The following events occurred in December 1976:
December 1, 1976 (Wednesday) Angola was admitted as the 146th member of the United Nations. Its initial application had been vetoed by the United States in the UN Security Council because of the continued presence of Cuban troops in the African nation, but the U.S. abstained as the UN General Assembly approved the entry unanimously (116 to 0)."Angola Is Admitted as 146th Member of United Nations, With the United States Abstaining", The New York Times, December 2, 1976, p. 8 Elisio de Figueriredo was the first Angolan ambassador to the UN, serving until 1988."Our Former Ambassadors", in United Nations website
José López Portillo was sworn into office for a six-year term as President of Mexico."Mexico's New Chief, Sworn In, Appeals for End to Conflict", The New York Times, December 2, 1976, p. 1 The Sex Pistols achieved public notoriety, as guitarist Steve Jones unleashed several "four-letter words" on live television on Bill Grundy's early evening (6:00 pm) show on Thames Television (ITV network), Today, with Grundy's encouragement. Viewers in the London area, the only site to see the live broadcast, flooded the network's telephone switchboard with angry phone calls over "the filthiest language ever used on British television.""The Filth and the Fury! Uproar as viewers jam phones", Daily Mirror (London), December 2, 1976, p. 1"The Foul Mouthed Yobs— Sex Pistols inquiry over four-letter words", December 2, 1976, p. 1 Evening Standard (London)"'Punk Rock' Band Finds Profanity Plays Poorly", Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1976, p. I-2 The uproar propelled the Sex Pistols to widespread fame. Today was cancelled two months later, and Grundy's television career came to an end.John Robb, Punk Rock: An Oral History (Ebury Press, 2006) p. 260 Sir Douglas Nicholls was appointed the 28th Governor of South Australia as the first Australian Aboriginal executive of an Australian state. Nicholls served less than five months, resigning for reasons of health on April 30, 1977. The purchase by the government of Libya of 10 percent ownership of the stock in the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat was announced by Fiat Chairman of the Board Giovanni Agnelli. The oil exporting North African nation paid Fiat $207 million for 10% of the shares of Fiat stock, as well as investing an additional $208 million for future options."Libya Buys 10% Of Fiat Company For $415 Million", by Alvin Shuster, The New York Times, December 2, 1976, p. 1 The government of Indonesia announced the release of 2,650 Indonesian Communist Party members who had been jailed without trial for 11 years, since an attempted coup d'état in 1965. A spokesman for the government said that 29,000 people remained imprisoned but would be released within three years."Indonesia Reports Freeing 2,650 Held for 11 Years", The New York Times, December 2, 1976, p. 6 A terrorist bomb exploded at the officers' club building at the Rhein-Main U.S. Air Force Base in West Germany, destroying the structure and causing minor injuries to nine people who had been dining inside at lunchtime, and nine firemen and a security guard who had responded to the damage."Army Club in Frankfurt Is Destroyed by Blast", The New York Times, December 2, 1976, p. 6 The NBC television show C.P.O. Sharkey premiered as a vehicle for comedian Don Rickles, who portrayed a chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy. The show ran for two seasons. Born: Matthew Shepard, gay American crime victim whose 1998 torture and murder led to the passage of the first federal "hate crime" legislation; in Casper, Wyoming (d. 1998) Laura Ling, American journalist who was imprisoned in North Korea for five months before her release was secured by former U.S. president Bill Clinton; in Carmichael, California Alya Rohali, Indonesian television host and actress who served as Miss Indonesia in international beauty show competitions from 1996 to 1999; in Jakarta.
December 2, 1976 (Thursday) The government of China dismissed Foreign Minister Qiao Guanhua (Chiao Kuan-hua) for collaboration with the Gang of Four, and replaced him with Huang Hua, its Ambassador to the United Nations."China's U.N. Delegate, Huang Hua, Promoted to Foreign Minister Post", The New York Times, December 3, 1976, p. 1 Esther Norma Arrostito, a leader of the Montoneros Argentine terrorist group who was wanted for the 1970 kidnapping and murder of former president Pedro Aramburu, was captured alive after a gun battle with a patrol of the Army of Argentina, but the Argentine government reported that she had been killed in the crossfire."Woman Guerrilla Slain in Argentina", Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1976, p. I-5 The new constitution of Cuba took effect, eliminating the position of Prime Minister of Cuba (Chairman of the Council of Ministers) and merging it with the office of president (Chairman of the Council of State). Fidel Castro, who had been prime minister, became president, with the job of chairing both councils and succeeding Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, who had been head of state since Castro took power in 1959. The offices would be separated again in 2019 after the death of Castro. The constitution also created the National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular) as the first parliament since the Congress of Cuba had been abolished 18 years earlier. Alexander Zinoviev was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after publishing his book Yawning Heights, a satire of the Soviet way of life, in August. Accused of anti-Soviet activity for "extremely cynical slanderous fabrications about Soviet reality, the theory and practice of communist construction, and offensive attacks against Vladimir Lenin, our party and its leadership", Zinoviev was subsequently deprived of his academic titles and privileges. Leslie H. "Bud" King, the biological half-brother of incumbent U.S. president Gerald R. Ford, was killed near Lebanon, Tennessee while driving while intoxicated, after he drove his car the wrong way on Interstate Highway 40 and was in a head-on crash with a truck."Ford Half Brother Killed in Wrong-Way Road Crash", Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1976, p. I-2 Ford, whose name at birth had been Leslie Lynch King, Jr., before his adoption, was ten years older than his half-brother, whom he had seen most recently at the 1976 Republican National Convention; both had been sired by Leslie Lynch King, Sr. Died: Danny Murtaugh, 59, American baseball coach who managed the Pittsburgh Pirates to two World Series championships."Danny Murtaugh Is Dead at 59; Won 2 Series as Pirate Manager", The New York Times, December 3, 1976, p. D17 Ramases (stage name for K. Barrington Frost), 42, British psychedelic musician and cult figure Guruvayur Keshavan, 64, Indian elephant who had been a fixture at the Guruvayur Temple in Kerala state for more than 54 years. A statue of the tall elephant is displayed in front of the temple.
December 3, 1976 (Friday) Reggae singer Bob Marley, his wife Rita, his manager Don Taylor and Wailers member Lewis Griffiths were shot in an attempted assassination by a man who fired through the window of Marley's mansion in Kingston, Jamaica."Bob Marley, Reggae Singer, Is Hurt", The New York Times, December 5, 1976, p. 10 Patrick Hillery was sworn in after being elected unopposed on November 9, 1976 as the 6th President of Ireland.
December 4, 1976 (Saturday) The Central African Republic officially became a monarchy and announced its renaming to the Central African Empire. General Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who had already proclaimed himself "president for life", then converted to Islam and changed his name to Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa was now referred to as Emperor Bokassa I."In Central Africa the Sun Sets on a Republic and Comes Up on an Empire", The New York Times, December 5, 1976, p. 33 South Korea's President Park Chung-hee fired Shin Jik-soo, the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) after charges that the KCIA had been intimidating South Korean citizens living abroad, including those in the United States. Park replaced Shin with Lieutenant General Kim Jae-gyu."Park Dismisses Korean C.I.A. Chief", The New York Times, December 4, 1976, p. 1 Kim would later assassinate President Park at a dinner party on October 26, 1979. The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches was founded at the close of a convention in Chicago by 150 congregations across the U.S. that had left the more conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod because of the policies of its president, the Reverend Jacob A. O. Preus."Lutherans Establish a New Body, Vowing to Seek Christian Unity", The New York Times, December 5, 1976, p. 26 The new body, representing 75,000 more moderate Lutherans, would exist until 1988 with its merger with two other bodies to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Died: Benjamin Britten, 63, English classical music and opera composer "Benjamin Britten, 63, Is Dead in England", The New York Times, December 5, 1976, p. 1 Tommy Bolin, 25, American rock guitarist and songwriter, from an overdose of cocaine
December 5, 1976 (Sunday)
Voting took place in Japan for the 511-member House of Representatives (the Shūgiin), with the background of policy split between members of the longtime ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP of Jimintō)."Japan Ruling Party Loses Its Majority in the Lower House", The New York Times, December 6, 1976, p. 1 For the first time in more than 18 years, the LDP lost its majority, falling by 22 seats from 271 members of parliament to 249, less than 50 percent but still the party with the greatest number of seats. Prime Minister Takeo Miki retained his post. The second-place finisher, the Japan Socialist Party had 118 seats, a gain of five, while the remaining opposition was divided among four parties and a group of independent candidates. A disgruntled member of the Royal Australian Navy, 19-year-old Able Seaman John Trent, destroyed 12 of the Navy's 13 S-2 antisubmarine patrol airplanes by setting fire to the hangar at the Nowra Naval Air Station south of Sydney."12 Navy planes burn— Anti-sub defence force is crippled", The Age (Melbourne), December 6, 1976, p. 1 Trent would tell a court-martial panel later that he opened the fuel tanks of two planes, then "got a piece of paper, made an airplane, set it alight and threw it," adding "I really do now know why I did it. I do not know what came over me." Navy men were able to pull five of the twin-engine Grumman submarine-tracker planes from the burning building, but the five aircraft were damaged beyond repair, while the seven inside the hangar were completely destroyed. The Grummans were worth $1,000,000 USD apiece."Fire Set by Seaman Cost Australia 12 Navy Planes", Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1977, p.I-8
December 6, 1976 (Monday) The Viet Cong was disbanded, and its former members become a part of the Vietnam People's Army. Pieter Menten, a wealthy art dealer from the Netherlands, was arrested at a hotel in Switzerland in the town of Uster, on charges that he was responsible for the Nazi German killing of 120 Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. While being interrogated by Swiss authorities about his past, Menten (who had served eight months imprisonment in the Netherlands in 1950 for collaboration with the Nazis) attempted suicide by swallowing a large dose of sleeping pills. He and his wife had fled from Amsterdam in November when he learned that he was being sought for questioning."Dutch Art Dealer Accused In Nazi Killing of Jews", The New York Times, December 8, 1976, p. 7 The Swiss cabinet authorized the return of Menten to Dutch authorities on December 22."Swiss Return Art Dealer To Dutch to Face Trial In Wartime Death of Jews, The New York Times, December 23, 1976, p. 4