50 Fun Facts About 1977

Which 12-year-old won a record third Grand National at Aintree under jockey Tommy Stack, by 25 lengths?

Red Rum had already won in 1973 and 1974 and finished second in 1975 and 1976, and his third win was voted the 24th greatest sporting moment of all time in a 2002 poll.

Which Briton won the Wimbledon women's singles in the championships' centenary year, as Elizabeth II watched on?

Virginia Wade beat Betty Stöve in three sets nine days before her 32nd birthday, and it was the first Wimbledon final the monarch had attended since 1962.

Which Wings single, backed by the Campbeltown Pipe Band, was the first to sell two million copies in Britain?

Mull of Kintyre spent nine weeks at number one as the Christmas chart-topper and was the UK's best-selling single ever until Band Aid overtook it in 1984.

Which Sex Pistols single was performed from a Thames boat on 7 June, a stunt that ended with 11 arrests?

God Save the Queen was banned outright by the BBC yet stalled at number two behind Rod Stewart that week, and its label was convinced it had really outsold him.

Which Florida city saw snow flurries on 19 January for the only time in its recorded history?

Miami saw the flakes melt on landing, and the Washington Post called it the farthest south snow had been reported in the United States since records began in the 19th century.

What did Jerry Ehman write beside a 72-second radio signal caught by Ohio State's Big Ear telescope on 15 August?

Wow! became the name of the strongest candidate alien signal ever recorded, a 6EQUJ5 intensity reading that has never recurred despite decades of follow-up searches.

Which idiom for a show past its peak mocks a water-ski stunt Fonzie pulled in a September Happy Days episode?

Jump the shark was coined in 1985 by Jon Hein and his University of Michigan roommate Sean Connolly, and the episode itself aired on 20 September 1977 with Fonzie clearing the fish in his leather jacket.

Which carol did Bowie sing with Bing Crosby on 11 September, five weeks before Crosby's death?

The Little Drummer Boy was a song Bowie said he hated, so the show's writers composed the 'Peace on Earth' counterpoint in just over an hour, and the duet reached UK number three as a 1982 single.

Which country's fans invaded the Wembley pitch and broke the goalposts after beating England, so fences went up?

Scotland's supporters vandalised the playing surface as well as the goalposts, and the 1977 match led Wembley to erect fences between the terraces and the pitch.

Which England forward left Anfield for Hamburger SV in a British-record £500,000 deal agreed between two cup finals?

Kevin Keegan's fee nearly doubled the German transfer record, and he told ITV his wage jumped from £22,000 a year to £122,000.

Which Manchester United manager won the FA Cup in May, then was sacked in July over an affair with the physio's wife?

Tommy Docherty's affair with Mary Brown, wife of the United physiotherapist, ended his own marriage too, and his replacement Dave Sexton had also followed him into the Chelsea job.

Which Sheffield venue staged the World Snooker Championship for the first time in April, and every year since?

The Crucible Theatre saw John Spencer beat Cliff Thorburn 25–21 for the first title there, and it is now called the 'spiritual home of snooker'.

Which American edged Jack Nicklaus in the 'Duel in the Sun' at the first Open Championship held at Turnberry?

Tom Watson closed with a second straight 65 for a record 268 total, and Turnberry later renamed its 18th hole 'Duel in the Sun'.

Which opener became the first cricketer to bring up his 100th first-class century in a Test match, at Headingley?

Geoff Boycott made 191 against Australia in the fourth Test in front of a full house at his home ground of Leeds, and England went on to regain the Ashes 3–0.

Which 21-year-old Somerset all-rounder took five for 74 on his Test debut against Australia in Nottingham in July?

Ian Botham's first Test wicket was Australia's captain Greg Chappell, bowled for just 19, in a match England won by an innings and 85 runs.

Which Australian TV mogul's secret cricket breakaway, revealed on 9 May, had signed 13 of the 17 touring Australians?

Kerry Packer built World Series Cricket after the Australian Cricket Board rejected his Channel Nine bid for exclusive Test rights, and England captain Tony Greig signed up as his recruiting agent.

By how many runs did Australia beat England in the Melbourne Centenary Test, the same margin as the first Test in 1877?

Australia won both matches by exactly 45 runs, and Derek Randall made his first Test century in England's chase, even being recalled after a disputed catch.

Which driver sealed his second Formula One title at the US Grand Prix, then quit Ferrari with races still to run?

Niki Lauda won the championship through consistency rather than pace, and left early after Ferrari chose to run the unknown Gilles Villeneuve in a third car in Canada.

Which silent-film legend died at his Swiss home on Christmas Day, and had his coffin stolen the following March?

Charlie Chaplin was buried at Corsier-sur-Vevey, and the two men who dug up his coffin were caught in May, with the body found buried in a field in nearby Noville.

Which Roger Moore Bond film has a Lotus Esprit that turns into a submarine and a steel-toothed henchman called Jaws?

The Spy Who Loved Me pairs Bond with Soviet agent Anya Amasova, played by Barbara Bach, and director Lewis Gilbert set out to make Moore's Bond 'very English, very smooth' rather than a Connery copy.

Which Attenborough war epic about the failed Operation Market Garden opened in June with Connery, Caine and Redford?

A Bridge Too Far cost $25 million and was scripted by William Goldman from Cornelius Ryan's book about the airborne push through the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

Which Stephen King novel, set in the Overlook Hotel and published in January, became his first hardback bestseller?

The Shining took its title from the John Lennon line 'We all shine on' in 'Instant Karma!', and grew from King's 1974 stay at the Stanley Hotel.

Which Tolkien book, edited and partly written by his son Christopher, was published four years after the author's death?

The Silmarillion topped the New York Times fiction bestseller list that October, though publishers had refused Tolkien's wish to release it alongside The Lord of the Rings decades earlier.

Which lawman of Mega-City One debuted in the second issue of 2000 AD, the weekly comic IPC launched in February?

Judge Dredd's comic was named 2000 AD by John Sanders because nobody involved expected it to last that long, and the helmeted street judge never shows more than his mouth and jaw.

Which Starsky & Hutch actor topped the UK and US charts with the ballad 'Don't Give Up on Us'?

David Soul played Detective Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson from 1975 to 1979 and even directed three episodes of the show.

Which song from the Evita concept album gave Julie Covington a UK number one, before she turned down the stage role?

Don't Cry for Me Argentina sold over a million copies in Britain, and the part of Eva Perón went instead to Elaine Paige when the musical reached the London stage.

Which country won Eurovision at Wembley Conference Centre, a contest delayed a month by a strike of BBC technicians?

France's Marie Myriam won with 'L'oiseau et l'enfant' the day before her 20th birthday, while the UK's 'Rock Bottom' finished second.

Which group's disco hit 'Yes Sir, I Can Boogie' reached UK number one in October on its way to 16 million sales?

Baccara's sole UK chart-topper was later adopted as a football terrace anthem, and its 16 million copies make it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Which duo's Christmas show, with BBC newsreaders dancing to 'There Is Nothing Like a Dame', drew 28 million viewers?

Morecambe and Wise then left the BBC for Thames Television, and the show remains one of the 25 most-watched programmes in British TV history.

Which Zeffirelli serial starring Robert Powell, with Olivier and Ustinov in support, reached ITV on 3 April?

Jesus of Nazareth was co-written by Anthony Burgess and packed its cast with seven past or future Oscar winners, from Anne Bancroft to Anthony Quinn.

Which ITV action series, launched on 30 December, followed CI5 agents Bodie and Doyle under their boss George Cowley?

The Professionals starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson, and its invented force CI5 was a less touchy subject than The Sweeney's portrayal of the real Flying Squad.

Which plasticine character, an early Aardman Animations creation, debuted on BBC children's show Take Hart in February?

Morph arrived on 15 February 1977 as an early character from Aardman, the studio later famous for Wallace and Gromit.

Which motoring programme began on 22 April as a regional BBC Midlands series from Pebble Mill, fronted by Angela Rippon?

Top Gear was devised by producer Derek Smith for BBC Midlands as a monthly magazine on new cars and road safety, and went national in 1978.

Which computer, shown at the first West Coast Computer Faire in April, went on sale in June with colour graphics?

The Apple II, with the Commodore PET and TRS-80, formed what Byte magazine called the '1977 Trinity' of machines that created the home computer market.

Which planet gained a ring system on 10 March, when a star dimmed five times both before and after it was eclipsed?

Uranus became only the second ringed planet known after Saturn, spotted from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, and William Herschel had written 'a ring was suspected' back in 1789.

Which airline boss launched his low-fare Skytrain from Gatwick to New York on 26 September?

Freddie Laker pioneered the no-frills model later copied by Ryanair and easyJet, and he went on to sue a dozen big airlines for conspiring to price him out of business.

Which service's first ever national strike, from 14 November, left the army's Green Goddesses answering 999 calls?

Firefighters struck for a 30% pay rise, and the Green Goddesses were 1950s Bedford pumps built for the Auxiliary Fire Service and mothballed since 1968.

Which England manager quit via a Daily Mail exclusive on 12 July to take a four-year £340,000 deal in the Emirates?

Don Revie had skipped a friendly in Rio, claiming to be scouting Italy, to negotiate in Dubai, and the FA's ten-year ban on him was later overturned in court for overreaching its powers.

Which country held its first free election since 1936 on 15 June, 19 months after the death of its long-time dictator?

Spain's vote made Adolfo Suárez its first democratically elected prime minister since the Second Republic, his UCD alliance finishing 11 seats short of a majority.

Which prime minister lost her own seat in Rae Bareli in March as voters punished her 21-month Emergency?

Indira Gandhi's Congress lost to the Janata coalition, and Morarji Desai became India's first non-Congress prime minister on 24 March, three days after the Emergency expired.

Which human rights organisation won the year's Nobel Peace Prize for its 'defence of human dignity against torture'?

Amnesty International was cited for 'having contributed to securing the ground for freedom, for justice, and thereby also for peace in the world', and took the UN Human Rights Prize the next year.

Which Pirates of the Caribbean actor, born in Canterbury on 13 January, is named after an English composer?

Orlando Bloom takes his first name from the composer Orlando Gibbons, and his mother Sonia raised him in Kent.

Which Coldplay co-founder, born in Exeter on 2 March, took a first in Greek and Latin before marrying Gwyneth Paltrow?

Chris Martin formed Coldplay with Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion at University College London, where he studied classics.

Which Lancashire all-rounder, born in Preston on 6 December, was England's man of the series in the 2005 Ashes?

Andrew Flintoff later won the first Australian series of I'm a Celebrity and joined the panel of Sky's A League of Their Own.

Which rapper and producer, born in Atlanta on 8 June, petitioned a court in 2021 to change his name to just Ye?

Kanye West cited 'personal reasons' in the California petition, which dropped his middle and last names entirely.

Which singer, born in Barranquilla on 2 February, began recording her debut album Magia at just 13?

Shakira's parents are of Lebanese, Catalan and Colombian descent, and she wrote her first song, 'Gafas Oscuras', on a typewriter at about eight after her aunt gave her a guitar.

Which actor, born in Hammersmith on 15 September, played both Kray twins in Legend and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises?

Tom Hardy earned his first Oscar nomination for The Revenant in 2016 and also took the title roles in Mad Max: Fury Road and Venom.

Which 26-year-old Celtic striker joined Liverpool for £440,000 on 10 August, a record fee between British clubs?

Kenny Dalglish had scored 167 goals in 320 games for Celtic, and he went on to score the winner in the 1978 European Cup final at Wembley against Bruges.

Which Mike Leigh play, with Alison Steadman as hostess Beverly, opened in Hampstead in April and hit BBC TV in November?

Abigail's Party never shows Abigail herself, the 15-year-old holding her first teenage party next door, while Beverly inflicts Demis Roussos on her guests.

What did police deploy for the first time on the British mainland during the Battle of Lewisham on 13 August?

Riot shields came out as 500 National Front marchers met some 4,000 counter-demonstrators between New Cross and Lewisham, leaving 56 officers injured and 214 people arrested.