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 , the 73rd year of the , and the 4th year of the decade.
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CBS sells the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner (3.2 million dollars less than CBS bought the Yankees for).
Elvis Presley's concert in Hawaii is the first worldwide telecast by an entertainer, that is watched by more people than watched the Apollo moon landings.
American football: The Miami Dolphins complete the first (and through 2015, only) perfect season in National Football League history by defeating the Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
January 16 – Anna Christian Waters, 5 years old, disappears from her home in Purisima Canyon, near Half Moon Bay, California.
Roe v. Wade: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns state bans on abortion.
George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship.
A Royal JordanianBoeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed.
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 Nixon in 1974.
The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.
February 12 – Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in metric on signs (see Metrication in the United States).
February 13 – The United States dollar is devalued by 10%.
February 16 – The Court of Appeal of England and Wales rules that The Sunday Times can publish articles on thalidomide and Distillers Company, despite ongoing legal actions by parents (the decision is overturned in July by the House of Lords).
February 21 – Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (Boeing 727) is shot down by Israelifighter 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 22 – Sino-American relations: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to mainland China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.
February 26 – Edward Heath's British government publishes a Green Paper on prices and incomes policy.
Northern Ireland sovereignty referendum (the "Border Poll"): 98.9% of those voting in the province want Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Turnout is 58.7%, although less than 1% for Catholics.[1] This is the first referendum on regional government in the U.K.
Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs explode in Whitehall and the Old Bailey in London.
March 10 – Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, is assassinated in Government House.
March 12 – Last episode of original Laugh-In airs on NBC. The show will continue with re-runs until May 14, 1973.
Many of the few remaining United States soldiers begin to leave Vietnam. One reunion of a former POW with his family is immortalized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy.
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.[2]
March 23 – Watergate scandal (United States): 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.
April 8 – Artist Pablo Picasso dies at his home in France.
April 10 – 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.
April 11 – The British House of Commons votes against restoring capital punishment by a margin of 142 votes.
The German counter-terrorist force GSG 9 is officially formed in response to the Munich massacre.
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, New York, to Miami, Florida.
The Morganza Spillway on the Mississippi River is opened for the first time in order to prevent catastrophic flooding of New Orleans.
April 20 – An Indian Pacific train en route to Perth derails near Broken Hill, New South Wales, destroying a quarter mile of track.
April 26 – The first day of trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
The last section of the IRT Third Avenue Line from 149th Street to Gun Hill Road in The Bronx is closed.
Six Irishmen, including Joe Cahill, are arrested by the Irish Naval Service off County Waterford, on board a coaster carrying 5 tons of weapons destined for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
April 30 – Watergate scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that Attorney General Richard Kleindienst has resigned along with staffers H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman.
May[]
Main article: May 1973
May 1 – An estimated 1,600,000 workers in the United Kingdom stop work in support of a Trades Union Congress "day of national protest and stoppage" against the Government's anti-inflation policy.
Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
Sunderland A.F.C. defeats Leeds United A.F.C. in the 1973 FA Cup Final.
Secretariat wins the Kentucky Derby in a dramatic come from behind victory and setting a new Derby record of 1:59 2/5ths.
Led Zeppelin plays before 56,800 persons at Tampa Stadium on the band's 1973 North American Tour, thus breaking the August 15, 1965, record of 55,600 set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
May 8 – A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and American Indian Movement activists who were occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants.
Bobby Riggs challenges and defeats Margaret Court, the world's #1 women's player, in a nationally-televised tennis match set in Ramona, CA northeast of San Diego. Riggs wins 6-2, 6-1 which leads to the huge Battle of the Sexes match against Billie Jean King later in the year on September 20.
May 18 – Second Cod War: Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navyfrigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 50-mile limit round Iceland.
May 19 – Secretariat wins the Preakness Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths over the amazingly quick 2nd placed Sham. A malfunction in the track's timing equipment prevented a confirmed new track record.
May 22 – Lord Lambton resigns from the British government over a 'call girl' scandal.
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.
May 27 – By virtue of the non-retroactivity of Soviet copyright laws, all works published before this date are public domain. This applies worldwide.Template:NoMention
May 30–Gordon Johncock wins the Indianapolis 500 in the Patrick Racing SpecialEagle-Offenhauser, after only 133 laps, due to rain. (The race was begun May 28 but called due to rain.)
June[]
Main article: June 1973
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 4 – A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.
June 9 – Secretariat wins the Belmont Stakes shattering the record[4] by an unbelievable 2 3/5ths seconds, becoming the first Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing winner since 1948.
Henri Pescarolo and co-driver Gérard Larrousse (both France) win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Equipe MatraMS670B.
The grandson of J. Paul Getty is kidnapped in Rome.Template:NoMention
June 16 – U.S. President Richard Nixon begins several talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
June 17 – The submersible Johnson Sea Link becomes entangled on the wreckage of the USS Fred T. Berry off Key West, Florida. The submersible is brought to the surface the following day, but 2 of the 4 men aboard die of carbon dioxide poisoning.
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 22 – W. Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") retires from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
June 23 – 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.
June 24 – Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev addresses the American people on television, the first to do so.
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
Erskine Hamilton Childers is elected the 4th President of Ireland.
Watergate scandal: Former White House counsel John Dean begins his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee.
June 26 – At Plesetsk Cosmodrome, 9 persons 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 2nd millennium, only 7 total solar eclipses exceeded 7 minutes of totality.
July[]
Main article: July 1973
July 1 – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is founded.
July 2 – The United States Congress passes the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) mandating Special Education federally.
July 4 – MLB: The New York Mets fall 12½ games back in last place of the National League Eastern Division.
The Isle of Man Post begins to issue its own postage stamps.
The catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) occurs in Kingman, Arizona, 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 6 – St Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore is gazetted as a national monument.
July 10 – The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
July 11 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Orly, France; 123 are killed.
July 12 – National Personnel Records Center fire: A major fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
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.
France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand.
Bruce Lee, American actor, philosopher, founder of Jeet Kune Do, dies in Hong Kong of cerebral edema (six days later his final film, Enter the Dragon, is released).
July 23 – The Avianca Building in Bogotá, Colombia suffers a serious fire.
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.
Skylab 3 (Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean) is launched, to conduct various medical and scientific experiments aboard Skylab.
July 29 – Formula One racing driver Roger Williamson dies in an accident, witnessed live on European television, during the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix.
July 30 – An 11-year legal action for the victims of Thalidomide ends.Template:NoMention
Militant protesters led by Ian Paisley disrupt the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
A Delta Air LinesDC-9 aircraft flying as Delta Air Lines Flight 173 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 3,000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed, 1 of the passengers dying several months after the accident.
South Korean politician Kim Dae-jung is kidnapped in Tokyo by the KCIA.
The death of Dean Corll leads to the discovery of the Houston Mass Murders: a minimum of 28 boys were killed by Corll and his two teenage accomplices.
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 prohibites military operations in Laos, Cambodia, and North and SouthVietnam as a follow up of the Paris Peace Accords.
August 23 – The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.
September[]
Main article: September 1973
September 3 – The British Trades Union Congress expels 20 members for registering under the Industrial Relations Act 1971.
September 9 – Jackie Stewart places fourth at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, becoming World Drivers' Champion, in the Tyrrell003-Cosworth.
Chile's democratically elected government is overthrown in a military coup after serious instability. President Salvador Allende allegedly commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace, and General Augusto Pinochet heads a U.S.-backed military junta that governs Chile for the next 16 years.
Art Garfunkel finally releases his solo debut album Angel Clare, 17 years after starting his career.
September 15 – Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden dies. His grandson, Carl XVI Gustaf, becomes king.
September 20 – The Battle of the Sexes: Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in a televised tennis match, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3, at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. With an attendance of 30,492, this remains the largest live audience ever to see a tennis match in US history. The global audience that viewed on television in 36 countries was estimated at 90 million.
September 20 – Singer-songwriter Jim Croce dies following a gig at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Croce boarded a small chartered plane that crashed on takeoff. All six people aboard were killed.
September 22 – Henry Kissinger, United States National Security Advisor, starts his term as United States Secretary of State.
September 23 – The Oakland Raiders defeat the Miami Dolphins 12-7, ending the Dolphins' unbeaten streak at 18. It is the Miami Dolphins' first loss since January 16, 1972 in Super Bowl VI.
Soviet space program: Soyuz 12, 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.
September 28 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the September 11, 1973, coup d'état in Chile.
September 30 – Yankee Stadium, known as "The House That Ruth Built", closes for a two-year renovation at a cost of $160 million. The New York Yankees play all of their home games at Shea Stadium in 1974 and 1975.
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.
French Formula One driver François Cevert is killed in the Tyrrell003-Cosworth during the U.S. Grand Prix. Cevert's teammate, World Champion Jackie Stewart, announces his retirement after the event.
October 8 – LBC Radio begins broadcasting on 97.3 FM in London.
Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States and then, in federal court in Baltimore, 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.
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, Thailand.
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.
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 raises calls for Nixon's impeachment.
The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.
October 27 – The Canon City meteorite, a 1.4 kilogram chondrite type meteorite, strikes Earth in Fremont County, Colorado.
October 30 – The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time in history.
October 31 – Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape: Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland after a hijacked helicopter lands in the exercise yard.
November[]
Main article: November 1973
November 1 – Watergate scandal: Acting Attorney General Robert Bork appoints Leon Jaworski as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.Template:NoMention
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".
Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurs against the military regime in Athens, Greece.
November 21 – 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.
November 25 – Greek dictator George 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.
December[]
Main article: December 1973
December – Chile breaks diplomatic contacts with Sweden.Template:NoMention
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 [5]
December 15 – Gay rights: The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its DSM-II.
December 16 – O. J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills became the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a pro football season.
December 18 – The Islamic Development Bank is created as a specialized agency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) (effective 12 August 1974).
December 19 – Namco releases Mach Storm, a planetarium-like flight simulator simulating a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in which players can bomb rail yards, seaports, fuel tanks, power stations, supply depots, NVA and Viet Congmilitary camps, and airfields around Hanoi while fighting off enemy NVAFMiG-17s, MiG-21s, Shenyang J-5s, Shenyang J-6s, Mil Mi-8gunships, Antonov An-2biplanes, SA-2surface-to-air missiles, and Sovietnaval vessels in the Vietnam War during Operation Linebacker and the Christmas bombing of North Vietnam.
December 20 – Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid by the separatist organization ETA.
December 23 – OPEC doubles the price of crude oil.Template:NoMention
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.Template:NoMention
December 31 – In the United Kingdom, due to coal shortages caused by industrial action, the Three-Day Week electricity consumption reduction measure comes into force.
Date unknown[]
ODECA functions are suspended.
Economist E. F. Schumacher publishes his book Small Is Beautiful.
The New York Bible Society International's New International Version of the New Testament translated into modern American English is published.
The National House Building Council is formed in the United Kingdom.
The COSC The Swiss Official Chronometer testing Institute is founded in Switzerland by 5 WatchCantons & Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
The title Queen of Australia is created by the Royal Style and Titles Act.
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.
The Sentosa Musical Fountain opens alongside the Fountain Gardens in Sentosa, Singapore.
5 teams tie for the rugby championship: Wales, England, France, Ireland, and Scotland.
Lite Beer is introduced in the U.S. by the Miller Brewing Company.
March 10 – Bull Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, during the American Civil Rights Movement and member of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s (b. 1897)
March 10 – Robert Siodmak, German-American director (b. 1900)
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