February 5 – The Argentinian president
Isabel 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.
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 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).
April 5 – The Soviet crewed 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 at an altitude of 192 km, resulting in the cosmonauts and their
Soyuz spacecraft having to be ripped free from the vehicle. Both cosmonauts (
Vasily Lazarev and
Oleg Makarov) survive.
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).
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.
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. In response, the
United States,
Zaire and
Zambia request South Africa to provide training and support for the
FNLA and
UNITA forces.[10]
August 1 – The
Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.
Some members of
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that
Armageddon will occur this year based on the group's chronology[11] 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 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.
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).
October 1 – "
Thrilla in Manila": Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines. The fight is viewed live by well over 100 million people worldwide.
The South African Defence Force invades Angola during
Operation Savannah in support of the
FNLA and
UNITA prior to the Angolan elections scheduled for November 11.[14]
Tun Mustapha resigns 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 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.[18]
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.
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, but effectively begins the
Insurgency in Laos with the Pathet Lao fighting the
Hmong people, Royalist-in-exile and the Right-wings. The Insurgency in Laos wouldn't end until March 30,
2022, when the last unorganized resistance against the
Lao People's Army was finally put down.
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.
^Jeffery, Anthea (2009). People's War - New Light on the Struggle for South Africa (1st ed.). Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pp. 11–12, 14–15.
ISBN978-1-86842-357-6.
^The Watchtower, August 15, 1968, pp. 494–501; Awake!, May 22, 1969, p. 15; The Watchtower, March 15, 1980, p. 17, para. 5–6.
February 5 – The Argentinian president
Isabel 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.
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 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).
April 5 – The Soviet crewed 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 at an altitude of 192 km, resulting in the cosmonauts and their
Soyuz spacecraft having to be ripped free from the vehicle. Both cosmonauts (
Vasily Lazarev and
Oleg Makarov) survive.
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).
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.
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. In response, the
United States,
Zaire and
Zambia request South Africa to provide training and support for the
FNLA and
UNITA forces.[10]
August 1 – The
Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.
Some members of
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that
Armageddon will occur this year based on the group's chronology[11] 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 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.
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).
October 1 – "
Thrilla in Manila": Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines. The fight is viewed live by well over 100 million people worldwide.
The South African Defence Force invades Angola during
Operation Savannah in support of the
FNLA and
UNITA prior to the Angolan elections scheduled for November 11.[14]
Tun Mustapha resigns 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 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.[18]
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.
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, but effectively begins the
Insurgency in Laos with the Pathet Lao fighting the
Hmong people, Royalist-in-exile and the Right-wings. The Insurgency in Laos wouldn't end until March 30,
2022, when the last unorganized resistance against the
Lao People's Army was finally put down.
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.
^Jeffery, Anthea (2009). People's War - New Light on the Struggle for South Africa (1st ed.). Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pp. 11–12, 14–15.
ISBN978-1-86842-357-6.
^The Watchtower, August 15, 1968, pp. 494–501; Awake!, May 22, 1969, p. 15; The Watchtower, March 15, 1980, p. 17, para. 5–6.