Entertainment: Beatles break up Jackson 5 tops charts Writers include: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Saul Bellow, Eudora Welty, Ernest Hemingway (posth), Neil Simon (Last of the Red Hot Lovers), Charles de Gaulle
Hans Werner Henze composes
Environment: First Earth Day celebration Caspian (Persian) Tiger becomes extinct
Fashion: Halston (Roy Halston Frowick) produces
Finance: Gold prices fall below $35 an ounce
Religion: Pope Paul VI declares priestly celibacy to be fundamental to Catholic Church Roman catholic and Jewish leaders meet in Rome
Science: First gene synthesized
Deaths: Bertrand Russell, English novelist EM Forster, Charles de Gaulle, Jimi Hendrix, Gypsy Rose Lee, Reuben L (Rube) Goldberg, Gamal Abdel Nasser,
Africa
General: French Spanish and Portuguese territories begin to become independent Severe drought on desert edges
Biafra: Defeated by Nigeria and reabsorbed into boundaries - see 1967 Famine follows
Egypt: Israel and UAR agree to truce along Suez Canal Anwar Sadat presides to 1981
Ethiopia: Haile Selassie makes first official visit to Italy since Italian takeover of Ethiopia in 1935
Gambia: Proclaimed republic within British Commonwealth
Nigeria: End of civil war - see Biafra
Americas
General: US Supports "Dirty Wars in S America" (-1980)
Chile: Communist Salvador Allende becomes president Cerro Tololo Observatory opens
Colombia: Quake centered in Peru leaves many dead
Guatemala: Mont El Dore archaeologists unearth five-foot Buddha-like statue from 700-300 BC
Peru: Yungay buried by ice and mud after Chimbote earthquake - total deaths with all disasters 66,794
Asia
Cambodia: US and South Vietnamese invade Start of Khmer Republic to 1975 - renamed
China: Quake
East Pakistan: Two cyclones hit Bhola killing 300,000 - 500,000 (Bangladesh)
Japan: Yukio Mishima commits seppuku after failing to inspire coup World Expo
Minoru Takeyama designs the Ichi-Ban-Kan building
Malaysia: 10,000 frog orgy ends in frog war wil some tearing selves and mates apart
Philippines: Two typhoons kill 1500 Assassination attempt on Pope Paul VI
South Vietnam: Paris peace talks end without progress in Vietnam
Europe
General: Ostpolitik agreements for E and W German cooperation France and Britain insert nuclear-powered heart pacemakers
Albania: Trade agreement with China
Czechoslovakia: Dubcek becomes ambassador to Turkey but is later suspended
Denmark: "Tollund Man" discovered
France: President Pompidou goes to Washington Death of de Gaulle Dance hall in St. Laurent du Pont FRA kills 146
Great Britain: Conservative party in power under Prime Minister Edward Heath ending leadership of Harold Wilson
Dame Maggie Smith emerges as stage personality British stamp from 1856 sells for $280k
Iceland: European Free Trade Association membership
Poland: Gomulka the Polish Communist Party first secretary resigns after 14 years
Soviet Union: Life publishes supposed reminiscences of Nikita Khrushchev Luna 16 returns with moon rock to Soviets – Luna 17 powers vehicle on moon
Venera 7 lands on Venus from USSR death of PI Belyayev USSR astronaut
West Germany: Friendship treaty with USSR death of German Chancellor Heinrich Bruning
Yugoslavia: President Tito announces succession by collective leadership Death of Peter II ex-king
Middle East
General: Arab terrorists protesting US support for Israel hijack three aircraft bound for US
Israel: Golda Meir visits London Truce between Israeli and Arab governments along borders of Suez Canal
Jordan: Civil war in Jordan between government troops and Palestinian guerillas PLO driven out and settle in Lebanon King Hussein of Jordan escapes assassination attempt in Amman
Syria: General Asad seizes power
Yemen: South Yemen renamed People's Democratic Republic of Yemen Famine
Culture: 448 Colleges or universities on strike over war Voluntary prayers banned in school
Entertainment: Boris Karloff autobiography published Duke Ellington gives concert of sacred music
Musical plays "Company" and "Applause" released Eugene Ormandy conducts in Philadelphia FCC regulations require split in ownership of Film and TV
Networks allow people of color and Flip Wilson show rates #2 David Mancuso hosts "Love Saves the Day" (LSD) party starts modern discotheque
Phil Donahue show goes nationwide Film: "True Grit" (John Wayne)
Finance: "Nixon Shock" of the economy Wage and price controls make dollar to gold conversion impossible
US gold coverage drops from 55% to 22% Start of US trade deficits World bear market reaches bottom – Dow Jones drops to 631
Nixon lifts import quotas to get cheap oil - dollar becomes loosely pegged to oil
Medicine: CIA starts immunosuppressive research for synthetic organism. Some believe this research led to AIDS
Military: US troops enter Cambodia US troops in Vietnam reduced to 400k
Politics: British Prime Minister Wilson and Nixon meet in DC
Sports: Monday Night Football debuts James Bouton writes Ball Four about baseball Joe Frazier wins heavyweight boxing
Technology: Apollo 13 event
Weather: National Christmas Tree in Washington DC toppled by high winds
East
Maryland: John Hopkins U checks African-American children for extra Y chromosome
New York: Arab commandos hijack three jets bound for NY from Europe Barry Manilow and Bette Midler perform in bathhouses
first New York Marathon
Midwest
Minnesota: James Finley of St. Paul sues federal government for $500k when treatment at hospital turns him from black to white
Ohio: Student protesters burn down ROTC building against Vietnam War resulting in soldiers firing, killing four at Kent State
South
Texas: Four tornadoes hit Amarillo area
Virginia: Bunnyman of Virginia reported as wielding an axe – police question him and he indeed wears the bunny suit
West Virginia: 75 people, including Marshall University football team dies when plain crashes in rain and fog