The trial against whistleblower Bradley Manning begins. The American soldier, a trans woman now called Chelsea Manning, was responsible for leaking classified videos documenting U.S. war atrocities during the Iraq War. She was sentenced to 35 years confinement.
101 people die in the Eschede train disaster. Travelling at 200 km/h (120 mph), a high-speed ICE train derailed and crashed into a bridge. The accident was caused by a fatigue crack in one of the train's wheels. It was the deadliest high-speed train disaster in history.
The Israeli ambassador to the U.K. is shot. Shlomo Argov survived the assassination attempt by a Palestinian terrorist group, but he was permanently paralyzed. The event triggered the 1982 Lebanon War.
The world's worst oil spill occurred when an exploratory oil well, Ixtoc 1, blew out, spilling over 140 million gallons of oil into the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico.
The world's first supersonic airliner crashes. The SovietTupolev Tu-144, sometimes referred to as Concordski, disintegrated in mid-air during the 1973 Paris Air Show. 14 people died.
Chile and Peru sign the Treaty of Lima, finally resolving their border dispute from the War of the Pacific (1879–83). Chile keeps Arica and Peru regains Tacna.
Martin Behaim presents the world's first globe. The German geographer called his terrestrial globe Erdapfel, or Earth Apple. It is kept in a darkened room at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Germany.