Change in China: The deaths of two old-guard leaders jolts China. Chou En-lai, premier since the Communists took power in 1949, dies Jan. 8 of cancer at 78. On Sept. 9, Mao Tse-tung, the pre-eminent figure of the Communist revolution and leader of the nation since 1949, dies of Parkinson's disease at 82. An estimated 1 million Chinese flock into Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn their leader.

Moguls in the Making (April 1): Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak help start the age of personal computing by forming Apple Computer Co. Jobs, who has recently worked in an organic apple orchard, considers the apple a perfect fruit, a suitable symbol for what he wants to be a perfect company. Working out of Jobs' garage, the two begin assembling Apple I computers, based on a design by Wozniak. The Apple I, which sells for $666.66, has 8 kilobytes of RAM and is advertised as "an extremely powerful computer system that can be used for anything from developing programs to playing games or running BASIC."

Where's the Remote?: Two competing Japanese companies introduce video-recording devices into America's entertainment mix in 1976: Sony with Betamax, and JVC, or Japanese Victor Co., with VHS. The VCR dramatically broadens what people can watch on the tube. TV ad rates and movie attendance suffer, but the VCR is a boon to such emerging industries as video-rental stores and video pornography.

Anti-Apartheid Riots (June 16): Rioting erupts in the black township of Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, as blacks protest the mandatory use of the Afrikaans language in schools. In the worst upheaval that white-ruled South Africa has seen, rioting spreads over three days to other black townships. The official casualty toll is 60 dead and more than 800 injured.

Death Penalty Returns (July 2): Reversing a 1972 decision, the Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel and unusual punishment. The high court finds by a vote of 7-2 that death is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment, at least for murder.

Deadly Epidemic (July 4): A mysterious virus, later dubbed Legionnaire's disease, breaks out at a Philadelphia hotel hosting an American Legion convention. Within two months, it kills 28 people.

Raid at Entebbe (July 4): Israel stuns the world with a daring commando raid at Entebbe Airport in the East African nation of Uganda. The aim is to free 106 hostages seized June 27 when Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv bound for Paris. The commandos fly into Entebbe under cover of darkness and take the terrorists by surprise. Within 53 minutes, the raiders gun down seven hijackers and 20 Ugandan soldiers, snatch up the hostages, destroy 11 Ugandan planes and escape with only one casualty, mission commander Yonatan Netanyahu, whose brother, Benjamin, will be elected Israeli prime minister two decades later.

Bus Bandits (July 15): The bizarre kidnapping of 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver in Chowchilla, Calif., prompts the largest and most intensive search in the history of the state. For more than 36 hours, police search for the missing children. All manage to escape from a large trailer that had been buried underground. Three men are arrested.

Mars Mission (July 20): Viking I, a robot craft launched from Earth on Aug. 20, 1975, makes the first successful landing on Mars, completing a journey of 212 million miles. Viking transmits spectacular photographs of a rocky, wind-scoured desert plain.

Perfect 10 (Summer): At 5 feet tall and 88 pounds, gymnast Nadia Comaneci is a tiny dynamo, a flurry of precision movement, as she wows the crowds at the XXI Olympiad in Montreal. The 14-year-old Romanian takes home three gold medals and posts the first perfect 10 in Olympics history as she captures the hearts of viewers around the world with her gymnastic feats.

CFC Danger (Sept. 13): The U.S. National Academy of Sciences says that chlorofluorocarbons, especially those in aerosol spray cans, endanger the protective ozone layer in the Earth's atmosphere.

Lust In His Heart (November): Democratic presidential candidate James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr., Georgia's governor and a devout Southern Baptist, makes waves when he gives an interview to Playboy magazine to show he is not a Bible thumper, but a regular guy. "I've looked on a lot of women with lust," says Carter, a Sunday school teacher, former naval nuclear engineer and peanut farmer. "I've committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do -- and I have done -- and God forgives me for it." The admission creates a storm of controversy. But in the Nov. 2 election, Carter wins 51 percent of the popular vote, narrowly defeating Gerald Ford and heading to the White House as the nation's 39th president.

A Big 10-4: A national craze for citizen's band radios, which had once been used primarily by long-haul truckers, reaches a peak. The Federal Communications Commission reports more than 650,000 applications for CB permits each month, and CB lingo becomes part of the culture. Americans embrace such terms as "10-4" for affirmative, "good buddy" for an airwave acquaintance, and "smokie" for a state trooper. First lady Betty Ford even gets into the act, hitting the airwaves with the handle "First Mama."