World Events
Population: 4.158 billion
Nobel Peace Prize: Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot becomes prime minister (and virtual dictator) of Cambodia after Prince Sihanouk steps down (April 2).
Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda's Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers killed in raid (July 4).
19-month civil war ends in Lebanon after threatening to escalate to global level (Nov.).
U.S. Events
President: Gerald R. Ford
Vice President: Nelson A. Rockefeller
Population: 218,035,164
Life expectancy: 72.9 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 52.9
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 48.2
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $1,819.00 billion
Federal spending: $371.79 billion
Federal debt: $629.0 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars): $12,686
Consumer Price Index: 56.9
Unemployment: 7.7%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13
US Supreme Court rules that blacks and other minorities are entitled to retroactive job seniority (March 24).
Ford signs Federal Election Campaign Act (May 11).
US Supreme Court rules that death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment (July 3).
Nation celebrates Bicentennial (July 4).
Mysterious disease strikes American Legion convention in Philadelphia, eventually claiming 29 lives (Aug. 4).
Jimmy Carter elected US President (Nov. 2).
Sports
Super Bowl
Pittsburgh d. Dallas (21-17)
World Series
Cincinnati d. NY Yankees (4-0)
NBA Championship
Boston d. Phoenix (4-2)
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Philadelphia (4-0)
Wimbledon
Women: Chris Evert d. E. Cawley (6-3 4-6 8-6)
Men: Bjorn Borg d. I. Nastase (6-4 6-2 9-7)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Bold Forbes
NCAA Basketball Championship
Indiana d. Michigan (86-68)
NCAA Football Champions
Pittsburgh (12-0-0)
Entertainment
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
Music: Air Music, Ned Rorem
Drama: A Chorus Line, Conceived by Michael Bennett
Oscars awarded in 1976
Academy Award, Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas, producers (United Artists)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Saul Bellow (US)
Grammy Awards
Record of the Year: Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain and Tennille
Album of the Year: Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon (Columbia)
Song of the Year: "Send in the Clowns" - Stephen Sondheim, songwriter
Miss America: Tawney Elaine Godin (NY)
Events
The Steadicam is used for the first time in Rocky.
Philip Glass completes Einstein on the Beach, the first widely known example of minimalist composition.
NBC broadcasts Gone with the Wind and scores record-breaking ratings.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest sweeps the top Oscars, winning Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress.
Movies
Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network, All the President's Men
Music
Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach
Books
Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
Judith Guest, Ordinary People
Alex Haley, Roots
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Robert Lowell, Selected Poems
Gabriel García Márquez, Autumn of the Patriarch
Gore Vidal, 1876
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: William N. Lipscomb, Jr. (US), for work on the structure and bonding mechanisms of boranes.
Physics: Burton Richter and Samuel C. C. Ting (both US), for discovery of subatomic particles known as J and psi.
Physiology or Medicine: Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek (both US), for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases.
Air France and British Airways begin the first regularly scheduled commercial supersonic transport (SST) flights.
NASA's Viking I probe lands on Mars.
The US Navy tests the Tomahawk cruise missile.
Richard Leakey discovers a 1.5 million year old Homo erectus skull in Kenya.
Cosmic string theory first postulated by Thomas Kibble.
Deaths
Agatha Christie
Andre Malraux