The Way We Were
The Way We Are

The Music and News of Our Senior Year

This was our Senior year - and what a year it was!! Now, we're pushing 50, Paul McCartney is 64, and our parents are spoiling our kids. In fact, many of us are spoiling our children's kids!!! Others are hosting their own kid's graduation party - hope your kids are smarter than we were at our party.

Week of June 19, 1975

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Jun 20, The Steven Spielberg shark thriller "Jaws" was first released.

Week of June 12, 1975 - We must be graduates by now! Anyone know the date of our graduation? Let me know.

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Jun 16, The cartoon “Travels With Farley” by Phil Frank launched in 50 newspapers.
Jun 16, Supreme Court ruled that uniform minimum legal fees are a violation.
Jun 18, Faisal Ibn Mussed Abdul Aziz, Saudi prince, was beheaded in a Riyadh shopping center parking lot for killing his uncle the king.

Week of June 5, 1975

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Jun 5, Gov. Jerry Brown of California announced the new Agricultural Labor Relations Act. It was a temporary truce in the struggle between the state’s  farm workers (UFW) led by Cesar Chavez and farmers. Chavez officially ended the table grape, lettuce and wine boycott Jan 31, 1978.
Jun 5, British population agreed to European Common Market membership.
Jun 5, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.
Jun 10, Rockefeller panel reported on 300,000 illegal CIA files on Americans.

Week of May 29, 1975

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May 30, Steve Prefontaine, long distance runner, flipped his gold MG and died at age 24. Tests revealed that he was legally drunk. In 1997 two films based on his life were released.
June 1, On his 28th birthday, Ron Wood replaced Mick Taylor as the Rolling Stones' lead guitarist.
June 1, The Rolling Stones began their "Tour of the Americas" in Baton Rouge, LA with new member Ron Wood. Other cities they played in included, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, Memphis, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Jacksonville.
Jun 2, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller said his commission had found no widespread pattern of illegal activities at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Jun 3, Ozzie Nelson (69), actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet), died.
Jun 4, Oldest animal fossils in US were discovered in NC.

Week of May 22, 1975

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May 23, Jackie "Moms" Mabley (81), comedienne, died.
May 29, Melanie Janine Brown "Scary Spice", vocalist (Spice Girls), was born in Leeds.

Week of May 15, 1975

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May 15, Merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. Some 200 Marines stormed the island of Koh Tang to rescue the crew, but the crew had been moved. The Marines fought all day against the Khmer Rouge and escaped by helicopter in the evening. Three comrades were left behind and later died under the Khmer Rouge. The crew was freed about the same time that the Marine assault began.
May 16, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
May 17, NBC paid $5 million for rights to show "Gone with the Wind" one time.
May 18, Leroy Anderson (66), composer, died.
May 21, The trial against the Baader-Meinhof gang  began in Stuttgart.

Week of May 8, 1975

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May 11, The Cambodian government seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, with 39 crew members in international waters. Pres. Gerald Ford sent a company of Marines to rescue the ship.
May 13,  In hockey Flyers 4-Isles 1-Semifinals-Flyers won semifinals 4-3.
May 13,  Hail stones as large as tennis balls hit Wernerville, Tenn.
May 14, U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia, but some 40 U.S. servicemen were killed and 50 wounded in the military operation.

Week of May 1, 1975

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May 1, The US brokerage industry, acting on a mandate by the SEC, deregulated commissions.
May 1, United Aircraft became United Technologies Corp.
May 3, Gov. Jerry Brown of California began a round of private meetings to resolve the issues between the UFW, agribusiness, and the Teamsters Union.
May 5, A Pulitzer prize awarded to Michael Shaara (Killer Angels).
May 6, Bundy victim Lynette Culver disappeared from Pocatello, Idaho.
May 7, President Ford formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era."
May 7, The Viet Cong staged a rally to celebrate the takeover of Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon.

Week of April 24, 1975

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Apr 25, 1st Boeing Jetfoil revenue service began between Hong Kong and Macao.
Apr 25, In Vietnam former Foreign Minister Vu Van Mau (d.1998 at 84) was named prime minister.
Apr 27, Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.
Apr 28, Gen. Duong Van Minh was named the interim President of South Vietnam and promised to seek reconciliation with North Vietnam.
Apr 29, U.S. Forces pulled out of Vietnam. The U.S. embassy was evacuated by helicopter as North Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon.
Apr 29, William Craig Nystul, USMC Capt., became one of the last US soldiers to be killed in Vietnam.
Apr 30, The city of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front forces. The last American forces evacuated Saigon as South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally to the Communist North Vietnamese. North Vietnamese troops entered the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon and the Vietnam war was over. Graham Martin, the US ambassador to South Vietnam, made a hasty departure. The city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City and Nguyen Huu Tho was the first mayor. The war left 58,200 Americans dead, 153,300 wounded, and 2,124 missing in action. The Communists listed 1 million dead, 300,000 missing and 2 million dead civilians. President Gerald Ford, closing a chapter in United States history, called upon Americans "to avoid recriminations about the past, to look ahead to the many goals we share."
Apr ?, Hanna Krabbe, a German Red Army faction guerrilla, took part in an attack on the German embassy in Stockholm in which two German diplomats died. She was arrested and sentenced to 21 years confinement.

Week of April 17, 1975

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April 17, The US-backed Lon Nol government of Cambodia surrendered to the Khmer Rouge. The nominal leader of the Khmer Rouge was Khieu Samphan. Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodia), occupied the capital Phnom Penh ending Cambodia's five-year war, and began the brutal regime that resulted in the death of one to three million people. Agrarian communism was forced on the people and purges extended from the leadership down to the masses. The country was renamed Democratic Kampuchea.
Apr 19, India announced it had launched its 1st satellite, from the Soviet Union atop a Soviet rocket.
Apr 21, Members of the SLA robbed the Carmichael Bank in suburban Sacramento, Ca. Myrna Opsahl (42), a mother  of four, was shot dead. Patty Hearst drove the getaway car. Emily Harris shot Opsahl with a 12-gauge shotgun. 4 SLA members were arrested for the murder of Opsahl in 2002. Michael Bortin, William Harris, Sara Jane Olson and Emily Montague all pleaded guilty. Fugitive James Kilgore was arrested in South Africa Nov 8, 2002. In 2003 Montague was sentenced to 8 years, Harris to 7 years, Olson and Bortin to 6 years. In 2004 Kilgore was sentenced to 4 ½ years.
Apr 21, Nguyen Van Thieu, the last South Vietnamese President, resigned after 10 years in office condemning the United States. Thieu resigned and was succeeded by Vice President Tran Van Huong. With the collapse of the Saigon regime imminent, Thieu addressed his nation on April 21, accused the U.S. of breaking its promises of support and military aid, and then resigned.  Huong took control but at the National Assembly meeting on April 27, he named General Duong Van Minh to become president and end the war. On April 30, President Minh announced the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam.

Week of April 10, 1975

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Apr 13, In Lebanon the right-wing Christian Falange opened fire on a bus packed with Palestinians in a low-income neighborhood after a drive-by attack earlier in the day on a nearby church. The attacks killed 27 Palestinians and three Lebanese Christians. The ambush sparked a civil war that lasted until 1990.
Apr 15, Karen Ann Quinlan went into a coma after drinking several gin-and-tonics on top of a mild tranquilizer. She lived in a coma for more tha 10 more years. The New Jersey Supreme Court allowed the removal of the respirator that assisted her in 1976.
Apr 15, Richard Conte (65), actor (Four Just Men, Jean Arthur Show), died.
Apr 16, Cambodian Khmer Rouge occupied Phnom Penh.

Week of April 3, 1975

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Apr 3, Bobby Fischer was stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend.
Apr 3, Mary Ure (42), actress (Sons & Lovers, Where Eagles Dare), died.
Apr 4, The first group of boat people from Vietnam began arriving in Malaysia. More than 1 million people fled from the close of the war to the early 1980s.
Apr 4, More than 200 people, many of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force C-5A transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans as part of "Operation Babylift" crashed shortly after takeoff from Saigon.144 adults and 76 babies were killed. There were more than 170 survivors. (Oddly enough, an Air Force C-5 crashed this week (April 3, 2006) in Delaware)
Apr 5, Chiang Kai-shek (87), Chinese statesman and president of the Republic (1943-1950) and President of the Republic of China, Taiwan (1950-1975), died at age 87. Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong Mayling) moved to New York following her husband's death.
Apr 6, Bundy victim Denise Oliverson disappeared from Grand Junction, Colo.
Apr 8, In the 47th Academy Awards "Godfather II," Ellen Burstyn and Art Carney won.
Apr 8, Frank Robinson, major-league baseball's first black manager, got off to a winning start as his team, the Cleveland Indians, defeated the New York Yankees, 5-3.

Week of March 27, 1975

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Mar., Sylvester Stallone wrote "Rocky" and insisted on playing the lead role when he sold the script. The sixth Rocky film is now in production.
Mar 27, The 1st pipe of the Alaska oil pipeline was laid at Tonsina River.
Mar 27, In Laos, Communist Pathet Lao launched an attack against Hmong defenders.
Mar 29, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declared that he would reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975.
Mar 30, As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mobbed rescue jets.

Week of March 20, 1975

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Mar 21, As North Vietnamese forces advanced, Hue and other northern towns in South Vietnam were evacuated.
Mar 25, Hue was lost and Da Nang was endangered. The U.S. ordered a refugee airlift to remove those in danger.
Mar 25, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. The nephew was beheaded the following June.
Mar 26, The rock opera "Tommy" premiered in London.
Mar 26, Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz (68), king of Saudi-Arabia (1964-75), was murdered.

Week of March 13, 1975

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Mar 15, Ted Bundy victim Julie Cunningham disappeared from Vail, Colo.
Mar 15, Aristotle Onassis (69) Greek shipping magnate died near Paris.
Mar 16, Mariner 10 flew past Mercury a third time.
Mar 17, In the Dominican Republic, Journalist Orlando Martinez Howley, editor of the opposition magazine Ahora and columnist for El Nacional, was slain. In 1997 police arrested retired General Salvador Lluberes Montes, former chief of the armed forces, in connection with the slayings. In 2000 retired General Joaquin Pou Castro, gunman Rafael Lluberes Ricart, former air force officer Mariano Cabrera Duran and Luis Emilio de la Rosa Beras were sentenced to 30 years in prison each for their role in the murder.
Mar 18, Kurds ended a fight against Iraqi army. (And that worked out really well)
Mar 18, South Vietnam abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.

Week of March 6, 1975

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Top National News Headlines - This week proving the old adage - "There is no new news, just new names"
Mar 6, Iran and Iraq announced that they had settled the border dispute.
Mar 7, The Senate revised its filibuster rule "cloture vote," allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds (67) of senators present.
Mar 9, Iraq launched an offensive against the rebellious Kurds.
Mar 10, "Rocky Horror Picture Show" opened at Belasco Theater in NYC for 4 performances.
Mar 10, The North Vietnamese Army attacked the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout, the offensive will end with victory in Vietnam.
Mar 10, Dog spectacles were patented in England.

Week of February 27, 1975

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Feb 28, A London subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel and 41 people were killed.
Mar 1, 17th Grammy Awards: I Honestly Love You (Olivia Newton-John), Marvin Hamlisch won.
Mar 1, Eagles' "Best of My Love" reached #1.
Mar 3, "Goodtime Charley" opened at Palace Theater in NYC for 104 performances.
Mar 3, Linda McCartney was charged in US with possession of marijuana.
Mar 4, Queen Elizabeth knighted Charlie Chaplin.

Week of February 20, 1975

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Feb 21, Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.
Feb 26, "Night... Made America Famous" opened at Barrymore in NYC for 75 performances.
Feb 26, The 1st televised kidney transplant was shown on the Today Show.

Week of February 13, 1975

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 Feb 14, Julian S. Huxley (87), English scholar and director-general of UNESCO died.
Feb 17, Art by Cezanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and van Gogh, valued at $5 million, was stolen from the Municipal Museum in Milan.
Feb 18, Italy broadened its abortion law.

Week of February 6, 1975

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Feb 6, President Gerald Ford asked Congress for $497 million in aid to Cambodia.
Feb 8, 1800 Unification church couples were wed in Korea.
Feb 8, Martyn Green (75), actor (Gilbert & Sullivan, Mikado), died.
Feb 11, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Tory Party, the first woman to lead the British Conservative Party in England. She later became Prime Minister and held office from 1979-1990. Her second volume of memoirs is titled The Path to Power, (Harper-Collins, 1995) and documents her rise to power.

Week of January 30, 1975

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Jan 31, Barry Manilow's "Mandy" went gold.
Jan, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $2.10 an hour.
Jan, In Greece Col. Papadopoulos (d.1999 at 80) was charged with insurrection and high treason. He refused to testify, "let history judge my action," and was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died in 1999 at the age of 80.

Week of January 23, 1975

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Jan. 23, "Barney Miller" premiered on ABC. It was a sitcom based on a NYC police precinct. In 1973, Danny Arnold had an idea for a television series about a Jewish patrolman. His partner Ted Flicker wanted to do a sitcom about a detective in Los Angeles. They put the ideas together, and came up with the Barney Miller show. A spin-off called "Fish" was created in 1977 based on detective Phil Fish played by Abe Vigoda.

Jan. 27, Senate investigation of FBI and CIA activities began. On November 20 the committee released its report, charging both US government agencies with illegal activities.

Week of January 16, 1975

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Jan 16, The Irish Republican Army called an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.
Jan 17, The cease-fire in Northern Ireland ended.
Jan 19, Thomas Hart Benton (85), US artist, died in Kansas City, Missouri.

Week of January 9, 1975

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Guess it was a slow news week! There were no headlines for this week.

Week of January 2, 1975

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1          Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds                      Elton John
2          When Will I See You Again                              Three Degrees
3          Laughter In The Rain                                        Neil Sedaka
4          Kung Fu Fighting                                              Carl Douglas
5          Cats In The Cradle                                           Harry Chapin
6          I Can Help                                                       Billy Swan
7          Please Mr. Postman                                         Carpenters
8          Angie Baby                                                      Helen Reddy
9          Junior's Farm                                                    Paul McCartney & Wings
10        You're My First, My Last, My Everything         Barry White
11        Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)                               B.T. Express
12        One Man Woman / One Woman Man              Paul Anka With Odia Coates
13        Lady                                                                Styx
14        You Got The Love                                           Rufus
15        My Melody Of Love                                        Bobby Vinton

Top National News Headlines
Jan 2, US Dept of Interior designated the grizzly bear a threatened species.
Jan 4, Pres. Ford’s Executive Order No. 11828, on CIA Activities within the US, was issued.
Jan 4, Khmer Rouge launched newest assault in five year war in Phnom Penh.
Jan 5, "The Wiz," a musical version of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," opened at the Majestic Theater on Broadway with an all-black cast. It ran for 1672 performances.
Jan 7, "Shenandoah" opened at Alvin Theater, NYC, for 1050 performances.
Jan 7, Hanoi troops took Phuoc Binh in new full-scale offensive.
Jan 8, Judge Sirica ordered the release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison.

Week of December 26, 1974

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Dec 26, Comedian Jack Benny died in Los Angeles at age 80.
Dec 30, Beatles were legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought).
Dec 31, Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
Jan 1, The Watergate verdict was guilty when a jury convicted Richard Nixon's three top advisers on all counts in the Watergate cover up: former attorney general John Mitchell and White House aides Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. "Watergate" became shorthand for the burglary of Democratic Party offices in Washington's Watergate office complex. The burglars were caught and found to have White House connections.

Week of December 19, 1974

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Dec 19, Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States after a House vote.
Dec 19, Former Pres. Nixon's presidential papers were seized by an act of Congress. A court later ruled that much of the material belonged to Nixon and that he deserved compensation.
Dec 20, In Northern Ireland a temporary cease fire was established.
Dec 23, The B-1 bomber made its first successful test flight.
Dec 24, An oil spill polluted 1,600 square miles of scenic Inland Sea in Japan.
Dec 25, The category 4 Cyclone Tracy reduced 90% of Darwin, Australia, to rubble. 65 people died including 49 in the city and 16 at sea.

Week of December 12, 1974

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.Dec 18, In Greece Michalis Stasinopoulos (d.2002), legal scholar, was elected president 10 days following the referendum that abolished the monarchy.

Week of December 5, 1974

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Dec 5, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was last shown on BBC.
Dec 8, The Greek monarchy was rejected by referendum. Constantine Karamanlis organized a referendum that abolished the monarchy.

Week of November 28, 1974

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Nov 28, John Lennon made what would become his last concert appearance at an Elton John concert at New York's Madison Square Garden. Lennon joined Elton John to sing "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", as well as "I Saw Her Standing There". Backstage, Lennon has a brief reunion with Yoko Ono, from whom he'd been separated for over a year. Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980 outside his apartment by Mark David Chapman - just hours after signing an autograph for Chapman, a paranoid schizophrenic.
Nov 29, Haroldson L. Hunt (85), US multi-millionaire, died.
Nov 30, "Good Evening" with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook closed at Plymouth Theater in NYC after 438 performances.
Nov 30, The Eagles hit, "Best of My Love", was released. It did not reach #1 spot until March 1, 1975.
Nov 30, Pioneer II sent photos back to NASA as it neared Jupiter.
Nov 30, India and Pakistan decided to end a 10-year trade ban.
Dec 1, L.A. Skid Row slasher killed 1st of 8 victims.
Dec 2, Lucio Cabanas, leader a communist rebel group called the Party of the Poor, was killed in a shootout with Mexican soldiers. In 2002 his remains were found in a makeshift grave in Atoyac de Alvarez, a city outside a major military base near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

Week of November 21, 1974

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Nov 21, The Freedom of Information Act was passed by Congress over Pres. Ford's veto.
Nov 22, UN General Assembly recognized Palestine's right to sovereignty and national independence.
Nov 22, The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (see Nov. 10) prompts memory of the famous Christmas Tree Ship (Rouse Simmons) sinking in Lake Michigan on this date in 1912. The ship was loaded with more than 5,000 Christmas trees when it got caught in a winter storm and sank off the coast of Two Rivers, Wisconsin while on its annual voyage from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Chicago. Seventeen men were believed to have died in the icy waters. While their bodies were never recovered, a decade after the sinking, the captain's wallet was discovered in a fishing net. The wreck is a popular spot for divers as much of her cargo, without needles, still sits on the decks and in the hold and many people use the needle-less trees from the wreck in their holiday display to this day.
Nov 23, Cornelius Ryan (54), war reporter, historian, author, died. His books included "A Bridge Too Far."
Nov 23, In  Ethiopia 60 government officials were executed.
Nov 25, Irish Republican Army was outlawed in Britain following deaths of 21. IRA bombs in British pubs killed 28 and wounded over 200 in the last 2 months.
Nov 25, Former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant died in New York at age 65.
Nov 27, John Lennon prepares for an appearance at an Elton John concert - what would turn out to be Lennon's final concert performance.

Week of November 14, 1974

Top Hits of the Week

1    You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive
2    The Bitch Is Back - Elton John
3    Jazzman - Carole King
4    Life Is A Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) - Reunion
5    My Melody Of Love - Bobby Vinton
6    I Honestly Love You - Olivia Newton-John
7    Love Me For A Reason - Osmonds
8    Tin Man - America
9    Longfellow Serenade - Neil Diamond
10   Whatever Gets You Through The Night - John Lennon
11   Can't Get Enough - Bad Company
12   Another Saturday Night - Cat Stevens
13   Everlasting Love - Carl Carlton
14   Back Home Again - John Denver
15   Beach Baby - First Class

Top National News Headlines

Nov 16, Walther Meissner (91), German physicist (Meissner Effect), died.
Nov 20, U.S. filed antitrust suit to break up ATT. (Oddly enough, the U.S. recently approved the sale of ATT (Ma Bell), to one of the companies formed in the antitrust breakup (a Baby Bell). It's sure nice to see a family get back together!).

Week of November 7, 1974

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 Nov 7, Richard John Bingham (39), the Seventh Earl of Lucan, disappeared after nanny Sandra Rivett was battered to death in the family's home in London's wealthy Belgravia district.  Lady Lucan escaped with severe head wounds. In 2001 Muriel spark authored "Aiding and Abetting," a novel based on Lucan’s imagined reappearance. In 2003 former policeman Duncan MacLaughlin claimed in the book, "Dead Lucky," that Lucan lived in India under the name Barry Halpin in India from 1975 until his death in 1996.
Nov 8, Charges were dropped against eight Ohio National Guardsmen for their role in the deaths of four anti-war protestors at Kent State University. A federal grand jury had indicted 8 National Guardsmen for the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings.
Nov 8, Debi Kent disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was later identified as another victim of Theodore “Ted” Bundy (1946-1989), the Green River Murderer, who would be officially convicted of killing 36 women and executed on January 24, 1989, in Florida.
Nov 10, The inspiration for Gordon Lightfoot's signature song takes place as the iron oar freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior during a fierce storm (When the Gales of November came slashin'). All 29 aboard were lost and have never been found (And all that remains is the faces and the names Of the wives and the sons and the daughters). The ship, broken in two, sits at the bottom of the lake (The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down to the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'. Superior, they said, never gives up her dead When the gales of November come early!). The cause of the disaster has never been determined (They might have split up or they might have capsized; May have broke deep and took water.) (See a map of documented shipwrecks within about 15 miles of my home near Lake Michigan. Some say you can still see the ghost of one, the Rouse Simmons, in the moonlight with its tattered sails battling the winds and waves. Remnants of its cargo of Christmas trees still wash up on shore now and then. More on that story during the week of November 22.)
Nov 12, South Africa was suspended from UN General Assembly over racial policies.
Nov 13, Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a car crash.
Nov 13, Vittorio de Sica, Italian actor and director (Boccacio 70), died.
Nov 13, Yasser Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly on behalf of Palestine.

Week of October 31, 1974

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Oct 31, Suspected Bundy victim Laura Aime disappeared in Utah.
Oct 31, Charles Dean (23), brother of 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean, was reported to have been captured by Pathet Lao. In 2003 his remains were reported found along with Australian companion Neil Sharman.
Oct 31, The Politburo in North Vietnam decided to launch an invasion of South Vietnam in 1975.
Oct 31, Halloween - Nobody in the class of 1975 is thinking that someday kids would be coming to our home to trick-or-treat at "that old neighbor's house."
Nov 1, Yuko Shimizu, Sanrio designer and creator of Hello Kitty, set Nov. 1 as Hello Kitty’s birthday and her parents as George and Mary White of London.
Nov 5, Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.

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Week of October 24, 1974

Top Hits of the Week

1  Beach Baby - First Class
2  I Honestly Love You - Olivia Newton John
3  The Bitch Is Back - Elton John
4  Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
5  Another Saturday Night - Cat Stevens
6  Nothing From Nothing - Billy Preston
7  Can't Get Enough - Bad Company
8  Stop And Smell The Roses - Mac Davis
9  Love Me For A Reason - Osmonds
10  You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
11  Earache My Eye, Featuring Alice Bowie - Cheech & Chong
12  Clap For The Wolfman - Guess Who
13  Never My Love - Blue Swede
14  Jazzman - Carole King
15  Then Came You - Dionne Warwick & Spinners

Top National News Headlines

Oct 25, The US Air Force fired its 1st ICBM.
Oct 27, Chantal Langlace ran a female world record marathon (2:46:24).
Oct 28, Missionaries Mark Fischer (19) of Milwaukee, Wis., and Gary Darley (20) of Simi Valley, Calif., disappeared in Austin, Texas. Their bodies were never found. Robert Elmer Kleasen, taxidermist, was convicted for their murder and sentenced to death in 1975, but was released after 2 years due to a faulty search warrant. He moved to Britain and in 2001 was convicted again based on DNA evidence, but died in 2003 while awaiting possible extradition.
Oct 29, A US law banned discrimination of sex or marital status in credit application.
Oct 30, The film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was released in Los Angeles. It was narrated by John Larroquette and was first shown in San Francisco. The film was based on the story of Edward Gein, a handyman in Plainfield, Wis., who liked to dig up fresh graves, cut the skin off corpses, wear the skin on his own body and dance in the moonlight. (Gein was also the inspiration for the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Psycho" and "The Silence of the Lambs.") He was picked up in this year and evidence showed that he'd been collecting body parts for years.  He had skulls on bedposts, a human heart in a saucepan (actually, it was in a bag next to the stove), and a lady out in his barn dressed like a deer.
Oct 30, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held their "Rumble In the Jungle" boxing match in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round bout to regain his world heavyweight title, that was taken from him for refusing military service.

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Week of October 17, 1974

Top Hits of the Week

1  I Honestly Love You (3rd Week No. 1) - Olivia Newton-John
2  Beach Baby - First Class
3  Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
4  Nothing From Nothing - Billy Preston
5  The Bitch Is Back - Elton John
6  Another Saturday Night - Cat Stevens
7  Earache My Eye, Featuring Alice Bowie - Cheech & Chong
8  Never My Love - Blue Swede
9  Stop And Smell The Roses - Mac Davis
10  Can't Get Enough - Bad Company
11  Love Me For A Reason - Osmonds
12  Then Came You - Dionne Warwick & Spinners
13  Clap For The Wolfman - Guess Who
14  Who Do You Think You Are - Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods
15  (You're) Having My Baby - Paul Anka

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Oct 17, "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" closed at Playhouse NYC after 1065 performances.
We were part of history: In this week in 1974, the first recorded use of the word "internet" was documented. Contrary to the statements of Al Gore, Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn are credited as being the co-designers of the TCP/IP Internet network protocol. The term "internet" was supposedly first used this week in a paper the two published about TCP - Transmission Control Protocol. This new protocol allowed diverse computer networks to interconnect and communicate with each other. At the time, there were about 25 internet hosts. Today, there are more than 15 million. Timesharing, the concept of linking a large numbers of users to a single computer via remote terminals, was developed at MIT in the late 50s and early 60s. The first public packet-switched network - Telenet - went online in 1974 and some of our class got to experience it. Granite Falls High School offered a computer class out at the tech school, where we hooked up with a computer (at the University of Minnesota?) over a modem line. You used a regular phone, and placed the handset in a box that would send and receive the signals. We worked with punch cards and paper tape. Our final exam was to design a program in Basic language for a weight scale that would tell you your weight and, I think, what your weight should be - or something like that. Now look at us! We also learned another important life lesson from that class. Since it was a three hour class, we had break time and would go to the Tech school's lunchroom. It is there that we all learned to play ping pong the right way!

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Week of October 10, 1974

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Oct 13, Ed Sullivan (72), longtime television, host died in New York City.
Oct 15, Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded to Paul J. Flory for his work on macro molecules.
Oct 15, National Guard mobilized to restore order in Boston school busing.

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Week of October 3, 1974

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Oct 3, Frank Robinson was named major-league baseball's first black manager as he was placed in charge of the Cleveland Indians.
Oct 3, Watergate trial began.
Oct 3, Bundy (d.1989) victim Nancy Wilcox disappeared in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Oct 8, President Gerald Ford's WIN (Whip Inflation Now) program was announced in response to a high inflation rate. Consumer prices rose 12.2 percent in 1974. The WIN program, introduced by Ford to a national television audience, included tax and spending assistance to hard-pressed industries, a five percent tax surcharge, reduced federal spending and tight monetary policies. During 1974 unemployment jumped from 5 percent to more than 7 percent, interest rates climbed to 12 percent, the stock market fell 28 percent, automobile sales collapsed. In 1974 real economic growth was negative 5 percent.
Oct 9, Race riot in Boston due to "busing."
Oct 9, Czech-born German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving about 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, died in Frankfurt, West Germany; at his request, he was buried in Jerusalem. His wife Emilie died in 2001.

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Week of September 26, 1974

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Sep 26, The New York Times published a front page article on the impact of the chlorofluorocarbon, used in aerosols, on the ozone.
Sep 28, First lady Betty Ford underwent a mastectomy at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, following discovery of a cancerous lump in her breast.
Sep 30, Gen. Carlo Prats, a former Chilean army chief, was killed with his wife by a car bomb in Buenos Aires. In 2000 an Argentine judge called for the extradition of Augusto Pinochet for the slaying. In 2000 Enrique Arancibia Clavel was sentenced in Argentina to life in prison for his role in the murder.
Oct 1, Five Nixon aides--Kenneth Parkinson, Robert Mardian, Nixon's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell-- went on trial for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. Ehrlichman was convicted in the Watergate cover-up with Haldeman and Mitchell and for the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg. Ehrlichman served 18 months in federal prison.

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Week of September 19, 1974

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Sep 20, Gail A. Cobb, a member of the Metropolitan Police Force of Washington, D.C., became the first female police officer to be killed in the line of duty. Cobb was murdered by a robbery suspect in an underground garage in downtown Washington.
Sep 21, Mariner 10 made a 2nd fly-by of Mercury.
Sep 21, Jacqueline Susann, author (Valley of the Dolls), died of cancer at 53.
Sep 25, Scientists warned that continued use of aerosol sprays will cause ozone depletion, which will lead to an increased risk of skin cancer and global weather changes.

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Week of September 12, 1974

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Sep 12, The start of court-ordered busing to achieve racial integration in Boston's public schools was marred by violence in South Boston.
Sep 13, The 1st broadcast of "Rockford Files" on NBC-TV.
Sep 16, President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft-evaders. Limited amnesty was offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.
Sep 18, Hurricane Fifi struck Honduras with 110 mph winds. 5,000 died.

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Week of September 7, 1974 - Back to School!!!!!

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Sep 8, President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard M. Nixon for any crimes arising from the Watergate scandal he may have committed while in office.
Sep 8, Evel Knievel (b.1938) attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho on his rocket-powered motorcycle. He failed and parachuted down.
Sep 11, An Eastern Airlines DC-9, Flight 212, crashed 3 miles from the Douglas Municipal Airport in North Carolina. Of the 82 persons aboard the aircraft, 11 and two crewmembers survived the accident. One passenger died 3 days after the crash, and another died 6 days after the crash. One survivor died of injuries 29 days after the accident.

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