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Those Who Lived Till The Year Star Wars Was Released

Those Who Lived Till The Year Star Wars Was Released

Last updated on: May 5, 2026 at 5:00 am by Mark Wilson

Those Who Lived Till The Year Star Wars Was Released 2026-05-04T06:08:59-05:00 Mark Wilson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When we pick up in this timeline, Star Wars was just out in theaters a little over a month. People were still flocking to see it. I believe I may have been one of them. Going to the theater at just 6 years old to see this big spectacle on the big screen. It shaped my childhood pretty well. I would collect the toys, read books and comics of it and create my own inspired stories. Still a lot of other interesting things were going on while Star Wars was out in theaters. Snippets of my life as told by my mother Louise Wilson are spread out amongst everything else happening in the world.

Read below to find out what happened in this fascinating year.

The 1970’s.

50 Years Ago- Mark And Kristin Grew Up In The 70’s |
Growing Up In The Later Half Of The 1970’s,

CB’s Guide To Saints 1960 -1970s
A List Of Saints, Blesseds And Others Who Died In The 1960’s And 70’s.

1977 The Year Star Wars Came Out
Events That Happen The Year Star Wars Came Out January – June 1977.

July 1977

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Fall 1977

Includes

Good Taste • (1976) • novelette by Isaac Asimov

On Poaching • [Ferdinand Feghoot
short story by Reginald Bretnor [as by Grendel Briarton]

Joelle • novella by Poul Anderson

July 1977 – The Best of Leigh Brackett

July 1977 – Jeffty Is Five • (1977) • short story by Harlan Ellison in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1977

1 1978 Hugo Best Short Story
1 1978 Locus Best Short Fiction
Win 1978 Nebula Short Story
Nomination 1978 World Fantasy Best Short Fiction
Win 1979 BFA Best Short Story
Nomination 1979 Balrog Short Fiction
18ⓘ 2012 Locus Online 20th Century Short Story

July 1977 – Social Blunder (1977) by Tom Godwin in Amazing Stories, July 1977

Cold as Ice
Foreigner

July 2, 1977 – Departures: Vladimir Nabokov, (April 10, 1899 – July 2, 1977) Russian-born American writer.

Today Mark went to Camp Madoca and we signed up for swimming lessons. Mark can not swim yet. But is trying. And we hope before the summer is out he will know how to swim. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

July 3, 1977 – The first MRI scan of a human being was performed with the use of magnetic resonance imaging by Dr. Raymond Damadian on Larry Minkoff, who had volunteered to be the test subject. The 5-hour process took place at the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York in Brooklyn. The imaging process would be perfected by Paul C. Lauterbur, a professor of chemistry at SUNY Stony Brook.

Raymond Damadian’s “Apparatus and method for detecting cancer in tissue”.

**July 3rd, 1977 –**Today Marky decided to learn how to ride his two-wheel bike. He did very good and even put on the brake. I don’t think it will be long before he learns how to ride with out training wheels. Mark wants to make sure I put down how he went to Maney’s last week and Laurie stepped on his finger. Then Pat came down, they walked up the hill, (Julie) liked his face. We then went to Dairy Queen.

Just remembered. One day Mark was so hungry that he said his stomach was going to die. He said if his stomach died that would be very bad because then his head would fall off without his stomach. Such a bright youngster. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

July 4, 1977 – A boycott was launched in the United States against the Swiss-based multinational food and drink processing corporation Nestlé. The boycott expanded into Europe in the early 1980s and was prompted by concerns about Nestlé’s aggressive marketing of infant formulas (i.e., substitutes for breast milk), particularly in underdeveloped countries.

At a ceremony at the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C., museum curators sealed and hid away a “tricentennial time capsule“, to be opened on July 4, 2075.

**July 4th, 1977 –**Today Pat make our supper of Macaroni Casserole. She is a very good cook and I appreciate not having to cook.

Today we had a big shin-dig at Camp Madoca run by the town of Wenham- Hot Dogs-Coke-Ice Cream-Races and all in all a Good time. The girls were down there all day. Mark ran last in his age race. But at least he tried hard. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

July 5, 1977 – The Ugandan Army arrested playwright John Male, Uganda National Theatre director Dan Kintu, and an undersecretary of the Ugandan Ministry of Culture, Mark Sebuliba, after the staging of a play titled “The Office Is Empty”. President Idi Amin inferred that the title of the play and the story was a reference to him, and the three men were charged with “insulting the president”. After a trial by a military tribunal, Male, Kintu, and Sebuliba would be executed on July 24

**July 5th, 1977 –**Today for Marky’s drawing lessons he had me draw a birthday party with many people around a table. He said he would draw a picture too. When I looked he had drawn many circles “as o’s” I asked him why and he said” I was to draw a party with people, but he was going to draw a picture of O’s having a party.” My con artist is getting cleverer every day. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

July 7, 1977 – Departures: María Romero Meneses, FMA (January 13, 1902 –July 7, 1977) was a Nicaraguan Catholic religious sister and a professed member from the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco dubbed the “Social Apostle of Costa Rica.

July 7, 1977 – Music: The Grand Illusion is the seventh studio album by American rock band Styx. Recorded at Paragon Recording Studios in Chicago, the album was released on by A&M Records, intentionally choosing the combination 7th on 7-7-77 for luck. It includes the classic Come Sail Away”

July 8, 1977 – Movie: The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training opens in theaters.

July 8, 1977 – Music: I Robot is the second studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. The album draws conceptually on author Isaac Asimov‘s science fiction Robot stories, exploring philosophical themes regarding artificial intelligence.

July 9, 1977 – Departures: Alice Paul, (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) American women’s rights activist.

July 10th, 1977 – Mark said today that he had no grandma or grandpa as they were in heaven. Then he said. “Some day I’ll see them there? “ I said yes. And he in return said. “Will I see Walt Disney too?” -Louise Wilson’s Diary

The hottest weather ever recorded in Europe was experienced in Greece as thermometers registered 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) in the shade at noon in Elefsis.

**July 11th, 1977 –**Today the kids celebrated our 18th wedding universe. They gave us twenty dollars and baked and decorated a cake. They are all wonderful kids, and we are so fortunate to have each of them. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

July 12, 1977 – Book: Noah’s Ark Peter Spier

1978 Caldecott Medal for illustration

July 12, 1977 – The opening ceremonies of the 1977 Maccabiah Games were held in in Israel, more than 2,800 athletes from 34 countries participated in 26 different sports, including chess and bridge and for the first time badminton. The opening ceremonies were held o in Ramat Gan Stadium before a crowd of 50,000 people. The United States won 83 gold medals, 65 silver medals, and 47 bronze medals; Israel was next with 60 gold medals, 70 silver medals, and 60 bronze medals, and South Africa was third with 16 gold medals, seven silver medals, and nine bronze medals.

July 13, 1977 – December 29, 1977. Principal photography or The Wiz was shot.

At 9:34 p.m., a blackout shut off electric in all five boroughs of New York City, the largest city in the U.S., and parts of suburban Westchester County. The failure of the Consolidated Edison Company (Con Ed) system left an estimated 12,000,000 people in darkness and shut down the subway system, commuter trains, elevators and all electric appliances. The blackout, coming on one of the hottest and most humid nights of the summer, became an opportunity for looting, vandalism and arson until power was restored 25 hours later, and 3,377 people were arrested. By contrast, there were fewer than 100 arrests in the blackout of November 9, 1965.

After a massive blackout hits New York City, NRBQ manages to play an all-acoustic set at The Bottom Line with flashlights taped to their microphone stands

**July 14th, 1977 –**Pat has been a duck in “Hansel & Gretal” with the Burnham Players this week. Dad and I went to see the play last night, also Mark and Laurie. Pat was her usual comical self with Twinkling eyes. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

Princess Victoria, heiress apparent to the throne of Sweden as the first child of King Carl XVI Gustaf; in Solna is born. The birth of Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree of the House of Bernadotte marked “the first time a child was born to a reigning Swedish king and queen in 178 years, and the first time the delivery has taken place at a public hospital.”

Kronprinzessin Victoria von Schweden

July 14, 1977 – A newspaper article stated that two Roman Catholic priests were charged with negligent homicide today In the death of Anneliese Michel, who underwent exorcism a year ago, the Aschaffenburg prosecutor announced. Anneliese Michel (September 21, 1952 – July 1, 1976) underwent 67 Catholic exorcism rites during the year before her death. She died of malnutrition. She was diagnosed with epileptic psychosis (temporal lobe epilepsy) and had a history of psychiatric treatment that proved ineffective.

July 15th, 1977 – Mark has started to ride his bike but with training wheels. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

July 19, 1977 – The Johnstown flood was a major flood which began at night when heavy rainfall caused widespread flash flooding in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, including the city of Johnstown and the Conemaugh Valley.

Aerial view of the flood.

July 20, 1977 – Departures: Carter DeHaven (October 5, 1886 – July 20, 1977) American actor.

July 26, 1977 – Arrival: Rebecca St. James, Australian-born Christian musician.

July 26 – Led Zeppelin cancels the last seven dates of their American tour after lead singer Robert Plant learns that his six-year-old son Karac has died of a respiratory virus . The show two days before in Oakland proves to be the band’s last in the United States)

July 30, 1977 – Departures: Umberto Nobile, January 21, 1885 – July 30, 1978) He was an Italian aviator and explorer who has one more year to contemplate his life as an explore before he lays down his memories at the feet of Jesus.

August 1977

August 1977 – Ender’s Game is a novelette by American writer Orson Scott Card. It first appeared in the August 1977 issue of Analog magazine and was later expanded into the 1985 novel Ender’s Game. Although it serves as the foundation of the Ender’s Game series, the novelette is not considered to be properly a part of the Ender’s Game universe, as there are many discrepancies in continuity between it and the novel.

August 1977 – Superboy – Ran from March/April 1949 through August 1977 for 230 issues and one Annual.

August 1977 – A Soviet surveillance satellite detects South Africa’s nuclear test preparations and alerts the United States.

August 1977 – Herbert Kappler (September 23, 1907 – February 9, 1978) was a key German SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. Due to Kappler’s deteriorating condition and his wife’s nursing skills, Anneliese Kappler had been allowed almost unlimited access to him. On a visit in August 1977, she carried him out in a large suitcase (Kappler weighed about 47 kg (104 lb) at the time) and escaped to West Germany, assisted by apparently unwitting carabinieri.

Despite demands that Kappler be returned to Italy, the West German authorities refused to extradite him and did not prosecute him for any further war crimes, reportedly owing to his ill-health. Vittorio Lattanzio resigned from his position as Minister of Defence in the aftermath of the escape.

Six months after his escape, Kappler died at home in Soltau, on 9 February 9, 1978 at aged 70

August 1, 1977 – Departures: Francis Gary Powers, (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) American U-2 spy plane pilot.

August 1, 1977 – Book: Ramona and Her Father (Ramona, #4) by Beverly Cleary

August 1, 1977 – Book: A Morbid Taste for Bones (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #1) Ellis Peters

August 3, 1977 – The TRS-80 Model I is announced at a press conference in New York City. Radio Shack begin sales in September, and despite a sales forecast of only 3,000 units per year, over 10,000 are sold in just one and a half months. Radio Shack will later develop an entire line of computers over the following 20 years.

August 3, 1977 – Arrival: Tom Brady, American football player and entrepreneur

August 3, 1977- The Spy Who Loved Me, starring Roger Moore (as James Bond) with Barbara Bach, Curd Jürgens, Richard Kiel opens in theaters.

August 4 , 1977 – Departures: Ernst Bloch (July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977) German Marxist philosopher.

August 4, 1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

August 9, 1977 – An event happens that takes place at John Carroll Catholic High School. It was a Catholic High School that gets to introduces the world to Hulkamania as H ulk Hogan debuts as The Super Destroyer for Championship Wrestling from Florida at the school gym Fort Pierce, Florida. He is defeated by a guy named Don Serrano.

August 10, 1977 – The American serial killer David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco, June 1, 1953), also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is arrested after he pleaded guilty to eight shootings that began in New York City on July 29, 1976. Berkowitz confessed to all of them, and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon manifested in the form of a black dog belonging to his neighbor, “Sam”. After being found mentally competent to stand trial, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in state prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. He subsequently admitted that the dog-and-devil story was a hoax. In police investigations, Berkowitz was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city.

August 10, 1977 – Queen Elizabeth II visited Northern Ireland under tight security as part of her Silver Jubilee celebrations.

August 12, 1977 – Movie: Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

August 13, 1977 – Departures: Henry Williamson, (December 1, 1895 – August 13, 1977) English naturalist, farmer and prolific ruralist.

August 13, 1977 – A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1977 – Spacing Vancouver | Spacing Vancouver Writer Chuck Davis recounts a year in which many things happen in Vancouver including a visit from the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012.

August 15, 1977 – Ohio State University Radio Observatory, working on the SETI project, receives a strong narrowband radio signal from deep space; the event is named the Wow! signal for a notation made by researcher Jerry R. Ehman.

While The Catechist and Carmelite continue to learn and grow, another living legend leaves this earth.

Elvis Presley
(January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)

Elvis Presley is found dead at his home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Also that same day, the final concert of Bing Crosby takes place in England, accompanied by Johnny Smith.

Elvis a non-Catholic once recorded the ‘Miracle of the Rosary.’ He died. Or did he not really leave the building. Several people who claim to have seen him can’t be wrong! Right?

August 16, 1977 – Music: “You Light Up My Life” is a ballad written by Joseph Brooks, and originally recorded by Kasey Cisyk for the soundtrack album to the 1977 film of the same title. The song was lip synced in the film by its lead actress, Didi Conn. The best-known cover version of the song is a cover by Debby Boone, the daughter of singer Pat Boone. It held the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for ten consecutive weeks in 1977 and topped Record World magazine’s Top 100 Singles Chart for a record 13 weeks. Debby Boone included her version on her first solo album (also titled You Light Up My Life). Although the soundtrack album was certified Gold, peaking at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, it never included Boone’s hit single version of the song. (Charted the week of September 3)

August 17, 1977 – Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD) reports that in one day the number of orders for flowers to be delivered to Graceland for the funeral of Elvis Presley has surpassed the number for any other event in the company’s history

August 18, 1977 – The funeral of Elvis Presley takes place at Graceland.

What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been
Grateful Dead

Arktika (1972 icebreaker) is a retired nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Soviet (now Russian) Arktika class. In service from 1975 to 2008, she was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole, a feat achieved on August 17, 1977, during an expedition dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution

.Groucho Marx
October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977)

August 20, 1977 – NASA‘s uncrewed probe Voyager 2 is launched carrying a golden record containing sounds and images representing life and culture on Earth, including the first movements of J. S. Bach‘s Brandenburg Concerto and Beethoven‘s Fifth Symphony, Guan Pinghu‘s Liu Shui, played on the guqin, and Chuck Berry‘s “Johnny B. Goode”

August 22, 1977 – Departures Sebastian Cabot (6 July 6, 1918 – 23 August 23, 1977) English actor.

August 24, 1977 – Arrival: John Green, American author and YouTube vlogger

August 25, 1977 – Radio Shack’s new TRS-80 Micro Computer System uses a computer keyboard to plug into an included 64 column video monitor, programmed by cassette tapes played on a home cassette player, shown at the Boston Computer Show.

August 26, 1977 – Departures: H. A. Rey (September 16, 1898 – August 26, 1977)

August 26, 1977 – In Canada: The Charter of the French Language is passed by the Parti Québécois.

August 24, 1977 – Movie: Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown opens in theaters.

August 27, 1977 – The Market Women’s Revolt of 1977 was a series of large demonstrations and riots across Guinea brought about by the imposition of government-set prices for goods sold in the country’s public markets.

The riots began when women vendors in Conakry’s Madina Market began rioting against the “economic police,” who were responsible for enforcing the government’s price controls and were often corrupt. The riots spread throughout the country and led to several deaths.

August 30, 1977 – Roy Rogers was struck by a cottage cheese pie thrown by a 17 year old while Rogers and his Sons of the Pioneers – singers were performing at a Fairfax restaurant. The youth pleaded guilty a month later and was fined $100.

September 1977

September 1977 – Comics: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes – The original Superboy series was renamed to this title in 1977. It ran from September 1977 through December 1979 with issues #231-258. The series was renamed Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) with issues #259-313, which ran from January 1980 to July 1984

September 1977 – Music: Dance Band on the Titanic is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, released in 1977.

September 1977 – Music: In Color is the second studio album by Cheap Trick. This album is considered a classic of the power pop genre. The album was ranked No. 4 on Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide. In 2003, the album was also ranked number 443 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The lead single, “I Want You to Want Me“, while not initially successful, became a top 10 hit as a live version from the Cheap Trick at Budokan album and remains the band’s signature song.

September 1977 – The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977.

Your Smiling Face
James Taylor

September 1, 1977 – Departures: Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) American singer and actress.

Ethel Waters

September 3, 1977 – Departures: Gianni Vella (May 9, 1885 – September 3, 1977) He was a Maltese artist. After studying in Rome, he produced many religious works which can be found in many churches in the Maltese Islands, but he also produced some secular works including landscape paintings, cartoons and a stamp design.

Vella’s stamp design for the shilling denominations of the Melita issue

September 3, 1977 – TV: The fifteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Horror of Fang Rock, premiers.

September 3, 1977 – September 5, 1977 – In Canada: All Canadian road signs are converted to metric units.

September 4, 1977 – Departures: E. F. Schumacher, (August 16, 1911 – 4 September 4, 1977) German statistician and economist.

September 5, 1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.

September 6, 1977 –Departures: John Edensor Littlewood (June 9, 1885 – September 6, 1977) British mathematician.

**September 7, 1977 –**In Ireland Bobby Sands a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA)and 3 others were sentenced to 14 years for possession of fire arms.

September 8, 1977 – Zero Mostel, Departures: (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) American actor.

September 9, 1977 – Book: Miss Nelson Is Missing! (Miss Nelson, #1) Harry Allard, James Marshall (Illustrator)

September 10, 1977 – Departures: Adolph Rupp, (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) American college basketball coach.

September 10, 1977 – Departures: Hamida Djandoubi, (September 22, 1949 – September 10, 1977) convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.

Christopher Lee (May 27, 1922 – June 7, 2015), who was then seventeen years old, witnessed the event. Footage of the execution with him in the frame was eventually restored and used in Faces of Death 3. Nearly half a century later, he portrayed headsman Charles-Henri Sanson in a 1989 French TV drama about the French Revolution, in which his character made frequent use of the device. Lee gained fame for portraying Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in three Star Wars films (2002–2008) and Saruman in both The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014)

September 10, 1977 – September 2, 1978 – TV: Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics

September 10, 1977 – September 2, 1978 – TV: The All-New Super Friends Hour

September 12, 1977 – Departures: Steve Biko, (December 18, 1946 – September 12, 1977 South African anti-apartheid activist.

September 12, 1977 – Book: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (Illustrator)\

September 12, 1977 – Double Eagle II was a helium balloon piloted by Ben Abruzzo and Maxie Anderson in a failed attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1977. It was the eleventh recorded attempt to make the crossing, which had been an open challenge in ballooning for more than a century. The balloon launched from Marshfield, Massachusetts, on September 9. After being blown off course by stormy weather, the team was forced to ditch three miles off the coast of Iceland on September 12, 65½ hours after taking off.

September 13, 1977 – Departures: Leopold Stokowski, (April 18, 1882 – (September 13, 1977) English conductor.

September 13, 1977 – Book: Jay Anson – The Amityville Horror

September 14, 1977 – TV Movie: Spider-Man

September 15, 1977 – Book: Christopher Tolkien, with Guy Gavriel Kay, completes and publishes his late father’s work, The Silmarillion.

September 15, 1977 – May 1, 1983 – TV: CHiPs

September 16, 1977 – February 6, 1978 – TV: Logan’s Run

September 18, 1977 – In Ennis, County Clare, the Christian Brothers celebrated their 150th anniversary.

September 19, 1977 – Yutaka Kume is abducted by North Korean agents in Noto Peninsula – beginning of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens.

September 20, 1977 – TV: The third part of the three-part fifth season premiere of Happy Days airs on ABC. The episode is highlighted by a scene in which Fonzie literally jumps over a shark while on water-skis.

September 20, 1977 – Mother Teresa of Calcutta prays during a religious service in Pescara where she attended the National Eucharist Congress.

I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?
- Statement of 1977, as quoted in Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (2011) by Susan Ratcliffe, p. 373

Mother Teresa came to the Philippines in 1977 to establish her congregation’s first center in the country, the Home for the Sick and Malnourished Children in Manila’s Binondo district. Filipinos see Mother Teresa as altruistic model to live by – UCA News

September 22 1977 – Book: The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams

September 24, 1977 – May 24, 1986 – TV: The Love Boat

September 27, 1977 – Departures: Maria Rasputin March 27, 1898 – September 27, 1977). She was the daughter of Grigori Rasputin and his wife Praskovya Fyodorovna Dubrovina. She wrote three memoirs about her father, dealing with Tsar Nicholas II and Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna, the attack by Khionia Guseva, and his 1916 murder. The third one, The Man Behind the Myth, was published in 1977 in association with Patte Barham. In her three memoirs, the veracity of which have been questioned,[1][2] she painted an almost saintly picture of her father, insisting that most of the negative stories were based on slander and the misinterpretation of facts by his enemies.

September 30, 1977 – October 29, 1977 – Pope John Paul 1 (October 17, 1912 – September 28, 1978) participated in the IV Ordinary General Assembly in Rome of the Synod of Bishops regarding “Catechetics in Our Time”

Meanwhile Jorge Mario Bergoglio Bergoglio completed his final stage of spiritual training as a Jesuit, tertianship, at Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and took final, solemn vows as a Jesuit, including the fourth vow of obedience to missioning by the pope, on 22 April 1973. He was named provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina that July, for a six-year term which ended in 1979.

September 29, 1977 – Departures: Robert McKimson, (October 13, 1910 – September 29, 1977) American animator and director.

September 29, 1977 – Billy Joel‘s The Stranger is released containing “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)“, “Just the Way You Are” and “Only the Good Die Young”

September 30, 1977 – Music: Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume II is the sixteenth official album release for English musician Elton John, and the second compilation. The original 1977 US version features one song from 1971 and two songs from 1974 that were not on the first greatest hits album. It also features several hit songs from 1975 and two hit singles from Elton’s last year of performing in 1976. includes “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” Philadelphia Freedom” and Someone Saved My Life Tonight

October 1977

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Winter 1977

Includes

The Missing Item • [Black Widowers] short story by Isaac Asimov

On the Martian Problem
short story by Randall Garrett

Ben Franklin’s Aeroplane
poem by Steven Utley [as by S. Dale]

October 1977- Music: Elvis in Concert is the live album released by RCA Records in October 1977 in conjunction with the television special of the same name which featured some of the final performances of American singer and musician Elvis Presley. Videotaped and recorded in June 1977, both the special and album were broadcast and released on October 3, (the single “My Way”/”America the Beautiful” was released the same day) six weeks after Presley’s death. The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard chart in late 1977. It was certified Gold and Platinum on October 14 and 3× Platinum on August 1, 2002, by the RIAA.

The Golden Greats
Sweet

October 1977 – Time Storm – Gordon R. Dickson

October 1977 – Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D.Simak (October 1977)

October 1977 – Point of Know Return is the fifth studio album by American rock band Kansas, released in 1977 and includes “Dust in the Wind“.

October 1, 1977 – Music: “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” is a song recorded by Meco, taken from the album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 1, 1977, holding on to the spot for two weeks and peaked at no. 7 on the UK Singles Chart, remaining in the charts for nine weeks. The single was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold a million units.

October 3, 1977 – Departures: Tay Garnett (June 13, 1894 – October 3, 1977) American film director.

Director Tay Garnett, circa 1937

October 3, 1977 – Music: Elvis in Concert, a TV concert special filmed during Elvis Presley‘s final tour, is aired on CBS; Canadian Channel CKND-DT simulcasts it. It got bad reviews.

October 3, 1977 – Music: Here You Come Again is the nineteenth solo studio album by American entertainer Dolly Parton.

October 5 – The bicentennial season of La Scala opens in Milan with a production of Giuseppe Verdi‘s Don Carlo

October 7, 1977 – Movie Oh, God! opens in theaters.

October 7, 1977 – TV: Muppet Show Edgar John Bergen (February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio performer. He was best known for his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. In 1977, Bergen had made a guest appearance on a second-season episode of The Muppet Show, the highly acclaimed television comedy/variety program produced by Jim Henson who considered Bergen a major inspiration. He was in The Muppet Movie (1979) his final film appearance before his death.

October 7, 1977 – 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union officially the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was adopted.

October 8th, 1977 – We used to have to draw for Mark but know he draws all by himself and won’t stop drawing. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

October 9, 1977 – Canonization: Saint Charbel Makhlouf by Pope Paul VI.

October 9, 1977 – Aerosmith cancels several tour dates after Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are injured by an M-80 explosive thrown onstage at the Philadelphia Spectrum, burning Tyler’s left cornea and cuttiAdd JWPlayer Videong Perry’s left hand

**October 9th, 1977 –**Today it was a rainy cold day. We were making apple squares and a Pie. We did not have quite enough apples so Mom decided to go to the apple place. After we got the apples. Patty wanted to see how high the waves were at Crains Beach. SO Mom took us down. The waves were not that high. But the wind was blowing hard. The rain was blowing everywhere. We got all wet but we did not mine. What was funny was when we were going against the wind it almost blew us over. If Mark was with us he would probably have been blown away. Also Mary & Dad did not come. After we finally got in the car it started to rain hard. (By Laurie) -Louise Wilson’s Diary

October 12, 1977 – Book: Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! by Dr. Seuss

October 12, 1977 – Book: Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns

by Ray Bradbury
(August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012)

Nomination – 1977 World Fantasy Award Long After Midnight Best Anthology/Collection (old)

Win – 1977 – World Fantasy Life Achievement

1977 Locus All-Time Best Author # 14

Nomination 1978 Gandalf Grandmaster of Fantasy (Gandalf)

Bing Crosby
(May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977)

Bing Crosby Productions, affiliated with Desilu Studios and later CBS Television Studios, produced a number of television series, including Crosby’s own unsuccessful ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964–1965 season the popular Hogan’s Heroes (1965–1971) Starring Bob Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment while on tour in June 1978 for a dinner theater production of Beginner’s Luck. In the 1990s, Crane’s friend John Henry Carpenter was tried for the murder but was acquitted, and the case remains officially unsolved. Crane’s previously uncontroversial public image suffered due to the suspicious nature of his death and posthumous revelations about his personal life.

October 16, 1977 – Arrival: John Mayer, American musician and record producer.

October 17, 1977 -Music : Street Survivors the fifth studio album by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, The LP is the last Skynyrd album recorded by original members Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins, and is the sole Skynyrd studio recording by guitarist Steve Gaines. What’s Your Name is one of the hit singles off the record.

October 18, 1977 – 2060 Chiron was discovered on 1 November 1, 1977 by Charles Kowal from images taken at the Palomar Observatory.

Three days after the album’s release of Street Survivors

October 20, 1977 – Departures: Three members of American rock group, Lynyrd Skynyrd, killed in plane crash:

- Ronnie Van Zant, lead singer (b. 1948)
- Cassie Gaines, lead singer (b. 1948)
- Steve Gaines, lead singer and guitarist (b. 1949)

October 20, 1977 –Departures: Marie-Thérèse Walter ( July 13, 1909 – October 20, 1977) mistress of Pablo Picasso,

October 20, 1977 – December 5, 1977 – Operação Prato: The Colares flap refers to an outbreak of UFO sightings that occurred in 1977 on the Brazilian island of Colares. During the outbreak, the UFOs allegedly attacked the citizens with intense beams of radiation that left burn marks and puncture wounds. These sightings led to the Brazilian government dispatching a team to investigate under the codename Operation Saucer (Portuguese: Prato, see below), but the government later recalled the team and classified the files until the late 1990s.

October 21, 1977 – Book: Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson

1978 Newbery Medal Award

October 24, 1977 – Movie: A new Peanuts special, It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, airs on CBS. It shows and names “Heather”, the Little Red-Haired Girl, thereupon ending the ‘mystery’.

October 26, 1977 – The world’s last natural infection of smallpox is reported in Somalia.

October 26, 1977 – TV: Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special

October 26, 1977 – Arrival: Jon Heder, American actor and voice artist

October 28, 1977 – Music: News of the World is the sixth studio album by the British rock band Queen. Includes the hits “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions“. On a side note “Bohemian Rhapsody” is named “The Best Single Of The Last 25 Years” by BPI.

October 31st, 1977 – Mark continues to have difficulty with reaching the bathroom in time, in school. I was so discouraged tonight after getting after Mark for it, I was near tears. He looked at me, himself almost in tears and said “ don’t look so sad, you look like your going to cry, tell me what’s your problem.”

Tomorrow Mary goes after her driving permit. I just hope that she gets it. For her sake. Pat got two F’s on her report card. So we are sweating that out. She will probably be out of sports this semester. Sure is rough being a parent. -Louise Wilson’s Diary

November 1977

November 1977 – BOOK: Agatha Christie: An Autobiography Dame Agatha Christie, (September 15, 1890 – January 12, 1976) Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

November 1977 – Music: Greatest Hits, Etc. is the first greatest hits album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, released in November 1977 by Columbia Records. It was his first compilation, spanning the first six years of his solo career. Its release was prompted by the fact that two years after his last studio album, Simon didn’t yet have enough material to release a new full-length album, and his contract with Columbia was finished but a new album was needed to fulfill it. Simon later signed with Warner Bros. Records. The album was initially supposed to be called Blatant Greatest Hits.

The album included two new songs: the smooth ballad “Slip Slidin’ Away“, a US top 5 hit previously considered for Still Crazy After All These Years, and the upbeat “Stranded in a Limousine”, which failed to chart in the US.

November 3, 1977 – Movie: Pete’s Dragon is released in theaters.

November 4, 1977 – May 12, 1982 – TV: The Incredible Hulk

November 4, 1977 – Music: I Want to Live is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Denver. released by RCA Records in November 1977. The title song was dedicated to the “Hunger Project”, of which Denver was on the board of directors.

November 4, 1977 – Movie: Heroes, starring Henry Winkler, Sally Field, Harrison Ford

November 5, 1977 – Departures: René Goscinny, ( August 14, 1926 – November 5, 1977) created the Asterix comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo.

November 5, 1977 – Movie: Hitler: A Film from Germany

November 5, 1977 – Departures: Guy Lombardo, (June 19, 1902 – November 5, 1977) Canadian-American bandleader.

November 8, 1977 – Departures: Ted Ray (November 21, 1905 – November 8, 1977). His BBC radio show Ray’s a Laugh ran for 12 years.

November 8, 1977 – Harvey Milk, (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) American politician and activist. On election day, November 8, 1977, he won by 30% against sixteen other candidates, and after his victory became apparent, he arrived on Castro Street on the back of his campaign manager’s motorcycle—escorted by Sheriff Richard Hongisto—to what a newspaper story described as a “tumultuous and moving welcome.

Photo by Daniel Nicoletta

November 10, 1977 – Arrival: – Brittany Murphy, American actress and singer.

November 11, 1977 – Divorced Catholics

Back in 1884 the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore received permission from the Holy See to impose an “automatic” excommunication on American Catholics who divorced and, without petitioning for and receiving a declaration of nullity (commonly called an annulment), remarried in a civil or other non-Catholic ceremony.

But on May 4, 1977– Divorced Catholic are no longer automatically excommunicated, including those who remarried outside the Church. Thanks to a rule by the little more then a decade old United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The light and pastoral compassionate approach on divorced Catholics was not started with Pope Francis, so give him a break pharisees. Receiving communion is still outlawed if the previous marriages were not annulled by Church tribunals.

On November 11, 1977 – Pope Paul VI ratified this decision and made it official for the whole church.

While Catholics are no longer excommunicated after civil divorce the church’s teaching on the indissolubility of valid marriage has not changed. The truth of marriage is still intact but the way the church deals with it has changed.

See Also … Were the Divorced Excommunicated? By Fr. Charles Grondin.

November 13, 1977 – Sports: American golfer Arnold Palmer kicks off the Trophee Lancome in Paris from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

November 14, 1977 – Departure: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, 1 September 1, 1896 – 14 November 14, 1977) Indian religious leader.

November 14, 1977 –Departure: Ferdinand Heim (February 27, 1895 – November 14, 1971) or (February 27, 1895—November 14, 1977) German general, branded the “Scapegoat of Stalingrad“.

Ferdinand Heim

November 15, 1977 – Princess Charlotte of Monaco (*September 30, 1898 – November 16, 1977).

November 15, 1977 – Music: Saturday Night Fever is the soundtrack album from the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta. The soundtrack was released by RSO Records. Prior to the release of Thriller by Michael Jackson, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album in music history, and still ranks among the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide, with sales figures of over 40 million copies.

November 16, 1977 – Movie: Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens to widespread critical acclaim and massive box office success, becoming one of the top-grossing films to date and cementing Steven Spielberg’s status as one of the most talented and profitable film directors of all time. The song “When You Wish Upon a Star” written by Leigh Harline (March 26, 1907 – December 10, 1969) and Ned Washington (August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) for the 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio, was covered by John Williams for the movie. Spielberg himself called Williams’s work “When You Wish Upon a Star meets science fiction”.

November 19, 1977 – On this date in 1977, Star Wars surpassed the movie “Jaws” as the highest grossing film of all time in the U.S.

November 25, 1977 – Music: 10 Years of Rolling Stone, a television special commemorating the tenth anniversary of Rolling Stone magazine, airs on CBS in the United States; guests include Bette Midler, Art Garfunkel, Billy Preston, Melissa Manchester and Keith Moon

November 27, 1977 – TV Movie: The Hobbit

November 28th, 1977 – Today Mark got his very first report card form 1st grade. He hande3d it to me. After I opened it and was reading it. He said” Well is it good news or bad news” . -Louise Wilson’s Diary

Took Mark to do his Christmas Shopping tonight. He snuck a can of nuts in to the shopping cart (my present) and told me not to look. Tonight he got the girls to help him wrap presents. He came to me and said “ I’m not going to tell you what I got you but tell me do you like peanuts with spines in them.” -Louise Wilson’s Diary

November 30, 1977 – Music: Bing Crosby‘s final Christmas television special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, airs on CBS (containing the notable segment of Crosby joined by David Bowie for the duet “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy“)

December 1977

December 3, 1977 – Departures: Jack Beresford, (January 1, 1899 – December 3, 1977) British Olympic rower.

December 5, 1977 –Movie: The Solar System, produced and directed by Thomas G. Smith for Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, is released. It led to the producer hiring Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a company producing visual effects for films such as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films.

December 11, 1977 – TV Movie: It Happened One Christmas

December 12, 1977 –Departures: Clementine Churchill, (April 1, 1885 – December 12, 1977) wife of Winston Churchill.

December 13, 1977 – Back in the 1970s, Gates was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he and childhood friend Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft. On the night of December 13, 1977, Albuquerque police booked Gates into jail, in the process producing the famed mugshot of a smiling, considerably younger Gates that continues to circulate around the internet to this day.

According to Ars Technica, the reason for Gates’ arrest has been “lost to the sands of time.” Buzzfeed, however, says that the future tech billionaire was picked up for driving without a license and failing to stop at a stop sign.

Regardless of the specifics, one thing that stands out is Gates’ seeming indifference to his fate as he smiles at the camera.

December 16, 1977– Candleshoe is released in theaters.

December 16, 1977 – Saturday Night Fever, directed by John Badham, starring John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney is released in theaters igniting a new popularity for disco music and pushing it to the forefront of American pop culture, with the soundtrack to the film by Bee Gees (who have composed most of the tracks)

December 19, 1977 – TV: Bob Hope Christmas Special

December 20, 1977 – Christmastime with Mister Rogers is a primetime special. This rarely televised special shows Rogers at his neighborly best, extending holiday wishes and attending a children’s dance. Lady Elaine Fairchilde has a touch of Dickens in the invaluable lesson she is taught.

This was the only episode to premiere in 1977; Aired on December 20, 1977.
This episode was broadcast every Christmas until 1982.
The opening and closing sequences of this special had Rogers walking through a real neighborhood, instead of the usual sequences with the model neighborhood.

December 21, 1977 –Departures: Seán Keating, (September 28, 1889 – December 21, 1977) Irish romantic-realist painter.

December 25, 1977 – Movie: High Anxiety, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, with Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Howard Morris, Cloris Leachman

Sir Charlie Chaplin,
(April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977)

British actor, producer and director.

December 26, 1977 – President Ernesto Geisel signs a law that legalizes and regulates divorce.

December 28, 1977 – Arrival: Michael Spears, Indigenous American actor

Howard Hawks
(May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977)

December 30, 1977 – ESCAPE: Ted Bundy (December 30, 1977 – February 15, 1978) escapes for the 2nd time in 1977.

December 31, 1977 – Arrival: Psy, South Korean singer, songwriter, rapper, dancer and record producer.

December 31, 1977 – Arrival: Donald Trump Jr., American businessman and son of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump Jr. in 2009

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