June 1977

June 1, 1977 (Wednesday)

• The Arabic language daily newspaper "Al-Arab", published in London, was introduced by entrepreneur Ahmed el-Houni, who had formerly been the minister of information for Libya.
• The Japanese playing card company Nintendo put its first home video game on the market, branded as "Color TV-Game"
• Nintendo, founded in 1889 as a manufacturer of playing cards and which introduced a line of electronic toys in 1969, debuted its first home video game console, the Color TV-Game. On June 8, a week after Color TV-Game 6 was released, Nintendo released Color TV-Game 15.
• Queen Juliana of the Netherlands asked Prime Minister Joop den Uyl to form a new coalition government with his Labor Party joining with the Christian Democrat leader, Andreas van Agt.
• Born: Sarah Wayne Callies, American TV actress known for The Walking Dead; in La Grange, Illinois
• Died: John Morris, 64, British historian

  June 2, 1977 (Thursday)

• The U.S. state of New Jersey became only the second in the United States to legalize casino gambling, as Governor Brendan Byrne signed the Casino Control Act into law. The first casino, in Atlantic City's Resorts Casino Hotel, would open on May 26, 1978.
• Operation Aztec, Rhodesia's five-day invasion of neighboring Mozambique to stop attacks from the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, ended with the destruction of the section of the Limpopo railway that had carried guerrillas in Mozambique to the Rhodesian border, and the deaths of at least 60 ZANLA and FRELIMO combatants.
• In the Philippines, Allied Banking Corporation, which would become one of the largest banks in the nation, opened its first branch.
• Belgium's prime minister Leo Tindemans announced that he had formed a new government. He resigned three hours later after a dispute between French speaking and Flemish speaking members of his party.
• Born: Zachary Quinto, American TV and film actor known for portraying Sylar on the series Heroes and for Spock in the rebooted 2009 Star Trek film and its sequels; in Pittsburgh
• Died:
• *Stephen Boyd, 45, Northern Irish film actor, Golden Globe winner for best supporting actor for his role in Ben Hur, died of a heart attack in the U.S. while playing golf in Northridge, California.
• *Fred Young, 76, Indonesian film director

  June 3, 1977 (Friday)

• Elections were held in Morocco for 176 of the 264 seats of the Majlis, the lower house of Moroccan Parliament. The other 88 were indirectly elected, with 48 by local government councils, and 40 others from professional colleges. A total of 1,022 candidates ran for office; independent candidates won 81 seats, while the Istiqlal Party won 46 and the Constitutional and Democratic Popular Movement won 29.
• The United States and Cuba announced that they would begin diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961, with the exchange of diplomats. The Cuban government followed by releasing 10 Americans who had been incarcerated in Cuban jails.
• Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, former Indian Minister of Home Affairs for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was elected as the new president of the Indian National Congress, in the wake of the political party's defeat in the March 20 elections.
• The United Kingdom deported former American CIA official Philip Agee, who had revealed the names of CIA agents, barring him from re-entry to the country after he had traveled to the Netherlands.
• Bob Marley and the Wailers releases their ninth studio album, Exodus.
• Died:
• * Archibald Hill, 90, English biochemist and 1922 Nobel Prize laureate, known for the Hill equation
• * Roberto Rossellini, 71, Italian film director

  June 4, 1977 (Saturday)

• Vincent van Gogh's painting Poppy Flowers, worth an estimated U.S.$55,000,000, was stolen from Cairo's Khalil Museum in Egypt. Recovered 10 years later, the painting would be stolen again in 2010 and has not been seen since then.
• A court in Cyprus dismissed murder charges against the two members of the terrorist group, EOKA-B, Ioannis Ktimatias and Nepotolemos Leftis. The two had been indicted for the 1974 assassination of U.S. Ambassador Rodger Davies and a Greek Cypriot secretary to the ambassador, Antoinette Varnavas. Ktimatias and Leftis were found guilty of the lesser offense of illegal use of firearms and rioting, with Ktimatias getting a seven-year sentence and Leftis five years.
• Marvin Mandel, Governor of the U.S. state of Maryland, stepped aside and appointed Lieutenant Governor Blair Lee III as ""Acting Chief Executive", after Mandel was indicted along with five co-defendants of the crimes of mail fraud and racketeering. After being convicted, Mandel would be sentenced to the federal prison at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Mandel would rescind Lee's powers on January 15, 1979, after his conviction was overturned on appeal, and serve the remaining two days of his elected term.
• Died: František Michl, 75, Czech artist who had been incarcerated by the Nazi German government for being anti-fascist, and by the Czechoslovakian government for being anti-Communist.

  June 5, 1977 (Sunday)

• A bloodless coup overthrew the government of President James Mancham while he was out of the country, and installed France-Albert René as President of the Seychelles. Mancham was in the UK at the time, attending the British Commonwealth meeting.
• Elections were held in Turkey for all 450 seats of the unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey, referred to in Turkey as the Meclis. With 226 seats needed for a majority, the Republican People's Party of former Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit increased its strength from 185 to 213 seats, while the right-wing "Nationalist Front" coalition of Premier Süleyman Demirel was forced out of office.
• The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 109 to 107, to win the championship of the National Basketball Association, taking Game 6 of the best-4-of-7 series in Portland. With four seconds to play, George McGinnis of the 76ers missed a jump shot that would have sent the game into overtime.

  June 6, 1977 (Monday)

• A week of celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II began with the Queen lighting the fuse to a high bonfire in a ceremony before a crowd of 300,000 at Windsor Great Park. The lighting began the first of a network of 103 bonfires, lit consecutively across the island.
• Singer Elvis Presley released his last recording, "Way Down", which would reach number one on the Billboard Country Music chart on the week before he died, and #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 ten days before his August 16 death.
• The U.S. and the Republic of Congo agreed to resume diplomatic relations, 12 years after they had closed their embassies. the announcement came from Congo's Foreign Minister, Theophile Obenga, and U.S. Undersecretary of State William E. Schaufele Jr.
• Born:
• *Inam Karimov, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan since 2023; in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union
• *Julius Amedume, Ghana-born British film director and producer; in Volta Region, Ghana
• Died: George Landen Dann, 76, Australian playwright

  June 7, 1977 (Tuesday)

• After a campaign by singer Anita Bryant, voters in a referendum in Miami-Dade County, Florida repealed ordinance 77-4 of the Dade County Commission that had outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing and public services. The ordinance had been passed on January 18. Bryant was able to persuade almost 70% of voters that protection of gay rights would be a threat to the community as part of her "Save the Children campaign, with 202,319 for repeal and 89,562 against it.
• In a special election to fill the unexpired term for Mayor of Chicago, interim Mayor Michael A. Bilandic defeated Republican challenger Dennis H. Block. Daley, elected to a sixth term in 1975, to expire on April 16, 1979, won 77.3 percent of the vote. He did not seek re-election.
• Elections were held for one-third of the members of the Turkish Senate, with 50 of the 150 seats to be filled.
• Convicted kidnapper Ted Bundy, on trial in Colorado for the 1975 murder of Caryn Campbell, escaped from the Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen, Colorado. He would be recaptured three days later, but would escape from another Colorado jail on December 30.
• Born: Donovan Ricketts, Jamaican footballer with 100 appearances as goalkeeper for the Jamaica national team; in Montego Bay

  June 8, 1977 (Wednesday)

• Plans for a conversion of U.S. roadway signs to the metric system were canceled. Director William M. Cox of the Federal Highway Administration informed Iowa Congressman Charles E. Grassley that regulations published on April 27 for public notice and comment had received enough negative comment and protest to merit withdrawing the proposal. Cox explained later that "More than 5,000 comments were received, and about 98% of them were negative."
• The Sri Venkateswara Temple, the first Hindu temple to be built in the United States, was inaugurated in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
• The daily Spanish newspaper for a Basque audience published its first issue. The paper, published by Editorial Iparraguirre, had some articles written in the Basque language as well. It would celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2022.
• Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford hit a hole-in-one while playing golf, the year after losing the 1976 presidential election. Ford, who was participating in the pro-am Danny Thomas Memphis Golf Classic for charity, was only the second American president to accomplish the feat. The other one was Richard M. Nixon, who hit a hole-in-one on September 4, 1961, one year after losing the 1960 presidential election.
• Born: Kanye West, American rap artist and record producer; in Atlanta
• Died: Nathan H. Knorr, 72, Jehovah's Witness administrator as president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society since 1942. He would be succeeded on June 22 by Frederick W. Franz.