Clockwise from top-left: An earthquake in Romania and the Balkans kills 1,578 people; Atari releases Atari 2600; a military conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia is fought; two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, killing 583; the Andhra Pradesh cyclone kills 10,000 people; Elvis ...

January 20 – Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th president of the United States, and Walter F. Mondale is sworn in as the 42nd vice president. January 21 – President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders. January 23 – Roots begins its phenomenally successful run on ABC.

December 29, 1977 (Thursday) All 24 people aboard a SAN Ecuador airliner were killed when the Vickers 764D Viscount crashed into a hillside while en route from Guayaquil to Cuenca. U.S. President Carter arrived in the Communist nation of Poland, coming to Warsaw as the first stop in a 9-day tour of six nations.

May 1, 1977 (Sunday) In Istanbul, 34 people were killed and hundreds injured in the Taksim Square massacre as gunfighting began among some of the 150,000 marchers, followed by a riot that lasted two hours and injured 200 additional people.