14 October 1976-6 February 1977: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, with Jean Lipman as curator, exhibits "Calder's Universe," a major retrospective. The exhibition travels to fifteen cities throughout the United States and Japan. (CF, exhibition file)

20 October: Calder is honored at a dinner at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Attending are sixty guests, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Miller, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Breuer, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Virgil Thomson, Robert Penn Warren, and Philip Johnson. (New York Times, 21 October 1976)

Before November: President Gerald Ford offers the Medal of Freedom to Calder. Calder replies: "I was pleased to receive your invitation last week, but felt I could not accept in a case where my acceptance would imply my accord with the harsh treatment meted out to conscientious objectors and deserters. As from the start I was against the war and now am working with 'amnesty' I didn't feel I could come to Washington. When there will be more justice for these men I will feel differingly [sic]." Ford posthumously awards Calder the Medal of Freedom. Louisa Calder declines to attend the ceremony: "freedom should lead to amnesty after all these years and it doesn't seem as though it were going to happen. Freedom means freedom for all." (CF, Calder to Gerald Ford, c. 20 October; CF, telegram, Louisa Calder to Gerald Ford, 4 January 1977)

10 November: Calder returns with Louisa to New York from Washington, D.C., where he has finalized the details for Mountains and Clouds, a monumental stabile and mobile for the Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. (CF, object file)

11 November: Calder dies in New York City at the home of his daughter Mary.

1 December 1976-8 January 1977: Galerie Maeght, Paris, exhibits "Calder: Mobiles and Stabiles." The catalogue text includes the essay "L'art et la comedie" by Jean Fremon, and "Forme Humaine" by Jean Davidson; cover and illustrations by Calder. (CF, exhibition file)

6 December: The Whitney Museum of American Art holds a memorial service. Officiating is director Tom Armstrong, with remarks by James Johnson Sweeney, Saul Steinberg, Robert Osborn (cartoonist), and Arthur Miller, and with a solo violin performance by Alexander Schneider.

24 May: Sandy and Louisa host dinner at their home in Roxbury in honor of the AICA (International Association of Art Critics) XIth General Assembly at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, 19-24 May 1959.