September:On September 19th, strange objects are seen in the sky near Tehran.
Some report a bird-like object. An F-4 fighter plane is sent to investigate. As it approaches an object similar in size to a Boeing 707, the F-14 loses all communications, but they resume after it turns away. The pilot reports the object giving off strobe lights flashing blue, green, red and orange.
On September 21st, the Seychelles join the UN.
Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in a California bank robbery.
October:At Mount Temple school in north Dublin, U2 perform their first concert, appearing under the name Feedback. A scrappy 10-minute set includes Peter Frampton's Show Me The Way and a Bay City Rollers' song.
A Cuban airline is blown up by a bomb placed by anti-Castro militants, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados. All 73 people on board are killed. On October 7th, the Bank of England raises its minimum lending rate from 13 to 15 per cent, having borrowed heavily from the International Monetary Fund the previous month. Sir Eric Gairy, prime minister of Grenada, addresses the UN General Assembly urging recognition of UFOs as a serious international scientific problem.
The IRA kills prison officer Roy Hamilton in Derry on October 8th and two days later the peace women are attacked by a mob in Belfast. Foreign affairs minister Garret FitzGerald complains to British opposition leader Margaret Thatcher about her Northern spokesman Airey Neave's perceived lack of support for powersharing. On October 22nd, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh resigns as president after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defence. On October 23rd, Mao Zedong's widow and associates (known as the 'Gang of Four') are prosecuted for sedition.
Sinn Féin vice-president Máire Drumm is shot dead in Belfast's Mater hospital on October 28th by loyalist paramilitaries. She had earlier threatened that Belfast would "come down stone by stone and if necessary, other towns will come down, and some in England too" as part of the campaign to restore political status to IRA prisoners.
November: Jimmy Carter is elected president of the United States, defeating incumbent Gerald Ford.
On November 12th, Vietnam and the US hold talks in Paris, their first since the war. November 23rd, French author André Malraux dies. The Band holds its farewell concert, The Last Waltz, on November 25th in San Francisco. Jane Ewart Biggs, the widow of murdered British ambassador, along with Maireád Corrigan and Betty Williams, lead a 30,000-strong peace march through the streets of London on November 27th. The British government publishes plans to set up assemblies in Scotland and Wales on November 30th. Roy Mason suggests that people in the North might take the hint, but his words fall on largely deaf ears.
December:The safety pins, studs, pierced faces and torn jackets of punk fashion make their appearance. Punk is rude, loud, and angry. It is also a reaction against a steep rise in unemployment and inflation.
Britain's high priests of punk, the Sex Pistols duly run amok on a British TV programme, on December 1st, uttering a string of profanities.
More sedately, Dr Patrick Hillery is installed as president of Ireland, succeeding Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, on December 3rd.
Bob Marley and his manager Don Taylor are shot in an assassination attempt, at Kingston, Jamaica. Marley is shot twice, but Taylor takes most of the bullets; both survive. On December 4th English composer Benjamin Britten, dies.
Samoa joins the UN. On December 17th, Opec countries raise the oil price by 15 per cent. Richard J Daley, mayor of Chicago for 21 years, dies on December 20th. A new volcano, Murara, erupts in Zaire on December 23rd. The IRA declares a three-day ceasefire over the Christmas period, having mounted a bombing blitz on the centre of Derry.
Pop music hits of 1976: Save Your Kisses for Me, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, and Dancing Queen.