November 1976

November 1, 1976 (Monday)

• Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza of the Burundi Army led a bloodless coup d'état overthrowing President Michel Micombero, who had overthrown the monarchy of the African nation in 1966. The 30-member Supreme Revolutionary Council that replaced Micombero named Bagaza as President of Burundi on November 10.
• Universities and schools in Thailand reopened after having been closed for nearly a month because of violence that had led to a military coup d'état and closure on October 6.
• Born: Adah Almutairi, American nanotechnology engineer; in Portland, Oregon

  November 2, 1976 (Tuesday)

• Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter defeated U.S. President Gerald Ford to win the 1976 United States presidential election, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War. Carter received 297 electoral votes after narrowly winning Ohio and its 25 by a little more than 11,000 popular votes out of four million. Ford, who had 240 electoral votes, conceded the election at 3:30 the next morning in Washington, and telephoned his congratulations to Carter by telephone at 11:00 a.m.
• The first legislative elections in Cuba since 1958 took place with the indirect participation people who had voted in October 10 for the members of Cuba's 169 municipal assemblies. Of more than 30,000 candidates, the 10,725 who had been selected as municipal legislators then chose the 469 deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power.
• In Paris, a bomb destroyed the house of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the Front National. Although six people were slightly injured, Le Pen and his family were unharmed. The perpetrators of the attack were never identified.
• Born:
• *Thierry Omeyer, former goalkeeper for the French men's national handball team; in Mulhouse
• *Kris Kaspersky, Russian computer hacker; in Uspenskoye, RSFSR, Soviet Union
• *Matt Cullen, U.S. ice hockey center and philanthropist who played 21 seasons and 1,594 NHL games for eight different teams from 1997 to 2019; in Virginia, Minnesota

  November 3, 1976 (Wednesday)

• Jacques Mayol of France became the first person to dive to a depth of without the use of scuba gear. Mayol, age 49, held his breath and went down into the Mediterranean Sea off of the island of Elba.
• The worst railroad accident in Poland in more than ten years killed 25 people and injured 60 others after an express train crashed into the back of a passenger train that had been making a scheduled stop at the station at Julianka. The express between Lublin and Wrocław, traveling in a dense fog, came in behind the other train.
• Brian DePalma's horror film Carrie, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, premiered in select cities before going into general release nationwide on November 16.
• Born: Emiliano Reali, Italian novelist, in Rome
• Died: Henk Korthals, 65, Dutch politician and former Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands, 1959 to 1963

  November 4, 1976 (Thursday)

• U.S. District Court Judge Warren J. Ferguson declared that the Family Viewing Hour, instituted by the FCC, was unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech. The suit had been brought by the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, and numerous production companies and had named the nation's three commercial TV networks. A decree made by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1975 was also overturned, giving stations free rein on what to air in the pre-prime time slots.
• Born: James Dale Ritchie, American serial killer; in Anchorage, Alaska
• Died:
• *Edith Shackleton Heald, 91, British journalist
• *Massimo Dallamano, 59, Italian film director known for "Spaghetti Western" movies, was killed in an auto accident

  November 5, 1976 (Friday)

• India's Lok Sabha voted, 180 to 34 to postpone parliamentary elections for the second consecutive year. The 1976 elections had been canceled later in 1975. The ruling Congress Party was joined by India's Communist Party in approving the plan, while most opposition deputies continued their boycott of votes on legislation. After the vote by the Lok Sabha, and the approval of the ceremonial upper house, the 1977 voting was postponed until 1978.
• The first epidemic of Ebola virus was brought to an end as the last of 280 victims died. By November 20, the World Health Organization announced that the virus was contained. There would be no further epidemics until a new outbreak 19 years later in 1995. On suggestion by virologist Karl Johnson, the nation's health agency gave the illness the name "Ebola virus disease", after the Ebola River valley on November 30.
• Geoffrey Platt, a laboratory technician at the British Microbiological Research Establishment in Porton Down, Wiltshire, accidentally became the first European victim of the Ebola virus when he accidentally got pricked by a contaminated needle while handling samples from Africa. Platt was successfully treated with human interferon and convalescent serum and he fully recovered.
• In Rimini, the second and last Lotta Continua congress ended; during it, the party's political line was violently contested by the working-class base and above all by feminist militants. Adriano Sofri and the leading group decide tode factodisband the party, without an official act.
• In Sicily, a wave of rain and mud, coming from Mount Erice, devastated Trapani city and countryside, causing 16 victims.
• Born: Park Jung-chul, South Korean television star; in Seoul
• Died: Helen Purdy Beale, 83, American plant virologist known for her invention of the serology processes in identification of diseases that affect crops

  November 6, 1976 (Saturday)

• In India, as part of a program of compulsory sterilization instituted by a decree of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during her proclaimed "national emergency", nearly 800 men were forced to undergo vasectomies in an event in the state of Haryana at the village of Uttawar.
• Dr. Zhores A. Medvedev, a prominent Soviet biochemist and dissident who was living in exile in London, revealed the occurrence of two disasters that had been kept secret by the Soviet Union's rulers, describing both in detail in the British scientific weekly New Scientist. Medvedev was the first to report two incidents now known as the Kyshtym disaster of 1957, in which an explosion of stored nuclear wastes contaminated an area inhabited by 270,000 people, and the Nedelin catastrophe, a rocket engine explosion that killed numerous rocket scientists and high-ranking Soviet military officers.
• Born:
• *Pat Tillman, American NFL player who left sports in order to join the U.S. Army war against al-Qaeda; in Fremont, California
• *Carlos Quintana, Puerto Rican boxer and 2008 World Boxing Organization welterweight champion; in Moca, Puerto Rico
• *Iresh Zaker, Bangladesh actor and business executive; in Dhaka
• Died:
• *Dr. Alexander S. Wiener, 69, American hematologist known for his discovery of the Rh factor and blood transfusion techniques.
• *Patrick Dennis, 55, American novelist known for the bestselling ''Auntie Mame: An irreverent escapade''

  November 7, 1976 (Sunday)

• The prototype of the Dassault Falcon 50 business jet made its first flight.
• The Party of Labor of Albania, the Communist party of Albania, completed its five-year Congress at Tirana and re-elected Enver Hoxha, who had been the party's leader since its founding 35 years earlier. Hoxha, who had been the de facto leader of the Balkan nation for more than 30 years, was the last Stalinist in power in Eastern Europe. All twelve members of the Party of Labor Politburo were re-elected by the Central Committee, including Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu.
• Born: Mark Philippoussis, Australian pro tennis player, 1999 and 2003 Davis Cup team winner, 1998 U.S. Open and 2003 Wimbledon finalist; in Melbourne
• Died: Mathew Charles Lamb, 28, Canadian spree killer who shot four people in 1966 and then joined the Rhodesian Army after his release from custody, was accidentally killed by friendly fire from another member of his unit.

  November 8, 1976 (Monday)

• The British House of Commons voted confidence in the government of Prime Minister James Callaghan, on the issue of nationalizing Britain's shipbuilding and aircraft industries, by a margin of one vote, 311 to 310. Two other bills, regarding treatment of private patients in government, and giving labor wider jurisdiction over cargo away from ports, passed by only three votes, 310 to 307.
• Born: Brett Lee, Australian national cricket team bowler; 1999 to 2012; in Wollongong, New South Wales
• Died:
• *Carlos Fonseca Amador, 40, founder and leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, was killed by Nicaraguan Army troops after being captured near the city of Waslala. Less than three years after Fonseca's death, the Sandinistas would succeed in toppling the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
• *Gottfried von Cramm, 67, German tennis player, 1934 and 1936 French Open winner, finalist in Wimbledon three consecutive times, 1935 to 1937, was killed in an automobile accident in Egypt. Cramm was being driven home to Cairo from Alexandria when his car collided with an oncoming truck.
• *James Woodford, 83, English sculptor
• *Clara G. McMillan, 82, U.S. Representative for South Carolina from 1939 to 1941

  November 9, 1976 (Tuesday)

• Patrick Hillery was elected by default as the sixth President of Ireland, to be sworn in on December 3. Hillery, the European Commissioner for Social Affairs, was nominated as the candidate of Fianna Fáil. In that neither of the other two parties— Fine Gael and the Labour Party — nominated a candidate for the largely-ceremonial job, Ireland's Constitution allowed the government to dispense with voting.
• Born:
• *Joseph Benjamin, Nigerian film and television actor; in Makurdi, Benue State
• *Shahadat Hossain, Bangladeshi TV and film actor; in Barisal
• Died:
• *Smokey Bear, 26, American black bear and resident of the Washington National Zoo who became the living symbol of the United States Forest Service campaign to prevent forest fires after his 1950 rescue from a fire in New Mexico. His appearances in ad campaigns had ended after May 31, 1975.
• *Frankie Carbo, 72, Italian-born American boxing promoter and former Mafia hitman
• *Armas Taipale, 86, Finnish track athlete and discus thrower, 1912 Olympic gold medalist
• *Billy Halop, 56, former American child actor in the Dead End Kids series of films, from a heart attack