June 1973


The following events occurred in June 1973:

[June 1], 1973 (Friday)

[June 2], 1973 (Saturday)

[June 3], 1973 (Sunday)

[June 4], 1973 (Monday)

[June 5], 1973 (Tuesday)

[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)

[June 9], 1973 (Saturday)

[June 10], 1973 (Sunday)

[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

[June 12], 1973 (Tuesday)

[June 13], 1973 (Wednesday)

[June 14], 1973 (Thursday)

[June 15], 1973 (Friday)

  • The "Common Declaration on the Access of the Comoros to Independence", referred to as theAccords du 15 Juin 1973, was signed in Paris by representatives of the French government and by Chief Minister Ahmed Abdallah of the Comoro Islands, a French colony off of the coast of Africa, providing for independence within the next five years. With the exception of one of the islands, Mayotte, the Comoros would become independent on July 6, 1975, following a referendum on December 22, 1974.
  • The Soviet Union successfully launched an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft into orbit, then brought it back to Earth two days later, designating it as Kosmos 573 to disguise its purpose. The Soyuz craft was not docked to the orbiting Salyut space station, but the results gave the Soviets reason to clear the launch of Soyuz 12, with a crew of two cosmonauts, on September 27.

[June 16], 1973 (Saturday)

[June 17], 1973 (Sunday)

[June 18], 1973 (Monday)

  • The Washington Summit, a meeting of the leaders of the United States and of the Soviet Union began at the White House in Washington D.C., and a state dinner took place in the evening.
  • Operation End Sweep, clearing by the United States of sea mines that had been placed in the harbors of North Vietnam, resumed after a joint communiqué had been signed in Paris on June 13. Minesweeping had been suspended on April 15 after the U.S. had accused North Vietnam of failing to abide by the January 18 peace accords. The U.S. Navy's Task Force 78 completed the clearing of mines out of Haiphong harbor, then followed with Hon Gai and Cam Pha and the coastal areas off of Vinh. No further mines were founded after July 5, and on July 28, Task Force 78 left North Vietnamese territorial waters.
  • Gordie Howe, who had played in the National Hockey League until for more than 30 years before stepping down in 1971 to accept an office position for the Detroit Red Wings, signed with the rival World Hockey Association 's Houston Aeros. Howe received an unprecedented one million dollar contract to play four seasons, while the Aeros also signed his sons, Mark Howe and Marty Howe to four-year player contracts for $400,000 apiece. The two sons, who were 19 and 18 years old, were prevented by NHL rules from being signed because of a rule that no amateur player would be eligible for the NHL draft until age 20.
  • Born:
  • *Julie Depardieu, French actress, the daughter of Gérard Depardieu and Élisabeth Depardieu; in Paris
  • *Ray LaMontagne, American singer-songwriter; in Nashua, New Hampshire
  • Died:
  • *Roger Delgado, 55, British TV and film actor known for Doctor Who portraying the recurring villain, "The Master", was killed in an auto accident in Turkey when his car plunged into a ravine.
  • *Fredrak Fraske, 101, German-born U.S. Army veteran and the last surviving participant in the American Indian Wars.

[June 19], 1973 (Tuesday)

[June 20], 1973 (Wednesday)

[June 21], 1973 (Thursday)

  • The U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Miller v. California, setting a three-prong standard for determining whether of not material is obscene. Announcing a standard for acceptable free speech as a work that has "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value", the Court endorsed, 5 to 4, what is now called the "Miller test".
  • The United States Hockey Hall of Fame was opened in the village of Eveleth, Minnesota to honor American ice hockey players not enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame In addition to Baker and Brimsek, 22 American players were inducted in the first group.
  • Born: Zuzana Čaputová, President of Slovakia since 2019; in Bratislava; Juliette Lewis, U.S. actress and singer, in Los Angeles
  • Died: Frank Leahy, 64, American college football coach for Boston College and the University of Notre Dame. With a career record of 107 wins, 13 losses and 9 ties, his winning percentage of.864 remains the second best in NCAA Division I football history, second to Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne.

[June 22], 1973 (Friday)

[June 23], 1973 (Saturday)

[June 24], 1973 (Sunday)

  • A fire killed 32 people and injured 15 at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans. Most of the persons killed had been trapped inside the building by bars across the three front windows. While the blaze was caused by arson and would remain the worst attack on a gay bar until the 2016 Pulse Night Club shooting in 2016, no evidence was ever found that the murder was a hate crime, and the person considered by police to be the most likely suspect was a gay man who had recently been made to leave the bar earlier.
  • Leonid Brezhnev became the first Soviet leader to address the American people on television. Brezhnev's 47-minute speech was pre-recorded the afternoon before at President Nixon's estate, and then broadcast the next evening at 6:00 p.m. in each of the U.S. time zones. Among other things, he declared that "Mankind has outgrown the rigid 'cold war' armor which it was once forced to wear. It wants to breathe freely and peacefully."
  • Died:
  • *G. Raymond Rettew, 70, American biochemist who pioneered the mass production of the antibiotic penicillin during World War II and prevented tens of thousands of wounded U.S. troops from becoming fatally infected.
  • *Bud Westmore, 55, American film makeup artist, died of a heart attack.

[June 25], 1973 (Monday)

  • Former White House lawyer John Dean began his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee. Granted immunity from prosecution by vote of the Committee, Dean implicated U.S. President Nixon in accusations of obstruction of justice. After some opening remarks, Dean began his testimony by reading aloud a 245-page statement "in a clipped monotone" over six hours.
  • The popular Latin American comic strip Mafalda was retired by its Argentine creator Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón after a run of almost nine years.
  • The sinking of the Indian ship Saudi killed 40 of the 98 passengers and crew on board. The passenger ship, which also carried freight, capsized in the Indian Ocean off of the coast of the African nation of Somalia, after a huge wave caused her cargo to shift. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Jonas Ingram rescued 48 survivors, and recovered nine bodies; the other 31 were missing and presumed dead.
  • The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe began with the Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Helsinki, Finland.
  • Erskine Childers took office as the fourth President of Ireland but would die after a year in office.

[June 26], 1973 (Tuesday)

  • The Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology was founded in Bangalore in India.
  • In the Soviet Union, the explosion of a Kosmos-3M rocket killed nine people at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The disaster would be revealed in 1989 when the Plesetsk center ended decades of secrecy and invited the Western press to visit.
  • Albania's leader, Enver Hoxha, announced that his Communist nation would move further from the "degenerated bourgeois culture" popular in North America and Western Europe. In his speech to the Central Committee of the Albanian Workers' Party, General Secretary Hoxha said that "the spread of certain vulgar, alien tastes in music and art is contrary to socialist ethics and the positive traditions of our people," and cited "degenerate importations such as long hair, extravagant dress, screaming jungle music, coarse language, shameless behavior and so on."
  • Died:
  • *Henry Garrett, 79, American psychologist and white supremacist
  • *Ernest Truex, 83, American stage, film and TV actor

[June 27], 1973 (Wednesday)

[June 28], 1973 (Thursday)

[June 29], 1973 (Friday)

  • Chilean Army Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Souper, having learned that he would be relieved of his command for his part in the conspiracy exposed on the previous day, failed in an attempted coup against the government of President Salvador Allende. Souper led 100 soldiers and four tanks from the 2nd Armored Regiment in an attack in Santiago on the Palacio de La Moneda, the presidential palace, shortly before 9:00 in the morning. Six civilians and a palace guard were killed, and 22 wounded before government troops put down the rebellion.
  • By a vote of 73 to 16, the U.S. Senate passed the Case–Church Amendment, an attachment to a funding bill for the U.S. Department of State, prohibiting any further U.S. military activity in Indochina without advance Congressional approval. The bill had passed the U.S. House of Representatives, 325 to 86, on June 26. After Nixon had vetoed the initial measure and cited national security as a factor, the House and Senate reached a compromise with the White House, allowing bombing of Cambodia to continue until August 15, 1973, rather than to halt immediately. The compromise passed 236 to 169 in the House and 63 to 26 in the Senate. President Nixon signed the measure into law on July 1.
  • In Madrid, Athletic Bilbao won Spain's national championship playoff for soccer football, defeating CD Castellón, 2 to 0, to win the Copa del Generalísimo.

[June 30], 1973 (Saturday)

  • After a little more than 117 days of drifting at sea for on a life raft, Britons Maurice and Maralyn Bailey were rescued by the crew of the South Korean fishing boat Weolmi 306. On March 4, 1973, the Baileys were forced to evacuate to the raft when their yacht, the Auralyn, sank in the Pacific Ocean after being damaged by a whale.
  • A very long total solar eclipse was seen over most of the continent of Africa, lasting seven minutes and four seconds, the longest since June 20, 1955. During the entire 2nd millennium, only seven total solar eclipses exceeded 7 minutes of totality. Another total eclipse of more than seven minutes will not occur until June 25, 2150.
  • A French astronomer, Pierre Léna, had arranged for a chartered Concorde supersonic airliner to follow the path of the eclipse and the solar shadow at a speed of Mach 2 at an unobstructed altitude of. Léna and other astronomers were able to see totality for an unprecedented time of one hour and 14 minutes as the Concorde flew over Western Africa from Mauritania to Chad.
  • Iraq's Defense Minister, General Saadoun Ghaidan, was shot to death along with two other officers, Lieutenant Suleiman Mushed and police lieutenant Juhad Ahmed Duelmi, after being invited to a banquet by the nation's Director of Public Security, Nazem Kazzar.
  • Aeroflot Flight 512 crashed into a building after taking off from the Amman international airport in Jordan, killing seven people in the building and two members of the flight crew. The 78 passengers on board, and five of the seven crew, survived.
  • The 60th Tour de France began from Scheveningen in the Netherlands.
  • Born:
  • *Chan Ho Park, South Korean baseball pitcher and the first Korean player in U.S. Major League Baseball; in Gongju. Between 1992 and 2010, Park played 19 MLB seasons.
  • *Robert Bales, U.S. Army sniper and mass murderer who killed 16 civilians in the 2012 Kandahar massacre; in Norwood, Ohio
  • Died:
  • *Nancy Mitford, 68, English novelist
  • *Vasyl Velychkovsky, 70, Soviet Ukrainian priest who spent 13 years in prison for his religious activities, died one year after being allowed to emigrate, succumbing to complications from injuries sustained during his incarceration.