March 1967

[March 1], 1967 (Wednesday)

• Óscar Gestido was sworn in as President of Uruguay, ending a 15-year experiment in "collegiate government" in which the South American republic was administered by a nine-member Consejo Nacional de Gobierno, with a different member selected each year to preside over meetings. During the council's reign, Uruguay had functioned as a socialist state with a 30-hour work week, retirement at age 55 with full pay, and government jobs for 40% of the work force, but had also been plagued by inflation, frequent labor strikes, low productivity and widespread discontent. Gestido was sworn in for a five-year term, and the nine councilors stepped down.
• Clay Shaw, the former director of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans, became the first person since 1963 to be arrested on accusations of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison had ordered that Shaw be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. After posting a bond of $10,000 Shaw was released. Garrison told reporters, "There will be more arrests," and added, "If you want to bet against me, you will lose."
• The U.S. House of Representatives voted 248 to 176 to bar New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. from taking his seat in the House. An earlier resolution that would have censured Powell, but would have allowed him to serve, failed 202–222. Powell had been accused of diverting more than $56,000 in taxpayer funds for his personal use.
• Ernesto Miranda, whose original conviction for kidnapping and rape had been reversed after the 1963 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gave rise to the "Miranda warning" that bears his name, was found guilty on retrial and was given a sentence of 20 to 30 years in the Arizona State Prison.
• The Royal Australian Navy replaced the British White Ensign flag on all its ships with the Australian White Ensign.
• Brazilian police arrested Franz Stangl, ex-commander of Treblinka and Sobibór concentration camps.
• The Japanese railway system opened the new Hankyū Senri Line, connected to Osaka.
• The city of Hatogaya, in the Saitama Prefecture of Japan, was founded.
• The Queen Elizabeth Hall was opened in London.

  [March 2], 1967 (Thursday)

• U.S. President Lyndon Johnson announced that Soviet Union Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin had agreed to discussions between the two nations to limit the number of offensive and defensive nuclear missiles that each side would possess. The Americans and Soviets would sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on July 1, 1968, and commence the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
• Two U.S. Air Force planes mistakenly bombed the South Vietnamese village of Lang Vei in the Quang Tri Province with napalm, killing 135 men, women and children who were part of the Bru minority group. Another 213 civilians survived their burns. Less than a year later, the unfortunate hamlet would be the scene of the bloody Battle of Lang Vei between South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese troops.
• Seventeen-year-old Mar Sargis Yosip was consecrated a bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East. He would be exiled from his diocese of Baghdad, Iraq, in 2002.
• Died:
• *José Martínez Ruiz, 83, Spanish novelist who wrote under the pen name Azorín
• *Gordon Harker, 81, English stage and film actor and comedian

  [March 3], 1967 (Friday)

• A bus with 43 passengers on board plunged off a steep precipice near the city of Malatya in eastern Turkey, killing at least 21 of them and injuring another 19. The bus was on a winding mountain road from Elazığ to Ankara when the driver lost control while negotiating a sharp curve.
• The Dewan Rakyat, lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia, voted 95–11 in favor of the National Language Act, rejecting attempts to make the Malay language the sole language for governmental use, and permitting Tamil, Mandarin Chinese and English as well.
• Born: Hans Teeuwen, Dutch comedian and filmmaker; in Budel

  [March 4], 1967 (Saturday)

• A U.S. presidential commission recommended a reform to the American selective service system, in what was described as a "youngest first by random selection procedure". While the existing method was for local draft boards to fill their quotas starting with 26-year-old men, the new system would eliminate the 4,100 community draft boards and randomly select registered 19-year-old men. "If a man is not drafted at 19," a reporter noted, "chances are good under the new proposal that he would never be drafted short of total war."
• Queens Park Rangers became the first 3rd Division side to win the League Cup, defeating 1st Division side West Bromwich Albion 3–2, at the final at Wembley Stadium in front of 97,952 fans. As a 3rd Division team, QPR was ranked below the 22 first division and the 22 second division sides. Despite being behind, 2–0, at halftime, the Rangers scored three goals in the second half, including the winning kick by Mark Lazarus in the 81st minute.
• Former film and television actress Betty Furness was appointed by U.S. President Johnson to the newly created post of Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs. Despite initial concerns that she had been chosen solely for her celebrity status, Mrs. Furness would quickly prove to be a knowledgeable and effective consumer protection advocate.
• Saad Jumaa was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Jordan, after the resignation of Wasfi al-Tal.
• Born:
• *Sam Taylor-Johnson, British director, artist and photographer; in Croydon, London
• *Daryll Cullinan, South African cricketer; in Kimberley, Northern Cape

  [March 5], 1967 (Sunday)

• A train crash killed five passengers and injured 18 others near Conington, Huntingdonshire, on British Rail's East Coast Main Line, after a 20-year old railway signalman intentionally flipped a switch to activate a mechanical lock on the tracks. A. J. Frost, who had been discharged from the Royal Marines two years earlier for "hysteria and immature personality", would be tried for manslaughter and endangerment, but would be acquitted of the homicide charge.
• Lake Central Flight 527, a Convair CV-580, crashed after a propeller came loose during a storm, penetrated the cabin and severed control cables. The airliner, which was flying passengers from Cincinnati and Columbus to Toledo, Ohio, broke apart and fell from the sky onto a farm near the town of Marseilles, Ohio, killing all 38 people on board.
• Varig Airlines Flight 837, a Douglas DC-8-33, crashed on approach to Roberts International Airport in Monrovia, Liberia, killing 51 of the 90 people on board, as well as five other people in a home two miles from the runway. The jet was en route from Rome, with a final destination of Rio de Janeiro, as it made a stop in the West African city.
• The first round of voting was held in the election for the National Assembly of France, with 279 of the 486 seats being filled by candidates who had won a majority of the votes. Runoff elections between the two top finishers for the remaining 207 seats would be held the following Sunday.
• Musicam sacram, the instruction by the Roman Catholic Church regarding sacred music, was issued by the Church's Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship.
• Indonesian Army launched a military operation against Mbah Suro's hermitage armed forces in, Blora Regency, Central Java. The army managed to destroy the Mbah Suro movement, although they lost three personnel.
• Died:
• *Mohammad Mosaddegh, 84, former Prime Minister of Iran ; after fourteen years under house arrest
• *Georges Vanier, 79, 19th Governor General of Canada since 1959
• *Mischa Auer, 61, Russian-born American film actor
• *Mbah Suro, 45, Indonesian shaman and mystic

  [March 6], 1967 (Monday)

• The Madras State Assembly was constituted in India under the leadership of the new Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai, following elections. Madras was the first government of an Indian state to be controlled by a political party other than the Indian National Congress that governed most of nation, after Annadurai's Dravidian Party attained 179 seats in the 232-member assembly.
• George S. Trimble, Jr., joined NASA as Director of the Advanced Manned Missions Program, Office of Manned Space Flight, succeeding Edward Z. Gray, who resigned. Before joining NASA, Trimble had served as Vice President-Advanced Programs, The Martin Company, Baltimore, since 1960.
• The United Kingdom's first natural gas from the undersea drilling operations in the North Sea gas reservoirs was pumped ashore, being received from the West Sole operation off the shore of Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire.
• Died:
• *Nelson Eddy, 65, American singer and film star; several hours after suffering a stroke while singing in front of 400 patrons at the Sans Souci Hotel night club in Miami Beach, Florida. Eddy had finished singing "Love and Marriage" with his partner Gale Sherwood, and was starting his next song when his voice faltered. He told his fans, "Will you bear with me a minute?", then asked the pianist to play the song "Dardanella". A moment later, he stopped and said, "My face is getting numb. Is there a doctor in here?" and was helped off the stage, then taken to the Mount Sinai hospital after a physician rendered first aid.
• *Zoltán Kodály, 84, Hungarian composer and educator who invented the Kodály method for teaching music to primary school students
• *George Kelly, 63, American clinical psychologist and developer of the personal construct theory approach to psychotherapy

  [March 7], 1967 (Tuesday)

• CBS Reports aired the first television news documentary in U.S. history to report on gay and lesbian issues. Hosted by Mike Wallace, and viewed by 40 million people, "The Homosexuals" "reflected the bias of the American Psychological Association... labeling homosexuality a mental illness" but also showed gays and lesbians as individuals whose civil rights were deprived. TV critics reacted differently, with Chicago Tribune columnist Clay Gowran, who called the show "garbage" and said that "it was permitted... not only to justify the aberration but, it seemed, to glorify it", while Tribune columnist Herb Lyon wrote that it "was one of the most intelligent, mature, incisive shows ever produced."
• Manuel Apud, a former official of Cuba's Ministry of Industry, testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee that the Soviet Union had resumed placement of intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba, four years after the Cuban Missile Crisis had ended with a Soviet pledge that it would not put nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island nation. Apud said that he had viewed the missiles and said that they were identical to the FROG missiles that could be transported on a mobile launcher.
• You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, a musical comedy based on the comic strip Peanuts, was first performed, appearing as an "off-Broadway" musical at Theatre 80 in New York's East Village. With music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, the musical launched the career of Gary Burghoff, who appeared as the title character. Continuing to be performed at colleges and high schools, it is credited with being "the most produced musical in history".
• Jimmy Hoffa, President of the International Teamsters Union, began an 8-year federal prison sentence at the United States Penitentiary near Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, three years after his conviction for attempting to bribe a jury.
• Died: Alice B. Toklas, 89, American-born resident of Paris, author, and life partner of American author Gertrude Stein