RETURN TO INDEX
Top Song(s)
• The Rolling Stones - Angie
• Tony Orlando & Dawn - Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'round the Old Oak Tree
• Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly With His Song
• Carly Simon - You're So Vain
• Elton John - Crocodile Rock
Top Film(s)
• Badlands
• The Sting
• The Long Goodbye
• Paper Moon
• The Exorcist
Best Selling Book(s)
• The Princess Bride - William Goldman
• Burr: A Novel - Gore Vidal
• Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
• Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
• A Wind in the Door - Madeleine L'Engle
Famous Deaths
• January 2 – Eleazar López Contreras, 45th President of Venezuela
• January 22 – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States
• March 6 – Pearl S. Buck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 13 - Dudley Senanayake, 2nd Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
• May 27 – Constantin Daicoviciu, Romanian historian and archaeologist
• July 23 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American World War I flying ace and race car driver
• August 6 - Fulgencio Batista, 9th and 12th President of Cuba
• September 11 – Salvador Allende, 30th President of Chile
• September 15 – King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
• November 17 – Mirra Alfassa, multi-origined spiritual leader and founder of Auroville, India
Medical/Science/Technology
• Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
• Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
Waldo R. Tobler introduces the Tobler hyperelliptical projection.
•
• A successful method of Vitamin B12 total synthesis is reported.
• Akira Endo identifies the first statin, mevastatin.
• Xerox PARC releases the Xerox Alto.
• The TV Typewriter appears on the cover of Radio-Electronics.
• The term "dendritic cell" is coined by Ralph M. Steinman working with Zanvil A. Cohn.
• The term "Norrmalmstorgssyndromet", translated as Stockholm syndrome, is coined by Nils Bejerot.
• The first handheld mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City.
Political
• January 15 – President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
• January 20 – President Nixon and Vice President Agnew are sworn in for their second term.
• January 22 - Roe v. Wade: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns state bans on abortion.
• January 27 – U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.
• May 1 – Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States establishes a liaison office in Beijing.
• May 17 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
• June 16 – U.S. President Richard Nixon begins several talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
• June 21 – The Supreme Court delivers its decision in the landmark case, establishing the "Miller test" for determining obscenity.
• July 1 – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is founded.
• October 10 - Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States.
National
• January 30 – G. Gordon Liddy is found guilty of Watergate charges.
• February 12 – Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post road distance signs in metric.
• February 27 – The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
• April 4 – The World Trade Center officially opens in New York City with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
• April 17 - Federal Express officially begins operations, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport.
• May 3 – The Sears Tower in Chicago is finished, becoming the world's tallest building (record held until 1998).
• May 14 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
• July 2 – The United States Congress passes the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), mandating Special Education federally.
• August 15 – The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, officially halting 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia.
• October 27 – The Canon City meteorite, a 1.4 kilogram chondrite type meteorite, strikes Earth in Fremont County, Colorado.
Worldwide
• January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines.
• February 8 – A military insurrection in Uruguay poses an institutional challenge to President Juan María Bordaberry.
• March 10 – Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, is assassinated outside Government House.
• April 10 – The Islamic Republic of Pakistan introduced its new constitution, its supreme law.
• May 5 – Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
• June 25 – Erskine Hamilton Childers is elected the 4th President of Ireland.
• August 23 – The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.
• September 15 – Carl XVI Gustaf, becomes King of Sweden following the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf.
• November 29 – 104 people are killed in a Taiyo department store fire in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan.
• December 1 – Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.