Date in year · 1973 · The 1970s

July 5, 1973

On July 5, 1973, a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills eleven firefighters. The year's #1 song was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando and Dawn. Bokeem Woodbine, Akon, Charlotta Sörenstam would arrive in the same year.

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Year

1973

1970s

Around 1973

The year in brief

1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1973rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 973rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 73rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1970s decade.

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What happened

On July 5, 1973

  1. 1973 A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills eleven firefighters.

    Explosion of a vessel containing liquid above and beyond boiling point

    A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion is an explosion caused by the rupture of a vessel containing a pressurized liquid that has attained a temperature sufficiently higher than its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. Because the boiling point of a liquid rises with pressure, the contents of the pressurized vessel can remain a liquid as long as the vessel is intact. If the vessel's integrity is compromised, the loss of pressure drops the boiling point, which can cause a portion of the liquid to boil and form a cloud of rapidly expanding vapor.

  2. 1973 Juvénal Habyarimana seizes power over Rwanda in a coup d'état.

    President of Rwanda from 1973 to 1994

    Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani, a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1973

The class of 1973

Others born in 1973

Bokeem Woodbine 1973– American actor
Akon 1973– Senegalese-American singer, rapper and songwriter
Charlotta Sörenstam 1973– Swedish golfer
Teddy Cobeña 1973– Spanish-Ecuadorian expressionist and representational sculptor
Derrick Brooks 1973– American football player
Haile Gebrselassie 1973– Ethiopian runner

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