What happened in 1973

57 events　World 5, Japan 1, North America 15, Europe 11, USSR / Russia 3, Asia 6, Middle East 8, Latin America 4, Africa 3, Oceania 1

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Highlights of 1973

World5

  • Mar 27At the 45th Academy Awards, The Godfather wins best picture.
  • Aug 1Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is inaugurated.
  • Aug 5Mars 6, also known as 3MP No. 50P, is launched by the Soviet Union to explore Mars.
  • Oct 17An OPEC oil embargo against several countries supporting Israel triggers the 1973 energy crisis.
  • Oct1973 oil crisisTriggered by the Yom Kippur War, oil-producing countries raised oil prices sharply. In Japan people rushed to buy up toilet paper, and in 1974 the economy shrank for the first time since the war.

Japan1

  • Nov 29104 people are killed in a Taiyo department store fire in Kumamoto, Kyūshū, Japan.

North America15

  • Apr 5Pioneer 11 is launched on a mission to study the Solar System.
  • May 3The Sears Tower in Chicago, United States, is topped-out, becoming the world's tallest building at.
  • May 14Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
  • May 25Skylab 2 (Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz, Joseph Kerwin) is launched on a mission to repair damage to the recently launched Skylab space station.
  • Jun 24UpStairs Lounge arson attack, an as-yet unsolved attack on a gay bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, in which 32 patrons are killed.
  • Jul 16Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
  • Jul 28Skylab 3 (Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean) is launched, to conduct various medical and scientific experiments aboard Skylab.
  • Jul 31A Delta Air Lines DC-9 aircraft flying as Delta Air Lines Flight 723 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.
  • Sep 20Jim Croce, Maury Muehleisen and four others are killed in a plane crash shortly after takeoff following a concert at Northwestern Louisiana University in Natchitoches.
  • Sep 20Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in a singles tennis match billed as the "Battle of the Sexes".
  • Oct 20The 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.
  • Oct 26The United Nations recognizes the independence of Guinea-Bissau.
  • Nov 3Mariner program: NASA launches Mariner 10 toward Mercury (on March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet).
  • Nov 16Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 (Gerald Carr, William Pogue, Edward Gibson) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an 84-day mission.
  • Dec 3Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

Europe11

  • Jan 1The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
  • Mar 8The 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.
  • Apr 17The West German counter-terrorist force GSG 9 is officially formed in response to the Munich massacre.
  • May 11The Data Act (Sw. Datalagen) − the world's first national data protection law − is enacted in Sweden.
  • Jun 1The Greek military junta abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic.
  • Jul 11Varig Flight 820 crashes near Orly, France; 123 people are killed.
  • Jul 21Lillehammer 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.
  • Aug 23The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.
  • Sep 15Carl XVI Gustaf, becomes King of Sweden following the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf.
  • Nov 17The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurs against the military regime in Athens, Greece.
  • Dec 20Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid by the separatist organization ETA.

USSR / Russia3

  • Jul 25The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
  • Sep 27Soviet space program: Soyuz 12 (Vasily Lazarev, Oleg Makarov), the first Soviet crewed flight since the Soyuz 11 tragedy in 1971, is launched.
  • Dec 18Soviet space program: Soyuz 13 (Pyotr Klimuk, Valentin Lebedev) is launched.

Asia6

  • Jan 27U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.
  • Apr 1India launches the wildlife conservation program Project Tiger.
  • Apr 10The Islamic Republic of Pakistan introduces its new constitution.
  • Aug 15The 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.
  • Oct 14Thai 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.
  • Oct 15Typhoon Ruth crosses Luzon, Philippines, killing 27 people and causing $5 million in damage.

Middle East8

  • Jan 22A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed.
  • Feb 21Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114, Boeing 727, is shot down by Israeli fighter aircraft over the Sinai Desert which was under Israeli occupation at the time, after the passenger plane is suspected of being an enemy military plane. There are 108 fatalities, and only five people on board survive (one crew member and four passengers).
  • Apr 10Operation 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.
  • Jul 17King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
  • Oct 6Yom 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.
  • Oct 25The Yom Kippur War ends.
  • Oct 30The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus Strait for the first time in history.
  • Dec 18The Islamic Development Bank is created as a specialized agency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) (effective August 12, 1974).

Latin America4

  • Jun 20The Ezeiza massacre occurs in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers shoot at left-wing Peronists, killing at least 13 and injuring more than 300.
  • Jun 27Coup d'état in Uruguay: pressed by the military, President Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament; a 12-year-long civic-military dictatorship begins.
  • Jul 10The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
  • Sep 11Chile'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.

Africa3

  • May 10The Polisario Front, a Sahrawi movement dedicated to the independence of Spanish Sahara, is formed.
  • Jun 30A very long total solar eclipse occurs. During the entire second millennium, only seven total solar eclipses exceeded seven minutes of totality.
  • Sep 27Luís Cabral declares the independence of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau from the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. It is later granted in September 1974.

Oceania1

  • Oct 20The Sydney Opera House in Australia is opened by Queen Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.