March 1976


The following events occurred in March 1976:

March 1, 1976 (Monday)

March 2, 1976 (Tuesday)

March 3, 1976 (Wednesday)

March 4, 1976 (Thursday)

  • The Maguire Seven, members of a family resident in West Kilburn, London, UK, were found guilty of possessing explosives used in IRA terrorist activity; their sentences would eventually be reversed in 1991.
  • Winegrowers in the French village of Arquettes-en-Val rioted over the importation of "cheap Italian and Spanish wines" by France, and fought a gun battle with police that killed one civilian and one policeman; 29 people were injured, most of them police. The funeral for Emile Pouytes, a 52-year old winemaker who was killed in the gunfight, was attended by 10,000 people. The policeman killed was Captain Joel Ligoff.
  • The United States Senate narrowly voted, 47 to 46, to reject a resolution that would have declared the 1974 U.S. Senate race for Oklahoma in doubt, clearing the way for Henry Bellmon, a Republican, to begin a second term, after nine Democrats join the Senate's 37 Republican Senators. Oklahoma had had only one U.S. Senator since January 1975 because of doubts over whether Bellmon or Democrat Ed Edmondson had won the race.
  • In the first criminal indictment of an airline on charges relating to an accident, a federal grand jury in New York brought charges against Pan American World Airways and four other companies for the November 3, 1973 crash of a Boeing 707 cargo plane, in which the three-man crew was killed.
  • The United Nations Statistics Division announced that the number of people on Earth would reach a population of almost eight billion by the year 2010 if the present 1.9% annual growth rate continued, more than double the population of 3,890,000,000 reported for 1974. In the 35 years that followed, the growth rate would be slowed somewhat by increased education on and availability of contraception, and the United Nations Population Fund would record the world's population at 6.9 billion people in 2010, with recognition of reaching 7,000,000,000 people as of October 31, 2011 and a forecast of 2027 as the year to top eight billion people.
  • The Medal of Honor was presented to three American officers who had been prisoners of war during the Vietnam War, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral James Stockdale, U.S. Air Force Captain George "Bud" Day, and, posthumously, to U.S. Air Force 2nd Lieutenant Lance Sijan.
  • Born: Mohsen Namjoo, Iranian film score composer; in Torbat-e Jam, Razavi Khorasan Province
  • Died: Walter H. Schottky, 89, German physicist

March 5, 1976 (Friday)

  • For the first time in history, the value of the British pound sterling was worth less than two United States dollars. At 2:39 in the afternoon, the milestone was crossed on the London Stock Exchange and as of closing, the worth of £1.00 was $1.975.
  • On the final day of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the composition of the ruling Communist Party Politburo was changed by vote of the Central Committee. The most notable alteration was the removal of the Soviet Minister of Agriculture, Dmitry Polyansky, from the 15 full members of the Politburo, apparently because of the failure of the 1975 grain harvest. New full members, both promoted from candidate member status, were General Dmitry Ustinov and 53-year-old Leningrad Party Secretary Grigory Romanov, raising the number of Politburo members to 16.
  • Mohamed Lamine Ahmed was named as the first head of government for the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, declared in February by Polisario Front guerrillas who were fighting for independence of the area, recently annexed by Morocco after the withdraw of Spanish colonial forces.
  • With the inflation rate in Argentina now equivalent to 240% per annum, the government of the South American republic announced a new devaluation of the Argentine peso. Formally valued at 76 pesos to a dollar, the new rate was 250 pesos.
  • Toni Innauer of Austria set a world record for the longest ski jump, at in West Germany at Oberstdorf. Two days later, he broke his own world record with a jump of.

March 6, 1976 (Saturday)

March 7, 1976 (Sunday)

March 8, 1976 (Monday)

  • A meteor shower of over 100 extraterrestrial objects took place over China with large meteorites falling over an area of in the Jilin province in Manchuria, with one weighing, the largest ever to have been observed during its descent.
  • Researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City announced that asbestos fibers been discovered in nine of 19 brands of baby powder and body powder made from talc. According to the research team, ZBT Baby Powder and four body powders concentration of asbestos fibers ranging from 8% to 20%, and one powder taken off the market, Bauer & Black Baby Talc, had a 15% concentration.
  • South Korea's President Park Chung-hee ordered the arrest of two of his most vocal critics, Kim Dae-jung and former Foreign Minister Jeong Il-hyeong, after both had signed a declaration a week earlier calling on President Park to restore democracy, free political prisoners, and then to resign. In a statement, the government declared that "By publicly agitating for the subversion of the Government, they have infringed upon the basic constitutional order."
  • Several hundred thousand workers in Spain's Basque provinces walked off of their jobs in the largest protest in Spain since the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939. One Spanish news agency estimated that 325,000 laborers walked off of their jobs in the provinces of Álava, Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya and Navarre.
  • Three construction workers were killed while preparing for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal while working on the Olympic Stadium, when a concrete slab broke from its supporting cables and caused them to fall to their deaths. A construction accident the year before had killed another construction worker.
  • Born: Freddie Prinze Jr., American film actor, in Los Angeles
  • Died:
  • *Pauline de Rothschild, 66, American fashion designer
  • *Alfonso Gatto, 66, Italian poet and author
  • *Romer Zane Grey, 66, American film animator and author

March 9, 1976 (Tuesday)

March 10, 1976 (Wednesday)

  • New Mexico's popular scuba diving location, the Blue Hole, was closed permanently to tourists after two student divers became separated from the rest of the group while in the underwater caverns. Both were later found dead, having run out of oxygen while deep inside the cave system.
  • British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's proposed budget, which featured a cut in public spending of three-billion pounds, failed to pass the House of Commons, with a vote of 256 for and 284 against, after 37 left-wing members of Wilson's Labour Party abstained from voting and two others joined Conservative Party members of parliament to vote against the measure. When the result was announced, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher called upon Wilson to resign and was joined by fellow MPs who chanted "Out! Out!" as Wilson walked out of the chamber.
  • Died:
  • *Haddon Sundblom, 76, Swedish-American artist
  • *Sammy Smyth, 45, Northern Ireland loyalist and co-founder of the Ulster Defence Association, was shot and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army

March 11, 1976 (Thursday)

  • British Prime Minister Harold Wilson survived a vote of confidence, 297 to 280, after 37 left-wing members of his Labour Party abstained from the vote. The night before, Wilson's economic program had been rejected by a margin of 28 votes, leading to the second vote on whether the House of Commons still had confidence in his government.
  • The government of Israel published its eminent domain plan for government annexation of lands in territories captured from Jordan in 1967 in the Six-Day War.
  • Lebanese Army Brigadier General Abdel Aziz al-Ahdab attempted a military coup, appeared on national television, and proclaimed himself to be the "Military Governor of Lebanon", demanding the resignations of both the Christian President and the Muslim Prime Minister within 24 hours. President Suleiman Franjieh refused to step down, and Genearal Ahdab made no effort to overthrow him.
  • A second explosion at the Scotia mine in Letcher County, Kentucky, killed a further 11 workers. The second group killed had volunteered to enter the coal mine to remove the bodies of 15 miners who had been killed two days earlier. For more than eight months, the bodies of the last 11 victims of the Scotia mine explosion would remain entombed until November 19, when the remains were brought to the surface.
  • Oil was discovered in the Philippines after undersea drilling off of the coast of Palawan Island
  • The State University of Surakarta, was founded in the city of Surakarta in Indonesia. Forty years later, it would have an enrollment of 34,000 students. It would later be referred to as "Sebelas Maret" University.
  • In the aftermath of the February 13 assassination of Nigeria's President, General Murtala Muhammed, 31 Nigerian military officers were convicted of conspiracy and executed by firing squad, including the former Defense Minister, Major General Illiya Bisalla.
  • Died: Samuel R. Quiñones, 72, Puerto Rican politician, former Speaker of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico and former President of the Senate of Puerto Rico

March 12, 1976 (Friday)

  • The government of India took control of the state of Gujarat, placing it under President's Rule and suppressing the last or India's 22 states that had had a government opposed to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The takeover followed a no confidence vote against Gujarat's Chief Minister, Babubhai Patel.
  • King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, a 29-year old bachelor, announced his engagement to a commoner from West Germany, Silvia Renate Sommerlath.
  • Born: Zhao Wei, Chinese singer and actress; in Wuhu, Anhui province

March 13, 1976 (Saturday)

  • In Lebanon, members of the Chamber of Deputies voted, 66 to 0, to remove President Suleiman Franjieh from office, with the other 33 members not present. At the presidential palace, Franjieh told a seven-man delegation from the parliament that "I will leave only if they carry me out dead." Franjieh would remain in power until the expiration of his six-year term on September 22.
  • A magnitude 5.4 earthquake killed four people and injured 50 in Guatemala, five weeks after a deadlier quake.
  • Born: Danny Masterson, American actor and convicted rapist; in Long Island, New York
  • Died: Ole Haugsrud, 76, American professional sports executive who had been the owner of the Duluth Eskimos in the National Football League in the 1920s, and later became a co-founder of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and 10% owner in 1961.

March 14, 1976 (Sunday)

March 15, 1976 (Monday)

  • Beginning at 6:00 in the morning local time, the city of Los Angeles became the first in the U.S. to designate a high-occupancy vehicle lane during the "rush hour" periods, beginning with the Santa Monica Freeway, where the "fast lane" of the east and west freeways were off limits to vehicles that were occupied only by a driver. The objective of the program, which was soon followed on other multi-lane highways, was to encourage people to use public transportation or go to and from work with fellow employees as part of a private carpool.
  • An attempt to overthrow the government of the West African nation of Niger failed as Sanoussi Jackou led a coup attempt against President, General Seyni Kountché. Jackou was arrested on May 20 and imprisoned for 11 years until after the death of President Kountché in 1987.
  • In Argentina, the Montoneros terrorist group detonated a bomb at Army headquarters, killing one person and injuring a further 29.
  • The hard rock band Kiss released their hit album Destroyer, their fourth and their best-selling album up to that time, selling half a million copies within one month. The album included the band's heavy metal classic "Detroit Rock City" and its biggest commercial hit song, the ballad "Beth".
  • Born: Lee Min-woo, South Korean television actor; in Seoul

March 16, 1976 (Tuesday)

March 17, 1976 (Wednesday)

March 18, 1976 (Thursday)

  • After an emergency meeting between Prime Minister Aldo Moro and leaders of Italy's other political parties, the Italian government announced increased taxes and restrictions on money lending as part of a program of austerity measures in order to fight a 12% annual inflation rate and a 25% decline in the Italian lira in the first two months of 1976.
  • After two attempts by the Irish Republican Army to explode bombs in London's underground subway, Scotland Yard assigned 1,000 police to patrol the train cars and the stations of the Underground. The move came days after nine people were injured and a train engineer shot dead in an attack at the West Ham railway station in East London.
  • For the first time in the history of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, women were appointed to the formerly all-male institution. The Academy announced the names of seven females as the first 247 students to be admitted for the 1976-1977 term, to begin on July 6. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy has authorized appointment of 80 women to be among the expected 1,250 plebes for the class of 1980. In alphabetical order, the women named were Elizabeth Belzer, Donna J. Bueter, Peggy S. Derry, Maureen P. Foley, Bonnie J. Schaefer, Patricia A. Thudium and Barbara A. Webb.
  • The U.S. state of Kentucky ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, more than 110 years after the amendment, abolishing slavery, had become effective in all states. The resolution, sponsored by state representative Mae Street Kidd, one of three African-American members of the state legislature, passed 77 to 0 in the state house and by voice vote in the state senate, before being signed by Governor Julian Carroll. Mrs. Kidd had filed the resolution during debate over whether to rescind the state's ratification of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, after discovering that Kentucky had never approved the three constitutional amendments. With the ratification by Kentucky, Mississippi was left as the only U.S. state not to have ratified the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments.
  • Born:
  • *Dávid Kovács, right-wing Hungarian politician and founder of the "Jobbik" political party; in Budapest
  • *FanFan, Taiwanese-American Mandarin Chinese-language singer and songwriter; in Columbus, Ohio
  • Died:
  • *Emmanuel Lacaba, 27, Filipino poet and dissident, was killed along with three other dissidents by the Integrated Civilian Home Defense Forces paramilitary group near the city of Asuncion, Davao del Norte

March 19, 1976 (Friday)

March 20, 1976 (Saturday)

March 21, 1976 (Sunday)

March 22, 1976 (Monday)

March 23, 1976 (Tuesday)

March 24, 1976 (Wednesday)

March 25, 1976 (Thursday)

  • The government of South Africa announced that it would be withdrawing its military forces from neighboring Angola over the next two days. Defense Minister P. W. Botha said in a statement that the Angolan government had guaranteed protection of resources on the border between Angola and Namibia after the Cultural Revolution. Far from ruining Zhou's reputation, the article and subsequent attacks would reinforce public sympathy for Zhou.
  • Born:
  • *Wladimir Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer; in Semey
  • *Gigi Leung, Hong Kong singer and actress; in Sai Ying Pun, British Hong Kong
  • Died: Josef Albers, 88, German-born American artist

March 26, 1976 (Friday)

  • At least 45 guests at a wedding in India were killed at Pune in the Maharashtra state when a tractor-drawn wagon ran off the road and plunged into a deep canal.
  • Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom became the first world leader to send an email from a head of state, after being invited to click upon the command to transmit a message while she and Prince Philip were dedicating the new Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Malvern in Worcestershire. The email, sent via ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet was composed by RSRE director Peter T. Kirstein for the occasion, read "This message to all ARPANET users announces the availability on ARPANET of the Coral 66 compiler provided by the GEC 4080 computer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern, England,... Coral 66 is the standard real-time high level language adopted by the Ministry of Defence."
  • The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team was founded when the American League awarded a franchise to a group consisting of Labatt's Breweries, Imperial Trust, Ltd., and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. In January, Labatt's had entered into a contract to purchase the San Francisco Giants of the National League to be moved to Toronto. The addition of the Blue Jays, along with new Seattle Mariners expansion franchise, brought the American League to 14 teams for the 1977 season.
  • The first store of The Body Shop, a chain of British stores selling cosmetics, skin care and perfume for women, opened in Brighton. More than 40 years later, the company would have 3,000 stores in 65 nations worldwide.
  • Nineteen days after 43 skiers were killed in the fall of an aerial cable car in Italy, three people are killed and nine injured at a U.S. ski resort in Vail, Colorado when two gondola cars come off of the overhead cable and fall.
  • Died: Lin Yutang, 80, Chinese scholar and philosopher who introduced classic Chinese philosophical texts to the Western nations.

March 27, 1976 (Saturday)

March 28, 1976 (Sunday)

March 29, 1976 (Monday)

  • The Hoosiers of Indiana University completed an unbeaten season and won the NCAA basketball championship with an 86 to 68 defeat of a fellow Big Ten Conference team, the Wolverines of the University of Michigan, in the title game at Philadelphia.
  • The Academy Awards were presented at ceremonies in Hollywood. Actor Jack Nicholson, on his fifth Oscar nomination, won for the first time for Best Actor for his role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which also won the award for Best Picture; Nicholson's co-star and antagonist in the film, Louise Fletcher, won Best Actress. George Burns, 78, received the award for Best Supporting Actor and 82-year-old Mary Pickford was presented a special award for service to the film industry as an actress.
  • Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla, the chief of staff of the Argentine Army, was sworn into office as the 39th President of Argentina, followed by a cabinet of six military officers and two civilians. One of the civilians, Jose Martinez de Hoz, a corporate business officer, became the Minister of the Economy and named a nine-man team of economic assistants to attempt to solve the problems of Argentina's large foreign debt and runaway inflation.
  • Australian farmer Alec Brackstone declared his four hectare property in the state of South Australia to be the "Province of Bumbunga", a micronation seeking to be a British colony, with himself as its "Governor-General", then made a living by printing and selling Bumbungan postage stamps until Australian law caused him to abandon the business in 1987.
  • Born:
  • *Jennifer Capriati, American professional tennis player ranked number one in the world by the Women's Tennis Association on four occasions in 2001 and 2002, winner of the Australian Open and the French Open women's singles titles; in Wesley Chapel, Florida
  • *Kjell-Ole Haune, Norwegian composer of musicals; in Oslo
  • Died: Joelito Filártiga, 17, after being kidnapped and tortured in Paraguay by police under the command of by Américo Norberto Peña-Irala. The landmark federal court decision in Filártiga v. Peña-Irala set a precedent for allowing civil lawsuits to be filed in the U.S. for crimes committed in a foreign nation, if the defendant has taken up residence in the U.S.

March 30, 1976 (Tuesday)

  • The events which inspired the annual Land Day demonstration took place in Israel. In confrontations with police in towns in the West Bank, six unarmed Arab citizens of Israel were killed and almost 100 other people wounded. A seventh Israeli Arab had been killed the day before.
  • In the second round of balloting in the UK by the 312 Labour Party MPs over the successor to outgoing Prime Minister Harold Wilson, James Callaghan received 141 votes and Michael Foot 133, not enough by either candidate for the necessary majority of 157. The third candidate, Denis Healey, finished with 38 votes and was automatically ineligible for the third round of voting, which would take place on April 5.
  • The West End Gang, a group of five armed robbers in Montreal, overpowered the guards of a Brink's armored car outside of the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada and escaped with $2.8 million in Canadian dollars.
  • The Sony corporation of Japan introduced its new product to the U.S., the home videocassette recorder, with the first advertisements for its Betamax recording system, running a display ad in The New York Times with the headline "Announcing: a new TV recording star!" In the ad copy, Sony told homeowners, "even if you're not there, it records TV programs you don't want to miss, builds a priceless videotape library in no time, $1300." The $1,300 cost of the VCR was equivalent to $6,400 forty-five years later.
  • In the U.S., the National Football League began its annual expansion draft, delayed on this occasion because of a lawsuit brought by the owners of the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the players' union.

March 31, 1976 (Wednesday)