1977

Previous year | Timeline | Next year

• On 7 January, the Charter 77 Declaration is published. Signed by more than 200 Czech intellectuals (including playwright Václav Havel), this calls on the Communist regime to honour its human rights obligations.

• On 5 July, Pakistan's prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is overthrown in a military coup led by General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq.

• On 12 September, Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, is murdered while in police custody.

• From 19 to 21 November, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat pays a surprise visit to Israel, where he addresses the country's parliament and calls for peace.

• The first cases of Aids occur in New York (but remain unidentified until 1981).

• Films include two science-fiction blockbusters: George Lucas's Star Wars and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of a Third Kind.

• In Britain, the Sex Pistols' 'God Save the Queen' expresses the punk rock movement's feelings during the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

• Elvis Presley, aged just 42, dies suddenly at home at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

Top