December 1973

[December 1], 1973 (Saturday)

• Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia as a forerunner to independence.
• Died: David Ben-Gurion, 87, Polish-born Zionist leader and first Prime Minister of Israel

  [December 2], 1973 (Sunday)

• Born: Monica Seles, tennis player, in Novi Sad, Serbia

  [December 3], 1973 (Monday)

• Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

  [December 4], 1973 (Tuesday)

• John De Camp House, Cockroach Key and Hiram Ramsdell House are among properties added to the US National Register of Historic Places.
• Died: Michael O'Shea, 67, American film and television actor and husband of Virginia Mayo

  [December 5], 1973 (Wednesday)

• A general election is held in Zambia. The United National Independence Party is the sole contestant and its candidate Kenneth Kaunda is re-elected as President with 88.8% of the vote, whilst UNIP wins all 125 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout is 39% of the 1,746,107 registered voters for the presidential election, and 33% for the National Assembly election.
• In the UK, the oil crisis causes the speed limit on motorways to be reduced to 50 mph from 70 mph until further notice.

  [December 6], 1973 (Thursday)

• The United States House of Representatives votes 387–35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States; he is sworn in the same day.

  [December 7], 1973 (Friday)

• Canada sells its first CANDU Reactor to South Korea
• Born: Damien Rice, singer-songwriter, in Kildare, Ireland.

  [December 8], 1973 (Saturday)

• Australia holds a referendum on the subject of prices and incomes.

  [December 9], 1973 (Sunday)

• The Sunningdale Agreement is signed in Sunningdale, Berkshire by Prime Minister Edward Heath, Irish premier Liam Cosgrave, and representatives of the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.

  [December 10], 1973 (Monday)

• A partial lunar eclipse takes place.

  [December 11], 1973 (Tuesday)

• The Treaty of Prague is signed by the Federal Republic of Germany and Czechoslovakia, in which the two States recognize each other diplomatically and declare the 1938 Munich Agreements to be null and void, acknowledging the inviolability of their common borders and abandoning all territorial claims.
• President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and his wife pay a state visit to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

  [December 12], 1973 (Wednesday)

• The city of San Diego, California files an antitrust lawsuit against the National League claiming there was a conspiracy to move the San Diego Padres baseball team from San Diego to Washington D.C..

  [December 13], 1973 (Thursday)

• Kosmos 615, a satellite intended as a radar target for anti-ballistic missile tests, is successfully launched by the Soviet Union as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme.
• The French fishing vessel Kergall of Guilvinec drags her anchor whilst sheltering from a southerly gale and goes ashore at Chyandour, 100m west of Penzance railway station, Cornwall, UK.

  [December 14], 1973 (Friday)

• Born: Thuy Trang, Vietnamese actress, in Saigon

  [December 15], 1973 (Saturday)

• Gay rights: The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its DSM-II.

  [December 16], 1973 (Sunday)

• O. J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills became the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a pro football season.

  [December 17], 1973 (Monday)

• Palestinian terrorists attack the terminal building at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, with automatic firearms and grenades, killing two people. They then throw grenades through the open doors of the Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321B Clipper Celestial, operating as Flight 110 with 177 people on board, which is preparing to taxi for departure; 30 people aboard the plane die and 20 are injured. Five other gunmen storm a Lufthansa Boeing 737, bringing aboard 10 hostages and also taking hostage the crew of four.
• Born: Rian Johnson, American filmmaker, in Silver Spring, Maryland; Paula Radcliffe, English athlete, in Davenham, Cheshire

  [December 18], 1973 (Tuesday)

• After 16 hours on the ground, during which time they murder one hostage and injure another, Palestinian terrorists who attacked Rome airport the previous day dump the injured hostage and the body of the murdered one off the Lufthansa plane and order it to fly to Athens, Greece; the plane spends another 16 hours on the ground in Athens before proceeding to a landing at Damascus, Syria. Finally, the 737 flies to Kuwait, where the five hijackers release the 12 remaining hostages and are allowed to leave the plane. Over a year later, the hijackers are eventually placed in the custody of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which has promised to put them on trial for carrying out an "unauthorized operation"; their subsequent fate is unknown.
• Islamic Development Bank created as a specialized agency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference .

  [December 19], 1973 (Wednesday)

• The Oriental Monarch, a Liberian-registered cargo ship, founders off Victoria, British Columbia, with the loss of all 40 crew.

  [December 20], 1973 (Thursday)

• Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated in Madrid by the terrorist organization ETA.
• Thirteen Harness racing drivers are arrested for allegedly conspiring to fix Superfecta races at Roosevelt and Yonkers Raceways in New York.
• Died: Bobby Darin, 37, American singer

  [December 21], 1973 (Friday)

• The Geneva Conference opens under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General, in an attempt to negotiate a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
• Died: James Stirratt Topping Kennedy, GC, 42, security guard for British Rail Engineering Limited, killed while trying to prevent a payroll robbery

  [December 22], 1973 (Saturday)

• Died: Irna Phillips, 72, American actress and writer

  [December 23], 1973 (Sunday)

• OPEC doubles the price of crude oil.
• The Argentine aircraft Aero Boero 260AG makes its first flight.

  [December 24], 1973 (Monday)

• Mohammad Mohammadullah becomes Acting President of Bangladesh.
• An annular solar eclipse occurs.
• Born: Stephenie Meyer, American novelist known for the Twilight series, in Hartford, Connecticut

  [December 25], 1973 (Tuesday)

• The US bulk carrier Elwood Mead runs aground on her maiden voyage, off Guernsey in the Channel Islands. She remains aground for 61 days until refloated on 24 February 1974.
• Died: İsmet İnönü, 89, Turkish Army General, former Prime Minister and President of Turkey; Gabriel Voisin, 93, French aviation pioneer

  [December 26], 1973 (Wednesday)

• The 1974 Australian Open tennis tournament starts at the Kooyong Stadium in Melbourne.
• Died: Harold B. Lee, 74, US religious leader, 11th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• The controversial film The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin and starring Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair, receives its premiere in the United States.

  [December 27], 1973 (Thursday)

• 21-year-old British student Lucy Partington, a cousin of novelist Martin Amis, is abducted by serial killers Fred and Rosemary West. She becomes one of their victims soon afterwards, but her fate is not discovered until her remains are found in 1994.

  [December 28], 1973 (Friday)

• The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.

  [December 29], 1973 (Saturday)

• Died: Cécile Cerf, 57, French Resistance fighter and humanitarian worker

  [December 30], 1973 (Sunday)

• Terrorist Carlos fails in his attempt to assassinate British businessman Joseph Sieff. Despite being shot in the face at point blank range, Sieff survived his injuries.

  [December 31], 1973 (Monday)

• Legislative elections take place in Israel, returning Golda Meir's Alignment party to power.
• In the United Kingdom, as a result of coal shortages caused by industrial action, the Three-Day Week electricity consumption reduction measure comes into force.
• AC/DC perform their first major gig in Sydney, Australia.