1975

From AmericolaWiki

1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. It was declared International Women's Year by the United Nations.

[edit] Events

[edit] January

• January 1 - Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up.
• January 1 - Work is abandoned on the British end of the Channel Tunnel.
• January 2 - The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress.
• January 4 - Elizabeth Seton is canonized becoming the first American saint.
• January 5 - The bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra strikes the Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, killing 12.
• January 7 - OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%.
• January 8 - Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman U.S. governor who did not succeed her husband.
• January 8 - U.S. President Gerald Ford appoints Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to head a special commission looking into alleged domestic abuses by the CIA.
• January 10 - Japanese soldier Teruo Nakamura surrenders on the Indonesian island of Morota.
• January 12 - The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Minnesota Vikings 16-6 in Super Bowl IX to capture their first-ever Pro Football World Championship.
• January 14 - Heiress Lesley Whittle , 17, is kidnapped from her home in Shropshire, England by Donald Neilson.
• January 15 - International Women's Year launched in Britain by Princess Alexandra and Barbara Castle.
• January 15 - Portugal grants independence to Angola.
• January 20 - In Hanoi, North Vietnam, the Politburo approves the final military offensive against South Vietnam.
• January 20 - Michael Ovitz founds the Creative Artists Agency.
• January 29 - The Weather Underground bombs the U.S. State Department main office in Washington, D.C..
• January - Altair 8800 is released, sparking the era of the microcomputer.

[edit] February

• February 1 - The Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation is launched, becoming the first TV network in the Philippines.
• February 4 - The first successfully predicted earthquake occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
• February 9 - The Soyuz 17 crew (Georgi Grechko, Aleksei Gubarev) returns to Earth after 1 month aboard the Salyut 4 space station.
• February 11 - Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.
• February 11 - Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, President of Madagascar, is assassinated.
• February 13 - 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.
• February 13 - Fire breaks out in the World Trade Center.
• February 21 - Watergate scandal: 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.
• February 23 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly 2 months early in the United States.
• February 26 - A fleeing Irish Republican Army terrorist shoots and kills off-duty London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase.
• February 27 - The Movement 2 June kidnaps West German politician Peter Lorenz. He is released on March 4 after most of the kidnappers' demands are met.
• February 28 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
• February 28 - 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.

[edit] March

• March 1 - Color television transmissions begin in Australia.
• March 4 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
• March 4 - First television coverage of a Canadian parliamentary committee.
• March 6 - Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement in their border dispute.
• March 6 - 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.
• March 7 - The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, kidnapped 7 weeks earlier by the Black Panther, is discovered in Staffordshire, England.
• March 8 - The United Nations proclaims International Women's Day.
• March 9 - Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
• March 10 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
• March 10 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show opens in New York City with 4 performances.
• March 11 - The leftist military government in Portugal defeats a rightist coup attempt.
• March 13 - Vietnam War: 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).
• March 15 - 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.
• March 22 - 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.
• March 25 - [[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.)
• March 28 - A fire in the maternity wing at Kucic Hospital in Rijeka, Yugoslavia, kills 25 babies.

[edit] April

• April 3 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
• April 4 - Vietnam War: The first military Operation Babylift flight, C5A 80218, crashes 27 minutes after takeoff, killing 138 on board; 176 survive the crash.
• April 9 - Asia's first professional basketball league, the Philippine Basketball Association, plays its first game at the Araneta Coliseum.
• April 13 - An attack by Palestinians on a church in Ain El Remmeneh, Lebanon, sparks over 15 years of civil war.
• April 13 - A coup d'état in Chad led by the military overthrows and kills the President François Tombalbaye.
• April 17 - 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).
• April 24 - 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 1975 Occupation of the West German embassy)
• April 25 - Vietnam War: 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.
• April 30 - Vietnam War: The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon and South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally.

[edit] May

• May 5 - The Busch Gardens Williamsburg Theme Park opens in Virginia.
• May 12 - Mayaguez incident: Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia seize the United States merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
• May 15 - Mayaguez incident: The American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued by the U.S. Navy and Marines; 38 Americans are killed.
• May 16 - India annexes Sikkim.
• May 16 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• May 25 - Indianapolis 500: Bobby Unser wins for a second time in a rain-shorted 174 lap, 435 mile (696 km) race.
• May 28 - Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, creating the Economic Community of West African States.
• May 30 - 1972 Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine dies in a car accident.

[edit] June

• June 5 - The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.
• June 5 - The United Kingdom votes yes in a referendum to stay in the European Community.
• June 9 - The Order of Australia is awarded for the first time.
• June 10 - In Washington, DC, the Rockefeller Commission issues its report on CIA abuses, recommending a joint congressional oversight committee on intelligence.
• June 19 - Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan is found guilty in absentia of the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.
• June 25 - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares Emergency in India, suspending civil liberties and elections.
• June 25 - Mozambique gains independence from Portugal.
• June 26 - Two FBI agents and 1 AIM member die in a shootout, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

[edit] July

• July 1 - 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).
• July 4 - Sydney newspaper publisher Juanita Nielsen disappears, and is presumed to have been murdered.
• July 5 - Cape Verde gains independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule.
• July 6 - The Comoros declare their independence from France.
• July 9 - The National Assembly of Senegal passes a law that will pave way for a multi-party system(albeit highly restricted).
• July 12 - São Tomé and Príncipe declare independence from Portugal.
• July 17 - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the 2 nations.
• July 31 - In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.

[edit] August

• August 1 - The Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.
• August 8 - The Banqiao Dam, in China's Henan Province, fails after a freak typhoon; over 200,000 people perish.
• August 8 - Samuel Bronfman, son of the president of Seagram's, is kidnapped in Purchase, New York.
• August 11 - British Leyland Motor Corporation comes under British government control.
• August 11 - 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.
• August 15 - The Birmingham Six are wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment in Great Britain.
• August 15 - President Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh is killed during a coup.
• August 20 - Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
• August 24 - Officers responsible for the military coup in Greece in 1967 are sentenced to death in Athens. The sentences are later commuted to life imprisonment.
• August 25 - Rock musician Bruce Springsteen releases his third album, Born To Run.

[edit] September

• September 5 - 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.
• September 5 - The London Hilton hotel is bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army; 2 people are killed and 63 injured.^[1]
• September 14 - Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" is slashed a dozen times at a gallery in Amsterdam.
• September 15 - The French department of Corse, comprising the entire island of Corsica, is divided into two departments: Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
• September 18 - Fugitive Patricia Hearst is captured in San Francisco.
• September 20 - The term of Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, as the 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, ends.
• September 21 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, Sultan of Kelantan becomes the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• September 22 - U.S. President Gerald Ford survives a second assassination attempt, this time by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco.
• September 28 - The Spaghetti House siege takes place in London.
• September 30 - The Hughes Helicopters (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing IDS) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.

[edit] October

• October 9 - A bomb explosion outside Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills 1 and injures 20.
• October 11 - NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live (George Carlin is the very first host; Billy Preston and Janis Ian the very first musical guests).
• October 11 - Bill Clinton marries Hillary Rodham, whom he met at Yale Law School. His wife will remain known by her maiden name for a few years.
• October 16 - Five Australian-based journalists are killed at Balibo by Indonesian forces, during an incursion into Portuguese Timor.
• October 21 - Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox hits a home run in Fenway Park, in the 12th inning of the 6th game of the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, to win what many consider the greatest World Series game of all time.
• October 27 - Robert Poulin, 18, begins shooting at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa, Canada and then shoots himself, killing 1 and wounding 5.
• October 29 - Peter Sutcliffe (the "Yorkshire Ripper") commits his first murder, Wilma McCann.
• October 30 - Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting Head of State after dictator Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern.

[edit] November

• November 3 - 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."
• November 3 - The first petroleum pipeline opens from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth, Scotland.
• November 6 - The Green March begins: 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.
• November 10 - United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379: 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.
• November 10 - 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).
• November 10 - Lev Leshchenko revives Den Pobedy, one of the most popular World War II songs in the USSR.
• November 11 - Angola becomes independent from Portugal; civil war soon erupts.
• November 11 - Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Governor-General of Australia Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam and commissions Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister.
• November 11 - The first annual Vogalonga rowing "race" is held in Venice, Italy.
• November 14 - Spain abandons Western Sahara.
• November 18 - General Vasco Goncalves is ousted as Prime Minister of Portugal.
• November 20 - Spanish dictator Francisco Franco dies.
• November 20 - Former California Governor Ronald Reagan enters the race for the Republican presidential nomination, challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford.
• November 21 - The rock group Queen releases the album A Night at the Opera, including their hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody."
• November 22 - Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco.
• November 25 - Suriname gains independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• November 25 - The Irish Republican Army is outlawed in the United Kingdom.
• November 27 - 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.
• November 28 - Portuguese Timor declares its independence from Portugal as East Timor.
• November 29 - 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).
• November 29 – 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.

[edit] December

• December 2 - The communist Pathet Lao takes power in Laos.
• December 7 - East Timor is invaded by Indonesia.
• December 21 - Left-wing terrorists, including Carlos (the Jackal), kidnap delegates of an OPEC conference in Vienna. They kill 3 hostages, extort $5 million ransom and escape into the Middle East.
• December 29 - A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport, killing 11.

[edit] Unknown dates

• January - Volkswagen introduces the Golf, its new front-wheel-drive economy car, in the United States and Canada as the Volkswagen Rabbit.
• In New Zealand, Māori leader Whina Cooper leads a march of 5000 people in support of Māori claims to their land
• The Third Cod War between UK and Iceland lasted between November 1975 - June 1976
• Government of Colombia announces finding of Ciudad Perdida
• Spanish army quits Spanish (Western) Sahara. Sahrawi Republic (RASD) is created. Morocco invades ex-Spanish Western Sahara.
• First use of the term fractal
• Victoria (Australia) abolishes capital punishment
• South Australia becomes first Australian state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults
• Some members of Jehovah's Witnesses, based on the group's chronology,^[2] thought that Armageddon would happen in 1975 and a few of them sold their houses and businesses to prepare for the new world paradise which they believe will exist when Jesus sets up God's Kingdom on earth.

[edit] World population

[edit] Births

[edit] January-February

• January 2 - Chris Cheney, Australian musician (The Living End)
• January 3 - Danica McKellar, American actress
• January 5 - Bradley Cooper, American actor
• January 5 - Mike Grier, American ice hockey player
• January 9 - Kim Mathers, former wife of rapper Eminem
• January 11 - Rory Fitzpatrick, American ice hockey player
• January 11 - Bunny Poe, American musician
• January 13 - Shazia Mirza, British comedian
• January 15 - Edith Bowman, British radio DJ
• January 17 - Tony Brown, New Zealand Rugby Union footballer
• January 20 - Mark Allan Robinson, Canadian recall leader
• January 22 - Balthazar Getty, American actor
• January 23 - Tito Ortiz, American mixed martial arts fighter.
• January 25 - Tim Montgomery, American athlete
• January 25 - Mia Kirshner, Canadian actress
• January 25 - John Wade, National Football League player
• January 28 - David Zingler, American writer
• January 29 - Sara Gilbert, American actress
• January 30 - Yumi Yoshimura, famous Japanese singer Puffy Amiyumi

• February 2 - Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian hockey player
• February 2 - Ieroklis Stoltidis, Greek footballer
• February 4 - Natalie Imbruglia, Australian actress and singer
• February 5 - Adam Carson, American drummer
• February 8 - Joe Eshwar, Indian writer & filmaker
• February 14 - Scott Owen, Australian musician (The Living End)
• February 17 - Harisu, South Korean singer, model and actress
• February 17 - Todd Harvey, Canadian ice hockey player
• February 17 - Vaclav Prospal, Czech ice hockey player
• February 18 - Keith Gillespie, Northern Irish footballer
• February 18 - Gary Neville, English footballer
• February 19 - Daniel Adair, Canadian drummer (Nickelback)
• February 20 - Brian Littrell, American singer, member of Backstreet Boys
• February 21 - Heri Joensen, Faroese musician (Týr)
• February 22 - Drew Barrymore, American actress
• February 23 - Michael Cornacchia, American actor

[edit] March-April

• March 4 - Kim Jung-Eun, South Korean actress
• March 4 - Myrna Veenstra, Dutch field hockey player
• March 4 - Hawksley Workman, Canadian rock singer-songwriter
• March 5 - Jolene Blalock, American actress
• March 5 - Niki Taylor, American model
• March 9 - Roy Makaay, Dutch football player
• March 11 - Eric the Midget, member of the Wack Pack from radio's The Howard Stern Show
• March 15 - will.i.am, American rapper
• March 15 - Eva Longoria, American actress (Desperate Housewives)
• March 15 - Veselin Topalov, Bulgarian chess player
• March 17 - Andrew Martin, Canadian professional wrestler known as Test
• March 19 - Vivian Hsu, Taiwanese singer, actress and model
• March 21 - Aaron Suski, American Skateboarder
• March 25 - Ladislav Benysek, Czech ice hockey player
• March 27 - Stacy Ann Ferguson , American actress/singer
• March 30 - Bahar Soomekh, American actress
• April 4 - Scott Rolen, baseball player
• April 4 - Delphine Arnault, billionaire French businesswoman LVMH
• April 6 - Zach Braff, American actor
• April 7 - Ronde Barber, American football player
• April 7 - Tiki Barber, American football player
• April 9 - Robbie Fowler, British footballer
• April 10 - Chris Carrabba, American musician (Dashboard Confessional)
• April 13 - Bruce Dyer, English footballer
• April 14 - Amy Dumas, American professional wrestler
• April 15 - Paul Dana, American race car driver (Indy Racing League) (d. 2006)
• April 22 - Greg Moore, Canadian race car driver (d. 1999)
• April 30 - Mike Chat, American actor

[edit] May-June

• May 1 - Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroonian footballer (d. 2003)
• May 2 - David Beckham, English footballer
• May 3 - Kimora Lee Simmons, American fashion designer
• May 7 - Jason Tunks, Canadian Olympic discus thrower
• May 8 - Jussi Markkanen, Finnish ice hockey player
• May 8 - Enrique Iglesias, American singer
• May 10 - Hélio Castroneves, Brazilian race car driver
• May 12 - Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby player
• May 15 - Ray Lewis, American football player
• May 17 - Sasha Alexander, American actress
• May 18 - John Higgins, Scottish snooker player
• May 18 - Jack Johnson, American singer-songwriter
• May 19 - London Fletcher, American football player
• May 22 - Janne Niinimaa, Finnish ice hockey player
• May 27 - Jamie Oliver, British chef and television personality
• May 25 - Lauryn Hill, American musician
• May 27 - André 3000, American musician (OutKast)

• June 4 - Angelina Jolie, American actress
• June 7 - Allen Iverson, American basketball player
• June 9 - Andrew Symonds, Australian cricketer
• June 10 - Nicole Bilderback, Asian-American actress
• June 11 - Choi Ji-woo, South Korean actress and model
• June 14 - Chris Onstad, American cartoonist
• June 17 - Chloe Jones, American actress
• June 18 - Martin St. Louis, Canadian hockey player
• June 19 - Ed Coode, British rower
• June 23 - KT Tunstall, singer-songwriter from St Andrews, Scotland
• June 24 - Christie Rampone, American soccer player
• June 25 - Linda Cardellini, American actress
• June 25 - Vladimir Kramnik, Russian chess player
• June 27 - Tobey Maguire, American actor

[edit] July-August

• July 1 - Sufjan Stevens, American folk musician
• July 5 - Gunnar H. Thomsen, Faroese bassist (Týr)
• July 6 - Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent, American rapper
• July 8 - Dan Palmer, American musician
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