January 1975

January 1, 1975 (Wednesday)

• The Khmer Rouge began the campaign that would put it in control of Cambodia, cutting off the supply lines to Phnom Penh.
• The new Constitution of Sweden came into effect.
• Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell, former White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were found guilty by a jury of 9 women and 3 men on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. Robert Mardian, a fourth defendant, was found guilty on one count of conspiracy.
• Queen Elizabeth II conferred knighthood on comedian Charlie Chaplin, author P. G. Wodehouse, athlete Roger Bannister, and cricket legend Gary Sobers.
• The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, well known in Europe and worldwide as a geological and landscape observation and survey center, was founded in Strasbourg, France.
• In college football, the previously undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide, ranked No. 1 in the UPI poll and #2 by the AP, lost to No. 9 Notre Dame, 13–11, in the Orange Bowl, giving Irish coach Ara Parseghian a victory in his final game. The #5 USC Trojans, going for a 2-point conversion rather than kicking an extra point, defeated #3 Ohio State, 18–17, to win the Rose Bowl before a crowd of 106,000. The University of Oklahoma, ranked No. 1 by the AP, was ineligible for a bowl and for a ranking in the UPI Coaches' Poll, while #4 Michigan was not invited to a bowl.
• In the 1974 Cotton Bowl Classic, played in Dallas, the #7-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions defeated the #12-ranked Baylor Bears by a score of 41–20.
• In fiction, the 2000 novel White Teeth, by Zadie Smith, opens with Archie Jones making an attempt at suicide on January 1, 1975.

  January 2, 1975 (Thursday)

• Lalit Narayan Mishra, the Railway Minister of India, was assassinated as he attended a ceremony to dedicate a new railway line at Samastipur in the Bihar State. Mishra was fatally injured by a bomb that had been placed under the speaker's dais, in a blast that killed another person and injured 23 other people, and died the next day. Members of the terrorist group Ananda Marg claimed responsibility for the blast, aiming to retaliate for the imprisonment of their leader, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar.
• Bangladeshi Marxist leader Siraj Sikder, after being arrested, was shot and killed. The official explanation that he died during an escape attempt was widely doubted.
• The bill approving the Federal Rules of Evidence was signed into law by U.S. President Ford.
• The World Tourism Organization was established by the United Nations, replacing the International Union of Official Travel Organizations.
• The USC Trojans were ranked No. 1 in the final UPI college football poll, taken of college coaches, giving them a share of the mythical national championship.
• Died: Dimitrios Chiladiti, 91, Greek radiologist

  January 3, 1975 (Friday)

• In the largest return in history of U.S. government land to an American Indian tribe, of the Grand Canyon National Monument were deeded back to the Havasupai people with the signing of a bill by President Ford. The 400 members of the tribe had been limited to a reservation of only, less than one square mile, at the bottom of Havasu Canyon, since 1882. The legislation also enlarged the National Park by adding to bring its total size to.
• Bob C. Riley became the first blind person to serve as the governor of a U.S. state, when he was sworn in as Governor of Arkansas after Governor Dale Bumpers resigned to take office as a U.S. Senator. Riley, who had had his left eye removed after he was wounded, wore an eyepatch and could only perceive light and dark out of his right eye. Riley served the remaining 11 days of the term to which Bumpers had been elected in 1970. On January 14, David H. Pryor took office upon the expiration of his predecessor's term.
• The University of Oklahoma Sooners were given the number 1 ranking in the final AP sportswriters poll of the 1974 college football season, and a share of the unofficial national college football championship. The Sooners had been the only undefeated and untied team, but had been ineligible for postseason play, and were not included in the UPI coaches' poll. The USC Trojans, #1 in UPI, were 2nd in the AP poll.
• Died: Milton Cross, 77, announcer since 1931 for the weekly radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. Cross, known to his fans as "Mr. Opera", was preparing for the next day's show when he collapsed at his home.

  January 4, 1975 (Saturday)

• Henry Boucha of the Minnesota North Stars, who had been the NHL's Rookie of the Year two years earlier, suffered a career-ending eye injury after being high-sticked by Dave Forbes of the Boston Bruins during Boston's 8–0 win. Forbes would become the first American professional athlete to be criminally indicted for a crime committed in the course of a game, although the trial ended in a hung jury. In 1980, Boucha settled a lawsuit against Forbes, the Bruins and the NHL for $1,500,000.
• U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation making the maximum speed limit across the United States, making permanent what had been a temporary order in 1973 by President Nixon.
• Executive Order 11828 created the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States, chaired by U.S. Vice-president Nelson Rockefeller.
• Wimbledon become the first non-league club to win at a First Division club in the F A cup third round since the creation of the Third Division in 1920. Altrincham almost achieve the same objective when holding Everton to a draw. Thirty-one of the Thirty-two ties take place with cup holders, Liverpool defeating Stoke while West Ham win at Southampton at the start of their ultimately victorious cup run.
• Died:
• *Bob Montana, 54, American comic strip artist who created the characters in Archie Comics
• *Carlo Levi, 71, Italian novelist and legislator

  January 5, 1975 (Sunday)

• The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, was struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing 12 people. The ship struck a support on the mile-long bridge at about 9:00 pm, bringing down a section on top of it, and sank. Three vehicles on the bridge plunged into the River Derwent below.
• The leaders of the three military groups fighting for the independence of Angola- Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, Agostinho Neto of MPLA, and Holden Roberto of FNLA- signed the Mombasa Agreement in Kenya's capital, under the sponsorship of President Jomo Kenyatta, pledging to work together to negotiate with Portugal. The united front lasted only a few months, after the United States allied with UNITA and the Soviet Union assisted the MPLA.
• The Wiz, a musical adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with an African-American cast, opened on Broadway. It would go on to win two Tony Awards and run for 1,672 performances.
• Born:
• *Mike Grier, the first African-American NHL player to be born and trained in the United States; in Detroit
• *Warrick Dunn, American NFL running back; in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• *Bradley Cooper, American actor ; in Philadelphia
• Died:
• *Don Wilson, 29, American MLB pitcher for the Houston Astros, by carbon monoxide poisoning
• *Gottlob Berger, 79, convicted German SS General and Nazi war criminal who spent six years at Spandau prison
• *Rudolf Demme, 80, German Panzer division general who spent ten years in a Soviet prison

  January 6, 1975 (Monday)

• The game show Wheel of Fortune, created by Merv Griffin and inspired by the children's game "Hangman", premiered on NBC at 10:30 am Eastern time. The original hosts were Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford, who would be replaced in 1982 by Pat Sajak and Vanna White, respectively.
• After the sale of gold was legalized in the United States, for the first time since 1933, on December 31, the U.S. Treasury conducted its first auction of a part of its gold reserves, setting aside an unprecedented for sale, in individual gold bricks, valued at $70,000 apiece based on the European market price of $175 an ounce. The first sealed bid that was opened was for $156 an ounce by the investment firm of Austern and Paul.
• AM America, which would later be replaced by Good Morning America, made its television debut on ABC at 7:00 am Eastern time. Intended to compete against the Today show and The CBS Morning News, the news series was hosted by Bill Beutel, with co-hosts Stephanie Edwards and Peter Jennings.
• Another World, an afternoon soap opera airing on NBC since 1964 as a 30-minute show, expanded to 60 minutes. It was the first ongoing attempt of a U.S. serial to air in a time slot of that length, and would be the beginning of a wave of other soaps expanding to 60-minute lengths. The last long-running 30-minute serial to expand to 60 minutes would be The Young and the Restless in 1980.
• An attempt by Malcolm Forbes to become the first person to fly a balloon across the Atlantic Ocean ended before it started. Multimillionaire publisher Forbes and aerospace scientist Thomas Heinsheimer were preparing to lift off from Santa Ana, California in the Windborne for a trip.
• Born: Ricardo Santos, Brazilian beach volleyball player and 2004 Olympic gold medalist; in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
• Died: Burton K. Wheeler, 92, isolationist U.S. Senator for Montana from 1923 to 1947

  January 7, 1975 (Tuesday)

• The South Vietnamese province of Phuoc Binh became the first to be captured by Viet Cong invaders, who led an assault with tanks and three infantry divisions. Out of 5,400 South Vietnamese Army defenders, only 850 survived, and twenty Vietnam Air Force planes were shot down; local officials were summarily executed. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger would later write, "Phuoc Binh was the test case" for the North Vietnamese government to decide whether to proceed with trying to conquer South Vietnam, and "If the United States reacted, there was still a chance for Hanoi to withdraw from the brink."
• The women's basketball team of Louisiana Tech, which would go on to win three national championships and more than 80% of its games, played its very first game, and lost, 59–55, to visiting Southeastern Louisiana University. The crowd for the first was about 45 people.
• The Ascent of Man debuted on PBS, marking what The New York Times called “a milestone in television programing.”