What happened in 1977

“You Light Up My Life”

Debby Boone · 10 weeks at #1 in 1977

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1. Jan 1Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)Rod Stewart1 wk
2. Jan 8You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.1 wk
3. Jan 15You Make Me Feel Like DancingLeo Sayer1 wk
4. Jan 22I WishStevie Wonder1 wk
5. Jan 29Car WashRose Royce1 wk
6. Feb 5Torn Between Two LoversMary Macgregor2 wks
7. Feb 19Blinded By The LightManfred Mann's Earth Band1 wk
8. Feb 26New Kid In TownEagles1 wk
9. Mar 5Evergreen (Love Theme From "A Star Is Born")Barbra Streisand3 wks
10. Mar 26Rich GirlDaryl Hall John Oates2 wks
11. Apr 9Dancing QueenABBA1 wk
12. Apr 16Don't Give Up On UsDavid Soul1 wk
13. Apr 23Don't Leave Me This WayThelma Houston1 wk
14. Apr 30Southern NightsGlen Campbell1 wk
15. May 7Hotel CaliforniaEagles1 wk
16. May 14When I Need YouLeo Sayer1 wk
17. May 21Sir DukeStevie Wonder3 wks
18. Jun 11I'm Your Boogie ManKC And The Sunshine Band1 wk
19. Jun 18DreamsFleetwood Mac1 wk
20. Jun 25Got To Give It Up (Pt. I)Marvin Gaye1 wk
21. Jul 2Gonna Fly NowBill Conti1 wk
22. Jul 9Undercover AngelAlan O'Day1 wk
23. Jul 16Da Doo Ron RonShaun Cassidy1 wk
24. Jul 23Looks Like We Made ItBarry Manilow1 wk
25. Jul 30I Just Want To Be Your EverythingAndy Gibb4 wks
26. Aug 20Best Of My LoveThe Emotions5 wks
27. Oct 1Star Wars Theme/Cantina BandMeco2 wks
28. Oct 15You Light Up My LifeDebby Boone10 wks
29. Dec 24How Deep Is Your LoveBee Gees2 wks

Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 1977; weeks count only those in 1977.Find the #1 song on your birthday →

1. Jan 17Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.
2. Feb 18The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited the wreaths of late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel.
3. Feb 18NASA's first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first test flight on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
4. Mar 11The 1977 Hanafi Siege: Around 150 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.
5. Mar 27Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.
6. Apr 5The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people's reservation thereby destroyed the tribe's jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip.
7. May 25Star Wars (retroactively titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) is released in US theaters.
8. Jun 16Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
9. Jul 22Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power.
10. Jul 26The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
11. Aug 16American singer and actor Elvis Presley, often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", was found dead in his home in Memphis, Tennessee.
12. Sep 7The Torrijos–Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
13. Sep 20Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations.
14. Oct 20Three members of the American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd died when their chartered plane crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi.

Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.

• U.S. President

  Gerald Ford → Jimmy Carter

• UK Prime Minister

  James Callaghan

• Prime Minister of Canada

  Pierre Trudeau

• President of France

  Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

• German Chancellor

  Helmut Schmidt

• Prime Minister of Japan

  Takeo Fukuda

• Soviet leader

  Leonid Brezhnev

Everyone who held the office at some point in 1977, from Wikidata.

A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.

• Dustin DiamondAmerican actor and comedian (died 2021) · Jan 7
• Sid WilsonAmerican musician · Jan 20
• Vince CarterAmerican basketball player · Jan 26
• Justin HartleyAmerican actor · Jan 29
• Kerry WashingtonAmerican actress · Jan 31
• Maitland WardAmerican actress and model · Feb 3
• Mike ShinodaAmerican musician and artist · Feb 11
• Randy MossAmerican football player and coach · Feb 13
• Ike BarinholtzAmerican actor and comedian · Feb 18
• Floyd Mayweather Jr.American boxer · Feb 24

From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.