With America’s 250th birthday fast approaching, Balladeer’s Blog has been looking at national history using 50-year milestones. Previously I did 1826, and 1876, and 1926. This time it’s 1976.
1976
U.S. President: Gerald Ford Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller Speaker of the House: Carl Albert Chief Justice: Warren Burger
Number of Senators: 100 Number of House Representatives: 435 Number of Supreme Court Justices: 9
JANUARY
1st – The ROSE BOWL GAME was played between the UCLA Bruins from the Pacific 8 (Pac 8) Conference and the Ohio State Buckeyes from the Big Ten Conference. A 3-0 Buckeyes lead at Halftime turned into a 23-10 Bruins victory in the end.
Also the 1st – The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is moved from Independence Hall to its own pavilion to accommodate tourism for America’s 200th Anniversary year.
4th – The musical comedy Home Sweet Homer, an adaptation of The Odyssey, did so poorly it opened AND closed on Broadway this same night.
6th – Indigenous Hawaiian Islanders staged a mock invasion to “retake” the island of Kaho’olawa, the smallest of Hawaii’s 8 main islands.
9th – C.W. McCall’s novelty song about trucking and C.B. radios – Convoy – hits number 1 on the Country Music charts.
10th – A gas line explosion and fire at the Pathfinder Hotel in Fremont, NE kills 23 people and injures over 80.
11th – Dorothy Hamill wins her 3rd straight U.S. National Figure Skating Championship.
Also the 11th – Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures starring Mako opens in New York and runs for 193 performances.
13th – American inventor Ray Kurzweil unveils his Kurzweil Reading Machine for the blind.
Also the 13th – Sarah Caldwell becomes the 1st female conductor at the New York Metropolitan Opera. She conducts La Traviata.
18th – In Super Bowl X the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 21-17.
26th – David Mamet’s play American Buffalo opens in New York City after having debuted in Chicago the previous year.
28th – New York City drug lord Frank Lucas is sentenced to 40 years in prison and a $200,000 fine (equal to $1,170,000 here in 2026).
30th – The repulsive Republican George H.W. Bush, from one of America’s most corrupt political families, becomes the new head of the grotesque international criminal outfit the CIA. He replaces William Colby in the wake of the 1970s revelations about CIA atrocities. Here in 2026 it’s like the CIA hearings of the 70s never happened and the obscene organization has long since resumed its ugly behavior.
31st – Olivia Newton-John and John Denver are the big winners at the American Music Awards.
FEBRUARY
5th – The Swine Flu outbreak begins in the U.S.
7th – The Federal Communications Commission raids and shuts down pirate radio station WCPR in Brooklyn, NY.
11th – Under Republican President Gerald Ford, Clifford Alexander, Jr. becomes the first African American U.S. Secretary of the Army.
15th – 12-year-old Mark Stebbins becomes the first victim of Michigan’s Oakland County Child Killer. Three more children would be killed by the same party over the next 13 months. The killings were never solved.
16th – Liz Smith’s first gossip column appeared in New York’s Daily News.
17th – Cliff Jones’ rock musical Rockabye Hamlet opens in New York City.
19th – Marisat 1, the first commercial communications satellite, was launched by the U.S.
23rd – In her trial for bank robbery, Patty Hearst pleads the Fifth 42 times per the advice of her lawyer F. Lee Bailey.
24th – Jules Feiffer’s stage comedy Knock Knock, starring Judd Hirsch himself, opens in New York City.
28th – Natalie Cole becomes the first African American to win Best New Artist at the Grammies.
29th – On Leap Day, racecar driver Richard Petty wins the Winston Cup Race.
MARCH
2nd – Bubbling Brown Sugar, a musical revue of songs from the Harlem Renaissance, opens at ANTA Theater in New York. It runs for 766 performances.
3rd – Carlsbad Skatepark opens in Carlsbad, CA for skateboarding.
6th – Wilfred Benitez, a 17-year-old American high school student, becomes the youngest man in world history to win the Light Welterweight championship.
9th – The U.S. Military Academy at West Point admits its first female Cadets.
14th – Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 7,000th race.
Also the 14th – Arlene Hiss becomes the first woman to drive in a major auto race – the Jimmy Bryan 150 in Arizona.
18th – The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis admits its first female students.
20th – Patty Hearst is found guilty.
27th – Washington DC’s underground metro opens. 4.6 miles are already completed.
Also the 27th – In the North American Soccer League, the Tampa Bay Rowdies won the 1976 championship, defeating the Rochester Lancers.
31st – A New Jersey court rules that vegetative Karen Ann Quinlan can be disconnected from her breathing apparatus. She remains in a coma and dies in 1985.
APRIL
1st – Apple Computer is formed by Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Steve Jobs.
6th – William Schuman’s Symphony Number Ten, commissioned specifically for America’s Bicentennial celebration, is first performed.
11th – Seattle establishes the Ballard Avenue Historical District.
12th – American writer Anne Rice’s first novel Interview with the Vampire is published.
13th – Two-dollar bills are issued as part of America’s Bicentennial celebration.
15th – IBM announced the first commercially available laser printer.
19th – President Gerald Ford rescinded President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 which had authorized the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.
23rd – The band the Ramones released their eponymous debut album.
24th – American composer Steve Reich’s Music for Sixteen Musicians is first performed in New York City.
25th – Baseball player Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs notices two men trying to burn an American flag during an away game in California. Monday ran over and grabbed the flag off of the befuddled duo to prevent its burning. Rick Monday’s iconic words after his heroic act were “”If you’re going to burn the flag, don’t do it around me. I’ve been to too many veterans’ hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it.“
26th – Pan Am launches its non-stop flights between New York City and Tokyo.
30th – The Betsy Ross Bridge – between Pennsylvania and New Jersey – opens.
MAY
1st-3rd – Pan Am 747 SP-21, called the Clipper Liberty Bell in honor of America’s Bicentennial, sets a world speed record for a ’round-the-world flight.
11th – Jack Cassidy, legend of stage, screen and television, passes away.
14th – The “Bike-Centennial” establishes the Trans-America Bicycle Trail through Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon.
18th – Queen Elizabeth II begins a state visit to the U.S. to honor the Special Relationship that had grown between America and England since the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Also the 18th – Business magnate and legend Howard Hughes passes away.
22nd – NASA launches the Viking 1 spacecraft to explore Mars.
Also the 22nd – In Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Opera Theater opens with a performance of the opera version of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
23rd – The Spiritual Life Jubilee is held in Los Angeles in front of the infamous People’s Temple. Cult leader Jim Jones leads the event and has Warith Deen Mohammed conduct a Sunni Islam service.
26th – John T. Scalish, Don of the Cleveland Mafia, dies. This triggers a gang war between the mob led by Scalish’s successor James T. Licavoli and a gang led by Irish crime chief Danny Greene allied with Mafia traitor John Nardi.
27th – Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman driver to qualify for a NASCAR race, in this case the World 600.
28th – The Women’s Professional Softball Association debuts. Its 10 teams are the Buffalo Breskis, Chicago Ravens, Connecticut Falcons, Michigan Travelers, Pennsylvania Liberties, San Diego Sandpipers, San Jose Sunbirds, Santa Ana Lionettes, Southern California Gems, and the Tempe Phoenix-Bird.
30th – NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft settles into orbit around Mars.
Also the 30th – Johnny Rutherford wins the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500 auto race.
JUNE
2nd – Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, noted for his investigative journalism on organized crime, is killed via car-bomb.
3rd – In honor of America’s Bicentennial and our links with our British cousins, Great Britain lets the U.S. display the oldest surviving copy of 1215 AD’s Magna Carta.
5th – Idaho’s Teton Dam bursts, killing 14 people and causing 1 billion dollars (equal to 5.9 billion in 2026) in damage.
6th – The Boston Celtics defeat the Phoenix Suns 4 games to 2 for the NBA Championship.
13th – Severe thunderstorms hit Iowa and produce several tornadoes. An F5 tornado destroys Jordan, IA.
16th – Francis E. Meloy, Jr., America’s newly appointed Ambassador to Lebanon, is assassinated in Beirut.
17th – Former ABA teams the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs merge into the NBA.
Also the 17th – Blondie releases its debut single X Offender.
22nd – Stephen Schwartz’s musical Godspell opens in New York City and runs for 527 performances.
24th – The first documented case of AIDS in the U.S. is identified.
28th – The United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO admits its first female Cadets.
JULY
2nd – The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 in Gregg v Georgia that the death penalty is a constitutionally permissible form of punishment.
4th – America’s 200th birthday is celebrated nationwide.
9th – For the first time, reporters and other civilians are granted access to the War Room inside the Pentagon.
14th – Jimmy Carter becomes the Democrat Party’s presidential nominee for 1976.
20th – Hank Aaron hits the 755th and final Home Run of his baseball career.
21st – The first color photos of Mars are transmitted to Earth from the Viking 1.
27th – An American Legion Convention being held in Philadelphia, PA sees several Legionnaires fall victim to a particular form of pneumonia dubbed “Legionnaire’s Disease.”
Also the 27th – The U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team wins the Gold Medal by defeating the Yugoslavian team 95-74.
29th – In New York City the first Son of Sam murder is committed.
AUGUST
4th – Serial killer Montie Rissell kills the first of his 5 victims.
5th – President Gerald Ford gives former Olympian Jesse Owens the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
10th – The stage musical Annie debuts.
19th – Gerald Ford becomes the Republican Nominee for president.
28th – M.I.T. announces the first man-made gene.
Also the 28th – Archeologists in South Carolina raise a merchant ship dated to 1720-1760 from the Black River.
SEPTEMBER
1st – Democrat Congressman Wayne Hays resigns amid a scandal over hiring a secretary just to have sex with.
3rd – Viking 2 makes a soft landing on Mars.
4th – Guam votes to remain an American Territory rather than try for statehood.
6th – Soviet air force pilot Viktor Belenko flies his MiG-25 to Japan and requests political asylum from the United States.
17th – NASA publicly unveils the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
20th – Playboy magazine publishes its interview with Democrat presidential nominee Jimmy Carter. The interview is most remembered for Carter discussing how he “lusts in his heart” for women.
23rd – For the first time since 1960 the Democratic and Republican nominees for president appear in a televised debate.
24th – Patty Hearst is sentenced to 7 years.
Also the 24th – The first American college football game played outside the U.S. takes place in Tokyo between the Grambling State Tigers and the Morgan State Bears, both HBCUs. Grambling won 42-16.
29th – Rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shoots his bass player in the chest two times while trying to shoot a bottle.
OCTOBER
15th – Democrat Walter Mondale and Republican Bob Dole participate in America’s first ever debate between Vice Presidential candidates.
20th – A ferry boat accident on the Mississippi River kills 78 passengers and crew.
Also the 20th – The Hartford Times newspaper went out of business, publishing its final paper after being active since 1817.
21st – The Cincinnati Reds sweep the New York Yankees 4 games to none in the World Series.
NOVEMBER
2nd – Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election.
9th – Smokey the Bear (as in the actual bear) died at age 26. He was noted for being saved by forestry personnel from a forest fire in 1950.
14th – President-Elect Jimmy Carter’s church in Georgia FINALLY voted to admit non-white people.
15th – The first megamouth shark is discovered near Oahu, HI.
16th – Psychotronic Hall of Famer Robert Lippert died at age 67 after a career in filmmaking.
18th – One million smokers in California accept the challenge to spend this entire day without smoking. It was known as the Great American Smokeout.
30th – Tony Dorsett of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers wins the 1976 Heisman Trophy.
DECEMBER
6th – The U.S. House of Representatives elects Massachusetts Congressman Tip O’Neill as the new Speaker of the House.
10th – Five of the six Nobel Prize categories at the time were won by Americans. No Peace Prize was awarded this year. Literature – Saul Bellow, Economics – Milton Friedman, Chemistry – William N. Lipscomb, Medicine – Baruch Blumberg & D. Carleton Gajdusek, and finally, Physics – Burton Richter & Samuel C.C. Ting.
12th – Quarterback Joe Namath plays his last game as a New York Jet.
17th – Ted Turner’s TBS becomes the first “superstation”, using satellites to broadcast to the entire country.
31st – Outgoing President Ford delivers the last Bicentennial Minute, short educational pieces that had been airing since July 4th, 1974.
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