WORLD HISTORY · 1977 日本語
Events of 1977Showa 52 (Japan) · Year of the Snake
What happened in 1977?
In 1977, baseball star Sadaharu Oh set the world record for career home runs and received the first People's Honor Award, and Japan launched its weather satellite Himawari. Elsewhere, the Voyager 2 space probe set off on its journey.
- Carter inaugurated as presidentNorth America
- Apple II personal computer releasedNorth America
- Japan's first weather satellite Himawari launchedAsia
- Voyager 2 probe launchedNorth America
- Sadaharu Oh receives first People's Honor AwardAsia
- JAL jet hijacked to DhakaAsia
- Yokota Megumi abducted by North KoreaAsia
- Sadat visits IsraelMiddle East
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1977 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 52 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Snake |
| Age of people born in 1977 | Turn 49 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1976 (Showa 51) ／ 1978 (Showa 53) |
| Events | 115 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 8 |
Famous people born in 1977
Our birthday pages list 814 people born in 1977. Here are some of them.
- ShakiraBorn February 2 · turns 49 this year · Colombian singer, songwriter, and dancer who became a global star in both Spani…
- Sarah Michelle GellarBorn April 14 · turns 49 this year · American actress best known as the title hero of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Tom BradyBorn August 3 · turns 49 this year · American football quarterback who won seven Super Bowls with the New England Pa…
- Angela AkiBorn September 15 · turns 49 this year
- Hidetoshi NakataBorn January 22 · turns 49 this year
- Tsuneyasu MiyamotoBorn February 7 · turns 49 this year
- Milo VentimigliaBorn July 8 · turns 49 this year
- Samantha MortonBorn May 13 · turns 49 this year
- Melanie LynskeyBorn May 16 · turns 49 this year
- Sid WilsonBorn January 20 · turns 49 this year
- Tom HardyBorn September 15 · turns 49 this year
- James Van Der BeekBorn March 8 · turns 49 this year
Show 28 more
- Brock LesnarBorn July 12 · turns 49 this year
- Kanye WestBorn June 8 · turns 49 this year
- Brittany MurphyBorn November 10 · turns 49 this year
- Brian BoucherBorn January 2 · turns 49 this year
- Stefan KoubekBorn January 2 · turns 49 this year
- A. J. BurnettBorn January 3 · turns 49 this year
- Lee BowyerBorn January 3 · turns 49 this year
- Gavin LesterBorn January 5 · turns 49 this year
- Brent SopelBorn January 7 · turns 49 this year
- Dustin DiamondBorn January 7 · turns 49 this year
- Sofi OksanenBorn January 7 · turns 49 this year
- Amber BensonBorn January 8 · turns 49 this year
- A. J. BramlettBorn January 10 · turns 49 this year
- Clark HaggansBorn January 10 · turns 49 this year
- Anni Friesinger-PostmaBorn January 11 · turns 49 this year
- Olexiy LukashevychBorn January 11 · turns 49 this year
- Shane KellyBorn January 11 · turns 49 this year
- Yoandy GarloboBorn January 12 · turns 49 this year
- Elliot MasonBorn January 13 · turns 49 this year
- James PoseyBorn January 13 · turns 49 this year
- Mi-Hyun KimBorn January 13 · turns 49 this year
- Orlando BloomBorn January 13 · turns 49 this year
- Narain KarthikeyanBorn January 14 · turns 49 this year
- Terry RyanBorn January 14 · turns 49 this year
- Jeff FosterBorn January 16 · turns 49 this year
- Leigh WhannellBorn January 17 · turns 49 this year
- Richard ArcherBorn January 18 · turns 49 this year
- Benjamin AyresBorn January 19 · turns 49 this year
Events of 1977 (timeline · 115)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
The first episode of Finnish children's TV show Pikku Kakkonen ("Little Number Two") is aired on Yle TV2.
Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashes onto the runway during takeoff from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, killing five.
Linjeflyg Flight 618 crashes in Kälvesta near Stockholm Bromma Airport in Stockholm, Sweden, killing 22 people.
Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.
Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announce they have identified a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Atocha massacre occurs in Madrid during the Spanish transition to democracy.
The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977, which dumps 3 metres (10 ft) of snow in one day in Upstate New York. Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas are most affected.
The Shining, the horror novel and the first hardcover bestseller by Stephen King, is published.
A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
A thousand armed soldiers raid Kalakuta Republic, the commune of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, leading to the death of Funmilayo Anikulapo Kuti.
The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited memorial wreaths of the late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel. It remains the deadliest fireworks accident in the world.
Libya becomes the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People's Congress adopts the "Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People".
The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.
The Hanafi Siege: In a 39-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings.
The 1977 Hanafi Siege: Around 150 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.
Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
The first of The Nixon Interviews (12 will be recorded over four weeks) is videotaped with British journalist David Frost interviewing former United States President Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal and the Nixon tapes.
Morarji Desai becomes the prime minister of India, the first prime minister not to belong to Indian National Congress.
Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.
Southern Airways Flight 242 crashes in New Hope, Paulding County, Georgia, killing 72.
The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people's reservation thereby destroyed the tribe's jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip.
German Federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by two Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light.
The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people.
Nolan Bushnell opens the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (later renamed Chuck E. Cheese) in San Jose, California.
Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.
The Chinese government removes a decade-old ban on William Shakespeare's work, effectively ending the Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
Star Wars (retroactively titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) is released in US theaters.
The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, is engulfed by fire, killing 165 people inside.
JVC introduces its VHS videotape at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. It will eventually prevail against Sony's rival Betamax system in a format war to become the predominant home video medium.
Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.
James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured three days later.
Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, the first democratic elections take place in Spain.
Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
Constitution for the Federation of Earth was adopted by the second session of the World Constituent Assembly, held at Innsbruck, Austria.
The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit.
The Pakistan Armed Forces under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq seize power in Operation Fair Play and begin 11 years of martial law. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is overthrown.
The Pinochet dictatorship in Chile organises the youth event of Acto de Chacarillas, a ritualised act reminiscent of Francoist Spain.
Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Amidst a period of financial and social turmoil, New York City experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting.
The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal is transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).
The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.
The Johnstown flood of 1977 kills 84 people and causes millions of dollars in damages.
Aeroflot Flight B-2 crashes after takeoff from Vitim Airport in the Sakha Republic, killing 39.
The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") is arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year.
The Sri Lanka Riots, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.
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" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.
The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later dies from injuries sustained during this arrest, bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies.
The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.
The 300-metre (980 ft) tall CKVR-DT transmission tower in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, is hit by a light aircraft in a fog, causing it to collapse. All aboard the aircraft are killed.
The Torrijos–Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.
Atari, Inc. releases the Video Computer System (VCS), later renamed the Atari 2600 in 1982.
Japan Airlines Flight 715 crashes on approach to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Malaysia, killing 34 of the 79 people on board.
The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
Hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu. The remaining hostages are later rescued.
German Autumn: A set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide.
A plane carrying the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in woodland in Mississippi, United States. Six people, including three band members, are killed.
Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops a rash in Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date to be the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.
The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39.
Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
A munitions explosion at a train station in Iri, South Korea kills at least 56 people.
France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests series.
During a British House of Commons debate, Labour MP Tam Dalyell poses what would become known as the West Lothian question, referring to issues related to devolution in the United Kingdom.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.
Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem "God Save the Queen" and "God Defend New Zealand".
Former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., is found guilty by the Philippine Military Commission No. 2 and is sentenced to death by firing squad. He is later assassinated in 1983.
An unidentified hijacker named Vrillon, claiming to be the representative of the "Ashtar Galactic Command", takes over Britain's Southern Television for six minutes, starting at 5:12 pm.
Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100.
Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.
Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen in retaliation to preventing President Anwar el-Sadat from pursuing negotiations with Israel at the Tripoli confer.
South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
Air Indiana Flight 216 crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff, and boosters of the team.
SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730 crashes near Madeira Airport in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, killing 36.
United Airlines Flight 2860 crashes near Kaysville, Utah, killing all three crew members on board.
The Ms 5.8 Bob–Tangol earthquake strikes Kerman Province in Iran, destroying villages and killing 665 people.
With the approval of the State Council, China's two largest newspapers, the People's Daily and the Guangming Daily, publish in full for the first time the Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1977 in the Japanese calendar?
1977 was Showa 52 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1977?
1977 is the Year of the Snake.
How old is someone born in 1977?
They turn 49 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1977?
In 1977, baseball star Sadaharu Oh set the world record for career home runs and received the first People's Honor Award, and Japan launched its weather satellite Himawari. Elsewhere, the Voyager 2 space probe set off on its journey.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.