1976

1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday.

Events

January

January 12 - The UN Security Council votes 11-1 to admit the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
January 15 - Would-be Gerald Ford presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison.
January 16 - The trial against jailed members of the Red Army Faction begins in Stuttgart, West Germany.
January 18 - The Scottish Labour Party is formed.
January 19 - Jimmy Carter wins the Iowa Democratic Caucus.
January 21 - The first commercial Concorde flight takes off.
January 25 - Twelve PIRA bombs explode in London's East End.
January 27 - The trial of SLA member Patty Hearst begins.
January 30 Live from Lincoln Center debuts on PBS.

February

February 4 - In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
February 4 - The 1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.
February 11 - Clifford Alexander Jr is confirmed as the first African-American Secretary of the US Army.
February 15 - The 1976 Constitution of Cuba is adopted by national referendum.
February 20 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
February 24 - Cuba's current constitution is enacted.
February 27 - Western Sahara declares independence.
February 28 - Spain gives up territories in Sahara but retains its enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta.

March

March 1 - Merlyn Rees ends Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence in Northern Ireland.
March 4 - The Maguire Seven are found guilty of possessing explosives and subsequently jailed for 14 years.
March 4 - The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London via the British parliament.
March 9-March 11 - Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine, Letcher County, KY.
March 16 - Harold Wilson resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
March 17 - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is retried in New Jersey.
March 20 - Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank.
March 24 - Argentina military forces depose president Isabel Peron.
March 26 - The Toronto Blue Jays are created.
March 26 - Queen Elizabeth II, Sent the first royal e-mail
March 27 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro subway system opens.
March 29 - The junta of general Jorge Videla comes to power in Argentina.
March 31 - The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that coma patient Karen Ann Quinlan can be disconnected from her ventilator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985.

April

April 1 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
April 1 - Conrail or Consolidated Rails Corporation is formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that had filed for bankruptcy protection. Conrail takes control at midnight, as a government-owned and operated railroad till 1986, when it is sold to the public.
April 3 - The 21st Eurovision Song Contest 1976 is held in The Hague. With Corry Brokken as the presenter, the contest is won by Brotherhood of Man, representing the United Kingdom, with their song Save Your Kisses For Me.
April 4 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
April 5 - James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
April 5 - Large crowds lay wreaths at Beijing's Monument of the Martyrs to commemorate the death of Premier Zhou Enlai. Poems against the Gang of Four are also displayed. This is followed by a police crackdown and becomes known as the Tiananmen Incident.
April 13 - An explosion in an ammunition factory in Lapua, Finland kills 40.
April 16 - As a measure to curb population growth, the minimum age for marriage in India is raised to 21 years for men and 18 years for women.
April 21 - The Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne: Bandits steal A$1.4 million in bookmakers' settlements from Queen Street, Melbourne.
April 23 - The Punk rock group The Ramones release their first album (which is self titled).
April 25 - Portugal's new constitution is enacted.

May

May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof of RAF is found hanging in an apparent suicide, in her cell in Stuttgart-Stannheim prison.
May 11 - U.S. President Gerald Ford signs the Federal Election Campaign Act.
May 24 - The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 revolutionizes the world of wine.
May 24 - Washington, DC Concorde service begins.
May 25 - U.S. President Gerald Ford defeats challenger Ronald Reagan in 3 Republican presidential primaries: Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon.
May 30 - Indianapolis 500-Mile Race: Johnny Rutherford wins the (rain-shortened) shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or 255 miles (408 km).

June

June 1 - UK and Iceland end the Cod War.
June 5 - The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the U.S., killing 11 people.
June 14 - The trial begins at Oxford Crown Court of Donald Neilson, the killer known as the Black Panther.
June 16 - The Soweto riots in South Africa mark the beginning of the end of apartheid.
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.
June 20 - General elections are held in Italy.
June 20 - Czechoslovakia beats West Germany 5-3 on penalties to win the Euro 76, after the game had ended 2-2 in overtime.
June 25 - Strikes start in Poland (Ursus, Radom, Płock) after communists raise food prices; strikes end on June 30.
June 26 - The CN Tower is built in Toronto; the tallest free-standing land structure opens to the public.
June 26 - Two unmarked cars drive onto Jumping Bull property, beginning a fire fight. Two FBI agents and 1 Indian male are killed, starting one of the largest manhunts in FBI history.
June 27 - Palestinian extremists hijack an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew. They take it to Entebbe, Uganda, where Israeli commandos storm it on July 4.

July

[[Image:Amerigo_vespucci_1976_nyc_aufgetakelt.jpg|thumb|Italian tall ship Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor during the [[United States Bicentennial]] celebration. ]]

July 2 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam unite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam - a Communist country.
July 3 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules, in Gregg v. Georgia, that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.
July 3 - The great heat wave in the United Kingdom, which is currently suffering from drought conditions, reaches its peak.
July 4 - United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, Americans celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
July 4 - Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) leads 50,000 marchers in Philadelphia to demand a "Bicentennial Without Colonies" and independence for Puerto Rico.
July 4 - In the Entebbe Raid, Israeli airborne commandos free 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane at Uganda's Entebbe Airport; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in the raid.
July 7 - German left-wing terrorists Monika Berberich, Gabriella Rollnick, Juliane Plambeck and Inge Viett escape from the Lehrter Straße maximum security prison in West Berlin.
July 10 - Three British and 1 American mercenaries are shot by firing squad in Angola.
July 10 - An explosion in Seveso, Italy, kills a large number of people.
July 15 - Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. President at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
July 16-July 20 - Albert Spaggiari and his gang break into the vault of the Societe Generale Bank in Nice, France.
July 17 - The 1976 Summer Olympics begin in Montreal, Canada.
July 17 - East Timor is declared the 27th province of Indonesia.
July 19 - Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
July 20 - Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
July 21 - A bomb kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, British ambassador to the Irish Republic.
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 - The United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Uganda.
July 28 - The Tangshan earthquake flattens Tangshan,China, killing 242,769 people, and injuring 164,851.
July 29 - In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag, killing 1 and seriously wounding another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorize the city for the next year.
July 30 - In Santiago, capital of Chile, Cruzeiro from Brazil wins River Plate from Argentina and are the Copa Libertadores de América champions.
July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.

August

August 1 - The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago becomes a republic, replacing Queen Elizabeth II with an elected president as their Head of State.
August 2 - A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr, and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's Mansion at Mockingbird Lane in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found innocent for Andrea's murder, involvement in a plot to kill several people (including Priscilla and a judge), and a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen goes broke afterwards.
August 4 - The first outbreak of Legionnaire's disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia.
August 5 - Racing Champion Niki Lauda suffers serious burns in the German Grand Prix.
August 5 - The Great Clock of Westminster (or Big Ben) suffers internal damage and stops running for over nine months.
August 6 - Former UK Postmaster General John Stonehouse is sentenced to seven years' jail for fraud.
August 7 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
August 14 - Ten thousand Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland.
August 14 - The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.
August 18 - In North Korea at Panmunjom, two US soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Demilitarized Zone which had obscured their view.
August 19 - U.S. President Gerald Ford edges out challenger Ronald Reagan to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in Kansas City.
August 24 - In Uruguay, an army captures Marcelo Gelman and his pregnant wife. Marcelo is later killed and his wife (and unborn child) disappear.

September

September 3 - Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars, taking the first close-up color photos of the planet's surface.
September 6 - Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate, on the island of Hokkaido in Japan, and requests political asylum from the United States.
September 6 - A military junta takes power in Argentina.
September 6 - 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 what would turn out to be the only) time in over 20 years.
September 9 - Chairman Mao Zedong, of the People's Republic of China, dies.
September 10 - A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), killing all 176 aboard.
September 10 - Osamu Tezuka begins serialising MW, a manga inspired by the 1974 Kakuei Tanaka government scandal.
September 16 - Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from the trolleybus, that had fallen into Erevan reservoir.
September 17 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise is rolled out of a Palmdale, California hangar.
September 21 - Seychelles joins the United Nations.
September 21 - Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
September 24 - Patricia Hearst is sentenced to 7 years in prison for her role in a 1974 bank robbery. An executive clemency order from U.S. President Jimmy Carter will set her free after only 22 months.

October

October 6 - Cubana Flight 455 crashes due to a bomb placed by anti-Castrist militants, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados. All 73 people on board are killed.[1]
October 6 - Massacre of students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
October 7 - In San Francisco, during his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford stumbles when he declares that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" (there was at the time).
October 10 - Taiwan Governor Hsieh Tung-ming is injured by a letter bomb from a pro-independence activist.
October 12 - The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung, as Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
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 19 - The Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States.
October 19 - Battle of Aishiya in Lebanon.
October 19 - The Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is placed on the list of endangered species.
October 20 - The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, LA to Luling, LA, killing 78 passengers and crew.
October 22 - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, the fifth President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defence.
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 Rudolph Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.
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.

December

December 1 - Angola joins the United Nations.
December 1 - The Sex Pistols achieve public notoriety as they unleash several 4-letter words live on Bill Grundy's TV show.
December 3 - Bob Marley and his manager Don Taylor are shot in an assassination attempt, at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, Jamaica. Marley is shot twice, but Taylor takes most of the bullets; both survive.
December 3 - Patrick Hillery is elected unopposed as the sixth President of Ireland.
December 8 - The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is established by the 5 Latinos in the United States Congress: Herman Badillo of the Bronx, 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 15 - Samoa joins the United Nations.
December 20 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago for 21 years, dies.
December 23 - A new volcano, Murara, erupts in eastern Zaire.

Unknown dates

First laser printer introduced by IBM - the IBM 3800
Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, invented by Seymour Cray
California's sodomy law repealed.
The term memetics first proposed by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.
Diffie-Hellman cryptography proposed
Plans to move the Nigerian capital from Lagos to Abuja are approved.
Ebola is first discovered in Zaire
Women For Sobriety established.
Industrial Records founded
Hillsdale Elementary in West Chester, PA opened its doors for the first time to students.
The first annual Banff Mountain Film Festival was held in Banff, Alberta.

Births

January

January 1 - Seema Bowri, British actress
January 2 - Cletidus Hunt, American football player
January 2 - Paz Vega, Spanish actress
January 4 - Shiro Amano, Japanese manga artist/writer
January 6 - Danny Pintauro, American actor
January 7 - Éric Gagné, Canadian Major League Baseball player
January 7 - Alfonso Soriano, Dominican Major League Baseball player
January 8 - Jenny Lewis, American actress and musician (Rilo Kiley)
January 19 - Marsha Thomason, British actress
January 20 - Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
January 21 - Emma Bunton, English musician (Spice Girls)
January 28 - Mark Madsen, American basketball player
January 30 - Andy Milonakis, Internet and MTV star
January 31 - Buddy Rice, American race car driver

February

February 2 - James Hickman, British swimmer
February 4 - Cam'ron, Harlem, New York rapper
February 5 - Abhishek Bachchan, Indian Actor
February 9 - Vladimir Guerrero, Dominican Major League Baseball player
February 10 - Lance Berkman, baseball player
February 12 - Silvia Saint, Czech actress
February 13 - Martin Sastre, Uruguayan artist
February 15 - Brandon Boyd, American musician (Incubus)
February 16 - Tooru "Kyo" Nishimura Vocalist of Visual Kei band (Dir En Grey)
February 20 - Ed Graham, British drummer (The Darkness)
February 23 - Jeff O'Neill, Canadian hockey player
February 25 - Rashida Jones, American actress, writer, model, musician
February 29 - Ja Rule, American rapper

March

March 5 - Sarunas Jasikevicius, Lithuanian basketball player
March 8 - Freddie Prinze Jr, American actor
March 13 - Danny Masterson, American actor
March 19 - Rachel Blanchard, Canadian actress
March 19 - Alessandro Nesta, Italian football player
March 20 - Chester Bennington, American musician (Linkin Park)
March 22 - Teun de Nooijer, Dutch field hockey player
March 22 - Reese Witherspoon, American actress
March 23 - Keri Russell, American actress
March 24 - Aaron Brooks, American football player
March 24 - Peyton Manning, American football player
March 25 - Juvenile, American rapper
March 26 - Amy Smart, American actress

April

April 6 - Candace Cameron, American actress
April 13 - Jonathan Brandis, American actor (d. 2003)
April 15 - Steve Williams (rower), British rower
April 18 - Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
April 20 - Joey Lawrence, American actor
April 22 - Michał Żewłakow, Polish footballer
April 23 - Darren Huckerby, English footballer
April 25 - Tim Duncan, West Indian basketball player
April 25 - Rainer Schuettler, German tennis player
April 26 - Jose Pasillas, drummer of the US american alternative rock band Incubus

May

May 3 - Beto, Portuguese footballer
May 4 - Jason Michaels, baseball player
May 14 - Martine McCutcheon, British actress and singer
May 15 - Tyler Walker, baseball player
May 15- Jacek Krzynówek, Polish footballer
May 15- Ryan Leaf, former NFL quarterback
May 19 - Kevin Garnett, American basketball player
May 20 - Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
May 25 - Miguel Tejada, Dominican Major League Baseball player
May 31 - Colin Farrell, Irish actor

June

June 8 - Lindsay Davenport, American tennis player
June 10 - Freddy Garcia, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
June 13 - Lindsay Archer, American Fantasy Artist
June 13 - Jason 'J' Brown, English musician (5ive)
June 15 - Dryden Mitchell, member of the band Alien Ant Farm
June 21 - Mike Einziger, guitarist of the US american alternative rock band Incubus
June 23 - Brandon Stokley, American football player
June 23 - Patrick Vieira, French football player

July

July 1 - Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer
July 1 - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer
July 1 - Lina Rafn, Danish Singer
July 3 - Andrea Barber, American actress
July 4 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer
July 5 - Bizarre, American rapper
July 5 - Nuno Gomes, Portuguese footballer
July 5 - Marina Dias, Brazilian supermodel
July 5 - Mike DeWolf, member of the band Taproot
July 7 - Elijah Blue Allman, Deadsy frontman and Son of Cher and Greg Allman
July 8 - Ellen MacArthur, English yachtswoman
July 9 - Shelton Benjamin, American professional wrestler
July 9 - Fred Savage, American actor
July 11 - Eduardo Nájera, Mexican basketball player
July 13 - Al Santos, American actor/model
July 17 - Marcos Senna, Brazilian footballer
July 20 - Alex Yoong, Malaysian race car driver
July 20 - Andrew Stockdale, Singer/guitarist for Wolfmother
July 23 - Judit Polgar, Hungarian chess player
July 24 - Nate Bump, American baseball player
July 25 - Stéphane Rideau, French Actor
July 31 - Annie Parisse, American actress

August

August 6 - Melissa George, Australian actress
August 8 - JC Chasez, American singer
August 9 - Jessica Capshaw, American actress
August 9 - Rhona Mitra, English actress
August 9 - Audrey Tautou, French actress
August 11 - Ben Gibbard, American musician
August 12 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player
August 13 - Roddy Woomble, Scottish musician
August 14 - Alex Albrecht, American television personality
August 15 - Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
August 18 - Alex Katunich, Original bassist for the band Incubus
August 19 - Michael M. Wartella, American underground cartoonist
August 27 - Carlos Moyà, Spanish tennis player
August 27 - Mark Webber, Australian race car driver
August 27 - Sarah Chalke, American actress

September

September 1 - Jada Fire, American pornographic actress
September 3 - Jevon Kearse, American football player
September 6 - Naomie Harris, British actress
September 7 - Stevie Case, American video game celebrity
September 8 - Abi Titmuss, British TV presenter and model
September 8 - Sjeng Schalken, Dutch tennis player
September 10 - Gustavo Kuerten, Brazilian tennis player
September 12 - Maciej Żurawski, Polish footballer
September 16 - Tina Barrett, English singer (S Club 7)
September 19 - Isha Koppikar, Indian actress
September 20 - Yui Horie, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
September 22 - Ronaldo, Brazilian footballer
September 24 - Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, Senior Vice-President of Creative Writing - World Wrestling Entertainment
September 25 - Chauncey Billups, American basketball player
September 26 - Michael Ballack, German footballer
September 29 - Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian footballer

October

October 1 - Blu Cantrell, American singer
October 1 - Dora Venter, Hungarian pornographic actress
October 4 - Alicia Silverstone, American actress
October 6 - Taylor Hicks, American singer
October 7 - Gilberto Silva, Brazilian football player
October 7 - Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress
October 10 - Bob Burnquist, Brazilian skateboarder
October 15 - Yoon Son-ha, South Korean actress
October 19 - Michael Young, baseball player
October 19 - Joy Bryant, American actress
October 22 - Derek Mitchell, British composer
October 23 - Cat Deeley, British TV presenter
October 23 - Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor
October 25 - Steve Jones, Northern Irish footballer
October 29 - Stephen Craigan, Northern Irish footballer

November

November 1 - Matt Chapman, creator of Homestar Runner
November 6 - Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
November 6 - Catherine Clark, Canadian journalist (also daughter of former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark)
November 7 - Mark Philippoussis, Australian tennis player
November 11 - Mike Leon Grosch, German singer and finalist of Deutschland sucht den Superstar 3
November 12 - Mirosław Szymkowiak, Polish footballer
November 19 - Jun Shibata, Japanese singer and songwriter
November 20 - Laura Harris, Canadian Actress
November 20 - Dominique Dawes, U.S. Olympic gymnast
November 22 - Ville Valo, a Finnish singer for the band HIM
November 24 - Lu Chen, Chinese figure skater
November 27 - Jaleel White, American actor
November 29 - Anna Faris, American actress
November 29 - Ehren McGhehey, American actor, Jackass

December

December 1 - Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
December 7 - David A. Smith, biodiesel promoter
December 8 - Dominic Monaghan, actor
December 12 - Dan Hawkins, British guitarist (The Darkness)
December 13 - Tom Delonge, American musician (Blink-182)
December 13 - Radosław Sobolewski, Polish footballer
December 15 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
December 17 - Takeo Spikes, American football player
December 18 - Koyuki, Japanese actress and model
December 29 - Katherine Moennig, American actress
December 29 - Jason-Shane Scott, American actor

Deaths

January

January 8 - Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1898)
January 10 - Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)
January 12 - Agatha Christie, English writer (b. 1890)
January 23 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, writer, and activist (b. 1898)
January 30 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (b. 1895)

February

February 1 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
February 1 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878)
February 2 - Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (b. 1903)
February 6 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician (b. 1928)
February 9 - Percy Faith, Canadian-born musician and composer (b. 1908)
February 11 - Lee J Cobb, American actor (b. 1911)
February 11 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamicist (b. 1894)
February 11 - Charlie Naughton, Scottish actor (b. 1886)
February 12 - Sal Mineo, American actor (b. 1939)
February 13 - Lily Pons, American soprano (b. 1898)
February 20 - René Cassin, French judge, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1887)
February 20 - Kathryn Kuhlman, American evangelist and faith healer (b. 1907)
February 22 - Florence Ballard, American singer (The Supremes) (b. 1943)

March

March 4 - Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (b. 1886)
March 6 - Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, American boxer and actor (b. 1903)
March 7 - Wright Patman, American politician (b. 1893)
March 14 - Busby Berkeley, American choreographer and director (b. 1895)
March 17 - Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre and film director (b. 1906)
March 19 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (b. 1950)
March 24 - Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (b. 1897)

April

April 1 - Max Ernst, German artist (b. 1891)
April 4 - Harry Nyquist, American information theory pioneer (b. 1889)
April 5 - Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, and eccentric (b. 1905)
April 9 - Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (b. 1903)
April 18 - Henrik Dam, Dutch biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
April 26 - Sid James, South African actor (b. 1913)

May

May 1 - T.R.M. Howard, Civil rights leader, surgeon (b. 1908)
May 9 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (b. 1920)
May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof, German terrorist (b. 1934)
May 11 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (b. 1898)
May 14 - Keith Relf, British musician (The Yardbirds) (b. 1943)
May 26 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (b. 1889)
May 27 - Hilde Hildebrand, German actress (b. 1897)
May 28 - Steffan Danielsen, Faroese painter (b. 1922)
May 31 - Jacques Monod, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1910)

June

June 10 - Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-born film producer (b. 1873)
June 11 - Toots Mondt, WWWF Promoter (b. 1886)
June 15 - Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (b. 1896)
June 25 - Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (b. 1909)
June 30 - Firpo Marberry, baseball player (b. 1898)

October

October 5 - Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
October 15 - Carlo Gambino, American Gangster (b. 1902)
October 11 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (b. 1897)

November

November 11 - Alexander Calder, Sculptor (b. 1898)
November 12 - Walter Piston, American composer (b. 1894)

December

December 2 - Danny Murtaugh, baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
December 4 - Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913)
December 6 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (b. 1918)
December 20 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
December 28 - Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman (b. 1903)

Unknown dates

Mariano Andreu, Spanish painter (b. 1888)

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Burton Richter, Samuel Chao Chung Ting
Chemistry - William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr
Physiology or Medicine - Baruch S. Blumberg, D Carleton Gajdusek
Literature - Saul Bellow
Peace - Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan
Economics - Milton Friedman

Ship events

Parody

Spirit of '76 (1990 film) A comedy movie about popular United States culture in 1976

Templeton Prize

Cardinal Suenens