Sunday, September 26, 1976. Rhodesian proposal rejected.

Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith's proposal for a two year transition to black majority rule was rejected by the presidents of Zambia, Zaire, Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola.

Palestinian guerillas seized the Hotel Semramis in Damascus after which the hotel was take back by the Syrian Army.  Four hostages were killed in the battle along with the Palestinian commander.  The surviving three guerrillas were hung the following day.

Conflict in the region at the time was even more complicated than it is now.  The Syrians were contesting Palestinian presence in Lebanon, as were various Lebanese forces.

Last edition:

Friday, September 24, 1976. Smith agrees to majority rule.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Terrorist Organizations, Crime, Domestic Terrorism, Operation Eland, Rhodesia, Rhodesian Bush War, South Africa, Terrorism

Friday, September 24, 1976. Smith agrees to majority rule.

Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith announced on television that he agreed to a transition of the country to majority rule, without clarifying more than that.  The country had lost South African support after Operation Eland.

Patty Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 23, 1976. The Ford Carter Debate goes silent.

Labels: 1960, 1960 Election, 1960s, 1970s, 1976, 1976 Election, television

Thursday, September 23, 1976. The Ford Carter Debate goes silent.

The first U.S. presidential debate since 1960 took place between President Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter.

A power outage happened mid debate.

Baa Baa Black Sheep (Black Sheep Squadron) debuted on NBC.  The Tony Randall Show debuted on CBS.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 21, 1976. The assassination of Orlando Letelier.

Labels: 1970s, 1973 Chilean Coup, 1976, Augusto Pinochet, Chile, Crime, Terrorism, Washington DC

Tuesday, September 21, 1976. The assassination of Orlando Letelier.

Former Chilean Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier was assassinated by Pinochet agent Michael Townley by means of a car bomb in Washington D. C. Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a coworker of Letelier's at the Institute of Peace, was also killed in the blast. 

Townley is an American who became involved with far right wing Chilean elements while living there.  He had partially grown up in Chile.  His current whereabouts, if he is alive, are unknown.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 16, 1976. Noche de los Lápices.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 2020s, 2026 Election, Argentina, Christianity, Crime, Dirty War, Feminism, Gang of Four, Mao Zedong, Medicine, Protestant, religion, Teenagers, The Law of Unintended Consequences, The Second Trump Administration, Women

Thursday, September 16, 1976. Noche de los Lápices.

Teenage members of the Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios were rounded up by masked agents of the Argentine government and would continue for the next several days.   The victims would be tortured, raped, and in most instances, murdered.

The victims were:

• María Claudia Falcone, age 16. She is missing and presumed murdered. According to her brother Jorge Falcone, she was a Montoneros militant.
• Claudio de Acha, age 17.  Missing and presumed murdered.
• Gustavo Calotti "Francés" age 18 He was a police cadet.  He survived.
• María Clara Ciocchini, age 18.  A Catholic school student, she was murdered.
• Pablo Díaz, age 18.  He survived.
• Francisco López Muntaner "Panchito", age 16.  Missing and presumed murdered.
• Patricia Miranda, age 17.  He did not belong to any militant organization and was ultimately released.
• Emilce Moler, age 17.  She survived.
• Daniel A. Racero, age 18.  Missing and presumed murdered.
• Horacio Ungaro, age 17 Missing and presumed murdered.

Quite frankly, with the US on the very eve of an upcoming attempt by populist extremist to steal the 2026 election, things like this are now quite imaginable here in the US.

The first angioplasty on a human being was performed by West German surgeon Andreas Gruentzig.

Mao's widow Jiang Qing altered the Chairman's final directive with the help of three others giving rise to the Gang of Four which would briefly rule Communist China.

The House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church of the United States voted to permit the ordination of women into the Episcopal priesthood. 

1976 was at the height of the first wave feminist movement and the Episcopal Church, traditionally the richest and most powerful Church in the United States, had taken a definitely liberal bent.  Nearly all American Christian churches were going through a left wing wave at the time.  In the case of the Episcopal Church, this was effectively the beginning of its downfall.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 14, 1976. Last foreigners out of Vietnam.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Australopithecus africanus, Federal Emergencies, Geology, Gerald Ford, It was because of the Vietnam War, law, Prehistory, Red Cross, Tanzania, The Fall of Saigon, Vietnam War

Tuesday, September 14, 1976. Last foreigners out of Vietnam.

The International Red Cross completed its evacuation of foreigners from Vietnam.  The numbers were about 3,000, people left after the fall with no easy way out.

President Ford signed into law the National Emergencies Act  allowing the automatic termination of existing states of emergency in the U.S. effective September 14, 1978, and providing a two year limit on the duration of emergencies unless renewed by the U.S. President..

The first Laetoli footprints, fossilized footprints laid down by, must like, Australopithecus pedestrians, were found in Tanzania.  

They are about 3.6 M years old.

Last edition:

Friday, September 10, 1976. A bad day for aviation.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Aircraft, Communists, Croatia, India, McCarthy Era, Movies, Personalities, Terrorism, The written word, United States, Yugoslavia

Friday, September 10, 1976. A bad day for aviation.

176 people were killed in a collision between a British Airways Trident and a Yugoslavian DC-9 near Zagreb.

The Fighters for Free Croatia hijacked TWA Flight 355 that was flying between New York and Montreal.  A different group hijacked an Indian Airlines flight between New Delhi to Mumbai.

South Africa relaxed rules applying to "coloureds" but not black Africans.

Dalton and Cleo Trumbo at House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947. 

Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted screenwriter who was originally from Colorado, died at age 70 in Los Angeles.  A Communist, some of his screenplays were credited to fronts during the McCarthy Era.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 7, 1976. Mao dies.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, China, Communism, Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China, People's Republic of China v. Republic of China

Tuesday, September 7, 1976. Mao dies.

Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong died at age 82.

Like all real Communist leaders he was responsible for seas of blood being shed, in his case in China.  His long rise to power featured a very prolonged contest with Chiang Kai-shek, whom he outlived by one year.  

Last edition:

Monday, September 6, 1976. The defection of Viktor Belenko.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Aircraft, Japan, Labor Day, Personalities, Soviet Air Forces, The Cold War, Vietnam War

Monday, September 6, 1976. The defection of Viktor Belenko.

It was Labor Day in the U.S.

I would have been 13 years old. We probably went dove hunting, and maybe fishing.

Mig 25.

Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Viktor Belenko defected with his Mig 25 to Japan.  He would receive asylum in the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, during which he constantly feared being assassinated by the Soviets/Russians.  He died in 2023 in Illinois at age 76.

The Mig 25 was widely feared by Western nations and the defection was a windfall and a deflation as the plane turned out to be much cruder than imagined. For a time there was suspicion that the defection was itself a deception operation by the Soviet Union.

I recall this event occurring.

Vietnam disclosed the names and fates of twelve Missing In Action aviators who had been killed after being shot down during the Vietnam War.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 5, 1976. The Muppet Show.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Blog Mirror, television, Uncle Mike

Sunday, September 5, 1976. The Muppet Show.

The Muppet Show premiered, with that premier on the British ITV network.  It was soon syndicated in the US.

A much more in depth look at the event is here:

September 5, 1976: "The Muppet Show" Premieres

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 31, 1976. Alice.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, 1974 at the movies, 1976, Country & Western Music, Economics, Folk Music, Growing up in the 1970s, Mexico, Music, television

Tuesday, August 31, 1976. Alice.

The female actresses from Alice.

Popular 1970s television series Alice premiered on CBS.  Based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, it ran for nine seasons.

Linda Lavin starred as Alice in a role that I always thought was depressing, although the series itself is very 1970s. The 1970s featured a lot of dispiriting dramas in its second half.

The series played a role in the childhood of my wife, providing a role character which she acted out with her grandfather, taking orders as if she was a waitress.

Mexico devalued the peso.

Folk musician Buell Kazee died at age 76.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 26, 1976. Ebola emerges.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Disease, Republic of Congo, Zaire

Thursday, August 26, 1976. Ebola emerges.

The first known outbreak of  Ebola, more correctly Zaire ebolavirus, occurred in the village of Yambuku Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mabalo Lokela, a 44-year-old teacher, was the first person to report with the disease.  He died on September 8.

The virus is believed to have diverged from its progenitors between 1960 and 1976.  It was genetically consistent, it is believed, before 1900.  Climate change or a change in human activity spurred its evolution.  It's genetic diversity has dropped off, although recombination events in apes have resulted in outbreaks in human populations since then.  It does seem to be responding to its human host as well.

Last edition

Thursday, August 19, 1976. Ford prevails over Reagan.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 1976 Election, 1980, 1980 Election, 1980s, Gerald Ford, inflation, Kansas, Ronald Reagan, Southern Strategy, Watergate

Thursday, August 19, 1976. Ford prevails over Reagan.

U.S. President Gerald Ford edged out challenger Ronald Reagan, 1,187 to 1,070 in delegate votes, on the first ballot to win the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.  He thereafter chose Sen. Bob Dole as his running mate.

The choice would prove fateful.  Ford was swimming upstream against an insurgent Carter due to the impact of Watergate, when Americans still cared about corruption, and high inflation.  Carter, of course, would prove to be a weak President, giving rise to a successful run by Reagan in 1980, who in the meantime had developed a Southern strategy that would ultimately destroy the GOP.

Last Edition:

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Army, British League of Nations Mandates, Catholic, Christianity, Communism, Namibia, North Korea, North Korean Army, Operation Paul Bunyan, Poland, religion, South Africa, South Korea, South Korean Army

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

A border incident on the Korean DMZ occured in which North Korean soldiers rushed American and South Korean troops and killed two Americans with primitive weapons.  

The tree being cut down two days later as part of Operation Paul Bunyan, a US show of force resulting from the incident.

South Africa announced a multiracial government was be created for South West Africa as it moved towards independence as Namibia.  South Africa had been holding on to the territory under the cover of a British League of Nations Mandate following World War One.

Catholic Priest the Reverend Roman Kotlarz was beaten to death by the Polish secret police.

Last edition:

Monday, August 16, 1976. Hey, ho, let's go.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Education, football, Japan (Tokyo), Music, New Zealand, Rock Music, Sports

Monday, August 16, 1976. Hey, ho, let's go.

The Ramones debuted as a professional band at CBGB, a New York bar.

The bar had been open for three years at the time, and specialized in blue grass and country music.  It'd soon specialize in punk.

The NFL played a demonstration game in Tokyo, the first time the NFL had played outside the US. The temas were the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers.

The New Zealand Private Schools Conditional Integration Act took effect allowing private schools, mostly Catholic, to come under the regulation and tax support of the government. 

Last edition:

Monday, August 9, 1976. Selous Scouts enter Mozambique.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Commandos, Mozambique, Operation Eland, Rhodesia, Rhodesian Bush War, South Africa

Monday, August 9, 1976. Selous Scouts enter Mozambique.

Rhodesia's Selous Scouts raided the Pusque refugee camp near Nyadzonay, Mozambique to contest the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA).  Around 1,000 people died, mostly refugees.  The matter was controversial at the time, causing a breach between Rhodesia and South Africa, which had not wanted the war to expand.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 8, 1976. White socks and shorts.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, baseball, Clothing, Sports

Sunday, August 8, 1976. White socks and shorts.

The Chicago White Sox introduced bermuda shorts to their uniforms.

They have it up after three games.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 4, 1976. Assassination of Bishop Enrique Angelelli.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Argentina, Dirty War, Sudan

Wednesday, August 4, 1976. Assassination of Bishop Enrique Angelelli.

Argentinian Bishop Enrique Angelelli, of the diocese of La Rioja in Argentina, was assassinated by the Argentinian army.

Sudan executed 81 people for participation in the July 2 attempt to overthrow the government of Jaafar Nimeiry.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 1, 1976. Flown out of Vietnam.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1976, 1976 Olympics, It was because of the Vietnam War, Refugees, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam

Sunday, August 1, 1976. Flown out of Vietnam.

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees evacuated of 49 U.S. citizens and their dependents from Vietnam.

The 23 Americans, 14 Vietnamese spouses and 14 children had been stranded in the country after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.  

They were a mixed group.  Most had remained in the country against their will, and three had been held in jail, while a few had plead to be allowed to remain in Vietnam.

Trinidad and Tobago became a republic.

The 1976 Summer Olympics ended.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 31, 1976. The Big Thompson River Flood.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Colorado, Colorado (Big Thompson River), Colorado (Estes Park), Disaster, Domestic Terrorism, Personalities, Weather