The first Boeing 747 "Jumbo" jet enters service with a capacity to carry almost 500 passengers. First fiber-optic telephone lines allow direct-dialed transatlantic calls.

Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda and begins his reign of terror.

HBO launches the world's first subscription cable TV service. Nixon visits China. Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered by Arab gunmen at the Munich Olympics.

US troops are withdrawn from Vietnam. OPEC restricts oil exports, doubling the price of gas and creating global recession. New York's World Trade Tower complex is built.

Richard Nixon becomes the only US president forces to resign after the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford becomes the new president.

In Cambodia, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge Marxist guerilla movement begins a reign of terror, killing 20 percent of the population.

The Concorde supersonic passenger jet enters service, cutting transatlantic flying time to 3-1/2 hours. An earthquake in Tangshan, China kills 655,000.

Jimmy Carter becomes president. Apple Computer is founded, launching the first personal computer complete with keyboard and monitor.

Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) is inaugurated by the US Department of Defense.

The USSR invades Afghanistan. The US-backed Shah of Iran is ousted in an Islamic revolution by Ayatolla Khomeini. US embassy staff are taken hostage.