1975

Events

January

• January 1 – Watergate scandal : John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up.
• January 2
• * The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress.
• * A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways.
• 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.
• January 15 – Alvor Agreement: Portugal announces that it will grant independence to Angola on November 11.

  February

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• * Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, President of Madagascar, is assassinated.
• 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.
• February 28
• * A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
• * 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.
• * The National Liberation Front of Angola approaches the South African Embassy in London and requests 40 to 50 artillery pieces to assist their cause in the Angolan Civil War.

  March

• March 1
• * Aston Villa win the English Football League Cup at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1–0 in the final.
• * Australian television switches to full-time colour.
• March 6
• * Algiers Agreement: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement in their border dispute.
• * A bomb explodes in the Paris offices of Springer publishers. The March 6 Group demands amnesty for the Baader-Meinhof Group.
• March 9 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
• March 10
• * Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Mê Thuột in South Vietnam on their way to capturing Saigon.
• * 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.
• March 11 – The leftist military government in Portugal defeats a rightist coup attempt involving former president António de Spínola, who flees to Brazil.
• March 13 – Vietnam War: South Vietnam President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu orders the Central Highlands evacuated. This turns into a mass exodus involving troops and civilians.
• 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.
• March 22 – "Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In wins the 20th Eurovision Song Contest 1975 for the Netherlands.
• March 25 – King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by his nephew.
• March 27 – The South African government announces that it will consolidate the 113 separate homeland areas into 36.
• March 28 – A fire in the maternity wing at Kučić Hospital in Rijeka, Yugoslavia, kills 25 people.
• March 31 – Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey, a four-party coalition, the so-called First National Front.

  April

• 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.
• * Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico and release their Altair BASIC interpreter.
• April 5 – The Soviet crewed space mission 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 survive.
• April 9 – Eight people in South Korea, who are involved in the People's Revolutionary Party Incident, are hanged.
• 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.
• * A coup d'état in Chad led by the military overthrows and kills President François Tombalbaye.
• 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.
• April 18 – The Khmer Rouge begins a forcible mass evacuation of the city and starts the Cambodian genocide.
• April 19 – Nico Diederichs becomes the 3rd State President of South Africa.
• April 20 – Taman Mini Indonesia Indah opens to the public in Jakarta, Indonesia.
• April 24 – West German Embassy siege in Stockholm: Six Red Army Faction terrorists take over the West German embassy in Stockholm, take 11 hostages and demand the release of the group's jailed members; shortly after, they are captured by Swedish police.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

  May

• May 3 – West Ham United win the FA Cup at Wembley, beating Fulham 2–0 in the final.
• May 6 – The South African government announces that it will provide all Black children with free and compulsory education.
• 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.
• May 16
• * Sikkim accedes to India after a referendum and abolishes the Chogyal, its monarchy.
• * Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• May 25 – Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 for a second time in a rain-shorted 174 lap, race.
• May 27 – The Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England, results in 32 deaths.
• May 28 – Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, creating the Economic Community of West African States.

  June

• June 5 – The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.
• June 6 – The Georgetown Agreement, formally creating the ACP Group, is signed.
• June 9 – The Order of Australia is awarded for the first time.
• June 11 – After a referendum and seven years of military rule, modern-day Greece is established as the Hellenic Republic.
• June 25
• * Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency in India, suspending civil liberties and elections.
• * Mozambique gains independence from Portugal.

  July

• July 1 – The Postmaster-General's Department is disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission and the Australian Postal Commission.
• July 4 – Zion Square refrigerator bombing. A terrorist attack in downtown Jerusalem kills 15 civilians and wounds 77.
• July 5 – Cape Verde gains independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule.
• July 6 – The Comoros declares and is granted its independence from France.
• July 9 – The National Assembly of Senegal passes a law that will pave way for a multi-party system.
• July 12 – São Tomé and Príncipe declare independence from Portugal.
• 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.
• 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.
• July 30 – Typhoon Nina forms over the Philippine Sea.

  August

• 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.
• August 1 – The Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.
• August 8 – The Banqiao Dam, in China's Henan Province, fails after Typhoon Nina; over 200,000 people perish.
• 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.
• August 15
• * Founder President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh is killed during a coup led by Major Syed Faruque Rahman.
• * 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.
• August 20 – Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
• 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.
• 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.