September 1977

September 1, 1977 (Thursday)

• The United Kingdom nationalized its shipbuilding industry under the government-owned company British Shipbuilders, acquiring the assets of 27 private companies in accordance with the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977. Sir Anthony Griffin, an Admiral in the Royal Navy, served as British Shipbuilders' first chairman. After closing half of the nation's shipyards, the company was then required to privatize its assets under the terms of the British Shipbuilders Act 1983, and closed all of its remaining shipyards by 1989.
• The United States agreed to let Japan begin the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel for two years, approving a proposal that had been made by Japan in 1970 to use reprocessed fuel at Tokai village northeast of Tokyo. The accord between the two allies averted a crisis between Japan, which was in need of a source of energy, and the U.S., which was seeking to halt the increased availability of plutonium.
• The southern African nation of Angola announced that its government had acquired 61% of the shares of Diamang Diamond Company, the main source of the country's wealth, and majority control of the company, with the remaining 39% held by foreign investors.
• Born: David Albelda, Spanish footballer with 51 appearances for the Spain national team as a defensive midfielder; in La Pobla Llarga, Province of Valencia
• Died: Ethel Waters, 80, African-American singer, film and TV actress

  September 2, 1977 (Friday)

• The U.S. Center for Disease Control announced the existence of "a new strain of bacterial pneumonia resistant to penicillin and most other antibodies, in the form of a mutated, drug-resistant derivation of pneumococcal pneumonia.
• Born:
• *Frédéric Kanouté French and Malian footballer with 38 appearances for the Mali national team as a striker; in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon.
• *Elitsa Todorova, Bulgarian singer; in Varna
• *Jimmy Smith, American mixed martial artist and sports broadcaster; in Fresno, California
• Died: Archimedes Trajano, 22, Philippine student activist, was found dead two days after insulting Imee Marcos, the daughter of President Ferdinand Marcos, who had been appointed as the chairman of the nation's youth council, the Kabataang Barangay.

  September 3, 1977 (Saturday)

• Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who had recently been released from prison after his July 5 overthrow, was arrested again while campaigning for office in anticipation of elections in October. Bhutto had been set free on July 28 and remained out for 37 days before being arrested on charges of conspiracy in the murder of a political opponent.
• Japanese baseball player Sadaharu Oh of Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants hit the 756th home run of his career, one more than the Major League Baseball record of Hank Aaron, who had retired in 1976 with 755 career home runs. His hit came during an 8 to 1 win over the Yakult Swallows, on a pitch by the Swallows' Kojiro Suzuki. Oh would play three more years, retiring at the end of the 1980 Central League season on October 12, 1980, with 868 homers.
• The Grateful Dead set a record of selling 107,019 tickets to a rock concert, playing at Raceway Park near Englishtown, New Jersey. The concert set a U.S. and world record and would continue to be the highest attended ticketed concert in the U.S. as of 2023. A concert by Frank Sinatra in Brazil would break the record on January 26, 1980, with 175,000 tickets sold.
• U.S. Christian evangelist became the first preacher to make a speaking tour within a Communist nation as he arrived in Budapest for an eight-day tour of Hungary. Graham was cleared by the Hungarian Communist Party chairman Janos Kadar to appear as the guest of the Hungarian Council of Free Churches.
• Born: Olof Mellberg, Swedish footballer and defender with 117 caps for the Sweden national team; in Gullspång
• Died: Albert Muwalo, 50, Minister of State and later Minister without Portfolio for Malawi until October 27, 1976, was hanged at the national prison in Zomba after being convicted on charges of corruption.

  September 4, 1977 (Sunday)

• The Golden Dragon massacre took place inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in San Francisco's Chinatown, with 16 people shot, five of them fatally. A group of four members of the Joe Boys youth gang attempted to kill the leaders of the rival Wah Ching criminal organization, to retaliate for a July 4 attack that killed a Joe Boys member. None of the victims were members of the Wah Ching gang; the five people killed were a waiter and four customers.
• All 33 people aboard a SAN Ecuador airlines Vickers 764 Viscount were killed when the aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain in the Cajas Range. The plane had taken off from Guayaquil on a short flight to Cuenca.
• Cork GAA defeated Wexford GAA, 1–17 to 3-8 to win the championship of the Gaelic Athletic Association in the sport of hurling, before 63,168 people at Croke Park in Dublin.
• Died: E. F. Schumacher, 66, German-born British economist and statistician known for the Buddhist economics theory, died of a heart attack while on a lecture tour of Europe.

  September 5, 1977 (Monday)

• Not realized at the time by Earth astronomers, the asteroid 2022 QX4 passed within 0.00086 astronomical units or of Earth. By comparison, the average distance from the Earth to the Moon almost three times as far. The asteroid, about in diameter, would not be discovered from Earth until August 24, 2022, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System., after which its trajectory would be calculated retroactively and prospectively.
• The interplanetary probe Voyager 1 was launched from the United States at 8:56 in the morning, following the August 20 launch of Voyager 2 toward Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
• West German Employers Association President Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped in Cologne. The kidnappers killed three escorting police officers and his chauffeur, and demanded the release of 14 Red Army Faction prisoners in return for Schleyer's safe return. Schleyer would be murdered by his captors on October 18.

  September 6, 1977 (Tuesday)

• The August 26 federal grand jury indictment of South Korean businessman Tongsun Park was publicly revealed, and implicated the names of 24 members of the U.S. Congress in the 36 counts against Park.
• The Scottish Opera presentation of Mary, Queen of Scots, composed by Thea Musgrave, premiered at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh.
• The record attendance for a Canadian Football League game was set when a crowd of 69,093 people came to Olympic Stadium in Montreal to watch a regular season CFL game. The unbeaten Montreal Alouettes were upset by the visiting Toronto Argonauts, 20 to 14.
• Television actress Danielle Spencer, a 12-year-old co-star of the ABC sitcom What's Happening!!, was seriously injured in an auto accident shortly before the start of the show's second season.
• Born: Katalin Novák, President of Hungary since 2022, known for being the first woman and the youngest person ever to serve as the Hungarian president; in Szeged
• Died:
• *John Littlewood, 92, British mathematician known for the Littlewood conjecture, the Littlewood polynomial, Littlewood–Paley theory, the two Hardy–Littlewood conjectures
• *Arthur M. Loew, 69, American film producer for MGM and owner of the Loew's International chain of theaters

  September 7, 1977 (Wednesday)

• Two treaties between Panama and the United States were signed for the eventual transfer of the Panama Canal, as U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian Head of Government, General Omar Torrijos, met at the Washington DC headquarters of the Organization of American States. In the Panama Canal Treaty, the U.S. agreed that control of the canal would be transferred to Panama at midnight on December 31, 1999, after which Panama would have control of the canal and be responsible for its maintenance and its defense. In the other agreement, the Neutrality Treaty, Panama agreed that the U.S. would have "the permanent right to defend the canal from any threat that might interfere with its continued neutral service to ships of all nations." Both treaties would ratified by the U.S. Senate on April 18, 1979.
• Former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy, who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping in connection with the break-in of the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee that led to the Watergate scandal, was released from prison after having been incarcerated for four and one-half years.
• A judge in Dane County, Wisconsin, Archie Simonson, was removed from office by an overwhelming margin in a recall election, after making remarks on May 25 justifying rape of a girl because of the clothes that she was wearing.

  September 8, 1977 (Thursday)

• Interpol issued a resolution against the copyright infringement of video tapes and other material. The warning is still cited in warnings at the start of all videocassettes and DVDs.
• At least 50 people in Egypt were killed, and 120 injured, when a train derailed while moving along a curved track at excess speed, and then plunged down an embankment near Asyut.
• All 25 people on a Burma Airways Twin Otter 300 were killed when the airplane departed Mong Hsat but failed to land as scheduled in Keng Tung. The wreckage was found three days later.
• The first Chia Pet was introduced by Joseph Enterprises as a novelty terracotta decoration that sprouted the fast-growing and flowering plant chia from seeds embedded inside the decoration.
• Died: Zero Mostel

  September 9, 1977 (Friday)

• The public execution of 12 Ugandan prisoners, convicted of the June 18 attempt to overthrow President Idi Amin, took place in front of the Queen's Clock Tower in the capital city of Kampala. Three other people were shot in addition to the coup d'etat plotters, as shooting started at 5:05 and prisoners were killed "one by one... as they stood tied against sand-filled water drums." The eight ringleaders were left alive at the prison in Nakasero of Uganda's secret police, the State Research Bureau, pending a public confession of their role in the coup attempt.
• The French weekly news and entertainment magazine VSD published its first issue.
• Born: Soulja Slim, American rap artist; in New Orleans
• Died:
• *Kenneth O'Donnell, 53, U.S. adviser to President John F. Kennedy
• *Jim Liberman, 31, American drag racing driver, was killed when he crashed into a SEPTA transit bus in West Goshen, Pennsylvania.