May 1975

May 1, 1975 (Thursday)

• Under pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Stock Exchange dropped the requirement of a fixed commission for stock transactions. Free to vary their rates, brokerage houses could compete for large investors by offering a lower charge than that for individuals. "Overnight...the average commission dropped by 75 percent," Alan C. Greenberg would note in 2010, adding "the 5,000 share trade of IBM stock 35 years ago included a $1,500 commission but today can be executed online for $8.95".
• Hank Aaron broke the career record for RBIs runs batted in when his Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers 17-3. Aaron, who had already broken Babe Ruth's career home run record, surpassed Ruth's RBI mark with the 2,210th RBI. Aaron's record of 2,297 RBIs remains unbroken.
• Born: Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroonian footballer, in Yaoundé
• Died: Nguyễn Khoa Nam, 48, Major General of IV Corps in Cần Thơ, South Vietnam, committed suicide at 7:00 A.M at home a day after South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh announced unconditional surrender to North Vietnam on Fall of Saigon

  May 2, 1975 (Friday)

• The remaining South Vietnamese soldiers, in the last fight against North Vietnamese forces, surrendered at 9:00 am in the battle of Long Xuyên, An Giang.
• Smokey the Bear, a 25-year-old black bear at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., was retired from service as a living symbol of fire prevention. He died on November 8, 1976.
• Born:
• *David Beckham, English footballer, in Leytonstone
• *Ahmed Hassan, Egyptian footballer, in Maghagha

  May 3, 1975 (Saturday)

• In his last meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Mao Zedong spoke out to reverse the disastrous Cultural Revolution. Mao criticized his own wife, along with her associates for their instigation of the movement, telling them "Don't function as a gang of four." The Chairman would also call for the reversal of the persecution of intellectuals, who had been referred to by cultural revolutionaries as "the stinking number nine", the ninth group of pariahs ; quoting from the Communist Chinese opera Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Mao proclaimed "We can't do without 'number nine'." After Mao's death the following year, the Party would remove and prosecute the Gang of Four.
• The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, first of the Nimitz class group of the ten largest "supercarriers" in the world, was commissioned.
• All former South Vietnamese military personnel and government officials were ordered to register with the victorious Communist conquerors, starting with generals on May 8 and 9. One month later, all registrants would be ordered to report to reeducation camps.
• The city of Jerusalem was struck by missiles for the first time, after two Czechoslovak made Katyusha rockets, fired by Arab guerillas, struck 500 meters from the Knesset parliament building.
• West Ham United won the FA Cup at Wembley, beating Fulham, 2-0. Both goals were scored by Alan Taylor. The legendary Bobby Moore, who had played 16 seasons for West Ham until 1974, played for Fulham against his old team.
• Born: Christina Hendricks, American TV actress best known as Joan Holloway in Mad Men; in Knoxville, Tennessee
• Died: Dmitri Bystrolyotov, 74, former Soviet master spy

  May 4, 1975 (Sunday)

• The one millionth run in Major League Baseball history was scored by Bob Watson of the Houston Astros, during a game against the Giants in San Francisco. By the end of the 1973 season, sportscaster Mark Sackler calculated that 981,823 runs had been scored since the National League began play in 1876 and the American League in 1901; and before the start of the 1975 season the mark was 997,869. When the count reached 999,500 MLB set up a center in New York City to record each additional run at the moment that the batter finished rounding the bases. After Claudell Washington of Oakland registered #999,999 against the White Sox at 3:26 pm New York time, both Watson and the Reds' Dave Concepción came up to bat. Concepcion's hit actually came a few seconds before that of Watson, but in the race between the two men, Watson reached home plate at 3:32:30 while Concepcion was rounding third base for #1,000,001.
• Weeks after taking control of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a fight against the new Communist regime in Vietnam, seizing control of South Vietnam's Phú Quốc Island and making the first attacks in what would lead to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
• Died: Moe Howard, 77, leader and last survivor of The Three Stooges. Born Moses Horwitz, he outlived his brothers Curly Howard and Shemp Howard. The other part of the famous team of Moe, Larry and Curly— Larry Fine — had died three months earlier.

  May 5, 1975 (Monday)

• Television broadcasting began in South Africa, as the first test broadcasts of the South African Broadcasting Corporation TV system were made; regular broadcasting would start on January 5, 1976.
• The Busch Gardens Williamsburg Theme Park opened in Virginia.
• For the first time since the founding of Social Security in the U.S., the Social Security Administration announced the retirement and disability program was in debt; and that its $46 billion reserve would be drained by 1983.

  May 6, 1975 (Tuesday)

• A tornado destroyed much of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, touching down at 4:29 in the afternoon local time, and then moving north-eastwardly for almost half an hour. The amount of damage— more than $300,000,000 — set a new record for the costliest tornado in American history, but only three people were killed
• The first "Moon Tree" to be planted, so called because it was grown from a seed that had been part of small canister containing about 500 seeds that had been taken to the Moon on the Apollo 14 mission, was placed at Washington Square Park in Philadelphia.
• During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
• Died: József Mindszenty, 77, Hungarian Roman Catholic cardinal who was imprisoned and tortured for defying the Communist regime in Hungary. From 1956 to 1971, he was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy in Budapest.

  May 7, 1975 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Ford proclaimed the end of the Vietnam Era for purposes of certain veterans' benefits. Under Title 38 of the United States Code, §101, the era is now defined as "The period beginning on February 28, 1961, and ending on May 7, 1975, in the case of a veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period."
• Died: George Baker, 59, American U.S. Army sergeant and cartoonist who created the World War II comic strip character "Sad Sack" (later adapted as a comic book series for Harvey Comics.

  May 8, 1975 (Thursday)

• The People's Republic of China agreed to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the European Community, agreeing to send a representative to Common Market headquarters in Brussels.
• The last known foreigners remaining in Cambodia, about 550 occupants of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh, crossed the border into Thailand three weeks after Cambodia's fall to Communist guerillas. Transported by a convoy of cars and trucks, and escorted by soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, the group that walked over into Aranyaprathet consisted of 230 French citizens and about 300 Khmer Muslims, but no Cambodian holders of French passports.
• Born: Enrique Iglesias, Spanish singer born in Madrid
• Died:
• *Avery Brundage, 87, American philanthropist who led the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 1972
• *Philip Dorn, 73, American actor

  May 9, 1975 (Friday)

• In Laos, Kaho Xane Pathet Lao, the official newspaper of the Lao People's Party, ran the announcement that the nation's Hmong people "must be exterminated down to the root of the tribe" because their soldiers had assisted the United States in fighting the Communists. The extermination would begin days later.
• The Constitution of Cameroon was amended to create a new office, Prime Minister of Cameroon, which would also be first in line to succeed the President. The first officeholder would be Paul Biya, who would become President in 1982, a post he still holds.

  May 10, 1975 (Saturday)

• The Betamax home videotaping system was introduced by Sony with the LV-1901 going on sale in Japan. The unit, which contained a color TV, the recorder, and the tapes, retailed for $2,488.
• Brian Oldfield of the United States set a mark for the shot put of 75 feet, more than 3 feet further than had ever been achieved. The record was not recognized, because Oldfield was paid as an athlete for the International Track Association.
• Darrell Waltrip won his first national NASCAR race in his fourth season of competition, in the Music City 420 in Nashville. Waltrip would go on to win three NASCAR championships.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon announced the federal government would not provide aid to provide $1.5 billion to meet two months of expenditures for New York City. The requests had been made by city Mayor Abraham Beame.
• Born: Hélio Castroneves, Brazilian race car driver; winner of Indianapolis 500 ; in São Paulo

  May 11, 1975 (Sunday)

• A crowd of about 75,000 people in New York City's Central Park celebrated the end of the Vietnam War Organized by Phil Ochs, the rally included music performances by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Paul Simon.
• A partial solar eclipse was visible in Greenland, Europe, north Africa and north Asia, and was the 66th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 118.
• Born: Ziad Jarrah, Lebanese al-Qaeda terrorist who took control of United Airlines Flight 93 in the 9/11 attacks, and crashed the plane near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, murdering 42 passengers and crew, and killing himself.