1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980
A cease-fire in Vietnam January 28 ends direct involvement of U.S. ground troops in Indochinese hostilities. Former president Lyndon B. Johnson has died of heart disease on his Texas ranch January 23 at age 64, the draft of men for military service begun in 1940 has ended January 27 (although men must still register at Selective Service offices when they turn 18), the army will be an all-volunteer organization into the 21st century, the last U.S. troops leave South Vietnam March 29, but America's combat death toll in southeast Asia has reached 45,958; U.S. bombing of Cambodia continues as prisoners of war are repatriated, and President Nixon vetoes a Senate measure that would halt the bombing (see 1975).
Last year's Watergate break-in creates a national scandal in America. President Nixon names Plainfield, N.J.-born Harvard law professor Archibald Cox, 60, special Watergate prosecutor and tries to have CIA director Richard Helms prevent an FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in; when Helms refuses, Nixon forces him out February 2 and appoints him ambassador to Iran (Helms will plead guilty in 1977 to having lied to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearings when he denied that the CIA tried to overthrow Chile's Allende government in 1973; his 2-year sentence will be suspended and friends will pay his $2,000 fine). Nixon replaces Helms with New York-born former Atomic Energy Commission head James R. Schlesinger, now 43.
The Heritage Foundation founded at Washington, D.C., February 16 is a right-wing "think tank" dedicated to moving national policy in directions favored by backers such as Colorado beer baron Joseph Coors, now 56, who has provided cofounder Paul M. Weyrich with $250,000 plus $300,000 for a building. A convert from Roman Catholicism to the Melkite Greek Church (Uniate Church in Communion with Rome), Racine, Wis.-born religious zealot Weyrich, 31, has been host of a Colorado television show from the U.S. Senate, voicing opposition to reproductive rights, big government, gun control, gay rights, and such. Chicago-born congressional aide Edwin J. (John) Feulner Jr., also 31, works for Rep. Philip M. (Miller) Crane, 42 (R. Ill.) and has helped Weyrich obtain support also from Pittsburgh banking heir Richard Mellon Scaife, now 41. Weyrich will head the foundation only briefly, but it will grow to have an annual budget of about $30 million, with some 180 employees promoting an agenda that opposes government interference in private enterprise while demonizing gays, hippies, liberals, and marijuana, and inundating political leaders with studies purporting to demonstrate the evils of what the foundation disparages. Weyrich will start political action committees (PACs) that can give legislators campaign contributions to promote like-minded views (see 1974).
Martha Mitchell tells reporters April 16 that President Nixon's claim that he did not meet with her husband, Attorney General Mitchell, to discuss the Watergate break-in was a "god-blessed lie." Former CIA employee James W. McCord Jr., 48, implicates Republican Party officials and pleads guilty with four other defendants before Justice John W. Sirica, 70. Nixon announces "major developments" in the case April 17, his aides H. R. Haldeman, 46, and John Ehrlichman, 48, resign under pressure, and a Senate investigating committee chaired by Sen. Samuel J. Ervin Jr., 76 (D. N.C.), opens hearings on the case.
Marine Corps Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift (ret.) dies at Bethesda, Md., May 8 at age 86; former congresswoman-suffragist-pacifist Jeanette Rankin at Carmel, Calif., May 18 at age 92.
Katharine Graham's Washington Post wins a Pulitzer Prize for public service May 7 in recognition of its Watergate stories, and the Senate Watergate Committee begins televised hearings May 17. Former White House counsel John W. Dean provides evidence June 27 that Nixon has an "enemies list" with hundred of names that will prove to include the New York Times, the Washington Post, Boston-born Post writer Mary McGrory, 54, Los Angeles Times national editor Ed Guthman, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, CBS reporter Daniel Shorr, Nixon's heart specialist Michael Debakey, IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson Jr., conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein, Broadway star Carol Channing, film stars Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, football player Joe Namath, Gov. George Wallace, Kennedy in-law Sargent Shriver, Rep. Allard K. Lowenstein (D. N.Y.), Sen. Charles M. (McCurdy) Mathias, 50 (D. Md.), and Sen. Richard S. (Schulz) Schweiker, 47 (R. Pa).
Hearings on the Watergate break-in by the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities take a dramatic turn July 16 when the committee's Camden, N.J.-born chief counsel Samuel Dash, 48, questions President Nixon's deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield, 47, about a rumored secret Oval Office audio-taping system. "I was hoping you fellows wouldn't ask me that," Butterfield says. Asked who knew about the system, Butterfield finally replies, "The president." Nixon lawyers go to court in an effort to keep the contents of the audio tapes from being revealed, prosecutor Archibald Cox insists on obtaining the tapes, Nixon goes on television with a pile of looseleaf notebooks that by his account contain transcripts of the tapes with expletives deleted, but the House Judiciary Committee joins with Cox in demanding the tapes themselves.
President Nixon fires CIA director James R. Schlesinger, whose condescending style has offended him; he replaces him September 4 with St. Paul, Minn.-born CIA operative William E. Colby, 53, who will head the agency until early 1976.
Vice President Agnew resigns under pressure October 10, pleading no contest to charges of income tax evasion in connection with money received during his tenure as governor of Maryland. President Nixon names House minority leader Gerald R. Ford vice president to succeed Agnew under terms of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment ratified early in 1967; now 60, Ford takes office December 3 (see 1974).
Special Watergate prosecutor Cox is discharged the night of October 20 in what will be called the "Saturday night massacre" when he insists that the president turn over tape recordings of conversations with his aides relevant to the Watergate break-in. Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson, 53, has succeeded John Mitchell in that post and resigns in protest, President Nixon names Leon Jaworski, 68, to succeed Cox as Watergate prosecutor. The White House releases tapes of the president's conversations in response to a subpoena, but some of the key tapes contain gaps and the White House claims that some missing tapes do not exist. Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods, 56, testifies November 26 that she had through a "terrible mistake" pressed the wrong button on her tape recorder October 1, 1972, and caused an 18-minute gap in a conversation between Nixon and his aide H. R. Haldeman 3 days after the break-in. Republican support for the president wanes in light of the revelations made about his efforts to cover up his role in the Watergate break-in (see 1974).
A congressional War Powers Resolution passed over President Nixon's veto November 7 limits a president's authority to commit troops in a foreign conflict without congressional approval, affirming Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution. Nixon has said the resolution would impose unconstitutional and dangerous restrictions on presidential power and "seriously undermine this nation's ability to act decisively and convincingly in times of international crisis." Future presidents will ignore the resolution.
Irish terrorist bombs kill 28 at Dublin and five at Monaghan May 17, leaving more than 100 injured, some of them seriously (see 1972). A Protestant loyalist group has committed the atrocity, and further violence ensues (see 1976).
Spain's dictator Francisco Franco, now 80, names Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, 70, premier but remains chief of state. Terrorists of the 14-year-old Basque liberation group ETA assassinate Premier Carrero Blanco with a bombing attack in December and Franco appoints Madrid's mayor Carlos Arias Navarro, 65, in his stead (see 1975).
Former Soviet field marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev dies at Moscow May 21 at age 75; former German general Erich von Manheim at his Bavarian home June 11 at age 85; former French foreign minister Georges-Etienne Bonnet at Paris June 18 at age 83; former U.S. Communist Party general secretary Earl Browder at Princeton, N.J., June 27 at age 82; East German head of state Walter Ulbricht at East Berlin August 1 at age 80; former Soviet field marshal Simon M. Budenny at Moscow October 27 at age 67.
Sweden's Gustav VI Adolf dies at Hälsingborg September 15 at age 90 after a 23-year reign. The last Swedish king to hold real power (constitutional reforms were adopted 2 years ago), he is succeeded by his 23-year-old grandson, who will reign as Karl XVI Gustav, not of the Swedes, Goths, and Wends but simply as king of Sweden.
Israeli F-4 fighter jets shoot down 13 Soviet-built Syrian MiG-21 fighter jets in January and shoot down a civilian Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727 over Sinai February 21, killing 108 of the 113 aboard (authorities say the Libyan pilot strayed off course and ignored orders to land).
The Yom Kippur War that begins in the Middle East October 6 on the Jewish Holy Day of Atonement is the fourth and fiercest Arab-Israeli war since 1948. Both sides accuse the enemy of having begun the new fighting that erupts along the 103-mile-long Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights; UN observers report that Egyptian forces crossed the canal at five points and that Syrian forces attacked at two points on the Golan Heights. Israeli troops push the Syrians back to the 1967 cease-fire line by October 10 despite the arrival of Iraqi troops to support the Syrians, the Israelis push to within 18 miles of Damascus October 12, and Jordan's best troops arrive October 13 to help defend Damascus. Egyptian troops meanwhile force the Israelis to give up the Bar Lev defense line on the East Bank of the Suez Canal, Egyptian SAM-6 missiles stymie Israel's air attacks, and Soviet planes airlift equipment to help Arab forces on both fronts. Israeli tanks rout an invading Egyptian army October 14, destroying about 250 enemy tanks while losing only 25. Moscow announces October 15 that it will "assist in every way" the Arab effort to regain the territory taken by Israel in 1967.
Washington announces that it has begun supplying military equipment to Israel to counter the Soviet airlift of arms to the Arabs; Gen. Ariel Sharon has resigned from the Israeli Army in July and been instrumental in forming the right-wing Likkud Party in September, but he is recalled and spearheads a counterattack across the Suez Canal to attack Egyptian tanks, missile sites, and artillery on the West Bank. Heavy tank battles begin in the Sinai October 17, Moscow tries to persuade Egypt and Syria to resolve the Middle East conflict through diplomacy, and four Arab foreign ministers meet with President Nixon at Washington to urge U.S. mediation of the Arab-Israeli dispute. Libya's Muammar al-Qadaffi opposes any settlement, but Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin meets at Cairo with President Sadat, and the new U.S. secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger (who has replaced William P. Rogers) confers at Moscow October 20 with Soviet Party Leader Leonid A. Brezhnev, saying, "The Arabs can get guns from the Russians, but they can get their territory back only from us." A resolution sponsored jointly by the United States and the USSR calling for a cease-fire in place receives a 14-0 vote of approval in the UN Security Council early in the morning of October 22, heavy fighting resumes 12 hours after the cease-fire takes effect, Israel and Egypt agree to a new cease-fire October 24, the National Security Council puts U.S. forces on "precautionary alert" October 25 while President Nixon agonizes alone in the Oval Office about the Watergate affair. U.S. intelligence has learned that Moscow has placed nuclear missiles in the Egyptian desert and surveillance has picked up radiation from plutonium carried on Soviet ships from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean, Secretary Kissinger asserts that "ambiguous" signs from Moscow have suggested possible Soviet intervention in the Middle East, Nixon gets on the phone to Moscow and agrees with party leader Brezhnev to a mutual pullback, the crisis passes, the cease-fire holds, but Israel has lost 4,100 men killed or wounded in 18 days of fighting, Egypt has lost 7,500, Syria, 7,300. Former premier David Ben-Gurion dies at Tel Aviv December 1 at age 87.
Afghanistan becomes a republic following a virtually bloodless July 17 coup at Kabul that deposes Mohammed Zahir Shah after a 40-year reign as the major powers vie for influence in the region (see 1964). Drought and famine have brought unrest in the country, rural landlords dominate the parliament, Pashto tribes along the Pakistan border have been pressing for autonomy, and the government has been unable to cope with the economic problems of a nation plagued by poverty, illiteracy, and ancient tribal and religious customs. Now 58, the king has been vacationing on the island of Ischia near Naples and formally abdicates August 24 at the Afghan embassy in Rome; his brother-in-law (and cousin) Mohammad Daud Khan has led the coup with 1,000 Soviet-trained troops and proclaims Afghanistan a republic with himself as president and prime minister. A former prime minister, the new president abolishes all royal titles including his own (see 1978).
Pakistan adopts a new constitution that makes the office of president largely ceremonial (see 1971). President Bhutto becomes prime minister, retains also the cabinet offices of foreign affairs, defense, and interior, maintains martial law, and begins a process of Islamization (see 1974).
Former Turkish president Ismet Inönü dies at Ankara December 25 at age 89. He was replaced as leader of the Reliance Party (Güven Partisi) last year by leftist Bülent Ecevit.
Former Japanese prime minister Tanzan Ishibashi dies at his native Tokyo April 25 at age 88.
South Korean Central Intelligence Agency operatives abduct opposition leader Kim Dae Jung from a Tokyo hotel in August and try to drown him in what critics call another government-sponsored assassination attempt (see 1971). Now 47, Kim is released 1 week later after strong diplomatic pressure from Tokyo and Washington; he is placed under house arrest (see 1976).
Thailand has a revolution in October that overthrows the direct military rule imposed 2 years ago. Students and intellectuals demand a new constitution and hold huge public demonstrations at Bangkok. Police try to break up the crowds, violence escalates, and the authorities finally ask King Bhumibol Adulyadej to intervene, giving the monarchy its first direct role in the nation's politics since 1932. The students agree to disperse, Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn, 62, and his military commander flee the country October 14, and a former rector of Thammasat University is chosen as interim prime minister to supervise the drafting of a new constitution that will be promulgated next year (but see 1976).
Rwanda has a bloodless coup July 5: Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana, 36, leads a group of disgruntled officers in the overthrow of President Grégoire Kayibanda and will rule almost single-handedly for more than 20 years (see 1994).
Argentina has a rash of assassinations and kidnappings early in the year; Perónist Hector J. Campora wins election to the presidency in March, he takes office May 25, and former dictator Juan Perón, now 77, returns June 20 after nearly 18 years in exile (see 1974).
The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth July 10 after 256 years as a British crown colony. Prime Minister Lynden (Oscar) Pindling, 43, has held office since 1969 and will be reelected three times despite allegations of his involvement with Colombian drug lords in narcotics trafficking.
Former Canadian prime minister Louis Saint Laurent dies at Quebec July 25 at age 91.
Former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar dies of a heart attack in exile at Marbella, Spain, August 6 at age 72.
The crown colony of British Honduras is renamed Belize amidst demands for independence (see 1862). The last British colony on the American mainland, its name is said by some to derive from the Spanish mispronunciation of Wallace (Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace may have started a settlement at the mouth of the Belize River in the late 1630s) and by others to have evolved from the Mayan word belix ("muddy water") or belikin ("land facing the sea") (see independence, 1981).
Uruguay's military seizes the reins of government as the 11-year-old leftist Tupamaro guerrilla group foments resistance to President Juan Maria Bordaberry, whose country has been beset by inflation, assassinations, kidnappings, and often-violent strikes. Bordaberry will be deposed in 1976 after a gradual relinquishment of executive authority and democratic government will remain suspended until 1985 (see 1976).
Chile has a wave of strikes that shut down shops and transportation in nine provinces, a violent coup September 11 overthrows the nation's democratically elected Marxist president Salvador Allende Gossens, who reportedly takes his own life during the attack on his presidential palace, La Moneda, at Santíago. His wife insists that he has been murdered. "We often heard the [U.S.] State Department did not want Allende in power," she says. "Financial interests always predominate." National security adviser Henry A. Kissinger has told President Nixon that a successful socialist regime in Chile would serve as a model for other Latin countries, and on Nixon's orders the CIA has, in fact, poured upwards of $7 million into a failed effort to remove Allende. A military junta names Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte president; now 58, he breaks off relations with Cuba, vows to "exterminate Marxism" from Chile, and begins a repressive 16-year rule, imprisoning 40,000 political opponents by year's end and having about 3,000 executed.
The newspaper Asahi Shimbun honors feminist Fusae Ichikawa in January for her contributions to the progress of women in Japan (see 1945). Now 78, she has refused a medal that Emperor Hirohito wanted to confer upon her (see 1980).
Jordan grants women the right to vote on the same basis as men.
Washington, D.C., lawyer Marion Wright Edelman, 34, founds the Children's Defense Fund, an advocacy group to which she can apply experience gained as director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The U.S. space station Skylab 1 is launched into orbit 271 miles above Earth May 14; the first of her three crews arrives May 25 for a 28-day stay.
Britain joins the European Economic Community January 1 after a decade of controversy (see 1972). Denmark and Ireland also join, bringing members to nine in the Common Market created by the Treaty of Rome in 1958.
The oil shock and soaring grain prices precipitate a world monetary crisis and then a worldwide economic recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Speculative selling of U.S. dollars on foreign exchanges forces the second devaluation of the dollar in 14 months. Secretary of the Treasury George P. (Pratt) Schultz announces February 12 that the dollar is to be devalued by 10 percent against nearly all other major world currencies in a move to make U.S. goods more competitive in foreign trade. The devaluation brings the price of the wheat bought by Moscow last year down to $1.48 per bushel, making it a bigger bargain than ever for the USSR (which has thus far paid only $330 to $400 million), and fast-rising gold prices in the London market enable the Russians to sell their bullion at much more favorable rates than they had expected, but the devaluation in the dollar produces consternation in Japan and boosts the price of imported goods (and imported oil) to U.S. consumers and businessmen.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange opens April 26 in a former Board of Trade lunchroom with 282 members using the new Black-Scholes formula (and new, hand-held calculators) to trade calls (options to buy) on 16 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Just 911 options change hands on opening day, but by year's end the CBOE is trading in options on 50 NYSE stocks, the CBOE will add sell options (puts) in 1977, daily volume will average 300,000 options by 1978, and by mid-1995 the volume will have reached 1 million per day, with another 300,000 options trading on four other U.S. exchanges. Options trading will grow into an industry that involves upwards of $1 trillion per day worldwide, increasing volatility on exchanges worldwide.
Libertarian economist Ludwig von Mises dies at New York October 10 at age 92.
National Cash Register (it will soon be renamed NCR) begins manufacturing automatic teller machines as more banks install the devices to offer emergency cash on a 24-hour basis (see 1969). The new ATMs are hooked up to the banks' mainframe computers, and by 1997 there will be 425,000 ATMs worldwide.
The Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the 1974 Trade Act adopted by Congress December 13 establishes specific criteria that nations with non-market economies must meet each year if they are to enjoy normal trade relations with the United States. Sponsored by Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (D. Wash.), now 61, and Rep. Charles Vanik, the measure is designed in part to force Moscow to let Soviet Jews emigrate, but it derails detente and infuriates not only Moscow but also President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger. Jackson's New York-born staff member Richard (Norman) Perle, 32, has drafted the amendment; it has had 78 co-sponsors, and it will prove a stumbling block to trade with the People's Republic of China and other communist countries as well as with the Soviet Union.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes December 31 at 850.86, down from 1020.02 at the end of 1972. Much worse is to come (see 1974).
Retail merchant Fred Lazarus Jr. dies at his Cincinnati home May 27 at age 88, having cofounded Federated Department Stores; Fuller Brush Co. founder Alfred C. Fuller dies at Hartford, Conn., December 4 at age 88.
President Nixon appoints Washington State politician Dixy Lee Ray, 58, head of the Atomic Energy Commission in February following the resignation of James Schlesinger, who becomes head of the CIA. Ray has urged expansion of nuclear power, consumer activist Ralph Nader calls her "Ms. Plutonium," and many environmentalists oppose her, but Nixon directs her in June to review federal and private energy research and development (see 1972). He establishes the Energy Policy Office June 29 to formulate and coordinate energy policies.
An energy crisis grips the world; Saudi Arabia acquires a 25 percent interest in the 40-year-old Aramco petroleum colossus January 1 and moves to enlarge her equity in the company to 51 percent by 1982 (see 1948).
President Nixon acts May 1 to end the U.S. oil import quota system imposed in 1959, urges additional tax credits to subsidize the oil industry's efforts to find new sources, and asks Congress to end federal regulation of natural gas prices to provide incentive for exploration (see 1954). He urges states to encourage use of coal, even if it means delaying air pollution controls, and asks Americans to conserve energy. "America faces a serious energy problem," Nixon tells Congress June 29: "While we have 6 percent of the world's population, we consume one-third of the world's energy output. The supply of domestic energy resources available to us is not keeping pace with our ever-growing demand." U.S. demand for oil runs at about 17 million barrels per day, domestic output is little more than 11 million barrels per day, Venezuela and Canada supply most of the imported oil, and at present rates of increase demand will reach 24 million barrels per day by 1980 with domestic sources supplying only half that much. Critics charge that there is no real shortage of petroleum but that major oil companies are engaged in a conspiracy to force up prices and drive out competition.
Reza Shah Pahlevi takes over all properties of the multinational Iranian Consortium, including the huge Abadan Refinery, guaranteeing the participating companies a 20-year supply of oil in proportion to their interests in the consortium (British Petroleum has the lion's share); the Majlis ratifies the shah's action August 3.
Saudi Arabia's king Faisal announces September 4 that his country will not increase oil production so long as U.S. policy favors Israel at the expense of the Arab countries. Saudi crude oil production is 6.5 million barrels per day (the United States produces 9.5 million, Iran 5 million, Kuwait 3 million, Libya 2.2 million, Abu Dhabi 1.2 million, Iraq 1.1 million, Qatar 550,000, Oman 300,000.
Saudi Arabia and the other Arab OPEC nations double the posted price of oil to $3.07 per barrel on the eve of the Yom Kippur War with Israel (see 1974). Libya's Muammar al-Qadaffi nationalizes all foreign-owned petroleum assets in his country. Other Arab nations cut back oil production in part for political reasons, in part to conserve resources, in part to force up prices in a sellers' market. The Arab oil-producing nations have enough money in reserve to shut down production completely for 18 months while maintaining normal imports of food and other necessities, but Arab oil cutbacks force Europe and Japan to reduce airline service, cut down heating in offices, limit driving, and in other ways conserve dwindling supplies of fuel.
Iraq's oil minister Sadoon Hammadi negotiates a settlement with Iraq Petroleum (see 1972). The company recognizes Baghdad's nationalization of the fields and agrees to pay $345 million in back taxes and help boost Iraqi oil output to 3 million barrels per day by 1975; Baghdad agrees to give the company 15 million tons of oil in compensation. The Compagnie Française des Pétroles agrees to buy 23.75 percent of Iraq's annual production.
President Nixon launches Project Independence November 7 with a goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency by 1980; science, technology, and industry can free the country from dependence on foreign oil, he says, and the Federal Energy Office established December 4 replaces the Energy Policy Office created in June (see 1974).
An airplane crash at Kano, Nigeria, January 22 kills 171 Muslims returning from Mecca and five crewmen; a British airliner crashes in a blizzard at Hochwald, Switzerland, April 10, killing 106; a Varig Airlines plane en route from Rio de Janeiro crashes near Paris July 11, killing 122 of its 134 passengers.
Airline executive (and World War I flying ace) Edward V. Rickenbacker dies at Zürich, Switzerland July 23 at age 82. He retired from Eastern Airlines in 1963.
The U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority mandates separate nonsmoking sections on airplanes (see United, 1971). Reservations clerks ask passengers whether they prefer smoking or nonsmoking seats; nonsmokers complain that air circulation in cabins makes it difficult to avoid secondhand smoke even with the new rules (see 1988).
The Alto computer introduced by Xerox Corp. pioneers the personal computer for general use. Developed at Xerox's Palo Alto, Calif., Research Center (Xerox Parc), it finds few buyers and will ultimately be withdrawn from the market, but it incorporates what has come to be called the mouse (see 1968) that Xerox Parc has licensed from Stanford Research Institute for a lifetime fee of $45,000 (see 1974).
The Ethernet goes into operation in May, linking desktop computers, or work stations, into office networks through an open system made possible by a combination of hardware and software. Xerox Parc researcher Robert Metcalfe, now 27, and a co-worker have invented the system; it enables workers with desktop computers to share printers, file servers (central storage computers), and other equipment, transmitting at a speed of 3 million bits per second.
Experiments at the 19-year-old European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) outside Geneva reveal the existence of "neutral current" interactions between neutrinos and electrons, nuclei in which no transfer of electric charges occurs. Physicists conclude that the reactions can be explained only by the existence of what they call the Z particle, a short-lived subatomic particle with a mass nearly 100 times greater than that of a proton that acts upon all other known subatomic particles even though it is electrically neutral (see 1983; J/psi particle, 1974).
Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Stanford University physicist Burton Richter, 42, completes construction of the Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Ring. Built in collaboration with Richter's colleague David Ritson and financed by the Atomic Energy Commission, the colliding-beam accelerator will permit major breakthroughs in research into subatomic particles (see Feynman, 1968; J-particle, 1974).
Mathematician and computer pioneer Howard H. Aiken dies at St. Louis March 14 at age 73; Nobel chemist and plastics pioneer Karl Ziegler at Mülheim, West Germany, August 12 at age 74; paleontologist Alfred S. Romer at Cambridge, Mass., November 5 at age 78.
The U.S. Public Health Service announces January 17 that studies have linked smoking to increased risk of fetal and infant abnormalities.
The FDA announces April 1 that it will recall diet drugs containing amphetamines.
Nature magazine publishes a paper on magnetic resonance imaging by Sidney, Ohio-born physical chemist Paul C. Lauterbur, 44, whose report is based on earlier work with radar (see science, 1946). Working at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Lauterbur has found that by studying the energy absorbed by protons instead of molecules they can unveil the inner workings of the hydrogen atom, preparing the way for devices based on the phenomenon that nuclei of some atoms line up in the presence of an electromagnetic field and can be used to measure the energy absorbed by different tissues to produce detailed internal images (see Damadian, 1977).
Bradford, Mass.-born geneticist and biologist George D. (Davis) Snell, 69, of the Jackson Laboratory at Bar Harbor, Me., completes studies that have identified the antibodies and groups of genes controlling the human body's acceptance or rejection of foreign tissues, work that not only permits surgeons to predetermine feasibility of organ transplants but is also pivotal to cancer research and the development of immunogenetics (see Dausset, 1951). Caracas-born Harvard immunologist Baruj Benacerraf, 52, and French immunologist Joachim Dausset, now 56, have worked independently to expand knowledge of autoimmune diseases and what Snell causes histocompatibility.
Nobelist cardiac catheterization pioneer Dickinson W. Richards dies at Lakeville, Conn., February 13 at age 77; microbiologist Selman A. Waksman at Hyannis, Mass., August 16 at age 85.
The 19-year-old Church of Scientology begins April 28 to implement a secret program aimed at finding and removing "false" files about the organization and its founder L. Ron Hubbard, files that are held by governments worldwide (see 1967). Officials of the nondemoninational organization insist that it helps its members reach a state of mental and spiritual clarity, but it performs virtually none of the charitable roles that have been traditional with religions, and most governments regard it as a moneymaking cult (see FBI raid, 1977).
Educator A. S. Neill of Summerhill School fame dies at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, September 23 at age 89, having championed free self-development in children's education.
Schoolhouse Rock debuts on ABC television, where it will continue in 3-minute segments on Saturday mornings until 1985 to teach children the fundamentals of arithmetic, grammar, sentence structure, science, American history, and such. Devised by New York advertising men George Newall and Thomas Yohe, both 40, the show will share top ratings with Sesame Street and The Brady Bunch.
President Nixon delays Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds until CPB board members resign, whereupon he appoints new members more sympathetic to his views (see 1967).
U.S. News and World Report founder David Lawrence dies of a heart attack at Sarasota, Fla., February 11 at age 84, having built up a subscriber base of 1.94 million; cartoonist Murat B. "Chic" Young of "Blondie" fame dies at St. Petersburg, Fla., March 14 at age 72; cartoonist Walt Kelly of "Pogo" fame at Hollywood, Calif., October 18 at age 60; radar inventor Sir Robert Watson-Watt at Inverness, Scotland, December 5 at age 81.
Moscow agrees to abide by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention and cease publishing pirated editions of Western works.
Nonfiction: The Imperial Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who warns that the U.S. political system is threatened by "a conception of presidential power so spacious and peremptory as to imply a radical transformation of the traditional polity"; The Best and the Brightest by New York-born journalist David Halberstam, 39, probes the decisions responsible for U.S. involvement in Vietnam: "If there was ever anything that bound the men . . . together, it was the belief that their intelligence and rationality could answer and solve everything"; Fire in the Lake—The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by New York-born journalist Frances FitzGerald, 32; Home from the War: Vietnam Veterans—Neither Victims nor Executioners by Robert Jay Lifton; If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home (anecdotes) by Minnesota-born Washington Post reporter author Tim O'Brien, 26, is about his tour of duty in Vietnam; Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson; Democracy and Disobedience by Melbourne-born Oxford philosopher Peter (Albert David) Singer, 27; Islam in History: Ideas, Men, and Events in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis; The Seduction of the Spirit: The Use and Misuse of People's Religion by Harvey Cox; The Coming of Post-Industrial Society by Daniel Bell, who has been a professor of sociology at Harvard since 1969; The Large-Scale Structure of Space-Time by physicist Stephen W. Hawking (with G. F. R. Ellis); Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered by German-born English economist E. F. (Ernst Friedrich) Schumacher, 63, who argues that "intermediate technology" will produce adequate economic growth; Awakenings by London-born New York neurologist-author Oliver (Wolf) Sacks, 40; The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation by Midge Decter; The Female Woman by Greek-born London journalist Arianna Huffington (née Stassinopoulos), 23, who draws fire from Germaine Greer by saying that the women's movement denies or ignores the longings of millions of women for intimacy, children, and a family (Huffington wrote her book soon after graduation from Cambridge); My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies by Pittsburgh-born author Nancy Friday, 36; Pentimento (autobiography) by Lillian Hellman, who includes her fictional story "Julia"; Guide to Modern Literature by English literary critic Martin Seymour-Smith, 45; I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression by Erma Bombeck.
Philosopher-jurist Hans Kelsen dies at Berkeley, Calif., April 20 at age 91; philosopher Jacques Maritain at Toulouse April 28 at age 90; social anthropologist Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard at Oxford September 11 at age 71; philosopher Leo Strauss of pneumonia at Annapolis, Md., October 18 at age 74; philosopher Alan W. Watts at Mill Valley, Calif., November 16 at age 58; critic (and Partisan Review cofounder) Philip Rahv at Cambridge, Mass., December 22 at age 65.
Fiction: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon; The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino; The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch; Fear of Flying by New York novelist Erica Jong, 31; Ninety-Two in the Shade by Montana novelist Thomas McGuane, 34; Burr by Gore Vidal; Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; HMS Surprise by Patrick O'Brian; Mooncrankers Gift by Barry Unsworth; The Black Moon by Winston Graham; The Box Man (Hako otoko) by Kobo Abe; Sula by Toni Morrison; Rubyfruit Jungle by Hanover, Pa.-born writer Rita Mae Brown, 28; Judah the Pious by Brooklyn-born novelist Francine Prose, 26; Once Is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann; Going Home by San Francisco advertising copywriter-turned-novelist Danielle (Fernande) Steel, 26, who will churn out best-selling romances at a dazzling rate.
Novelist Elizabeth Bowen dies at London February 6 at age 73; Pearl S. Buck at Danby, Vt., March 6 at age 80; Jane Bowles of a cerebral hemorrhage at a Malaga psychiatric clinic in Spain May 4 at age 56; Carlo Emilio Gadda at Rome May 21 at age 79; J. R. R. Tolkien at Bournemouth, Hampshire, September 2 at age 81; Henry Green at London December 13 at age 68.
Poetry: The Bow and the Lyre and Alternating Current by Octavio Paz; Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-1972 by Adrienne Rich; Sleepers Joining Hands by Robert Bly; Rejoicings by Pittsburgh-born poet Gerald Stern, 48; To Be of Use by Detroit-born poet-novelist Marge Piercy, 37.
Poet-novelist Conrad Aiken dies at his native Savannah, Ga., August 17 at age 84; Pablo Neruda of cancer at his house on Isla Negra, 2 hours by car from Santíago, Chile, September 23 at age 69; W. H. Auden at Vienna September 28 at age 66; John G. Neihardt at Columbia, Mo., November 30 at age 92.
Juvenile: The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by English novelist Penelope (Margaret) Lively (née Low), 40; Cathedral by British-born Rhode Island architect-author David A. Macaulay, 26, whose books (and, later, CD-ROMs) will use whimsy and wit to clarify common technologies; The Summer of My German Soldier by Memphis-born author Bette Greene, 39.
Painting: Father, Son, Holy Ghost by Anselm Kiefer; Jazz Bande by Roberto Matta; Wave Painting by Elizabeth Murray; Painting, Smoking, Eating by Philip Guston; The Soyer Brothers by Alice Neel; A Sudden Change of Wind by Fairfield Porter. Pablo Picasso dies of a pulmonary edema at Mongins, France, April 8 at age 91, leaving works whose value is estimated at more than $1 billion. Active almost to the end, Picasso is hailed as the greatest artist of the 20th century.
Sculpture: Amarillo Ramp by Robert Smithson; Sor Aqua (a jagged bundle of corrugated metal suspended over a bathtub) by Robert Rauschenberg; Picasso's Chair (plaster of paris) by George Segal; Young Shopper by Duane Hanson; Enamel Garden (sand, cement, wire netting, concrete, synthetic coating) by Jean Dubuffet. Jacques Lipschitz dies at Capri May 26 at age 81; Robert Smithson in the crash of a small plane outside Amarillo, Texas, July 20 at age 35.
Photographer Edward Steichen dies at West Redding, Conn., March 25 at age 93.
Theater: Finishing Touches by Jean Kerr 2/8 at New York's Plymouth Theater, with Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Lansing, 164 perfs.; The Hot l Baltimore by Missouri-born playwright Lanford Wilson, 35, 3/22 at New York's Circle in the Square Theater; Magnificence by Portsmouth-born playwright Howard Brenton, 30, 6/19 at London's Royal Court Theatre, with Geoffrey Chater, Robert Eddison, Michael Kitchen; Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn 7/4 at London's Criterion Theatre (then to Vaudeville Theatre), with Richard Biers, Sheila Hancock, 973 perfs.; Equus by Peter Shaffer 7/26 at London's National Theater (Old Vic), with Alec McCowen; Cromwell by David Storey 8/15 at London's Royal Court Theatre, with Albert Finney; When Ya Comin' Back, Red Ryder by Illinois-born playwright Mark (Howard) Medoff, 33, 11/4 at New York's Circle Repertory Theater, with Kevin Quinn, Robin Goodman, Addison Powell, James Kierman, 302 perfs.; The Good Doctor by Neil Simon 11/27 at New York's Eugene O'Neill Theater, with Christopher Plummer, Marsha Mason, 208 perfs.
Sir Noël Coward dies after a stroke at his villa on Jamaica's north coast March 26 at age 73; playwright William Inge commits suicide (carbon monoxide poisoning) at his Hollywood Hills home June 10 at age 60; playwright S. N. Behrman dies of heart failure at his New York home September 9 at age 80.
Television Barnaby Jones 1/28 on CBS with Buddy Ebsen, now 64, 1955 Miss America Lee Meriwether, 38 (to 9/4/1980); Are You Being Served? 3/2 on BBC with Mollie Sugden, Frances Thornton (to 4/1/1985); The Young and the Restless 3/26 (daytime) on CBS with James Houghton, Robert Colbert, Julianna McCarthy, Trish Stewart, Janice Lynd, Robert Clary in a soap opera created by William J. Bell; Kojak 10/24 on CBS with Garden City, N.Y.-born actor Telly Savalas, 49, as bald New York detective Theo Kojak in a series inspired by the career of detective Thomas J. Cavanaugh, now 51 (to 3/18/1978).
Comedian Wally Cox is found dead in his Bel Air, Calif., home February 15 at age 48; radio personality Martha Dean (Marian Young Taylor) dies of cancer at New York December 9 at age 65 (a former Scripps-Howard journalist, she took over the show in 1941 as the third "Martha Dean"); radio-television soap opera creator Irna Phillips dies at Chicago December 23 at age 72.
Films: Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets with New York-born actor Robert De Niro, 28, Brooklyn-born actor Harvey Keitel, 26; Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! with Malcolm McDowell, Rachel Roberts; Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon with Ryan O'Neal, Los Angeles-born actress Tatum O'Neal, 9, Boston-born actress Madeline Kahn, 30; Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage with Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson. Also: George Lucas's American Graffiti with Brooklyn, N.Y.-born actor Richard (Stephen) Dreyfuss, 25, Candy Clark; John Hancock's Bang the Drum Slowly with Bronx, N.Y.-born actor Michael Moriarty, 32, Robert De Niro; Don Siegel's Charley Varrick with Walter Matthau; Bernard Tavernier's The Clockmaker with Philippe Noiret; François Truffaut's Day for Night with Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Aumont (Jean-Pierre Salomons), 50, Truffaut, 41; Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal with London-born actor Edward Fox, 36, Alan Badel; Robert Aldrich's Emperor of the North Pole with Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, San Mateo, Calif.-born actor Keith Carradine, 23; William Friedkin's The Exorcist with Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, St. Louis-born actress Linda Blair, 14; Peter Yates's The Friends of Eddie Coyle with Robert Mitchum, Philadelphia-born actor Peter Boyle, 40; Waris Hussein's Henry VIII and His Six Wives with Keith Michell, Donald Pleasence, Charlotte Rampling; Alan Bridges's The Hireling with Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, 29; Peter Hall's The Homecoming with Cyril Cusack, English actor Ian Holm, 41; John Frankenheimer's The Iceman Cometh with Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan, Jeff Bridges; Hal Ashby's The Last Detail with Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Houston-born actor Randy Quaid, 25; Herbert Ross's The Last of Sheila with James Coburn, James Mason, Dyan Cannon; Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris with Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider; Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore (La Maman et la Putain) with Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, Bernadette Lafont; Jan Troell's The New Land with Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann; James Bridges's The Paper Chase with Timothy Bottoms, Los Angeles-born actress Lindsay Wagner, 24, producer-director-actor John Houseman, now 70, Middletown, Conn.-born actor James Naughton, 25; Sidney Lumet's Serpico with Al Pacino; Victor Erice's Spirit of the Beehive with Fernando Fernan Gomez, Teresa Gimpera; George Roy Hill's The Sting with Paul Newman, Robert Redford; Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man with Edward Woodward, 43, Christopher Lee, 51, Swedish actress Britt Ekland (Britt-Marie Eklund), 31; Douglas N. Schwarz's Your Three Minutes Are Up with Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Janet Margolin.
Actor J. Carrol Naish dies of a coronary occlusion at La Jolla, Calif., January 24 at age 73; Edward G. Robinson of cancer at Hollywood January 26 at age 77; Tim Holt of cancer at Shawnee, Okla., February 15 at age 55; Katina Paxinou of cancer at Athens February 22 at age 72; Cecil Kellaway of arteriosclerosis at Hollywood February 28 at age 82; director Robert Siodmak at Locarno, Switzerland, March 10 at age 72; Carl Benton Reid at Hollywood, Calif., March 16 at age 79; onetime cowboy actor Ken Maynard in his California trailer March 23 at age 77, having introduced singing to westerns but spent his final years in poverty and an alcoholic haze; director Mikhail Katatozov dies at Moscow March 28 at age 69; Melville Cooper at Woodland Hills, Calif., March 29 at age 76; director Merian C. Cooper of cancer at San Diego April 21 at age 79; director-screenwriter Frances Marion of cancer at Los Angeles May 12 at age 84; Betty Grable of lung cancer at Santa Monica July 2 at age 57; Veronica Lake of acute hepatitis at Burlington, Vt., July 7 at age 53. She appeared in 26 pictures before alcoholism ended her career and obliged her to take work as a New York hotel barmaid; comedian Joe E. Brown dies at his Brentwood, Calif., home July 6 at age 82; Lon Chaney Jr. of liver and gout-related illnesses at San Clemento, Calif., July 12 at age 67; Jack Hawkins of a secondary hemorrhage and throat cancer at his native London July 18 at age 62; martial arts TV and film actor Bruce Lee is found unconscious in his Hong Kong home and dies of a brain edema July 20 at age 32; director John Ford (Sean O'Feeney) of cancer at Palm Desert, Calif., August 31 at age 78; Anna Magnani after gallbladder surgery at Rome September 26 at age 65; Sessue Hayakawa of coronary thrombosis and pneumonia at Tokyo November 23 at age 83; Constance Talmadge at Los Angeles November 23 at age 73; Laurence Harvey of cancer at London November 26 at age 45.
Film musical: Sean Lathan's Save the Children with Isaac Hayes, the Jackson Five, Sammy Davis Jr., Nancy Wilson, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, and a slew of others in a documentary filmed last year of an exposition held by Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH.
Broadway and off-Broadway musicals: El Grande de Coca-Cola 2/13 at the Mercer Arts Center, with Ron House, Diz White, music and lyrics by the cast, 1,114 perfs.; A Little Night Music 2/25 at the Shubert Theater, with Ontario-born actor Len Cariou, 33, Hermione Gingold, now 75, Glynis Johns, William Daniels, New Jersey-born singer Beth Fowler, 32, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh (Callngham) Wheeler, 59, from the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, songs that include "Send in the Clowns," 600 perfs.; Seesaw 3/18 at the Uris Theater, with Michele Lee, music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, book from the 1958 William Gibson play Two for the Seesaw, 296 perfs.; Raisin 10/18 at the 46th Street Theater, with Joe Morton, Ernestine Jackson, music by Judd Woldon, lyrics by Robert Britten, book from the 1959 Lorraine Hansberry play Raisin in the Sun, 847 perfs.
Opera: Kansas-born bass Samuel Ramey, 30, makes his professional operatic debut 3/11 at the New York City Opera singing the role of Zuniga in the 1875 Bizet opera Carmen; Infidelio (chamber opera) 4/17 with music by Elisabeth Lutyens (the libretto tells of a broken love affair that backtracks from a girl's suicide to her first meeting).
Tenor Lauritz Melchior dies at Santa Monica March 18 just 2 days short of his 83rd birthday; composer Gian Francesco Malipiero at Treviso August 1 at age 91; mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel at New York November 23 at age 73.
The Sydney Opera House opens in Australia. Designed by Danish architect Joern Utzon, 65, it has created controversy during construction but will soon be a world-famous landmark.
Choreographer John Cranko dies of a heart attack in a plane over the Atlantic June 26 at age 43 while returning to London from a U.S. tour; dancer-choreographer Mary Wigman dies at Berlin September 18 at age 86.
First performances: String Quartet No. 3 by Elliott Carter 1/23 at New York in a performance by the Juilliard Quartet.
Violinist Joseph Szigeti dies at Lucerne February 19 at age 80; conductor Istvan Kertesz drowns at age 43 while taking a swim at Kfar Saba, Israel, April 16; Hammond organ inventor Laurens Hammond dies at Cornwall, Conn., July 1 at age 78; conductor Otto Klemperer at Zürich July 3 at age 88; cellist-conductor Pablo Casals at Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, October 22 at age 96.
Popular songs: "I Shot the Sheriff" by Jamaican reggae composer-performer Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, 28; "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown; "Killing Me Softly With His Song" by Charles Fox, lyrics by Norman Gimbel; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (albums) by Elton John; The Material World (album) and "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace)" by former Beatles singer-guitarist George Harrison; Life and Times (album) and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce; "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and "Superstition" by Saginaw, Mich.-born songwriter Stevie Wonder (Stevland Morris Hardaway), 23; Aerosmith (album) by the 3-year-old Boston hard rock band Aerosmith headed by drummer and lead vocalist Steven Tallarico (later Tyler), 25, who will be called "the demon of screamin'"; True Stories and Other Dreams (album) by Judy Collins includes songs of her own composition; "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Arkansas-born baritone-songwriter Charlie Rich, 39, who is known as "the Silver Fox" and has written songs for Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash; No Secrets (album) by Carly Simon; "Leave Me Alone" by Helen Reddy; Imagination (album) by Gladys Knight and the Pips includes "Midnight Train to Georgia," "I've Got To Use My Imagination," and "Neither One of Us (Wants To Be the First To Say Goodbye)"; It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing (album) by Teresa Brewer (with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra); Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned (album) by The Plastic People, whose first album uses morbidly funny poems by the underground Czech poet Egon Bondy.
Dixieland jazz trombonist Edward "Kid" Ory dies of pneumonia and heart failure at Honolulu January 23 at age 86; songwriter Andy Razaf of cancer at North Hollywood February 3 at age 77; stride pianist Willie "the Lion" Smith at New York April 18 at age 75; bandleader-songwriter Vaughan Monroe after surgery at Stuart, Fla., May 21 at age 62; jazz rhythm-guitarist Eddie Condon at New York August 4 at age 67; Jim Croce in the crash of a chartered plane at Natchtoches, La., August 20 at age 30; tenor saxophonist Ben Webster at Copenhagen September 20 at age 64; drummer Gene Krupa of leukemia at his Yonkers, N.Y., home October 16 at age 64; songwriter Bobby Darin at Los Angeles December 20 at age 37 while undergoing open-heart surgery.
Miami beats Washington 14 to 7 at Los Angeles January 14 in Super Bowl VII.
Texas-born boxer George Foreman, 24, gains the world heavyweight championship January 22 by knocking out Joe Frazier in the second round of a title bout at Kingston, Jamaica.
Jockey Robin Smith rides Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt's 4-year-old colt North Sea to victory in a six-horse field March 1 in the $27,450 Paumanok Handicap at New York's Aqueduct Raceway, becoming the first woman jockey to win a U.S. stakes race.
Secretariat wins U.S. horse racing's Triple Crown, the first horse to do so since 1948. A son of Bold Ruler and the mare Somethingroyal, the handsome chestnut stallion runs the mile and a quarter Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, wins the Preakness, and sets a record at the Belmont Stakes by running the mile and a half in 2:24, gaining speed as it goes to win by 31 lengths.
The first Iditarod Trail Dog Race brings out 22 mushers in a March contest that emulates the 1925 race to deliver diphtheria serum to Nome, Alaska. Oklahoma-born Anchorage sled-dog enthusiast and promoter Joe Redington, 56, organized a 50-mile race 6 years ago with local historian Dorothy Page, and he has been talking up the idea of a round-trip race to the ghost town of Iditarod some 500 miles from Anchorage. All but two of his supporters quit when he offered $50,000 in prize money (he had no money to back up the offer), but he has decided to extend the race to Nome, a distance of some 1,100 miles, and make it a one-way event; the winner takes 20 days to cross the finish line, and by that time Redington has raised all but $3,000 of the prize money (he persuades the third-place finisher to take an IOU for half his purse). The Iditarod will become an annual event, and future finishers will cover the distance in less than 10 days (see Riddles, 1985).
Jan Kodes, 27, (Czech), wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, Billy Jean King in women's singles; John Newcombe wins in men's singles at Forest Hills, Margaret Smith Court in women's singles. The United States Tennis Association has announced July 19 that the U.S. Open will award equal prize money to women and men.
A tennis match promoted as the "battle of the sexes" ends in defeat for former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs, now 55, who loses 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to Billie Jean King September 20 at the Houston Astrodome.
Golfer Jack Nicklaus wins his third PGA championship.
Cricketer Wilfred Rhodes dies at Bournemouth, Hampshire, July 8 at age 95, having played in his last Test Match at age 52. No other player in the history of the game completed more doubles (1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a single season; he scored 1,000 runs 21 times, captured 100 wickets 23 times, set a world record lifetime career of 4,187 wickets taken, and appeared in 58 Test Matches.
U.S. baseball's American League owners decide January 11 to let teams field a tenth player to bat in place of the pitcher, who is with few exceptions a poor hitter. Rule 601 authorizes a "designated hitter," its purpose is to speed up the game and increase attendance (the American League has been falling behind the National League), the National League refuses to adopt the new rule, and debate on the issue will continue for more than 30 years.
The Oakland Athletics win the World Series, defeating the New York Mets 4 games to 3. The "designated hitter" rule is used in games at Oakland but not in those played at New York.
Long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi dies at Helsinki October 2 at age 76.
Revlon introduces Charlie, a mass-marketed fragrance (named for cofounder Charles Revson) whose promotion features models in pantsuits to symbolize a generation of liberated women.
U.S. textile mills produce 482 million square yards of cotton denim, up from 437 million in 1971. The figure will soar to 820 million by 1976 as demand booms for blue jeans and denim jackets.
Santo Domingo-born New York designer Oscar de la Renta, 41, establishes his own house and shows his collection at Versailles, having worked at Madrid under Balenciaga, for Lanvin-Castillo at Paris, and for Elizabeth Arden at New York.
German-born fashion designer Jil (née Heidemarie Jilne) Sander, 29, shows her first collection of women's wear, having begun as a fashion journalist at Los Angeles and Hamburg. She opened her first boutique at Hamburg 5 years ago, has her clothing made at Milan, and will later move her headquarters to Paris.
Former fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli dies at Paris November 13 at age 77.
The MGM Grand Hotel (later the Bally) opens at Las Vegas with a convention center and gambling casino (see fire, 1980).
Gangster Frank Costello dies of a heart attack at New York February 18 at age 82.
New drug legislation signed May 8 by New York's governor Nelson A. Rockefeller May 8 mandates prison sentences of 15 years to life for possession of more than four ounces—or sale of more than two ounces—of heroin or cocaine (possession of more than two ounces or sale of more than half an ounce can bring 3 years to life, with lower penalties for smaller amounts). The purpose of the tough new law is to discourage buyers and mid-level dealers, and to induce plea bargaining that will bring in drug kingpins, but big-time dealers will learn to avoid the sentences by using addicts and even children to carry drugs for them, and the law's effect will be to fill up state prisons with tens of thousands of low-level, nonviolent, non-predatory drug users, who will be confined at great cost for excessively long periods. Political leaders who try to repeal the law will risk being called "soft on crime," and the law will remain on the books into the 21st century, giving judges little or no discretion in sentencing.
The U.S. Department of Justice establishes a federal Drug Enforcement Agency charged with enforcing controlled-substances laws and regulations (see 1972). Its mission includes investigating and helping to prosecute major violators; managing a national drug intelligence program in cooperation with federal, state, local, and foreign officials; and working with the United Nations, Interpol, and other organizations on matters relating to international drug-control programs (see 1986).
Argentina's Ejercito Revolutionario del Pueblo kidnaps Exxon executive Victor Samuelson at Campora December 6, demanding $14.2 million. The abductors will hold Samuelson for 5 months before he is ransomed.
Architect Isoya Yoshida dies at his native Tokyo March 24 at age 79.
Chicago's Sears Tower opens September 1 at 333 North Wacker Drive with 3.6 million square feet of rentable space. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the $200 million 110-story structure has been built on time and within budget; it occupies two blocks and rises 1,455 feet, making it 86 feet taller than New York's World Trade Center (see Kuala Lumpur, 1998).
The Douglas house is completed at Harbor Springs, Mich., to designs by Newark, N.J.-born architect Richard (Alan) Meier, 38, who worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Marcel Breuer before starting his own firm 10 years ago.
The U.S. median sales price of an existing single-family house reaches $28,900, up from $20,000 in 1968. By 1976 the price will be $38,100.
Johannesburg's 600-room Carlton Hotel opens with an annex that contains its 63 best rooms and an office tower. Anglo-American Corp. has put up the structures as an expression of confidence in its beleaguered hometown.
Norway establishes Nordvest-Spitsbergen Nasjonalpark on the northwest corner of Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean. Its 3,283-square-kilometer (1,268-square-mile) expanse contains five separate bird sanctuaries and teems with wildlife that include Arctic fox, reindeer, and walrus.
A massive Mexican earthquake in August causes widespread destruction in central Mexico, badly damaging the 355-year-old city of Córdoba and the 441-year-old city of Puebla.
U.S. farmers plant 322 million acres to wheat, up from 293 million acres last year, in response to higher prices. Wheat production hits a record 1.71 billion bushels—nearly 50 million metric tons. But the increased planting raises fears that easily erodible land is being plowed to take advantage of higher prices and that overpumping for irrigation will draw down water tables.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture arbitrarily cancels half of all open soybean and soybean meal export contracts. The Chicago Board of Trade issues an unprecedented ruling that bars entry into futures contracts on old-crop soybean meal. Poultry and livestock feeders, speculators, and others who have bought soybean meal at rising levels are unable to hedge their purchases by selling old-crop futures, prices collapse, and many companies sustain heavy losses.
President Nixon announces a temporary embargo June 27 on exports of soybeans and cottonseeds, shocking Japan, Korea, and other traditional customers for U.S. oilseeds. At least 92 percent of the soybeans Japan uses for tofu (bean curd), soy sauce, and cooking oil comes from the United States, soybean prices jump by 40 percent in less than a week in Japan, the White House lifts the embargo after 5 days in response to State Department pressure, the Department of Commerce approves shipment of all orders received prior to June 13 but announces that special licenses will be required for all subsequent orders and says contracted amounts will be cut in half (by 40 percent for soybean oil, cake, and meal).
Foreign buyers redouble their purchases of U.S. grain lest further controls be applied. More than 30 million tons of U.S. wheat are sold for export by the end of July, U.S. farmers hold back their crops as buyers bid up prices, other farmers and ranchers cull flocks and herds as poultry raising and cattle production become unprofitable.
Amber Waves of Grain: The Secret Russian Wheat Sales that Sent American Food Prices Soaring by New York author James Trager provides inside information on last year's historic transaction.
U.S. corn yields average 96.9 bushels per acre, up from 70 in 1968.
The average U.S. farm worker produces enough food and fiber for 50 people, up from 31 in 1963.
Farm labor represents 5 percent of the U.S. workforce, down from 7 percent in 1968.
An amendment to the School Lunch Act (PL 92433) signed into law by President Nixon September 26 establishes the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to improve diets in the nation's most nutritionally vulnerable population group.
Nutrition labeling regulations promulgated by the Food and Drug Administration standardize the type of information to be presented on U.S. food packages. Responding to demands by consumer-group coalitions for more information about the foods in the marketplace, the FDA selects package labels as the vehicle for educating consumers on the nutritive values of foods and suggests a format for providing information on content in terms of calories, grams of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, per serving and the percentage of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) of protein, nine vitamins, and five minerals.
The FDA publishes regulations August 2 requiring that vitamin A be classified as an over-the-counter (OTC) drug beginning January 1, 1975, when packaged in dosages exceeding 200 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance (see Dutch fishermen, 1969). Vitamin D is to be classified as an OTC drug in dosages above 100 percent of the RDA, and this will apply also to most other vitamins and minerals with potencies exceeding 150 percent of the RDA that many scientists consider too high to begin with. Dietary supplement makers have bumper stickers printed up with messages such as "FDA stands for Fraud, Deception, and Arrogance" and "God Giveth Vitamins, the FDA Taketh Away," they orchestrate a campaign to put pressure on Congress to limit the FDA's regulatory powers, and by October 3 some 70 bills have been introduced to that end (see Proxmire Amendment, 1976).
How Sodium Nitrite Can Affect Your Health by Michael F. Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest raises alarms about frankfurters and other meat products containing the preservative.
The Cuisinart food processor introduced in January at the National Housewares Exposition in Chicago furthers the automation of kitchens that began with the Waring Blendor in 1936. Carl Sontheimer has lengthened the feed tube of Pierre Verdun's food-preparation machine (see 1970), changed the cover design, improved the cutting blades and discs, added safety features to meet U.S. standards, and persuaded Verdun to manufacture the machine to his specifications, incorporating features that Sontheimer has designed and patented. The machine's $140 price tag is a stumbling block when blenders that resemble it retail for about $35, but Sontheimer, undiscouraged, takes the food processor to James Beard, Julia Child, and other cooking authorities, whose praises will soon persuade buyers that the Cuisinart is a worthwhile investment. The appliance is soon on sale at specialty gourmet shops, enabling homemakers to knead dough, grind sirloin steak, reduce a brick of parmesan cheese to a uniform powder, and perform other kitchen tasks that were once very time consuming.
A committee formed in 1970 by U.S. grocers and manufacturers to improve productivity issues a recommendation in April for a Universal Product Code (UPC) design for all supermarket items. Graduate student Bernard Silver overheard a food-chain executive deploring the lack of an automatic checkout center; he and his fellow student Norman Woodland have developed and patented a system that uses light to read concentric circles. Others have revised their idea to produce a package bar code designed to permit electronic scanners at checkout counters to "read" the price of each item and trigger a computer that will record the price automatically, thus eliminating checker error (see 1974).
Food prices soar in the United States, Japan, and Europe in the wake of last year's Soviet wheat and soybean purchases that have forced up the price of feed grains and consequently of meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products as well as of baked goods. President Nixon orders a freeze on all retail food prices June 13, saying that he will "not let foreign sales price meat and eggs off the American table." U.S. consumer groups organize boycotts to protest rising prices but prices will continue to rise even without the excuse of a "Russian wheat deal."
General Foods introduces Stove Top Dressing in March in a bid to reach the growing market of Americans who rely on roast turkey and chicken as low-priced dinner entrées.
Krispy Kreme founder Vernon Rudolph dies of a heart attack August 16 at age 58; General Foods cofounder Marjorie Merriweather Post at her Washington, D.C., Hillwood estate September 12 at age 86, leaving a fortune in excess of $200 million. She gave her 17-acre 50-room Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., last year to the federal government, which will not be able to afford its maintenance and will sell it.
Vodka outsells whiskey for the first time in the United States.
The Supreme Court rules 7 to 2 January 22 in Roe v. Wade that abortion should be a decision between a woman and her physician. Louisiana-born Norma McCorvey grew up in Texas, was sent by her mother at age 15 to board with a distant relative who raped her repeatedly, got work as a roller-skating carhop in a cowgirl outfit, married a patron who began to beat her, found that she was pregnant, went home to her mother, got jobs at bars, discovered that she was more attracted to other women than to men but had an affair with a hospital orderly while working the graveyard shift at Baylor University Hospital, became pregnant again, was fired, gave the baby up for adoption, became pregnant for a third time, decided she wanted an abortion, and met Sarah Weddington, a lawyer who wanted a plaintiff to overturn the state's anti-abortion law. She was allowed to bring her case under the name "Jane Roe" against Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade, and Weddington won the case but only after "Roe" had given birth to her third child (who was also put up for adoption). Justice Harry A. Blackmun writes the majority opinion, noting that the Constitution does not explicitly mention any right to privacy; he rejects the argument that a woman has an absolute right "to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses," but he says that in the first 3 months of pregnancy the decision to have an abortion lies with the woman and her doctor, and the state's interest in her welfare is not "compelling" enough to warrant any interference. For the next 3 months of pregnancy a state may "regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health" such as licensing and regulating the facilities involved. During the last 10 weeks of pregnancy the fetus is judged to be capable of surviving if born, and any state that wishes may prohibit abortion during that period. Justices Rehnquist and White dissent. Terence Cardinal Cook of New York calls the Court's action "shocking" and "horrifying." Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia calls it an "unspeakable tragedy for this nation." Alan F. Gutmacher, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America calls the decision "a wise and courageous stroke for the right to privacy and for the protection of a woman's physical and emotional health." Most states have to rewrite their anti-abortion statutes to reflect the ruling; "Right-to-life" groups work to undermine Roe v. Wade.
French police arrest a physician on charges of having performed an illegal abortion (see 1972); 10,000 people take part in a march to urge repeal of the abortion law, and legislation to legalize abortion is introduced in the Parlement (see 1974).
Intrauterine device (IUD) insertions in China increase to 14 million, up from 6 million 2 years ago; birth-control efforts increase, but population growth continues at a rapid rate (see 1976).
1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980
