1973 Events

January
03 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner

14 - Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.

17 - President Marcos proclaims a new constitution in the Philippines under which he rules indefinitely
22 - Former US President Lyndon B Johnson dies
22 - The US Supreme Court legalizes abortion in America
27 - USA, North and South Vietnam and the Vietcong sign a peace treaty bringing the Vietnam War to an end
30 - James W McCord and G Gordon Liddy are convicted of breaking into and illegally wiretapping Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex in Washington DC

February
08 - Max Yasgur, whose farm housed the 1969 Woodstock Festival, dies aged 53
09 - Britain and East Germany establish diplomatic relations
12 - The first American prisoners-of-war from North Vietnam are flown out
21 - 104 die as Israeli fighter planes force down a Libyan Boeing 727 in the Sinai desert
27 - 120 protesting American Indians take hostages at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, demanding an investigation of the federal treatment of Native Americans

March
01 - Palestinian terrorists storm the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, holding five diplomats hostage
02 - At the Saudi Arabian embassy, Palestinian terrorists murder the US ambassador, his chargé d'affaires and the Belgian chargé d'affaires
23 - Watergate judge John J Sirica publicizes a letter written to him by James W McCord, which claims that Nixon Administration officials had applied political pressure to him and other defendants to plead guilty and keep quiet about the break-in
23 - Yoko Ono is granted permanent residence in the USA but John Lennon is ordered to leave the country within 60 days
24 - Rock band Pink Floyd releases Dark Side of the Moon, which will go on to become one of the most influential and commercially successful albums of all-time

29 - Last US troops leave Vietnam

April
01 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono announce the founding of Nutopia, a new country with no laws or borders (though nobody can find it on any map). It is no accident that the press conference is held on April 1st
04- The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated

06 - The finance ministers of the EEC countries establish a European fund for monetary cooperation
08 - Spanish artist Pablo Picasso dies aged 91
09 - Arab terrorists attempt to hijack an Israeli plane at Nicosia. One Arab is killed and seven are captured
27 - Acting FBI Director L Patrick Gray resigns after revelations surface that he had intentionally destroyed records involving the Watergate break-in
30 - On national TV, Nixon accepts responsibility (but not blame) for Watergate. He accepts the resignations of advisers H. R. Haldeman and John D. Erlichman, and fires John W. Dean III as counsel

May
14 - US launches their first space station, Skylab. Its solar panels are damaged during the launch
17 - The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, opens televised hearings to explore the alleged cover-up of the Nixon administration's involvement in the Watergate affair
25 - Skylab 2 carries astronauts Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz to rendezvous with Skylab. The three repair the solar panels damaged in Skylab's launch and conduct scientific experiments, before returning to Earth on June 22
29 - Thomas Bradley becomes first black Mayor of Los Angeles

June
04 - Murry Wilson, father of Beach Boys' Brian, Carl and Dennis, dies of a heart attack aged 55

04 - The patent for the ATM is granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain

09 - Secretariat wins the Triple Crown

13 - North High School Class of 1973 Graduates
16/25 - USSR Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev visits the US
22 - Applications by West and East Germany to join the UN are accepted
24 - Soviet premier Brezhnev attends a summit conference in the US
25/29 - Former White House counsel John Dean testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee, implicating himself, White House Chief of Staff H R Haldeman, Assistant of Domestic Affairs John Erlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell, and President Richard Nixon in the cover-up
26 - Keith Richard and Anita Pallenberg are arrested on firearms and drugs charges

July
15 - Grandson of US oil billionaire Paul Getty kidnapped
16 - Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of secret recordings Nixon made of White House conversations. Though subpoenaed for them by special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Nixon refuses to release them
20 - Actor and Martial Arts expert Bruce Lee dies in mysterious circumstances
20 - A Japanese Boeing 747 with 123 passengers and 22 crew is hijacked over Holland and forced to fly to Dubai. Later, at Benghazi, the plane is blown up by the hijackers. A girl hijacker is killed by a grenade explosion, but all passengers and crew escape
21 - France explodes test H-bomb at Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific despite protests from Australia and New Zealand
28 - Watkins Glen, New York concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead

28 - Skylab 3 makes a rendezvous with the orbiting Skylab station. Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma perform further repairs and experiments

August
05 - Terrorists kill three, injure 55 at Athens Airport
06 - US bombers accidentally bomb a friendly village in Cambodia

15 - Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends

September
02 - British author J R R Tolkien (Lord Of The Rings) dies
04 - John Erlichman and G Gordon Liddy are indicted in connection with the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Following Ellsberg's release of The Pentagon Papers, the two were allegedly looking for evidence that would link Ellsburg (a former Defense Department analyst) to the KGB
11 - A military junta headed by General Pinochet seizes power in Chile in a bloody coup during which President Allende is killed
15 - King Gustaf Adolf of Sweden dies. He is succeeded by his grandson Carl Gustaf, who becomes King Carl XVI Gustav
19 - US musician (ex-The Byrds) Gram Parsons dies in California after collapsing in a motel. He was 26
20 - US singer/songwriter Jim Croce dies when the plane he is flying in crashes into a tree. His guitarist, Maury Mulheisen is also killed
20 - Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match

23 - General Juan Peron returns from exile and is elected President of Argentina

October
06 - Egypt and Syria launch a joint attack on Israel on Yom Kippur - the holiest day in the Jewish calendar
09 - Elvis and Priscilla Presley divorce in Santa Monica, California
10 - Spiro Agnew resigns as US Vice President and then, in federal court in Baltimore, pleads no contest to charges of evasion of income taxes on $29,500 he received in 1967, while governor of Maryland. He is fined $10,000 and put on three years probation
12 - Gerald Ford is nominated Vice President by Richard Nixon
12 - US Court of Appeal orders Nixon to hand over the Watergate tapes
13 - German President Gustav Heinemann attacked by an insane assailant during a business leaders meeting in Augsburg. Heinemann is not seriously injured
16 - Jazz legend Gene Krupa dies
17 - Eleven Arab OPEC states agree to cut oil production and raise prices by over 70% in protest at US support of Israel
17 - Queen Elizabeth opens the Sydney Opera House
19 - Nixon offers a summary of the Watergate tapes in exchange for no further enquiries. Prosecutor Archibald Cox refuses
20 - The Six Million Dollar Man premieres on ABC

20 - In the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Nixon fires special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson resigns
24 - Yom Kippur War ends
25 - US forces are put on worldwide alert as fears rise of USSR involvement in the Middle East conflict
25 - John Lennon begins a lawsuit against the US government alleging his telephone was tapped at a time when he was fighting a deportation order for his political leanings

November
01 - Nixon appoints Leon Jaworksi as special Watergate prosecutor
06 - New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia dies of a heroin overdose in London, England
08 - The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay $2.9 million

09 - Six Watergate burglars jailed
11 - Egypt and Israel accept a US plan for a ceasefire
14 - Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips at Westminster Abbey, watched by 500 million TV viewers
19 - Football player Lance Rentzel is arrested for exposing himself to a ten-year-old girl; he is later sentenced to five years' probation

25 - A military coup in Greece ousts the government of President Papadopoulos
26 - A released White House tape is revealed to have had eighteen minutes erased from it
26 - Bass player John Rostill of The Shadows is electrocuted while playing guitar in his home studio

December
06 - Representative Gerald Ford is sworn in as US Vice-President
16 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first player in NFL history to rush for 2000 yards in one season, in 1994 he becomes the first player in NFL history to murder his wife

17 - Arab terrorists kill 32 people at Rome Airport, hijack a Lufthansa aircraft and fly to Kuwait. The crew and hostages are released and the five guerrillas surrender
20 - 1950's US pop star Bobby Darin dies during heart surgery at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, aged 37

Are there events from 1973 you remember?