The following events occurred in August 1975:
August 1, 1975 (Friday) The Helsinki Accords, recognizing Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, were signed by the leaders of 35 nations in Finland, including the 15 member states of NATO and the 7 Warsaw Pact nations."35 Nations Sign Charter For European Security", Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune, August 2, 1975, p. 1. Among other things, the agreement conceded the legality of the Soviet Union's annexation of the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, but also provided the first mechanism for holding the Communist nations to commitments toward human rights, and was later cited by Václav Havel as a key to the success of liberating Eastern Europe in 1989."Helsinki Final Act (1975), in Cold War: The Essential Reference Guide, James R. Arnold and Roberta Wiener, eds., (ABC-CLIO, 2012), p. 75. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment commenced in India, bringing television for the first time to 2,500 villages in six Indian states and territories, in a project conducted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA with the ATS-6 satellite. It would operate until July 31, 1976.B. S. S. Rao, Television For Rural Development (Concept Publishing, 1992) p70; "A visitor to the village", by Yash Paul, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January 1977), p. 55.
The skull of "KNM ER 3733", a woman of the species Homo ergaster, was discovered by Bernard Ngeneo, 1,750,000 years after her death, at the Koobi Fora Ridge near Lake Turkana in Kenya. By August 9, the nearly intact skull had been carefully unearthed.Mary Bowman-Kruhm, The Leakeys: A Biography (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005), p. 89. The Republic of Cabinda unilaterally declared independence."A Nationalist Group in Cabinda Declares Area Free of Portugal", The New York Times, August 2, 1975, p2
August 2, 1975 (Saturday) The highest temperatures ever recorded in Massachusetts (107 °F at New Bedford) Larry B. Pletcher and Lisa Harvey, It Happened in Massachusetts (Globe Pequot, 1999) p.100 and Rhode Island (104 °F at Providence) Ted Klein, Rhode Island (Marshall Cavendish, 2007), p. 113. took place during a heatwave in northeast United States. Carrying U.S. President Ford on his departure from the Helsinki summit, Air Force One strayed from its flight plan and veered into restricted air space near Swedish military installations, prompting the Swedish Air Force to send a J35 Draken to intercept the jet and turn it away. Major Carl-Christen Hjort said that the fighter was equipped with air-to-air missiles, "but, of course, there were no plans to use them"."Swedish Fighter Intercepts Plane Transporting Ford", Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune, August 5, 1975, p. 1. Billy Martin had his first game as manager of baseball's New York Yankees for owner George Steinbrenner being hired and fired several times between 1975 and 1988. In his outing, he guided the Yankees to a 5–4 "home" win over the Cleveland Indians. The team was still playing at Shea Stadium as their own stadium was undergoing renovations until the 1976 season. Mark Gallagher and Walter LeConte, The Yankee Encyclopedia (Sports Publishing, 2003), p. 291.
August 3, 1975 (Sunday) Less than four weeks after becoming the first President of the Comoros, Ahmed Abdallah was overthrown in a bloodless coup. Foreign mercenaries, sponsored by French soldier of fortune Bob Denard, seized the lone radio station and television station in Moroni, the capital city. An hour later, opposition leader Ali Soilih announced that he was the new President."Comoro Island Leader Ousted In Bloodless Coup", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August 4, 1975, p. 11-A. Solih would place Said Mohamed Jaffar in the office of president, before assuming the job himself in January.Ann Lynn Griffiths and Karl Nerenberg, Handbook Of Federal Countries, 2005 (McGill-Queens, 2005), pp. 123–124. A chartered ALIA, Royal Jordanian Airlines Boeing 707 crashed into the side of a mountain while attempting to land at Agadir after departing Paris three hours earlier. All but four of the passengers were Moroccans who worked in France and were coming home on their vacations. All 188 people on the jet were killed."Moroccan Jet Crash Kills 188 Aboard", Pittsburgh Press, August 4, 1975, p. 1. A0620-00, the first x-ray nova to also be visible on an optical telescope (designated V616 Mon), was seen and detected to flare. After eight months, the flare diminished, and the object is considered to be likely to be a black hole that was created around the time of the 10th century BCE based on its distance from earth of an estimated 3,000 light years.Philip A. Charles and Frederick D. Seward, Exploring the X-Ray Universe (Cambridge University Press, 1995) p263 The Louisiana Superdome opened in New Orleans."Superdome Opens In New Orleans", Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune, August, 1975, p. 3-C.Arthur Q. Davis, with J. Richard Gruber, It Happened by Design: The Life and Work of Arthur Q. Davis (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), pp. 49–50. Died: Jack Molinas, 43, gambler and former college and professional basketball player convicted for "fixing" games, was shot and killed while standing in his backyard at his home in Hollywood Hills, California, in what was believed to have been a mob hit.Charles E. Quirk, Sports and the Law: Major Legal Cases (Taylor & Francis, 1999), pp. 127–128; "Molinas Mob Victim?", St. Petersburg Independent, August 5, 1975, p. 1-C. The gunman, Eugene Conner, was convicted of murder in 1978 after being turned in by his own brother.Stanley H. Teitelbaum, Athletes Who Indulge Their Dark Side: Sex, Drugs, and Cover-Ups (ABC-CLIO, 2010), p. 56.
August 4, 1975 (Monday) Members of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group fought their way into the American consulate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, then took 52 hostages, only five of whom were American. The group demanded the release of 7 jailed Red Army members."TERRORISTS SEIZE U.S. EMBASSY", Pittsburgh Press, August 4, 1975, p. 1. Five of the JRA prisoners accepted the offer of safe passage and were flown to Libya.Aileen Gallagher, The Japanese Red Army (Rosen Publishing Group, 2003), pp. 42–43.
August 5, 1975 (Tuesday)
U.S. President Ford signed into law a U.S. Senate resolution posthumously restoring the American citizenship of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee, restoring his American citizenship. Lee had died in 1870, but had signed an oath of allegiance in 1865 as part of being granted amnesty. "Although more than a century late," President Ford said, "I am delighted to sign this resolution and to complete the full restoration of General Lee's citizenship.""President Gerald R. Ford's Remarks Upon Signing a Bill Restoring Rights of Citizenship to General Robert E. Lee", FordLibraryMuseum.gov. The Parliament of India retroactively changed the 1971 election law that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had violated four years earlier while running for her seat in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi had been convicted on June 12 of violating campaign laws, with a mandatory penalty of being barred from public office for six years, then declared an emergency. Most citizens of India were unaware of the rewriting of the law because of censorship of the press."Election Law Changed For Indira", Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune, August 6, 1975, p. 3-A. South African troops drove ten miles into Angola, resulting in a decision by Cuba to increase its presence in the African nation.Victoria Brittain, Death of Dignity: Angola's Civil War (Pluto Press, 1998), p. 3. An armored car of the Hang Seng Bank was robbed of 75 million Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to USD $10,000,000.Kam C. Wong, One Country, Two Systems: Cross Border Crime Between Hong Kong and China (Transaction Publishers, 2012), p. 34. Born: Kajol (Kajol Devgan), Indian film actress and five-time winner of Filmfare Award for Best Actress; as Kajol Mukherjee in Mumbai
August 6, 1975 (Wednesday) The United Nations Security Council declined to approve South Korea's application for membership. The United States would veto the application of North Vietnam and South Vietnam a week later.The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1976 (Newspaper Enterprise Association, 1975), pp. 944–946. One day before it was to expire, the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965 was extended for another ten years. The Act of 1975 had passed the U.S. House of Representatives 341-70 on June 4, 1975, and the U.S. Senate 77-12 on July 24.Nina M. Moore, Governing Race: Policy, Process, and the Politics of Race (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000) p100 The death of Hercule Poirot was announced worldwide by the publishers of Agatha Christie's novel Curtain.Russell H. Fitzgibbon, The Agatha Christie Companion (Popular Press, 1980), p. 44. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet unanimously approved the Helsinki Accords, and a resolution praying "that all countries represented at the conference will live up to the agreements reached. As to the Soviet Union, it will act precisely in this way." "Soviets Approve Helsinki Pact", Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune, August 7, 1975, p. 2-A.
August 7, 1975 (Thursday) Typhoon Nina produced the heaviest one-day rainfall ever recorded from a Pacific Ocean typhoon, with 97 centimeters (38 inches) at Linzhang County in the Hebei Province.Pukh Raj Rakhecha and Vijay P. Singh, Applied Hydrometeorology (Springer, 2009), p. 152. The typhoon itself had killed 12 people up to that point, in Taiwan,"Typhoon Kills 12 in Taiwan", St. Joseph (MO) News-Press, August 4, 1975, p. 3A. but the downpour continued for 26 hours, leading to a dam burst in mainland China the next day. Alger Hiss was sworn back in as an attorney, 23 years after having been disbarred in 1952 for perjury, after denying that he had given U.S. State Department documents, nicknamed the "Pumpkin Papers", to Communist spy Whittaker Chambers. Born: Charlize Theron, South African-born American actress, 2004 Academy Award winner for Best Actress for portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster, in Benoni, Gauteng David Hicks, Australian man imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay from 2001 to 2007 while awaiting trial on charges of supporting terrorism in Afghanistan; in Adelaide
August 8, 1975 (Friday) The Banqiao Dam, in China's Henan Province, failed after a freak typhoon, drowning over 26,000 people and leading to famine and disease that killed 145,000 more.Shakuntala Bhattacharya, It's Our Earth: Environmental Education (Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd, 2010), pp. 92–93. At 12:30 am local time, the Shimantan Dam, on the Ru River, gave way from a downpour; thirty minutes later, the pressure caused the Banqiao dam to burst, and 62 more dams further downstream failed as well. A large wave, at least 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) high, swept through the valley rendering eleven million people homeless. The People's Republic of China would not acknowledge the disaster until 30 years later."After 30 years, secrets, lessons of China's worst dams burst accident surface", People's Daily Online, October 1, 2005 Singer Hank Williams Jr. was seriously injured in a near-fatal mountain climbing accident at Ajax Peak in Montana, when the ground beneath him gave way, and fell 500 feet down the slope."Fall Injures Country Singer, 34", Salt Lake Tribune, August 11, 1975, p. 5. After two years of reconstructive surgeries, Williams would set about rebuilding his career and become one of the best-selling country music artists in history."Long Gone From Daddy", by Michael Bane, Billboard magazine, May 4, 1985. Died: Cannonball Adderley, 46, former high school music teacher who became a contemporary jazz artist
August 9, 1975 (Saturday)