istoryworld
All Events
A military coup in Portugal ends four decades of Salazar's and Caetano's dictatorial New State
Augusto Pinochet takes sole power in Chile, at the head of a junta which governs with extreme brutality
Donald Johanson and Tom Gray find an almost complete Australopithecus female skeleton at Hadar in Ethiopia, and nickname her Lucy after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Willy Brandt resigns and is succeeded by Helmut Schmidt, as leader of the SDP and chancellor of Germany
Former prime minister Harold Wilson returns to Downing Street as leader of a minority government, but wins a second general election later in the year
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing defeats François Mitterrand in the French presidential election
Golda Meir resigns and Yitzhak Rabin succeeds her as leader of the Labour party and Israeli prime minister
US tennis player Chris Evert wins the first of three victories at Wimbledon and of seven in the French Open
Jimmy Connors wins both Wimbledon and the US Open, on each occasion defeating the veteran Ken Rosewall
German-born British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner completes his monumental 46-volume Buildings of England
Isabel Perón becomes president of Argentina on the death of her husband Juan Perón
An uprising organized in Ethiopia by the Dergue results in the arrest of Haile Selassie and his murder a year later
Turkish troops invade and occupy northeast Cyprus, causing the island to be divided for decades to come
The US Supreme Court orders President Nixon to hand over White House tapes of conversations relevant to Watergate
The House Judiciary Committee takes the first steps in the process of impeaching President Nixon, citing obstruction of justice
Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Kirov company while on tour in Canada
Faced by the prospect of impeachment over Watergate, President Nixon resigns
Richard Nixon is succeeded as US president by his vice-president, Gerald Ford
President Ford pardons ex-president Nixon for his part in the Watergate affair, thus removing the possibility of criminal charges
Muhammad Ali regains the world heavyweight title, beating George Foreman in Zaire in a fight that becomes known as the Rumble in the Jungle
Portuguese Guinea becomes independent as Guinea-Bissau, with Luís Cabral as president
Kenneth MacMillan uses Scott Joplin as his score for a ragtime ballet, Elite Syncopations
The SNP achieves a surge in Scottish nationalism, winning eleven seats at Westminster on 30% of the Scottish vote
The Canadian province of Quebec introduces Bill 22, making French the province's sole official language
Cyclone Tracy devastates the Australian city of Darwin on Christmas Day, destroying 80% of the domestic buildings
