January 1, 1973. The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
January 22, 1973. Roe v. Wade: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns state bans on abortion and declares that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman’s decision to have an abortion.
January 27, 1973. The Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War are signed in France. President Nixon tells the American people that the treaty will “bring peace with honor.”
February 27, 1973. The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Seventy days later in May the occupation by Native American activists ends with an agreement between protesters and the U.S. government.
May 3, 1973. The Sears Tower in Chicago is finished, becoming the world’s tallest building at 1,451 feet.
May 14, 1973. Skylab, the first orbiting space station for the U.S., blasts off from Cape Canaveral.
September 11, 1973. President Salvador Allende of Chile commits suicide or is assassinated, and opponents take over the government of Chile in a military coup. General Augusto Pinochet becomes President of Chile and Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army. According to various reports and investigations 1,200–3,200 people will be killed, up to 80,000 interned, and up to 30,000 tortured by Pinochet’s regime, including women and children. Pinochet rules as dictator in Chile until the transfer of power to a democratically elected president in 1990. Gringolandia by Lyn-Miller Lachman is a Young Adult fiction novel set in the United States and in Pinochet’s Chile.
October, 1973. Students revolt in Bangkok, Thailand, resulting in democratic elections in 1975 and 1976 and the withdrawal of American forces from Thailand. Political instability and communist insurgencies continue in Thailand throughout the 1970’s and the 1980’s.
October 6-25, 1973. A coalition of of Arab states, including Egypt and Syria, launches an attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy day of atonement and forgiveness. Egyptian and Syrian forces cross ceasefire lines to enter the Israeli-held Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, and the Soviet Union and the United States support opposite sides in the war with weapons and strategic advice. As a result of this war, Israel and Egypt both realize that it in both countries’ best interest to reach a peace accord.
November 27, 1973. Greek dictator George Papadopoulos is ousted in a military coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.
