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Jan 25 Milton Obote, the socialist president of the former British colony of Uganda, is attending a Commonwealth meeting in Singapore. His army chief, Idi Amin, is afraid that he, Amin, might be arrested for misappropriating army funds. Amin takes power. The British foreign office describes Amin as "A splendid type and a good football player."

Jan 28 Idi Amin releases 55 political prisoners and imposes a ban on political activities.

Feb 1-2 Idi Amin dismisses mayors and other local officials because of their ties to the previous regime, and he closes parliament.

Feb 6 In Britain, the government of Edward Heath recognizes the Amin regime. Amin establishes the so-called "State Research Bureau" to hunt down and kill Obote's supporters and intellectuals whom he distrusts. Military leaders who had not supported the coup are executed, many by beheading.

Feb 7 Switzerland gives women voting rights in state but not nationwide elections.

Feb 13 Twelve thousand ARVN (Saigon) troops, backed by U.S. air and artillery support, invade Laos to block the Ho Chin Minh trail. The move drives the communist forces deeper into Laos, and Laos becomes another war front in Indochina.

Mar 1 A bomb explodes in the men's room at the White House. The Weather Underground claims responsibility. Capitalism continues undeterred.

Mar 8 In Turkey, four United States airmen are freed unharmed after five days in the hands of leftist kidnappers.

Mar 25 President Khan of Pakistan launches Operation Search Light, a military assault on East Pakistan against those who want independence.

Mar 29 U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley has been found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre. He is sentenced to life in prison.

Apr 6 In South Vietnam, peasants in the hamlet of Phuqui return after having been forced from their homes during an American military sweep two years before. Many remain bitter and hostile toward the regime in Saigon.

Apr 8 China and the U.S. have ping pong teams in Japan competing for the world table tennis championship. Ping pong diplomacy begins as China invites the United States team to China.

Apr 9 Charles Manson is sentenced to death.

Apr 17 President Khan's military operation in East Pakistan is bloody, aimed primarily at intellectuals but hitting at broader segments of the population. East Pakistan declares its independence from West Pakistan while Khan's troops continue their operation.

Apr 19 National Public Radio's first transmission covers hearings on the Vietnam war by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Apr 19 The new government of Bangladesh flees Pakistani forces, to India.

Apr 20 The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that busing students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.

Apr 21 François Duvalier (Papa Doc), President of Haiti, dies. His son, Jean-Claude Duvalier follows him as president-for-life.

May 3 The Harris Poll claims that 60 percent of Americans oppose the Vietnam War.

May 3 National Public Radio begins its news program "All Things Considered."

Jun 4 President Nixon and Henry Kissinger discuss the conflict over Bangladesh. Nixon dislikes India and its Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, supporters of East Pakistan's independence. Kissinger says that "If East Pakistan becomes independent, it is going to become a cesspool." He adds: "They're going to become a ripe field for communist infiltration."

Jun 10 The U.S. ends its trade embargo against Communist China. Americans can now sell or buy goods from China.

Jun 13 The New York Times begins publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers - a 7,000 page study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam by the Defense Department - given to the Times by a former military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg.

Jun 14 Norway begins producing oil from wells in the North Sea.

Jun 29 U.S. Senator Mike Gravel, Democrat from Alaska, enters 4,100 pages of the Pentagon Papers into the record of his subcommittee on Buildings and Grounds.

Jun 30 The Nixon administration has applied an injunction against the New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the government's injunctions are unconstitutional.

Jul 3 In is apartment in Paris, Jim Morrison, singer and lyricist for the rock band, the Doors, is found dead in his bathtub.

Jul 10-11 In Morocco, 1,400 military cadets take over Hassan's palace for three hours,and they kill 28. Hopes surge among the hundreds of dissidents in jail. Troops loyal to Hassan defeat the rising. King Hassan describes four generals as having attempted a "Libyan-style coup."

Jul 12 In Libya, press and radio express support for the attempted overthrow King Hassan II. In Morocco, ten high-ranking Army officers are shot. It is reported that on command, units of the army, navy and air force spat on the bodies.

Jul 14 Libya severs diplomatic ties with Morocco.

Jul 15 President Nixon tells the public that his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, has accepted an invitation to visit China.

Jul 16 In Spain, Franco makes Prince Juan Carlos his successor.

Jul 17 Ending a three-day meeting to discuss divisions in the Arab world, President Sadat of Egypt, Gaddafi of Libya and delegates from Syria and Sudan condemn what they describe as the repression in Morocco since the coup attempt on July 10th.

Jul 22 In a taped conversation with Kissinger, Nixon says, "We're doing the China thing to screw the Russians and help us in Vietnam."

July 24-25 Vice President Spiro Agnew visits King Hassan II. On behalf of President Nixon he congratulates Hassan for his courage. The U.S. has three military bases in Morocco.

Aug 9 India signs a 20-year treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union.

Aug 9 Violence has been increasing in Northern Ireland. There the British launch Operation Demetrius, the introduction of interment without trial and a ban all parades. Relying on outdated lists containing 450 names, the British Army arrests 342 men. Within 48 hours 116 of those arrested will be released.

Aug 14 Britain increases its troops in Northern Ireland to 12,500. They are stationed along the border between the north and the Republic of Ireland to stop arms traffic.

Aug 15 For the U.S., the war in Vietnam has accelerated inflation. The United States had been running a balance of payments and trade deficits for the first time in the twentieth century. The U.S. abandons the gold standard, intending to let the value of the U.S. dollar fall. President Nixon announces that the U.S. will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, and he imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.

Aug 16-17 In Londonderry, 8,000 workers go out on strike in a protest against the British. Thirty prominent Catholics withdraw from their public office jobs. The head of government in the Republic of Ireland, Jack Lynch, calls for an immediate end of internment of those from Northern Ireland whom the British have taken into custody.

Aug 18 Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

Aug 19-22 Following the death of President René Barrientos Ortuño, Bolivia has had a succession of weak governments. Alarmed by public disorder and growing influence of leftists, the military has overthrown the left-leaning presidency of Juan Jose Torres and has installed Colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez as President.

Aug 23 Bolivia's air force bombs the University of San Andres, where leftist students are making their last stand against the military coup.

Sep 3 Qatar becomes independent from British rule.

Sep 28 In Hungary, Cardinal Mindszenty, who has been in the U.S. Embassy since 1956, is allowed to leave Hungary. He is moving to Vienna.

Sep 1-31 This month, Supreme Court justices John Harlan and Hugo Black have announced their retirement. President Nixon wants to replace his vice president, Spiro Agnew, with John Connally. Nixon's White House tapes will record him and his advisor Haldeman discussing appointing Agnew to the Supreme Court. They are not recorded discussing Agnew's qualifications. Together they reject the idea believing that Agnew could not pass Senate confirmation. Nixon will nominate Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist.

Oct. 3 Governor Ronald Reagan tells delegates to the California Republican State Central Committee convention that he is not supporting a move to make him President in 1972, that his is supporting President Nixon's reelection.

Oct 14 Secretary of State William P. Rogers states his confidence that the campaign to save the seat of Taiwan (Nationalist China) in the United Nations will succeed.

Oct 19 Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, arrives in Beijing for talks.

Oct 20 West Germany's Social Democrat chancellor, Willy Brandt, wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his attempts to get along with Communist East Europe - ostpolitik.

Oct 25 The UN General Assembly admits mainland China and expels Taiwan.

Oct 27 The Democratic Republic of the Congo, under the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, is renamed Zaire.

Oct 28 The British House of Commons votes 356 to 244 in favor of joining the European Economic Community.

Oct 18 Britain becomes the sixth nation to launch a satellite into orbit.

Oct 29 US troops in Vietnam drops to 196,700, the lowest since January 1966.

Nov 10 Cambodian communists, the Khmer Rouge (rouge being French for red) have been gaining adherents following U.S. bombing raids. Prince Sihanouk is popular in rural Cambodia. Previously a neutral, he is now in exile in Beijing and supporting the Khmer Rouge. Khmer Rouge forces attack Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging 9 airplanes.

Nov 12 It is one year before another presidential election. President Nixon sets February 1, as a deadline for removal of another 45,000 troops from Vietnam.

Nov 23 The People's Republic of China takes its seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Nov 20 Around 2,500, mostly women, march in Washington D.C. demanding a repeal of abortion laws, contraception laws and an end to forced sterilization.

Nov 28 The Irish Republican Army launches rocket attacks on targets in Northern Ireland. This and other incidents claim the lives of four.

Dec (day unknown) Greenpeace is founded as an organization in Vancouver, Canada. It is opposed to U.S. nuclear testing in Alaska.

Dec 2 Six sheikdoms found the United Arab Emirates.

Dec 3-4 Pakistan and India are at war regarding Pakistan's continued military operations against Bangladesh. Pakistan attacks nine Indian airbases. The next day India sends troops into Bangladesh.

Dec 14 Facing a military defeat in Bangladesh, Pakistan kills hundreds of Bangladeshi intellectuals.

Dec 16 In Bangladesh the Pakistani army surrenders, ending the conflict over Bangladeshi independence.

Dec 18 The internation Group of Ten meets in the United States and agrees with the U.S. to fixed exchange rates, but without gold or a world currency for support - unlike the Bretton Woods conference of 1944. European currencies are fixed at undervalued parities in relation to the dollar and the dollar is devalued to $38 an per ounce of gold - its second devaluation in history.

Dec 29 Britain gives up its military bases in Malta.