On September 21, 1977, the Washington State Department of Transportation comes into being. The legislation creating WSDOT is the culmination of years of effort to transform the Department of Highways ...
On September 23, 1977, the Seattle Aquarium announces that it had 353,000 visitors in its first four months of operation, 19 percent more than predicted.
On October 5, 1977, only one day after Senator Warren G. Magnuson (1905-1989) introduces it, Congress passes an amendment that effectively bans oil supertankers from Puget Sound. The stealth move thro...
On October 21, 1977, the Patos Island Lighthouse is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Patos Island is the northernmost of the San Juan Islands. Its lighthouse is located at Alden Poi...
On November 8, 1977, Washington voters defeat Referendum 40, which would have established a statutory state Women's Commission, while approving initiatives that prohibit theaters showing obscene films...
On November 30, 1977, after the Seattle SuperSonics begin the 1977-78 season with a 5-17 record, team ownership fires coach Bob Hopkins and replaces him with former Seattle player (and player-coach) L...
In 1978, Gary Figgins's Leonetti Cellar produces the first successful premium wines in the Walla Walla Valley. Figgins's grandparents, Frank and Rose Leonetti, were Italian immigrants who had cultivat...
On February 16, 1978, The Seattle Times reports that managers of Fat Tuesday, the Mardi Gras-like festival in Seattle's Pioneer Square, are receiving complaints about the official poster for the event...
On February 18, 1978, Seattle's second annual Fat Tuesday celebration ends relatively peacefully, featuring only a handful of arrests. The outcome is a marked contrast with the conclusion of the first...
On April 22, 1978, Group Health Cooperative features its first Health Fair during the annual meeting of that year. The purpose of the Health Fair is to emphasize healthier lifestyles and the idea of t...
On May 1, 1978, the Seattle City Council legislates the use of deadly force by police officers, the first major U.S. city to do so. The ordinance limits the use of firearms to self defense, to the arr...
In the spring of 1978, Kadima (meaning "forward" in Hebrew), founded as the Jewish Liberation Alliance, is created to educate Jews and non-Jews about Jewish and Israeli history and to promote peace in...