1977
Related subjects: Years
Background Information
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| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1940s 1950s 1960s – 1970s – 1980s 1990s 2000s |
| Years: | 1974 1975 1976 – 1977 – 1978 1979 1980 |
| 1977 by topic: |
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| By country |
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| Leaders |
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| Birth and death categories |
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| Establishments and disestablishments categories |
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| Works and introductions categories |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1977 MCMLXXVII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2730 |
| Armenian calendar | 1426 ԹՎ ՌՆԻԶ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6727 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 133–134 |
| Bengali calendar | 1384 |
| Berber calendar | 2927 |
| British Regnal year | 25 Eliz. 2 – 26 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2521 |
| Burmese calendar | 1339 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7485–7486 |
| Chinese calendar | 丙辰年十一月十二日 (4613/4673-11-12) — to — 丁巳年十一月廿一日(4614/4674-11-21) |
| Coptic calendar | 1693–1694 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1969–1970 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5737–5738 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 2033–2034 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1899–1900 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5078–5079 |
| Holocene calendar | 11977 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 977–978 |
| Iranian calendar | 1355–1356 |
| Islamic calendar | 1397–1398 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 52 (昭和52年) |
| Juche calendar | 66 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4310 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 66 民國66年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2520 |
| Unix time | 220924800–252460799 |
Year 1977 (MCMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. It was also the 1977th year of the Common Era, the 977th year of the 2nd millennium, the 77th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1970s.
Events
January
- January – The world's first personal all-in-one computer (keyboard/screen/tape storage), the Commodore PET, is demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago
- January 1 – The Australian state of Queensland abolishes inheritance tax.
- January 3 – Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated.
- January 6 – Record company EMI sacks the controversial United Kingdom punk rock group the Sex Pistols.
- January 10
- Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
- Ocean Park opens in Hong Kong.
- January 15 – Kälvesta air disaster: A Swedish airliner crashes into a residential area of Stockholm, killing all 22 on board.
- January 17 – Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah (the first execution after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the U.S.).
- January 18
- Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
- Australia's worst railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, leaves 83 people dead.
- SFR Yugoslavia Prime minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and 6 others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- January 19
- U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka " Tokyo Rose").
- Snow falls in Miami, Florida (despite its ordinarily tropical climate) for the only time in its history. Snowfall has occurred farther south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii.
- January 20 – Jimmy Carter succeeds Gerald Ford as the 39th President of the United States.
- January 21 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders.
- January 23 – Roots begins its phenomenally successful run on ABC.
- January 24 – The Massacre of Atocha occurs during the Spanish transition to democracy.
- January 26 – Katimavik is founded as a volunteer service organization for Canadian youths.
- January 28 – The Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 hits Buffalo, New York; and the Niagara Region of Southern Ontario.
- January 31 – The Centre Georges Pompidou is officially opened by French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
February
- February 4 – Fleetwood Mac's Grammy-winning album Rumours is released.
- February 7 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24 ( Viktor Gorbatko, Yuri Glazkov) to dock with the Salyut 5 space station.
- February 15 – Space Shuttle program: First test taxi flight of Space Shuttle Enterprise.
- February 18 – Prog 1 of 2000 AD, is launched (issue dated 26 February 1977).
- February 23 – Oscar Romero becomes Archbishop of San Salvador.
- February 28 – Elizabeth II opens the Parliament of New Zealand.
March
- March 4 – The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake kills 1,500.
- March 5 – Formula One driver Tom Pryce dies after colliding with a track marshal at the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami.
- March 8 – The Australian parliament is opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia.
- March 9 – Hanafi Siege: Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Movement members take over 3 buildings in Washington, D.C., killing 1 person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends 2 days later.
- March 10 – The rings of Uranus are discovered.
- March 12 – The Centenary Test between Australia and England begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
- March 15 – Tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the PBS opera series Live from the Met both make their American television debuts. Pavarotti stars in a complete production of Puccini's La Boheme.
- March 19 – Results of elections to the Indian Parliament declared. Indira Gandhi's Congress Party routed by the opposition parties later to form the Janata Party
- March 26 – Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson.
- March 27 – Tenerife disaster: A collision between KLM and Pan Am Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583 persons (the deadliest accident in aviation history).
- March 28 – Marquette University wins the men's NCAA basketball tournament with a win over the University of North Carolina 67-59.
April
- April 1 – The small market town of Hay-on-Wye declares independence from the UK, as a publicity stunt.
- April 2 – Horse Racing – Red Rum wins a record third Grand National at Aintree racecourse.
- April 4 – Grundy, Virginia experienced a major flood that made around $15 million in damages to 228 residential and commercial structures. To date the town is still recovering.
- April 7
- German Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback and his driver are shot by 2 Red Army Faction members while waiting at a red light near his home in Karlsruhe. The " Ulrike Meinhof Commando" later claims responsibility.
- The Toronto Blue Jays play their first game of baseball against the Chicago White Sox.
- The Seattle Mariners play their first-ever game of baseball against the California Angels.
- April 8 – The punk band The Clash's debut album The Clash is released in the UK on CBS Records.
- April 11 – London Transport's Silver Jubilee buses are launched.
- April 21 – Residents of Dover, Massachusetts report sightings of an eerie monster.
- April 22 – Optical fibre is first used to carry live telephone traffic.
- April 27 – The Guatemala City air disaster kills 28 people.
- April 28 – A federal court in Stuttgart sentences Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe to life imprisonment.
- April 30 – Led Zeppelin sets a new world record attendance for an indoor solo attraction at the Pontiac Silverdome when 76,229 persons attend a concert here on the group's 1977 North American Tour.
May
- May 1 – The Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul results in 34 deaths, hundreds of injuries.
- May 3 – The light aircraft carrier HMS Invincible is launched at Barrow-in-Furness by Elizabeth II.
- May 14
- The 1977 IAS Cargo Boeing 707 airplane crash in Lusaka, Zambia kills all six on board.
- In Milan, Italy, during a far-left demonstration, a hooded person shoots at the police, killing a policeman, Antonio Custra. The scene was photographed and the picture of the hooded man shooting in the middle of the street appears in many magazines around the world.
- May 17
- The Likud Party, led by Menachem Begin, wins the national elections in Israel.
- Elizabeth II commences her 1977 Silver Jubilee tour in Glasgow, Scotland.
- May 23
- Scientists report using bacteria in a lab to make insulin via gene splicing.
- Moluccan terrorists take over a school in Bovensmilde, northern Netherlands (105 hostages), and a passenger train on the Bovensmilde- Assen route nearby (90 hostages) at the same time. On June 11, Dutch Royal Marines storm the train, and six terrorists and two hostages are killed.
- May 25 – Star Wars opens in cinemas and later becomes the historic highest grossing film for that time.
- May 26 – George Willig climbs the South Tower of the World Trade Centre.
- May 27
- Elizabeth II opens the new Air Terminal Building at the Edinburgh Airport.
- The 1977 Aeroflot Ilyushin 62 airplane crash in Cuba kills 69 people.
- May 28 – The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, is engulfed in fire, killing 165 inside.
- May 29 – Indianapolis 500: A. J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win the race four times.
June
- June 5
- A bloodless coup installs France Albert Rene as President of the Seychelles.
- The first Apple II series computers go on sale.
- The Portland Trail Blazers defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 109–107 to win the National Basketball Association finals four games to two. Bill Walton is selected as the MVP of the series.
- June 6 – 9 – Jubilee celebrations are held in the United Kingdom to celebrate 25 years of Elizabeth II's reign.
- June 7 – After campaigning by Anita Bryant and her anti-gay "Save Our Children" crusade, Miami-Dade County, Florida voters overwhelmingly vote to repeal the county's "gay rights" ordinance.
- June 10 – James Earl Ray escapes from the Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee, but he will be recaptured on June 13.
- June 12 – The Supremes perform its final concert together at Drury Lane in London, England and then disbands permanently.
- June 15 – Spain has its first democratic elections, after 41 years under the Franco regime.
- June 16 – The Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates.
- June 20
- The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the states are not required to spend Medicaid funds on elective abortions.
- Anglia Television broadcasts the fake documentary Alternative 3, which enters into the conspiracy theory canon.
- June 21 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP forms the new government of Turkey (40th government since the founding of the Turkish republic, but fails to receive the vote of confidence)
- June 25
- The 1977 Rugby League World Cup culminates in Australia's 13 – 12 victory over Great Britain at the Sydney Cricket Ground before about 24,450 spectators.
- American Roy Sullivan is struck by lightning for the seventh time.
- June 26
- Elvis Presley holds his last concert at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
- Some 200,000 protesters march through the streets of San Francisco, protesting Anita Bryant's antigay remarks and the murder of Robert Hillsborough.
- 16-year-old shop assistant Jayne Macdonald is murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper in Leeds, England.
- June 27 – Djibouti receives its independence from France.
- June 30
- The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization is permanently disbanded.
- The Women Marines are disbanded, and the women are integrated into regular Marine Corps.
- U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces the cancellation of the B-1 Bomber program. It is later revived by the Reagan administration.
July
- July 1
- CKO (a now-defunct Canadian all news radio network) begins broadcasting.
- EAC dissolved.
- July 5 – General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq overthrows Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.
- July 13 – Somalia declares war on Ethiopia, starting the Ethiopian-Somali War.
- July 13 – The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and other disorder.
- July 15 – Anti-drug campaigner Donald Mackay disappears near Griffith, New South Wales (presumed murdered).
- July 19– July 20 – Flooding in Johnstown, PA, caused by massive rainfall, kills over 75 people and causes billions in damage.
- July 21 – Süleyman Demirel, of AP forms the new government of Turkey (41st government a three party coalition, so called second national front ( Turkish: Milliyetçi cephe))
- July 22 – The purged Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power 9 months after the " Gang of Four" was expelled from power in a coup d'état.
- July 24 – Led Zeppelin presents its last American concert in Oakland, California, at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. A brawl erupts between Led Zeppelin's crew and the staff of the promoter Bill Graham, resulting in criminal assault charges for several members of the Led Zeppelin group including the drummer John Bonham.
- July 28 – The first oil through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System reaches Valdez, Alaska.
- July 30 – Left-wing German terrorists Susanne Albrecht, Brigitte Mohnhaupt and a third person assassinate Jürgen Ponto, chairman of the Dresdner Bank in Oberursel, West Germany.
August
- August 3
- United States Senate hearings on Project MKUltra are held.
- The Tandy Corporation TRS-80 Model I computer is announced at a press conference.
- August 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
- August 7 – Mount Usu volcano in Japan erupts.
- August 9 – The military-controlled government of Uruguay announces that it will return the nation to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 for a President and Congress.
- August 10 – David Berkowitz is captured in Yonkers, New York, after over a year of murders in New York City as the Son Of Sam.
- August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle, named Enterprise, makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
- August 15
- 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 for a notation made by a volunteer on the project.
- Herbert Kappler escapes from the Caelian Hill military hospital in Rome.
- August 16
- Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 75,000 fans line the streets of Memphis for his funeral.
- Supertanker Pierre Guillaumat is launched at Saint-Nazaire; she is the all-time world's largest ship (by deadweight tonnage and length overall) at launch.
- August 17 – The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
- August 19 – Groucho Marx, comedic legend, star of stage and screen dies of pneumonia at Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 86 (b. 1890).
- August 20 – Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
September
- September 3 – The Commodore PET computer is first sold.
- September 4 – The Golden Dragon Massacre takes place in San Francisco, California.
- September 5
- Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
- German Autumn: Employers Association President Hanns-Martin Schleyer is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany. The kidnappers kill 3 escorting police officers and his chauffeur. They demand the release of Red Army Faction prisoners.
- September 7 – Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The U.S. agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
- September 8 – Interpol issues a resolution against the piracy of video tapes and other material, which is still cited in warnings on opening pre-credits of videocassettes and DVDs.
- September 10 – Hamida Djandoubi's is the last guillotine execution in France.
- September 12 – South African activist Steve Biko dies after suffering a massive head injury in police custody in Pretoria.
- September 16 – Glam rock pioneer Marc Bolan dies in a car crash in Barnes, London.
- September 18 – Courageous (U.S.), skippered by Ted Turner, sweeps the Australian challenger Australia in the 24th America's Cup yacht race.
- September 19 – Under pressure from the Carter Administration, President of Nicaragua Anastasio Somoza Debayle lifts the state of siege in Nicaragua.
- September 20 – Petrozavodsk phenomenon is observed in the Soviet Union and some northern European countries.
- September 21 – A nuclear non-proliferation pact is signed by 15 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union.
- September 28 – The Porsche 928 debuts at the Geneva Motor Show.
- September 29 – The modern Food Stamp Program begins when the Food Stamp Act of 1977 is enacted.
October
- October 1
- Energy Research and Development Administration part of Department of Energy.
- Pelé plays his final professional football game as a member of the New York Cosmos.
- October 13 – German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand the release of 11 Red Army Faction members (see Lufthansa Flight 181).
- October 14
- The Atari 2600 game system is released.
- Anita Bryant is famously pied by four gay rights activists during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. This event resulted in her political fallout from anti-gay activism.
- October 17 – 18 – German Autumn: GSG 9 troopers storm a hijacked Lufthansa passenger plane in Mogadishu, Somalia; 3 of the 4 hijackers die.
- October 18
- German Autumn: Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stammheim prison; Irmgard Möller fails (their supporters still claim they were murdered). They are buried on October 27.
- Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, opens the 3rd session of the 30th Canadian Parliament.
- Reggie Jackson blasts 3 home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- October 19 – German Autumn: Kidnapped industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer is found murdered in Mulhouse, France.
- October 20 – Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd die in a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, 3 days after the release of their fifth studio album Street Survivors.
- October 21 – The European Patent Institute is founded.
- October 25 – Seychelles recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
- October 26
- The last natural smallpox case is discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination and, by extension, of modern science.
- Space Shuttle program: Last test taxi flight of Space Shuttle Enterprise.
- October 28
- Hong Kong police forces attack the ICAC headquarters.
November
- November 1 – 2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, is discovered by Charlie Kowal.
- November 2 – The worst storm in Athens' modern history causes havoc across the Greek capital and kills 38 people.
- November 6 – The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia fails, killing 39.
- November 8
- Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
- San Francisco elects City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the U.S.
- November 9 – Gen. Hugo Banzer, president of the military government of Bolivia, announces that the constitutional democracy will be restored in 1978 instead of 1980 as previously provided.
- November 10 – The Bee Gees release the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, which will go on to become the then best selling album of all time.
- November 19
- Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to make an official visit to Israel, when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, seeking a permanent peace settlement.
- TAP Portugal Flight 425 crashes at Madeira Airport, Funchal, Portugal, killing 131 and leaving 33 survivors.
- November 22
- British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
- TCP/IP test succeeds connecting 3 ARPANET nodes (of 111), in what eventually becomes the Internet protocol.
- November 27 – The Rankin/Bass made-for-TV animated film The Hobbit premieres on NBC in the United States.
- November 30 – International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) founded as specialized agency of the United Nations.
December
- December – Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific (CESDAP)
- December 1
- The Lockheed's top-secret stealth aircraft project, designated Have Blue, precursor to the U.S. F-117A Nighthawk, makes its first flight.
- The first children's cable channel The Pinwheel Network (later known as Nickelodeon), is launched.
- December 4
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor.
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all 100 passengers and crew on board.
- December 11 – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL win their very first game against the New Orleans Saints. They had lost their first 26 games before the win.
- December 13 – A DC-3 charter plane carrying the University of Evansville basketball team to Nashville, Tenn., crashes in rain and dense fog about 90 seconds after takeoff from Evansville Dress Regional Airport. Twenty-nine people die in the crash, including 14 members of the team and head coach Bob Watson.
- December 16 – Mikhail Baryshnikov's 1976 production of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet The Nutcracker comes to CBS a year after premiering onstage at the Kennedy Centre. This adaptation will become the most popular television production of the work.
- December 18 – Flight SATA 730, an international charter service from Zurich to Funchal Airport (Madeira), touches the sea in a landing attempt. Many of the 36 fatalities got trapped inside the sinking plane. 21 people survived with the help of rescue teams and by swimming to the shore.
Date unknown
- Portugal's traditional naming conventions change such that children's surnames can come from either the mother or the father, not just from the father.
- The Soviet National Anthem's lyrics are returned after a 24 year period, with Joseph Stalin's name omitted.
- Mormon sex in chains case with the alleged abduction in England of a young Mormon missionary.
- WAVES disbanded; women integrated into regular Navy.
Deaths
January
- January 2 – Erroll Garner, American musician (b. 1921)
- January 3
- January 5
- January 6 – William Gropper, American artist (b. 1897)
- January 12 – Henri-Georges Clouzot, French film director (b. 1907)
- January 13 – Henri Langlois, French film historian (b. 1914)
- January 14
- Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1897)
- Peter Finch, English-born actor (b. 1916)
- Anaïs Nin, French author (b. 1903)
- January 17 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (executed) (b. 1940)
- January 18 – Džemal Bijedić, Yugoslavian Prime Minister (b. 1917)
- January 19 – Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (b. 1895)
- January 21 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (b. 1906)
- January 23 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (b. 1903)
- January 28 – Burt Mustin, American actor (b. 1884)
- January 29
February
- February 3 – Pauline Starke, American actress (b. 1901)
- February 4 – Brett Halliday, American writer (b. 1904)
- February 9 – Queen Alia, Queen of Jordan (b. 1948)
- February 11 – Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1902)
- February 16 – Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1905)
- February 18
- February 19 – Anthony Crosland, British author and politician (b. 1918)
- February 20 – Ralph Hungerford, American naval officer, 33rd Governor of American Samoa (b. 1896)
- February 21 – John Hubley, American animator (b. 1914)
- February 25 – Patricia Haines, British actress (b. 1932)
- February 27 – Allison Hayes, American actress (b. 1930)
- February 28 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, African-American actor (The Jack Benny Show) (b. 1905)
March
- March 3 – Percy Marmont, stage & screen actor (b. 1883)
- March 4 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (b. 1951)
- March 5 – Tom Pryce, British Formula race car driver (b. 1949)
- March 8 – Henry Hull, American actor (b. 1890)
- March 10 – E. Power Biggs, British-born American organist (b. 1906)
- March 11 – Ulysses S. Grant IV, American geologist and paleontologist (b. 1893)
- March 15 – Antonino Rocca, professional wrestler )b. 1921
- March 16 – Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze (b. 1917)
- March 18 – Marien Ngouabi, President of The Republic of the Congo (assassinated) (b. 1938)
- March 22 – A. K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (b. 1904)
- March 25 – Nunnally Johnson, American screenwriter and director (b. 1897)
- March 26 – Madeleine Dring, British composer and actress (b. 1923)
- March 27 – Diana Hyland, American actress (b. 1936)
- March 29 – Charles Nicoletti, American gangster (b. 1916)
- March 30 – Abdel Halim Hafez, Egyptian singer and actor (b. 1929)
April
- April 11 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (b. 1900)
- April 12 – Philip K. Wrigley, American chewing gum manufacturer and Major League Baseball executive (b. 1894)
- April 17 – William Conway, Northern Irish cardinal (b. 1913)
- April 20
- April 21 – Gummo Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1892)
- April 27 – Stanley Adams, American actor (b. 1915)
- April 28
May
- May 4 – Richard Pike Bissell, author of short stories and novels (b. 1913)
- May 5
- May 9 – James Jones, American writer (b. 1921)
- May 10 – Joan Crawford, American actress (b. 1905)
- May 15 – Herbert Wilcox, British film director and producer (b. 1892)
- May 16 – Modibo Keita, former President of Mali (b. 1915)
- May 31 – William Castle, American film director (b. 1914)
June
- June 2 – Stephen Boyd, American film actor (Fantastic Voyage) (b. 1931)
- June 3
- June 14 – Alan Reed, American actor (b. 1907)
- June 16 – Wernher von Braun, German-born American rocket scientist (b. 1912)
- June 19
- June 22 – Jacqueline Audry, French film director (b. 1908)
July
- July 2 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born writer (Lolita) (b. 1899)
- July 9
- Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist and writer (The Immense Journey) (b. 1907)
- Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (b. 1885)
- July 13 – Carl Gustav von Rosen, Swedish pilot (b. 1909)
- July 15 – Konstantin Fedin, Russian writer (b. 1892)
- July 19 – Karl Ristikivi, Estonian writer (b. 1912)
- July 20 – Carter DeHaven, American actor (b. 1886)
- July 23 – Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer (b. 1915)
August
- August 1 – Francis Gary Powers, American pilot, shot down in 1960 U-2 incident (b. 1929)
- August 3
- August 4 – Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
- August 9 – George Kenney, World War II United States Army Air Forces general (b. 1889)
- August 11 – John Howard Lawson, American screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten (b. 1894)
- August 14
- August 16 – Elvis Presley, American singer and actor (b. 1935)
- August 17 – Delmer Daves, American screenwriter and director (b. 1904)
- August 19 – Groucho Marx, American actor and comedian (b. 1890)
- August 22 – Sebastian Cabot, English actor (b. 1918)
- August 29 – Jean Hagen, American actress (b. 1923)
- August 31 – Rick Vallin, Russian-American actor (b. 1919)
September
- September 1 – Ethel Waters, African-American singer (b. 1896)
- September 4 – E.F. Schumacher, British economist (b. 1911)
- September 6 – John Edensor Littlewood, British mathematician (b. 1885)
- September 8 – Zero Mostel, American film and stage actor (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) (b. 1915)
- September 12
- September 13 – Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (b. 1882)
- September 16
October
- October 3 – Tay Garnett, American film director (b. 1894)
- October 8
- Joe Greenstein, Polish-born American strongman (b. 1893)
- Giorgos Papasideris, Greek country singer, composer, & lyricist (b. 1902)
- October 10
- October 12 – Dorothy Davenport, American actress (b. 1895)
- October 13 – Jackie Condon, American actor (b. 1918)
- October 14 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (b. 1903)
- October 17 – Michael Balcon, English film producer (b. 1896)
- October 18 – Andreas Baader, West German member of Red Army Faction (b. 1943)
- October 20 – Members of the American southern rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd (killed in a plane crash):
- October 27
November
- November 3 – Florence Vidor, American actress (b. 1895)
- November 5
- November 8 – Bucky Harris, American baseball player (b. 1896)
- November 9 – Gertrude Astor, American actress (b. 1887)
- November 10 – Dennis Wheatley, English writer (b. 1897
- November 11
- November 14
- November 15 – Princess Charlotte of Monaco (b. 1898)
- November 18 – Victor Francen, Belgian actor (b. 1888)
- November 21 – Richard Carlson, American actor (b. 1912)
- November 25 – Tommy Prince, Canadian war hero (b. 1915)
- November 30 – Terence Rattigan, English playwright (b. 1911)
December
- December 5 – Roland Kirk, American jazz musician (b. 1936)
- December 10 – Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Youngest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1891)
- December 12 – Clementine Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, Wife of Winston Churchill (b. 1885)
- December 13 – Sir Charles Petrie, British historian (b. 1895)
- December 15 – Wilfred Kitching, 7th (British) General of The Salvation Army (b. 1893)
- December 18 – Cyril Ritchard, Australian actor and director (b. 1897)
- December 19
- December 24 – Samael Aun Weor, Colombian writer (b. 1917)
- December 25 – Sir Charles Chaplin, English-born comedian (b. 1889)
- December 26 – Howard Hawks, American film director (b. 1896)
- December 28 – Charlotte Greenwood, American actress (b. 1890)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, John Hasbrouck van Vleck
- Chemistry – Ilya Prigogine
- Physiology or Medicine – Roger Guillemin, Andrew Schally, Rosalyn Yalow
- Literature – Vicente Aleixandre
- Peace – Amnesty International
- Economics – Bertil Ohlin, James Meade
