In July 1976, the month when 218 million Americans were feting their nation's 200th birthday, dramatic events were taking place on other continents also. On July 4 — America's Independence Day — an Israeli commando force staged a dramatic raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the 106 hostages who had been aboard a hijacked Air France jet.
On July 28, in one of the most deadly natural disasters of the 20th century, a massive earthquake struck the Chinese city of Tangshan, Hebei Province, killing hundreds of thousands.
The day before the earthquake devastated Tangshan, Japan was rattled by a manmade quake, in a manner of speaking, as Kakuei Tanaka — who had served as prime minister from July 1972 to December 1974 and, as head of the largest faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, remained Japan's most influential politician — was arrested and marched off to the Tokyo Detention Center on charges of receiving nearly $2 million in bribes from Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
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