News
The Apollo Soyuz joint space mission docked a U.S. Apollo manned space module with a Soviet Soyuz 19 manned module. The two crews performed several experiments together while orbiting the earth.
1975 Context: News, Entertainment, Lifestyle
News
South Vietnam surrenders to the North Vietnamese Army and the last Americans are evacuated by helicopter from the US Embassy in Saigon.
News
29 men are lost as the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior.
Movie
The 1975 musical comedy horror film The Rocky Horror Picture Show is released with little success, but over the next few years gains a cult following of fans who flock to late night showings singing along with the film in costume.
News
21-year-old Karen Ann Quinlan lapses into a coma in April after consuming valium with alcohol at a party. After five months in a "persistent vegetative state" her parents sue to allow her to die a natural death. She is removed from a ventilator, but lives ten more years without ever regaining consciousness.
News
Former Manson Family cult member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is arrested for attempting to assassinate US President Gerald Ford with a pistol in Sacramento, California. Another assassination attempt occurs seventeen days later in San Francisco, when Sara Jane Moore fires a single shot at Ford.
Advertising
1975 detail from Cadillac Eldorado advertisement.
Advertising
The 70's van conversion craze is illustrated in this 1975 ad for Dodge Vans.
Advertising
Sony (Betamax) and Panasonic (VHS) bring competing video cassette formats to the US.
Movies
Al Pacino stars in the 1975 crime drama film Dog Day Afternoon, directed by Sidney Lumet.
Movies
The 1962 Ken Kesey novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest becomes a hit film starring Jack Nicholson, directed by Milos Forman.
Movies
The film Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, becomes the highest grossing film of it's time when released in 1975. The blockbuster film, about a man-eating great white shark attacking beachgoers, spawns three sequels.
Television
The live ensemble comedy sketch program Saturday Night Live debuts on NBC where it continues to run today. The show's original title is NBC Saturday Night.
Fashion
Gaucho pants paired with boots, are a mid-seventies fashion for women.
Fashion
Catalog page from 1975 showing boys in leisure suits and white belts.
Fashion
The "leisure suit" is a seventies fashion trend for men.
Fashion
1975 advertisement for "Danskin - not just for dancing".
Fashion
1975 catalog page for teens.
Lifestyle
Well dressed couple on Chicago's Michigan Avenue.
Lifestyle
1975 street scene at Navy Pier Chicago.
Advertising
Detail from a 1975 Levi's advertisement.
Lifestyle
1975 photo of high school cheerleaders in Indiana.
Lifestyle
High school girls 1975.
Lifestyle
The rock band Kiss agreed to play at the high school homecoming dance in Cadillac, Michigan in 1975. Gene Simmons shown with the cheerleading squad.