December 1975

December 1, 1975 (Monday)

• Sisavang Vatthana abdicated his throne as King of Laos. Crown Prince Vong Savang was never crowned, as the monarchy was abolished the next day. Although the Communist government initially designated the former King as "Supreme Adviser to the President", and allowed him draw his monthly salary and to remain in his palace, Sisavang Vatthana would be evicted in April and moved to the former royal residence at Hong Xieng Thong. In March 1977, the former King and Queen, the Crown Prince and Prince Sisavang would all be arrested and deported to a prison camp in Houaphanh Province, and would die three years later.
• Gerald R. Ford became the second U.S. president to travel to the People's Republic of China, where he met with Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping.
• Died:
• *Nellie Fox, 47, American baseball player
• *Anna Roosevelt Halsted, 69, American radio personality

  December 2, 1975 (Tuesday)

• The People's Republic of China became only the third nation to successfully conduct photographic reconnaissance from space, recovering the Fanhui Shi Weixing series spy satellite China 4, which had been launched on November 26 to take photographs.
• The U.S. House of Representatives voted 213–203 to rescue New York City from bankruptcy, narrowly approving a plan for $6.9 billion of short-term loans over a three-year period. Three days later, the U.S. Senate approved the measure 57–30.
• Laos came under full communist control, when Vientiane fell to the Pathet Lao leader, Prince Souphanouvong, as the first President of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.
• Seven terrorists from a group seeking independence for the South Moluccan Islands from Indonesia, seized control of a passenger train at Beilen in the Netherlands, killing an engineer and a civilian, and holding 50 other people hostage. The action came as a Dutch court was preparing to render a verdict on 17 other terrorists on trial for plotting to kidnap Queen Juliana. The hijackers would release their remaining 23 hostages on December 14 and surrender to police, after being visited by Johannes Manusama, the unofficial leader of Holland's South Moluccan community.

  December 3, 1975 (Wednesday)

• The wreck of the British hospital ship HMHS Britannic was found by Jacques Cousteau, 59 years after it was sunk off of the coast of Greece by a German submarine on November 21, 1916. She had been the sister ship to the Titanic, then refitted to be a hospital, and the largest ship lost in World War One, when 30 people on board were killed and 1,036 were rescued.
• Gunmen seized control of the Credit Lyonnaise Bank in Paris and, the next day, received a $2.2 million ransom and a getaway car. As they drove away with their two hostages, they ran into heavy traffic and crashed into a taxi. The hostages were rescued, and the robbers quickly captured.

  December 4, 1975 (Thursday)

• Six South Moluccan terrorists seized the Indonesian consulate in Amsterdam, taking 37 hostages, including 17 children. The gunmen would release their remaining 25 hostages on December 19 after Dutch authorities assured that they would discuss their grievances.
• Died: Hannah Arendt, 69, German political theorist, while entertaining guests at her New York City apartment.

  December 5, 1975 (Friday)

• The British policy of "preventive detention" without trial was ended. Beginning on August 9, 1971, any person in Northern Ireland who was suspected of terrorism could be arrested and kept in prison indefinitely. During the more than four years of detention, 1,874 of the 1,981 detainees were Roman Catholic, and only 107 were Protestant.

  December 6, 1975 (Saturday)

• Before ending a state visit to Jakarta, U.S. President Gerald R. Ford and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger assured Indonesia's President Suharto that the United States would not interfere with his plans to invade East Timor, although both would later express surprise at the invasion and deny that Suharto had raised the subject at all. A State Department telegram, declassified 26 years later, would show that Suharto told the two that "We want your understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action" in East Timor, and that Ford responded "We will understand, and will not press you on the issue", and Kissinger added, "If you have made plans, we will do our best to keep everyone quiet until the President returns home."
• On "Black Saturday" during the Lebanese Civil War, the murder of four Lebanese Christians provoked the massacre of 200 Lebanese Muslims by Phalangist gunmen.
• Born: Mia Love, American political commentator and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019 in Utah, the first and to date only black woman elected to congress as a Republican.

  December 7, 1975 (Sunday)

• Nine days after East Timor was declared independent of Portugal, Indonesian ships brought in an invasion force for a forcible annexation of the territory. The invasion had been delayed by the visit of U.S. President Ford to Indonesia, and took place hours after Ford departed from Jakarta. At 5:00 am local time, "Operasi Seroja" began. Indonesian planes flew over the Timorese capital at Dili and began dropping paratroopers, with 10,000 Indonesian troops arriving as conquerors. Those Timorese residents who didn't flee to nearby Remexio were soon the victims of "savage and indiscriminate murder, rape, torture and pillage" with hundreds killed in the first day of the attack. At the same time, Indonesian warships shelled the city and while airplanes bombed the interior, according to Martinho da Costa Lopes, the Roman Catholic bishop in Dili.
• Died:
• *Thornton Wilder, 78, American novelist and playwright
• *John S. Knight III, 30, American newspaper publishing heir and an editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, was stabbed to death by three burglars in a home invasion. One of the suspects murdered his accomplice the next day, and would receive two life sentences after being convicted of both crimes, while the third suspect would plead guilty to aiding the murder, and would receive a life sentence.

  December 8, 1975 (Monday)

• In the Lebanese Civil War, rival Christian and Muslim militias seized control of luxury hotels and other skyscrapers in Beirut, using the resorts as high ground for cannons, rockets and sniper fire. The Christian Phalangists captured the recently opened Holiday Inn and the Muslims took the 40-story Mour tower. The lower-priced Hotel Urabi was burned down, killing 37 of its guests. Within a week, a truce ended the "battle of the hotels", leaving the buildings in ruins, 600 people killed and 900 injured and armed groups then moved on to looting stores in the Beirut shopping district.
• The last Portuguese colonial authorities left East Timor, departing from the island of Atauro the day after the invasion by Indonesia.
• Pope Paul VI issued the apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, exactly ten years after the December 8, 1965 close of the Second Vatican Council.
• The original store, in The Byte Shop, the first chain of personal computer sellers, was opened by Paul Terrell at 1063 West El Camino Real in Mountain View, California. Terrell made the first deal for the new Apple Computer, ordering fifty of the machines from Steve Jobs for a total of $50,000.
• Born: Kevin Harvick, American NASCAR driver and Daytona 500 winner 2007; in Bakersfield, California
• Died: Roger East, 51, Australian journalist who had gone to East Timor to investigate the disappearance of the "Balibo Five". The last Western journalist remaining when Indonesia invaded, East was captured and then executed by soldiers.

  December 9, 1975 (Tuesday)

• The United Nations General Assembly voted to approve the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons and the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
• Nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and radio commentator Jeffrey St. John said in a debate, on the TV show Good Morning America, that he had confirmed, with "one close, personal friend" of U.S. President Ford, "some very disturbing rumors... that the President has a drinking problem". Deputy White House Press Secretary William Greener responded later in the day that St. John's claims were something that he "would not even dignify with a comment".
• Italian luger Luigi Craffonara, a 20-year-old member of the Polizia di Stato, was fatally injured in a crash while training in Berchtesgaden, Austria, for the 1976 Winter Olympics. He died early the following morning at a hospital in Salzburg.
• Died: William A. Wellman, 79, American film director

  December 10, 1975 (Wednesday)

• Weeks after Morocco took the northern half of the Western Sahara and Mauritania occupied the southern half, the Western Saharan independence group, the Polisario guerillas, began their first attack, striking against Mauritanian troops.
• Died: Andrew "Boy" Charlton, 68, Australian Olympic swimmer, 1924 gold medalist

  December 11, 1975 (Thursday)

• Dave Kopay, former running back for six different NFL teams, became the first pro football player to admit that he was gay. Kopay called Washington Star reporter Lynn Rosellini the day that her report, "Homosexuals in Sports/Why Gay Athletes Have Everything to Lose", came out in the Tuesday newspaper.
• Died: Lee Wiley, 67, American jazz singer

  December 12, 1975 (Friday)

• Satcom-1, only the third domestic communications satellite, was placed into orbit by the RCA Corporation. The launch was delayed for nine minutes after helicopter patrols saw that a sailboat had come into the area over which the Delta rocket and its cargo were scheduled to travel, and went up at 8:56 in the evening, five minutes before the 14-minute launch window would have been canceled. The initial price of using one of the 24 transponders— $35,000 per month— inspired the creation of new cable television networks, such as ESPN, and the transformation of local TV stations into nationwide "superstations", including Atlanta's WTGC becoming the Turner Broadcasting System.
• The National Association of Black Journalists was formed by 44 African-American news professionals at a meeting in Washington, D.C.
• Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to kill U.S. President Gerald Ford on September 22. She would serve for 32 years in prison and be released on December 31, 2007, after Ford's death in 2006.
• Rob Muldoon was sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• In the first opinion poll taken since former California Governor Ronald Reagan had announced that he would run against President Ford for the Republican Party nomination, Gallup Poll respondents favored Reagan, 40% to 32%. In the survey taken in October, before Reagan's entry into the race, Ford had had a 48% to 25% lead.
• Born: Mayim Bialik, American actress known for Blossom and The Big Bang Theory; in San Diego