March 19 – The release ofTommy, a musical/drama produced by Ken Russel and Robert Stigwood.
March 29 –Blow by Blow byJeff Beck is released. It would become his most successful album in the United States, reaching the top five and selling over one million copies.
March 30 –James Ruppert murders 11 family members inside his home onEaster Sunday.
March 31 – In his final game on the sideline,John Wooden coachesUCLA to its 10th national championship in 12 seasons when the Bruins defeatKentucky 92–85 in thetitle game atSan Diego.
April 15 –Karen Ann Quinlan, 21, faints after consumingQuaaludes at a party. She becomes a controversial subject in theright to die movement after her parents sue to have her comatose body removed from life-support. She lives off a feeding tube until 1985.
April 30 –Vietnam War: TheFall of Saigon: The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces takeSaigon, resulting in mass evacuations of Americans and South Vietnamese. As the capital is taken,South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally.
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.
June 10 – InWashington, DC, theRockefeller Commission issues its report onCIA abuses, recommending a joint congressional oversight committee on intelligence.
June 20 –Universal Pictures releasesSteven Spielberg's adaptation ofPeter Benchley's bestsellerJaws 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.
July 17 –Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An AmericanApollo and SovietSoyuz 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 crewed U.S. space mission untilSTS-1 (the firstSpace Shuttle orbital flight).
October 21 –1975 World Series: US baseball team theBoston Red Sox defeat theCincinnati Reds in Game 6 offCarlton Fisk's 12th-inning home run in one of the most famous World Series games ever played.[7] The following day, the series ends with Game 7 victory by the Reds, in a broadcast that breaks records for a televised sporting event.
An independent audit ofMattel, one of the United States' largesttoy manufacturers, reveals that company officials fabricatedpress releases and financial information to "maintain the appearance of continued corporate growth".
The long-running television game showThe Price Is Right expands from 30 minutes to its current hour-long format onCBS.
November 5 –Travis Walton, a 22-year-old logger, is working in theApache-Sitgreaves National Forest with six co-workers nearSnowflake, Arizona, when he suddenly disappears.[8] Walton is found five days later and says that he has been abducted by extraterrestrial aliens.[9] His book,The Walton Experience (1978), will become the basis for a film,Fire in the Sky (1993).[10]
While disabled, the submarine tenderUSSProteus (AS-19) discharges radioactive coolant water intoApra Harbor,Guam. A Geiger counter at two of the harbor's public beaches shows 100 millirems/hour, 50 times the allowable dose.
The 7.4MwHawaii earthquake hits several of the Hawaiian Islands with a maximumMercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing two deaths, up to 28 injuries, and a destructive tsunami.
December 8 –New York City is approved for a bailout of $2.3 billion each year through to 1978 – $6.9 billion total.
December 18 – The Lutz family moves into 112 Ocean Avenue,Amityville,Long Island,New York, in the United States, only to flee from the house after 28 days, which will go on to inspire the story ofThe Amityville Horror.
^Hauck, Dennis William (2002).Haunted Places: The National Directory: Ghostly Abodes, Sacred Sites, UFO Landings, and Other Supernatural Locations. Penguin Books.