October 1970

October 1, 1970 (Thursday)

• An estimated five million mourners, more than one-eighth of the population of Egypt, flooded the streets of Cairo in order to witness the long funeral procession for President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had died suddenly on Monday from a heart attack.
• Born: Moses Kiptanui, Kenyan long distance runner, world champion in 3000m steeplechase 1991, 1993 and 1995; in Marakwet District
• Died: Petar Konjović, 87, Serbian Yugoslavian classical music composer

  October 2, 1970 (Friday)

• The crash of a chartered airplane in the Rocky Mountains killed 32 of the 40 people on board, including 14 members of the Wichita State University football team and head coach Ben Wilson. The group had been traveling to play against Utah State University in a game scheduled for the following afternoon. Two Martin 4-0-4 airplanes, designated as N464M and N470M had been chartered from Golden Eagle Aviation from Wichita, Kansas to Logan, Utah, with an intermediate stop at Denver. While the N470M plane safely flew from Denver to Logan according to the flight plan filed with the FAA, the crew of N464M informed its passengers that they would be flown along a "scenic route" through the Rocky Mountains. Flying at an altitude of, N464M was unable to clear the high Mount Trelease near Silver Plume, Colorado. Two of the three crew and 30 of the 37 passengers were killed. The final investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the cause of the crash was "The intentional operation of the aircraft over a mountain valley route at an altitude from which the aircraft could neither climb over the obstructing terrain ahead, nor execute a successful course reversal." Despite the loss of their starters, the remaining Wichita State players would vote, 17–16, to play the last six scheduled games of the season with assistant Bob Seaman as the new coach
• All 38 passengers and five crew aboard a United States Air Force Lockheed C-130 transport were killed when the plane crashed into the side of the high Chin Tien mountain shortly after departing Taipei en route to Ching Chuan Kang AFB in Taichung.
• Pink Floyd released Atom Heart Mother, which would become their first number one album.
• Born: Kelly Ripa, American talk show host of Live! with Regis and Kelly, later Live with Kelly and Ryan; in Berlin, New Jersey]
• Died: Lauro Gazzolo, 69, Italian comedian and character actor on film, known also for dubbing voices for American films released in Italy

  October 3, 1970 (Saturday)

• In Lebanon, the government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigned following the August 17 election of Suleiman Franjieh as the nation's new president. Reportedly, the expected change in government had been delayed by the Jordanian civil war and then by the death of Egypt's President Nasser.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began operations as the successor to the Environmental Science Services Administration, as the National Environmental Policy Act went into effect
• The United States Weather Bureau was renamed as the National Weather Service, and made a division of NOAA.
• Pope Paul VI named Saint Catherine of Siena as the second female Doctor of the Church.

  October 4, 1970 (Sunday)

• American singer Janis Joplin died at age 27, from an overdose of drugs. Her body was found in room 105 at the Landmark Motel in Hollywood, California. Her manager, John Cooke, had become alarmed after he hadn't seen her during the day.
• Almost a month after his September 5 death in a racing accident in Italy, Jochen Rindt won the title of Formula One World Driving Champion, based on five first-place finishes in races before his accident. Rindt was the first champion to earn the honor posthumously. Going into the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, New York, Jacky Ickx, was the only racer left who could still beat Rindt's 45 points, but it would require Ickx to finish in first place in both the U.S. race and the Mexican Grand Prix. Halfway through the U.S. race, Ickx was forced to make a pit stop to replace "a 99-cent fuel line" that had split, costing him enough time that he finished in fourth place, good for only 3 points
• In Bolivia, General Rogelio Miranda and a group of fellow Bolivian Army officers began a revolt, demanding the resignation of President Alfredo Ovando Candía. President Ovando then fired Miranda and the rebel officers.
• National Educational Television ended operations, and was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service.
• Born: Zdravko Zdravkov, Bulgarian soccer football goalkeeper for Bulgarian national team from 1996 to 2005; in Sofia
• Died: Curtis Turner, 46, American NASCAR driver, was killed along with professional golfer Clarence "Rube" King when their twin-engine aircraft crashed in western Pennsylvania

  October 5, 1970 (Monday)

• The Front de libération du Québec kidnapped British diplomat James "Jasper" Cross in Montreal and demanded the release of 23 imprisoned FLQ members, beginning Quebec's October Crisis. The Canadian government rejected the demand the next day. The Canadian government would successfully negotiate Cross's release on December 3, in return for allowing the FLQ members to be flown to Cuba without being prosecuted criminally.
• The Public Broadcasting Service began broadcasting as a successor to National Educational Television, on NET stations in the United States. Promising new original programming to supplement existing NET favorites like Sesame Street and The French Chef, PBS introduced U.S. television viewers to the BBC's 13-part documentary series Civilisation. A press release noted that PBS "no longer burdened by the name National Educational Television, opens its new season this Monday with fond hopes of living up to its billing as the 'fourth network.' By whatever name it is known, non-commercial television seeks to offer the viewer a difference this fall. And nothing exemplifies the difference quite like 'Civilisation,' as the English spell it..."
• Born:
• *Elie Mechantaf, Lebanese professional basketball player, in Beirut
• *Hiromitsu Kanehara, Japanese mixed martial artist; in Owariasahi, Aichi

  October 6, 1970 (Tuesday)

• Bolivian President Alfredo Ovando Candía resigned two days after the revolt of Bolivian Army troops. Ovando's departure began a brief civil war between rebel forces, who claimed control of Bolivia's second largest city, Cochabamba, and those loyal to the government. General Rogelio Miranda, who started the uprising, appointed a three-man junta to govern the South American nation, while the government named Juan José Torres as the new president.
• A year and a day after the Weather Underground had used a bomb to severely damage the Chicago monument to the Haymarket bombing, the anarchist group bombed the repaired statue again.
• Born:
• *Amy Jo Johnson, American Canadian actress; in Hyannis, Massachusetts
• *Nargiz Zakirova, Uzbek-American singer and three-time Golden Gramophone Award winner; in Tashkent

  October 7, 1970 (Wednesday)

• In a nationwide address, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced a five-point proposal for a truce to halt the Vietnam War, with all sides to begin a ceasefire and the release of all prisoners of war, in exchange for broader negotiations in the Paris Peace Talks The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations to the Paris talks both denounced Nixon's proposal the next day as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion," but stopped short of rejecting it entirely.
• General Juan José Torres, a leftist officer of the military, took office as the new President of Bolivia "with a show of strength that toppled his rightist opponents", bringing an end to the two-day civil war. The only known casualties of the rebellion were ten leftist demonstrators who were shot by military officers in the mining town of Oruro.

  October 8, 1970 (Thursday)

• The first million dollar lottery prize in the U.S. was awarded to a family in West Hempstead, New York after George Ashton had been given a ticket as a present by his sister-in-law. The New York State Lottery had conducted a summer lottery, selling 5,500,000 tickets at three dollars apiece, with 14 tickets eligible for the grand prize, and the other 13 receiving prizes ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Since three-fourths of the million dollar jackpot would have been taken by state and federal taxes, the Ashtons arranged for a payout of $50,000 per year for 20 years, amounting to $20,000 per annum after taxes.
• Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, but would not be allowed to leave the Soviet Union in order to accept the award. The Union of Soviet Writers, which had expelled Solzhenitsyn in 1968, said in a statement in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia that "it is deplorable that the Nobel committee allowed itself to be drawn into an unseemly game... prompted by speculative political considerations."
• Born:
• *Matt Damon, American film actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter; in Los Angeles
• *Sadiq Khan, British politician and the first Muslim Mayor of London; in Tooting district, South London
• Died: Mitr Chaibancha, 36, Thai action film star who appeared in 266 films in a 14-year career, was killed during the filming of the movie Golden Eagle when he fell from a helicopter.

  October 9, 1970 (Friday)

• The Khmer Republic was proclaimed in Cambodia, four days after the southeast Asian nation's parliament voted unanimously to abolish the 1,168 year old monarchy Government authorities had been working on the eventual transition ever since March 18, when Prince Norodom Sihanouk was deposed. Prime Minister Lon Nol was inaugurated as the republic's first president.
• Born: Annika Sörenstam, Swedish professional golfer and multiple winner of Women's PGA championship and U.S. Women's Open, 2003 Women's British open winner, multiple LPGA player of the year; in Bro, Stockholm.