A factory storekeeper in the Nzara township of Sudan becomes ill on this day in 1976. Five days later, he dies, and the world’s first recorded Ebola virus epidemic begins making its way through the area. By the time the epidemic is over, 284 cases are reported, with about half of the victims dying from […]
Continue readingNew York Magazine Publishes The Story That Becomes Saturday Night Fever
Disco as a musical style predated the movie Saturday Night Fever by perhaps as many as five years, but disco as an all-consuming cultural phenomenon might never have happened without the 1977 film and its multi-platinum soundtrack featuring such era-defining hits as the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You.” […]
Continue readingCeltics Battle Suns Through Three Overtimes In NBA Finals
On June 4, 1976, in Game Five of the NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics defeat the Phoenix Suns 128–126 in three overtimes. The game is considered by many to be the greatest in the history of the NBA Finals. The Celtics, then the most successful team in the NBA’s short history, met the upstart Phoenix […]
Continue readingFour Dozen People Witness “The Gig That Changed The World”
It seems millions of people claim to have been at Woodstock when only 500,000 or so were really there, but the biggest pop-culture event of the 1960s has nothing on one of the most pivotal of the 1970s: the Sex Pistols’ appearance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, on June 4, 1976. […]
Continue readingA Young Woman And Her Married Lover Kill Her Family
Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca are arrested for the brutal slaying of Columbo’s parents and brother in Elk Grove, Illinois. Twenty-year-old Columbo had left her family home two years earlier to live with DeLuca, a 36-year-old married man. The pair later killed Frank, Mary, and Michael Columbo in order to receive the family inheritance, unaware […]
Continue readingThe Theme Song From Welcome Back, Kotter Is The #1 song In America
In 1975, John Sebastian, former member of the beloved 60s pop group the Lovin’ Spoonful, was asked to write and record the theme song for a brand-new ABC television show with the working title Kotter. As any songwriter would, Sebastian first tried working that title into his song, but somehow the rhymes he came up […]
Continue readingMike Schmidt Hits Four Consecutive Homers
On this day in 1976, Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hits four consecutive home runs in a game against the Chicago Cubs. Schmidt was only the fourth player in the history of Major League Baseball to accomplish this feat. After attending Ohio University, Schmidt was drafted by the Phillies as the 30th overall pick […]
Continue readingHoward Hughes Dies
Howard Robard Hughes, one of the richest men to emerge from the American West during the 20th century, dies while flying from Acapulco to Houston. Born in Houston, Texas, in 1905, Hughes inherited an estate of nearly a million dollars when his father died in 1923. Hughes’ father also left him the business that had […]
Continue readingEarthquake Rocks Guatemala City
In the very early morning of February 4, 1976, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake levels much of Guatemala City, killing 23,000 people and leaving one million others homeless. It was 3:04 a.m. when the first large tremor, centered six miles under the Earth’s surface 120 miles northwest of Guatemala City, struck. The quake was the result of […]
Continue readingSinger, Actor, Athlete, Activist Paul Robeson Dies
The singer, actor, athlete and activist Paul Robeson dies at the age of 79 on January 23, 1976. Robeson’s physical strength, size and grace made him one of the elite sports figures of his generation, but his stature in other fields—music, theater, politics, human rights— eventually overshadowed his athletic greatness. On stage and screen, his […]
Continue reading