March 1977

March 1, 1977 (Tuesday)

• The crash of a Yemen Airlines flight killed all 19 people on board. Shortly after taking off from Aden with a destination of Sayun, the Douglas DC-3 airplane plunged into the Indian Ocean.
• India's unpopular Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was booed and jeered by tens of thousands of government workers as she spoke at a campaign rally in New Delhi, and thousands walked out. The Indian press noted that no Prime Minister of India had ever been booed in the capital. Mrs. Gandhi had been making a 20-minute speech to defend her 1975 proclamation of a state of emergency, as well as to justify her government's programs for family planning by sterilization and the demolition of slum housing occupied by impoverished residents.
• East Germany doubled the toll for a car to cross from West Berlin into East Berlin in order to discourage visits, raising the cost from 10 West German marks to 20.
• With only three more states necessary for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to become part of the U.S. Constitution, the North Carolina state senate rejected the resolution. Although the vote in favor was 26 to 24, a two-thirds majority of at least 34 votes was required. On March 15, the state senate of Missouri, which had rejected the ERA in 1975, had only a 12 to 22 vote in favor.
• The Bank of America began the replacement of its BankAmericard credit cards to Visa cards, initially with both names on the card, starting with all cards with cards with an expiration date of March 1977.
• The Police, a rock trio made up of vocalist and bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, gave its first public performance, a 10-minute set at the Alexandria Club in Newport, Wales
• Born: Rens Blom, Dutch pole vaulter and 2005 world champion; in Munstergeleen
• Died: Alioune Dramé, 49, Planning Minister for the African nation of Guinea until his arrest in 1976, died from a slow execution by starvation, after being accused of attempting to overthrow President Sékou Touré.

  March 2, 1977 (Wednesday)

• By decree of President Muammar Gaddafi, the Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People changed the official name of the North African nation of Libya to the "Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya", and assigned rule to a five-man secretariat leading the new General People's Congress. With Gaddafi as its Secretary General, the Secretariat included as members Prime Minister Abdessalam Jalloud and former Interior Minister Khwalidi Hemadi.
• The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a Code of Ethics for the first time.
• The U.S. Government's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building opened in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at 200 N.W. 5th Street. The Murrah Building would be destroyed by two American terrorists on April 19, 1995, in a bombing that would kill 168 people.
• Boston comedy club owner Jay Leno made his national television debut as a stand-up comedian, appearing on The Tonight Show. Leno was the guest of Johnny Carson, whom he would succeed as host 15 years later.
• Born: Chris Martin, British rock musician and lead vocalist for the band Coldplay; in Exeter, Devonshire
• Died: Eugénie Brazier, 81, French chef who had earned a total of six Michelin stars for her La Mère Brazier restaurants

  March 3, 1977 (Thursday)

• The crash of an Italian Air Force C-130 plane killed all 44 people on board as it was transporting 38 cadets from the Italian Naval Academy on a training flight. Shortly after takeoff from San Giusto Airport in Pisa, the transport plane struck the side of the Monte Serra at and caught fire.
• Born: Ronan Keating, Irish pop music singer; in Dublin
• Died:
• *Brian Faulkner, 56, the last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland within the UK, was killed when he was thrown from a horse while he was hunting. His death came less than 24 days after his February 7 receipt of a life peerage as The Lord Faulkner of Downpatrick and his elevation to the House of Lords.
• *Percy Marmont, 93, English film actor known as the star of the 1925 film ''Lord Jim''

  March 4, 1977 (Friday)

• A 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania killed 1,578 people and injured 11,221. Striking at 9:22 p.m. local time, the earthquake shook buildings as far away as Rome and Moscow. The epicenter was identified as a spot beneath Mount Vrancei about northeast of Bucharest, where 32 buildings were leveled. In the Bulgarian town of Svishtov, on the Romanian border, 120 people were killed.
• The House of Assembly in the white-minority ruled African nation of Rhodesia voted, 44 to 22, to approve Prime Minister Ian Smith's partial reform of racial segregation laws that barred the nation's 6.4 million black residents from the same privileges available to its 272,000 white people.
• Born:
• *Nacho Figueras, Argentine polo star and male model; in Veinticinco de Mayo, Buenos Aires Province
• *Ana Guevara, Mexican track and field athlete, 2003 world champion in the women's 400m race, later a member of the Mexican Senate; in Nogales, Sonora
• Died:
• *William J. Bryan Jr., 52, American hypnotherapist
• *Andrés Caicedo, 25, Colombian novelist who attained posthumous fame for ¡Que viva la música!, committed suicide with an overdose of secobarbital on the same day of the book's publication.
• *Timmy Everett, 38, American stage and film actor and dancer known for The Music Man, died of a heart attack.
• *Lutz von Krosigk, 89, Finance Minister of Germany's Nazi government from 1932 to 1945, and the Third Reich's last Chancellor as Leitenden Minister for president Karl Doenitz after the death of Adolf Hitler. Convicted of war crimes, von Krosigk served six years of a 10-year sentence.

  March 5, 1977 (Saturday)

• "Ask President Carter", the first and only radio show allowing ordinary residents across the U.S. to call the President of the United States, was broadcast live on the CBS Radio Network. With CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite serving as moderator, U.S. President Jimmy Carter spoke with 42 people who had been able to get through to the White House after calling a special "900" number paid for by CBS.
• Japan became only the third nation to place a satellite into geosynchronous orbit, after easing the spacecraft into position over Indonesia. The launch marked the 10th satellite put into orbit by Japan.
• Born: Adler Volmar, U.S. and Haitian judo athlete; in Miami
• Died: Tom Pryce, 27, the only Welsh racecar driver to win a Formula One race, was killed along with a race official while racing in the South African Grand Prix in Midrand.

  March 6, 1977 (Sunday)

• Voters in the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands overwhelmingly approved the proposed constitution to establish the Northern Marianas as a self-governing Commonwealth within the United States. With a 58.5% turnout of the 6,500 registered voters, the result was 3,557 for and 258 against. The constitution would come into effect on January 9, 1978.
• The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee revealed that U.S. military leaders had considered using the atomic bomb in 1953 during the Korean War, releasing a transcript of closed-door testimony to the Committee made by U.S. Army General Omar N. Bradley on February 10, 1953. General Bradley had told the Committee members, "We have discussed many times the use of the atomic bomb, tactically," but added, "Of course, you know there are no strategic targets worth mentioning in Korea. We have looked... and it is rather hard to find a target at this time that we think is sufficiently remunerative as a target for the expending out of the stockpile."

  March 7, 1977 (Monday)

• Voting was held in Pakistan for all 216 seats of the Qomi Assembly. Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party won almost 60% of the vote and 155 seats, while the Pakistan National Alliance of Abdul Wali Khan finished a distant second with 36 seats.
• By royal decree, King Juan Carlos I of Spain legalized gambling casinos for the first time in more than 50 years, acting as part of a plan to bring tourism to the Kingdom as it moved towards democracy. The King wrote in the decree that the 1924 ban on all games of chance had failed to stop gambling.
• Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand announced that had appointed former Prime Minister Sir Keith Holyoake to serve as Governor-General of New Zealand, with authority to act on her behalf in the United Kingdom's Queen in her capacity as the monarch of New Zealand. The Queen was in New Zealand as part of a tour of the British Commonwealth's Asian nations during the 25th anniversary of her accession to the throne. He succeeded Governor-General Denis Blundell on October 26, 1977.
• Born: Ronan O'Gara, Irish rugby union player with 128 appearances in 14 seasons for the Ireland national team; to Irish parents in San Diego, California in the U.S.
• Died: Bernie Bierman, 82, U.S. college football coach who led the University of Minnesota to five national championships; Bierman's Minnesota Gophers teams are recognized by the NCAA as champions for 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940 and 1941, with the Gophers becoming the first Associated Press poll #1 at the end of the 1936 season, and the AP sports writers' favorite again in 1940 and 1941.

  March 8, 1977 (Tuesday)

• A group of mercenary soldiers and rebels from the Congolese National Liberation Front invaded Zaire, crossing from Angola into the former Katanga Province, which had been renamed by President Mobutu as the Shaba Province. The civil war would last for a little more than two months. In the opening drive, the rebels captured the towns of Dilolo, Kapanga and Kisengi, as well as Divuma and Kasaji. The Zairean Army recaptured Divuma and Kasaji three days later.
• The Australian Parliament was opened by Elizabeth II in her capacity as Queen of Australia.
• The debut album for the rock band Foreigner was released by Atlantic Records simultaneously with Foreigner's first 45 rpm single, "Feels Like the First Time".
• Born: James Van Der Beek, American TV actor known as the star of the series Dawson's Creek; in Cheshire, Connecticut
• Died:
• *Henry Hull, 86, American stage and film actor on film known for starring in 1935's Werewolf of London
• *Krishan Chander, 62, Indian novelist and screenwriter