1/5 of a U.S. gallon or 757 milliliters), was replaced by the 750 mL bottle and the pint bottle (1/8 of a gallon or 473 mL) was replaced by the 500 mL bottle.
  • Born: Nasir al-Wuhayshi, Yemen-born terrorist and leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula (killed in drone strike 2015)

October 2, 1976 (Saturday)

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  • Argentina's President Jorge Rafael Videla narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by guerrillas who had planted a time-bomb beneath the reviewing stand at the heavily guarded Campo de Mayo Army Base near Buenos Aires. Videla reviewed a parade of the base's troops and made a speech to mark "Army Communications Day", then left the area to inspect a display at a nearby building. Five minutes after the ceremonies ended and the reviewing stand had emptied, the bomb exploded, destroying the stand and the area on which the president had been standing. General Videla, who had continued living on the base after being installed as president, had preceded a speech by the base commander, General Jose Catan, who told the assembled soldiers that the Argentine armed forces were winning the battle against left-wing opponents and said that "the guerrillas have given up trying to attack military bases," a few minutes before the bomb exploded.[6]
  • Danny Thompson, a shortstop for baseball's Texas Rangers, played his final game, after having played for four seasons with leukemia. He died on December 10.
  • Born:
  • Died:

October 3, 1976 (Sunday)

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October 4, 1976 (Monday)

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InterCity 125[10]
Reasoner, Walters and Smith
  • Barbara Walters began work as the first evening national news anchor in the U.S., working with Harry Reasoner as the co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight, still referred to at the time as ABC Evening News.
  • A group of three gunmen from the Basque terrorist organization ETA carried out the assassination of Juan María de Araluce Villar, his chauffeur, and three policemen in an escort vehicle, as he was departing his home in San Sebastián. Araluce, a 59-year-old Basque economist and one of the 17 "Counselors of the Realm", was killed along with the others by submachine gun fire.[12]
  • Earl Butz resigned as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture after both Democrat and Republican politicians called for his departure over racist remarks that he had made.[13]
  • The U.S. Supreme Court voted not to reconsider its July 2 decision in Gregg v. Georgia, clearing the way for individual states to carry out death sentences imposed since the original ruling.[14]
  • U.S. President Gerald Ford signed the Tax Reform Act of 1976, a bipartisan bill that lowered taxes on corporations and extended payroll tax reductions that had already been in place. The Act reduced the overall tax burden in the U.S. by $18 billion. In addition, it made assignment of social security number mandatory for U.S. citizens for identification for state and federal services.[15]
  • Born:

October 5, 1976 (Tuesday)

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October 6, 1976 (Wednesday)

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  • One month after the death of Mao Zedong, the new Communist leadership placed "the Gang of Four" — Mao's widow Jiang Qing, Communist Party Deputy Chairman Wang Hongwen, Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Chunqiao, and the party's chief propaganda leader, Yao Wenyuan — under arrest, effectively bringing an end to the Cultural Revolution that had started ten years earlier in the People’s Republic of China.[19] After two weeks without comment on rumors, the Chinese government confirmed the arrest of the group in the newspaper Jenmin Jih Pao.[20] Confirmation of the arrest was not disclosed until the next day when the newspapers first quoted Chairman Hua Guofeng first referred to them as the Gang of Four.[21] The cause of arrest was described in posters placed on walls in Beijing, which related that a gunman had shot at a convoy of cars earlier in the day in an attempt to assassinate Communist Party Chairman Hua Guofeng, and the gunman confessed that he had been hired by the widow of Chairman Mao.[22]
  • All 73 people on Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 were killed when a bomb, placed by anti-Fidel Castro terrorists, exploded after the plane took off from Bridgetown in Barbados. The DC-8 had been loaned to Cubana Airlines by Air Canada and was flying from Guyana to Cuba, with stops at Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the pilot reported to the control tower that there had been an explosion on the plane and that he was attempting to return to Bridgetown, but plunged into the Caribbean Sea 11 miles (18 km) short of the return. Two men were arrested in Trinidad the next day after it was found that they had boarded Flight 455 at Trinidad, then got off the flight without luggage and flew back the same day. Hernan Ricardo and Freddy Lugo were both employees of a company in Venezuela, "Commercial Industrial Investigations, that was staffed by Cuban exiles. The Venezuelan government then arrested five of that company's staff on October 15.[23][24][25][26]
  • In Thailand, student protesters were killed by right-wing paramilitary troops and government forces at Thammasat University in Bangkok, while protesting the return of the nation’s former dictator, General Thanom Kittikachorn. The massacre led to the return of the military government.[27]
  • In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford made a key error on national television when he declared that "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." At the time, the nations between West Germany and the Soviet Union were occupied by Soviet troops and under control of Communist regimes that followed the guidance of the U.S.S.R.'s Communist Party.[28]
  • Born:
  • Died: Gilbert Ryle, 76, English philosopher, author of the 1949 book The Concept of Mind

October 7, 1976 (Thursday)

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October 8, 1976 (Friday)

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Prime Minister Fälldin

October 9, 1976 (Saturday)

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  • Retired U.S. Air Force General Paul Tibbets, who had flown the B-29 bomber that had dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan on August 6, 1945, re-enacted the event as part of an airshow in Harlingen, Texas,[32] leading to a protest by Japan's Ambassador to the United States and editorials in the U.S. condemning the show as being in poor taste.[33] The three weekend shows had been sponsored by an organization that restored and preserved old airplanes, the "Confederate Air Force", which invited Tibbets to fly the restored B-29 and which arranged for a U.S. Army demolition team to set off "an atomic-bomb simulator, a barrel of explosives, sending a miniature mushroom-shaped cloud billowing skyward."[32] Tibbets performed the re-enactment twice the next day. The United States government apologized to the Japanese Foreign Ministry five days later.[34]
  • Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bob Moose was killed in a car crash on his 29th birthday in Ohio.
  • Born: Nick Swardson, American TV comedian and actor; in Minneapolis
  • Died:

October 10, 1976 (Sunday)

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  • Hsieh Tung-min, governor at the time of the Taiwan Province of Nationalist China (and the future Vice President of the nation itself) was seriously injured by a letter bomb that had been hidden inside a book in the package.[35] The explosive had been sent by Wang Sing-nan, a 35-year-old Taiwanese native and opponent of the ruling Kuomintang. Hsieh's left hand was amputated as a result of his injuries. Hsieh, leader of the Taiwan Provincial Government that encompassed 70 percent of the island, was the first Taiwanese native (as opposed to someone who had come to Taiwan from Mainland China after the Communist revolution in 1949). Wang was sentenced to life imprisonment but would be released in 1990, and would later serve as a leader of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan.
  • White South African rugby players Daniel "Cheeky" Watson and his brother, Valence Watson, defied South Africa's apartheid laws that prohibited mixed race sports teams, and played as teammates of the 13 black players on the KwaZakhele Rugby Union (KwaRU) team in a match against the South Eastern Districts Rugby Union (SEDRU) team. The next day, eight white rugby players participated with black players on two teams in a match at Port Elizabeth, leading South Africa's Minister of Sports, Piet Koornhof, to threaten prosecution.[36]
  • Born:
    • Bob Burnquist, Brazilian-born American skateboard champion; in Rio de Janeiro
    • Shane Doan, Canadian ice hockey right winger with 21 consecutive seasons for the NHL Phoenix Coyotes from 1996 to 2017
  • Died: Silvana Armenulić, 37, and her sister Mirjana Bajraktarević, 25, popular Bosnian Yugoslavian singers, were killed in an automobile accident along with the conductor of the Radio Belgrade orchestra, Miodrag "Rade" Jašarević, 60. The three were traveling back to Belgrade from Aleksandrovac and were passing through the village of Kolari when Jašarević crashed into a truck coming the other direction.

October 11, 1976 (Monday)

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1976 General Washington stamp

October 12, 1976 (Tuesday)

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Chairman Hua
  • The People's Republic of China announced that Prime Minister Hua Guofeng would be the successor to Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, the most powerful position in China. Hua was also the chairman of the Military Commission that governed the armed forces of the world's most populous nation, giving him "a combination of authority that no other Chinese leader, including Mao", had ever held.[39]
  • All 95 people aboard Indian Airlines Flight 171 were killed when the Sud Aviation Caravelle jet crashed while attempting to make an emergency landing while trying to return to Mumbai (Bombay) after its number 2 engine failed.[40] The flight had been bound for Chennai (Madras) with 89 passengers and six crew when a compressor disc failed, fuel lines were severed, and the engine caught fire and plunged to the ground seconds before it would have reached the runway. The flight data recorder was recovered by a fisherman who had found it in his net.[41][42]
Sikorsky's "X-wing fighter"
  • The experimental Sikorsky S-72, a combination of helicopter and fixed-wing airplane developed by NASA and the U.S. Army, made its first flight. The hybrid aircraft was not accepted for general use and only two were developed.
  • Born:
    • Xulhaz Mannan, Bangladeshi journalist and gay rights activist; in Dhaka (murdered 2016)
    • Zazon (stage name for Élisabeth Castro), French actress and filmmaker; in Paris

October 13, 1976 (Wednesday)

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  • Eighty-eight bystanders were killed when a Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Boeing 707 crashed into a house, a school and a soccer field after failing to gain sufficient speed during its takeoff from Santa Cruz in Bolivia.[43] A spokesman for the Bolivian Air Force said that most of the students had gone home for lunch but that at least 60 had remained inside the building. The jet, being used as a cargo plane and staffed by a crew of three, was returning to Miami after delivering livestock and clipped the tops of large trees 200 yards (180 m) from the end of the runway, "crashed through a line of people waiting to buy kerosene for cooking from a street vendor", gone through the school and through a field where two groups of students were practicing outside a local stadium for a soccer football game, then impacted the stadium wall, setting a fire in a locker room that caused eight students to die of asphyxiation.[43] The impact came at 1:32 in the afternoon.[44]
  • The United States Commission on Civil Rights released the report, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, providing documentation that Puerto Ricans in the United States had a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974, up from 29 percent in 1970, the highest of all major ethnic minorities in the U.S. The study did not include Puerto Rico itself, which was a U.S. territory.

October 14, 1976 (Thursday)

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  • The East German oil tanker Boehlen, carrying a cargo of 10,000 tons of Venezuelan crude oil, sank in a storm off of the coast of France, drowning 26 members of its 37-man crew. [45] Afterwards, the French government would work for ten months to protect the Île de Sein, known for famed for being a French beach resort and a major supplier of lobsters, from destruction. In an operation that cost US$30,000,000 and cost the lives of two divers and a soldier, France saved the island from continued pollution by pumping water into the wreckage, forcing its gradually-leaking oil from its ruptured tanks to the surface, and burning what was left. [46]
Zudov and Rozhdestvensky

October 15, 1976 (Friday)

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  • The Brazilian cargo ship Sylvia L. Ossa sank roughly 140 miles (230 km) west of Bermuda within the area of the Atlantic Ocean described as the Bermuda Triangle, with the loss of all 37 crew. An overturned lifeboat from the ship and an oil slick were the only traces of the sinking of the vessel, which had been transporting iron ore to Philadelphia in the United States.[50]
  • The two candidates for Vice President of the United States debated for the first time in American history, as Democrat Walter Mondale and Republican Bob Dole, U.S. Senators for Minnesota and Kansas respectively, faced off in Houston's Alley Theater in a nationally televised event.[51] Both candidates would later lose in a U.S. presidential election (Mondale in 1984 and Dole in 1996) as would Gerald Ford (in 1976) and Jimmy Carter (in 1980).
  • Born:
  • Died:
    Gambino
    • Carlo Gambino, 74, Italian-born American crime boss who led the Gambino family mob and from 1957 until his death, "The Commission" that coordinated the activities of the Five Families (Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, Genovese and Luchesse) that controlled organized crime in New York City. His obituary in The New York Times described him as "the pre‐eminent figure in organized crime in the country" and said that "nothing in his appearance betrayed the immense power he reputedly wielded over organized crime in the United States", adding that his face "made him look like everybody's ideal of a kindly old uncle."[52][53]
    • Erwin Lambert, 66, German building contractor and war criminal convicted of "aiding and abetting the murder of at least 300,000 people" for his construction of gas chambers and involuntary euthanasia centers at Treblinka extermination camp and other concentration camps
    • David Friedkin, 64, American scriptwriter and director for radio, film and television

October 16, 1976 (Saturday)

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  • A ceasefire in the fighting in Lebanon, requested by the government of Saudi Arabia, went into effect after discussions with Syria's President Hafez Assad and the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Yasser Arafat.[54]
  • For the first time, crowds in the People's Republic of China demonstrated against Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, who had died five weeks earlier. Protesters were seen in Shanghai carrying effigies of Madame Qing and three others who had orchestrated the purges of the Cultural Revolution— Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen, collectively described as the Gang of Four.[22] The organized event appeared to signal "indications that China's new authorities were preparing a campaign to discredit the so-called leftist leaders."[55]
  • The Republic of Ireland's President, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, signed the Emergency Powers Bill into law after waiting for the Ireland Supreme Court to determine whether the law would be constitutional.[56]
  • Tony Franklin, a kicker for Texas A&M University, set a record for the longest field goal in modern college football history when he made a kick of 65 yards during a 24 to 0 win over Baylor. His achievement, made at 2:20 in the afternoon lasted only 20 minutes. At 2:40 p.m., Ove Johansson of Abilene Christian University kicked a 69-yard field goal at the homecoming game in a 17 to 0 win over visiting East Texas State.[57] After 45 years, Johansson's distance has not been matched or surpassed.
  • The Soviet space capsule from the Soyuz 23 made an emergency return to Earth after a malfunction prevented it from docking with the orbiting Salyut 5 space station, and made the first "splashdown" in Soviet manned space flight history, coming down in Tengiz Lake in the Kazakh SSR at 8:46 Moscow time, only 48 hours after it had been launched into orbit. The two cosmonauts, Lieutenant Colonels Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky both arrived safely.[58] All other Soviet space missions returned to Earth by parachuting onto dry land.
  • The Panamanian freighter Don Emilio was seized in U.S. territorial waters by the U.S. Coast Gauard cutter Sherman and found to have a cargo of narcotics estimated to be worth $134,000,000.[59]
  • Baseball's World Series opened in Cincinnati with the first game in which a National League team used the designated hitter, which had been in place in the American League since 1973. The Cincinnati Reds defeated the New York Yankees, 5 to 1, in Game 1 of the best-4-of-7 series. The Reds' Dan Driessen appeared as the first National League designated hitter.[60]

October 17, 1976 (Sunday)

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Astrouski

October 18, 1976 (Monday)

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The '76 Ford Fiesta[65]
  • Ford Motor Company launched mass production of its smallest car up to that time, the high mileage Ford Fiesta, produced at its plant at Almussafes near Valencia in Spain.[66]
  • Police in Moscow arrested 13 Soviet Jewish dissidents, refuseniksor otkazniks who had spent five days in a "sit-in" protest at the reception room for the Communist Party Central Committee, transported them by bus to a location at the edge of the capital city, then released them. When the dissidents returned the next day, the bus drove them to a location more than 35 miles (56 km) from city limits, then beat them before letting them go. The occupation had taken place in an office that granted exit visas, which had been denied to the dissidents and their families, and began after the group was refused a request for a written statement of how long they would have to wait before they could leave the country.[67] On October 25, Soviet authorities arrested 30 Jewish activists who had been planning to go into the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, including physicist Mark Azbel, cyberneticists Victor Brailovsky and Alexander Lerner, and chess grandmaster Anatoly Shcharansky.[68]
  • Died:
    • Paul Schmidt, 78, German aeronautical engineer who helped develop the pulsejet for use in German V-1 missiles during World War II
    • Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, 84, Italian Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna and cardinal within the Roman Catholic Church.
    • Count Ossie (stage name for Oswald Williams), 50, Jamaican band leader and Rastafari music drummer, was killed in an auto accident.

October 19, 1976 (Tuesday)

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October 20, 1976 (Wednesday)

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  • Seventy-eight passengers and crew on the U.S. ferryboat MV George Prince were killed when the boat strayed into the path of the Norwegian oil tanker Frosta and was capsized. The collision occurred at 6:20 in the morning as the ferry was transporting workers, most of whom were in their vehicles with the windows rolled up, from Destrehan, Louisiana to the other side of the Mississippi River to their jobs in Luling.[71] There were only 18 survivors. An autopsy on the ferryboat's captain, who was nearing the end of a long shift, showed him to have a blood alcohol content of 0.09 percent, slightly under the limit of legal intoxication under Louisiana law.[72]
  • Argentine soccer football star Diego Maradona made his professional debut at the age of 15, ten days before his 16th birthday, playing for the Argentinos Juniors of the top division of Argentine football, in a game against Talleres de Córdoba. He remains the youngest ever player in the Primera Division. On November 14, the future World Cup star scored his first professional goal in a game against the San Lorenzo team of Mar del Plata.
  • Jean-Bédel Bokassa, President of the Central African Republic and raised a Roman Catholic, announced his conversion to Islam, changing his name to Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa. Forty-six days later, he would declare the republic to be a monarchy and proclaimed himself to be Emperor Bokassa the First of the Central African Empire.
  • The Hartford Times, a 159-year-old evening newspaper that had been published in Hartford, Connecticut since 1817, put out its final issue, that included " its own front‐page obituary edged in black" and called the Times "a newspaper strangled by litigation" after its previous owner had sued the Gannett Company for fraud in the 1973 purchase of publication rights. At one time, the Times had the largest circulation of Hartford papers and almost twice as many subscribers as the rival Hartford Courant.[73]
  • Born:
  • Died:
    • Jane Duncan (pen name for Elizabeth Jane Cameron, 66, Scottish author of children's books, best known for her "My Friends" series of 19 books
    • Vladimir Kudashov, 58, Soviet war hero

October 21, 1976 (Thursday)

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October 22, 1976 (Friday)

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  • Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh resigned as President of Ireland after being publicly insulted by Paddy Donegan, the Minister for Defense for his delay in signing legislation restoring a state of emergency within the Republic of Ireland, and after the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament had defeated motion calling for Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave to fire Donegan. Specifically, Donegan had said on October 18 that the president was "a thundering disgrace", and the motion in the Dail failed, 58 to 63.[79] New elections to replace Ó Dálaigh were set for November 24.[80] Donegan would be demoted to the lesser post of Minister of Lands on December 2 by Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave, and repolaced by Cosgrave who appointed himself as Defense Minister.[81]
  • Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej approved a new civilian government to serve Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien, dominated by the military and by right-wing politicians, including the first two women cabinet members in the kingdom's history. The king also signed a new constitution into law. Admiral Sangad Chaloryu, the chairman of the 24-member military junta that led the overthrow of Prime Minister Seni Pramoj, was named the Minister of Defense.[82]
Evita's grave[83]

October 23, 1976 (Saturday)

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October 24, 1976 (Sunday)

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  • A fire set by an arsonist killed 25 people (16 women and nine men) [87] and injured 24 others at the Puerto Rican Social Club at 1003 Morris Avenue in the Bronx in New York City, after a fire broke out at 2:15 in the morning. The blaze, set in the only stairwell in the building spread within less than two minutes in the 1,000 square feet (93 m2) dance hall at the club, and nearly all the victims were found at the windows at the front of the building, dead of asphyxiation. The door to the fire escape had been locked from the inside.[88] Jose Angelo Cordero, who led the attack, and Hector Lopez, who ignited the fire, both pleaded guilty to murder and Francisco Mendez, who spread gasoline in the stairwell, was found guilty of 25 counts of murder.[89]
World champion Hunt
  • Race car driver James Hunt of the United Kingdom wan the Formula One World Championship by just one point when Niki Lauda of Austria was forced out of the Japanese Grand Prix— the 16th and final race of the season— because of heavy rain. Going into the race, Lauda had 68 points and Hunt had 66; the next highest competitor, Jody Scheckter of South Africa, had only 49 points and was mathematically eliminated from the championship. Hunt finished in third place at the Fuji Speedway, earning 3 points. Because of weather conditions that had left the track wet, the organizers debated whether to run as scheduled or to postpone the race to the next day. After the race started, four of the drivers withdrew, including Lauda, who quit after two laps and later commented, "my life is worth more than a title." Down 66 to 68, Hunt needed to finish at least in 4th place (for 2 points) to be co-champion; his third-place finish gave him 3 points for the 69 to 68 victory.
  • Hua Guofeng was formally acclaimed as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and successor to Mao Zedong, who had died on September 7. The announcement was made in the Party's newspaper Jenmin Jih Pao and Chinese army newspaper Chiehfang Jih Pao, and reported that the decision had been made by the party's Politburo on October 7.[90]
  • Born: Mallika Sherawat (stage name for Reema Lamba), popular Indian Bollywood film actress; in Moth Rangran, Haryana state

October 25, 1976 (Monday)

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October 26, 1976 (Tuesday)

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Transkei location[100]
[101]
  • Transkei, a poor section on the coast of South Africa created for the relocation of black African members of the white-minority ruled nation’s Xhosa people, was declared an independent nation. Kaiser Matanzima, the new Prime Minister of Transkei, accepted the documents of independence from South Africa's President Nicolaas Diederichs in a ceremony at the Transkeian capital, Umtata. Botha Sigcau was appointed as the nominal President of Transkei.[102] The legitimacy of Transkei, the first bantustan or "black homeland" to be set aside for black majority rule, was not recognized by the rest of the world. The United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously (134 to 0) to request member nations not to deal with Transkei, with one vote of abstention by the United States, which had already stated that it would not recognize Transkei.[103] Transkei and the three other bantustans would cease to exist on April 27, 1994, when South Africa's new constitution took effect to institute democratic rule with a black majority government.
  • The Soviet Union launched Ekran, its first geosynchronous satellite, to permit direct satellite television.[104]
  • Law enforcement officers from the sheriff's department in Catoosa County, Georgia, killed five of seven lions (six females and one male) who had been set free by a vandal from a private zoo near Ringgold, Georgia, the night before.[105] During their rampage, the lions "killed four dogs, a cow and a pet wolf".[106] One was recaptured, while another, a 400 lb (180 kg) lioness, remained free until the next day, when it was killed while charging at one of the deputies.[107]
  • Born:
  • Died:

October 27, 1976 (Wednesday)

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  • Carnegie-Mellon University (C.M.U.) of Pittsburgh announced that an alumnus of the institution, who requested to remain anonymous, had made a donation of $35,000,000 to be payable upon his death and the death of his wife. In addition to being the largest donation ever to C.M.U., the gift was the second largest by an individual to any university, exceeded only by a $50,000,000 donation made to the University of Virginia.[109]
  • Former U.S. Senator Edward Gurney of Florida was acquitted by a jury on all charges of having lied to a grand jury about his knowledge of a scheme by his employees to collect $400,000 of donations from construction companies in return for favors from the Federal Housing Administration. Senator Gurney, who had resigned at the end of 1974 after being identified in the scandal, had been acquitted in 1975 on charges of perjury and conspiracy.[110]
  • Albert Muwalo, Chairman of the ruling Congress Party and a Minister without Portfolio in the southern African nation of Malawi, was arrested on charges of corruption on orders of Malawi's President Hastings Banda. [111]

October 28, 1976 (Thursday)

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October 29, 1976 (Friday)

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Honecker[116]

October 30, 1976 (Saturday)

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  • India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi postponed democratic elections that had been scheduled for March 1977 for the 525-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's parliament. Law and Justice Minister H. R. Gokhale informed Lok Sabha members that their 5-year terms, which had already been extended for one year with the cancellation of voting set for March 1976, would be extended to seven years and that voting would not take place before March 1978.[118]
  • The Montreal Canadiens had their lone loss at home during the 1976–77 NHL season, falling 4 to 3 to the Boston Bruins. They would finish the regular season with a record of 60 wins, 8 losses and 12 ties (60-8-12) and lost only one home game, winning 33 other with six ties. They would lose Game 5 of the NHL playoff semifinals at home, falling to the New York Islanders, 4 to 3, in overtime on May 5, 1977.
  • The television show Mr. T and Tina, starring Pat Morita in the first U.S. TV show to feature a mostly Asian-American cast, was canceled after its sixth show.
  • A deer hunter in Utah discovered the wreckage of a Piper Tri-Pacer airplane that had vanished on March 27, 1963, 13 years earlier. The small airplane and the remains of Harry Ross Jr and UFO researcher Wallace C. Halsey, had crashed into a mountainside near St. George, Utah.[119]
  • Died:
    • Alfred Landé, 87, German-born American physicist known for his contributions to quantum theory. He is responsible for the Landé g-factor and an explanation of the Zeeman effect.
    • Sa'id Hormozi, 79, Iranian musician who preserved the radif genre of music.
    • Daniel Bonade, 80, French clarinet player and composer
    • Julio Just Gimeno, 82, Spanish politician former Minister of Public Works until his 1937 ouster following the Spanish Civil War.

October 31, 1976 (Sunday)

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The first VHS recorder[120]
  • The first VHS (Video Home System) recorder and player, the HR-3300 manufactured by JVC, went on sale to the public at electronic stores in Tokyo's Akihabara district. The initial cost of the recorder, invented by JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano, was ¥310,000 Japanese yen (US$1,060, equivalent to $5,100 in 2021). It would go on sale in the United States 10 months later on August 23, 1977, under the name "Vidstar".[121]
  • Died:
    • Clarence Chamberlin, 82, American aviator, died of complications after receiving the "swine flu" vaccination.[122] On June 4, 1927, Chamberlin became the second pilot (after Charles Lindbergh 15 days earlier) to fly an airplane by himself nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, and the first to take a passenger with him.
    • Eileen Gray, 98, Irish modern architect

References

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  1. ^ attribution: Ken Freeze
  2. ^ "Hurricane Kills 600 In Mexico Peninsula", The New York Times, October 2, 1976, p. 1
  3. ^ "California Grants Terminally Ill Right to Put an End to Treatment", by Les Ledbetter, The New York Times, October 2, 1976, p. 1
  4. ^ "Ford Rebukes Butz For Slur on Blacks", by Diane Henry, The New York Times, October 2, 1976, p. 1
  5. ^ "Liquor Industry Converts to Metric System", The New York Times, October 11, 1976, p. 1
  6. ^ "Argentine President Escapes Blast", The New York Times, October 3, 1976, p. 10
  7. ^ "West Germans Back Schmidt's Coalition But He Loses Seats; Social Democratic Majority Is Reduced— Kohl Calls Himself 'Moral Victor' West German Vote Backs Schmidt But Opposing Party Gains Seats", The New York Times, October 4, 1976, p. 1
  8. ^ "Bonn Coalition Now Given 10-Seat Edge in Vote", The New York Times, October 21, 1976, p. 7
  9. ^ "Retrosheet Boxscore: Detroit Tigers 5, Milwaukee Brewers 2". www.retrosheet.org. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  10. ^ attribution: Phil Sangweel
  11. ^ ""New train speeds into service". BBC News, 1976-10-04; reproduced in the BBC "On This Day" website.
  12. ^ "Gunmen in Spain Kill High-Ranking Basque— Relatively Liberal Member of Key Council Is Slain With 4 Aides Cabinet Session Is Called", by James M. Markham, The New York Times, October 4, 1976, p. 1
  13. ^ "Butz Quits Under Fire Amid Rising Protests About Racist Remark", The New York Times, October 5, 1976, p. 1
  14. ^ "Supreme Court Ends Death Penalty Ban in Cases of Murder— Executions May Resume Soon", by Lesley Oelsner, The New York Times, October 4, 1976, p. 1
  15. ^ "Ford Signs Tax Revision Measure; Calls It 'Positive and Long Overdue'", The New York Times, October 24, 1976, p. 1
  16. ^ Stevens, William K. (October 6, 1976). "Ford Pact Called Step to 4-Day Week; Strikers Prepare to Vote on New Agreement That Provides 12 More Paid Days Off". The New York Times. p. 1.
  17. ^ "Lars Onsager – Facts". NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB. 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  18. ^ "Barbara Nichols Dies at 47; Was Movie and TV Actress". The New York Times. October 6, 1976. p. 50.
  19. ^ "Mao's Widow, 3 Shanghai Radicals Reported Held for Plotting a Coup; Chinese Foreign Ministry Refuses to Comment on Information Reaching 3 Embassies", by Ross H. Munro, The Globe and Mall (Toronto), printed in The New York Times, October 12, 1976, p. 1
  20. ^ "China Leftists Are Now Called 'Capitalist-Roaders'; Label Once Applied to Rightists Is Pinned on Widow of Mao", The New York Times, October 21, 1976, p. 3
  21. ^ "China Reports Plot by 4 to Seize Power 'Shattered' by Hua", The New York Times, October 22, 1976, p. 1
  22. ^ a b "China Posters Link Left to Killing Plot— They Say Mao's Wife and 3 Others Were Arrested After a Gunman Tried to Assassinate Hua Politburo Meeting Called Accusations in Summary An Order Reported Ignored", by Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, October 31, 1976, p. 7
  23. ^ "78 Are Believed Killed as Cuban Jetliner Crashes in Sea After Blast", The New York Times, October 6, 1976, p. 8
  24. ^ "U.S. Ties Cuban Exiles to Jet Blasts", The New York Times, October 17, 1976, p. 20
  25. ^ "Cuba 'plane bomber' was CIA agent". BBC News. May 11, 2005.
  26. ^ Aviation Safety Network
  27. ^ "Thai Military Takes Power After Police Battle Protesters; 30 Believed Dead and 1,700 Seized— Constitution Is Suspended and Publications Banned", by David J. Andelman, The New York Times, October 7, 1976, p. 1
  28. ^ "Ford Denies Moscow Dominates East Europe; Carter Rebuts Him", by Bernard Gwertzman, The New York Times, October 6, 1976, p. 1
  29. ^ "Rhodesia Says Rebels Bomb Bridge, Sending Train Crashing Into River", The New York Times, October 8, 1976, p. A3
  30. ^ "Swedish Premier Names Cabinet, Outlines Policy", The New York Times, October 9, 1976, p. 3
  31. ^ "Thai King Names Civilian Premier 2 Days After Coup; Military Junta Asserts It Will Step Aside Within 2 Weeks", by David Andelman, The New York Times, October 9, 1976, p. 3
  32. ^ a b "First Atomic Bomb Mission Re-enacted", AP report by Miller H. Bonner Jr., in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 11, 1976, p. 1
  33. ^ "Hiroshima Protests Show on Atom Attack", The New York Times, October 13, 1976, p. 4
  34. ^ "U.S. Apologizes to Japan for Show That Re-enacted Hiroshima Attack", The New York Times, October 15, 1976, p. 10
  35. ^ "Taiwan Official Reported Injured by Letter Bomb", The New York Times, October 14, 1976, p. 5
  36. ^ "Pretoria Tightens Mixed-Sports Rule", by John F. Burns, The New York Times, October 12, 1976, p. 1
  37. ^ "A 25-Year-Old Newscaster Joins NBC 'Today' Show", The New York Times, October 2, 1976, p. 11
  38. ^ "Salman Khan - Educator - Biography.com". www.biography.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  39. ^ "Appointment of Hua as Party's Chairman Confirmed by Peking; He Now Holds 3 Top Positions", The New York Times, October 13, 1976, p. 1
  40. ^ "All 95 Aboard Die as Indian Airliner Crashes on Takeoff From Bombay", The New York Times, October 12, 1976, p. 6
  41. ^ "Recorder in Indian Crash Found", The New York Times, October 25, 1976, p. 26
  42. ^ Aviation Safety Network
  43. ^ a b "Cargo Jet Crashes On a Bolivian City; 100 Reported Dead", The New York Times, October 14, 1976, p. 1
  44. ^ Aviation Safety Network
  45. ^ "23 sailors lost as ship sinks in storm", The Times (London), October 16, 1976, p.4
  46. ^ "Resort Island's Beaches, Lobseters Saved From Oil", Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1977, p.I-17
  47. ^ "2 Soviet Astronauts Start Trip to Salyut", The New York Times, October 15, 1976, p. A13
  48. ^ "3d Satellite Launched In Marisat System", The New York Times, October 15, 1976, p. A13
  49. ^ "Dame Edith Evans Is Dead at 88; A Legend of the English Theater, The New York Times, October 15, 1976, p. A29
  50. ^ "Ship and 37 Vanish In Bermuda Triangle On Voyage to U.S.", The New York Times, October 18, 1976, p. 1
  51. ^ "Economy Is Stressed by Dole and Mondale During Sharp Debate", The New York Times, October 16, 1976, p. 1
  52. ^ "Carlo Gambino, a Mafia Leader, Dies in His Long Island Home at 74", by Nicholas Gage, The New York Times, October 16, 1976, p. 26
  53. ^ "Changes in Mafia Expected as Result of Gambino's Death— New York's Five Families Reported Likely to Initiate More Members and Expand Their Operations", by Nicholas Gage, The New York Times, October 18, 1976, p. 1
  54. ^ "Arafat and Assad, Yielding to Saudis, Agree to Cease-Fire", by Henry Tanner, The New York Times, October 17, 1976, p. 1
  55. ^ "Crowds in Shanghai Assail Mao's Widow", by Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, October 17, 1976, p. 1
  56. ^ Joseph Lee, Ireland, 1912–1985: Politics and Society, Cambridge University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-521-37741-2 p. 482
  57. ^ "3 Oversized Field Goals Bloom On Texas Spreads in One Day", by Gordon S. White Jr., The New York Times, October 18, 1976, p. 41
  58. ^ "Soyuz Lands on a Lake at Night; Splashdown Is the First for Soviet", The New York Times, October 18, 1976, p. 32
  59. ^ "Panamanian Ship Is Seized With Millions in Drugs", The New York Times, October 17, 1976, p. 26
  60. ^ "Yankees Lose World Series Opener to Reds, 5 to 1; 3 Walkie-Talkie Observers Are Removed by Kuhn", by Joseph Durso, The New York Times, October 17, 1976, p. 1
  61. ^ "A 17th-Century Scot Canonized by Pope", The New York Times, October 18, 1976, p. 5
  62. ^ "East Germans Vote Overwhelmingly For Communist-Approved Slate", The New York Times, October 18, 1976, p. 7
  63. ^ "Emergency excesses still haunt Khalapar", by Mohammad Ali, The Hindu (Chennai, Tamil Nadu), July 1, 2015
  64. ^ "Moslems Report at Least 50 Dead", The New York Times, October 28, 1976, p. 14
  65. ^ photo by Allen Watkin
  66. ^ "Ein Platz an der Sonne: Fiesta-Werk im Spanischen Valencia" ("A place in the sun: The Fiesta factory in Spanish Valencia"), Auto Motor und. Sport (April 13, 1977) pp. 9-10
  67. ^ "Moscow Jews Say They Were Beaten After a Visa Sit-In, The New York Times, October 20, 1976, p. 1
  68. ^ "30 Jews in Moscow Seized in Protests— Men Are Given 15 Days for Visa Sit-Ins Last Week Women Released After Paying Fine", by David K. Shipler, The New York Times, October 26, 1976, p. 1
  69. ^ "2 of Ship's Crew of 15 Rescued Off Canada", The New York Times, October 21, 1976, p. 7
  70. ^ "New Copyright Law Held a Boon for U.S.", by Herbert Mitgang,The New York Times, October 10, 1976, p. 17
  71. ^ "24 Dead, 50 Missing as Tanker Capsizes Mississippi Ferry; 18 Survive Predawn Crash— Many Victims Were Residents of Destrehan, La., Heading for Work on River's West Bank, by Roy Reed, The New York Times, October 21, 1976, p. 1
  72. ^ "Ferry Captain Held 'Almost Drunk'", The New York Times, October 28, 1976, p. 18
  73. ^ "The Hartford Times Ceases Publication— In the Final Issue It Describes Itself as a Newspaper Strangled by Litigation' After 159 Years", by Dierdre Carmody, The New York Times, October 21, 1976, p. 79
  74. ^ Chass, Murray (October 22, 1976). "Reds Triumph, 7-2, and Complete 4-Game Series Sweep of Yankees". The New York Times. p. A1.
  75. ^ Schaefer, Bradley E. (2018). "The distances to Novae as seen by Gaia". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: 3033–3051.
  76. ^ Marks, Ben (September 9, 2014). "The Hippie Daredevils Who Were Just Crazy Enough to Invent Mountain Biking". Collectors Weekly.
  77. ^ Sheppard, Nathaniel Jr. (October 22, 1976). "Rap Brown, Black Power Advocate, Is Paroled From a New York Prison". The New York Times. p. A18.
  78. ^ "Lavinia Miloșovici". Olympedia. OlyMADMen. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  79. ^ "Irish Leader Quits Over I.R.A. Measures; Questioning of Emergency Bills Sets Off Constitutional Furor", The New York Times, October 23, 1976, p. 1
  80. ^ "Irish Presidential Election Will Be Held Nov. 24", The New York Times, October 27, 1976, p. 5
  81. ^ "Irish Defense Minister Demoted After Criticism of His President", The New York Times, December 3, 1976, p. 15
  82. ^ "King of Thailand Gives Approval To New Rightist-Military Regime", by David A. Andelman, The New York Times, October 23, 1976, p. 2
  83. ^ attribution: HerFariasP
  84. ^ "Eva Peron's Body Given New Interment", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 23, 1976, p. 2
  85. ^ "Ford and Carter, in Last Debate, Promise to Put Stress on Issues", The New York Times, October 23, 1976, p. 1
  86. ^ "Celebrity Birthdays: Oct. 22".
  87. ^ "Arson Blamed In Fire That Killed 25 In N.Y.", Pittsburgh Press, October 25, 1976, p. 4
  88. ^ "Fire Sweeps Bronx Social Club, Leaving 25 Dead and 24 Injured; Patron Ejected Earlier Said to Have Set Blaze— Victims Found Near Front Windows ", by Robert McG. Thomas Jr., The New York Times, October 25, 1976, p. 1
  89. ^ "The World". The Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1978. Page I-12.
  90. ^ "Hua Is Proclaimed Chairman of Party at Rally in Peking— One Million March in the Capital; Editorial Says Mao Had Told His Wife Not to Form Faction", by Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, October 25, 1976, p. 1
  91. ^ "Lawsuit Attacks Sales of Gear for Home Taping of TV". The New York Times. November 13, 1976. p. 8.
  92. ^ Universal City Studios v. Sony Corp. of America, 429 F. Supp. 407 (C.D. Cal. 1977).
  93. ^ Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
  94. ^ "About Us". University of Ilorin.
  95. ^ "Colombian Plane Crashes, Killing All 32 Aboard". The New York Times. October 26, 1976. p. 17.
  96. ^ Aviation Safety Network
  97. ^ Johnson, Thomas A. (October 26, 1976). "Last of Scottsboro 9 Is Pardoned; He Draws a Lesson for Everybody". The New York Times. p. 1.
  98. ^ "Scottsboro Boy Picks Up Alabama Pardon". The New York Times. November 30, 1976. p. 18.
  99. ^ "Anton Sikharulidze". Olympedia. OlyMADMen. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  100. ^ attribution: Htoni
  101. ^ attribution: Makaristos
  102. ^ "Transkei, a South African Black Area, Is Independent", by Henry Kamm, The New York Times, October 26, 1976, p. 1
  103. ^ "U.N. Assembly Votes a Rebuff of Transkei— U.S. Abstains on Resolution Asking Members to Prohibit Dealings", by Kathleen Teltsch, The New York Times, October 27, 1976, p. 1
  104. ^ "Ekran", in Encyclopedia Astronautica, on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive
  105. ^ "7 lions flee private zoo; 2 still at large", AP report in Pomona (CA) Progress Bulletin, October 26, 1976, p. 1
  106. ^ "Five Escaped Lions Slain In Georgia After Rampage", The New York Times, October 27, 1976, p. 18
  107. ^ "Last Escaped Lion Shot Charging Man", Philadelphia Daily News, October 28, 1976, p. 17
  108. ^ "Former High Cuban Aide Who Broke With Castro Shot to Death in San Juan", The New York Times, October 27, 1976, p. 3
  109. ^ "Carnegie-Mellon U. Gets $35 Million Anonymously", The New York Times, October 28, 1976, p. 18
  110. ^ "Gurney Not Guilty in Shakedown Case", The New York Times, October 28, 1976, p. 19
  111. ^ Austin C. Mkandawire, Albert Muwalo Nqumayo: His Life and Times, His Death and Legacy (2010) p. 115
  112. ^ "Egyptians, in Relatively Free Voting, Elect Assembly", The New York Times, October 29, 1976, p. A3
  113. ^ "Faction Supporting Sadat Is Far Ahead in Voting", The New York Times, October 31, 1976, p. 5
  114. ^ "South Africa Lifts Ban on 'Ebony'", The New York Times, October 29, 1976, p. A4
  115. ^ "I.R.A. Aide Slain in Belfast Hospital" , The New York Times, October 29, 1976, p. A6
  116. ^ attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R1220-401
  117. ^ "Party Chief Becomes Head of State in E. Berlin Shakeup— Changes in Premier and President of Parliament Give Communists All Top Government Positions", Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1976, p. I-9
  118. ^ "India Puts Off Parliament Election", The New York Times, October 31, 1976, p. 10
  119. ^ O'Reilley, Richard (3 November 1976). "Remains of Ex-Seal Beach Mayor Found at Crash Site". The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. p. 164. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  120. ^ attribution: Groink
  121. ^ "JVC HR-3300". Totalrewind.org. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  122. ^ "Clarence Chamberlin Dead at 83; Flew First Passenger to Europe", The New York Times, November 1, 1976, p. 42
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