1973

1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1973rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 973rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 73rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1970s decade.

Events

January

January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines.
January 22
- The Sunshine Showdown: George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica.
- A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed.
January 27 – U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

February

February 8 – A military insurrection in Uruguay poses an institutional challenge to President Juan María Bordaberry.
February 21 – 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.
February 28 – The Republic of Ireland general election is held. Liam Cosgrave becomes the new Taoiseach.

March

March 8 – The Troubles: A referendum is held in Northern Ireland over whether to reunite with the Republic of Ireland or to stay a part of the UK. The result was 98% remain. The Provisional Irish Republican Army responds to the referendum by planting four car bombs in London on the same day, two of which went off, causing one death and injuring over 200 people.
March 10 – Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, is assassinated outside Government House, along with his aide-de-camp.
March 18 – Comet Kohoutek is discovered.
March 20 – A British government White Paper on Northern Ireland proposes the re-establishment of an Assembly elected by proportional representation, with a possible All-Ireland council.
March 21 – The Lofthouse Colliery disaster occurs in Great Britain. Seven miners are trapped underground; none survive.
March 27 – At the 45th Academy Awards, The Godfather wins best picture.

April

April 1
- India launches the wildlife conservation program Project Tiger.
- Value Added Tax (VAT) is introduced in the United Kingdom.
April 3 – The first handheld mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City.
April 5
The launch of the Atlas-Centaur carrying the Pioneer G (11) spacecraft on April 5, 1973.
- Fahri Korutürk becomes the sixth president of Turkey.
- Pioneer 11 is launched on a mission to study the Solar System.
April 6 – Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees becomes the first designated hitter in Major League Baseball.
April 7 – Tu te reconnaîtras by Anne-Marie David (music by Claude Morgan, text by Vline Buggy) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 for Luxembourg.
April 10
- Operation Spring of Youth: Israeli commandos raid Beirut, assassinating 3 leaders of the Palestinian Resistance Movement. The Lebanese army's inaction brings the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Saeb Salam, a Sunni Muslim.
- The Islamic Republic of Pakistan introduced its new constitution, its supreme law.
April 15 – Naim Talu, a former civil servant, forms the new government of Turkey (36th government).
April 17 – The German counter-terrorist force GSG 9 is officially formed in response to the Munich massacre.

May

May 3 – The Sears Tower in Chicago, United States, is topped-out, becoming the world's tallest building at 1,451 feet (442 m).
May 5 – Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
May 10 – The Polisario Front, a Sahrawi movement dedicated to the independence of Spanish Sahara, is formed.
May 11 – The Data Act (Sw. Datalagen) − the world's first national data protection law − is enacted in Sweden.
May 14 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
May 18 – Second Cod War: Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 80 km (50 mi) limit around Iceland.
May 25
- Skylab 2 (Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz, Joseph Kerwin) is launched on a mission to repair damage to the recently launched Skylab space station.
- Héctor José Cámpora becomes democratic president of the Argentine Republic ending the 1966 to 1973 Revolución Argentina military dictatorship.

June

June 1 – The Greek military junta abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic.
June 3 – A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes at the Paris air show; 15 are killed.
June 10 – Henri Pescarolo and co-driver Gérard Larrousse (both France) win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Equipe Matra MS670B.
June 20 – The Ezeiza massacre occurs in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers shoot at left-wing Peronists, killing at least 13 and injuring more than 300.
June 24
- Leonid Brezhnev addresses the American people on television, the first Soviet leader to do so.
- UpStairs Lounge arson attack, an as-yet unsolved attack on a gay bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, in which 32 patrons are killed.
June 25 – Erskine Hamilton Childers is elected the 4th President of Ireland.
June 26 – At Plesetsk Cosmodrome, nine people are killed in the explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.
June 27 – Coup d'état in Uruguay: pressed by the military, President Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament; a 12-year-long civic-military dictatorship begins.
June 28 – 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.
June 30 – A very long total solar eclipse occurs. During the entire second millennium, only seven total solar eclipses exceeded seven minutes of totality.

July

July 3 – Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
July 5 – The catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) occurs in Kingman, Arizona, United States, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, killing 11 firefighters. This explosion becomes a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide.
July 10 – The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
July 11 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Orly, France; 123 people are killed.
July 16 – Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
July 17 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
July 20 – France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand.
July 21 – Lillehammer affair: Agents of Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence agency, shoot and kill a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, mistakenly believing him to be a senior member of the Palestinian Black September Organization.
July 23 – The Avianca Building in Bogotá, Colombia, suffers a serious fire, in which four people are killed.
July 25 – The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
July 28 – Skylab 3 (Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean) is launched, to conduct various medical and scientific experiments aboard Skylab.
July 31 – A Delta Air Lines DC-9 aircraft flying as Delta Air Lines Flight 173 lands short of Logan Airport runway at Boston, United States, 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; one of the passengers died several months after the accident.

August

August 1 – Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is inaugurated.
August 2 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.
August 5
- Black September members open fire at the Athens airport; 3 people are killed, 55 injured.
- Mars 6, also known as 3MP No. 50P, is launched by the Soviet Union to explore Mars.
August 8 – South Korean politician Kim Dae-jung is kidnapped in Tokyo by the KCIA.
August 15 – The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, officially halting 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia according to the Case–Church Amendment-an act that prohibits military operations in Laos, Cambodia, and North and South Vietnam as a follow-up of the Paris Peace Accords.
August 23 – The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.
August 25 – Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon: Two Australian girls go missing whilst attending an Australian rules football match at the Adelaide Oval, never to be seen again.

September

September 9 – Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart becomes World Drivers' Champion when his Tyrrell 003-Cosworth finishes fourth in the 1973 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
September 11 – Chile's democratically elected government is overthrown in a violent military coup after serious political instability. President Salvador Allende allegedly commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace and General Augusto Pinochet heads a US-backed military junta that governs Chile for the next 17 years.
September 15 – Carl XVI Gustaf, becomes King of Sweden following the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf.
September 18 – The two German Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), are admitted to the United Nations.
September 20
- Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in a singles tennis match billed as the "Battle of the Sexes".
- Jim Croce, Maury Muehleisen and four others are killed in a plane crash shortly after takeoff following a concert at Northwestern Louisiana University in Natchitoches.
September 27
- Soviet space program: Soyuz 12 (Vasily Lazarev, Oleg Makarov), the first Soviet manned flight since the Soyuz 11 tragedy in 1971, is launched.
- Luís Cabral declares the independence of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau from the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. It is later granted in September 1974.

October

October 6 – Yom Kippur War begins: 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.
October 10 – Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States.
October 14 – Thai popular uprising: Students revolt in Bangkok – In the Thammasat student uprising over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the Thanom military government, 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
October 15 – Typhoon Ruth crosses Luzon, Philippines, killing 27 people and causing $5 million in damage.
October 17 – An OPEC oil embargo against several countries supporting Israel triggers the 1973 energy crisis.
October 20
- The Saturday Night Massacre: 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 prompts calls for Nixon's impeachment.
- The Sydney Opera House in Australia is opened by Queen Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.

October 25 – The Yom Kippur War ends.
October 26 – The United Nations recognizes the independence of Guinea-Bissau.
October 30 – The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus Strait for the first time in history.

November

November 3
- Pan Am flight 160, a Boeing 707-321C, crashes at Logan International Airport, Boston, killing three people.
- Mariner program: NASA launches Mariner 10 toward Mercury (on March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet).
November 7 – The Congress of the United States overrides President Richard Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
November 8 – Millennium '73, a festival hosted by Guru Maharaj Ji at the Astrodome, is called by supporters the "most significant event in human history".
November 11 – Egypt and Israel sign a United States-sponsored cease-fire accord.
November 16
- Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 (Gerald Carr, William Pogue, Edward Gibson) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an 84-day mission.
- U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
November 17 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurs against the military regime in Athens, Greece.
November 25 – Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos is ousted in a military coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.
November 27 – The United States Senate votes 92–3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States.
November 29 – 104 people are killed in a Taiyo department store fire in Kumamoto, Kyūshū, Japan.
November – Queen Sisowath Kossamak of Cambodia is released from house arrest to Beijing.

December

December – Chile breaks diplomatic contacts with Sweden.
December 1 – Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.
December 3 – Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
December 6 – 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.
December 14 – Rhodesia executes two Blacks at Salisbury Central Prison for murder.
December 18
- Soviet space program: Soyuz 13 (Pyotr Klimuk, Valentin Lebedev) is launched.
- The Islamic Development Bank is created as a specialized agency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) (effective August 12, 1974).
December 20 – Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid by the separatist organization ETA.
December 28 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.
December 30 – Terrorist Carlos fails in his attempt to assassinate British businessman Joseph Sieff.

Date unknown

A large Song dynasty trade ship of c. 1277 A.D. is dredged up from the waters near the southern coast of China with 12 compartments in its hull. It confirms the descriptions of bulkheaded hull compartments for junks in Zhu Yu's Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119.

Births