Thursday, January 8, 1976. First Appearance.

Last edition:

Monday, January 5, 1976. South African Television, sort of.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Australia, law, Marriage, mehr Mensch sein, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, South Africa, television, Television is stupid, The relationship between men and women

Monday, January 5, 1976. South African Television, sort of.

Television was introduced in South Africa.

Yes, that late.

The first shows were The World at War, which was truly excellent, followed by an episode of The Bob Newhart Show, which also was. South African TV was initially limited to five hours in the evening from 7 p.m. to midnight, with half of the programming in English and half in Afrikaans..

Would that such limitations applied everywhere today.

The scourge of no fault divorce was introduced to Australia.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 1, 1976. Venezuela nationalizes its oil industry.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Bicentennial, Australia, Australian Defence Force, Growing up in the 1970s, Lebanon, Oman, Petroleum, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, Venezuela

Thursday, January 1, 1976. Venezuela nationalizes its oil industry.

It was the start of the Bicentennial year in the United States in which the country would celebrate its 200th year of independence.  It was a big deal, full of celebrations and commemorations.  It was particularly notable if you were in school at the time, which I was (junior high).

Venezuela nationalized its oil industry, putting all of it, including foreign interests, in its state oil company.

Donald Trump has recently been complaining about this.

A lot of nations have done this over time, and its often been upsetting to US oil interests at the time, but the concept of nationalizing petroleum interests to some degree is not irrational, and while I haven't had the chance to post on it yet, quite frankly nationalization of undeveloped petroleum resources in the US is something that is at least worth talking about, even though it will never occur.

A Lebanese airliner exploded over Saudi Arabia from a bomb in the cargo hold.  All 81 people were killed in an act of terrorism for which the responsible party has never been determined, although Omani terrorists are suspected by some forces. Apparently the bomb was set to have gone off while the plane was empty and on the ground, but things went awry.

The Australian Defence Force came into being, giving the Australian military a unified command.

Last edition:

Sunday, December 28, 1975. Conflict in the Third Cod War.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Argentina, boats and ships, Cod Wars, Dirty War, fishing, football, Icelandic Coast Guard, North Sea, Royal Navy, Sports, Third Cod War

Monday, March 31, 1975. Resupply and luck.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick C. Weyand was in South Vietnam and determined that: "It is possible that with abundant resupply and a great deal of luck, the GVN [Government of South Vietnam] could survive...It is extremely doubtful that it could withstand an offensive involving the commitment of three additional Communist divisions...without U.S. strategic air support."

Colonel William Le Gro of the U.S. Embassy said that without U.S. strategic bombing of North Vietnamese forces, South Vietnam would be defeated within 90 days, which proved to be an overestimate of the time the South could hold out.

Gro would later write a book about the fall of South Vietnam.

North Vietnamese General Dung, was instructed to  "liberate Saigon before the rainy season [mid-May]" rather than the original plan of taking the city in 1976.

Technicians from the United States Atomic Energy Commission escorted by Navy SEALS removed the fuel rods from the nuclear research reactor at Dalat University (Đại học Đà Lạt) in Đà Lạt, capital of Lâm Đồng Province, Vietnam. and flew them to Johnston Atoll.  It was a Catholic institution at that time.  It still exists, but of course is no longer a Catholic university.

Last edition:

Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Catholic, Da Nang, Growing up in the 1970s, Korean War, Pusan Perimeter, religion, South Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Sunday, March 16, 1975. Withdrawing from the Central Highlands.

The ARVN began to withdraw from the Central Highlands.  Senior officers left by helicopter, leaving combat troops to retreat under fire, with fleeing civilians, on Route 7B.

180,000 ARVN troops began the journey, only 60,000 would complete the retreat.  Vietnamese Rangers rallied to protect those retreating, with only 900 out of 7,000 surviving.  Mass desertions began.

The NVA was surprised by the ARVN collapse and had been planning on the war continuing on inot 1976.

Last edition: 

Saturday, March 15, 1975. Abandoning Buôn Ma Thuột and Huế.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Growing up in the 1970s, National Geographic, Vietnam (Buôn Ma Thuột), Vietnam (Huế), Vietnam War

Wednesday, January 9, 1974. Oil.

OPEC voted to freeze oil prices for three months.  Saudi Arabia had been willing to reduce them, but Algeria, Iraq, and Iran, had not been.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan upon Reagan's 1966 Gubernatorial victory, and one decade away from his first run for the GOP Presidential ticket.

Actor turned politician Ronald Reagan delivered California's State of the State address, noting the oil crisis but asserting it was an opportunity to develop resources, freeing the US from foreign petroleum.

The 1976 Wyoming legislature

Reinstated the death penalty and brought in no-fault divorce.

What a bunch of boofadors.

Oh yeah. . . that's also the year we turned out Gale McGee for Malcolm Wallop around here.

Well, that was two years before Coors introduced Coors Light, and you could still drink and drive legally in the state at that time.  We must have been doing too much of it.

Wednesday, June 30, 1943. Forgotten battles in the Pacific.

A U.S. Army Air Corps P40 provides air cover at Rendova.

The commencement of Operation Cartwheel, which would see a series of amphibious landings, began in the South Pacific with landings on New George and Rendova by the U.S. Army and U.S Marine, Woodlark Island by the U.S. Army, and Kiriwina by the U.S. Army.  It wouldn't stop there.

An  Alligator (LVT) on Rendova Island.  New US technology was coming to bear on the war in the Pacific.

Rendova was occupied by about 120 Japanese troops. 6,000 Americans would land, of which four wuld lose their lives.

U.S. troops landing on Rendova.

Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands were significant enough to bear their own operational name, Operation Chronicle, although it was part of Operation Cartwheel.

Troops disembarking in Operation Chronicle.

It was an unopposed landing.

The Battle of Wickham Anchorage commenced between the US and the Japanese on Vangunu.

As was so often the case during World War Two, the attention of the news and public eye had been on the ETO, when all of a sudden, something significant happened in the Pacific.  Most of these battles, of this campaign, are now forgotten.

Florence Ballard of The Supremes was born in Detroit.  She'd die due to blood clots at age 32 in 1976.

Tuesday, April 3, 1973. The beginning of the end of personal space and time.

Today In Wyoming's History: April 3:  1973  The T E Ranch Headquarters, near Cody, WY, which William F. Cody had owned, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The first handheld cellular phone call was made by Martin Cooper in a demonstration call by Motorola.

Would that this would never have occurred.

Montreal announced Canada's first lottery in an effort to help pay for the upcoming 1976 Olympics.

The USSR launched Salyut 2, it's second space station.  It would be a failure due to hitting fragments soon thereafter, and it would crash back to Earth on May 28.  Well, not crash.  It burned up before it hit.

The Kingdom of Sikkim within India experienced a large-scale revolt which would require Indian intervention, and result in eventual Indian annexation.

Seal of Sikkum, downright scary.

Sunday, January 10, 1943. The final assault at Stalingrad begins.

The Soviets commenced the final assault on Stalingrad.

Sarah Sundin notes, for the same day:

Today in World War II History—January 10, 1943: US launches major offensive on Guadalcanal. Off New Britain, Japanese destroyers and aircraft sink giant submarine USS Argonaut.

The USS Argonaut was a V class submarine launched in 1927 which was in fact of a class that was the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built by the US, with the V-4 being the absolute largest.  It was designed primarily for laying mines.

USS Argonaut.

The American First Party was formed in Detroit by Gerald L. K. Smith.  It should be noted that this is just one of several parties that have used this name.

It was a hyper isolationist party that nominated Smith in 1944 for the Oval Office and then went down in spectacular defeat.  It was thereafter merged into the Christian Nationalist Party.  Indeed, Smith, a Protestant minister, had founded the Christian Nationalist Crusade the year prior.  He had at one time been a major supporter of Huey Long, which brings to mind once again Shepherd's piece on fanatics.  Among other things, Smith was quite antisemitic.

Smith died in 1976, but the Christian Nationalist Crusade went away in 1973.  The Christian Nationalist Party was its political wing.  It's also only one of several parties that have used that name.

June 30, 2021. An odd day.

 An odd day, historically.

Rumsfeld the second time he served as Secretary of Defense.

Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and again under George W. Bush, died at age 88.

Rumsfeld had a long career in government, including a stint in Congress.  His association with the military began in 1954 when he was a Naval aviator.  Under President Gerald Ford he would oversea the dramatic destruction of the Cambodian navy due to the Mayaguez Incident, demonstrating that the Untied States was not as weak communist forces in Southeast Asia might imagine.  And yet, in spite of serving in the Navy, and that example, and as Secretary of Defense twice, it was his gross overestimation of the effectiveness of modern technology that lead to the under deployment of US forces early in Afghanistan, a result which lead to a protracted guerilla war, and perhaps to the situation in that country which exists today.

And on the same day the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby's conviction.

Cosby in 1969.

Cosby went from the heights of fame to the height of infamy when a series of allegations against him lead to convictions for sex crimes.  He's being released not because he was found to be innocent, so to speak, but because his prosecutor failed to honor an agreement with a prior prosecutor.

As for the allegations, we can leave them as they are, but we will note that Cosby had the odd status of having been viewed nearly universally as a conservative family man while simultaneously being one of the individuals frequently found at parties at uber creep Hugh Hefner's mansion. That should have raised some red flags, although he certainly wasn't the only one who shared this status.

Perhaps that should in some ways be his legacy.  What he was accused of was gross creepy sexual behavior, in a nation that has come to celebrate creepy sexual behavior.  If that didn't match his image of being the ideal patriarch, perhaps that signifies that in our modern society we've come to tolerate conduct in the patriarchs and matriarchs that's creepy.  We may be holding him to a higher standard than we hold ourselves, none of which argues for a restoration of his reputation, but a condemnation of our own.

Suffice it to say, both men have obtained reputations that will remain defined by events surrounding them late in life, and which stand in contrast, to some degree, with reputations obtained earlier in life.

The Aerodrome: The F15 is back in production and so is the Mig 31.

The Aerodrome: The F15 is back in production and so is the Mig 31.:

The F15 is back in production and so is the Mig 31.

The F15 is the F15EX variant, a brand new version of the old F15, which first went into production in 1976.  The planes history dates back to tests that go as far back as 1972.

The enormous Mig 31 first went into production in 1981 and has a history that goes back to 1975.

Why are they back?

Missiles.

The F15EX can carry a seven foot long missiles that can reach deep into China, should the need arise, and its external hard points can carry more missiles than the F35.

The Mig 31, which might simply be getting an overhaul rather than new editions, can carry missiles that can reach into low orbit and hit satellites.

And so the Cold War sort of returns, in a way.

A note on yesterday's camel image

Yesterday, we published this:

Lex Anteinternet: January 3, 1920. A Roaring Start:

January 3, 1920. A Roaring Start

1920 was certainly off to a "roaring" start.

The image was cross posted on Reddit's 100 Years Ago subreddit, where I learned that the camel, which was baffling me, is the symbol of the Prohibition Party.

I had no idea.

The party still exists.

It's an interesting party and slightly reminds me of the American Solidarity Party in that it takes positions from the left and the right.  It's "liberal" on its environmental positions, for example, and "conservative" on social issues.  It still runs a presidential candidate for every Presidential election, but since 1976, it's received less than 10,000 votes per year.  It peaked in the 1904 Election when it received 260,000 votes.

It's nominees for the 2020 Presidential Election were determined in a telephone conference, which shows how small it is.  Phil Collins of Nevada and Billie Joe Parker of Georgia are their Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates.

Camels, it should be noted, are never thirsty in the popular imagination.