Apple #40: 1976

1976

I've been reading John Cheever's Journals (I might do an Apple on him, but not today). In 1976, he was at the worst of his drunkenness, to the point of not remembering how he wound up in a hospital in Boston and got transferred to a dry-out facility. That same year, he published one of his many novels, Falconer.

At the time, I thought 1976 was somehow an unusually important year. Ever since, I've noticed when 1976 comes up. And here is a list of some of the things that happened that year. Some were good, some were bad, but all in all, I think I was right to call it important.

• Bicentennial of the United States

• Leap year

• Jimmy Carter sworn into office, first President from the Deep South since the Civil War

• US Supreme Court ruled the death penalty a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment

• Son of Sam was on the loose

• Rocky, Taxi Driver, and All the President's Men were playing in movie theaters

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won Best Picture

• George Lucas began filming Star Wars

• Alex Haley's Roots was published

• Riots in Soweto, South Africa, marked the beginning of apartheid's end

• North and South Vietnam voted to form a unified republic

• Pol Pot became dictator of Cambodia

• Nadia Comeneci became the first gymnast to be awarded the perfect 10.0 (she won seven of them), and Greg Louganis won the silver at the age of 16

• In the height of the Steelers vs. Cowboys rivalry, Pittsburgh beat Dallas in the Superbowl 21 to 17

• Fleetwood Mac recorded Rumors and the Eagles released Hotel California

• The Clash formed, and the Sex Pistols launched their famously disastrous tour and swore on television

• Viking I landed on Mars

• Richard Leaky discovered a 1.5 million year-old Homo erectus skull in Kenya

• Cosmic string theory was first postulated

• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computers, the then-tiny Microsoft was registered in New Mexico, and the Cray-1 supercomputer was invented

• Howard Hughes, Mao Zedong, and Howlin' Wolf died

• Peyton Manning, Reese Witherspoon, and 50 Cent were born

Sources
Infoplease Alamanac, 1976
Wikipedia, 1976
International Olympic Committee, Olympic Games, Montreal 1976