Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1 Influential British pub-rock band
Ducks Deluxe
play their last show, at London's 100 Cub. The band becomes more famous for its alumni than for its two-LP, three-year-career: guitarist
Martin Belmont
joins
Graham Parker's Rumour
, guitarist
Nick Garvey
and keyboardist
Andy McMasters
form the
Motors,
and leader
Sean Tyla
starts his own
Tyla Gang
.
The Captain and Tennille
net their first gold record with "Love Will Keep Us Together."
The husband-and-wife duo, known individually as
Daryl Dragon
and
Toni Tennille
, met in 1971 and soon after musicians toured as in the
Beach Boys
' band. They produced their own debut single, "The Way I Want To Touch You," before signing with A&M Records and releasing "Love Will Keep Us Together," which will eventually sell 2.5 million copies and win a Grammy for Record of the Year.
2 David Bowie
earns his fourth gold record, for
Young Americans,
which contains two of his biggest hit singles, "Fame"
(which will reach Number One later this year) and the title tune (which has already peaked at #28).
Young Americans
marks the culmination of Bowie's soul phase, which began with his previous gold album, 1974's
David Live.
His other prior gold albums include
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
(released in 1972) and
Diamond Dogs
(released in 1974, went gold the same year). "Fame" will also go gold by the end of this year.
3
Chuck Negron
, lead singer for
Three Dog Night
, is arrested in his Louisiana hotel room on the opening night of the band's tour and is charged with possession of cocaine. The charge is dropped in October in a Kentucky courtroom when it's determined that the warrant used for the bust had been granted on the basis of "unfounded" information.
4
Thirteen Israelis die and 72 are wounded in a Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem; a full Israeli military assault on refugee camps in southern Lebanon follows.
Hardware store owner Harold Keith Davisson
seals a time capsule containing a Chevrolet Vega, a blue Kawasaki motorcycle, a Teflon frying pan, and a blue leisure suit among other things, to be opened in 2025.
5
Police in Fordyce, Arkansas, pull a rented Chevrolet over after the driver swerved on the roadway. Found inside: two
Rolling Stones, Keith Richards
and
Ron Wood
, with two friends, on their way from a show in Memphis on Independence Day to the tour's next stop, Dallas. Keith is charged on counts of reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon (supposedly a sheathed hunting knife); he posts bail of $163.50, and the foursome leaves town in a chartered plane.
Arthur Ashe
defeats Jimmy Connors
at Wimbledon.
Bad Company
releases what will become their second Top 10 single, "Feel Like Makin' Love."
6
7
8
President Ford
officially enters the 1976 presidential race.
9
Former president Richard Nixon
claims he could have prevented the fall of South Vietnam had he still been in office.
A National Institute of Mental Health study of marijuana users in Jamaica -- where usage is 10 to 25 times what it is in the U.S. -- reveals no serious harm from its use.
10
Cher
files for divorce from Gregg Allman
. She accuses him of moonlighting with an old flame.
11 Fleetwood Mac
releases its tenth studio album, Fleetwood Mac,
featuring new members Lindsey Buckingham
and Stevie Nicks
, which becomes its U.S. breathrough.
12 K.C. and the Sunshine Band
make their pop chart debut with "Get Down Tonight."
Led by Miami studio engineer
H.W. Casey
and bassist
Richard Finch
-- who together wrote and backed 1974's smash it "Rock Your Baby"
for
George McCrae
-- K.C. and the Sunshine Band have enjoyed considerable popularity in Europe and more recently have caught on in inner-city discos. "Get Down Tonight" will be the first of four singles by this band to hit Number One, followed by "That's the Way (I Like It)," "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty"
and "I'm Your Boogie Man."
13
14
15
16
17
In a historic joint effort nearly five years in the planning, the Soviet Soyuz 19 and American Apollo 18 spacecrafts dock in space for two days, conduct experiments, exchange gifts and return safely to Earth.
The self-help pep-talk book, Your Erroneous Zones
by Wayne Dreyer
, is #1 on the New York Times
best-seller list.
18
Bob Marley & the Wailers
perform their breakthrough concert at London's Lyceum Ballroom, generating a media explosion that will soon reach American shores and result in a groundbreaking live LP.
20 "Miami" Steve Van Zandt
plays his first official gig with
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
at Providence, Rhode Island's Palace Theatre. Van Zandt, added as rhythm guitarist during recording sessions for
Born to Run,
has been playing with
Southside Johnny
and the still-embryonic
Asbury Jukes
, for whom he will eventually write songs and produce three albums for Epic.
21
22
23
24 Barbara Colby
, the lovable hooker on The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
is shot to death shortly after taping her third episode of Phyllis.
CBS declines to air Cloris Leachman
's eulogy taped after the show aired feeling it would interfere with their laugh line-up.
25
"A Chorus Line" opens and enthralls Broadway with its high-stepping, high-voltage production -- even though it lacks glitz, has little glamor, minimal sets, and utilitarian costumes. Creator-director-choreographer Michael Bennett
drew inspiration for his magnum opus from hundreds of hours of interviews he'd taped with chorus dancers, the theater's unsung "gypsies." The production goes on to sweep nine Tony Awards and win a Pulitzer Prize, a rare accomplishment for a musical.
26 Natalie Cole
, daughter of
Nat "King" Cole
, makes her chart debut with "This Will Be." Hitting Number One R&B and pop #6, "This Will Be" will encourage the hope that the sort of elegant, sophisticated pop music made by her famous father is returning to vogue. Cole
fille
will find conmmercial and critical success with records like "I've Got Love on My Mind" and "Our Love" but never attract the widespread and long-term popularity of Cole
pere.
The Top Five
1. "The Hustle"
- Van McCoy & the Soul City Symphony
2. "I'm Not in Love"
- 10 cc
3. "One of These Nights"
- Eagles
4. "Please Mr. Please" - Olivia Newton-John
5. "Listen to What the Man Said"
- Paul McCartney & Wings
27
28
29
30 The
Charlie Daniels Band
, one of America's most popular exponents of Southern-style boogie rock, earns its first gold record for the album
Fire on the Mountain,
which yielded minor hits in "The South's Gonna Do It" and "Long Haired Country Boy."
A little after 2 p.m. in a restaurant parking lot in Bloomfield Township, Mich., ex-Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa
telephones from a pay phone. Sometime later a maroon sedan pulls in and in he gets. No one ever sees him again. Hoffa, who had gone to prison for jury tampering, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud, was out of prison after receiving clemency from President Nixon
and wanted to once again head the Teamsters. Hence today's scheduled meeting with a Detroit mobster and a New Jersey labor leader. Alibis and clues come and go, but the mystery -- and any trace of the body -- remains unsolved.
31