1973

1973
January
• On 1st January CBS sold the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12 person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner. This was 3.2 million more than he originally bought the Yankees for.

• The pilot episode for the longest running TV comedy series in the world (Last of the Summer Wine) was broadcasted in the UK on 4th January.

• Elvis Presley’s concert in Hawaii on 14th January was watched by more people than the number of people that watched the Apollo moon landings. This was the first worldwide telecast by and entertainer.

• U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that a peace accord had been reached in Vietnam on 23rd January. Also on 23rd January, Eldfell on the Icelandic island of Heinmaey Erupted.

• Derren Nesbitt, an English actor was convicted for assaulting his wife, Anne Aubrey on 25th January.

• On 31st January, Pan American and Trans World Airlines cancelled their options to buy 13 Concorde airliners.
February
• Construction on the CN Tower began in Toronto on 6th February.

• The first American prisoners of war were released from Vietnam on 11th February.

• On 12th February Ohio became the first U.S. state to post distance in metric on signs.

• The U.S. Dollar was devalued by 10% on 13th February.

• On 16th February, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled that the Sunday Times were allowed to publish the articles on Thalidomide and Distillers Company Ltd, despite the ongoing legal actions by parents.

• A Green paper on prices and incomes policy was published by Edward Heath’s British government on 26th February.

• The landmark postmodern novel “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon was published on 28th February.
March
• Dick Taverne, having resigned from the Parliament of the UK on leaving the Labour Party, was re-elected as a ‘Democratic Labour’ candidate on 1st March.

• Comet Kohoutek was discovered on 7th March.

• Voters in Northern Ireland voted to remain a part of the UK in the Border Poll on 8th March. Irish Nationalists were encouraged to boycott the referendum.

• Governor of Bermuda, Sir Richard Sharples, was assassinated in Government House on 10th March.

• The modern London Bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17th March. Also on 17th March Pink Floyd’s album “The Dark Side of the Moon”, (one of rock’s landmark albums) was released.

• On 29th March the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam.
April
• On 2nd April the Lexis Nexis computerised legal research service began.

• The first handheld cellular phone call was made by Martin Cooper in NYC on 3rd April.

• The World Trade Center officially opened in NYC with a ribbon cutting ceremony on 4th April.

• Pioneer 11 was launched on a mission to explore the solar system, on 5th April.

• Luxembourg won the Eurovision Song Contest on 7th April. (Tu Te Reconnaîtras by Anne -Marie David).

• The British House of Commons voted against restoring capital punishment by a margin of 142 votes on 11th April.

• The Labour Party won control of the Greater London Council on 12th April.

• 14 small aircrafts from Memphis International Airport launched and marked the beginning of operations on 17th April. Federal Express delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities from Rochester, New York, to Miami, Florida on the launch night.

• The Morganza Spillway on the Mississippi River was opened for the first time to prevent catastrophic flooding of New Orleans on 17th April.

• 26th April was the first day for trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
May
• Approximately 1,600,000 supporting workers in the U.K. stop work to protest against the Government’s anti – inflation policy on 1st May.

• On 3rd May the Sears Tower in Chicago was completed and became the world’s tallest building.

• Shambu Tamang climbed to the summit of Mount Everest on 5th May and became the youngest person to do this.

• The United States’ first space station, Skylab, was launched on 14th May.

• Lord Lambton resigned from the British government on 22nd May, after a ‘call girl’ scandal.

• Skylab 2was launched on a mission to repair the damage caused to the recently launched Skylab space station on 25th May.

• On 27th May, all works published before this date was public domain, by virtue of the non-retroactivity of Soviet copyright laws. This applied worldwide.

June
• The grandson of American industrialist, J. Paul Getty was kidnapped in Rome on June 10th.

• A fire than was started on 23rd June in Kingston upon Hull, England, killed a 6 year old boy and was passed off as an accident. The fire was started by arsonist Peter Dinsdale who caused 26 fire deaths over the next 7 years.

• Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev addressed the American people on television on 24th June. He was the first to do so.

• The 4th President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers, was elected on 25th June.

• 9 people were killed in the explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket on 26th June.

• Elections were held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which led to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time on 28th June.

• One of 7 solar eclipses, in the 2nd millennium, that exceeded 7 minutes of totality occurred on 30th June.
July
• The U.S Drug Enforcement Administration was founded on 1st July.

• On 2nd July the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) mandating Special Education federally was passed by the U.S. Congress.

• The Isle of Man Post began to issue their own postage stamps on 5th July.

• On 10th July the Bahamas gained full independence with the Commonwealth of Nations.

• On 16th July, Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informed the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

• France resumed nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand on 20th July. This was also the day that Bruce Lee died.

• The Philippines were awarded their 2nd Miss Universe title, Margarita Moran was awarded with this title on 21st July.

• The Soviet Mars, space probe was launched on 25th July.

• On 29th July, F1 racing driver, Roger Williamson, died in an accident that was witnessed by many on live television, during the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix.

• The Thalidomide legal action trial ended after 11years on 30th July.
August
• A flash fire, at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man, on 2nd August, killed 51 people.

• Members of Black September start a fire at the Athens airport, killing 3 people and leaving 55 people injured on 5th August.

• On 8th August the death of Dean Corll, led to the discovery of the Houston Mass Murders, where 28 boys were killed by 3 men.

• On 15th August the U.S. bombing of Cambodia ended, officially halted 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia.
September
• 20 members were expelled on 3rd September, by the British Trade Congress for registering under the Industrial Relations Act 1971.

• On 11th September, Chile’s democratically elected government is overthrown in a military coup after serious instability. General Augusto Pinochet headed a U.S.-backed military junta that governed Chile for the next 16 years. Also President Salvador Allende committed suicide during the coup in the presidential palace.

• Carl XVI Gustaf became king on 15th September after the death of his grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden.

• The Soyuz 12 was launched on 27th September. This was the first Soviet manned flight since the Soyuz 11 tragedy.

October
• The fourth and largest Arab-Israeli conflict began on 6th October. The Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israeli in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights on Tom Kippur.

• LBC Radio began broadcasting on 97.3 FM in London on 8th October.

• Vice President of the U.S., Spiro T. Agnew, resigned on 10th October. Later in federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded no contest to charges of income tax avoidance on $29,500 he received in 1967, while he was governor of Maryland. He was fined $10,000 and was also put on probation for 3 years.

• After 14 years of construction work, the Sydney Opera House was opened on 20th October, by Elizabeth II.

• The Yom Kippur War ended on 26th October.

• On 27th October, the Canon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite type meteorite struck Earth in Fremont County, Colorado.
November
• NASA launched Mariner 10 towards Mercury on 3rd November. A few months later on 29th March 1974, it became the first space probe to reach Mercury.

• Captain Mark Phillips and Princess Anne got married on 14th November in Westminster Abbey. They got divorced in 1992.

• An 84 day mission began on 16th November, as NASA launched Skylab 4, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
December
• On 3rd December, Pioneer sent back the first close up images of Jupiter.

• The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its DSM-II on 15th December.

• OPEC doubled the price of crude oil on 23rd December.

• The Endangered Species Act was passed in the U.S. on 28th December.

• On 30th December, terrorist Carlos failed in his attempt to assassinate British businessman Joseph Sieff.

• The 3 day week electricity consumption reduction came into force on 31st December, after there were coal shortages in the U.K. The coal shortages were caused by industrial action.