| 1973-10-31
Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape. Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland aboard a hijacked helicopter that lands in the exercise yard.
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| 1973-03-29
Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
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| 1973-11-14
In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
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| 1973-08-14
The constitution of 1973 comes into effect in Pakistan
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| 1973-08-08
Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped.
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| 1973-03-17
The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family.
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| 1973-07-20
First coast-to-coast black-owned and operated radio network: The National Black Network (NBN) begins operations.
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| 1973-05-11
Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed.
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| 1973-06-10
John Paul Getty III, grandson of billionaire J. Paul Getty, is kidnapped in Rome, Italy.
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| 1973-05-03
The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out as the world's tallest building.
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| 1973-04-01
Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India.
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| 1973-10-21
John Paul Getty III's ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; it doesn't arrive until November 8.
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| 1973-12-06
The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3).
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| 1973-09-28
The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the September 11 1973 coup d'état in Chile.
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| 1973-12-18
Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
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| 1973-04-06
The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.
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| 1973-11-01
Watergate Scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
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| 1973-10-14
Thammasat student uprising over 100,000 people, protested in Thailand against the Thanom military government; 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
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| 1973-06-03
A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
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| 1973-10-16
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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| 1973-06-04
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.
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| 1973-07-10
The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
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| 1973-01-23
A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
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| 1973-08-02
A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.
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| 1973-10-23
The Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.
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| 1973-02-27
The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
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| 1973-04-06
Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
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| 1973-05-29
Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California.
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| 1973-05-17
Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
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| 1973-06-28
Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
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| 1973-03-01
Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages.
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| 1973-12-24
District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
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| 1973-01-17
Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines.
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| 1973-03-05
Donald DeFreeze, the future Symbionese Liberation Army leader, escapes from Vacaville Prison.
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| 1973-11-07
The U.S. Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
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| 1973-12-28
The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.
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| 1973-04-03
The first portable cell phone call is made in New York City, United States.
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| 1973-10-08
Yom Kippur War: Gabi Amir's armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.
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| 1973-07-20
Vietnam War: In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, the US Defense Department admits it lied to US Congress about bombing Cambodia .
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| 1973-11-22
The Italian Fascist organization Ordine Nuovo is disbanded.
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| 1973-07-05
Catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane is being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills 11 firefighters.
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| 1973-10-17
OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.
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| 1973-12-21
The Geneva Conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict opens.
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| 1973-04-04
The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.
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| 1973-10-27
The Cañon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite type meteorite, strikes in Fremont County, Colorado.
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| 1973-04-02
The Liberal Movement breaks away from the Liberal and Country League in South Australia.
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| 1973-12-17
Terrorism: 30 passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
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| 1973-06-27
The President of Uruguay dissolves Parliament and heads a coup d'état.
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| 1973-01-01
Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland are admitted into the European Community.
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| 1973-08-08
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew appears on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland.
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| 1973-12-01
Papua New Guinea gains self government from Australia.
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| 1973-06-09
Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.
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| 1973-02-21
Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.
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| 1973-02-09
Biju Patnaik of the Pragati Legislature Party is elected leader of the opposition in the state assembly in Orissa, India.
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| 1973-05-08
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.
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| 1973-04-02
Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
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| 1973-04-30
Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and others have resigned.
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| 1973-07-16
Watergate Scandal: former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
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| 1973-07-31
A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
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| 1973-01-22
A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria killing 176.
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| 1973-01-15
Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
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| 1973-07-17
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
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| 1973-11-03
Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
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| 1973-06-26
At Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 people are killed in an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.
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| 1973-07-12
A fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States.
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| 1973-12-15
John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973.
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| 1973-11-01
The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu.
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| 1973-11-08
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 USD.
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| 1973-09-18
The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.
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| 1973-11-17
The Athens Polytechnic Uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
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| 1973-01-08
Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
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| 1973-10-15
The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Gabon are established.
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| 1973-10-24
Yom Kippur War ends
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| 1973-11-02
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India forms a 'United Front' in the state of Tripura.
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| 1973-07-13
Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in.
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| 1973-04-17
German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 founded.
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| 1973-12-03
Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
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| 1973-07-20
Palestianian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.
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| 1973-11-16
U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
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| 1973-01-07
Mark Essex fatally shoots 10 people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana before being shot to death by police officers.
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| 1973-09-24
Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal.
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| 1973-07-21
In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in 1972's Munich Olympics Massacre.
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| 1973-10-20
The Sydney Opera House opens.
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| 1973-07-28
Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
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| 1973-06-23
A fire at a house in Hull, England which kills a six year old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
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| 1973-06-20
Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
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| 1973-03-24
Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, California.
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| 1973-11-17
Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".
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| 1973-10-20
"Saturday Night Massacre": President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
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| 1973-09-19
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has his investiture.
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| 1973-05-14
Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
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| 1973-07-10
National Assembly of Pakistan passes a resolution on the recognition of Bangladesh.
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| 1973-09-23
Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.
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| 1973-01-23
President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
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| 1973-10-21
Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
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| 1973-10-10
Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
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| 1973-11-24
A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany due to the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasted only four months.
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| 1973-12-20
The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
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| 1973-11-16
Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
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| 1973-01-08
Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
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| 1973-11-27
The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35).
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| 1973-10-30
The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time.
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| 1973-11-25
George Papadopoulos, head of the military Regime of the Colonels in Greece, is ousted in a hardliners' coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.
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| 1973-10-05
Signature of the European Patent Convention.
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| 1973-04-16
Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.
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| 1973-01-22
The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.
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| 1973-10-23
A United Nations sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria.
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| 1973-04-10
A British Vanguard turboprop crashes during a snowstorm at Basel, Switzerland killing 104.
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| 1973-01-27
The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
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| 1973-02-22
Cold War: Following United States President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
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| 1973-08-15
Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.
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| 1973-02-11
Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.
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| 1973-07-25
Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
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| 1973-10-19
President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
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| 1973-07-11
A Brazilian Boeing 707 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on-board.
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| 1973-06-21
In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test for obscenity in U.S. law.
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| 1973-11-04
The Netherlands experiences the first Car Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are deserted and are used only by cyclists and roller skaters.
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| 1973-07-20
The US Senate passes the War Powers Act.
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| 1973-10-06
Egypt launches a coordinated attack against Israel to reclaim land lost in the Six Day War. The Ramadan War Yom Kippur War starts at 2:05 pm that day.
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| 1973-05-31
The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.
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| 1973-09-20
Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.
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| 1973-05-24
Earl Jellicoe resigns as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.
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| 1973-09-26
Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.
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| 1973-02-12
Vietnam War: The first United States prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.
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