Timeline Thursday 1 January 1976

Events on Thursday 1 January 1976 6

• 1976 1976: James Hunt McLaren Hunt won the title by a single point from Lauda in one of the most dramatic seasons in F1 history. Lauda had suffered horrific burns in a crash at the Nürburgring but returned just six weeks later, only to withdraw from the rain-soaked final race at Fuji.
• 1976 – 1979 Dame Edna Breaks Through Dame Edna became a star in the UK in the 1970s with stage shows Housewife, Superstar! and A Night with Dame Edna. Australian PM Gough Whitlam spontaneously made the character a 'Dame' on television.
• 1976 – 1978 Discovery of V(D)J Recombination Made the Nobel Prize-winning discovery that immune cells physically rearrange segments of their DNA — cutting and splicing gene fragments — to generate the enormous diversity of antibodies needed to fight disease. This overturned the prevailing dogma that DNA was static in somatic cells.
• 1976 King Kong Created the vocal effects for the giant ape in the King Kong remake starring Jeff Bridges, demonstrating his extraordinary ability to create non-human voices and sounds.
• 1976 – 1978 Leaving Ike Turner Left Ike Turner in 1976, fleeing their Dallas hotel room with 36 cents in her pocket. Their divorce was finalised in 1978. She later revealed years of horrific physical abuse during their marriage.
• 1976 – 1978 War Films of the 1970s Appeared in a run of major World War II films: The Eagle Has Landed (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Force 10 from Navarone (1978), establishing him as a go-to actor for military roles.