Description

The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially titled the Games of the XXI Olympiad and commonly known as Montreal 1976, took place from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal secured the hosting rights for the 1976 Games at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam on May 12, 1970, prevailing over bids from Moscow and Los Angeles. This event marked the first and only time to date that the Summer Olympic Games were held in Canada. Concurrently, Toronto hosted the 1976 Summer Paralympics, making it the sole instance of the Summer Paralympics being hosted in Canada. Subsequently, Calgary and Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1988 and 2010, respectively.

A total of twenty-nine countries, predominantly from Africa, boycotted the Montreal Games following the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision not to bar New Zealand. The controversy arose after the New Zealand national rugby union team toured South Africa earlier in 1976, contravening the United Nations' call for a sports embargo due to South Africa's apartheid policies. The Soviet Union emerged as the top medal winner in both gold and overall medal counts.

The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), also known simply as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a country from 1962 to 1990 in the northwestern part of what is now Yemen. Its capital was at Sanaʽa. It united with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (commonly known as South Yemen) on May 22, 1990 to form the current Republic of Yemen.