July 1973

Monday 02:

James R. Schlesinger is sworn in as the 12th United States Secretary of Defense.

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 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.

Wednesday 25:

Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.

Saturday 28:

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

Tuesday 31:

A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89