August 1976 - Legionnaires' Disease, Anissa Jones, Alice

Keep on Truckin' in August 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in August 1976 was 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' by Kiki Dee and Elton John.

August 1 – The Seattle Seahawks play their first football game.  In this pre-season game, Seattle lost to the San Francisco 49ers 20-27.

August 2 – A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel, in an incident at Priscilla's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's estranged husband and one of the richest men in Texas, is tried and found not guilty in 1977.

August 4 – The first recognized outbreak of Legionnaires' disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia.

August 4 - The Return of a Man Called Horse movie premieres.

August 5 - What's Happening!! tv series debuts.

August 11 – John Wayne appears in his final film, The Shootist.

August 18 – At Panmunjom, North Korea, 2 United States soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Korean Demilitarized Zone which had obscured their view.

August 19 – U.S. President Gerald Ford edges out challenger Ronald Reagan to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in Kansas City.

August 25 - Gator movie premieres.

August 28 - Anissa Jones, TV child actress who played 'Buffy Davis' in the late 60s-early 70s sitcom Family Affair dies. (born 1958)

August 28 - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports a team led by Dr. Har Gobind Khorana is the first to synthesize a complete, functioning gene.  This is a major step toward understanding how genes regulate the growth and functioning of living things.  

August 30 - New Howdy Doody Show premieres in syndication.

August 31 - Alice tv series, based on the 1974 movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, premieres on CBS.

Kiss in-store appearance at Peaches Records & Tapes in Atlanta, GA.

Albums released in August (album / artist):

What a Lemon / Gasolin'

Good Singin', Good Playin' / Grand Funk Railroad

All I Can Do / Dolly Parton

My Name Is Jermaine / Jermaine Jackson

Man in the Hills / Burning Spear

Coming Out / The Manhattan Transfer

Boston / Boston

Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music / Hawkwind

No Reason to Cry / Eric Clapton

The Roaring Silence / Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Nielson top 20 shows for August 23-29:

All in the Family, Maude and MA-S-H (all CBS); Happy Days and Starsky and Hutch (both ABC); The Graduate, Phyllis and Johnny Cash (all CBS); Baretta and What's Happening (both ABC); Jigsaw John (NBC); Laverne and Shirley, Welcome Back, Kotter, Bionic Woman and Rosemary's Baby (all ABC); Joe Forrester (NBC); Kojak and Rhoda (both CBS); Six Million Dollar Man and Streets of San Francisco (both ABC)

1976 Toyota Celica:

Playboy playmate of the month, Linda Beatty, and Playgirl man for August, Greg Anderson:

Justice League comic for August:

Outdoor Life magazine for August:

Mademoiselle for August:

Movie Life magazine for August:

Six Million Dollar Man Venus Space Probe (released in 1976):

Peanuts comic strip from August 1976:

For detailed news/info on what happened each day in August 1976, check out this really good site:  ultimate70s.com

July 1976 - Olympics, Showtime, Bicentennial

No Jive, it's July 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in July 1976 was 'Afternoon Delight' by Starland Vocal Band.  This was their only big hit.  They were signed to John Denver's label, Windsong Records.

The Olympics, broadcast from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, draw an estimated one billion viewers worldwide.

July 1 - The pay TV network Showtime makes its debut, appearing only on a Dublin, California cable system. The network would expand nationally in 1978.

July 3 – Gregg v. Georgia: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.

July 4 - United States Bicentennial: From coast to coast, the United States celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

July 6 – The first class of women is inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

July 11 - Frank Sinatra marries Barbara Marx, former wife if Zeppo Marx.  

July 12 - Family Feud game show, with host Richard Dawson, premieres on ABC.

July 15 - Jimmy Carter is nominated for U.S. President at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.

July 15 - Twenty-six Chowchilla schoolchildren and their bus driver are abducted and buried in a box truck within a quarry in Livermore, California. The captives dig themselves free after 16 hours. The quarry-owner's son and two accomplices are arrested for the crime.

July 18 - Nadia Comaneci makes history by becoming the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 for her routine on the uneven bars at the Montreal Olympics.  Here's a link to a nice highlights video on YouTube: 
Nadia Comaneci - First Perfect 10
  

July 20 - The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars, taking the first close-up color photos of the planet's surface.

July 26 – In Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan announces his choice of liberal U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker as his vice presidential running mate.

July 28 - Futureworld, a sequel to the Westworld movie, premieres.

July 29 – In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag, killing 1 and seriously wounding another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorize the city for the next year.

July 30 - Squirm movie premieres.  Filmed in Georgia.  Kim Basinger and Sylvester Stallone tried for parts...but were turned down!

July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.

July 31 - The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado floods, destroying more than 400 cars and houses.

The British royal family visit Canada for the Olympics:

Getty/Anwar Hussein Image

Albums released in July (Album / Artist):

15 Big Ones / The Beach Boys

The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein / Parliament

I've Got You / Gloria Gaynor

The Originals / Kiss

Olias of Sunhillow / Jon Anderson

The 10 top network programs for the week ending July 11, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co., were: 1 Miss Universe; 2 Starsky and Hutch; 3 M-A-S-H; 4 One Day At A Time; 5 Switch; 6 Happy Days; 7 Laverne and Shirley; 8 (tie) Bob Newhart and Barnaby Jones; 10 All In The Family.

Playboy playmate of the month, Deborah Borkman, and Playgirl man for July, Ron Yarbrough:

1976 Pontiac Firebird Trans-am:

House of Mystery comic for July:

Sew Perfect toy sewing machine (released 1976):

Time magazine for July 5, 1976:

Ladies Home Journal for July, featuring Liza Minnelli:

Peanuts comic strip from July 1976:

For detailed news/info on what happened each day in July 1976, check out this really good site:  ultimate70s.com

June 1976 - Teton Dam, J. Paul Getty, The Omen

Get Up and Boogie, it's June 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in June 1976 was 'Get Up and Boogie' by Silver Convention.

June 2 – A car bomb fatally injures Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.  The murder was linked to his coverage of the mafia.

June 2 - Breaking Point movie premieres.

June 3 - British parliamentarians came to the U.S. Capitol to present lawmakers with a one-year loan of the oldest known copy of the Magna Carta, one of only four that survive.  It was later displayed for public viewing in the Rotunda of the Capital.

June 4 - CBS broadcasts Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns. This triple-overtime contest has since been heralded as the greatest NBA game ever played.

June 5 – The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the U.S., killing 11 people.

June 6 – J. Paul Getty, industrialist dies. (born 1892)

June 7 - After several years providing commentaries for the show, David Brinkley joins John Chancellor as co-anchor of NBC Nightly News.

June 13 – Severe thunderstorms pass through Iowa, spawning several tornadoes, including an F-5 tornado that destroys the town of Jordan.

June 14 - The Gong Show tv series premieres on NBC.

June 16 – Francis E. Meloy, Jr., the newly appointed United States Ambassador to Lebanon, is assassinated in Beirut.

June 17 – The National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association agree on the ABA-NBA merger.

June 18 - Midway movie premieres.

June 20 – Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the U.S. military, following the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon.

June 23 - The Big Bus, Logan's Run and Murder by Death movies premiere.

June 25 - The Omen movie premieres.

June 26 - Bugsy Malone movie premieres.

June 30 - The Outlaw Josey Wales movie premieres.

1976 Toyota Land Cruiser:

Playboy playmate of the month, Debra Peterson, and Playgirl man for June, Greg Hamilton:

Esquire magazine for June:

MAD magazine for June:

New York magazine for June 7 (cover story was inspiration for Saturday Night Fever movie):

Scooby Doo comic for June:

Albums released in June (Album / Artist):

The Runaways / The Runaways

All Things in Time / Lou Rawls

Rock 'n' Roll Music / The Beatles

Beautiful Noise / Neil Diamond

Chicago X / Chicago

A Night on the Town / Rod Stewart

Unorthodox Behaviour / Brand X

Alice Cooper Goes to Hell / Alice Cooper

Whistling Down the Wire / Crosby & Nash

Steal Your Face / Grateful Dead

Two for the Show / Trooper

Nielsen top 20 shows for the week of June 21-28:

McMillan and Wife (NBC), All in the Family (CBS), Starsky and Hutch (ABC), M-A-S-H (CBS), The Rookies (ABC), Maude (CBS), One Day at a Time (CBS), Happv Days (ABC), Baretta (ABC), Medical Center (CBS), Laverne and Shirley (ABC), Jigsaw John (NBC), Bob Newhart (CBS), Barnaby Jones (CBS), HawaiiFive-0 (CBS), Phyllis (CBS), Bionic Woman (ABC), Joe Forrester (NBC), Six Million Dollar Man (ABC), and Rhoda (CBS).

Fun YouTube video featuring some commercials from June 1976: 
1976 Commercials

Evel Knievel Super Jet Cycle toy (released in 1976):

'Trinity' by Leon Uris moves to the top of the New York Times fiction best seller list.

Peanuts comic strip from June 1976:

For detailed news/info on what happened each day in June 1976, check out this really good site:  ultimate70s.com