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| | Home | The 1970's | 1975 |
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1975 A brief history of the events that shaped 1975. |
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| January |
| 1st |
John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up |
| 1st |
Work is abandoned on the British end of the Channel Tunnel |
| 5th |
The bulk ore carrier MV Lake Illawarra strikes the Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, killing 12 |
| 7th |
OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10% |
| 8th |
U.S. President Gerald Ford appoints Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to head a special commission looking into alleged domestic abuses by the CIA |
| 10th |
Japanese soldier Teruo Nakamura surrenders on the Indonesian island of Morota |
| 14th |
Heiress Lesley Whittle, 17, is kidnapped from her home in Shropshire, England by Donald Neilson |
| 15th |
International Women's Year launched in Britain by Princess Alexandra and Barbara Castle |
| 15th |
Portugal grants independence to Angola |
| 20th |
In Hanoi, North Vietnam, the Politburo approves the final military offensive against South Vietnam |
| 20th |
Michael Ovitz founds the Creative Artists Agency |
| 29th |
The Weather Underground bombs the U.S. State Department main office in Washington, D.C. |
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| February |
| 1st |
The Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation is launched, becoming the first TV network in the Philippines |
| 4th |
Haicheng earthquake, the first successfully predicted earthquake, occurred in Haicheng, Liaoning, China. Chinese government official report, killing 2,041, injuring 27,538 |
| 9th |
The Soyuz 17 crew (Georgi Grechko, Aleksei Gubarev) returns to Earth after 1 month aboard the Salyut 4 space station |
| 11th |
Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party in the United Kingdom |
| 11th |
Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, President of Madagascar, is assassinated |
| 13th |
A "Turkish Federated State of North Cyprus" is declared as an unsuccessful first step to international recognition of a Turkish Cypriot separatist state in Cyprus |
| 13th |
Fire breaks out in the World Trade Centre |
| 21st |
Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, are sentenced to between 30 months and 8 years in prison |
| 26th |
A fleeing Irish Republican Army member shoots and kills off-duty London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase |
| 27th |
The Movement 2 June kidnaps West German politician Peter Lorenz. He is released on March 4 after most of the kidnappers' demands are met |
| 28th |
A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people |
| 28th |
In Lomé, Togo, the European Economic Community and 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries sign a financial and economic treaty, known as the first Lomé Convention |
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| March |
| 1st |
Aston Villa win the Football League Cup at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1-0 in the final |
| 4th |
Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II |
| 4th |
First television coverage of a Canadian parliamentary committee |
| 6th |
Iran and Iraq announce a settlement in their border dispute |
| 6th |
A bomb explodes in the Paris offices of the Springer Press. The 6 March Group (connected to the Red Army Faction) demands amnesty for the Baader-Meinhof Group |
| 7th |
The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, kidnapped 7 weeks earlier by the Black Panther, is discovered in Staffordshire, England |
| 8th |
The United Nations proclaims International Women's Day |
| 9th |
Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins |
| 10th |
North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon |
| 10th |
The Rocky Horror Show opens on Broadway in New York City with 4 performances |
| 11th |
The leftist military government in Portugal defeats a rightist coup attempt |
| 13th |
South Vietnam President Nguyen van Thieu orders the Central Highlands evacuated. This turns into a mass exodus involving troops and civilians, (the Convoy of Tears) |
| 15th |
In Brazil, the Estado da Guanabara (State of Guanabara) merges with the state of Rio de Janeiro, under the name of Rio de Janeiro. The state's capital moves from the city of Niterói to the city of Rio de Janeiro |
| 22nd |
Ding-a-dong by Teach-In (music by Dick Bakker, text by Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens) wins the 20th Eurovision Song Contest 1975 for the Netherlands |
| 25th |
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a nephew with a history of mental illness; the killer is beheaded on June 18. (King Khalid succeeds Faisal) |
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| April |
| 3rd |
Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title |
| 4th |
The first military Operation Babylift flight, C5A 80218, crashes 27 minutes after takeoff, killing 138 on board; 176 survive the crash |
| 4th |
Bill Gates founds Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA |
| 13th |
27 Palestinians killed by the kataeb militia during an attack on their bus in Ain El Remmeneh, Lebanon, the incident triggered the Lebanese civil war |
| 13th |
A coup d'état in Chad led by the military overthrows and kills the President François Tombalbaye |
| 17th |
Following the Khmer Rouge capture of Phnom Penh, Pol Pot proclaims the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea in Cambodia and becomes its Prime Minister (1975-1979) |
| 24th |
Six Red Army Faction terrorists take over West German embassy in Stockholm, take 11 hostages and demand the release of the group's jailed members; shortly after, they are captured by Swedish police. (See West German embassy siege) |
| 25th |
As North Vietnamese Army forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost 10 years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam |
| 30th |
The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon, resulting in mass evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese. As the capital is taken, South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally |
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| May |
| 5th |
The Busch Gardens Williamsburg Theme Park opens in Virginia, USA |
| 10th |
West Ham won The FA cup |
| 12th |
Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia seize the United States merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters |
| 15th |
The American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued by the U.S. Navy and Marines; 38 Americans are killed |
| 16th |
Sikkim accedes to India after a referendum |
| 16th |
Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest |
| 27th |
Dibble's Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England killed 32 (highest ever death toll in a United Kingdom road accident) |
| 28th |
Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, creating the Economic Community of West African States |
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| June |
| 5th |
The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War |
| 5th |
The United Kingdom votes yes in a referendum to remain in the European Community |
| 10th |
In Washington, DC, the Rockefeller Commission issues its report on CIA abuses, recommending a joint congressional oversight committee on intelligence |
| 19th |
Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan is found guilty in absentia of the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett |
| 25th |
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares Emergency in India, suspending civil liberties and elections |
| 25th |
Mozambique gains independence from Portugal |
| 26th |
Two FBI agents and 1 AIM member die in a shootout, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota |
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| July |
| 1st |
The Postmaster-General's Department is disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post) |
| 4th |
Sydney newspaper publisher Juanita Nielsen disappears, and is presumed to have been murdered |
| 5th |
Cape Verde gains independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule |
| 6th |
The Comoros declare their independence from France |
| 9th |
The National Assembly of Senegal passes a law that will pave way for a multi-party system(albeit highly restricted) |
| 12th |
São Tomé and Príncipe declare independence from Portugal |
| 17th |
An American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the 2 nations |
| 31st |
In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing |
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| August |
| 1st |
The Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland |
| 5th |
U.S. President Ford posthumously pardons Robert E. Lee, restoring full rights of citizenship |
| 8th |
The Banqiao Dam, in China's Henan Province, fails after a freak typhoon; over 200,000 people perish |
| 8th |
Samuel Bronfman, son of the president of Seagram's, is kidnapped in Purchase, New York |
| 11th |
British Leyland Motor Corporation comes under British government control |
| 11th |
Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a UDT coup and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin |
| 15th |
The Birmingham Six are wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment in Great Britain |
| 15th |
President Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh is killed during a coup |
| 20th |
NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars |
| 24th |
Officers responsible for the military coup in Greece in 1967 are sentenced to death in Athens. The sentences are later commuted to life imprisonment |
| 29th |
Eamon DeValera, three time taoiseach of Ireland, dies in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, County Dublin aged 92 |
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| September |
| 5th |
In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme, a follower of jailed cult leader Charles Manson, attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is thwarted by a Secret Service agent |
| 5th |
The London Hilton hotel is bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army; 2 people are killed and 63 injured |
| 6th |
A Richter Scale 6.7 magnitude earthquake kills at least 2,085 in Diyarbakir and Lice, Turkey |
| 14th |
Elizabeth Seton is canonized becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint |
| 14th |
Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" is slashed a dozen times at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam |
| 15th |
The French department of Corse, comprising the entire island of Corsica, is divided into two departments: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud |
| 16th |
Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia |
| 18th |
Fugitive Patricia Hearst is captured in San Francisco |
| 19th |
General Vasco Goncalves is ousted as Prime Minister of Portugal |
| 22nd |
U.S. President Gerald Ford survives a second assassination attempt, this time by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco |
| 30th |
The Hughes Helicopters (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing IDS) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight |
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| October |
| 1st |
In the fight billed as the "Thrilla in Manila" Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in the Philippines |
| 9th |
A bomb explosion outside Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills 1 and injures 20 |
| 11th |
NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live (George Carlin is the first host; Billy Preston and Janis Ian the first musical guests) |
| 16th |
Five Australian-based journalists are killed at Balibo by Indonesian forces, during an incursion into Portuguese Timor |
| 27th |
Robert Poulin kills 1 and wounds 5 at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa, Canadabefore shooting himself |
| 29th |
Peter Sutcliffe (the "Yorkshire Ripper") commits his first murder, Wilma McCann |
| 30th |
Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting Head of State after dictator Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern |
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| November |
| 3rd |
An independent audit of Mattel, one of the United States' largest toy manufacturers, reveals that company officials fabricated press releases and financial information to "maintain the appearance of continued corporate growth." |
| 3rd |
The first petroleum pipeline opens from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth, Scotland |
| 6th |
300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara |
| 10th |
By a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions), the United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution provokes an outcry among Jews around the world |
| 10th |
The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board (an event immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot) |
| 10th |
Lev Leshchenko revives Den Pobedy, one of the most popular World War II songs in the USSR |
| 11th |
Angola becomes independent from Portugal, sparking a civil war in the country |
| 11th |
Governor-General of Australia Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam and commissions Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister |
| 14th |
Spain abandons Western Sahara |
| 20th |
Former California Governor Ronald Reagan enters the race for the Republican presidential nomination, challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford |
| 20th |
The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco dies in Madrid |
| 22nd |
Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco |
| 25th |
Suriname gains independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| 25th |
The Irish Republican Army is outlawed in the United Kingdom |
| 27th |
Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, is shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for offering reward money to informers |
| 28th |
Portuguese Timor declares its independence from Portugal as East Timor |
| 29th |
The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer software) is used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen for the first time (Microsoft becomes a registered trademark on November 26, 1976) |
| 29th |
While disabled, the submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19) discharges radioactive coolant water into Apra Harbor, Guam. A Geiger counter at 2 of the harbor's public beaches shows 100 millirems/hour, 50 times the allowable dose |
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| December |
| 2nd |
The communist Pathet Lao takes power in Laos |
| 3rd |
The wreck of the HMHS Britannic is found in the Kea Channel by Jacques Cousteau |
| 7th |
Indonesia invades East Timor |
| 21st |
Six people, including Carlos (the Jackal), kidnap delegates of an OPEC conference in Vienna |
| 29th |
A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 |
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