Nadine Gordimer's novel A Guest of Honor is published.

Yukio Mishima's novel Runaway Horses is published.

Graham Greene's novel Travels with My Aunt is published.

John Fowles's novel The French Lieutenant's Woman is published.

Marcel Ophuls's documentary The Sorrow and the Pity premieres.

West German chancellor Willy Brandt, following a policy of Ostpolitik, signs nonaggression pacts with the Soviet Union and Poland and begins negotiations with East Germany.

Citizens of East Pakistan vote for autonomy from Pakistan.

Soviet cosmonauts set a new duration record (seventeen days) for spaceflight.

12 Jan.

The Biafran independence movement capitulates to the Nigerian government after a secessionist struggle lasting thirty-one months.

16 Jan.

Col. Muammar el-Gadhafi assumes the post of premier of Libya.

10 Feb.

One person is killed and twenty-three are injured in an Arab terrorist attack in Munich, West Germany.

21 Feb.

On route from Zurich to Tel Aviv, a Swissair jetliner explodes and crashes, killing...