1975 

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s

Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 - 1975 - 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980

• 1975 in film
• 1975 in literature
• 1975 in music
• 1975 in politics[?]
• 1975 in sports
• 1975 in television

• January 1 - John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman[?] are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21
• January 7 - OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%.
• January 8 - Ella Grasso[?] becomes Governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States who did not succeed her husband
• January 20 - Michael Ovitz[?] founds Creative Artists Agency[?]
• January - Altair 8800 is released, sparking the era of the microcomputer
• February 9 - The Soyuz 17[?] Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
• February 11 - Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for the leadership of the UK Conservative party in the United Kingdom.
• February 21 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman[?] are sentenced to prison.
• March 4 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
• March 6 - Algiers Accord[?]: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement over their border dispute.
• March 9 - Construction of the Alaskan oil pipeline[?] begins.
• March 10 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thout[?], South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
• March 25 - Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a nephew with a history of mental illness.
• April 3 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
• April 17 - Pol Pot proclaims the "Democratic Republic of Kampuchea" in Cambodia and becomes its Prime Minister (1975-1979).
• April 25 - As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
• April 30 - The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon and South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally.
• May 12 - Mayaguez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez[?] in international waters.
• May 15 - The American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued in operation by U.S. Navy and Marines. 38 are killed.
• May 16 - India annexes Sikkim.
• May 16 - Junko Tabei[?] becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• May 28 - 15 West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos[?] thus creating the Economic Community of West African States.
• July 6 - The Comoros declare their independence from France.
• July 15 - Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for U.S.-Soviet link-up in space
• September 5 - President Gerald Ford survives an assassination attempt in Sacramento, California.
• September 22 - President Ford survives a second assassination attempt, again by a female.
• November 11 - Angola independent from Portugal.
• November 11 - Gough Whitlam dismissed as Prime Minister of Australia during the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975.
• November 25 - Suriname independent from the Kingdom of the Netherlands
• November 28 - East Timor independent from Portugal
• December 7 - East Timor invaded by Indonesia
• Spanish army quits Spanish (Western) Sahara. Saharaui[?] Republic (RASD) is created. Morocco invades ex-Spanish Western Sahara.
• December 29 - A bomb explods at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1975 in film
  • January 28 - George Lucas creates the second draft of what would eventually become Star Wars. At this time, the title of the story was Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode One of The Star Wars.
  • March - Production begins on Star Wars
  • July - In order to create the necessary special effects for his film, Star Wars, George Lucas forms Industrial Light and Magic.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • Jaws
  • Rooster Cogburn starring John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn and others
• 1975 in literature
• 1975 in music
  • Paul Simon releases album Still Crazy After All These Years[?]
  • Art Garfunkel releases album Breakaway[?]
  • Simon and Garfunkel release single "My Little Town," the last single they have released together to date. Song hits #9 on Billboard charts and is released on both their solo albums of 1975.
• 1975 in sports
  • July 5 - Arthur Ashe[?] becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.
• 1975 in television
  • January 18 - The Jeffersons[?] debuts on CBS.
  • April 28 - Tom Snyder[?] interviews John Lennon on the Tomorrow Show.
  • Saturday Night Live debuts on NBC.
  • The Wheel of Fortune[?] premieres

Births

• January 3 - Danica McKellar, actress
• January 22 - Balthazar Getty[?], actor
• January 27 - Bill Walsh, Movie producer and writer.
• February 4 - Natalie Imbruglia, musician
• February 11 - Chuck Watanabe[?], kayaker
• February 20 - Brian Littrell[?], musician ("NSYNC")
• February 22 - Drew Barrymore, actress.
• March 5 - Niki Taylor[?], fashion model
• May 2 - David Beckham, English footballer
• May 8 - Enrique Iglesias[?], singer
• May 23 - Jewel, singer
• May 26 - Lauryn Hill, hip-hop singer
• June 4 - Angelina Jolie, US actress
• June 25 - Vladimir Kramnik, Russian chess player
• August 7 - Charlize Theron, South African actress

Deaths

• January 24 - Larry Fine[?], actor (The Three Stooges[?])
• February 4 - Louis Jordan, musician
• February 14 - P. G. Wodehouse, writer
• February 24 - Nikolai Bulganin[?], Premier of the Soviet Union[?]
• February 25 - Elijah Muhammad[?], Black Muslim leader
• March 8 - George Stevens, director, producer, cinematographer
• March 14 - Susan Hayward, actress
• March 15 - Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate
• March 16 - T-Bone Walker, musician
• March 25 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia
• April 5 - Chiang Kai-shek, President of the Republic of China
• May 8 - Avery Brundage[?], President of the International Olympic Committee
• May 13 - Bob Wills, country musician
• May 23 - Moms Mabley[?], comedienne
• July 4 - Georgette Heyer, author
• July 29 - James Blish, U.S. science fiction author
• August 9 - Dmitri Shostakovich, aged 68, Russian composer
• August 24 - Eamon de Valera, Irish politician and patriot
• November 2 - Pier Paolo Pasolini, film director
• November 20 - Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain
• December 24 - Bernard Herrmann, composer
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Nobel Prizes

• Physics Aage Niels Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson[?], Leo James Rainwater[?]
• Chemistry - John Warcup Cornforth[?], Vladimir Prelog[?]
• Medicine - David Baltimore, Renato Dulbecco[?], Howard Martin Temin[?]
• Literature - Eugenio Montale[?]
• Peace - Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov
• Economics - Leonid Kantorovich, Tjalling Koopmans[?]