1976 in the United States

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Last updated April 20, 2024

Events from the year 1976 in the United States. Major events include Jimmy Carter defeating incumbent president Gerald Ford in the presidential election of that year, the incorporation of Apple Computer Company and Microsoft, and the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that Karen Ann Quinlan could be disconnected from her ventilator.

Incumbents

Federal government

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: George Wallace (Democratic) Governor of Alaska: Jay Hammond (Republican) Governor of Arizona: Raul Hector Castro (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: David Pryor (Democratic) Governor of California: Jerry Brown (Democratic) Governor of Colorado: Richard Lamm (Democratic) Governor of Connecticut: Ella T. Grasso (Democratic) Governor of Delaware: Sherman W. Tribbitt (Democratic) Governor of Florida: Reubin Askew (Democratic) Governor of Georgia: George Busbee (Democratic) Governor of Hawaii: George Ariyoshi (Democratic) Governor of Idaho: Cecil D. Andrus (Democratic) Governor of Illinois: Dan Walker (Democratic) Governor of Indiana: Otis R. Bowen (Republican) Governor of Iowa: Robert D. Ray (Republican) Governor of Kansas: Robert F. Bennett (Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Julian M. Carroll (Democratic) Governor of Louisiana: Edwin W. Edwards (Democratic) Governor of Maine: James B. Longley (Independent) Governor of Maryland: Marvin Mandel (Democratic) Governor of Massachusetts: Michael Dukakis (Democratic) Governor of Michigan: William Milliken (Republican) Governor of Minnesota: Wendell R. Anderson (Democratic) (until December 29), Rudy Perpich (Democratic) (starting December 29) Governor of Mississippi: Bill Waller (Democratic) (until January 20), Cliff Finch (Democratic) (starting January 20) Governor of Missouri: Kit Bond (Republican) Governor of Montana: Thomas Lee Judge (Democratic) Governor of Nebraska: J. James Exon (Democratic) Governor of Nevada: Mike O'Callaghan (Democratic) Governor of New Hampshire: Meldrim Thomson, Jr. (Republican) Governor of New Jersey: Brendan Byrne (Democratic) Governor of New Mexico: Jerry Apodaca (Democratic) Governor of New York: Hugh Carey (Democratic) Governor of North Carolina: James E. Holshouser, Jr. (Republican) Governor of North Dakota: Arthur A. Link (Democratic) Governor of Ohio: Jim Rhodes (Republican) Governor of Oklahoma: David L. Boren (Democratic) Governor of Oregon: Robert W. Straub (Democratic) Governor of Pennsylvania: Milton Shapp (Democratic) Governor of Rhode Island: Philip W. Noel (Democratic) Governor of South Carolina: James B. Edwards (Republican) Governor of South Dakota: Richard F. Kneip (Democratic) Governor of Tennessee: Ray Blanton (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Dolph Briscoe (Democratic) Governor of Utah: Cal Rampton (Democratic) Governor of Vermont: Thomas P. Salmon (Democratic) Governor of Virginia: Mills E. Godwin, Jr. (Republican) Governor of Washington: Daniel J. Evans (Republican) Governor of West Virginia: Arch A. Moore, Jr. (Republican) Governor of Wisconsin: Patrick J. Lucey (Democratic) Governor of Wyoming: Edgar J. Herschler (Democratic) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Jere Beasley (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Alaska: Lowell Thomas, Jr. (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Joe Purcell (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of California: Mervyn M. Dymally (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: George L. Brown (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Robert K. Killian (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Eugene Bookhammer (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Florida: J.H. Williams (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: Zell Miller (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii: Nelson Doi (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: John V. Evans (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Neil Hartigan (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Robert D. Orr (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Arthur A. Neu (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Shelby Smith (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Thelma Stovall (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Jimmy Fitzmorris (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: Blair Lee III (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Thomas P. O'Neill III (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: James Damman (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Rudy Perpich (Democratic) (until December 29), Alec G. Olson (Democratic) (starting December 29) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: William F. Winter (Democratic) (until January 20), Evelyn Gandy (Democratic) (starting January 20) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: William C. Phelps (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Bill Christiansen (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Gerald T. Whelan (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Robert E. Rose (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Robert E. Ferguson (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Mary Anne Krupsak (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Jim Hunt (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Wayne G. Sanstead (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Dick Celeste (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: George Nigh (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Ernest P. Kline (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: J. Joseph Garrahy (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: W. Brantley Harvey, Jr. (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Harvey L. Wollman (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: John S. Wilder (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: William P. Hobby, Jr. (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Utah: Clyde L. Miller (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Brian D. Burns (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: John N. Dalton (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Cherberg (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Martin J. Schreiber (Democratic)

Events

January

January 5 – The Beatles associate Mal Evans is fatally shot by police amid a disturbance at his Los Angeles home.
January 14 – The Lutz family flees from 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York, 28 days after having moved in on December 18, 1975, inspiring the story The Amityville Horror .
January 15 – Would-be Gerald Ford presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison.
January 18 – Super Bowl X in American football: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 21–17 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
January 19 – Jimmy Carter wins the Iowa Democratic Caucus.
January 23 – Hugo the Hippo, the first animated film of 20th Century Fox is released in theaters.
January 27 – The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state.
January 30 – Live from Lincoln Center debuts on PBS.

February

February 5 – Nearly 2,000 students become involved in a racially charged riot at Escambia High School in Pensacola, Florida; 30 students are injured in the 4-hour fray.
February 11 – Clifford Alexander, Jr. is confirmed as the first African-American Secretary of the United States Army.
February 12 – Actor Sal Mineo, known for his role in the film Rebel Without a Cause , is fatally stabbed in the alley behind his apartment building in West Hollywood, California, aged 37.
February 17 – The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) compilation is released. Globally, it will become probably the second best-selling album of all time, followed by the same band's Hotel California , released on December 8.
February 19 – Former Tower of Power vocalist Rick Stevens is arrested for murdering three men during a botched drug deal. He ultimately serves 36 years of a life sentence.

March

March – The Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, is released by Seymour Cray's Cray Research, with the first purchaser being the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in Los Alamos, New Mexico.^[1]
March 1 – Bradford Bishop allegedly murders five of his family members in Bethesda, Maryland. The crime goes undiscovered for 10 days and the suspect is never caught. From 2014 to 2018 he is on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
March 9–11 – Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine in Letcher County, Kentucky.^[2]
March 14 – After eight years on NBC, The Wizard of Oz returns to CBS, where it will remain until 1999, setting what is likely a record at that time for the most telecasts of a Hollywood film on a commercial television network. (That record is broken by The Ten Commandments in 1996, which began its annual network telecasts on ABC in 1973, continuing be telecast by that network as of 2020.)
March 17 – Boxer Rubin Carter is retried in New Jersey for murder; his conviction is upheld on this occasion but will be overturned in 1985.
March 20 – Patty Hearst is found guilty of the armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974.
March 27 – The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro subway system opens.
March 29 – The 48th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, George Segal, Goldie Hawn and Gene Kelly, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, broadcast on ABC for the first time. Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest receives nine nominations and wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Forman. Isabelle Adjani becomes the youngest actress to be nominated for Best Actress until 2004, while George Burns becomes the oldest actor to win Best Supporting Actor until 2012, as well as the oldest awardee in general until 1989 and the final person born in the 19th century to win an acting award.
March 31 – The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that persistent vegetative state patient Karen Ann Quinlan can be disconnected from her ventilator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985.

April

April 1
- Conrail (Consolidated Rails Corporation) is formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that have filed for bankruptcy protection. Conrail takes control at midnight, as a government-owned and operated railroad until 1986, when it is sold to the public.
- Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in California.^[3]
April 13 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

May

May 11
- President Gerald Ford signs the Federal Election Campaign Act.
- An accident involving a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia takes place in Houston, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 7 people.^[4]^[5]
May 21
- The Yuba City bus disaster, the second-worst bus crash in U.S. history, leaves 28 students and one teacher dead.
- The "Famous Fire" in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, destroys seven downtown structures, damages more than 12 others, and starts fires in at least 10 homes.
May 24
- Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.
- The Judgment of Paris pits French vs. California wines in a blind taste-test in Paris, France. California wines win the contest, surprising the wine world and opening the wine industry to newcomers in several countries.
May 25 – President Gerald Ford defeats challenger Ronald Reagan in three Republican presidential primaries: Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon.
May 30 – Indianapolis 500 automobile race: Johnny Rutherford wins the (rain-shortened) shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or 255 miles (408 km).

June

June 2 – A car bomb kills Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.
June 5 – The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho, killing 11 people.
June 13 – Savage thunderstorms roll through the state of Iowa spawning several tornadoes, including an F-5 tornado that destroys the town of Jordan, Iowa.
June 16 – Francis E. Meloy, Jr., the newly appointed United States Ambassador to Lebanon, is assassinated in Beirut.
June 17 – The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association agree on the ABA-NBA merger.
June 20 – Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon.

July

July 3 – Gregg v. Georgia : The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.
July 4
- United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, the United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
- The Puerto Rican Socialist Party leads 50,000 marchers in Philadelphia to demand a "Bicentennial Without Colonies" and independence for Puerto Rico.
July 6 – The first class of women at the United States Naval Academy is inducted in Annapolis, Maryland.
July 12
- California State University, Fullerton massacre: seven people are shot and killed, and two others are wounded in a mass shooting on campus at California State University, Fullerton.
- Barbara Jordan is the first African-American to keynote a political convention.
- Price Club, as predecessor of Costco, a worldwide membership-registration-only retailer, is founded in California.^[6]
- Family Feud debuts on ABC-TV.
July 15
- Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. President at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
- Twenty-six Chowchilla schoolchildren and their bus driver are abducted and buried in a box truck within a quarry in Livermore, California. The captives dig themselves free after 16 hours. The quarry-owner's son and two accomplices are arrested for the crime.
July 18 – Nadia Comaneci, at this time a 14-year-old Romanian, makes history by becoming the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 for her routine on the uneven bars at the Montreal Olympics.
July 20
- Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars, taking the first close-up color photos of the planet's surface.
- Gary Gilmore is arrested for murdering two men in Utah.
July 26 – In Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan announces his choice of liberal U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker as his vice presidential running mate, in an effort to woo moderate Republican delegates away from President Gerald Ford.
July 27 – Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia begin falling ill with a form of pneumonia: this will eventually be recognised as the first outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees.
July 29 – In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag, killing one and seriously wounding another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorize the city for the next year.
July 30 – Caitlyn Jenner (at this time, Bruce Jenner) wins the gold medal in the men's decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.^[7]
July 31
- NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1 .
- The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado floods, destroying more than 400 cars and houses.

August

August 1 – The Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers play their first football games.
August 2 – A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's estranged husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found not guilty in 1977.
August 4 – The first recognized outbreak of Legionnaires' disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia.
August 7 – Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
August 8 – As part of the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger, a dispersal draft is conducted to assign teams for the players on the two ABA franchises which have folded.
August 10–13 – Hurricane Belle hits Long Island and southern New England. Twelve people are killed by the storm and damage is $100 million.
August 11 – A sniper rampage in Wichita, Kansas on a Holiday Inn results in 3 deaths while 7 others are wounded.^[8]
August 18 – At Panmunjom, North Korea, two United States soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Korean Demilitarized Zone which has obscured their view.
August 19 – President Gerald Ford edges out challenger Ronald Reagan to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in Kansas City.
August 28 – Actress Anissa Jones, known for playing the child Buffy Davis in the late 60s–early 70s sitcom Family Affair , is found dead of an accidental overdose in Oceanside, California.

September

September 3: Viking 2 lands on Mars

September 3 – Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
September 6
- Cold War: Soviet Air Force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate, on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan, and requests political asylum from the United States.
- Frank Sinatra brings Jerry Lewis's former partner Dean Martin onstage, unannounced, at the 1976 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in Las Vegas, Nevada, reuniting the comedy team for the first (and only) time in over 20 years.
September 17 – The space shuttle Enterprise is rolled out of a Palmdale, California hangar.
September 21 – Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
September 23 – The first presidential debate of the 1976 presidential election takes place.
September 24 – Patty Hearst is sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in the armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974 (an executive clemency order from President Jimmy Carter will set her free after only 22 months).
September 28 – American singer Stevie Wonder releases his hit album Songs in the Key of Life .

October

October 6 – In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, President Gerald Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" (there is at the time).
October 9 – Pittsburgh Pirates baseball pitcher Bob Moose is killed in a car crash in Ohio on his 29th birthday.
October 13 – The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).
October 15 – The first ever vice presidential debate in the United States takes place between Bob Dole and Walter Mondale.
October 18 – Ford officially launches volume production of Fiesta car at its Valencia plant.
October 19 – The Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States.
October 20 – The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana to Luling, Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew.
October 21 – The Cincinnati Reds sweep the New York Yankees in four games to win the 1976 World Series.
October 22 – Barbara Walters hosts the final presidential debate of the 1976 presidential election.
October 25 – Clarence Norris, the last known survivor of the Scottsboro Boys, is pardoned.

November

November 2 – U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.
November 4 – Mark Fidrych, pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, wins 1976 Major League Baseball Rookie Of The Year Award.
November 15 – The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.
November 25 – In San Francisco, The Band holds its farewell concert, The Last Waltz .
November 26 – Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.
November 29 – The New York Yankees sign free agent Reggie Jackson to a five-year $3 million contract, setting the precedent for lucrative multi-year contracts for Major League Baseball players in years to come.

December

December 8 – The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is established by the five Latinos in the United States Congress: Herman Badillo of New York, E. de la Garza and Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, Edward R. Roybal of California, and the nonvoting Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, Baltasar Corrada del Rio.
December 20 – Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago since 1955, dies while in office.

Undated

California's sodomy law is repealed.
The New Jersey State Legislature passes legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. After signing the bill into law, Governor Brendan Byrne declares "The mob is not welcome in New Jersey!" referring to the Mafia's influence at casinos in Nevada.
Thomas A. Minetree founds Bethesda Cancer Centers.
The Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) is established by the University of California (UC) in response to the State Legislature's recommendation to expand post-secondary opportunities to all of California's students including those who are first-generation, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and English-language learners.^[9]
Universe , a public domain film produced by Lester Novros for NASA, is released.
Marc Brown's children's picture book Arthur's Nose is published.

Ongoing

Cold War (1947–1991)
Détente (c. 1969–1979)
Capital punishment suspended by Furman v. Georgia (1972–1976)
1970s energy crisis (1973–1980)