The Lebanese Civil War, which began in 1975, continues to see fighting between Palestinians (Palestinian Liberation Organization), the Lebanese government, and Phalangists (supported by Maronite Christians). In June, Syria intervenes in the civil war, sending in troops to keep the peace, support the government and establish SYrian control over the northern half of Lebanon.

January 5, 1976. The Khmer Republic (Cambodia) is officially renamed Democratic Kampuchea as a new constitution is proclaimed by the Pol Pot regime.

January 21, 1976. The Air France supersonic turbojet Concorde makes its first commercial flight from Paris to Rio de Janeiro. The new faster-than-the-speed-of-sound jet can cross the Atlantic in just three hours.

February 4, 1976. In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000 people.

April 1, 1976. Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Cupertino, California. The new company begins assembling its first personal computer kits for sale later in the year in the U.S.

June, 1976. Rioters and police clash in Soweto, a township just outside Johannesburg, South Africa where black students and adults are protesting the segregated and unjust educational system in the country. At least fifty people are killed, and hundreds more are wounded, when police open fire on a protest march by schoolchildren.

July 4, 1976. Entebbe Raid: Israeli airborne commandos free 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport; 1 Israeli soldier and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in the raid.

July 20, 1976. The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars and sends back to Earth the first close-up pictures of the planet’s surface.

August 14, 1976. Ten thousand Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland.

September 9, 1976. Chairman Mao Zedong, leader of the People’s Republic of China since 1949, dies at the age of 82, after suffering a series of strokes. The Chinese Communist Party has already split into at least two groups, radical Maoists led by Mao’s widow Chiang Chin and the more moderate communists led by Deng Xiaoping. In October Chiang Chin is arrested for plotting to overthrow the government.