1973 U.S. Legislative Sessions

Events

January

* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
* January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines.
* January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President (1969, 1973) and Vice President of the United States (1953, 1957).
* January 22
** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship.
** A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed.
* January 27 – U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

February

* February 8 – A military insurrection in Uruguay poses an institutional challenge to President Juan María Bordaberry.
* February 21 – Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 ( Boeing 727) is shot down by Israeli fighter aircraft over the Sinai Desert, after the passenger plane is suspected of being an enemy military plane. Only 5 (1 crew member and 4 passengers) of 113 survive.
* February 28 – The Republic of Ireland general election is held. Liam Cosgrave becomes the new Taoiseach.

March

* March 7 – Comet Kohoutek is discovered.
* March 10 – Sir Richard Sharples, Governor of Bermuda, is assassinated in Government House.
* March 20 – A British government White Paper on Northern Ireland proposes the re-establishment of an Assembly elected by proportional representation, with a possible All-Ireland council.
* March 21 – The Lofthouse Colliery disaster occurs in Great Britain. Seven miners are trapped underground; none survive.
* March 27 – At the 45th Academy Awards, '' The Godfather'' wins best picture.

April

* April 1
**India launches the wildlife conservation program Project Tiger.
**Value Added Tax (VAT) is introduced in the United Kingdom.
* April 2 – The LexisNexis computerized legal research service begins.
* April 3 – The first handheld mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City.
* April 5
** Fahri Korutürk becomes the sixth president of Turkey.
** '' Pioneer 11'' is launched on a mission to study the Solar System.
* April 6 – Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees becomes the first designated hitter in Major League Baseball.
* April 7 – '' Tu te reconnaîtras'' by Anne-Marie David (music by Claude Morgan, text by Vline Buggy) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 for Luxembourg.
* April 10 – Operation Spring of Youth: Israeli commandos raid Beirut, assassinating 3 leaders of the Palestinian Resistance Movement. The Lebanese army's inaction brings the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Saeb Salam, a Sunni Muslim.
* April 10 – The Islamic Republic of Pakistan introduced its new constitution, its supreme law.
* April 15 – Naim Talu, a former civil servant, forms the new government of Turkey (36th government).
* April 17 – The German counter-terrorist force GSG 9 is officially formed in response to the Munich massacre.
* April 28 – Six Irishmen, including Joe Cahill, are arrested by the Irish Naval Service off County Waterford, on board a coaster carrying 5 tons of weapons destined for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

May

250px, Sears Tower
* May 3 – The Sears Tower in Chicago is topped-out, becoming the world's tallest building at .
* May 5 – Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
* May 10
** The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup 4 games to 2 over the Chicago Blackhawks, Yvan Cournoyer was voted MVP.
** The Polisario Front, a Sahrawi movement dedicated to the independence of Spanish Sahara, is formed.
* May 11 – The Data Act (Sw. ''Datalagen'') − the world's first national data protection law − is enacted in Sweden.
* May 14 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
* May 18 – Second Cod War: Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed limit around Iceland.
* May 23 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police celebrate their 100th anniversary.
* May 25
** Skylab 2 ( Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz, Joseph Kerwin) is launched on a mission to repair damage to the recently launched Skylab space station.
** Héctor José Cámpora becomes democratic president of the Argentine Republic ending the 1966 to 1973 Revolución Argentina military dictatorship.
* May 27 – Soviet copyright law begins to recognize foreign copyrights.
* May 30 – Gordon Johncock wins the Indianapolis 500 in the ''Patrick Racing Special'' Eagle-Offenhauser, after only 133 laps, due to rain. (The race was begun May 28 but called due to rain.)

June

* June 1 – The Greek military junta abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic.
* June 3 – A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes at the Paris air show; 15 are killed.
* June 10 – Henri Pescarolo and co-driver Gérard Larrousse (both France) win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the ''Equipe Matra'' MS670B.
* June 18 – U.S. President Richard Nixon begins several talks with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
* June 20 – The Ezeiza massacre occurs in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers shoot at left-wing Peronists, killing at least 13 and injuring more than 300.
* June 24
** Leonid Brezhnev addresses the American people on television, the first Soviet leader to do so.
** UpStairs Lounge arson attack, an as-yet unsolved attack on a gay bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, in which 32 patrons are killed.
* June 25 – Erskine Hamilton Childers is elected the 4th President of Ireland.
* June 26 – At Plesetsk Cosmodrome, nine people are killed in the explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.
* June 27 – Coup d'état in Uruguay: pressed by the military, President Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament; a 12-year-long civic-military dictatorship begins.
* June 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.
* June 30 – A very long total solar eclipse occurs. During the entire second millennium, only seven total solar eclipses exceeded seven minutes of totality.

July

* July 3 – Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
* July 5
** The Isle of Man Post begins to issue its own postage stamps.
** The catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) occurs in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, killing 11 firefighters. This explosion becomes a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide.
* July 10 – The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
* July 11 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Orly, France; 123 people are killed.
* July 16 – Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
* July 17 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
* July 20 – France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand.
* July 21 – Lillehammer affair: Agents of Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence agency, shoot and kill a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, mistakenly believing him to be a senior member of the Palestinian Black September Organization.
* July 23 – The Avianca Building in Bogotá, Colombia, suffers a serious fire, in which four people are killed.
* July 25 – The Soviet '' Mars 5'' space probe is launched.
* July 28 – Skylab 3 ( Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean) is launched, to conduct various medical and scientific experiments aboard Skylab.
* July 31 – A Delta Air Lines DC-9 aircraft flying as Delta Air Lines Flight 173 lands short of Boston's Logan Airport runway in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet (50 m) to the right of the runway centerline and about 3,000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed, 1 of the passengers dying several months after the accident.

August

150px, Flag of CARICOM
* August 1 – Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) inaugurated.
* August 2 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.
* August 5
** Black September members open fire at the Athens airport; 3 are killed, 55 injured.
** Mars 6, also known as 3MP No.50P, is a Soviet spacecraft launched to explore Mars.
* August 8 – South Korean politician Kim Dae-jung is kidnapped in Tokyo by the KCIA.
* August 15 – The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, officially halting 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia according to the Case–Church Amendment-an act that prohibits military operations in Laos, Cambodia, and North and South Vietnam as a follow up of the Paris Peace Accords.
* August 23 – The Norrmalmstorg robbery occurs, famous for the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.

September

* September 9 – Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart becomes World Drivers' Champion when his Tyrrell 003-Cosworth places fourth in the 1973 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
* September 11 – Chile's democratically elected government is overthrown in a violent military coup after serious political instability. President Salvador Allende allegedly commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace, and General Augusto Pinochet heads a US-backed military junta that governs Chile for the next 17 years.
* September 15 – Carl XVI Gustaf, becomes King of Sweden following the deaths of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf.
* September 18 – The two German Republics, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), are admitted to the United Nations.
* September 20 – The "Battle of the Sexes": Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in a televised tennis match, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3, at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. With an attendance of 30,492, this remains the largest live audience ever to see a tennis match in US history. The global audience that views on television in 36 countries is estimated at 90 million.
* September 27
** Soviet space program: Soyuz 12 ( Vasily Lazarev, Oleg Makarov), the first Soviet manned flight since the Soyuz 11 tragedy in 1971, is launched.
** Luís Cabral declares the independence of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau from the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. It is later granted in September 1974.

October

* October 6
** Yom Kippur War begins: The fourth and largest Arab–Israeli conflict begins, as Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights on Yom Kippur.
* October 14 – Thai popular uprising Students revolt in Bangkok – In the Thammasat student uprising over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the Thanom military government, 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
* October 15 – Typhoon Ruth crosses Luzon, Philippines, killing 27 people and causing $5 million in damage.
* October 17 – An OPEC oil embargo against several countries supporting Israel triggers the 1973 energy crisis.
* October 20
** The Saturday Night Massacre: U.S. President Richard Nixon orders Attorney General Elliot Richardson to dismiss Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refuses and resigns, along with Deputy Attorney General