Top News Stories from 1976

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)
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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

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
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  • 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).

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 billion
Consumer Price Index: $56.9
Unemployment: 7.7%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13

Sports

Super Bowl
Pittsburgh d. Dallas
World Series
Cincinnati d. NY Yankees
NBA Championship
Boston d. Phoenix
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Philadelphia
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
NCAA Football Champions
Pittsburgh (12-0-0) 1976 Summer Olympics

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
Music: Air Music, Ned Rorem
Drama: A Chorus Line, Conceived by Michael Bennett
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)
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)
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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.

Movies

  • Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network, All the President's Men

Music

  • Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach,

Books

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
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Death

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