1973 - What happened in 1973 ?

January 1973

Saturday 06:

Schoolhouse Rock premieres on American television

Thursday 11:

Beginning of the Watergate burglars trial.

Monday 15:

Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President of the United States Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

Wednesday 17:

Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines.

Saturday 27:

Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.

February 1973

Sunday 11:

Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.

Monday 12:

Vietnam War: The first American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.

Wednesday 21:

Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.

Thursday 22:

Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.

Tuesday 27:

The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

March 1973

Monday 05:

Donald DeFreeze, future Symbionese Liberation Army leader, escapes from Vacaville Prison.

Wednesday 07:

The ultimately disappointing Comet Kohoutek is discovered by Lubos Kohoutek.

Saturday 24:

Rock band Pink Floyd releases Dark Side of the Moon, which will go on to become one of the most influential and commercially successful albums of all-time.

Monday 26:

The soap opera The Young and the Restless debuts on CBS television.

Thursday 29:

Vietnam War: The last United States soldiers leave South Vietnam.

April 1973

Monday 02:

Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.

Wednesday 04:

The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.

Thursday 05:

Pierre Messmer becomes Prime Minister of France

Friday 06:

Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.

Monday 30:

Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.

May 1973

Tuesday 08:

A 71-day standoff, between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants.

Friday 11:

Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has his charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times dismissed.

Monday 14:

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. It is the last launch of the Saturn V rocket.

Thursday 17:

Watergate scandal: Hearings begin in the United States Senate and are televised.

Friday 25:

Mike Oldfield releases Tubular Bells.

June 1973

Sunday 03:

Reggae stars Bob Marley and the Wailers release the classic album Exodus, which will be named Time magazine's "Album of the Century" in 1999.

Saturday 09:

Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.

Sunday 10:

Paul Getty III, grandson of billionaire J. Paul Getty, is kidnapped in Rome, Italy.

Thursday 21:

In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test, which now governs obscenity in U.S. law.

Tuesday 26:

On Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 persons were killed at an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.

July 1973

Thursday 12:

The 1973 National Archives Fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center.

Monday 16:

Watergate Scandal: Former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate committee investigating scandal that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

Friday 20:

Indiana is found guilty of operating segregated schools by federal judge S. Hugh Dillin, who orders the state to develop a desegregation plan for Indianapolis's schools.

Monday 23:

Robert Anton Wilson, the occultist/philosopher, either achieved contact with extraterrestrials from Sirius or started a long-term period of having wild hallucinations, depending on which way you want to look at it.

Saturday 28:

Watkins Glen, New York concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead.

August 1973

Friday 03:

R&B singer Stevie Wonder releases the classic album Innervisions.

Wednesday 08:

Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped from a Tokyo hotel.

Wednesday 15:

Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends

Thursday 23:

The Intelsat communication satellite is launched.

September 1973

Tuesday 11:

A military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende.

Saturday 15:

Secretariat wins the Marlboro Cup in world record time.

Wednesday 19:

King Carl XVI Gustaf accedes to the throne of Sweden

Thursday 20:

Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match.

Sunday 23:

Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

October 1973

Friday 05:

Signature of the European Patent Convention

Wednesday 10:

Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.

Sunday 14:

1973 - Thailand's University Students protest for a democratic government; 77 are killed and 857 Injured

Friday 19:

President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.

Sunday 21:

John Paul Getty III's ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; it doesn't arrive until November 8.

November 1973

Thursday 08:

The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay 2.9 million USD.

Friday 16:

US President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.

Monday 19:

American football player Lance Rentzel is arrested for exposing himself to a ten-year-old girl; he is later sentenced to five years' probation.

Sunday 25:

Greek President George Papadopoulos is ousted in military coup led by Lieutenant General Phaidon Gizikis.

Tuesday 27:

The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35).

December 1973

Saturday 01:

Papua New Guinea gains self government from Australia.

Tuesday 18:

The Soyuz 13 was launched.

Sunday 23:

A Sobelair Caravelle passenger jet crashes in Morocco, killing 106

Tuesday 25:

The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.

Friday 28:

Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes Gulag Archipelago.