Top News Stories from 1975

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: Andrei D. Sakharov (USSR)
More World Statistics...
  • Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia (April).
  • The city of Saigon is surrendered and remaining Americans are evacuated, ending the Vietnam War (April 30).
  • American merchant ship Mayaguez, seized by Cambodian forces, is rescued in operation by US Navy and Marines, 38 of whom are killed (May 15).
  • Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for US-Soviet link-up in space (July 15).

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Gerald R. Ford
Vice President: Nelson A. Rockefeller
Population: 215,973,199
Life expectancy: 72.6 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 53.0
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 48.1
More U.S. Statistics...

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $1,630.60 billion
Federal spending: $332.33 billion
Federal debt $541.9 billion
Consumer Price Index: $53.8
Unemployment: 8.5%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.10 ($0.13 as of 12/31/75)

Sports

Super Bowl
Pittsburgh d. Minnesota
World Series
Cincinnati d. Boston Red Sox (4-3)
NBA Championship
Golden St. Warriors d. Washington Bullets
Stanley Cup
Philadelphia d. Buffalo
Wimbledon
Women: Billie Jean King d. E. Cawley (6-0 6-1)
Men: Arthur Ashe d. J. Connors (6-1 6-1 5-7 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Foolish Pleasure
NCAA Basketball Championship
UCLA d. Kentucky
NCAA Football Champions
Oklahoma (11-1-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction:

The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara

Music: From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, Dominick Argento
Drama: Seascape, Edward Albee
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola, producer; Gray Frederickson and Fred Roos, co-producers (Paramount)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugenio Montale (Italy)
Record of the Year: "I Honestly Love You," Olivia Newton-John
Album of the Year: Fulfillingness' First Finale, Stevie Wonder (Tamla/Motown)
Song of the Year: "The Way We Were," Marilyn and Alan Bergman and Marvin Hamlisch, songwriters
Miss America: Shirley Cothran (TX)
More Entertainment Awards...

Events

  • ABC, CBS and NBC agree to create a "family hour," an early evening time slot that is free of violence and sex.
  • Saturday Night Live premieres on NBC. George Carlin hosts the first show.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest sweeps the top Oscars, winning Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress.

Movies

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws, Nashville, Dog Day Afternoon, Barry Lyndon

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: John W. Cornforth (Australia) and Vladimir Prelog (Switzerland), for research on structure of biological molecules such as antibiotics and cholesterol
Physics: James Rainwater (US), Ben Mottelson, and Aage N. Bohr (both Denmark), for showing that the atomic nucleus is asymmetrical
Physiology or Medicine: David Baltimore, Howard M. Temin, and Renato Dulbecco (all US), for work in interaction between tumor viruses and genetic material of the cell
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...
  • Home videotape systems (VCRs) are developed in Japan by Sony (Betamax) and Matsushita (VHS).
  • The Altair home computer kit allows consumers to build and program their own personal computers. Background: Computers and Internet

Death

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