Portuguese officials and Angolan liberation movement leaders met in early January 1975 to set terms for the transitional government ahead of full independence.

Popular Electronics' February 1975 issue featuring the Altair 8800 hit newsstands, igniting the personal computer revolution and inspiring Bill Gates and Paul Allen to found Microsoft.

NASA's Mariner 10 completed its third and final flyby of Mercury, capturing the last images before running out of fuel, having become the first probe to visit the planet.

As North Vietnamese forces push toward Saigon in the final weeks of the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese troops make a last desperate stand near Xuan Loc.

MITS began shipping the Altair 8800 microcomputer kit to early hobbyists, a machine that sparked the home-computer revolution and inspired the founding of Microsoft.

Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh, ending the Cambodian Civil War and beginning a genocide that would kill roughly 1.7 million people.

Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh, ending Cambodia's civil war and beginning a brutal regime that would kill nearly two million people.

Khmer Rouge forces tightened their siege around Cambodia's capital, days before the city fell and the brutal Year Zero campaign began.

U.S. helicopters begin a frantic 24-hour evacuation of Saigon as North Vietnamese forces close in, ending America's war in Vietnam.

North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, ending the Vietnam War as South Vietnam's president surrendered unconditionally.

The Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim formally becomes India's 22nd state after a referendum overwhelmingly favors abolishing the monarchy.

Jockey Diane Crump became the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby years earlier, but on this date jockey history turned again as women's sports barriers kept falling.

Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, twelve days after her expedition was buried by an avalanche.

American and Soviet spacecraft docked in orbit for the first time, a symbolic handshake in space marking a thaw in Cold War rivalry.

The Soviet Venera 9 spacecraft, launched this week, was en route to Venus, where it would later transmit the first images from the surface of another planet.

Mozambique declared independence from Portugal, ending nearly five centuries of colonial rule as FRELIMO leader Samora Machel became the new nation's first president.

Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov's essay collection on peaceful coexistence and human rights circulated in the West, deepening his dissident standing months before his Nobel Peace Prize.

Soviet cosmonauts Pyotr Klimuk and Vitaly Sevastyanov docked Soyuz 18 with the Salyut 4 space station, beginning a 63-day mission of scientific observation.

The Comoros archipelago unilaterally declared independence from France, though the island of Mayotte voted to remain French, splitting the islands' political future.

An American Apollo capsule and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft launched hours apart, beginning the first joint US-Soviet space mission and a symbolic thaw in the Cold War space race.

American and Soviet spacecraft docked in orbit, and astronaut Tom Stafford clasped hands with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov through the open hatch.

Thirty-five nations, including the US and USSR, sign the Helsinki Final Act, easing Cold War tensions while enshrining human rights principles.

Workers finished hoisting the final antenna section atop Toronto's CN Tower by helicopter, completing the structure that would be the world's tallest for 32 years.

The Soviet probe Venera 9 transmitted the first images ever taken from the surface of another planet, revealing a rocky, sunlit Venusian landscape.

Eighteen-year-old Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova requests political asylum in the United States after competing at the U.S. Open.

Apollo-era ties aside, Soviet cosmonauts aboard Salyut set new records this week, but the notable culture event: 'Fawlty Towers' pilot airs.

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