November 1973

[November 1], 1973 (Thursday)

• The acting Attorney General of the United States, Robert Bork, appointed Leon Jaworski as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor to replace Archibald Cox, who had been fired on orders of U.S. President Nixon on October 20. Jaworski accepted after Nixon pledged that he would not attempt to interfere with the prosecutor's duties, and that he would not fire the prosecutor without a consensus of leaders in the U.S. Congress.
• North Korea seized the 10-man crew of the Japanese freighter Shinryu Maru, charging that the boat had "intruded deep into the territorial waters of our country" and that electronic equipment had been found aboard.
• On the 17th anniversary of its formation as a state of India, the Mysore State was given its current name, the state of Karnataka. The union territory of The Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands, also observing its 17th anniversary, was renamed Lakshadweep.
• Waterloo Lutheran University, located in Waterloo, Ontario in Canada, was renamed Wilfrid Laurier University in honor of the late Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who had been Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The name change had been approved by the Waterloo Lutheran board of governors on June 12, 1973. and formally announced a month later
• Born: Li Xiaoshuang, Chinese gymnast and Olympic gold medalist in 1992 and 1996; in Xiantao, Hubei province
• Died: Ida Silverman, 91, Russian-born Jewish American philanthropist

  [November 2], 1973 (Friday)

• The United Nations General Assembly voted, 93 to 7, to recognize the independence of Guinea-Bissau, the former colony of Portuguese Guinea, which had made a unilateral declaration in September.
• The IMCO Conference for Marine Pollution, attended by 665 delegates from 79 countries, ended in London with the adoption of the MARPOL convention.
• Moscow police foiled the hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 19 after four armed men took control of the Yak-40 shuttle jet as it was approaching the city of Bryansk on a flight from Moscow. The hijackers diverted the airplane back to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport and held the 24 passengers and three crew hostage, demanding to be flown to Sweden and to be paid 1.5 million dollars in U.S. currency. Under the direction of KGB Director Yuri Andropov and Internal Affairs Minister Nikolai Shchelokov, a four-member police team stormed the aircraft. Two hijackers were killed, but the passengers and crew were rescued.
• Six of the 16 people aboard a Colombian airliner were killed in the crash of a La Urraca Airlines flight as it made an emergency landing at Villavicencio.

  [November 3], 1973 (Saturday)

• At 12:45.
• A passenger on National Airlines Flight 27 was blown out of the window of an airplane at an altitude of over the U.S. state of New Mexico, after the number 3 engine on the Douglas DC-10-10, exploded and fragments penetrated the fuselage. The jet had been en route from Houston to Las Vegas when the accident happened at 4:40 in the afternoon, and made a safe emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to the subsequent NTSB investigation, the cockpit voice recorder showed that the engine explosion happened immediately after the first officer asked the captain "Wonder— wonder if you pull the N1 tach will that— autothrottle respond to N1?" and the captain replied, "Gee, I don't know." The first officer then said "You want to try it and see?" Thirty-four seconds later, the explosion happened. An extensive search was unable to locate the passenger, machinist George F. Gardner of Beaumont, Texas, who had been sitting by the window in seat 17F.
• The crash of a Greyhound bus in Sacramento, California killed 13 people, including the driver, and injured the other 31 people on board after striking a bridge support at a speed of. The bus had been chartered by the "Variety Swingers", all residents of Richmond, California, and was returning from a day of gambling in Reno, Nevada.
• Arnold Taylor of South Africa won the World Boxing Association bantamweight championship in Johannesburg by knocking out titleholder Romeo Anaya of Mexico in the 14th round.
• Born:
• *Ben Fogle, British adventurer and TV presenter; in London, the son of actress Julia Foster.
• *Ana Milán, Spanish journalist and TV presenter; in Alicante

  [November 4], 1973 (Sunday)

• The first "no driving Sunday" went into effect in the Netherlands as part of the Western European nation's attempt to conserve fuel during the Arab oil embargo. The only exceptions were emergency vehicles, taxis, public buses and motor vehicles with foreign license plates.
• The Gigantinho sports arena was opened in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• Died: Dr. Haim G. Ginott, 51, Israeli-American child psychologist, newspaper columnist and author, died after a long illness.

  [November 5], 1973 (Monday)

• United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger began his "shuttle diplomacy" initiative between Tel Aviv, Cairo and Damascus to negotiate a Middle East peace treaty. to facilitate the cessation of hostilities following the Yom Kippur War.
• San Francisco's first subway, the Bay Area Rapid Transit service through a tunnel beneath San Francisco Bay, began with a train traveling between San Francisco and Daly City.
• At least 13 people were killed in a train crash, in Guntershausen, West Germany, near Kassel, after their passenger car was struck from behind by an express train.
• Born: Johnny Damon, American baseball player; in Fort Riley, Kansas
• Died: Alfred Romer, 79, American paleontologist

  [November 6], 1973 (Tuesday)

• In Oakland, California, the assassination of school superintendent Marcus Foster was carried out by three members of a U.S. terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army. Foster, who was shot multiple times, was the first African-American superintendent of schools for a major U.S. city. The white Deputy Superintendent, Robert W. Blackburn, was seriously wounded in the same attack. Two days later, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the SLA, claiming responsibility for the shooting and declaring that Foster was "guilty of crimes against children and the lives of the people."
• Pioneer 10, launched from Earth on March 2, 1972, began returning its first photographs of the planet Jupiter, starting from 16 million miles. It would make its closest approach to the solar system's largest planet on December 3.
• The Israeli Defense Forces revealed that the death toll from the recent Yom Kippur War had been far higher than expected, with 1,854 dead and nearly one out of every 400 residents of the Middle Eastern nation killed or wounded. In contrast, Syria had one out of every 884 citizens as casualties, and Egypt had one of every 4,550.
• U.S. financier Robert L. Vesco, who had fled to the Bahamas after being investigated for embezzlement in making a donation to President Nixon's re-election campaign, was arrested in Nassau on a U.S. federal extradition warrant.
• The Liberian supertanker SS Golar Patricia exploded and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, but 44 of the 45 people on board were rescued by the Spanish liner MV Cabo San Vicente.
• Died: George Biddle, 88, American mural painter

  [November 7], 1973 (Wednesday)

• Both Houses of the U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly to override President Richard Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, and passed into law. The vote was 284 to 135 in the House of Representatives and 75 to 18 in the U.S. Senate.
• Near Lodi, California, at the U.S. community of Victor, serial killers Willie Steelman and Douglas Gretzler murdered nine people in one household, the home of Walter and Joanne Parkin. The homicides followed eight other killings that had taken place in the preceding three weeks. After having killed 17 people starting on October 18, Steelman and Gretzler were arrested the day after the Parkin household massacre, after having committed the first of 17 murders over a 22-day period.

  [November 8], 1973 (Thursday)

• The Second Cod War between the United Kingdom and Iceland was ended by agreement between the Prime Ministers of the two nations.
• Millennium '73, a three-day festival hosted by the 15-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and his Divine Right Mission, drew 20,000 of his devotees to the Astrodome in Houston. The Guru called the festival "the most significant event in human history" and promised to launch 1,000 years of world peace.
• The British government made £146 million compensation available to three nationalized industries to cover losses resulting from its price restraint policies.
• The animated musical Robin Hood was released by Walt Disney Productions, with the characters re-imagined as anthropomorphic animals.
• Died: Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel, 75, Turkish novelist and poet

  [November 9], 1973 (Friday)

• The government-owned Philippine National Oil Company was founded.
• Musician Billy Joel released the album that would make him a star, Piano Man. The album was his second, after the poor-selling Cold Spring Harbor.
• Born:
• *Nick Lachey, American singer for the band 98 Degrees and TV personality; in Harlan, Kentucky
• *Alyson Court, Canadian voice actress; in Toronto
• Died: Pradyumansinhji Lakhajirajsinhji, 60, the Thakore Saheb 60, India's princely state of Rajkot from 1940 until the abolition of the title in 1971, as well as a first-class cricketer.

  [November 10], 1973 (Saturday)

• The first act of arson by the future founders of the Animal Liberation Front was committed by Ronnie Lee and Cliff Goodman in the "new city" of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire in England. Lee and Goodman set fire to an unfinished building that the West German pharmaceutical company Hoechst AG was constructing for research using laboratory animals.
• The captors of J. Paul Getty III, who had been kidnapped on July 9, confirmed that the abduction was not a hoax and that they had Getty as their hostage, cutting off his ear and mailing it to the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero along with a ransom demand.
• A transit of Mercury took place for the first time since May 9, 1970, as the planet Mercury crossed in front of the Sun.
• Born:
• *Haroon Yousaf, Pakistani footballer and national team captain with 53 appearances for Pakistan in soccer football competition; in Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab province
• *Ganesh Hegde, Indian film choreographer; in Bombay
• *Dawn Shadforth, British music video director; in Billericay, Essex
• Died:
• *David "Stringbean" Akeman, 57, U.S. country musician was shot along with his wife dead by intruders at their home in Ridgetop, Tennessee near Nashville. Akeman had performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville earlier in the evening and left around 10:30, apparently surprising burglars who had come to the house while Akeman was in concert.
• *Joe Petrali, 69, American motorcycle racing champion with 49 wins; holder of the world motorcycle speed record from 1937 to 1948
• *Rosemary Theby, 81, American film actress