Events from the year 1977 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Gerald Ford (R-Michigan) (until January 20) Jimmy Carter (D-Georgia) (starting January 20) Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller (R-New York) (until January 20) Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota) (starting January 20) Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Virginia) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert (D-Oklahoma) (until January 3) Tip O'Neill (D-Massachusetts) (starting January 4) Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana) (until January 3) Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) (starting January 3) Congress: 94th (until January 3), 95th (starting January 3)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January
January The world's first personal computer, the Commodore PET, is demonstrated at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. The Coalition of Free Men is founded in Baltimore, Maryland, in order to create a unified voice in addressing issues concerning men and boys. The organisation would later become the National Coalition for Men, America's oldest men's rights organization. January 3 – Apple Computer is incorporated. January 9 Super Bowl XI: The Oakland Raiders defeat the Minnesota Vikings 32–14 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Rock band Toto is founded by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. January 13 – Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045, a charter flight from Grant County, Washington to Tokyo, Japan, with a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska, stalls and crashes immediately after takeoff in Anchorage, killing all 5 people on board. The causes of the accident were later revealed to be drag on the aircraft by ice and an inebriated captain January 17 – In the first execution after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the United States, Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah. January 19 Snow falls in Miami, Florida (despite its ordinarily tropical climate) for the only time in its history. Snowfall has occurred further south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii. President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka “Tokyo Rose”). January 20 – Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th president of the United States, and Walter F. Mondale is sworn in as the 42nd vice president. January 21 – President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders. January 23 – Roots begins its phenomenally successful run on ABC. January 28 – The Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 hits Buffalo, New York. January 1–31 The contiguous US average monthly minimum temperature of is the coldest for any month since nationwide records were first compiled in 1895. In contrast to the contiguous US, Alaska had to that point its warmest January on record with a mean of being warmer than the 1925 to 1974 average of and warmer than Alaska's previous record warmest January 1937.
February February 4 Fleetwood Mac's Grammy Award-winning album Rumours is released. Eleven CTA commuters are killed when an elevated train derails from the Loop in central Chicago. February 12 – Actress Christa Helm is fatally stabbed on a sidewalk in West Hollywood. The perpetrator is never identified. February 18 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747, at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
March
March 9 – Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Movement Muslims take over three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends two days later. March 11 – Walt Disney Productions' 22nd feature film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, is released. It is the studio's most critically well-received film in years and the last in the Disney canon in which the late Walt Disney was involved with in any capacity. March 18 – United States lifts its ban on travel by U.S. citizens to Cambodia, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. March 15 – Tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the PBS opera series Live from the Met both make their American television debuts. Pavarotti stars in a complete production of Puccini's La Boheme. Also debuting is the ABC sitcom Three's Company. March 26 – The fundamentalist organization Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson. March 28 – The 49th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Richard Pryor, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda and Warren Beatty, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. John G. Avildsen's Rocky receives ten nominations, winning Best Picture and Best Director for Avildsen. Rocky is tied with Sidney Lumet's Network for the most nominations, while the latter film and Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men both won four awards each. The late Peter Finch becomes the first posthumous actor Oscar winner, winning for Best Actor.
April April 4 Grundy, Virginia, experiences a major flood that causes around $15 million in damages to 228 residential and commercial structures. Southern Airways Flight 242 during a flight leg en route to Atlanta, Georgia from Huntsville, Alabama, is forced to make an emergency landing on a highway after complete failure of the aircraft's two engines following the aircraft flying through a hailstorm. 63 of the 85 people on board and 9 people on the ground are killed in the accident. April 5 – Beginning of demonstrations in 10 cities across the U.S., the longest being the 3.5 week sit-in the San Francisco Federal Building to persuade President Jimmy Carter to implement the first Federal civil rights law for people with disabilities, Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, without reinstituting the "separate but equal" doctrine. April 7 The Toronto Blue Jays play their first game of baseball against the Chicago White Sox. The Seattle Mariners play their first-ever game of baseball against the California Angels. April 21 – Residents of Dover, Massachusetts, report sightings of the so-called "Dover Demon".
May May 4 – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops rule that divorced Catholics, including those who remarried outside the Church, are no longer automatically excommunicated and can still attend Mass but if they remarry without obtaining a Church annulment, cannot receive Holy Communion and confession. May 8 – Suzanne Lacy's extended performance piece about rape, Three Weeks in May begins in Los Angeles and continues until May 24. May 14 – The Montreal Canadiens sweep the Boston Bruins in four games to win their second straight Stanley Cup. May 16 – A 20-passenger S-61L helicopter topples sideways at takeoff from the roof of the Pan Am Building in Midtown Manhattan. Four passengers are killed by the turning rotors and a woman at street level is fatally struck by a fallen blade. May 17 – Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre first opens in San Jose, California. May 25 – The movie Star Wars, directed by George Lucas is released as the first film in the Star Wars Saga and the first in the Original Trilogy. It is premiered in 32 movie theaters across the United States "Star Wars' B.O. Hits Wow $2.5 Mil", Variety, June 1, 1977, p. 1 before reaching other cinemas nationwide. Critics who had previewed the film gave it good reviews, with Time magazine dubbing it "the year's best movie"."STAR WARS: The Year's Best Movie" , TIME, May 30, 1977 Star Wars would go on to break the record for highest-grossing film (surpassing Jaws, The Godfather and The Sound of Music)"'Star Wars' the new box office champ", Modesto (CA) Bee, December 1, 1977, p. C-12. May 26 – George Willig climbs the South Tower of the World Trade Center. May 27 – Space Mountain opens at Disneyland and will become one of the park's most popular attractions. May 28 – The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky is engulfed in fire, killing 165 inside. May 29 – Indianapolis 500: A. J. Foyt becomes the first driver (to date) to win a record four times.
June June 4–5 – Humboldt Park riot in Chicago. June 5 – The Portland Trail Blazers defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 109–107 to win the NBA finals 4–2. Bill Walton is named series MVP. June 7 – After campaigning by Anita Bryant and her anti-gay "Save Our Children" crusade, Miami-Dade County, Florida voters overwhelmingly vote to repeal the county's gay rights ordinance. June 10 Apple II computers go on sale. Assassin James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured on June 13. June 16 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates. June 20 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules that states are not required to spend Medicaid funds on elective abortions. June 22 – Walt Disney Productions' 23rd feature film, The Rescuers, is released to box office success and positive critical reception. June 25 – American Roy Sullivan is struck by lightning for the 7th time. June 26 Some 200,000 protesters march through the streets of San Francisco, protesting Anita Bryant's anti-gay remarks and the murder of Robert Hillsborough. Elvis Presley performs his final concert, in the Market Square Arena at Indianapolis, Indiana. Two previous performances were filmed in Omaha, Nebraska (June 19th), and Rapid City, South Dakota (June 21st), for the TV Special "Elvis In Concert." This special was not televised until October 3 of that year on CBS. June 30 – Women Marines disbanded; women are integrated into regular Marine Corps.
July July 13 – The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and disorder. July 19–20 – Flooding in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, caused by massive rainfall, kills over 75 people and causes billions of dollars in damage. July 24 – Led Zeppelin plays their last U.S. concert in Oakland, California at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. A brawl erupts between Led Zeppelin's crew and promoter Bill Graham's staff, resulting in criminal assault charges for several of Led Zeppelin's entourage including drummer John Bonham. July 28 – The first oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System reaches Valdez, Alaska.
August August 3 – United States Senate hearings on MKULTRA are held. August 4 – President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. August 9 – Hulk Hogan debuts as The Super Destroyer for Championship Wrestling from Florida when he is defeated by Don Serrano at John Carroll Catholic High School's gym in Fort Pierce, Florida August 10 – David Berkowitz is captured in Yonkers, New York, after over a year of murders in New York City as the Son of Sam. August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle, named Enterprise, makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). August 15 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "WOW!" signal for a notation made by a volunteer on the project. August 16 – Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 75,000 fans lined the streets of Memphis for his funeral, which occurred on August 18, but wasn't televised until August 20. August 20 – Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft. August 25 – Radio Shack’s new TRS-80 Micro Computer System uses a computer keyboard to plug into an included 64 column video monitor, programmed by cassette tapes played on a home cassette player, shown at the Boston Computer Show on August 25, 1977. From left, visitors Robert Lundgren of Des Plaines, Illinois, Malcolm MacLeod of Montreal, and Radio Shack salesman Steven Carlozzi of Brockton, Massachusetts
September