July 1973

[July 1], 1973 (Sunday)

• The United States Drug Enforcement Administration was created within the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce the Controlled Substances Act, merging the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement.
• U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation including the Case–Church Amendment, prohibiting funding for the resumption of all U.S. military activity in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, without Congressional approval. The only remaining operation in Indochina was the U.S. Air Force bombing of Cambodia, which was allowed to continue until August 15, 1973. The original amendment, attached to a funding bill, had been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives 325 to 86, on June 26, and by the U.S. Senate 73 to 16 on June 29.
• The British Library was established.
• The deputy military attaché of Israel's Embassy in the U.S., Colonel Yosef Alon, was shot five times in the chest and killed as he and his wife were returning to their home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
• Loyola Marymount University formally came into existence in the Los Angeles suburb of Westchester, California, with the merger of all-male Loyola University and the all-female Marymount California University. The merger had been announced on February 9.

  [July 2], 1973 (Monday)

• Match Game '73, the first and most successful revival of the NBC game show, made its debut on CBS. As with the NBC version, Gene Rayburn, was the host. Rather than having two celebrity panelists, the show had six, starting with Richard Dawson, Vicki Lawrence, Anita Gillette, Jack Klugman, Michael Landon and Jo Ann Pflug, and had been scheduled to start on June 25, but had been preempted by the testimony of John Dean before the Senate Watergate Committee. It would soon become the highest-rated daytime TV show on U.S. television.
• Died:
• *Betty Grable, 56 American film actress and pin-up girl of World War II, died of lung cancer.
• *Swede Savage, 36, U.S. race car driver, died of injuries sustained in a crash during the Indianapolis 500 race in May.

  [July 3], 1973 (Tuesday)

• The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy dismissed all charges that had been brought against seven former American prisoners of war in court-martial proceedings. The enlisted men — five Army and two Marines — had been charged with collaboration with the enemy. In addition to the lack of more than hearsay and circumstantial evidence, the servicemen had spent an average of five years confinement. This came seven days after the June 26 suicide of an eighth accused person.
• David Bowie "retired" his Ziggy Stardust stage persona in front of a shocked audience at the Hammersmith Odeon at the end of his British tour.
• Born:
• *Saumya Joshi, Indian actor, playwright and director in Gujarati theater; in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state
• *Patrick Wilson, American stage and TV ; in Norfolk, Virginia
• Died:
• *Ellen Kaarma, 45, Estonian Soviet film and stage actress
• *Karel Ančerl, 65, Czech orchestral conductor

  [July 4], 1973 (Wednesday)

• The Treaty of Chaguaramas was signed by representatives of the nations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago to create CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, an economic union to replace the Caribbean Free Trade Association.
• Camilla Shand, then 25 and destined to become the Queen consort of the United Kingdom in 2022, married for the first time, in a wedding to British Army Major Andrew Parker Bowles, in a ceremony attended by the Queen Mother and by Princess Anne. After her divorce from Parker Bowles in 1995, she would marry Prince Charles, the future King Charles III of the United Kingdom, in 2005.
• Don Powell, the drummer of British pop group Slade, was critically injured in a car crash in Wolverhampton and his 20-year-old girlfriend was killed. Powell recovered after surgery, and was able to join the band ten weeks later in New York, to record "Merry Xmas Everybody".
• Born: GACKT, Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor; in Okinawa.
• Died: Helen Ogston, 91, British suffragette

  [July 5], 1973 (Thursday)

• Grégoire Kayibanda, the first President of Rwanda, was overthrown 11 years after the central African nation had become independent, in a coup d'état led by his Minister of Defense, Juvénal Habyarimana.
• The Isle of Man Post began to issue its own postage stamps.
• In the U.S., 11 firefighters were killed in a catastrophic explosion of boiling liquid expanding vapor in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank. This explosion has become a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide.
• Guerrillas in Rhodesia kidnapped 292 students and staff from the remote St. Albert's Mission, a Catholic school established by German Jesuits, and were pursued by Rhodesian troops and local trackers and hunters, to the border with Portuguese Mozambique, away. In the confusion of the chase, 214 of the captives escaped, but 46 students and 32 adults were taken into Mozambique.
• Born: Róisín Murphy, Irish singer and songwriter; in Arklow, County Wicklow

  [July 6], 1973 (Friday)

• The Flemish Cultural Community of Belgium, located in Flanders, the northern one-third of the European kingdom, adopted an official flag and anthem, as well as setting July 6 as an annual holiday. The anthem, De Vlaamse Leeuw had been written by Hippoliet Van Peene in 1847.
• The James Bond film Live and Let Die was released in British cinemas, with the spy played by 45-year-old The Saint star Roger Moore.
• Died:
• *Joe E. Brown, 81, American comedian and character actor on film
• *Otto Klemperer, 88, German conductor and composer

  [July 7], 1973 (Saturday)

• U.S. President Nixon sent a letter to U.S. Senator Sam Ervin the chairman of the U.S. Senate Watergate Investigation Committee, writing "In this letter I shall state the reasons why I shall not testify before the committee or permit access to Presidential papers. I want to strongly emphasize that my decision, in both cases is based on my constitutional obligation to preserve intact the powers and prerogatives of the Presidency and not upon any desire to withhold information relevant to your inquiry", and went on to justify his position. Nixon agreed five days later to meet with Senator Ervin at Ervin's request to avoid "a fundamental constitutional confrontation between the Congress and the Presidency."
• The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a white nationalist terrorist organization in South Africa, was founded by former police officer Eugène Terre'Blanche and six other Afrikaners at a meeting in Heidelberg, Transvaal Province.
• Uganda's dictator Idi Amin ordered the detention of 112 Peace Corps volunteers from the U.S. after their chartered East Africa Airlines flight stopped at the Entebbe International Airport near Kampala for refueling. The U.S. airplane had been on its way from London to Bukavu in Zaire. Amin, shouted "Bring them all back!" after he learned that Peace Corps members were on the Vickers VC10, told his cabinet the next day that he felt that the group "could be mercenaries trying to enter Rwanda", where the government had recently been overthrown. The airliner halted preparations for takeoff after being warned that it would be shot down by Ugandan Air Force fighters. The hostages were released two days later.
• The 1973 Ethiopian general election, the last to be held under imperial rule in Ethiopia, ended as voters chose from more than 1,500 independent candidates for the 250 seats of the Chamber of Deputies. Aklilu Habte-Wold continued as prime minister.
• Billie Jean King defeated Chris Evert, also from the U.S., in straight sets, 6-0 and 7–5, to win the women's singles title at the All-England Tennis Championship at Wimbledon. In the men's finals, Jan Kodeš of Czechoslovakia defeated Alex Metreveli of the Soviet Union, 6–1, 9–8 and 6–3 to win the title the same day.
• Born: Kailash Kher, Indian composer and singer; in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
• Died:
• *Veronica Lake, 50, American film actress, died of kidney failure brought on by hepatitis.
• *Seán Mac Eoin, 79, Irish Minister for Justice 1948–1951, Minister for Defence 1954–1957

  [July 8], 1973 (Sunday)

• Takieddin el-Solh was appointed as the new prime minister of Lebanon by President Suleiman Frangieh.
• Three racing motorcyclists, Renzo Colombini, Renato Galtrucco and Carlo Chionio, were killed in Italy the Campionato Italiano Juniores at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
• Born: Daniel Lipšic, Slovak politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister from 2002 to 2006, and Interior Minister from 2010 to 2012; in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
• Died:
• *Arthur Calwell, 76, Australian politician and Leader of the Opposition, 1960–1967, as Chairman of the Australian Labour Party
• *Gene L. Coon, 49, American TV producer known of Star Trek, died of lung cancer.
• *Wilfred Rhodes, 95, English cricketer

  [July 9], 1973 (Monday)

• The Ještěd Tower, designed by architect Karel Hubáček as a hyperboloid-shaped hotel with a tall TV transmission antenna, opened outside of the city of Liberec in Czechoslovakia.
• The United States and Czechoslovakia agreed to establish direct diplomatic relations for the first time since the Communist Party had taken control of the Eastern European nation. U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers and Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Bohuslav Chnoupek signed the agreement to open consulates in each other's nations during the visit by Rogers to Prague.
• British serial killer Patrick Mackay committed the first of 13 murders to which he would later confess, stabbing a woman on a train as it passed near Catford in Greater London.
• Born: Maxine Linehan, Northern Irish-born stage actress and singer; in Newry, County Armagh