1975

1975 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1975; MCMLXXV
Ab urbe condita	2728
Armenian calendar	1424; ԹՎ ՌՆԻԴ
Assyrian calendar	6725
Bahá'í calendar	131–132
Balinese saka calendar	1896–1897
Bengali calendar	1382
Berber calendar	2925
British Regnal year	23 Eliz. 2 – 24 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2519
Burmese calendar	1337
Byzantine calendar	7483–7484
Chinese calendar	甲寅年 (Wood Tiger); 4671 or 4611; — to —; 乙卯年 (Wood Rabbit); 4672 or 4612
Coptic calendar	1691–1692
Discordian calendar	3141
Ethiopian calendar	1967–1968
Hebrew calendar	5735–5736
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2031–2032
- Shaka Samvat	1896–1897
- Kali Yuga	5075–5076
Holocene calendar	11975
Igbo calendar	975–976
Iranian calendar	1353–1354
Islamic calendar	1394–1395
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 50; (昭和５０年)
Javanese calendar	1906–1907
Juche calendar	64
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4308
Minguo calendar	ROC 64; 民國64年
Nanakshahi calendar	507
Thai solar calendar	2518
Tibetan calendar	阳木虎年; (male Wood-Tiger); 2101 or 1720 or 948; — to —; 阴木兔年; (female Wood-Rabbit); 2102 or 1721 or 949
Unix time	157766400 – 189302399

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century ; 20th century ; 21st century ;
Decades:	1950s ; 1960s ; 1970s ; 1980s ; 1990s ;
Years:	1972 ; 1973 ; 1974 ; 1975 ; 1976 ; 1977 ; 1978 ;

Last updated February 19, 2019

1975 ( MCMLXXV ) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar , the 1975th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 975th year of the 2nd millennium , the 75th year of the 20th century , and the 6th year of the 1970s decade. It was also declared the International Women's Year by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.

Roman numerals Numbers in the Roman numeral system

The numeric system represented by Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet. Roman numerals, as used today, employ seven symbols, each with a fixed integer value, as follows:

A common year is a calendar year with 365 days, as distinguished from a leap year, which has 366. More generally, a common year is one without intercalation. The Gregorian calendar,, employs both common years and leap years to keep the calendar aligned with the tropical year, which does not contain an exact number of days.

A common year starting on Wednesday is any non-leap year that begins on Wednesday, 1 January, and ends on Wednesday, 31 December. Its dominical letter hence is E. The most recent year of such kind was 2014, and the next one will be 2025 in the in the Gregorian calendar or, likewise, 2015 and 2026 in the obsolete Julian calendar. The century year, 1800, was also a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar, see below for more. Any common year that starts on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday has only one Friday the 13th; The only Friday the 13th in this common year occurs in June. Leap years starting on Tuesday share this characteristic.

Events

January

January
- Altair 8800 is released, sparking the microcomputer revolution.
- Volkswagen introduces the Golf, its new front-wheel-drive economy car, in the United States and Canada as the Volkswagen Rabbit.
Volkswagen, shortened to VW, is a German automaker founded on 28 May 1937 by the German Labour Front, and headquartered in Wolfsburg. It is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker by worldwide sales in 2016 and 2017. The group's main market is in China, which delivers 40% of its sales and profits.
The Volkswagen Golf is a compact car produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across seven generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – such as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada, and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico (Mk1).
January 1
- Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join Fleetwood Mac.
- Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up.
- Malawi changes its capital city from Zomba to Lilongwe.
Stephanie Lynn Nicks is an American singer and songwriter. Nicks is best known for her work as a songwriter and vocalist with Fleetwood Mac, and also for her chart-topping solo career. She is known for her distinctive voice, mystical stage persona, and poetic, symbolic lyrics. Collectively, her work both as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist has produced over 40 top-50 hits and sold over 140 million records, making her one of the best-selling music acts of all time with Fleetwood Mac.
Lindsey Adams Buckingham is an American musician, singer, songwriter and producer, best known as lead guitarist and one of the vocalists of the music group Fleetwood Mac from 1975–1987 and 1997–2018. In addition to his tenure with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has released six solo albums and three live albums. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2011, Buckingham was ranked 100th in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2011 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Buckingham is known for his fingerpicking guitar style.
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. They have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling bands. In 1998, select members of Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2018, the band was declared MusiCares Person of the Year.
January 2
- The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress.
- Bangladesh revolutionary leader Siraj Sikder is killed by police while in custody.
- A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways.
First adopted in 1975, the Federal Rules of Evidence codify the evidence law that applies in United States federal courts. In addition, many states in the United States have either adopted the Federal Rules of Evidence, with or without local variations, or have revised their own evidence rules or codes to at least partially follow the federal rules.
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federal Government of the United States. The legislature consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Siraj Sikder was a Bangladeshi revolutionary politician.
January 5 – Tasman Bridge disaster: The Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier MV Lake Illawarra, killing 12 people.
January 6 – United States television debuts:
- Game show Wheel of Fortune premieres on NBC.
- AM America makes its television debut on ABC.
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin that debuted in 1975. The show features a competition in which contestants solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a giant carnival wheel.
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network that is a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. The network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting. It became the network's official emblem in 1979.
AM America was a morning news program produced by ABC in an attempt to compete with the highly-rated Today on NBC. Premiering on January 6, 1975, the show never found an audience against Today or the CBS combo of the CBS Morning News and Captain Kangaroo. Lasting just under ten months, its final installment aired on October 31.
January 7 – OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%.
January 8
- Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first female U.S. governor who does not succeed her husband.
- U.S. President Gerald Ford appoints Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to head a special commission looking into alleged domestic abuses by the CIA.
January 14 – Heiress Lesley Whittle, 17, is kidnapped from her home in Shropshire, England by Donald Neilson.
January 15
- Alvor Agreement: Portugal announces that it will grant independence to Angola on November 11.
- International Women's Year is launched in Britain by Princess Alexandra and Barbara Castle.
- Steel roller coaster Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida, becoming one of the park's most popular attractions into the 21st century.
January 18 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission is divided between the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, partly in response to the 1973 oil crisis.
January 19 – The 6.8 M_s Kinnaur earthquake affected Himachal Pradesh in India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 47.
January 20
- In Hanoi, North Vietnam, the Politburo approves the final military offensive against South Vietnam.
- American talent agent Michael Ovitz founds the Creative Artists Agency.
- Work is abandoned on the British end of the Channel Tunnel.
January 24 – Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett plays the solo improvisation The Köln Concert at the Cologne Opera, which, recorded live, becomes the best-selling piano recording in history.^[1]
January 26 – Immaculata University defeats the University of Maryland 80-48 in the first nationally televised women's basketball game in the United States.^[2]
January 29 – The Weather Underground radical student group bombs the United States Department of State main office in Washington, D.C.

January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the first of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the year within most of the Northern Hemisphere and the warmest month of the year within most of the Southern Hemisphere. In the Southern hemisphere, January is the seasonal equivalent of July in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa. Birthday Number the letter "J".

The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, and was sold by mail order through advertisements there, in Radio-Electronics, and in other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. The Altair also appealed to individuals and businesses that just wanted a computer and purchased the assembled version. The Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution as the first commercially successful personal computer. The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC.

The microcomputer revolution is a phrase used to describe the rapid advances of microprocessor-based computers from esoteric hobby projects to a commonplace fixture of homes in industrial societies during the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to 1977, the only contact most of the population had with computers was through utility bills, bank and payroll services, or computer-generated junk mail. Within a decade, computers became common consumer goods.

February

February 1 – The Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation is launched in the Philippines.
February 4 – The Haicheng earthquake, the first successfully predicted earthquake, kills 2,041 and injures 27,538 in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
February 5 – The Argentine president Isabelita Perón decrees Operativo Independencia, aiming to neutralize or annihilate the "subversive elements" in the province of Tucuman. Isabelita takes advantage to take a self-coup and assume extraordinary powers.
February 6 – A crucial by-election is held in Kankesanthurai, Sri Lanka.
February 9 – The Soyuz 17 crew (Georgy Grechko, Aleksei Gubarev) returns to Earth after 1 month aboard the Salyut 4 space station.
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.^[3]
- Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava, President of Madagascar, is assassinated.
February 13
- A "Turkish Federated State of North Cyprus" is declared as an unsuccessful first step to international recognition of a Turkish Cypriot separatist state in Cyprus.
- A fire breaks out in the World Trade Center.
February 21 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, are sentenced to between 30 months and 8 years in prison.
February 23 – In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly 2 months early in the United States.
February 26 – A fleeing Provisional Irish Republican Army member shoots and kills off-duty London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase.
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 (FNLA) 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 Football League Cup at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1–0 in the final.
- Australian television switches to full-time colour.
March 4
- Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Elizabeth II.
- A Canadian parliamentary committee is televised for the first time.
March 6
- Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement in their border dispute.
- A bomb explodes in the Paris offices of the Springer Press. The 6 March Group (connected to the Red Army Faction) demands amnesty for the Baader-Meinhof Group.
March 7 – The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, kidnapped 7 weeks earlier by the "Black Panther", is discovered in Staffordshire, England.
March 8
- The United Nations proclaims International Women's Day.
- First appearance of Davros in Doctor Who .
March 9 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
March 10
- Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Mê Thuột, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
- The Rocky Horror Show opens on Broadway in New York City; closed after 3 previews and 45 performances.
- An extended portion of Sanyō Shinkansen between Okayama Station and Hakata Station opens, thus making Shinkansen reach the second island, Kyushu, Japan.
March 11 – The leftist military government in Portugal defeats a rightist coup attempt.
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 (the Convoy of Tears).
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 (music by Dick Bakker, text by Will Luikinga and Eddy Ouwens) wins the 20th Eurovision Song Contest 1975 for the Netherlands.
March 25 – King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by his nephew.^[4]
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 Kucic Hospital in Rijeka, former Yugoslavia, kills 25 people.
March 29 – Blow by Blow by Jeff Beck is released. It would become his most successful album in the United States, reaching the top five and selling over one million copies.
March 31
- Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey (39th government, a four-party coalition, so-called First National Front (Turkish: Milliyetçi cephe)).
- In his final game on the sideline, John Wooden coaches UCLA to its 10th national championship in 12 seasons when the Bruins defeat Kentucky 92-85 in the title game at San Diego.

April

April 3
- Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail is released in the UK.
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.
April 5 – The Soviet manned space mission Soyuz 18a 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, resulting in the cosmonauts and their Soyuz spacecraft having to be ripped free from the vehicle. Both cosmonauts survive.
April 9
- Asia's first professional basketball league, the Philippine Basketball Association, plays its first game at the Araneta Coliseum.
- 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 15 – Karen Ann Quinlan, 21, faints after consuming Quaaludes at a party. She becomes a controversial subject in the right to die movement after her parents sue to have her comatose body removed from life-support. She lives off a feeding tube until 1985.
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 genocide.
April 19 – Nico Diederichs becomes the 4th State President of South Africa.^[5]
April 24 – 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 (See West German Embassy siege).
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:
- Operation Frequent Wind – Americans and their allies are evacuated from South Vietnam by helicopter.
- North Vietnam concludes its East Sea Campaign by capturing all of the Spratly Islands that were being held by South Vietnam.
April 30 – The Vietnam War ends with the Fall of Saigon: The Vietnam War concludes as Communist forces from North Vietnam take 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 the temporary Provisional Government.

May

May 1 – The Cold War between Cambodia and Vietnam begins, which eventually leads to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
May 3 – West Ham United wins the FA Cup at Wembley, beating Fulham 2–0 in the final. Both goals are scored by Alan Taylor. West Ham legend Bobby Moore, appears for Fulham.
May 5 – The Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park opens in Virginia.
May 6
- The South African government announces that it will provide all Black children with free and compulsory education.
- A violent F4 tornado hits the Omaha metropolitan area, killing three and injuring more than 137.
May 12 – Mayaguez incident: Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia seize the United States merchant ship Mayaguez in international waters.
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 17 – Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy becomes the first album to enter the US Billboard 200 album chart at Number One.
May 25
- Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 for a second time in a rain-shorted 174 lap, 700 kilometres (430 mi) race.
- The Golden State Warriors win the 1975 NBA basketball championship.
May 27
- The Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England results in 32 deaths (the highest ever toll in a United Kingdom road accident).
- In the National Hockey League, The Philadelphia Flyers defeat the Buffalo Sabres 2-0 in game six of the finals to claim their second straight Stanley Cup.
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.
- The United Kingdom votes yes in a referendum to stay in the European Community.
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 10 – In Washington, D.C., the Rockefeller Commission issues its report on CIA abuses, recommending a joint congressional oversight committee on intelligence.
June 11 – After a referendum and seven years of military rule, modern day Greece is established as the Hellas Republic.
June 19 – Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan is found guilty in absentia of the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.
June 20 – Jaws is released in theaters and becomes a popular summer hit, setting the standard for Hollywood blockbusters for years to come.
June 25
- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency in India, suspending civil liberties and elections.
- Mozambique gains independence from Portugal.
June 26 – Two FBI agents and one AIM member die in a shootout, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

July

July 1 – The Postmaster-General's Department is disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post).
July 4
- Zion Square refrigerator bombing. A terrorist attack in downtown Jerusalem kills 15 civilians and wounds 77.
- Sydney newspaper publisher Juanita Nielsen disappears, and is presumed to have been murdered.
July 5 – Cape Verde gains independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule.
July 6
- The Comoros declares and is granted their independence from France.
- Ruffian, an American champion thoroughbred racehorse breaks down in a match race against Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure; she has to be euthanized the following day.
July 9 – The National Assembly of Senegal passes a law that will pave way for a multi-party system (albeit highly restricted).
July 12 – São Tomé and Príncipe declare independence from Portugal.
July 17 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: A manned American Apollo spacecraft and the manned Soviet Soyuz spacecraft for the Soyuz 19 mission, docks in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the 2 nations.
July 30 – In Detroit, former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.

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.^[6]
The United States, Zaire and Zambia request South Africa to provide training and support for the FNLA and UNITA.^[6]
August 1 – The Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.
August 3 – The Louisiana Superdome opens in New Orleans.
August 5 – U.S. President Ford posthumously restores the U.S. citizenship of General Robert E. Lee, military leader of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
August 8
- The Banqiao Dam, in China's Henan Province, fails after Typhoon Nina; over 200,000 people perish.
- Samuel Bronfman II, son of the president of Seagram's, is kidnapped in Purchase, New York.
August 11
- British Leyland Motor Corporation comes under British government control.
- 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
- The Birmingham Six are wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment in Great Britain. (They are released 1991.)
- 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^[7] 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.
- Bruce Springsteen's album Born to Run is released in the United States.

September

September–October – In New Zealand, Māori leader Whina Cooper leads a march of 5,000 people, in support of Maori claims to their land.
September 5
- In Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme, a follower of jailed cult leader Charles Manson, attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is thwarted by a Secret Service agent.
- The London Hilton Hotel is bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army; two people are killed and 63 injured.^[8]
September 6 – An earthquake of magnitude M 6.7 kills at least 2,085 in Diyarbakır and Lice, Turkey.
September 9 – Riverfront Coliseum opens in Cincinnati.
September 14
- Elizabeth Seton is canonized, becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint.
- Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch is slashed a dozen times at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
September 15 – The French department of "Corse", comprising the entire island of Corsica, is divided into two departments: Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica).

September 16 – Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia.
September 16 – Cape Verde, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.
September 18 – Fugitive Patty Hearst is captured in San Francisco.
September 19
- General Vasco Gonçalves is ousted as Prime Minister of Portugal.
- The British comedy sitcom Fawlty Towers airs on BBC Two.
September 20 – The term of Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, as the 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, ends.
September 21 – Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra of Kelantan, becomes the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
September 22 – U.S. President Gerald Ford survives a second assassination attempt, this time by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco.
September 24 – Dougal Haston and Doug Scott on the 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest by any of its faces and the first Britons to reach the summit by any route.
September 27
- Francoist Spain executes five ETA and FRAP members, the last executions in Spain to date.
September 28 – The Spaghetti House siege takes place in London.
September 30 – The Hughes Helicopters (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing IDS) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.

October

October 1 – Thrilla in Manila : Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.
October 2 – A blast at an explosives factory kills six in Beloeil, Quebec.
October 9 – A bomb explosion outside the Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills one and injures 20.
October 11 – NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live (George Carlin is the first host; Billy Preston and Janis Ian the first musical guests).
October 14 – The South African Defence Force invades Angola during Operation Savannah in support of the FNLA and UNITA prior to the Angolan elections scheduled for 11 November.^[9]
October 16
- The "Balibo Five" Australian television journalists are killed at Balibo by Indonesian Army special forces in the buildup to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
- The last naturally occurring case of smallpox is diagnosed and treated, the victim being two-year-old Rahima Banu.^[10]
October 21 – 1975 World Series: The Boston Red Sox defeat the Cincinnati Reds in Game 6 off Carlton Fisk's 12th-inning home run to cap off what many consider to be the best World Series game ever played.
October 22 – The Reds defeat the Red Sox 4 games to 3 in a broadcast that breaks records for a televised sporting event.
October 27 – Robert Poulin kills one and wounds five at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada before shooting himself.
October 30
- Peter Sutcliffe (the "Yorkshire Ripper") commits his first murder, that of Wilma McCann.
- Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting head of state after dictator Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern.
October 31
- The Queen single Bohemian Rhapsody is released. It later becomes one of their most popular songs.
- The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 took effect in Australia.
- Tun Mustapha resigned as Chief Minister of Sabah, a state in Malaysia, bringing to an end speculation that he would attempt to lead secession for Sabah to become an independent nation.

November

November 3
- An independent audit of Mattel, one of the United States' largest toy manufacturers, reveals that company officials fabricated press releases and financial information to "maintain the appearance of continued corporate growth."
- The first petroleum pipeline opens from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth, Scotland.
- The long-running television game show The Price Is Right expands from 30 minutes to its current hour-long format on CBS.
November 6 – The Green March begins: 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara.
November 7 – A vapor cloud explosion at a petroleum cracking facility in Geleen, Netherlands leaves 14 dead and 109 injured, with fires lasting for five days.
November 10
- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379: By a vote of 72–35 (with 32 abstentions), the United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution provokes an outcry among Jews around the world. It is repealed in 1991.
- The 729-foot (222 m)-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm 27 kilometres (17 mi) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board (an event immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot).
- Lev Leshchenko revives Den Pobedy , one of the most popular World War II songs in the USSR.
November 11
- Angola becomes independent from Portugal and civil war erupts.
  
  Flag of Angola
- Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Governor-General of Australia Sir John Kerr controversially dismisses the Whitlam Labor Government and commissions Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal/National Country Coalition as caretaker Prime Minister.
- The first annual Vogalonga rowing "race" is held in Venice, Italy.
November 12 – The Comoros joins the United Nations.
November 14 – Madrid Accords: Spain abandons Western Sahara.
November 15 – The "Group of 6" (G-6) industrialized nations is formed.
November 16 – Beginning of the Third Cod War between UK and Iceland, which lasts until June 1976.
November 19 – The United States Congress approves the Clark Amendment, ending aid to the FNLA and UNITA.
November 20
- Former California Governor Ronald Reagan enters the race for the Republican presidential nomination, challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford.
- Spanish dictator Francisco Franco dies in Madrid, effectively marking the end of the dictatorship established following the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of Spain's transition to democracy.
November 22 – Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco; he would reign until his abdication in 2014.

November 25
- Suriname gains independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
November 26 – The cult classic movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show is released in the United States.
November 27 – Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records , is shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for offering reward money to informers.
November 28
- Portuguese Timor declares its independence from Portugal as East Timor.
- South African Navy frigates evacuate 26 SADF members from behind enemy lines at Ambrizete, 160 kilometres (99 mi) north of Luanda in Angola.
November 29
- The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer software) is used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen for the first time (Microsoft becomes a registered trademark on November 26, 1976).
- While disabled, the submarine tender USS Proteus discharges radioactive coolant water into Apra Harbor, Guam. A Geiger counter at two of the harbor's public beaches shows 100 millirems/hour, 50 times the allowable dose.
Formula One world champion Graham Hill is killed when the Piper Aztec aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in North London.

December

December 2 – In Laos, the communist party of the Pathet Lao takes over Vientiane and defeats the Kingdom of Laos, forcing King Sisavang Vatthana to abdicate and creating the Lao People's Democratic Republic. This ends the Laotian Civil War, with mass evacuation of American troops and Laotian civilians.
December 3 – The ongoing Insurgency in Laos begins with the Pathet Lao fighting the Hmongs, Royalist-in-exile and the Right-wings.
- The 1916 wreck of HMHS Britannic is found in the Kea Channel by Jacques Cousteau.
December 8 – New York City is approved for bailout of 2.3 billion each year through to 1978 – 6.9 billion total.
December 7 – Indonesian invasion of East Timor: Indonesia invades East Timor; the occupation continues until 1999, when U.N. peacekeepers take over control until 2002.
December 13 – Australian federal election, 1975: The Liberal/National Country Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser defeats the recently dismissed Labor Government led by Gough Whitlam. The incoming Fraser Government achieves what is so far the largest parliamentary majority in federal Australian political history. Whitlam would subsequently survive a leadership challenge against him.
December 18 – The Lutz family moves into 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, Long Island, New York, in the United States, only to flee from the house after 28 days, which would go on to inspire the story of The Amityville Horror.
December 21 – Six people, including Carlos the Jackal, kidnap delegates of an OPEC conference in Vienna.
December 25 – The heavy metal band Iron Maiden is formed by Steve Harris in London.
December 29 – A bomb explosion at LaGuardia Airport in New York City kills 11 people.

Date unknown

The Spanish Army quits Spanish Sahara (modern-day Western Sahara), last remnant of the Spanish Empire. The Sahrawi Republic (RASD) is created. Morocco invades the former territory.
The government of Colombia announces the finding of Ciudad Perdida.
Benoit Mandelbrot coins the mathematical term fractal .
Lyme disease is first diagnosed at Lyme, Connecticut.
Victoria (Australia) abolishes capital punishment.
South Australia becomes the first Australian state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults.
Peter Gabriel departs Genesis, and is replaced on lead vocals by drummer Phil Collins.
The first monster truck, Bigfoot, is created by Bob Chandler.

World population

World population
	1975	1970		1980
World	4,068,109,000	3,692,492,000	375,617,000	4,434,682,000	366,573,000
Africa	408,160,000	357,283,000	50,877,000	469,618,001	61,458,000
Asia	2,397,512,000	2,143,118,000	254,394,000	2,632,335,000	234,823,000
Europe	675,542,000	655,855,000	19,687,000	692,431,000	16,889,000
Latin America	321,906,000	284,856,000	37,050,000	361,401,000	39,495,000
Northern America	243,425,000	231,937,000	11,488,000	256,068,000	12,643,000
Oceania	21,564,000	19,443,000	2,121,000	22,828,000	1,264,000