ABSTRACT
How’s your memory? Can you still remember what was happening in the world in 1976? Here are a few selected events.
In 1976, a civil war broke out in Angola and there was a military putsch in Argentina. In Cambodia, Pol Pot seized power, and the Khmer Rouge set up a regime of terror that led to the deaths of about one million people. The founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Tse-tung, died at the age of 82, triggering a fierce tug of war regarding his successor. At the same time, an earthquake in the northern city of Tangshan led to the deaths of more than 650,000 people—the greatest number of earthquake victims ever recorded. An environmental catastrophe was caused by human hand in the Northern Italian city of Seveso, when an explosion in a chemical plant released highly poisonous dioxin into the atmosphere and contaminated the environment for miles around. In the United States, Jimmy Carter was elected as the 39th president. In the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), in contrast, Helmut Schmidt was still Federal Chancellor, whereas, in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Erich Honnecker took over the office of Head of the National Council.
