November 1970

November 1, 1970 (Sunday)

• A fire killed 146 people at a dance hall outside of Saint-Laurent-du-Pont in France. Firefighters discovered upon arrival that the management of Club Cinq Sept had kept the emergency exits padlocked in order to keep people from entering the building without paying. At 1:45 in the morning, when the fire broke out, there were about 150 dancers still in the building who had paid to hear a performance by the rock group "The Storm". The dance hall was decorated with "paper and plastic psychedelic decorations" which caused the fire to spread rapidly, and firefighters in Saint-Laurent were only notified after two young men ran nearly a mile to the town to sound the alert. Witnesses told investigators that the fire had started after a patron had lit a cigarette and then tossed the burning match aside rather than extinguishing it.
• Zygfryd Wolniak, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland, and Chaudhri Mohammed Nazir, the deputy director of Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau, were killed by a truck, along with two photographers, during an attempt to kill Poland's President Marian Spychalski at a welcoming ceremony in Karachi. The driver, who had stolen a cargo truck belonging to Pakistan International Airlines, reportedly shouted "Down with Communism" as he drove into the crowd, apparently mistaking Wolniak for Spychalski, then shouted "I have done my job!"
• Congo's President Joseph Mobutu won the yes-no vote for a 7-year term as president for the Central African nation. Balloting was not secret, and only 157 voted "no" against 10,131,669 who voted "yes".
• Born: Merle Palmiste, Estonian stage, film and TV actress, in Tallinn, Estonia; Toma Enache, Romanian film director, in Mihail Kogălniceanu, Romania

  November 2, 1970 (Monday)

• On the day before national elections, the United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam made an early announcement that American soldier casualties were the lowest that they had been since 1965. The regular report was issued at its usual time on Thursday, and reported that 24 soldiers had been killed in the week of October 25 to October 31, but 431 soldiers were wounded.
• Dollree Mapp, the petitioner in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Mapp v. Ohio that set the precedent for barring the use of illegally obtained evidence in a criminal prosecution, was arrested by police in New York City on a search warrant, and found to have over $10,000 worth of heroin and over one million dollars in stolen merchandise, including antiques, silver, televisions sets and furs.
• Died:
• *Richard Cushing, 75, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston and cardinal
• *Abram Besicovitch, 79, Russian-born British mathematician, known for the Besicovitch covering theorem
• *Fernand Gravey, 54, Belgian-born American and French film actor

  November 3, 1970 (Tuesday)

• Marxist Salvador Allende was inaugurated as the 28th President of Chile, receiving the traditional presidential sash from his predecessor, Eduardo Frei. Elected for a term of six years, Allende would die in a military coup less than three years later.
• In U.S. midterm elections for the Congress, the Democrats lost four seats in the Senate, narrowing their majority to 53 of the 100 seats, but gained 12 seats in the House to strengthen their majority to 255 of the 435 seats.
• Died: Peter Karadordevic, 47, the last King of Yugoslavia, who reigned as King Peter II until he was deposed in 1945, died at a U.S. hospital in Los Angeles. His 25-year-old son, British Army Lieutenant Alexander Karadordevic, announced at his father's memorial service on November 8 that he had no intention of becoming a "king-in-exile".

  November 4, 1970 (Wednesday)

• Test pilot André Turcat of France's Sud Aviation company flew the prototype of the Concorde supersonic airliner over the Atlantic Ocean at a record speed for a commercial aircraft, reaching Mach 2 and averaging for nearly 50 minutes. Flying at over the ocean, he reached a maximum speed of in Concorde 001 before returning to Toulouse. On the same day, British Aircraft Corporation test pilot Brian Trubshaw tested the capabilities of the other prototype in the joint venture, Concorde 002, but had to return early after a warning light indicated an engine fire. The Concorde would begin regular service in 1976 by British Airways and Air France, but all other airlines canceled their orders for Concorde jets because of environmental concerns, and no Concorde has been flown since 2003.
• Social workers in Los Angeles took custody of a 13-year-old victim of child abuse identified in studies by the pseudonym "Genie". She had been kept in confinement to one room by her father since her birth, until her mother finally took her from the home in October. Though her rescue was not publicized at the time, the case of "Genie", who had not learned how to communicate, would become a landmark in the study of linguistics, psychology and education of a feral child.
• As part of its policy of Vietnamization, the United States turned control of an air base to the control of South Vietnam for the first time, releasing the Sóc Trăng Airfield to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, along with 31 American helicopters.

  November 5, 1970 (Thursday)

• The Roman Catholic Church's Congregation for Divine Worship announced a continuance of the tradition that barred women from serving as acolytes to assist the priest during services, but, in following the reforms from the Second Vatican Council that concluded in 1965, directed that women could allow non-Gospel scripture reading during mass, lead the congregation in singing, and perform other tasks.

  November 6, 1970 (Friday)

• Rock musicians Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Ray Tabano, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer performed their first concert as Aerosmith, appearing at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.
• Charlie Hentz, a rookie for the Pittsburgh Condors of the American Basketball Association, shattered both of the glass backboards at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a game against the Carolina Cougars. In the game's second quarter, Hentz made a two-handed dunk to give Pittsburgh a 37–35 lead, but delaying the game for an hour. Then, with 1:07 left to play in the game, and the Cougars holding a 17-point lead, Hentz made another dunk and shattered the backboard on the other side of the court. The teams then elected to end the game early rather than to play the final 67 seconds, and the Cougars won, 122 to 107.
• Born: Ethan Hawke, American film and stage actor, novelist and director; in Austin, Texas
• Died: Agustín Lara, 73, Mexican bolero music composer

  November 7, 1970 (Saturday)

• Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, now the highest grossing ocean liner service in the world, made its first voyage as passengers boarded the company's original ship, MS Song of Norway, departed from Miami at 6:00 in the evening for a seven-day round-trip tour with stops at the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
• Over objections from the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. President Nixon issued a National Security Decision Memorandum changing U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf from balancing aid among gulf nations to one favoring Iran and making the Shah of Iran the closest U.S. ally in the region.
• The first match between two schools of the recently developed Frisbee-disc game of Ultimate took place at the parking lot of Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey against visiting Millburn High School. Columbia High won, 43 to 10.
• Born: Morgan Spurlock, American documentary filmmaker and humorist known for Super Size Me; in Parkersburg, West Virginia

  November 8, 1970 (Sunday)

• Following a joint meeting between their presidents in Cairo, the governments of Egypt, Libya and Sudan announced that they would take steps to create a federation of the three nations into a united north African Arab republic of 50,000,000 people. The notice came following the conference between Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Gaafar Nimeiry of Sudan. At the proposed federation, which never took place, would have been the seventh largest nation in the world.
• Tom Dempsey, the placekicker for the New Orleans Saints kicked from his team's 37-yard line to set an NFL record with a 63-yard field goal, giving his team at 19–17 win over the visiting Detroit Lions on the last play of the game. One of the Lions commented afterward, "Tom Dempsey didn't kick that field goal, God kicked it." Dempsey, who had turned the handicap of being born without toes on his right foot, wore a special shoe. At the end of the season, he graciously accepted the "Bonehead of the Year Trophy", normally voted to an athlete whose mistake cost a team a victory, for the game winning score that "booted the Saints out of getting pro football's No. 1 draft pick".
• The British comedy television series, The Goodies, debuted at 10:00 in the evening on BBC Two.
• Born: Tom Anderson, American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded the social network Myspace; in San Diego
• Died: Napoleon Hill, 87, best-selling American self-help book known for his 1937 work ''Think and Grow Rich''

  November 9, 1970 (Monday)

• The Supreme Court of the United States voted, 6–3, against bypassing the lower federal courts in order to hear a petition filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against the United States, regarding the constitutionality of the Vietnam War. A law passed by Massachusetts allowed state residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war. The vote was unusual in that usually activist justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr. sided with the majority, and conservative justices Potter Stewart and John Marshall Harlan II, like activist William O. Douglas, voted in the minority. The majority ruling said only that "The motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied", and Douglas's dissent stated that "It is far more important to be respectful to the Constitution than to a co-ordinate branch of government", a reference to a White House request that the Supreme Court not consider the controversial issue while U.S. troops were still fighting in Vietnam.
• The Soviet Union launched Luna 17, a lunar lander which carried the first wheeled vehicle to the Moon.
• The blues rock studio double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the only studio album by Derek and the Dominos, was released, initially in the United States, the first presentation of the classic title track, "Layla", by English guitarist Eric Clapton and American drummer Jim Gordon.
• Born:
• *Chris Jericho, American professional wrestler; in Manhasset, New York
• *Scarface, American rapper; in Houston
• Died: Charles de Gaulle, 79, President of France 1959 to 1969 and French Army General who led the Free French fight against the Nazis after the fall of France