Francis Ford Coppola writes and directs The Godfather, the first of three related films

US swimmer Mark Spitz wins seven gold medals in the Munich Olympics

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment in Alabama becomes a major scandal after a whistle-blower reveals the details

The Washington Post publishes the first report that the Watergate break-in was linked to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign

Richard Nixon is re-elected US president with a landslide victory over Democrat George McGovern

Chess player Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky to become the first US world champion

Elvis Presley performs in Honolulu in the Aloha Concert, the first programme to be broadcast live round the world by satellite

A Little Night Music, with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, has its premiere in New York

Activists of the American Indian Movement survive a ten-week siege at Wounded Knee, winning international attention

US choreographer Twyla Tharp creates Deuce Coupe, set to songs by the Beach Boys

Roe v. Wade establishes in US law that prohibiting abortion violates a woman's right to privacy

The Sears Tower opens in Chicago, displacing the Empire State as the tallest building in the world

Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in the film The Sting

The score of the film The Sting revives interest in Scott Joplin and ragtime

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow conjures up weird events in wartime London

The Watergate scandal claims its first senior victims with the resignation of two of Nixon's closest advisers, Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman

US author Stephen King publishes Carrie, the first of his many best-selling horror novels

William Friedkin directs a horror movie, The Exorcist, from a novel by William Peter Blatty

Henry Kissinger, previously head of the National Security Council, is appointed US secretary of state

US vice-president Spiro Agnew resigns when convicted on charges of bribery

Richard Nixon appoints Gerald Ford as his vice-president in place of the disgraced Spiro Agnew

US author Erica Jong publishes her first novel, Fear of Flying

US tennis player Chris Evert wins the first of three victories at Wimbledon and of seven in the French Open

Jimmy Connors wins both Wimbledon and the US Open, on each occasion defeating the veteran Ken Rosewall

The US Supreme Court orders President Nixon to hand over White House tapes of conversations relevant to Watergate