Read this year's headlines in our monthly calendar of events and discover snippets about everyday life with our FLASHBACK facts. It's time to go back to the Queen's Silver Jubilee, the death of Elvis Presley and the launch of the first home computers. It's time to go back to... 1977.
Timeline '77 Close All
January |
Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States |
 |
The world's first all-in-one personal computer the Commodore Pet is demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago |
 |
EMI terminate the contract of the Sex Pistols due to their "drunken and abusive" behaviour paying off the group to a tune of £50,000 |
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The Ford Fiesta goes on sale in the UK for just under £2,000 – its 1.1L engine only manages 0-60 in a sluggish 17s |
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Clive Sinclair reveals a miniature TV that slips inside your pocket - and priced at £200 (over £1k today) burns a hole in it too! |
 |
Enraged at receiving royalty cheques – you read that correctly – Peter Green (formerly of Fleetwood Mac) threatens his accountant at gunpoint |
 |
Boston's timeless rock anthem More Than A Feeling is released |
The average house price in Britain is £12,805
February |
Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its maiden flight mated to a Boeing 747 aircraft |
|
The funky You + Me = Love by The Undisputed Truth is the first 12" single to chart in the UK - it lasts 11 minutes and plays at 33rpm |
 |
Twelve years after its cinema release ITV premieres Thunderball - the fourth James Bond movie |
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Actress Christa Helm – perhaps best known for her conquests of leading actors – is fatally stabbed in West Hollywood (her killers are never caught) |
 |
France beat England at Twickenham and go on to win rugby's Five Nations Championship |
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BBC launch Take Hart which features Morph by Aardman Animations who would later create Wallace And Gromit and the Creature Comforts ads |
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Thin Lizzy's beguiling Don't Believe A Word just falls short of the Top 10 |
At Tesco a Ski Yogurt costs 8p and Heinz tomato soup 13½p
March |
Two Jumbo jets collide at Tenerife airport killing 583, the biggest-ever loss of life in an airplane crash |
|
After signing with A&M The Sex Pistols are promptly fired within a week picking up another hefty severance payment |
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Striking toolmakers jeer union leader Hugh Scanlon – the industrial action has already cost troubled carmaker British Leyland £100M |
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The miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth starring Robert Powell debuts on ITV |
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"Heathrow Gang Grab A Million" (Daily Mirror) – masked criminals ambush a security van at Heathrow Airport and make off with £825k in cash during a daring six-minute raid |
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Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger denies having an affair with Margaret Trudeau - wife of the Canadian PM - who was booked into the same hotel as the group |
|
Bowie's melodic Sound And Vision makes the top three |
The Radio 1 Breakfast Show (7-9am weekdays) is hosted by Noel Edmonds
April |
Red Rum wins an historic third Grand National at Aintree |
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Pulling in over 22 million viewers ITV's This Is Your Life with Lord Mountbatten is the most watched TV programme of the year |
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John Spencer defeats Cliff Thorburn in the snooker world championship |
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The miniseries Roots based on Alex Haley's novel airs on BBC1 - the first three episodes shown over consecutive nights |
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Patricia Atkinson is murdered in Bradford – the fourth victim of a serial killer who is likened to Jack The Ripper |
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"Punks Rock America" (Daily Mirror) – The Damned are the first punk group to tour the US |
|
Knowing Me Knowing You begins a five week reign at the top of the UK chart |
From the ad pages: "Come to where the flavour is. Marlboro Country."
May |
Star Wars hits the US cinema screens and becomes the highest grossing film of the year – British film-goers must wait until December to see it |
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Tesco announces it is to stop issuing Green Shield Stamps and will cut prices instead – the reward programme never recovers |
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France wins the Eurovision Song Contest in London – British entry Rock Bottom by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran finishes 2nd |
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Fifteen years after work commenced the M5 motorway is opened by PM James Callaghan |
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Liverpool win the league title and are crowned European champions for the first time |
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Led Zeppelin set the world record for the largest audience for a single-act gig – 76,000 see them at Michigan's Pontiac Silverdome |
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The Stranglers release Peaches – its tenacious 14-week run in the Top 40 will make it punk's biggest-ever chart hit |
UK inflation is still raging at 15.85% and the mortgage rate is 9.5%
June |
Britons have a public holiday on 7 June to celebrate the Queens Jubilee |
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Ian Botham makes his England debut against Australia taking 5 for 54 |
|
The first Apple II series computers go on sale in the US |
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"Jock The Ripper" (Daily Mirror) – Scottish football hooligans invade Wembley and take chunks out of the turf following a 2-1 victory over England |
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Anglia TV's delayed April Fool's documentary Alternative 3 – about plans to inhabit Mars and the Moon – is broadcast leading to conspiracy theories that it is true |
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Ugandan dictator Idi Amin massacres opponents after a failed assassination attempt |
|
God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols is the unofficial No. 1 |
At the record store the No. 1 single will set you back 75p and a blank C60 cassette 71p
July |
TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse wins her blasphemy case against Gay News which published a poem about a gay Roman centurion who had sex with Jesus after his crucifixion |
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At Wimbledon Bjorn Borg retains his men's title and Virginia Wade defeats Betty Stove in the women's singles |
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Local councils up and down the country continue to ban punk gigs for fear they will provoke violence |
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Don Revie quits as England boss to manage the United Arab Emirates national football team on a four-year contract worth £340,000 |
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"Punk Star Rotten Razored" (Daily Mirror) – Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon is injured in an unprovoked attack outside the Pegasus pub in London |
 |
The 14th issue of Nation Saving Certificates offers 7.59% interest rate over four years returning £134 for every £100 invested |
|
The futuristic I Feel Love by Donna Summer reaches No. 1 |
The regular Top Of The Pops slot is 7:10-7:45pm on BBC1 every Thursday
August |
"The King Is Dead" – Elvis Presley dies aged 42 at his Graceland home in Memphis |
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All major UK banks take out a full page advert in the national press arguing against nationalisation |
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A limited edition of 25k Jubilee commemorative phones go on sale – each is Balmoral blue and bears the official Silver Jubilee emblem |
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Riot shields are used for the first time in the UK during The Battle of Lewisham when right-wing National Front supporters clash violently with left-wing protestors |
|
Scottish striker Kenny Dalglish becomes Britain's most expensive footballer in a £440k transfer from Celtic to league champions Liverpool |
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Further violent clashes break out between the National Front and protestors in Birmingham |
|
Jonathan Richmond's Roadrunner breaks into the Top 10 |
UK cinema attendance drops to 103M – the lowest total of the 1970s
September |
The Atari 2600 video game console is released in the US – the 8-bit machine will sell 30M units worldwide over the next six years |
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"Freddie For Take Off" (Daily Mirror) – Freddie Laker launches his cut-price Skytrain airline between London and New York |
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ITV's outtake show It'll Be Alright on the Night is aired for the first time |
|
T-Rex lead singer Marc Bolan dies in a car crash |
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Led by the Datsun Sunny foreign-made cars outsell British-built ones for the first time |
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Tony Blackburn is the new presenter of Radio 1's Top 30 show on Sunday evenings |
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Gary Gilmore's Eyes by The Adverts slips inside the Top 20 |
UK unemployment averages 1.47M
October |
Over 800 corpses remain unburied in London due to striking undertakers |
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Bing Crosby the "Old Groaner" dies aged 73 from a heart attack at a Spanish golf course – his version of White Christmas is the world's best-selling single of all time |
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At a press conference former Liberal Leader Jeremy Thorpe denies having a sexual relationship with former male model Norman Scott |
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British F1 driver and former world champion James Hunt wins the Japanese Grand Prix driving a McLaren – it is the last of his 10 victories |
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Walt Disney's animated classic The Rescuers is released in the UK |
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"Bay City Quitters" – Pop idols the Bay City Rollers have left the UK to live in the US "to avoid paying British taxes" according to the Daily Mirror |
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No More Heroes completes a hatrick of Top 10 hits for The Stranglers |
From the ad pages: “Castrol GTX – Liquid Engineering”
November |
British Airways starts its supersonic Concorde service between London to New York |
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After a nine-year run the final episode of Dad's Army is broadcast on BBC1 |
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Despite beating Italy 2-0 at Wembley England fail to qualify for the World Cup Finals but Scotland will be there again |
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20th Century Fox scraps production of Who Killed Bambi – a movie starring Marianne Faithfull and the Sex Pistols |
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"Britain By Candlelight" (Daily Mirror) – industrial action by power workers over travel benefits plunges much of Britain into darkness |
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Close Encounters Of The Third Kind premieres in New York – its UK release is slated for March next year |
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Queen's classic We Are The Champions just misses out on the top spot |
At Tandy a portable cassette recorder "with auto stop" will set you back £21.95
December |
The TUC vote not to back striking fireman on the same day a house fire kills four children |
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Comic actor Charlie Chaplin dies aged 88 at his home in Switzerland |
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After six years Bruce Forsyth steps down as presenter of The Generation Game |
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The Mike Yarwood Show attracts over 21 million viewers to become the most viewed Christmas TV show of all time |
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Virginia Wade wins BBC's Sports Personality of the Year |
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The first episode of The Professionals staring Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins is broadcast on ITV |
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Elvis Costello is Watching The Detectives |
The BBC evening news begins at 5:40pm after the Magic Roundabout