1977 Was a Big Year for Lawyers Mutual – and the World
Lawyers Mutual celebrates its 40th birthday this year.
A successful 40-year run is an impressive feat for any business. But in a market as crazy and volatile as the insurance industry, it is almost miraculous.
The year Lawyers Mutual was born – 1977 – was remarkable in other ways as well.
That was the year of Star Wars and Saturday Night Fever, the year Elvis died and Tom Brady was born, the year of Roots on television and Fleetwood Mac on the radio, the year Reggie Jackson became Mr. October and the U.S. returned the Panama Canal to its host country.
And in perhaps the biggest harbinger of things to come, the year saw the debut of what is known as the “1977 Trinity” of personal computers from Apple, Tandy and Commodore.
Here are some highlights from that memorable year:
January 3 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
January 17 – Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah (the first execution after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the U.S.).
January 18 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaire’s disease.
January 20 – Jimmy Carter is sworn in as President of the United States.
January 23 – The miniseries Roots debuts on ABC television.
February 4 – Fleetwood Mac releases its album Rumours.
March 28 – Marquette beats the University of North Carolina 67-59 to win the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.
April 7 – The Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners play their first games as the newest members of Major League Baseball.
April 22 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.
May 17 – The Likud Party, led by Menachem Begin, wins the national elections in Israel.
May 17 – The first Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre opens in San Jose, California.
May 25 – Star Wars opens and becomes the highest-grossing film to date.
May 27 – Space Mountain opens at Disneyland and quickly becomes one of the park’s most popular attractions.
May 29 – A.J. Foyt wins his fourth Indianapolis 500.
June 10 - The first Apple II Series computers go on sale.
July 13 – The New York City Blackout lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and other disorder.
July 28 - The first oil begins to flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
August 3 – Tandy announces its TRS-80 Model I computer.
August 3 – Tom Brady is born.
August 10 – Son of Sam killer David Berkowitz is captured in Yonkers, New York.
August 12 – NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747.
August 16 – Elvis Presley dies at his home in Graceland at age 42.
September 7 – The U.S. and Panama sign treaties to transfer control of the canal to Panama.
September 18 – Courageous, skippered by Ted Turner, sweeps Australia in the America’s Cup yacht race.
September 29 – Billy Joel releases his album The Stranger.
October 1 – The first Commodore PET-1 (Personal Electronic Transactor) computers are shipped out.
October 7 – Pele plays his final professional soccer game as a member of the New York Cosmos.
October 7 – Reggie Jackson become Mr. October by blasting three home runs in a New York Yankees win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
October 27 - British punk band Sex Pistols release Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, which debuts at number one on the UK charts even though many retailers refused to stock it.
November 19 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to make an official visit to Israel, where he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Begin in peace talks.
December 1 - The first children’s cable channel The Pinwheel Network – later known as Nickelodeon – is launched.
December 16 – The movie Saturday Night Fever is released in theaters. It will become the biggest dancing movie of all time and launch the career of star John Travolta.
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977
