1975
Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh
Pol Pot's black-clad peasant army rolled into the Cambodian capital and, within hours, began emptying the city at gunpoint. Phnom Penh, a city of two million, was deserted within three days. Money, cities, schools, and religion were all to be abolished. Over the next four years perhaps two million Cambodians, a fifth of the population, would die.
Microsoft and Apple begin
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded a small company to sell a BASIC interpreter for the Altair hobbyist computer. A year later in a Los Altos garage, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs put together something they called the Apple I. Personal computing had found its two future giants, both still in their twenties and working in jeans.
Franco dies
After thirty-six years in power, General Francisco Franco died in a Madrid hospital at eighty-two, kept alive for weeks by a battery of machines and a regime that dreaded the future. Within three years Spain had a new constitution and a parliamentary democracy, the throne restored to King Juan Carlos, and a transition to Europe was under way. Spain's long mid-century winter was finally over.
Indira Gandhi imposes Emergency
Facing a court ruling against her election and mounting opposition, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi persuaded the president to declare a state of emergency, suspending civil liberties, censoring the press, and jailing opposition leaders. The Emergency lasted twenty-one months. When she finally held elections, she lost badly. India's democracy had been tested at its deepest point and survived.
Angola and Mozambique win independence
After Portugal's Carnation Revolution the year before, the last European colonial empire in Africa finally let go of its overseas territories. Angola and Mozambique became independent nations ruled by Marxist liberation movements. Both slid immediately into civil wars that would drag on for decades, with Cold War superpower proxies pouring in weapons, money, and mercenaries from every direction.
Fall of Saigon
North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon as the last Americans lifted off the embassy roof in helicopters. Vietnamese who had worked with the Americans were left on the stairs. Thirty years of war for Vietnam had ended. Three million Vietnamese and fifty-eight thousand Americans lay dead.
Jaws invents the summer blockbuster
Steven Spielberg, twenty-seven, struggled with a malfunctioning mechanical shark all summer on Martha's Vineyard and ran massively over budget. The resulting film opened nationally in June on hundreds of screens at once and broke every box office record. Hollywood studios reorganized themselves around the idea that a single summer movie, marketed with saturation advertising, could define a year.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1975?
Saeculum lists 7 curated events from 1975. The most significant is Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh: Pol Pot's black-clad peasant army rolled into the Cambodian capital and, within hours, began emptying the city at gunpoint.
What era was 1975 part of?
1975 falls within the Modern Era (1901-2000). World wars, cold war, and the splitting of the atom.
Which regions saw notable events in 1975?
The curated events from 1975 span Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, South Asia and Africa.