Directory

1975 CE

It was also declared the International Women's Year by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 15 – Alvor Agreement: Portugal announces that it will grant independence to Angola on November 11.source
  • February 11 – Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for the leadership of the opposition UK Conservative Party. Thatcher, 49, is Britain's first female leader of any political party.source
  • February 28 – In Lomé, Togo, the European Economic Community and 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries sign a financial and economic treaty, known as the first Lomé Convention.source
  • March 6 – Algiers Agreement: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement in their border dispute.source
  • May 16 – Sikkim accedes to India after a referendum and abolishes the Chogyal, its monarchy.source
  • May 28 – Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, creating the Economic Community of West African States.source
  • June 6 – The Georgetown Agreement, formally creating the ACP Group, is signed.source
  • June 11 – After a referendum and seven years of military rule, modern-day Greece is established as the Hellenic Republic.source
  • July 12 – São Tomé and Príncipe declare independence from Portugal.source
  • July 21 – The Parliament of India votes to approve Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's declaration of a state of emergency, with a 301–76 vote in the lower house and a 147–32 vote in the upper house.source
  • August 1 – The Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.source
  • September 16 – Cape Verde, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.source
  • October 30 – Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting head of state after General Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern. His death on November 20 effectively marks the end of the dictatorship established following the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy.source
  • October 31 – Tun Mustapha resigns as Chief Minister of Sabah, a state in Malaysia, bringing to an end speculation that he would attempt to lead secession for Sabah to become an independent nation.source
  • November 10 – The Treaty of Osimo is signed between Italy and Yugoslavia, resolving their dispute over Trieste. Under the agreement, a majority of the land area and residents go to Italy.source
  • November 11 – Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Governor-General of Australia Sir John Kerr controversially dismisses the Whitlam Labor government and commissions Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal/National Country Coalition as caretaker Prime Minister.source
  • November 14 – Madrid Accords: Spain agrees to hand over power of the Spanish Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania by the end of February 1976.source
  • November 15 – The "Group of 6" industrialized nations (G-6) is formed and holds its 1st summit at the Château de Rambouillet in France.source
  • November 19 – The United States Congress approves the Clark Amendment, ending aid to the FNLA and UNITA.source
  • November 25 – Suriname gains independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.source
  • November 28 – Portuguese Timor declares its independence from Portugal as East Timor.source
  • November 29 – 1975 New Zealand general election: The New Zealand National Party led by Robert Muldoon defeats the incumbent New Zealand Labour Party led by Prime Minister Bill Rowling.source
  • December 2 – In Laos, the Second Indochina War ends, when the communist party of the Pathet Lao takes over Vientiane and defeats the Kingdom of Laos, forcing King Sisavang Vatthana to abdicate and creating the Lao People's Democratic Republic. This ends the Laotian Civil War, with mass evacuation of American troops and Laotian civilians, but effectively begins the Insurgency in Laos with the Pathet Lao fighting the Hmong people, Royalist-in-exile and the Right-wings.source
  • December 13 – 1975 Australian federal election: The Liberal/National Country Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser defeats the recently dismissed Labor government led by Gough Whitlam. The Fraser government achieves what is so far the largest parliamentary majority in federal Australian political history. Whitlam would subsequently survive a leadership challenge against him.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 5 – The Argentinian president Isabel Perón decrees Operativo Independencia, aiming to neutralize or annihilate the "subversive elements" in the province of Tucuman. She assumes extraordinary powers.source
  • March 6 – A bomb explodes in the Paris offices of Springer publishers. The March 6 Group (connected to the Red Army Faction) demands amnesty for the Baader-Meinhof Group.source
  • March 10 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Mê Thuột in South Vietnam on their way to capturing Saigon.source
  • April 13 – Bus massacre: The Kataeb militia kills 27 Palestinians during an attack on their bus in Ain El Remmeneh, Lebanon, triggering the Lebanese Civil War which lasts until 1990.source
  • April 17 – The Khmer Republic surrenders, when the Communist Khmer Rouge guerilla forces capture Phnom Penh ending the Cambodian Civil War, with mass evacuation of American troops and Cambodian civilians.source
  • April 25 – Vietnam War: As North Vietnamese Army forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost 10 years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.source
  • April 29 – Vietnam War: North Vietnam concludes its East Sea Campaign by capturing all of the Spratly Islands that were being held by South Vietnam.source
  • April 30 – Vietnam War – Fall of Saigon: The Vietnam War concludes as Communist forces from North Vietnam take over Saigon, resulting in mass evacuation of the remaining American troops and South Vietnam civilians. As the capital is taken, South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally and is replaced with a temporary Provisional Government.source
  • May 15 – Mayaguez incident: The American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued by the U.S. Navy and Marines; 38 Americans are killed.source
  • June 25 – Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency in India, suspending civil liberties and elections.source
  • August 15 – Some members of Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Armageddon will occur this year based on the group's chronology and some sell their houses and businesses to prepare for the new world paradise which they believe will be created when Jesus establishes God's Kingdom on Earth.source
  • August 15 – Founder President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh is killed during a coup led by Major Syed Faruque Rahman.source
  • August 24 – Officers responsible for the military coup in Greece in 1967 are sentenced to death in Athens. The sentences are later commuted to life imprisonment.source
  • The first Cuban forces arrive in Angola to join Soviet personnel who are there to assist the MPLA that controls less than a quarter of Angolan territory. The United States, Zaire and Zambia request South Africa to provide training and support for the FNLA and UNITA forces.source
  • September 5 – In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is thwarted by a Secret Service agent.source
  • September 22 – In San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Ford, but is foiled by the Secret Service.source
  • October 14 – The South African Defence Force invades Angola during Operation Savannah in support of the FNLA and UNITA prior to the Angolan elections scheduled for November 11.source
  • October 16 – The "Balibo Five", Australian television journalists are killed at Balibo by Indonesian Army special forces in the buildup to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.source
  • November 10 – United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379: By a vote of 72–35 (with 32 abstentions), the United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution provokes an outcry among Zionists. It is repealed in 1991.source
  • November 10 – Lev Leshchenko revives "Den Pobedy", one of the most popular World War II songs in the Soviet Union.source
  • November 16 – Beginning of the Third Cod War between UK and Iceland, which lasts until June 1976.source
  • November 25 – A failed military coup d'état by far-left activists occurs in Portugal.source
  • November 28 – South African Navy frigates evacuate 26 SADF members from behind enemy lines at Ambrizete, 160 km mi north of Luanda in Angola.source
  • December 7 – Indonesian invasion of East Timor: Indonesia invades East Timor; the occupation continues until 1999 when U.N. peacekeepers take control, which they did until 2002.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 16 – Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.source
  • September–October – In New Zealand, Māori leader Whina Cooper leads a march of 5,000 people, in support of Maori claims to their land.source
  • November 6 – The Green March begins: 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara.source

Religion & Belief

  • September 15 – The French department of Corse, comprising the entire island of Corsica, is divided into two departments: Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica).source
  • September 20 – The term of Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, as the 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, ends.source
  • September 21 – Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra of Kelantan, becomes the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 15 – In Brazil, Guanabara State merges into the state of Rio de Janeiro. The state's capital moves from the city of Niterói to the city of Rio de Janeiro.source
  • April 4 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft (at this time known as Micro-Soft) in Albuquerque, New Mexico and release their Altair BASIC interpreter. (Microsoft becomes a registered trademark on November 26, 1976.)source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 2 – A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways.source
  • January 5 – Tasman Bridge disaster: The Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier , causing a partial collapse resulting in 12 deaths.source
  • March 1 – Australian television switches to full-time colour.source
  • March 9 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.source
  • March 10 – An extended portion of Sanyō Shinkansen between Okayama Station and Hakata Station opens, giving the Japanese Shinkansen high speed rail network access to the country's second island, Kyushu.source
  • April 20 – Taman Mini Indonesia Indah opens to the public in Jakarta, Indonesia.source
  • June 5 – The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.source
  • July 1 – The Postmaster-General's Department is disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post).source
  • August 25 – The Victoria Falls Conference between Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and the United African National Council is held in a South African Railways coach on the Victoria Falls Bridge, officiated by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and South African Prime Minister John Vorster.source
  • September 30 – The Hughes Helicopters (later McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing IDS) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.source
  • December 3 – Wreck of (sunk by mine 1916) is found in the Kea Channel by Jacques Cousteau.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 2 – The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress.source
  • April 5 – The Soviet crewed space mission (Soyuz 18a) ends in failure during its ascent into orbit when a critical malfunction occurs in the second and third stages of the booster rocket during staging at an altitude of 192 km, resulting in the cosmonauts and their Soyuz spacecraft having to be ripped free from the vehicle. Both cosmonauts (Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov) survive.source
  • May 25 – Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 for a second time in a rain-shorted 174 lap, 700 km mi race.source
  • July 17 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: A crewed American Apollo spacecraft and the crewed Soviet Soyuz spacecraft for the Soyuz 19 mission dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the 2 nations.source
  • August 20 – Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.source
  • September 30 – (US time) Home Box Office becomes the first pay television network to deliver a continuous signal via satellite by broadcasting the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match live.source
  • Benoit Mandelbrot coins the mathematical term fractal.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 28 – A fire in the maternity wing at Kučić Hospital in Rijeka, Yugoslavia (Croatia), kills 25 people.source
  • August 11 – Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese East Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a UDT coup and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.source
  • October 16 – The last naturally occurring case of smallpox is diagnosed and treated, the victim being two-year-old Rahima Banu in Bangladesh.source
  • October 31 – The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 takes effect in Australia.source
  • November 29 – While disabled, the submarine tender discharges radioactive coolant water into Apra Harbor, Guam. A Geiger counter at two of the harbor's public beaches shows 100 millirems/hour, 50 times the allowable dose.source
  • December 18 – The Algerian president Houari Boumediene orders the expulsion of all Moroccans from Algeria.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up.source
  • February 27 – The 2 June Movement kidnaps West German politician Peter Lorenz. He is released on March 4 after most of the kidnappers' demands are met.source
  • March 25 – King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by his nephew.source
  • September 14 – Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch is slashed a dozen times at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.source
  • September 27 – Francoist Spain executes five ETA and FRAP members, the last executions in Spain to date.source
  • December 21 – Six people, including Carlos the Jackal, kidnap delegates of an OPEC conference in Vienna.source
  • Victoria (Australia) abolishes capital punishment.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 28 – A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.source
  • April 4 – Vietnam War: The first military Operation Babylift flight, C5A 80218, crashes 27 minutes after takeoff, killing 138 on board; 176 survive the crash.source
  • April 18 – The Khmer Rouge begins a forcible mass evacuation of the city and starts the Cambodian genocide.source
  • May 27 – The Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England, results in 32 deaths (the highest toll in a United Kingdom road accident).source
  • October 14 – A British Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber explodes and crashes over Żabbar, Malta after an aborted landing, killing five crew members and one person on the ground.source
  • November 7 – A vapor cloud explosion at a petroleum cracking facility in Geleen, Netherlands, leaves 14 dead and 109 injured, with fires lasting for five days.source
  • November 10 – The 729 ft m-long freighter sinks during a storm 27 km mi from the entrance to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board (an event immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot).source
  • December 29 – A bomb explosion at LaGuardia Airport in New York City kills 11 people.source

Climate & Environment

  • February 4 – The Haicheng earthquake in Haicheng, Liaoning, China, kills 2,041 and injures 27,538, but much of the city has been evacuated in a claimed example of earthquake prediction.source
  • July 30 – Typhoon Nina forms over the Philippine Sea.source
  • August 8 – The Banqiao Dam, in China's Henan Province, fails after Typhoon Nina; over 200,000 people perish.source
  • September 6 – An earthquake of magnitude kills at least 2,085 in Diyarbakır and Lice, Turkey.source
  • November 11 – Angola becomes independent from Portugal and civil war erupts.source

Culture & Society

  • March 1 – Aston Villa win the English Football League Cup at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1–0 in the final.source
  • March 22 – "Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In (music by Dick Bakker, lyrics by Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens) wins the 20th Eurovision Song Contest 1975 (staged in Stockholm) for the Netherlands.source
  • May 3 – West Ham United win the FA Cup at Wembley, beating Fulham 2–0 in the final.source
  • June 9 – The Order of Australia is awarded for the first time.source
  • November 11 – The first annual Vogalonga rowing "race" is held in Venice, Italy.source
  • South Australia becomes the first Australian state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults.source

Births

  • January 11 – Matteo Renzi, 56th Prime Minister of Italysource
  • April 26 – Joey Jordison, American metal drummer for Slipknot (d. 2021)source
  • May 15 – Janne Seurujärvi, Finnish Sami politician, and the first Sami to be elected to the Finnish Parliament.source
  • May 27 – Jamie Oliver, English chef, restaurateur and television personalitysource
  • May 29 – Mel B, English singer, songwriter, rapper, television personality, actress and authorsource
  • June 1 – Nikol Pashinyan, Armenian politician, Prime Minister of Armeniasource
  • July 26 – Liz Truss, English politician, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdomsource
  • September 30 – Marion Cotillard, French actress, singer, songwriter, and musiciansource
  • December 12 – Mayim Bialik, Israeli-American actress and neuroscientistsource
  • December 17 – Milla Jovovich, Ukrainian-born American actress and modelsource
  • December 18 – Sia, Australian singer-songwriter and music video directorsource
  • December 21 – Charles Michel, Belgian politician, 51st Prime Minister of Belgium and President of the European Councilsource
  • December 30 – Tiger Woods, American golfersource
  • Mia Love, American political commentator and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019 in Utah, the first and to date only black woman elected to congress as a republicansource

Deaths

  • February 6 – Sir Keith Park, New Zealand-born British air chief marshal (b. 1892)source
  • March 8 – George Stevens, American director, producer and cinematographer (b. 1904)source
  • April 12 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer and activist (b. 1906)source
  • April 17 – Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of India (b. 1888)source
  • April 23 – William Hartnell, English actor (b. 1908)source
  • May 8 – Avery Brundage, American administrator, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1887)source
  • June 3 – Eisaku Satō, Japanese politician, Prime Minister of Japan, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1901)source
  • June 26 – Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1902)source
  • June 28 – Rod Serling, American television screenwriter and narrator (b. 1924)source
  • September 20 – Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)source
  • September 29 – Casey Stengel, American baseball player and manager (b. 1890)source
  • December 4 – Hannah Arendt, German political theorist (b. 1906)source
  • December 11 – Nihal Atsız, Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet (b. 1905)source
  • December 19 – René Maheu, French professor and administrator, 6th Director-General of UNESCO (b. 1905)source