Warner Communications buys Atari
Forking over approximately $28,000,000 for the privelege of becoming a player in the video game industry, Warner Communication buys Atari, which had previously been privately owned by Nolan Bushnell and other investors. Though Bushnell remains on Atari’s board for a time, he is eventually removed and replaced by former Burlington Textiles vice president Ray Kassar. At this point, Atari’s most recent product is Atari Video Music, a device that connects to home stereo systems and television sets, producing psychedelic patterns synchronized to music; the company is spending the latter half of 1976 not releasing video game products in an attempt to sit out terms of a legal settlement with Magnavox.
Doctor Who: Masque Of Mandragora, Part 1
The 428th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Gareth Armstrong and Tim Piggott-Smith guest star. This episode is the beginning of Doctor Who’s 14th season on the air.
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Viking 2 lands on Mars
NASA’s Viking 2 lander, launched from Earth almost exactly a year earlier touches down on Martian soil in the Utopia Planitia region. One of Viking 2’s three landing legs comes down on a rock, leaving the entire lander at an eight-degree angle to the ground. Identical to Viking 1, Viking 2 has its own soil sampling arm, though its series of tests for biological reactions within the soil produce inconclusive results (including at least one “positive” test for signs of life, later attributed to inorganic chemical reactions). Viking 2 will also later confirm that water exists, at least briefly, on the surface of Mars in the form of frost.
Star Maidens: Escape To Paradise
The first episode of the British-German science fiction series Star Maidens premieres on ITV in the UK. The show stars Gareth Thomas and Judy Geeson, and involves male slaves who escape from the female-dominated society of planet Medusa to take shelter on Earth.
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