On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Utah makes final preparations to execute Gilmore at sunrise Jan 17; ACLU, in classâaction taxpayers suit, asks Fed Dist Ct Judge Willis Ritter for stay; hearing on motion is recessed; US Sup Ct Justice Byron White rejects petition by Utah lawyers representing 2 death row inmates (M)
Two of the nation's most successful tournament players, who stunned the bridge world a week ago when they withdrew from the most important event in American competition at the point of almost certain victory, did so after having been summoned before a special committee to answer accusations of “improprieties.”
Former TRW employee Christopher John Boyce arrested by FBI as Soviet spy; co mfrs ballistic missile components and wide variety of other mil equipment (S)
Mayor Beame says he is âgiving serious considerationâ to seeking 2d term, WNBCâTV âSundayâ program and subsequent ints (S)
Benin repulses attack by number of unidentified armed men in Cotonou; there have been 8 coups or attempts since country became ind in '60; map (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of January 12, 1977, covering January 17, 1977.
Eagles
Stevie Wonder
Paul McCartney And Wings
Boston
Electric Light Orchestra
1977Leigh Whannell, Australian actor, director, screenwriter, and producer[â ]
Leigh Whannell is an Australian filmmaker and actor. He has written multiple films that were directed by his friend James Wan, including Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2010), and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). Whannell made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), and has since directed three more films: Upgrade (2018), The Invisible Man (2020), and Wolf Man (2025).
1977Dougal Haston, Scottish mountaineer (born 1940)[â ]
Duncan "Dougal" Curdy MacSporran Haston was a Scottish mountaineer noted for his exploits in the British Isles, Alps, and the Himalayas. From 1967 he was the director of the International School of Mountaineering at Leysin, Switzerland, a role he held until his death in an avalanche while skiing above Leysin.
1977Gary Gilmore, American murderer (born 1940)[â ]
Gary Mark Gilmore was an American criminal who gained international attention for demanding the implementation of his death sentence for two murders he had admitted to committing in Utah. After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a new series of death penalty statutes in the 1976 decision Gregg v. Georgia, he became the first person in almost ten years to be executed in the United States. These new statutes avoided the problems under the 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia, which had resulted in earlier death penalty statutes being deemed "cruel and unusual" punishment, and therefore unconstitutional. Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in 1977. His life and execution were the subject of the 1979 nonfiction novel The Executioner's Song, by Norman Mailer, and the 1982 TV film of the novel starring Tommy Lee Jones as Gilmore.
1977Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.[â ]
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty in 27 states, throughout the country at the federal level, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in the other 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 21 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 6, subject to moratoriums.
In 1977, the world population was approximately 4,217,863,796 people[â ]