1973 - What happened in 1973 ?

January 1973

Wednesday 03:

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner.

Monday 08:

Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of placing bugs in Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.

Thursday 11:

Beginning of the Watergate burglars trial.

Wednesday 17:

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

Tuesday 23:

President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

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

Sunday 01:

Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India.

Monday 02:

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

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

Monday 04:

patent for the ATM granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.

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

Tuesday 10:

The Bahamas gain full independence within the British Commonwealth.

Wednesday 11:

A Brazilian Boeing 707 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 122 people.

Thursday 12:

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

Friday 13:

Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in.

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.

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.

Wednesday 19:

King Carl XVI Gustaf accedes to the throne of Sweden

Sunday 23:

Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

Wednesday 26:

Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.

Friday 28:

ITT Building in New York City bombed to protest ITT's involvement in the September 11 1973 coup d'état in Chile.

October 1973

Saturday 06:

The Crossing: 80,000 Egyptian troops cross the Suez Canal, starting the Yom Kippur War.

Wednesday 10:

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

Friday 19:

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

Saturday 20:

The Six Million Dollar Man premieres on ABC.

Saturday 27:

The Canyon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes in Fremont County, Colorado.

November 1973

Wednesday 07:

The U.S. Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.

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.

Monday 03:

Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

Sunday 16:

O.J. Simpson becomes the first player in NFL history to rush for 2000 yards in one season.

Tuesday 18:

The Soyuz 13 was launched.

Wednesday 26:

Soyuz 13 lands