July 1973

January – February – March – April – May – June – July  – August – September – October – November – December

The following events occurred in July 1973.

July 1, 1973 (Sunday)

• The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is founded.
• The British Library is established.

July 2, 1973 (Monday)

• The United States Congress passes the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) mandating Special Education federally.
• Died: Betty Grable, 56 American actress (lung cancer)

July 3, 1973 (Tuesday)

• The 23rd Berlin International Film Festival ends.
• "David Bowie "retires" his Ziggy Stardust stage persona in front of a shocked audience at the Hammersmith Odeon at the end of his British tour.
• Died: Karel Ančerl, 65, Czech orchestral conductor

July 4, 1973 (Wednesday)

• MLB: The New York Mets fall 12½ games back in last place of the National League Eastern Division.
• Don Powell, the drummer of British pop group Slade, is critically injured in a car crash in Wolverhampton; his 20-year-old girlfriend is killed. With his life in danger, the band's future is left in the balance. Powell recovered after surgery, and was able to join the band ten weeks later in New York, to record "Merry Xmas Everybody".

July 5, 1973 (Thursday)

• The Isle of Man Post begins to issue its own postage stamps.
• The catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) occurs in Kingman, Arizona, USA, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills 11 firefighters. This explosion has become a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide.
• The 5th International Mathematical Olympiad opens in Moscow.

July 6, 1973 (Friday)

• St Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore is gazetted as a national monument.
• The James Bond film Live and Let Die is released in British cinemas, with the spy played by 45-year-old The Saint star Roger Moore.^[1]
• The Singapore cargo ship Cherry Venture is driven aground in a storm at Teewah Beach, Australia. She was scrapped in situ in 2007.
• The 57th Oregon Legislative Assembly ends its session.
• Died: Joe E. Brown, 81, American comic actor; Otto Klemperer, 88, German conductor and composer

July 7, 1973 (Saturday)

• The Ethiopian general election, 1973, ends, the last to be held under imperial rule in Ethiopia.^[2] Endelkachew Makonnen becomes prime minister.
• Died: Veronica Lake, 50, American actress (hepatitis and renal failure)

July 8, 1973 (Sunday)

• During the 1973 Campionato Italiano Juniores at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy, three racing motorcyclists, Renzo Colombini (aged 30), Renato Galtrucco (aged 36) and Carlo Chionio (aged 26), are killed.
• Born: Daniel Lipšic, Slovak politician, in Bratislava
• Died: Wilfred Rhodes, 95, English cricketer

July 9, 1973 (Monday)

• Cleto Bellucci is appointed coadjutor bishop of the Archdiocese of Fermo, Italy.

July 10, 1973 (Tuesday)

• The Bahamas gains full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.^[3]

July 11, 1973 (Wednesday)

• A fire breaks out in a lavatory aboard Varig Flight 820, a Boeing 707-345C. Smoke fills the cabin, and many passengers have died of smoke inhalation by the time the plane crashes during an attempt to make an emergency landing in a field in Orly commune in France. The fire, smoke, and crash kill 123 of the 135 people on board; among the dead are the president of the Senate of Brazil, Filinto Müller, and the Olympic sailor Jörg Bruder. The 12 survivors include 11 crew members, among them the captain; he will die in the disappearance of a Varig cargo plane in 1979.

July 12, 1973 (Thursday)

• The British cruise liner SS Canberra runs aground off Grenada, West Indies. After three days, she is re-floated and returned to service.^[4] During the re-floating process, a towline snaps and smashes through the on-board laundry, hitting crew member Rozario Gomes in the face; he is killed.
• 1973 National Archives Fire: A major fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Died: Lon Chaney, Jr., 67, American actor

July 13, 1973 (Friday)

• President of Argentina Héctor José Cámpora resigns to allow the return to power of Juan Perón.
• Died: Willy Fritsch, 72, German actor

July 14, 1973 (Saturday)

• The 1973 British Grand Prix is won by Ronnie Peterson, after eleven drivers are forced to retire because of an accident in the first lap when Jody Scheckter's car spins out of fourth place and into the center of the track coming out of Woodcote (the final corner), causing many other cars to collide and crash. The race is stopped at the end of the second lap and restarted over the original distance. Andrea de Adamich subsequently retired from the sport as a result of the injuries he received in the first lap accident.

July 15, 1973 (Sunday)

• A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place.^[5]

July 16, 1973 (Monday)

• Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

July 17, 1973 (Tuesday)

• King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
• Chimanbhai Patel replaces Ghanshyambhai C. Oza as Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.

July 18, 1973 (Wednesday)

• The Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 receives the Royal Assent. The act abolishes the suspended Parliament of Northern Ireland and the post of Governor and makes provision for a devolved administration consisting of an Executive chosen by the new Northern Ireland Assembly devised under the Sunningdale Agreement.
• Died: Jack Hawkins, 62, British actor (throat cancer)

July 19, 1973 (Thursday)

• The Panamanian supply vessel Nordic Service collides with the Finnish ship Finn Trader and sinks off Great Yarmouth, United Kingdom, with the loss of two of her twelve crew.^[6][7]

July 20, 1973 (Friday)

• France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand.
• Born: HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, in Oslo
• Died: Bruce Lee, 32, Chinese-American martial artist and actor (probable allergic reaction to painkillers)

July 21, 1973 (Saturday)

• Lillehammer affair: Israeli Mossad agents assassinate a Moroccan waiter, Ahmed Bouchiki, in Lillehammer. Bouchiki had been mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the leaders of Black September, the Palestinian group responsible for the 1972's Munich Olympics massacre, who had been given shelter in Norway. Six Mossad agents are arrested by the Norwegian authorities and the incident becomes known as the "Lillehammer affair".
• The Philippines receives its second Miss Universe title, with Margarita Moran as the winner.

July 22, 1973 (Sunday)

• The Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321B Clipper Winged Racer, operating as Flight 816, crashes into the Pacific Ocean 30 seconds after takeoff from Faa'a International Airport in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, killing 78 of the 79 people on board.
• Born: Monica Lewinsky, American former White House intern, in San Francisco

July 23, 1973 (Monday)

• A member of the Japanese Red Army and four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijack Japan Air Lines Flight 404, a Boeing 747-246B with 140 other people on board, shortly after it takes off from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands for a flight to Anchorage, Alaska, en route a final destination of Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, Japan. One of the PFLP members is killed when her hand grenade explodes during the hijacking, also injuring the airliner's chief purser. The surviving hijackers force the plane to fly to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; after a long stay there, they force it to fly to Damascus, Syria, and Benghazi, Libya, where they release the passengers and crew 89 hours after the hijacking began and blow up the airliner.
• Ozark Air Lines Flight 809, a Fairchild Hiller FH-227, encounters windshear in a thunderstorm and crashes at Normandy, Missouri, while on approach to land at St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, killing 38 of the 44 people on board.
• The Avianca Building in Bogotá, Colombia, suffers a serious fire.

July 24, 1973 (Tuesday)

• The 1973 Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Kansas City, Missouri, USA, and ends in a 7-1 victory for the all-stars of the National League.^[8][9]

July 25, 1973 (Wednesday)

• The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.

July 26, 1973 (Thursday)

• The Ripon by-election, caused by the death of Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Stoddart-Scott, and Isle of Ely by-election, caused by the death of Conservative MP Major Sir Harry Legge-Bourke, are both won by the Liberal Party, starting a mini-revival for the party. The new member for the Isle of Ely is celebrity Clement Freud, who retains the seat until 1987.

July 27, 1973 (Friday)

• Charles, Prince of Wales, son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, becomes a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy.^[10]

July 28, 1973 (Saturday)

• The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, a massive rock festival featuring the Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band, attracts over 600,000 music fans.
• Skylab 3 (Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean) is launched, to conduct various medical and scientific experiments aboard Skylab.

July 29, 1973 (Sunday)

• The 1973 Dutch Grand Prix is won by Jackie Stewart. British driver Roger Williamson is killed during the race, in an accident witnessed live on European television. His fellow driver David Purley is later awarded the George Medal for his unsuccessful attempts to save Williamson.^[11]
• Died: Henri Charrière, 66, French escaped convict and writer (throat cancer)

July 30, 1973 (Monday)

• £20 million compensation is paid to victims of Thalidomide following an 11-year court case.^[12]
• The strangled body of 20-year-old Ronnie Wiebe, is discarded beside an onramp to the 405 Freeway - two days after the young man had disappeared. Welt marks on Wiebe's wrists and ankles suggest that he had been bound and suspended from a device before his murder.^[13] Wiebe is later identified as one of the victims of serial killer Randy Steven Kraft, the so-called "Freeway Killer".

July 31, 1973 (Tuesday)

• Militant Unionist protesters led by Ian Paisley disrupt the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.^[14]
• Markham Colliery disaster: eighteen coal miners are killed at the coal mine near Staveley, Derbyshire, UK, when the brake mechanism on their cage fails.
• A Delta Air Lines Flight 173 DC9-31 aircraft lands short of Boston's Logan Airport runway in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet (50 m) to the right of the runway centerline and about 3,000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed, 1 of the passengers dying several months after the accident.

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