![s]() |
| | Home | The 1970's | 1973 |
 |
 |
1973 A brief history of the events that shaped 1973. |
 |
|
| January |
| 1st |
The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later became the European Union |
| 1st |
CBS sells the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner. It was 3.2 million dollars more than CBS bought the Yankees for |
| 14th |
Elvis Presley's concert in Hawaii is watched by over a billion people live worldwide |
| 15th |
Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam |
| 17th |
Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines |
| 18th |
Eleven Labour Party councillors in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England, were ordered to pay £6,985 for not enforcing the Housing Finance Act |
| 20th |
U.S. President Richard Nixon is inaugurated for his second term |
| 21st |
The Communist League is founded in Denmark |
| 22nd |
George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier for the heavyweight world boxing championship |
| 22nd |
A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed |
| 22nd |
Former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson dies at his Stonewall, Texas ranch leaving no former U.S. President living until the resignation of Richard M. Nixon in 1974 |
| 23rd |
U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam |
| 27th |
Paris Peace Accords are signed. Allies officially wins Vietnam War |
< Back to the Top
| February |
| 6th |
Construction on the CN Tower begins in Toronto, Canada |
| 11th |
The first release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place |
| 12th |
Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in metric on signs |
| 16th |
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled that the Sunday Times could publish articles on Thalidomide and Distillers Company, despite ongoing legal actions by parents (the decision was overturned in July by the House of Lords) |
| 21st |
Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (Boeing 727) is shot down by Israeli fighter aircraft over the Sinai Desert, after the passenger plane is suspected of being an enemy military plane. Only 5 (1 crew member and 4 passengers) of 113 survive |
| 22nd |
Following President Richard Nixon's visit to mainland China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices |
| 27th |
The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota |
| 28th |
Polling day in the Republic of Ireland general election |
< Back to the Top
| March |
| 1st |
Dick Taverne, who had resigned from the Parliament of the United Kingdom on leaving the Labour Party, was re-elected as a 'Democratic Labour' candidate |
| 3rd |
Tottenham Hotspur win the Football League Cup final at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1-0 in the final |
| 7th |
Comet Kohoutek is discovered |
| 8th |
In the 'Border Poll', voters in Northern Ireland vote to remain part of the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists are encouraged to boycott the referendum |
| 8th |
Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs explode in Whitehall and the Old Bailey in England |
| 11th |
Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, was assassinated in Government House |
| 17th |
Queen Elizabeth II opens the modern London Bridge |
| 17th |
Many of the few remaining United States soldiers begin to leave Vietnam. One reunion of a former POW reuniting with his family is immortalised in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy |
| 17th |
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, one of rock's landmark albums, is released |
| 20th |
British government White Paper on Northern Ireland proposes re-establishment of an Assembly elected by proportional representation, with a possible All-Ireland council |
| 21st |
Lofthouse Colliery disaster in Great Britain |
| 22nd |
United Kingdom government announces that the Channel Tunnel could be finished by 1980, costing £366m (The Tunnel actually opened in 1994, some 14 years later than this prediction) |
| 23rd |
In a letter to Judge John Sirica, Watergate burglar James W. McCord Jr. admits that he and other defendants have been pressured to remain silent about the case. He names former Attorney General John Mitchell as 'overall boss' of the operation |
| 29th |
The last United States soldier leaves Vietnam |
< Back to the Top
| April |
| 3rd |
The first handheld cellular phone call made by Martin Cooper, who conceived the phone, in New York City |
| 4th |
The World Trade Center officially opens in New York City with a ribbon-cutting ceremony |
| 6th |
Pioneer 11 is launched on a mission to study the solar system |
| 7th |
Tu te reconnaîtras by Anne-Marie David (music by Claude Morgan, text by Vline Buggy) wins Eurovision Song Contest 1973 for Luxembourg |
| 10th |
Israeli commandos raid Beirut, assassinating 3 leaders of the Palestinian Resistance Movement. The Lebanese army's inaction brings the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Saib Salam, a Sunni Muslim |
| 11th |
The British House of Commons voted against restoring capital punishment by a margin of 142 votes |
| 12th |
The Labour Party wins control of the Greater London Council |
| 17th |
Federal Express officially begins operations, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport. On that night, Federal Express delivers 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities from Rochester, NY, to Miami, Fla |
| 28th |
Six Irishmen, including Joe Cahill, are arrested by the Irish Naval Service off County Waterford on board a coaster carrying five tons of weapons destined for the Provisional Irish Republican Army |
| 30th |
President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned |
< Back to the Top
| May |
| 1st |
An estimated 1,600,000 workers in the United Kingdom stopped work in support of a Trade Union Congress "day of national protest and stoppage" against the Government's anti-inflation policy |
| 3rd |
The Sears Tower in Chicago is finished, becoming the world's tallest building |
| 5th |
Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest |
| 5th |
Sunderland Win the FA Cup, beating Leeds United in the final |
| 8th |
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement who were occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants |
| 14th |
Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched |
| 14th |
The British House of Commons votes to abolish capital punishment in Northern Ireland |
| 17th |
Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate |
| 18th |
Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 50-mile limit round Iceland |
| 22nd |
Lord Lambton resigns from the British government over a 'call girl' scandal |
| 24th |
Earl Jellicoe, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords in Britain, resigned over a separate prostitution scandal |
| 25th |
Skylab 2 (Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz, Joseph Kerwin) is launched on a mission to repair the Skylab space station |
| 27th |
By virtue of the non-retroactivity of Soviet copyright laws, all works published before this date are public domain. This applies worldwide |
< Back to the Top
| June |
| 1st |
The Greek military junta abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic |
| 3rd |
A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes at the Paris air show; 15 are killed |
| 4th |
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain |
| 10th |
The grandson of J. Paul Getty is kidnapped in Rome |
| 20th |
The Ezeiza massacre occurs in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers shoot on left-wing Peronists, killing at least 13 and injuring more than 300 |
| 23rd |
A house fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, which kills a 6-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 fire deaths caused over the next 7 years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale |
| 24th |
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev addresses the American people on television, the first to do so |
| 25th |
Erskine Hamilton Childers is elected the fourth President of Ireland |
| 25th |
Former White House counsel John Dean begins his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee |
| 28th |
Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time |
| 30th |
Very long total solar eclipse. During the entire 2nd millennium, only 7 total solar eclipses exceeded 7 minutes of totality |
< Back to the Top
| July |
| 1st |
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is founded |
| 5th |
The Isle of Man Post begins to issue its own postage stamps |
| 5th |
The catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills 11 firefighters. This explosion has become a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide |
| 6th |
St Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore was gazetted as a national monument |
| 10th |
The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations |
| 11th |
Varig Flight 820 disaster near Orly, France: 123 killed |
| 12th |
A major fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri |
| 16th |
Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations |
| 17th |
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery |
| 20th |
France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand |
| 21st |
The Philippines receives its second Miss Universe title, with Margarita Moran as the winner |
| 25th |
The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched |
| 28th |
The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, a massive rock festival featuring The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band, attracts over 600,000 music fans |
| 28th |
Skylab 3 (Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean) is launched, to conduct various medical and scientific experiments aboard Skylab |
| 29th |
Formula One racing driver Roger Williamson dies in an accident, witnessed live on European television, during the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix |
| 31st |
Militant protesters led by Ian Paisley disrupt the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly |
| 31st |
A Delta Air Lines Flight 173 DC9-31 aircraft lands short of Boston's Logan Airport runway in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet (50 m) to the right of the runway centerline and about 3000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed, 1 of the passengers dying several months after the accident |
< Back to the Top
| August |
| 1st |
The film American Graffiti is released |
| 2nd |
A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man |
| 5th |
Black September members open fire at the Athens airport; 3 are killed, 55 injured |
| 15th |
The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, marking the official halt to 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia |
| 23rd |
The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome |
< Back to the Top
| September |
| 3rd |
The British Trade Union Congress expelled 20 members for registering under the Industrial Relations Act 1971 |
| 11th |
Chile's democratically-elected government is overthrown in a military coup after serious instability. President Salvador Allende commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace, and General Augusto Pinochet heads a U.S.-backed military junta that will govern Chile for the next 16 years |
| 15th |
Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden dies. His grandson, Carl XVI Gustav, becomes king |
| 18th |
The two German Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), are admitted to the United Nations |
| 20th |
Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in a televised tennis match, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas |
| 22nd |
Henry Kissinger, United States National Security Advisor, starts his term as United States Secretary of State |
| 27th |
Launch of Soyuz 12, the third manned flight since 1971 |
< Back to the Top
| October |
| 6th |
The fourth and largest Arab-Israeli conflict begins, as Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights on Yom Kippur |
| 10th |
Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States and then, in federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, pleads no contest to charges of income tax evasion on $29,500 he received in 1967, while he was governor of Maryland. He is fined $10,000 and put on 3 years' probation |
| 14th |
A Student Revolt takes place in Bangkok, Thailand |
| 17th |
The Arab Oil Embargo against several countries which support Israel triggers the 1973 energy crisis |
| 20th |
U.S. President Richard Nixon orders Attorney General Elliot Richardson to dismiss Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refuses and resigns, along with Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Solicitor General Robert Bork, third in line at the Department of Justice, then fires Cox. The event raises calls for Nixon's impeachment |
| 20th |
The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work |
| 26th |
The Yom Kippur War ends |
| 26th |
United Nations recognise the independence of Guinea-Bissau |
| 30th |
The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time in history |
| 31st |
Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape. Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland after a hijacked helicopter landed in the exercise yard |
< Back to the Top
| November |
| 1st |
Acting Attorney General Robert Bork appoints Leon Jaworski as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor |
| 3rd |
NASA launches Mariner 10 toward Mercury (on March 29, 1974 it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet) |
| 7th |
The Congress of the United States overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval |
| 11th |
Egypt and Israel sign a United States-sponsored cease-fire accord |
| 14th |
Princess Anne marries a commoner, Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey (they later divorce in 1992) |
| 16th |
NASA launches Skylab 4 (Gerald Carr, William Pogue, Edward Gibson) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on an 84-day mission |
| 16th |
U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorisation Act into law, authorising the construction of the Alaska Pipeline |
| 17th |
In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook." |
| 17th |
A student uprising occurs against the military regime in Athens, Greece |
| 21st |
U.S. President Richard Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, reveals the existence of an 18½-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate |
| 25th |
Greek dictator George Papadopoulos is ousted in a military coup led by Lieutenant General Phaidon Gizikis |
| 27th |
The United States Senate votes 92-3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States |
| 29th |
104 people killed in a Taiyo department store fire in Kumamoto, Kyūshū, Japan |
< Back to the Top
| December |
| 1st |
Papua New Guinea gains self government from Australia |
| 3rd |
Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter |
| 6th |
The United States House of Representatives votes 387-35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States; he is sworn in the same day |
| 15th |
The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders |
| 20th |
Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid by the terrorist organization ETA |
| 28th |
The Endangered Species Act is passed |
| 30th |
Terrorist Carlos the Jackal fails in his attempt to assassinate British businessman Joseph Sieff |
| 31st |
Due to coal shortages caused by industrial action, the electricity consumption reduction measure of the Three-Day Week comes into force |
|
|
|
![a]() |