Wednesday, March 31, 1976. Karen Ann Quinlan.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, suffering from irreversible brain damage, could be disconnected from the ventilator that had been keeping her alive since April 15, 1975. She had been found unresponsive after she consumed Valium along with alcohol while on a crash diet and lapsed into a coma. A Catholic, her parents had appealed to Catholic moral theology arguing that extraordinary means not be required to preserve her life.

She'd live for an additional nine years.

She had been trying to lose weight to fit into a bikini.

This is one of those events I can personally recall.  It was a major news story at the time.

The UN Security Council found South Africa liable for an act of aggression against Angola, a fairly dubious Security Council conviction given that what South Africa really did is intervene in a civil war that other powers were likewise involved in.

The slam dunk was restored as a legal college basketball feature.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 24, 1976. Passing of Field Marshal Montgomery.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Argentina, Australia, Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, United Kingdom, World War Two

Wednesday, March 24, 1976. Passing of Field Marshal Montgomery.

Bernard Law Montgomery died at age 88.

Of Scots Irish descent, he was born in Kennington, England to a Church of Ireland cleric and grew up principally in Australia when his father was appointed Bishop of Tasmania.  He was commissioned an Army officer in 1908.  He became a British Field Marshall during World War Two and is justifiably famous.  He was deputy commander of NATO until 1958, when he retired at age 70.

Isabel Peron was deposed.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 16, 1976. Wilson resigns at the point where Trump should have.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 2020s, 2026, Cowards, Harold Wilson, John Barrasso, John Thune, Old Age, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, This is why we can't have nice things, United Kingdom

Tuesday, March 16, 1976. Wilson resigns at the point where Trump should have.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced his retirement at age 60 due to what he knew was advancing dementia, although, in those years before this was as understood as well as it currently is, he cited physical and mental exhaustion.  He would die in 1995, although his dementia never took fully hold.

The more power to him.  Right now, in the United States, we have a demented President in a family with a history of dementia, who is sending people off to war based on his feelings.  History will not forgive us for putting up with this.

John Thune, in the Senate, is too old for his job.

John Barrasso, in the Senate, is 73, way too old for his job.

And the people who will die in the current war can take no comfort in that, as Congress is composed, on the Republican side of abject cowards.

Last edition:

Tuesday, February 17, 1976. The ABA starts its descent. Abuna Theophilos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, arrested.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 1979, Advertising, Ethiopian Revolution, Missouri, Oriental Orthodox, Professional Organizations, The Practice of Law

Tuesday, February 17, 1976. The ABA starts its descent. Abuna Theophilos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, arrested.

The American Bar Association (ABA) voted to amend its rules of ethics to allow lawyers to advertise their services. Initially, the ABA approved letting attorneys buy display ads in telephone directories (specifically, the "Yellow Pages" for business phone numbers), with limitations on what could be allowed in the ad.

It's been an absolute disaster.

I used to be a member of the ABA, which does provide some good services, but I ultimately dropped out as it truly had some "woke" sections to it that had little to do with reality.

Abuna Theophilos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was removed from office by Ethiopia's military rulers and imprisoned.  He'd be murdered on August 14, 1979.

During his captivity he escaped on one occasion and  thought about seeking refuge in the Greek Embassy.  He decided instead to head for a monastery, but was captured en route.

The Clark National Forest and the Mark Twain National Forest, both in Missouri. were merged into one unit.

Last edition:

Blog Mirror: February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres

Labels: 1940s, 1960s, 1961, 1969, 1970s, 1976, 1976 at the Movies, 1980s, 1981, Blog Mirror, Movies, New York, Uncle Mike

Blog Mirror: February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres

 

February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres

I was not aware that this was a 1976 movie, but then, I've never thought of the topic either.

I've actually never seen Taxi Driver all the way through.*  It's just too icky for me.  But the point raised here, tracking the depictions of New York City from the early 1960s into the 1970s, from "magical" to decline, is a really interesting observation.

Somewhere I have a series photographs of my mother in New York that must date from the late 1940s.  She and some friends went down from Montreal to visit.  She told me once how "clean" New York was, that being her observation from that trip.

I've been to New York state, but it's been years and years.  My exposure to New York City, however, is limited to the airport, a memory which is equally old.

Footnotes:

*Indeed, of the movies mentioned in this thread, the only one I've seen all the way through is Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Last edition:

Friday, February 6, 1976. Peltier arrested. Prince Bernhard implicated. Smith warns. Black Jack dies.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Indian Movement, Army, Crime, Equine Transportation, Monarchy, Personalities, Pine Ridge Reservation, Rhodesia, Rhodesian Bush War

Friday, February 6, 1976. Peltier arrested. Prince Bernhard implicated. Smith warns. Black Jack dies.

Leonard Peltier was arrested in Canada and charged with the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the husband of Queen Juliana and the inspector general of the Netherlands Armed Forces, was implicated in a bribery scandal in testimony by an official of the Lockheed Corporation.  He confirmed accepting the bribe in a posthumously published memoir, acknowledging it was a mistake, but claiming all the money went to the World Wildlife Fund.

Sort of an example of how monarchy behaved, the prince is pretty far from a universally admirable person in general, although his record is mixed.  A German, he worked in Germany in the 1930s for IG Faben where he was a member of  the Reiter-SS (SS Cavalry Corps) before it was a full time military establishment, and to the paramilitary National-sozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK) although he never showed any outward Nazi sympathy or political views in general otherwise.  He denied these memberships, although its certain that he belonged.  He claimed to sever all of this ties after marrying Princess Julian, the future queen, in 1937.  During the war, however, he actively supported the Dutch cause and saw military service and was regarded as a war hero by the Dutch, and not without good reason.

He helped found the World Wildlife Fund after the war, and was its first president.  

He had four children by his wife, and two more by mistresses, all daughters.

Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith warned of a new large-scale guerilla offensive against hte country and that it would entail significant military expenditure.

The caisson horse Black Jack died at age 19.

Last edition:

Thursday, February 5, 1976. Swine Flu and Conrail.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 1976 Swine Flu Outbreak, Army, Disease, Railroads

Thursday, February 5, 1976. Swine Flu and Conrail.

Just as with the 1916 Flu Epidemic, the 1976 Swine Flu Outbreak commenced on an Army post, when Private David Lewis died of the disease.

President Ford signed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act into law creating the Consolidated Rail Corporation to operate freight trains in the northeastern United States.  The act united much of the rail systems of the Penn Central, Ann Arbor Railroad, Erie Lackawanna Railway, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Reading Company, Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh and Hudson River Railway into Conrail.

Last edition:

Monday,. February 2, 1976. Moynihan resigns.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Government, Personalities, United Nations

Monday,. February 2, 1976. Moynihan resigns.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan resigned  as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.in anticipation of running for Congress, although he did not express that goal at the time.

Would that we could be braced by such great mean again.

Last edition:

Friday, January 30, 1976. Opening Pandora's Box.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Central Intelligence Agency, Conscription, Democracy, Economics, George H.W. Bush

Friday, January 30, 1976. Opening Pandora's Box.

In Buckley v. Valeo the United States Supreme Court struck down most limits on political campaign spending as unconstitutional, opening the door to disaster.

George Bush became head of the CIA.

Registration for the draft was called off.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 27, 1976. Earthquake at Rawlins and the White Hall Flasher.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 1980s, Algeria, Algerian Army, Angola, Angolan Civil War, Geology, Growing up in the 1970s, Growing up in the 1980s, Morocco, Royal Moroccan Army, Streaking, television, Western Sahara War, Wyoming, Wyoming (Rawlins)

Tuesday, January 27, 1976. Earthquake at Rawlins and the White Hall Flasher.

Today In Wyoming's History: January 27: 1976   A small earthquake occurred near Rawlins.

The White Hall flaster was arrested.

Oddly enough, "flashing" was a trend in the 1970s which continued on into the 1980s in the form of "streaking", running through a public area naked.  Comedic singer Ray Stevens even authored a song about it, "The Streak".

Laverne & Shirley premiered.

It was a spin off of Happy Days and ran until 1983. Depicting two single women employed in a brewery in Milwaukee for most of its run, it was set in the 1950s to early 1960s. The last season was set in Burbank, California.

I can't say that I was a fan.

The Royal Moroccan Army attacked the Algerian Army at Amgala.

The House passed a bill already passed by the Senate to ban the sale of US arms to or to provide aid to paramilitary groups in Angola.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 21, 1976. Supersonic.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Aircraft, Angola, Bahrain, Brazil, France, People's Air Force of Angola, Transportation, United Kingdom

Wednesday, January 21, 1976. Supersonic.

The first commercial flight of the Concorde supersonic airliner took place with one departing Heathrow in British Airways colors and another departing Orly Airport in Paris in Air France colors.   The British jet flew to Bahrain and the French one to Brazil.

The plane remained in service until 2003.

On the same day communist forces in Angola established the People's Air Force of Angola.

Last edition:

Monday, January 19, 1976: The Iowa Caucuses

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 1976 General Election, Blog Mirror, Jimmy Carter, Politics, Uncle Mike

Monday, January 19, 1976: The Iowa Caucuses

 

January 19, 1976: The Iowa Caucuses Matter for the 1st Time

Last edition:

Saturday, January 10, 1976. The passing of Howlin' Wolf.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Illinois (Chicago), Music, The Blues

Saturday, January 10, 1976. The passing of Howlin' Wolf.

By Eatonland - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132882253

Chester Arthur Burnett, known to blues fans as Howlin' Wolf, died at age 65 from complications from kidney surgery.

Burnett was born in Mississippi and was a protégé of Delta blues musician Charley Patton in the 1930s.  He served in the Army as a cavalryman at the beginning of World War Two but was abused by his NCOs upon being reassigned to an electronics role as he was illiterate.  He was discharged early and relocated to Chicago, where he became one of the founders of Chicago blues.

Legendary for his booming voice, he was an unusual bluesman for his time as he did well economically, trusting his earnings to his wife.  His band members received health insurance as part of their compensation.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 8, 1976. First Appearance.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, cartoo

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