Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1973
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January
- January 1
- The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later became the European Union.
- CBS sells the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner. It was 3.2 million dollars more than CBS bought the Yankees for.
- January 14
- Elvis Presley's concert in Hawaii is watched by over a billion people live worldwide.
- The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII to complete the NFL's first Perfect Season.
- 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 18 - Eleven Labour Party councillors in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, England, were ordered to pay £6,985 for not enforcing the Housing Finance Act.
- January 20
- January 21 - The Communist League is founded in Denmark.
- January 22
- George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier for the heavyweight world boxing championship.
- A Royal Jordanian Boeing 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 M. Nixon in 1974.
- January 23
- January 27 - Paris Peace Accords are signed. Allies officially wins Vietnam War.
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- February 6
- Toronto: Construction on the CN Tower begins.
- February 11
- February 12 - Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in metric on signs. (See: Metric system in the United States).
- February 13 - The United States Dollar was devalued by 10%.
- 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 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.
- February 27 - The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
- February 28 - Polling day in the Republic of Ireland general election.
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- March 1 - Dick Taverne, who had resigned from the Parliament of the United Kingdom on leaving the Labour Party, was re-elected as a 'Democratic Labour' candidate.
- March 3 - Tottenham Hotspur win the Football League Cup final at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1-0 in the final.
- March 7 - Comet Kohoutek is discovered.
- March 8
- In the 'Border Poll', voters in Northern Ireland vote to remain part of the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists are encouraged to boycott the referendum.
- Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs explode in Whitehall and the Old Bailey in England.
- March 11 - Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, was assassinated in Government House.
- March 17
- Queen Elizabeth II opens the modern London Bridge.
- Many of the few remaining United States soldiers begin to leave Vietnam. One reunion of a former POW reuniting with his family is immortalized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy.
- Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, one of rock's landmark albums, is released.
- March 20 - British government White Paper on Northern Ireland proposes re-establishment of an Assembly elected by proportional representation, with a possible All-Ireland council.
- March 21 - Lofthouse Colliery disaster in Great Britain.
- March 22 - United Kingdom government announces that the Channel Tunnel could be finished by 1980, costing £366m.
- 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 Attorney General John Mitchell as 'overall boss' of the operation.
- March 29 - The last United States soldier leaves Vietnam.
- March 31 - Carowinds opens.
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- April 2 - The LexisNexis computerized legal research service begins.
- April 3 - The first handheld cellular phone call made by Martin Cooper, who conceived the phone, in New York City.
- April 4 - The World Trade Centre officially opens in New York City with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
- April 6
- Pioneer 11 is launched on a mission to study the solar system.
- 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 Eurovision Song Contest 1973 for Luxembourg.
- 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 voted against restoring capital punishment by a margin of 142 votes.
- April 12 - The Labour Party wins control of the Greater London Council.
- April 17
- The German counter-terrorist force GSG 9 is officially formed.
- 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, NY, to Miami, Fla.
- April 20 - An Indian Pacific train en route to Perth, derails near Broken Hill, New South Wales. The train destroyed a quarter mile of track when it left the rails.
- April 28 - Six Irishmen, including Joe Cahill, are arrested by the Irish Naval Service off County Waterford on board a coaster carrying five tons of weapons destined for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
- April 30 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.
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- May 1 - An estimated 1,600,000 workers in the United Kingdom stopped work in support of a Trade Union Congress "day of national protest and stoppage" against the Government's anti-inflation policy.
- May 3 - The Sears Tower in Chicago is finished, becoming the world's tallest building.
- May 5
- Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
- Sunderland AFC defeats Leeds United A.F.C. in the FA Cup final.
- Secretariat wins the Kentucky Derby.
- May 8 - A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement who were occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants.
- May 10 - The Polisario Front,a Sahrawi movement dedicated to the independence of Western Sahara, is formed.
- May 14
- May 17 - Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
- May 18 - Cod War: Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 50-mile limit round Iceland.
- May 19 - Secretariat wins the Preakness Stakes.
- May 20 - Motorcycle racer Jarno Saarinen dies at Monza, Italy.
- May 25 - Skylab 2 ( Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz, Joseph Kerwin) is launched on a mission to repair the Skylab space station.
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- 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 16 - U.S. President Richard Nixon begins several talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
- June 22 - W. Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") retires from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- June 24 - Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev addresses the American people on television, the first to do so.
- June 25
- Erskine Hamilton Childers is elected the fourth 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 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 - Very long total solar eclipse. During the entire 2nd millennium, only 7 total solar eclipses exceeded 7 minutes of totality.
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- July 2 - The United States Congress passes the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) mandating Special Education federally.
- July 5
- The Isle of Man Post begins to issue its own postage stamps.
- The catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills 11 firefighters. This explosion has become a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide.
- July 6 - St Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore was gazetted as a national monument.
- July 10 - The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
- July 11 - Varig Flight 820 disaster near Orly, France - 123 killed.
- July 12 - 1973 National Archives Fire: A major fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Centre 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.
- July 20 - France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand.
- July 21 - The Philippines receives its second Miss Universe title, with Margarita Moran as the winner.
- July 23 - The Avianca Building in Bogotá, Colombia suffers a serious fire.
- July 25 - The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
- July 28
- 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. Confirmation needed
- July 31
- Militant protesters led by Ian Paisley disrupt the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
- A Delta Air Lines Flight 173 DC9-31 aircraft 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 3000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed, 1 of the passengers dying several months after the accident.
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- August 2 - A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man. Confirmation needed
- August 5 - Black September members open fire at the Athens airport; 3 are killed, 55 injured.
- August 8
- August 15 - The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, marking the official halt to 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia.
- August 23 - The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.
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- September 3 - The British Trade Union Congress expelled 20 members for registering under the Industrial Relations Act 1971.
- September 11 - Chile's democratically-elected government is overthrown in a military coup after serious instability. President Salvador Allende commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace, and General Augusto Pinochet heads a U.S.-backed military junta that will govern Chile for the next 16 years.
- September 15 - Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden dies. His grandson, Carl XVI Gustav, becomes king.
- 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 - 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.
- September 22 - Henry Kissinger, United States National Security Advisor, starts his term as United States Secretary of State.
- September 27 - Soviet space programme: Launch of Soyuz 12, the first manned flight since 1971.
- September 28 - ITT is bombed in New York City by Leftist terrorists protesting the restoration of the Chilean Constitution ordered by the Chilean judicial and legislative branches against the Allende administration.
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- October 6 - Yom Kippur War: 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 8 - LBC Radio's first broadcast on 97.3 FM
- October 10 - Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States and then, in federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, 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 - Student Revolt in Bangkok, Thailand
- October 17 - The Arab Oil Embargo against several countries which support 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 raises calls for Nixon's impeachment.
- The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.
- October 26
- October 30 - The Bosporus 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 escaped from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland after a hijacked helicopter landed in the exercise yard.
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- November 3
- Pan Am cargo flight 160, a Boeing 707-321C, crashes at Logan International Airport, Boston, killing 3.
- 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 M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
- November 11 - Egypt and Israel sign a United States-sponsored cease-fire accord.
- November 14 - In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries a commoner, Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey (they divorce in 1992).
- 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
- Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
- A student 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 Lieutenant General Phaidon Gizikis.
- November 27 - The United States Senate votes 92-3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States.
- November 29 - 104 people killed in a Taiyo department store fire in Kumamoto, Kyūshū, Japan.
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- 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 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 28 - The Endangered Species Act is passed.
- December 31 - In the United Kingdom, due to coal shortages caused by industrial action, the electricity consumption reduction measure - the Three-Day Week comes into force.
Deaths
January-March
- January 19 - Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (b. 1903)
- January 22 - Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (b. 1908)
- January 23 - Kid Ory, American musician (b. 1886)
- January 24 - J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1897)
- January 26 - Edward G. Robinson, American actor (b. 1893)
- January 31 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- February 11 - Hans D Jensen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- February 15 - Wally Cox, American actor (b. 1924)
- February 16 - Francisco Caamaño, Dominican politician (b. 1932) (executed)
- February 19 - Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
- February 22 - Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist (b. 1899)
- February 23 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
- March 3 - Vera Panova, Soviet-Russian writer (b. 1905)
- March 6 - Pearl S. Buck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
- March 8 - Ron Pigpen McKernan, American musician ( Grateful Dead) (b. 1945)
- March 14
- Rafael Godoy, Colombian composer (b. 1907)
- Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
- March 26
- Noel Coward, English composer and playwright (b. 1899)
- George Sisler, American baseball player (b. 1893)
April-June
- April 8 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (b. 1881)
- April 16 - Istvan Kertesz, Hungarian conductor (b. 1929)
- April 19 - Hans Kelsen, Austrian-born legal theorist (b. 1881)
- April 21 - Arthur Fadden, thirteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
- April 26 - Irene Ryan, American actress (b. 1902)
- April 30 - Václav Renč, Czech poet, dramatist and translator (b. 1911)
- May 2 - Alan Carney, American actor and comedian (b. 1909)
- May 11 - Lex Barker, American actor (b. 1919)
- May 14 - Jean Gebser, German author, linguist, and poet (b. 1905)
- May 18 - Jeannette Rankin, first U.S. Congresswoman (b. 1880)
- June 4 - Arna Bontemps, Harlem Renaissance writer (b. 1902)
- June 18 - Roger Delgado, English actor (b. 1918)
- June 30 - Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky C.Ss.R Bishop and Martyr (b. 1903)
July - September
- July 2 - Swede Savage, American race car driver (b. 1946)
- July 6 - Otto Klemperer, German-born conductor (b. 1885)
- July 7 - Veronica Lake, American actress (b. 1922)
- July 8 - Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer (b. 1877)
- July 20 - Robert Smithson, American artist (b. 1938)
- July 20 - Bruce Lee, Chinese American martial artist and actor (b. 1940)
- July 29 - Roger Williamson, British race car driver (b. 1948)
- August 1
- Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer (b. 1882)
- Walter Ulbricht, East German Statesman (b. 1893)
- August 6
- James Beck, British actor (b. 1929)
- Fulgencio Batista, Cuban dictator (b. 1901)
- August 11 - Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
- August 12
- Dayanand Bandodkar, Chief Minister of Goa (b. 1911)
- Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
- August 16 - Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1888)
- August 17
- Conrad Aiken, American writer (b. 1889)
- Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)
- Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1939)
- August 31 - John Ford, American film director (b. 1895)
- September 2 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (b. 1892)
- September 11 - Salvador Allende, President of Chile (b. 1908)
- September 15 - King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (b. 1882)
- September 19 - Gram Parsons, American musician (b. 1946)
- September 20 - Jim Croce, American songwriter (b. 1943)
- September 23 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- September 26 - Ralph Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1928)
- September 29 - W. H. Auden, English poet (b. 1907)
- September 30 - Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer and author (b. 1902)
October - December
- October 2 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (b. 1897)
- October 6 - François Cevert. French race car driver (b. 1944)
- October 10 - Ludwig von Mises, Austrian economist (b. 1881)
- October 14 - Edmund A. Chester, American broadcaster and journalist (b.1897)
- October 16 - Gene Krupa, American jazz drummer (b. 1909)
- October 18 - Margaret Caroline Anderson, American magazine publisher (b. 1886)
- October 17 - Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian writer (b. 1926)
- October 22 - Pablo Casals, Catalan cellist and conductor (b. 1876)
- November 10 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player (b. 1915)
- November 11 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- November 27 - Frank Christian, American musician (b. 1887)
- December 1 - David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1886)
- December 3 - Emile Christian, American musician (b. 1895)
- December 20 - Bobby Darin, American singer (b. 1936)
- December 20 - Luis Carrero Blanco, first minister of Spain (assassinated) (b. 1907)
- December 25 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (b. 1880)
- December 25 - İsmet İnönü, Turkish general, prime minister, and president (b. 1884)
- December 26 - Harold B. Lee, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1899)
Undated
- Jay C. Higginbotham, American musician (b. 1906)
Nobel prizes
- Physics - Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever, Brian David Josephson
- Chemistry - Ernst Otto Fischer, Geoffrey Wilkinson
- Medicine - Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen
- Literature - Patrick White
- Peace - Henry A. Kissinger, Le Duc Tho
- Economics - Wassily Leontief
Templeton Prize
