Juan Domingo Perón returned to Argentina from exile, the government now in control of a candidate who had run as a stand in for the politically banned Perón. Violence erupted in some locations, and snipers killed thirteen left wing Peronist and wounded 300 at a Peronist rally in Ezeiza.
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President Nixon ordered a sixty-day freeze on prices of gasoline and groceries under the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970.
It was the last of the "Phase III" price controls.
On the same day, prosecutors discovered a memo to John Ehrlichman concerning plans to break into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Also, Alexander Butterfield, former Presidential appointments' secretary, met with Senate investigators and revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the White House.
Butterfield had known Ehrlichman and Halderman from his college days. After graduating from college, he became an Air Force officer and retired from that prior to going to work in the White House. In an interview, prior to the public revelation of Deep Throat's identify, he correctly guessed it and the name was published in his interview, although he was not unique in that regard.
The Soviet K-56 with the research vessel Academician Berg killed 27 people.
This is, I'll admit, one of those areas of history I should be interested in, but I'm not. I'm not sure why, but post Apollo space exploration just does't interest me very much.
The US opened its first diplomatic mission to the People's Republic of China.
Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty in Northern Ireland.
Espionage charges against Daniel Ellsberg were dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct.
Ellsberg is still alive, but suffering terminal pancreatic cancer. He's 92 years old.
The Federal Republic of Germany ratified the Grundiagenvertrag treat with the German Democratic Republic, in which both countries recognized the sovereignty of the other. The Bundestag also voted to join the United Nations, accepting the condition that East Germany also be allowed to join.
Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his races on to the Triple Crown.
Nixon canned White House Counsel John Dean and requested the resignations of H.R. Halderman, his Chief of Staff, John Ehrlichman, is domestic affairs advisor, and Richard Kleindienst, his Attorney General. All due tothe Watergate Scandal.
Things were clearly not going well.
May 1:
The British Trade Union Congress called a day long, Labour Day, work stoppage which was honored by 1,600,000 workers in order to protest the government's anti inflation policies.
Japan repaid $175,000,000 in food assistance aid funds which were extended during the post World War Two occupation of the country. The payment was made in one lump sum at the request of the US, which needed the money due to its growing concern over the imbalance in deficit payments.
Sweden's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister accused President Nixon of violating the Paris Peace Accords and of bombing refugees in Cambodia in May Day speeches.
The United Kingdom concluded the forced expulsion of the Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago.
The extremely remote mid-ocean Indian Ocean islands were originally uninhabited, but came to have a population when under French administration. The original population was enslaved, and brought by the French from Madagascar and other African locations. They were emancipated in 1840, the islands having belonged to the United Kingdom since 1814. They were employed as workers on coconut plantations, that being the primary economy of the islands.
The British depopulation campaign was undertaken for the United States, which sought to use the islands for military purposes. The best known of the islands is Diego Garcia, which remains a U.S. Naval installation.
L. Patrick Gray resigned as Interim Director of the FBI after it was revealed he destroyed materials removed from E. Howard Hunt's safe. He spent the next seven years providing testimony regarding Watergate.
Gray was a 1940 Naval Academy graduate who attended law school while still in the Navy. His naval career was distinguished, and he was discouraged from leaving the service when he did in 1960, meaning that at that time he'd had a twenty-year Naval career.
He was a recent appointee to the FBI when the Watergate scandal broke out. Initially he was heavily involved in the investigation and pursued it vigorously. When it became clear the administration was involved, he turned the matter over to his deputy, Mark Felt, who later turned out to be the famous leaker to the press, "Deep Throat".
According to Gray, who does seem to have had no involvement with the Watergate conspiracy or its cover up, the papers he removed were told to him to be of national security significant. Prior to destroying them, he examined them, and later stated that one set of papers were "false" secret cables indicating that the Kennedy Administration was involved with the Diem assassination and the second set papers written by Kennedy about his "peccadilloes".
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Israel launched Operation Spring of Youth on Palestinian Liberation Organization targets in Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon. Over 50 PLO operatives were killed to the loss of two Israeli commandos.
The operation was part of the ongoing retaliation for the attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
The United Nations Organization for African Unity conference on Southern Africa opened in Oslo, Norway, which is not anywhere near Southern Africa. Norway was hosting the event.
As part of the Nixon effort to combat inflation, grocery stores were required to post signs at their meat counters listing the limit for prices per pound for meat.
I just posted this photograph here the other day.
There were a wide variety of 35 mm cameras by the 1920s, and popular personal photograph got an enormous boost with the 1939 introduction of the Argus C3. Through the lens reflex cameras made their appearance in the 1920s, but it wasn't until 1949 that the prismatic SLR was introduced, sparking a revolution amongst photography enthusiasts. Nearly every serious camera maker soon introduced one, and they dominated in the serious photography market until the end of the film era. My father bought a really good SLR Zeiss camera while serving in the Air Force, and the camea was so good that he used it hte rest of his life.Zeiss Contraflex.Lens barrel for Contrafex, which fixed the existing lens on an extension for a telephoto effect. I never actually saw this in use, and it does strike me as difficult to use.My father also had a Yashica 120 mm camera. These cameras used big film for a finer detailed photograph, much the way "full frame" digital cameras due today (while most people don't use full frame digital cameras, the lack of one is a source of ongoing angst for Pentax fans, as Pentax does not make a full frame DSLR, just their regular DSLR). It was a nice, if cumbersome, camera and my father used it less over the years, probably due to that. And film became very difficult to obtain.Yashicaflex with lens caps on and viewer closed.Viewer cover opened.Top of camera, with viewer opened. You viewed the object through the top of the camera and saw the image reversed.
Digital photography seemed likely to put a big dent in SLR cameras, and it did at first, but now they've revived, particularly in the form of Canon cameras in the US. But most of the old SLR manufacturers, save for Zeiss and Leica, which dropped out of the SLR market, still make one, and a couple of makers have entered the field who did not make film cameras. But, just as I suppose more photos were taken with Kodak disposable and compact 35mms back in the day, more now are probably taken by cell phones.
Still, what a revolution in photography, even if things remain familiar.
Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees became the first Major League designated hitter in a game played in Fenway Park against the Red Sox.
Today In Wyoming's History: March 29: 1973 The United States completes it's withdrawal from Vietnam.
Today In Wyoming's History: March 29 By odd coincidence, this is also the day that Lt. William Calley was sentenced in 1971 in a courts-martial for his role in the My Lai Massacre, although his prison sentence ended up not being a long one.
Also on that day, the second to last group of US POWs left Vietnam. The last POW to board the aircraft out of North Vietnam was U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alfred H. Agnew.
Somehow oddly emphasizing the spirit of defeat at the time, the well regarded television drama Pueblo, about the North Korean capture of the USS Pueblo, aired on television. Only tangentially related to the war, it was impossible not to notice that North Korea of that era felt that the US was so impaired that it could get away with this, which it did.
It would not, now.
And making the day all the worse, President Nixon set a maximum for prices that could be charged for beef, pork and lamb. This was in reaction to a consumer revolt in which consumers, mostly housewives charged with home economics, to boycott the same in reaction to rising prices.
Watergate burglar James W. McCord Jr. wrote Judge John Sirica that the Watergate defendants had been pressured to remain silent, naming U.S. Attorney John Mitchell as the "overall boss" of the Watergate operation.
McCord had been a CIA officer before becoming a private security contractor. He passed away at age 93 in 2017.
Mori Chack (森チャック) designer of Gloomy Bear, a Japanese pink stuffed bear that eats people, born.
Khemer Air Force pilot Cpt. So Patra, son-in-law of former King Norodom Sihanouk, bombed the presidential palace in Phnom Penh, killing 36 people. He then flew his T-28 to Hainan Island, a Chinese possession.
Arrests followed.
A large release of the few remaining US POWs in Vietnam began, including the release of Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm of the U.S. Air Force.
A remarkable photograph, it depicts Stirm's 15-year-old daughter greeting her father with the rest of the family behind them.
Stirm had already received a Dear John letter from his wife, Loretta, informing him of her intent to divorce him. They did divorce. She died in 2010 from cancer.
His children all had the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs hanging in their homes. He couldn't bear to.
Today In Wyoming's History: March 6: 1973 President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas.
Chilean elections resulted in the opposition Confederation of Democracy winning control of the Senate and House, but falling short of the 2/3ds necessary to impeach Salvador Allende or block his policies.
While not seeking to excuse things in retroactive advance, it might be noted that this meant that Allende's left wing Popular Unit alliance was a minority government, which is very rarely noted.
Voting also took place in France but failed to yield a clear result.
The British yacht Auuralyn was struck by a whale and sunk off of Guatemala, putting Marice and Maralyn Bailey adrift for 117 days.
A large group of U.S. Air Force and Navy POWs held by North Vietnam was released, including Norman C. Gaddis and Leo K. Thorsness who would be highly decorated.
For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States. General Gaddis distinguished himself while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from December 1970 to February 1973. During this period, General Gaddis displayed professional competence, unwavering devotion and loyalty to his country in the execution of his duties in staff and command positions while in potentially volatile daily contact with the Vietnamese guards and officers. General Gaddis performed his duties in accord with the Code of Conduct, exhibiting leadership, courage, and determination, regardless of the cost in the many tortures and beatings which he had to endure. The singularly distinctive accomplishments of General Gaddis reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. As pilot of an F-105 aircraft, Lt. Col. Thorsness was on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission over North Vietnam. Lt. Col. Thorsness and his wingman attacked and silenced a surface-to-air missile site with air-to-ground missiles, and then destroyed a second surface-to-air missile site with bombs. In the attack on the second missile site, Lt. Col. Thorsness' wingman was shot down by intensive antiaircraft fire, and the two crewmembers abandoned their aircraft. Lt. Col. Thorsness circled the descending parachutes to keep the crewmembers in sight and relay their position to the Search and Rescue Center. During this maneuver, a MIG-17 was sighted in the area. Lt. Col. Thorsness immediately initiated an attack and destroyed the MIG. Because his aircraft was low on fuel, he was forced to depart the area in search of a tanker. Upon being advised that two helicopters were orbiting over the downed crew's position and that there were hostile MIGs in the area posing a serious threat to the helicopters, Lt. Col. Thorsness, despite his low fuel condition, decided to return alone through a hostile environment of surface-to-air missile and antiaircraft defenses to the downed crew's position. As he approached the area, he spotted four MIG-17 aircraft and immediately initiated an attack on the MIGs, damaging one and driving the others away from the rescue scene. When it became apparent that an aircraft in the area was critically low on fuel and the crew would have to abandon the aircraft unless they could reach a tanker, Lt. Col. Thorsness, although critically short on fuel himself, helped to avert further possible loss of life and a friendly aircraft by recovering at a forward operating base, thus allowing the aircraft in emergency fuel condition to refuel safely. Lt. Col. Thorsness' extraordinary heroism, self-sacrifice, and personal bravery involving conspicuous risk of life were in the highest traditions of the military service, and have reflected great credit upon himself and the U.S. Air Force.
Other POWs released included Douglas Peterson, who was later the ambassador to Communist Vietnam and William P. Lawrence, who was later Superintendent of the Naval Academy.
Peterson, whose first wife had died, interestingly met Vietnamese born Vi Le who was serving as Australia's senior trade commissioner in the country. They married, and he retired to Australia so that the couple could be closer to her family.
Lawrence is the author of the Tennessee state poem, which reads:
Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee
What Love and Pride I Feel for Thee.
You Proud Ole State, the Volunteer,
Your Proud Traditions I Hold Dear.
I Revere Your Heroes
Who Bravely Fought our Country's Foes.
Renowned Statesmen, so Wise and Strong,
Who Served our Country Well and Long.
I Thrill at Thought of Mountains Grand;
Rolling Green Hills and Fertile Farm Land;
Earth Rich with Stone, Mineral and Ore;
Forests Dense and Wild Flowers Galore;
Powerful Rivers that Bring us Light;
Deep Lakes with Fish and Fowl in Flight;
Thriving Cities and Industries;
Fine Schools and Universities;
Strong Folks of Pioneer Descent,
Simple, Honest, and Reverent.
Beauty and Hospitality
Are the Hallmarks of Tennessee.
And O'er the World as I May Roam,
No Place Exceeds my Boyhood Home.
And Oh How Much I Long to See
My Native Land, My Tennessee.
