This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1976

	January 12th	British writer, Agatha Christie, died at the age of 86. She was the best-known mystery writer in history and is probably the best-selling author of all time. Her books have sold over 3 billion copies and have been translated in 103 languages. She published over 90 novels and also authored a multitude of theatrical plays. Her stage play, 'The Mousetrap' premiered in 1952 and is still running at Ambassadors Theatre in London, making it the longest running theatre play.
	January 29th	A series of, IRA planted, bombs exploded in the West End of London during the night.
	February 4th	The 12th Winter Olympic Games opened in Innsbruck, Austria.
	February 20th	The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SATO) was disbanded. Similar to NATO it was created to counter communist advances in Southeast Asia.
	March 19th	Italian footballer, Alessandro Nesta, was born in Rome.
	March 22nd	American actress, Reese Witherspoon, was born in New Orleans, USA.
	March 24th	British field marshal, Bernard Montgomery, died at the age of 89. He was one of the critical military figures of the Second World War.
	March 24th	Argentina's military deposes President Isabel Peron. She had assumed the presidency after her husband Juan Peron died in 1974.
	April 5th	Spanish football player, Fernando Morientes, was born in Caceres, Spain.
	May 31st	Irish actor, Colin Farrell, was born in Castleknock, Dublin.
	June 6th	American industrialist, J. Paul Getty, died at the age of 83. He was founder of the Getty Oil Company and one of the richest men in the world.
	June 16th	A non violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turned violent and caused days of massive rioting, in which the South African police killed approximately 566 children.
	June 22nd	Capital punishment was abolished in Canada.
	June 23th	French footballer, Patrick Vieira, was born in Dakar, Senegal.
	June 26th	The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada was inaugurated. It has since been the world's tallest building, standing at a height of 553.3 metres (1,815 ft).
	June 27th	An Air France passenger flight was hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and was redirected to Uganda. On July 1st Israeli commandos raided the Ugandan airport that the hostages were being held at and rescued the hostages. All hijackers were killed and 1 of the commandos was mortally wounded by an Ugandan troop.
	June 29th	The island nation of Seychelles became independent from the United Kingdom.
	July 4th	Israeli commandos conducted a raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda in an effort to rescue the passengers and crew of a hijacked Air France passenger jet which had been seized by Palestinian terrorists. The raid was successful.
	July 10th	A an accident at a small chemical manufacturing plant north of Milan, Italy resulted in resulted in one of the highest known exposures of dangerous toxins in the atmosphere. Although no direct fatalities were reported, several hundreds of cancer cases have been attributed to the accident and several thousands of animals had to be slaughtered.
	July 18th	Romanian gymnast, Nadia Comaneci, became the first ever gymnast to be awarded a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games. She was 14 years old at the time.
	July 20th	The Viking 1 Lander became the first manmade spacecraft to successfully land on the planet Mars.
	July 21st	British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, was assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
	July 27th	Former Japanese Prime Minister, Kakuei Tanaka, was arrested in connection with the Lockheed scandal, he was later found guilty of receiving bribes and was convicted for 4 years imprisonment.
	August 2nd	Austrian film director, Fritz Lang, died at the age of 85. He is most famous for his revolutionary movie, Metropolis. Metropolis was the most expensive silent film ever made and is a movie that is still studied by experts.
	September 9th	President of China, Mao Zedong, died at the age of 79. He led China's communist revolution and was the de facto leader of China from 1949 until his death 27 years later.
	September 10th	A British Airways and an Inex-Adria passenger jet collided near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, resulting in the death of 176 people.
	September 18th	The funeral of Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung took place in Beijing.
	September 19th	A Turkish passenger jet hit a mountain in southern Turkey resulting in the death of all 155 people on board.
	September 22nd	Brazilian footballer, Ronaldo, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is considered as one of the great football players of all time, having won the FIFA Player of the Year award 3 times.
	October 4th	American actress, Alicia Silverstone, was born in San Francisco, California. She got her major screen break when whe starred in three video clips for songs of the band Aerosmith. The songs were "Cryin," "Crazy," and "Amazing,", which were so sucessful both as songs and as video clips that she eventually nicknamed "the Aerosmith chick".
	October 6th	A Cubana Air passenger flight crashed near Bridgetown, Barbados, after a bomb placed by anti-Castro militants, killing all 73 people on board. It was the worst air disaster of its time.
	October 6th	The arrest of the Gang of Four and their associates was ordered in the People's Republic of China. The order signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China which devastated the country between the years of 1966 and 1976. The Gang of Four was a group that consisted of Mao's widow Jiang Qing and three of her close associates, and were (along with 2 other already deceased persons) primarily responsible for the cultural revolution in China.
	October 13th	A Bolivian Boeing cargo jet crashed in a crowded street of Santa Cruz, Bolivia killing 100 people, 97 of which where people on the ground.
	December 2nd	Fidel Castro became president of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado.
	December 8th	Rock band, The Eagles, released their 'Hotel California' album.
	December 15th	The island nation of Samoa was admitted to the United Nations.
	December 20th	American politician, Richard J. Daley, died at the age of 74. He was one of the most influential political figures of America and was Mayor of Chicago for 21 years.

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