The Tangshan earthquake flattened Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 people, and injuring 164,851. A Guatemala earthquake left 23,000 dead and 76,000 injured. The Çaldıran–Muradiye earthquake killed between 4,000 and 5,000 in eastern Turkey. An earthquake hit off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines, triggering a destructive tsunami, killing between 5,000 and 8,000 people and leaving more than 90,000 homeless. An earthquake hit the Friuli area in Italy, killing more than 900 people and making another 100,000 homeless. A cable car disaster in Cavalese, Italy, left 43 dead. Two coal mine explosions claimed 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co in Letcher County, Kentucky. A train crash in Schiedam, the Netherlands, killed 24 people. An accident involving a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia took place in Houston, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 7 people. The Yuba City bus disaster, was the second-worst bus crash in U.S. history, leavings 28 students and 1 teacher dead. The Teton Dam collapsed in southeast Idaho in the US, killing 11 people. 7 people were shot and killed, and 2 others wounded, in a mass shooting on the campus at California State University, Fullerton. The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado flooded, destroying more than 400 cars and homes, and killing 143 people. Hurricane Belle hit Long Island and southern New England. 12 people were killed by the storm and damage was over $100 million. A sniper rampage in Wichita, Kansas, at a Holiday Inn resulted in 3 deaths while 7 others were wounded. Hurricane Liza killed more than 600 people in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, striking the resort city of La Paz, Baja California Sur where 350 people died, and another 280 in the surrounding area. Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 crashed due to a bomb placed by anti-Fidel Castro terrorists, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados, so that all 73 people on board were killed. The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince was struck by a ship in Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew. Palestinian militants hijacked an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew and took off for Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli airborne commandos freed 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of this plan at Entebbe Airport. A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collided near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing all 176 aboard. Patty Hearst was found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank in 1974 and sentenced to seven years in prison but an executive clemency order from U.S. President Jimmy Carter set her free after only 22 months. Bandits stole $1.4 million in bookmakers’ settlements from Queen Street, Melbourne, Australia. American criminal Gary Gilmore was arrested for murdering two men in Utah. Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, began falling ill with a form of pneumonia, later recognized as the first outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, that killed 29 people. In New York City, the “Son of Sam” pulled a gun from a paper bag, killing one and seriously wounding another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year. The first known outbreak of the Ebola virus occurred in Yambuku, Zaire. Students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand were massacred, while protesting the return of ex-dictator Thanom Kittikachorn by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government. What is the worst disaster that you remember in 1976?
Main events of 1976
Besides the American Bi-Centennial and the American presidential election in 1976, there were a few other events of some significance. The Nobel Prize for Literature went to Saul Bellow and the Nobel Prize for Economics went to Milton Friedman, both from the University of Chicago. Also, the Nobel Prize for peace went to two Northern Ireland ladies, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan. Full diplomatic relations were established between Bangladesh and Pakistan five years after the Bangladesh Liberation War. The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution that called for an independent Palestinian state. Arab citizens of Israel protested the intended appropriation of land by the government. Does that sound familiar? The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention was formally dissolved in Northern Ireland, resulting in Direct rule over Northern Ireland by the Government of the United Kingdom in London. Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, so that James Callaghan became Prime Minister. Argentina military forces deposed president Isabel Perón. U.S. President Gerald Ford signed the Federal Election Campaign Act. The strange case of Karen Ann Quinlan had the New Jersey Supreme Court rule that a patient in a persistent vegetative state can be disconnected from her ventilator. However, she remained comatose and died in 1985. The Washington, D.C. Concorde service began. The Soweto uprising in South Africa began. The G-6 became the G-7 with the inclusion of Canada. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that in the Gregg v. Georgia ruling that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment, overturning the Furman v. Georgia case of 1972. The first class of women was inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. North Vietnam dissolved the Provisional Government of South Vietnam and united the two countries to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The New Jersey Legislature passed legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. California’s sodomy law was repealed. The Atari video arcade game Breakout was released. The first laser printer was introduced by IBM (the IBM 3800). The second generation of video game consoles started with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. The Body Shop, the retail chain for skin care products and cosmetics founded by Anita Roddick, opened its first branch in Brighton, England. Conrail, Consolidated Rails Corporation, was formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that had filed for bankruptcy protection, but was later in 1986 sold to the public. Price Club, as predecessor of Costco, a worldwide membership-registration-only retailer, was founded in California. The Viking 1 lander successfully landed on Mars, taking color photographs. The Viking 2 spacecraft entered an orbit around Mars. The Copyright Act of 1976 extended copyright duration for an additional 19 years in the United States. British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene was published, introducing the term memetics. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus was established by the five Latinos in the United States Congress. What do you remember about 1976?
The sudden death of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (1902-1976)
Just before Christmas, December 20, 1976, the long-time mayor of Chicago died. This had a big impact on the whole Chicago area. Major Richard J Daley collapsed on his way to lunch and was rushed to his private physician at 900 N Michigan Ave. There, it was confirmed that Daley had suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead at 2:55 PM at 74 years old. Daley’s funeral took place in the church he attended since his childhood, Nativity of Our Lord, at Halsted and 39th St. He was buried in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Worth Township, southwest of Chicago. His Irish parents were from Waterford County. He had served in the Illinois House and Senate, as well as other Cook County offices until he became mayor in 1955. He was survived by his wife Eleanor “Sis” Guilfoyle Daley, and his three daughters and four sons, in that order. Their eldest son, Richard M. Daley (1942-), was elected mayor of Chicago in 1989, and served in that position until his retirement in 2011. Richard J. Daley never lost his blue-collar Chicago accent. He was known for often mangling his syntax and other verbal gaffes. Daley’s reputation for misspeaking was such that his press secretary Earl Bush would tell reporters, “Write what he means, not what he says.” A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists, and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago saw Daley ranked as the best big-city mayor to serve in office post-1960. On the 50th anniversary of Daley’s first 1955 swearing-in, several dozen Daley biographers and associates met at the Chicago Historical Society. Historian Michael Beschloss called Daley “the pre-eminent mayor of the 20th century.” Chicago always had a double-A bond rating. According to Chicago folksinger Steve Goodman, “no man could inspire more love or more hate.” Daley’s twenty-one-year tenure as mayor is memorialized in the renamed Bogan City College as the Richard J. Daley College. The Richard J. Daley Center is a 32-floor office building completed in 1965 renamed for him after his death. The Richard J. Daley Library is the primary academic library at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Daley was known by many Chicagoans as “Da Mare” and “Hizzoner.” Since Daley’s death and the subsequent election of his son Richard in 1989, the first Mayor Daley has become known as “Boss Daley,”, “Old Man Daley,” or “Daley Senior” to residents of Chicago. During the civil rights era, some Black Chicagoans often referred to Daley as “Pharaoh,” in the sense that he was as oppressive and unrelenting as Ramses to Martin Luther King’s Moses. His base of support was the working-class Chicago Irish-Catholics along with the Polish Catholics and the Black Baptist ministers. His sudden death created a shock for all the Chicago area. The city went through turbulent times until his son also served as mayor for 22 years. Thus, the Daley family, both father and son, ruled Chicago from 1955-2011, more than 50 years. What do you remember about old man Daley?
University Park, Illinois
My mother was now living in University Park, a village in Will County with a small portion in Cook County, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago, about 10 square miles. University Park was one of the region’s few planned communities, developed in the 1960s as Wood Hill, then Park Forest South, and finally University Park, with the opening of Governors State University in 1969. The village population was 7,145 at the 2020 census. In the late 1950s, Woodhill Enterprises purchased land south of Park Forest for a large subdivision. Building began in 1961, but by 1967 Wood Hill had only 240 homes. However, residents created a homeowner’s association, which fostered a community identity. In 1966, Nathan Manilow, one of the developers of Park Forest, started to purchase land around Wood Hill. Park Forest had been a model for planning in the 1940s, by Lewis Manilow, his father. New Community Enterprises wanted to build a whole new town, so that it incorporated Park Forest South in 1967 with projections for 100,000 residents. Racial integration was a goal from the beginning, and Park Forest South became a leader in support of open housing. The Illinois Central Railroad made its first commuter extension in 40 years there. As a result, it is the last stop on the Metra Electric District line. The creativity and energy of the developers and village leadership led to great hopes. In 1970, the state of Illinois allocated $24 million for the GSU campus with a HUD grant. The developers modernized the water and sewage treatment facilities and in 1970 initiated the first elementary school, the first apartment complex, and Governors Gateway Industrial Park. However, difficulties arose in the economy, in the requirements and lack of resources from HUD, in the projections for growth, and in other areas, leading to suspended development in late 1974. The new town, intended for 100,000, adapted to a slow-growth plan anticipating an eventual 20,000 to 25,000 residents. The industrial park next to Interstate 57 was integral to the village, and residential areas continue to offer open space, bikeways, and additional development. The new town heritage included the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, a monumental internationally recognized outdoor sculpture park at GSU developed by Lewis Manilow to honor his father. Notable people from University Park include Amara Enyia (1982-), a political strategist, and Shonda Rhimes (1970-), a television producer, screenwriter, and creator, head writer and executive producer of hit television series “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “Scandal,” and “How to Get Away With Murder.” She lived in University Park as a child, because her parents were involved with Governor’s State University. Chris Slayton (1996-) was an NFL football player. The village of University Park falls within the Crete-Monee Community Unit School District 201-U. Coretta Scott King Magnet Elementary and Crete-Monee Middle school are also located in this village. It is surrounded by Richton Park, Park Forest, Frankfort, Steger, Crete, and Unincorporated Will County. In the 2020 census, the racial makeup of the village was 88% African American, 5% White, 4% Hispanic and 3% other. The median income for a household in the village was $62,258. University Park is served by a Metra station, that also facilitates bus services on Pace route 367, with access to Interstate 57 and Illinois Route 50. University Park is in the Second Congressional District. Larry McClellan wrote a book about University Park in 1980. Did you ever hear about University Park, IL?
My mother moved into Thornwood House in University Park, IL
Then we tried an apartment in Chicago Heights, but that was not successful. We were very fortunate to find a place in University Park, Thornwood House, a thirty-story low-income residence for senior citizens over 55. This building was built in 1975 and still exists today with single apartments for around 200 residences. Thus, it was brand new back then. Today the rent for a 600-foot single room there is about $1,100 a month. I have a brochure for the sixth anniversary of Thornwood House in 1981, where my mother Rose Finnegan was listed as a resident at that time. She grew to like it there, since she could cook for herself and there were many other older ladies there. They had lots of activities in the house. She had a studio apartment on the tenth floor. A priest from the diocese of Joliet came to say Mass there once a week. They all liked Father White. Thornwood House had bus transportation for shopping since my mother never learned to drive. I always visited her on Thursdays, my day off. Quite often, I would bring Joy with me, and they got along fine. That is where Joy learned to go shopping at Thrift Shops in Chicago Heights. She also had the Irish habit of giving dollars to young children as you say goodbye. Everyone seemed happy with this solution. How did you get along with your mother after your father died?
My mother moved to the Chicago area
At first, I was a little upset that my mom did not tell me she was going to sell her house in Carteret, but then I realized that it was her decision to do with the house whatever she wanted to do. She trusted the lawyer who had handled all the paper work after the death of my father. I knew nothing about what was going on. She had a new will made out where I would get everything. She got my father’s social security check and maybe some of his pension, but I am not sure. I know that she was a little upset when she found out that she was not getting cash for the house. She had assumed that she would get cash, but instead she would hold a mortgage. The deal was done through the Chrome Real Estate Exchange at 19 Cooke Ave in Carteret, NJ. The lawyer in Carteret suggested that since she was 70 years old, it might be better to have me, her son, hold the mortgage, which I did. Anyway, she sold most of her furniture and appliances. She liked the Skokowski family who bought the house, since they had been nice to her. She flew out to Chicago with a couple of suitcases. She assumed that she would live with us in our house. I remembered the conversation with my brother Jerry, who lived in Metuchen, NJ, ten years earlier in 1966, after my ordination. Both he and his wife had agreed to take care of my father and her mother, but not her father or my mother. That was up to me. I guess that I never realized the implications of that. I then realized in 1976, it was up to me to take care of my 70-year-old mom. We had a bed room downstairs, where she had stayed when she visited us, that had a bathroom right beside it. Joy was still sleeping in a small bed in a bedroom next to Margaret and I. However, she was getting bigger. At first, it seemed to be okay. We had a built-in baby-sitter. We had a back yard where she could sit and walk around, as well as it was on a quiet cul-de-sac. However, we soon realized that she liked to cook and do things her way. She had favorite TV shows, and she liked to drink a lot more alcohol than what we were accustomed to doing. After an attempt to go into a Nursing Home in Matteson, I realized that my mother was too well to go into a skilled nursing home. We visited one and the man there said that anyone going there needed to be referred by a doctor. Has your parent ever lived with you?
The value of my childhood home today
Today, my family does not own the childhood home that I grew up in. The next-door house at 8 Railroad Avenue is gone, but the house at 4 Railroad Avenue looks substantially different with a brick exterior. The name of the street is no longer Railroad Avenue but Industrial Drive, since the railroad tracks across the street have been torn up and a new four lane highway was put in its place. The old railroad tracks to this dead-end street have become an industrial road that leads out to the New Jersey Turnpike from Woodbridge. This new industrial highway was named after the former mayor, Peter J. Sica (1940-1999) who was mayor from 1983-1998. He got federal and state money to avoid trucks going through the main streets of Carteret from the Turnpike. Over 50,000 vehicles a day pass through exit #12 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Our house on 6 Railroad Avenue was built in 1930, nearly a hundred years ago. My childhood home was a 1,376 square foot house on a lot of 2,474 square feet. I was able to find a picture online by a real estate company that was trying to rent it for $2,300.00 a month. The outside of the house looks the same as it did seventy years ago with the front door and steps and side door with steps also. The listing said that it had three bedrooms and two baths, the same as in the 1950s. The listing history of this house shows that it was sold for $41,700 in 1996. Then it sold for $85,000 in 2009 and in 2017 for $125,000. Then last year, 2024, it sold for $355,000. Zillow described this house as a 3-bedroom, 2 full bath home that features an open layout on the main floor, kitchen, and full bath. The upstairs has 3 bedrooms and another full bathroom with a private fenced backyard and full basement. All of this was conveniently located within minutes of all major highways, mass transportation, schools, retail centers, and less than half a mile to the water with very low property taxes! Is the house that you grew up in still around?
My mother sold her house in Carteret, New Jersey
My mother sold the house that she had lived in for over thirty years. She wanted to move to Chicago to be with me and our family of three. My mother would have been seventy years old. My father had died four years earlier. Her 20-year-old dog Chips had also died. She was lonesome. She decided to sell her house to Raymond and Joyce Skokowski and their family. They had asked her if she wanted to sell it, since they were renting in the neighborhood. She then sold the house for $12,000. She thought that was a lot of money, since my parents had bought the house in 1943 for $2,800. She was getting more than four times what she paid for it and had lived in it for over thirty years. She did not get the cash, but her lawyer said that the payments or mortgage would be held by me. Thus, I got a check for a $100.00 a month for the next twenty years from the Skokowski’s, so that I got $24,000 for the house that I grew up in. Did your family sell the house that you grew up in?
Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)
James Earl Carter Jr. was the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He also was the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, and a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967. At age 100, he was the oldest living former U.S. president until his death less than a month ago. Jimmy Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the U.S. Navy’s submarine service. Carter returned home afterward and revived his family’s peanut-growing business. He then manifested his opposition to racial segregation, supported the growing civil rights movement, and became an activist within the Democratic Party. As a dark-horse candidate, Carter won the Democratic nomination and narrowly defeated the incumbent president Gerald Ford, of the Republican Party, in the 1976 presidential election. Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders on his second day in office. He created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. Carter successfully pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. He also confronted stagflation and inflation. His administration established the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Education. In 1978, he established the EPA Love Canal Superfund. However, Carter had a strained relationship with Congress. Thus, the end of his presidency was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island accident, the Nicaraguan Revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In response to that invasion, Carter escalated the Cold War by ending détente, imposing a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciating the Carter Doctrine, by leading the multinational boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. On July 15, 1979, Carter delivered a nationally televised address, which some people called his “malaise speech,” where he talked about a “crisis of confidence” among American people. With the oil crisis and the Iran hostages, Carter lost the 1980 presidential election in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, the Republican nominee. After leaving the presidency, Carter established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights. In 2002, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his work related to his center on human rights. He traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and further the eradication of infectious diseases. Carter was a key figure in the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. He has written numerous books, ranging from political memoirs to poetry, while continuing to comment on global affairs, including two books on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in which he criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as apartheid. Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank Carter as a below-average president, although both scholars and the public view his post-presidential activities more favorably. At 44 years, Carter’s post-presidency was the longest in U.S. history. I first became aware of Governor Jimmy Carter when Hank Aaron hit the home run that erased Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record with his 715th home run on April 8, 1974. Jimmy Carter was there to congratulate Hank Aaron. I liked him a lot. What do you know about Jimmy Carter?
Ford versus Carter for president in 1976
Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford faced off in three televised debates, the first United States presidential debates since 1960. For the November 1976 issue of Playboy, which hit newsstands a couple of weeks before the election, Robert Scheer interviewed Carter. While discussing his religious views, Carter admitted that he had “looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” This response and his admission in another interview that he did not mind if people uttered the word “fuck” led to a media feeding frenzy and critics lamenting the erosion of the boundary between politicians and their private intimate lives. Carter began the race with a sizable lead over Ford, who narrowed the gap during the campaign, but lost to Carter in a narrow defeat on November 2, 1976. Carter won the popular vote by 50.1% to 48.0% for Ford. Carter received 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240. Although Ford and Dole lost to Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale in the 1976 election, in 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in the 1980 election to become president, and won again in 1984, beating Democratic challenger Walter Mondale. Robert Dole ran for president in 1980, 1988, and 1996, finally gaining the Republican nomination the last time, but losing to Bill Clinton by a large margin. Do you remember the election of 1976?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 