Historical Events
- Feb 11 Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for leadership of the British Conservative Party
- Mar 21 Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3,000 years
- Apr 4 Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800
- Apr 29 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war
- Nov 11 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam removed from office by Governor General Sir John Kerr - 1st elected PM removed in 200 yrs
- More Historical Events
1975 in Film & TV
- Jan 6 "Wheel Of Fortune" debuts on NBC-TV
- Mar 1 Colour television transmissions begin in Australia.
- Mar 7 "Mirror", Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Margarita Terekhova and Ignat Daniltsev, is released
- Jun 7 Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public
- Jun 20 "Jaws", based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released
- Oct 11 "Saturday Night Live" created by Lorne Michaels premieres on NBC with George Carlin as host
- Nov 28 "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night", the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.
1975 in Music
- Jul 5 At Knebworth Festival in England, Pink Floyd debut their album "Wish You Were Here" with pyrotechnics and an exploding plane which flies into the stage
- Sep 25 Pink Floyd's concept album "Wish You Were Here" reaches No. 1 in the US, goes on to sell 13 million copies
- Oct 19 "A Chorus Line", held record longest-running Broadway show (6,137 performances), premieres on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in New York
- Nov 6 First performance by punk band The Sex Pistols at St Martins College, London
1975 in Sport
- Apr 3 Bobby Fischer stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend it, title awarded to Russian Anatoly Karpov
- Oct 1 "The Thrilla in Manila"; Muhammad Ali stops Joe Frazier in 14 rounds in Quezon City, the Philippines to retain his WBC/WBA heavyweight title
Jodhi May
Angelina Jolie
Charlize Theron
Kate Winslet
Milla Jovovich
Tiger Woods
Betty Ford
Daniel Johns
Louise Fletcher
Pete Rose
Stevie WonderWorld Leaders in 1975
Gerald Ford
Leonid Brezhnev
Mao Zedong
Famous Weddings
- Jan 21 Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor (57) weds toy inventor Jack Ryan (48) (div. 1976)
- Feb 21 Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench (27) weds Vickie Chesser in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Mar 8 5th Earl of Lichfield Patrick Anson (35) weds Lady Leonora Grosvenor (26), daughter of the 5th Duke of Westminster at Chester Cathedral in England
Famous Divorces
- Mar 21 American country singer Tammy Wynette (33) divorces American country singer-songwriter George Jones (43), after 6 years of marriage
- Jun 26 American singer and actress Cher (28) divorces singer-songwriter Sonny Bono (40)
- Jul 10 American singer and actress Cher (28) files for divorce from musician Gregg Allman (27), 10 days after their marriage - they reconcile, but separate in 1977 and divorce in 1979
More Weddings & Divorces
Chiang Kai-shek
Josephine Baker
Moe Howard
Dmitri Shostakovich
Haile Selassie
Francisco Franco1975 in Pictures
Arise, Sir Charlie Chaplin
He waited a lifetime for it, but on this day silent screen star Charlie Chaplin was finally honoured by the country where he was born.March 4Founding of Microsoft
Paul Allen and Bill Gates, the founders of MicrosoftApril 4The Fall of Saigon
South Vietnamese civilians scramble to board a CIA helicopter during the evacuation of the US embassy in SaigonApril 30
