June 1973

[June 1], 1973 (Friday)

• General Georgios Papadopoulos, who had served as Prime Minister of Greece since shortly after leading the overthrow of the government on April 21, 1967, proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy of Greece and the establishment of a republic with himself as President.
• All 23 people on Cruzeiro do Sul Flight 109 were killed in Brazil when the Caravelle SE-210 jet crashed during its approach to São Luíz on a flight from Belém.
• The colony of British Honduras in Central America was renamed Belize in anticipation of eventual independence from the United Kingdom, which would take place in 1981.
• The U.S. town of Haw River, North Carolina, was incorporated.
• Born: Heidi Klum, German model and actress; in Bergisch Gladbach, West Germany
• Died:
• *Harvey S. Firestone Jr., 75, American businessman who developed the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company into an international manufacturer and seller of tires.
• *Father Joseph André, 65, Belgian Roman Catholic priest who rescued numerous Jewish children during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
• *Mary Kornman, 57, American child actress in the early Our Gang installments during the 1920s, died of cancer.

  [June 2], 1973 (Saturday)

• Fifteen people died when the supertanker Esso Brussels was struck by the container ship Sea Witch in New York Harbor. The oil tanker ship fire killed 13 crew, and two crew were lost from the container ship.
• The Semaphore state by-election for the South Australian House of Assembly, caused by the death of Reginald Hurst, was won by the Australian Labor Party, with 71.9% of the vote.
• Born:
• *Carlos Acosta, Cuban ballet dancer; in Havana
• *Antonín Brabec, Czech Repbulci rugby union centre with 42 appearances for the national team; in Prague, Czechoslovakia
• Died: U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Lee Hawkins, 42, the deputy chief of the U.S. military advisory group to the Iranian Armed Forces, was shot to death by terrorists while in Tehran.

  [June 3], 1973 (Sunday)

• Russia's supersonic aircraft crashed at the Paris air show in front of 250,000 people, including designer Alexei Tupolev. All six people on board the Tupolev Tu-144 died, and eight more were killed when the airplane debris destroyed 15 houses in the village of Goussainville. Another 60 people on the ground were severely injured. The Tu-144 had been heavily modified compared to the initial prototype, featuring engine nacelles split on either side of the fuselage, landing gear that retracted into the nacelles, and retractable foreplanes. After passing over the runway at Le Bourget Airport, the jet made a steep climb and the engines failed at. As the aircraft pitched over and went into a steep dive, the crew's attempt to pull up overstressed the airfame and the Tu-144 broke up in mid-air, destroying 15 houses in Goussainville.
• Israel and Syria repatriated several prisoners of war, with Syria releasing three Israeli Air Force pilots in exchange for 47 Syrian and 10 Lebanese POWs, including five high ranking Syrian officers and a former Syrian parliament member who had been in prison for espionage.
• The championship of Bulgarian soccer football's "Cup of the Soviet Army" tournament was played in Sofia, with CSKA Sofia defeating Beroe Stara Zagora, 2 to 1.
• Born: Thérèse Kirongozi, Congolese engineer who designed the "traffic robots" unique to cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2013; in Kinshasa, Zaire

  [June 4], 1973 (Monday)

• A United States patent for the first automated teller machine, the Docutel, was granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.
• Died: Murry Wilson, 55, American music publisher who was the initial manager of The Beach Boys rock music group as father of Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, and Carl Wilson, died of a heart attack. The three Wilson sons fired their father as manager in 1964, but Murry Wilson controlled their publishing company, Sea of Tunes, until selling it in 1969.

  [June 5], 1973 (Tuesday)

• On his CFRB show in Toronto, Canadian radio commentator Gordon Sinclair delivered an editorial, "The Americans", that would become popular in North America, with two different versions becoming a "Top 40" hit on Billboard magazine's "Hot 100" after background music was added. The more popular of the two, recorded by Byron MacGregor of CKLW radio in Windsor, Ontario, would reach #4 on Billboard in 1974.
• The Soviet satellite Kosmos 562 was successfully launched into low Earth orbit at 11:29:47 GMT, from Site 133/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,
• Born:
• *Galilea Montijo, Mexican host of the Televisa talk show Hoy and the talent show Pequeños Gigantes; in Guadalajara
• *Filipe Duarte, Angolan-born Portuguese film and TV actor; in Nova Lisboa

  [June 6], 1973 (Wednesday)

• West Germany's President Gustav Heinemann signed a treaty with East Germany, despite a legal challenge by the state of Bavaria to the constitutionality of the treaty. West Germany's Constitutional Court rejected the Bavarian challenge, and the treaty took effect on June 21.
• The first Polski Fiat 126p was constructed from Italian parts. The official price was 69,000 Polish złotys with PKO Bank Polski accepting pre-payments on savings books starting 5 February 1973.
• Born: Ahmad Al Shugairi, Saudi Arabian activist and media figure; in Jeddah
• Died: Jimmy Clitheroe, 51, English entertainer, after having taken an overdose of sleeping pills on the day of his mother's funeral.

  [June 7], 1973 (Thursday)

• During a spacewalk from the Skylab space station, Skylab 2 astronauts Pete Conrad and Joseph P. Kerwin successfully freed the station's one remaining solar panel, stuck closed since the station was damaged during launch on May 14. When the stuck solar panel was released, both Conrad and Kerwin were flung off of Skylab's hull, but their EVA umbilicals kept them from drifting into space.

  [June 8], 1973 (Friday)

• Major B. Coxson of the Black Mafia, a drug kingpin in the U.S. city of Philadelphia and a former candidate for mayor of Camden, New Jersey, was shot along with his son, his girlfriend, and her daughter by four men whom he let into his home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in a crime that was never solved. Coxson and the daughter, Lita Luby, died of their wounds.
• The owner of baseball's San Diego Padres, C. Arnholt Smith, confirmed that as part of his sale of the National League team and that the team would be moved to Washington D.C. Smith gave notice to the San Diego city council in a letter. The move never took place, and the Padres would still be in San Diego fifty years later. Smith had sold the team to Joseph Danzansky and two other Washington businessmen on May 28.
• Born: Lexa Doig, Canadian TV and film actress known for the science fiction show Andromeda and as a co-star on The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, as well as the film Halloween: Jason X; in Toronto
• Died:
• *Emmy Göring, 80, German actress and widow of Hermann Göring
• *Marjery Bryce, 81, British suffragette

  [June 9], 1973 (Saturday)

• Spanish Navy Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco became Prime Minister of Spain as Spain's dictator and head of state Francisco Franco relinquished the day-to-day management of the cabinet of ministers. Admiral Carrero would hold the post for only six months before his assassination by Basque terrorists on December 20.
• Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing winner since 1948.
• The 1973 Giro d'Italia cycle race was won by Eddy Merckx.
• The 1972–73 Fußball-Bundesliga season ended in West Germany, with defending champions FC Bayern Munich repeating with a first place finish well ahead of 1. FC Köln.
• Died:
• *John Creasey, 64, English mystery novelist
• *Janice Marie Young, 15, American teenager and runaway, was killed after being pushed in front of a moving truck. Designated as a "Jane Doe" by police in St. Petersburg, Florida, she would remain unidentified for almost 42 years until facial reconstruction photography and DNA testing of a sibling would confirm her identity.

  [June 10], 1973 (Sunday)

• Explorer 49 was launched as the last American space probe, for more than 20 years, to orbit the Moon. The U.S. would not send another probe to the Moon until the launch of Clementine on January 25, 1994.
• Born:
• *Faith Evans, American singer-songwriter, record producer, occasional actress and author; in Lakeland, Florida
• *Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill, British servicewoman, the first to be killed in action for 22 years
• Died:
• *William Inge, 60, American playwright and screenwriter, committed suicide. Inge won a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for the play Picnic, and an Academy Award for best screen play for Splendor in the Grass.
• *Erich von Manstein, 85, Nazi German field marshal and convicted war criminal who developed the blitzkrieg system for massive invasions in warfare

  [June 11], 1973 (Monday)

• Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, announced the nationalization of U.S. multimillionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt's oil company in the North African nation, giving Libya full control of the Sareer oilfield that had once been owned by Hunt and by British Petroleum. In a speech, Khadafy said "The time has come for us to deal America a strong slap on its cool arrogant face," and added "The right to nationalize comes under our sovereignty over our land. We can do whatever we want with our oil." As one author would note later, the action against Hunt "demoted him from wealthiest man in the world to an ordinary multimillionaire, restoring his status as a rich man's son rather than wealthy in his own right."
• Diplocardia meansi, also known as "Means's Giant Earthworm", was discovered by D. Bruce Means in Polk County, Arkansas.
• Died:
• *Sean Kenny, 43, Irish theatre designer, died of a brain hemorrhage.
• *Lawson H. M. Sanderson, 77, U.S. Marine Corps Major General who developed the aerial technique of dive bombing