May 1973

[May 1], 1973 (Tuesday)

• An estimated 1,600,000 workers in the United Kingdom stopped work in support of a Trade Union Congress "day of national protest and stoppage" against the Government's anti-inflation policy. The strike ended after a day of disruptions to public transportation and the publication of British newspapers.
• The government of Japan complete repayment of its debt to the U.S. for foreign aid received for food during the American occupation after World War II, paying $175,000,000 in one lump sum at the request of the U.S., which needed the money to relieve its balance of payments deficit.
• Three gunmen invaded a cargo terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, tied up employees of Air India, and stole $500,000 worth of diamonds and jewelry that had been in transit. Because of the gunmen's acquaintance with Air India's operations, investigators suspected that the crime had been an "inside job".
• A group of three robbers in the U.S. entered a private elementary school in Peoria, Illinois and held about 50 children hostage after fleeing from the scene of an armed robbery. More than half of the 121 students at the Saint Cecilia Catholic School fled the building, but the rest were forced at gunpoint to remain in the school cafeteria. After police shot and killed one of the gunmen, the other two surrendered.
• In speeches made in Stockholm during Sweden's observance of the May Day holiday, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme and Foreign Minister Krister Wickman accused U.S. President Nixon of violating the Paris Peace Accords and of bombing refugees in Cambodia. Palme told a crowd, "One cannot win the confidence of people through violence," and Wickman said that fighting in Cambodia would have ended had it not been for the continued bombing of Cambodia against the Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
• John Habgood was consecrated Bishop of Durham.
• Born: Oliver Neuville, German international soccer player, in Locarno, Switzerland

  [May 2], 1973 (Wednesday)

• A Nord 2052 Noratlas of the Portuguese Air Force crashed during a premature attempt to land at Mueda Airport in Mueda, Mozambique; all 11 people on board were killed.
• Former Texas Governor and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally, a longtime Democrat, announced that he was changing his allegiance to that of the rival Republican Party, as part of what many political observers believed to be a first step toward becoming the Republican nominee in the 1976 U.S. presidential election. Connally had served as Treasury Secretary during the administration of incumbent President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, in 1971 and 1972. After the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in October, Connally would be considered by Nixon as a replacement before the nomination being given to Michigan Congressman Gerald Ford, who would go on to become president in 1974 upon Nixon's resignation.
• Born: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, German film director; in Cologne

  [May 3], 1973 (Thursday)

• The Northern Ireland Assembly Act received royal assent, allowing the UK government to set up a Northern Ireland Assembly and to attempt power sharing.
• U.S. President Nixon sent his fourth annual "State of the World" address to Congress and warned the government of North Vietnam that "We will not tolerate violations of the Vietnam agreement" made in the Paris Peace Accords in January, and that an invasion of South Vietnam "would risk revived confrontation with us."

  [May 4], 1973 (Friday)

• Construction of the Sears Tower in Chicago was completed, making the tower the world's tallest building, at.
• U.S. President Richard M. Nixon conferred with his wife and daughters at a family gathering at Camp David to discuss whether he should resign because of the Watergate scandal, according to a statement that would be made two months later by his daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower. Ms. Eisenhower told reporters, "He really loves the country and he would do anything that was best for the country. You know, he would say, 'Should I resign? Would it be better for the country? Would the wounds heal faster? Would it be able to move faster to other things?'" She added that the family was unanimous in talking him out of it, "because resigning would be an admission of wrongdoing and we also felt that he was the man for the job and he had started things and needed to finish them." Nixon's resignation at the time would have elevated Vice President Spiro Agnew to the presidency. Nixon would resign on August 9, 1974, after Agnew was replaced by House minority leader Gerald Ford.
• Terrence G. Leonhardy, the U.S. Consul General to Guadalajara in Mexico, was kidnapped by a group calling itself the Armed Revolutionary Forces of the People. His captors demanded that the Mexican government free 30 prisoners and allow them to be flown to Cuba, but after the prisoners arrived in Cuba, the kidnappers presented more demands before finally complying on May 7.

  [May 5], 1973 (Saturday)

• Shambu Tamang became the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. His actual age at the time was disputed.
• Sunderland achieved a shock 1 to 0 win over Leeds United in the FA Cup final at Wembley, with Ian Porterfield scoring the only goal of the game. It was the first time that an FA Cup winning team had no players who had played for a national team, and the first postwar FA Cup won to be won by a team outside the First Division.
• Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby.
• Led Zeppelin played before a crowd of 56,800 people at Tampa Stadium for the band's 1973 North American Tour, breaking the August 15, 1965, record of 55,600 set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
• Fianna Fáil's Erskine Hamilton Childers set off on a 28-day presidential campaign tour of Ireland.
• U.S. athlete Al Feuerbach broke Randy Matson's seven-year-old world record in the men's shot put by throwing 21.82 meters at the San Jose Invitational at San Jose State College.

  [May 6], 1973 (Sunday)

• At Vatican City, Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI returned the relics of St. Mark to Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Christian Church. Shnouda III then placed them in the Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo, the only Christian church built by the Egyptian government.
• The World Hockey Association's first championship was won by the New England Whalers, at Boston Arena, in Game 5 of the best 4-of-7 series against the Winnipeg Jets. New England won the high-scoring game, 9 to 6. The Avco World Trophy, the WHA's counterpart to the NHL's Stanley Cup, wasn't ready, so the Whalers skated their victory lap with their Eastern Division trophy instead. The Whalers and the Jets would both be admitted to the National Hockey League in 1979 after the WHA folded; the Whalers are now the Carolina Hurricanes, and the original Jets are now the Utah Mammoth.
• Australia won the 11th Federation Cup women's tennis competition, held at Bad Homburg, West Germany.
• Died: Sir Ernest MacMillan, 79, Canadian conductor and composer

  [May 7], 1973 (Monday)

• A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and American Indian Movement activists who were occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ended with the surrender of the leaders of the militants. Carter Camp and Leonard Crow Dog ordered the other militants to lay down their arms, and were transported to Rapid City to face criminal charges. Another 13 militants were arrested after they tried to slip through lines of federal agents who had surrounded the area. Another 120 members and sympathizers of the American Indian Movement surrendered their weapons the next day as FBI agents and United States Marshals retook Wounded Knee.
• The government of Peru nationalized the South American nation's fishing industry, creating the state enterprise PescaPeru and confiscating the resources of companies from the U.S., Argentina, France, Norway, the UK and Japan.
• The U.S. state of Maryland ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting states from interfering with a citizen's right to vote based on race, after having rejected it in 1870. The only states remaining that hadn't formally approved the 15th Amendment were Kentucky, which would ratify in 1976, and Tennessee, which would do so in 1997.
• The Washington Post was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service as a result of the investigation of the Watergate break-in by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, but the individual prize for reporting went instead to Robert Boyd and Clark Hoyt of the Knight Newspapers chain

  [May 8], 1973 (Tuesday)

• The government of the Sudan released all of its political prisoners as a new constitution went into effect, guaranteeing the right of a speedy and fair trial to anyone accused of breaking the law. Many of the persons freed had been members of opposition political parties who had been arrested in 1971 after a failed coup.
• Palden Thandup Namgyal, ruler of the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim, signed an agreement at the request of India, giving up his authority as an absolute monarch, creating an elected legislature, and having a government of ministers nominated by India.
• Lebanon's Prime Minister Amin Hafez resigned a few hours after fighting broke out between Lebanese troops and Palestinian guerrillas.
• In a 9–7 losing effort against the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals baseball ace Bob Gibson made his 242nd consecutive start. It was a new 20th-century record, passing that of Red Ruffing.

  [May 9], 1973 (Wednesday)

• Operating at the Le Monnier crater on the Moon, the Soviet lunar rover Lunokhod 2 encountered an accident due to a ground control mistake two days earlier that allowed dust to fall on the rover's solar cells. The protective lid, open in order to bring out sensory and transmission equipment, was left open when the rover was being maneuvered out of the crater and struck a wall, allowing the dust in. The rover's batteries overheated and it stopped working on May 11, exactly four months after its January 11 launch. More than 40 years would pass before another motorized vehicle moved across the lunar surface, with the arrival of China's Yutu rover on December 14, 2013.
• Color television was introduced to Czechoslovakia, with Československá televise TV2 showing the first color TV programs from its transmitting stations in Prague and Bratislava.