- United States President Richard Nixon has an unprecedented state visit with Chairman Mao Zedong in Bejing.
.. Nixon takes advantage of the Sino-Soviet split to ease decades-old American hostilities towards China.

- Offerings in popular culture include M*A*S*H, The Godfather, Don McLean's ``American Pie'' and books
...such as Watership Down. In musical theater, Cabaret, Pippin and Grease hit the boards.

- United States President Richard Nixon makes an historic visit to the USSR. In the Strategic Arms
.. Limitation Talks (SALT) I, Nixon and Brezhnev negotiate reductions in their nuclear arsenals. The talks
.. mark a warming in the Cold War and usher in the era of détente.

- Richard Leakey and Glynn Isaac find a skull in Kenya which potentially dates the first humans to 2.5 million
.. B.C. Richard's father Louis, a famed archaeologist, dies this year.

- Sporadic violence in Northern Ireland takes off on ``Bloody Sunday'' when 13 Roman-Catholics are shot
.. by British troops during a riot. Two months later, Britain assumes direct control of the North Irish
.. government, dissolving the Ulster Parliament.

- Frederick Smith, age 27, founds Federal Express with $72 million in venture capital. It carries 16
.. packages on its inaugural night, not yet a challenge to the U.S. postal service.

- The United States resumes bombing on the North Vietnam cities Hanoi and Haiphong, leading to
.. arguments in the Senate.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average crosses the 1000-point mark for the first time in history.

- Three years after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is elected, he declares martial law to combat
.. terrorism and a supposed Communist rebellion; thousands are killed as the government imposes order.

- Five men are arrested inside the new Democratic National Headquarters with surveillance equipment
.. and cameras, marking the beginning of the Watergate Scandal that destroys Nixon's presidency.
.. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein begin to investigate.

- The Senate approves the Equal Rights Amendment, guaranteeing equality for women. The amendment
.. will not become the law of the land, however, as it fails to be ratified by the required number of states.

- Nike, Inc. is founded by Philip H. Knight and William Bowerman, who have been importing Japanese
.. running shoes for the past six years. Nike becomes the world's largest sneaker company.

- Supreme Court upheld the right of abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.