1975 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Gerald Ford
• Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller
• Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert
• Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield
• Congress: 93rd, 94th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January – Volkswagen introduces the Golf, its new front-wheel-drive economy car, in the United States and Canada as the Volkswagen Rabbit.
• January 1 – Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up.
• January 2 – The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress.
• January 6
• *AM America makes its television debut on ABC.
• *Wheel of Fortune premieres on NBC.
• January 8
• *Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman U.S. governor who did not succeed her husband.
• *President Gerald Ford appoints Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to head a special commission looking into alleged domestic abuses by the CIA.
• January 12 – Super Bowl IX: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Minnesota Vikings 16–6 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• January 15 – The Carousel of Progress moves to Walt Disney World from Disneyland.
• January 29 – The Weather Underground bombs the U.S. State Department main office in Washington, D.C..
• January 31 - Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, premieres on CBS, but did not win the Nielsen Ratings.

  February

• February 2 – The 7.6 Near Islands earthquake affected the Aleutian Islands in Alaska with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, injuring 15.
• February 13 – 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.

  March

• March 9 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
• March 10 – The Rocky Horror Show opens on Broadway in New York City with 4 performances.
• March 19 - The release of Tommy, A Musical/Drama "Produced by Ken Russel and Robert Stigwood."
• March 30 - James Ruppert murders 11 family members inside his home on Easter Sunday.

  April

• April 3 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title.
• 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 founds Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• April 30 – Vietnam War: The Fall of Saigon: The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon, resulting in mass evacuations of Americans and South Vietnamese. As the capital is taken, South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally.

  May

• May – The unemployment rate peaks at 9.0% ending the Post-War Boom.
• May 5 – The Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park, originally known as Busch Gardens: The Old Country, opens in Williamsburg, Virginia.
• May 12 – Mayaguez incident: Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia seize the United States merchant ship SS 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 25 – Indianapolis 500: Bobby Unser wins for a second time in a rain-shorted 174 lap, 435 mile race.
• May 27—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 30 – America distance runner Steve Prefontaine dies in car accident.

  June

• June 10 – In Washington, DC, the Rockefeller Commission issues its report on CIA abuses, recommending a joint congressional oversight committee on intelligence.
• June 20 - Universal Pictures releases Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestseller Jaws in 409 cinemas across the United States. The coupling of this broad distribution pattern with the movie's then even rarer national television marketing campaign has yielded a release method virtually unheard-of. Regardless, the film ultimately brings in $123.1 million by the end of its initial run, and is considered to be the first modern blockbuster as a result.
• June 26 – Two FBI agents and 1 AIM member die in a shootout, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

  July

• July 17 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations. It is also the last Apollo mission and the last manned U.S. space mission until STS-1.
• July 22 – Stanley Forman takes the photo Fire Escape Collapse.
• July 30 – In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.

  August

• August 1 – The 5.7 Oroville earthquake affects Butte County, California, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, injuring 10 and causing $3 million in damage.
• August 5 – U.S. President Ford posthumously pardons Robert E. Lee, restoring full rights of citizenship.
• August 8 – Samuel Bronfman, son of the president of Seagram's, is kidnapped in Purchase, New York.
• August 20 – Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
• August 25 – Bruce Springsteen's album Born to Run is released.

  September

• 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.
• September 14 – Elizabeth Seton is canonized, becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint.
• September 18 – Fugitive Patricia Hearst is captured in San Francisco.
• September 22 – U.S. President Gerald Ford survives a second assassination attempt, this time by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco.

  October

• October 1 – Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.
• October 11 – NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live.
• October 21–22 – 1975 World Series: The Boston Red Sox defeat the Cincinnati Reds in Game Six off Carlton Fisk's twelfth inning home run, but the Reds would go on to win in Game Seven.

  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."
• November 5 – Travis Walton, a 22-year-old logger, is working in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest with six co-workers near Snowflake, Arizona, when he suddenly disappears. Walton is found five days later and says that he has been abducted by extraterrestrial aliens. His book, The Walton Experience, will become the basis for a film, Fire in the Sky.
• November 10 – The bulk carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sinks 15 miles off of Whitefish Point with all hands.
• November 20 – Former California Governor Ronald Reagan enters the race for the Republican presidential nomination, challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford.
• November 29 –
• *The name "Micro-soft" is used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen for the first time.
• * 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.
• * The 7.4 Hawaii earthquake affected several of the Hawaiian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing two deaths, up to 28 injuries, and a destructive tsunami.

  December

• December 8 – New York City is approved for a bailout of $2.3 billion each year through to 1978 – $6.9 billion total.
• December 23 – United States Congress passes the Metric Conversion Act which encourages, but does not mandate, metrication in the United States and establishes the Metric Board.
• December 29 – A bomb explosion at LaGuardia Airport kills 11.

  Ongoing

• Cold War
• Space Race
• Détente
• Capital punishment suspended by Furman v. Georgia
• 1970s energy crisis
• DOCUMERICA photography project

  Births">:Category:1975 births">Births

• January 2
• *Dax Shepard, actor
• *Jeff Suppan, baseball player
• January 4 - Shane Carwin, mixed martial artist and wrestler
• January 6 - James Farrior, American football player
• January 13 - Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and political commentator
• January 19 - Noah Georgeson, singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
• January 20 - David Eckstein, baseball player
• January 23
• * Phil Dawson, American football player
• * Tito Ortiz, mixed martial artist, referee and actor
• February 22 - Drew Barrymore, actress, author, director, model and producer
• March 3 - Wendi Michelle Scott, criminal convicted of abusing her daughter in a case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy
• March 16 - Tara Buck, actress
• April 21
• * Benjamin Butler, painter
• * Killer Mike, rapper, songwriter, actor and activist
• May 3 - Christina Hendricks, actress
• May 9 - Lane Kiffin, American football player and coach
• May 12 - Lawrence Phillips, American-Canadian football player
• May 24 - Alex Lacamoire, musical arranger
• May 26 - Lauryn Hill, actress, singer–songwriter, rapper and producer
• June 4 - Angelina Jolie, actress and director
• June 8 - Michael Buckley, YouTube personality
• June 19 - Geoff Ramsey, voice actor and producer, co-founder of Rooster Teeth
• June 25 - Linda Cardellini, actress
• June 27 - Tobey Maguire, actor and producer
• August 16 - Magic, rapper
• September 18 - Jason Sudeikis, actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer
• September 21 - Lil Rob, rapper, producer and actor
• November 4 - Lorenzen Wright, basketball player
• November 14 - Stephen Guarino, actor
• November 20 - Davey Havok, alternative rock singer AFI
• December 14 - KaDee Strickland, actress
• December 19 - Russell Branyan, baseball player
• December 30 - Tiger Woods, golfer

  Deaths

• January 7 – Harry Gunnison Brown, academic economist
• January 8 – Louis P. Lochner, political activist, journalist and author
• January 18 – Evelyn Greeley, silent film actress
• January 19 – Thomas Hart Benton, painter
• January 27 – Bill Walsh, film producer and writer
• February 4 – Louis Jordan, African American swing band leader
• February 5 – George Rowe, silent film character actor
• February 14 – P. G. Wodehouse, comic writer
• February 16 – Morgan Taylor, Olympic hurdler
• February 25 – Elijah Muhammad, Nation of Islam leader
• March 30 – Pancho Barnes, pioneer aviator
• April 19 - Percy Lavon Julian, African American research chemist
• April 20 – John Vachon, photographer
• May 4 – Two Ton Baker, entertainer
• June 6 – Larry Blyden, actor and game show host
• June 15 – William Austin, film character actor
• September 6 – Shelton Brooks, African American song composer
• October 1 – Larry MacPhail, lawyer and baseball executive
• November 14 - Harry J. Anslinger, 1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
• December 24 – Bernard Herrmann, composer and husband of Lucille Fletcher