1973

Today in History 10/20 (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

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The wreckage of a Convair 240 plane near McComb, Miss. Six were killed in the crash, including three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. (© AP Photo)(1977) Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane goes down, killing six
The band’s chartered plane runs out of fuel due to a faulty engine and crashes in Mississippi. Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines are killed, along with three crew members. Lynyrd Skynyrd would disband after the accident, with the remaining members reuniting a decade later.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, is an American rock band best known for popularizing the Southern rock genre during the 1970s. With roots tracing to the formation of My Backyard in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964, the band was also known by names such as The Noble Five and One Percent, before finally deciding on “Lynyrd Skynyrd” in 1969. The band gained worldwide recognition for its live performances and signature songs “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”. At the peak of their success, band members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, died in an airplane crash in 1977, putting an abrupt end to the 1970s era of the band.
Movies: Freebird… The Movie
Lead singers: Ronnie Van Zant (1964 – 1977) · Johnny Van Zant (Since 1987)
Tours: One More from the Road Tour · Rock N Rebels Tour II
Awards: Grammy Hall of Fame (2009, 2008)

Trade ad for Lynyrd Skynyrd's single
Trade ad for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s single “Gimme Three Steps”.
wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd
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(1977) Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane goes down, killing six.
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1720 | Calico Jack protects the rum while Anne and Mary fight
Crossed swords and a grinning skull distinguish Calico Jack Rackham’s flag, and that’s just what pirate hunters find while prowling Jamaican waters. When they attack Pirate Jack’s ship, his female crew, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, return the fight while the men, drunk on rum, wait it out in the hold.
1947 | Hollywood’s ‘Red Scare’ as Cold War paranoia breeds hysteria
In Washington, DC, the House Un-American Activities Committee holds its first hearings into possible Communist infiltration of the US film industry. Soon after, a career-killing blacklist will be drawn up with the help of famous informants, and Hollywood will be held in the jaws of the ‘Red Scare.’
1973 | Sydney Opera House opens as an architectural wonder graces Australia
Queen Elizabeth II and Ben Blakeney, a Bennelong Aborigine descendant, help mark the official opening of a new and spectacular performance space seemingly caught in full sail at the tip of a Sydney Harbor peninsula. The breathtaking Sydney Opera House will become an Australian icon.

Today in History 10/20/17

Actor Robert Montgomery tells House investigators of Hollywood "reds" in Washington, October 23, 1947 (© Byron Rollins/AP)(1947) Cold War paranoia breeds Hollywood hysteria
In Washington, DC, the House Un-American Activities Committee holds its first hearings into possible Communist infiltration of the US film industry. Soon after, a career-killing blacklist will be drawn up with the help of famous informants, and Hollywood will be held in the jaws of the 'Red Scare.'
A "Red Scare" is promotion, real and imagined, of widespread fear by a society or state about a potential rise of communism, anarchism, or radical leftism. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States with this name. The First Red Scare, which occurred immediately after World War I, revolved around a threat from the American labor movement, anarchist revolution and political radicalism. The Second Red Scare, which occurred immediately after World War II, was preoccupied with national or foreign communists infiltrating or subverting U.S. society or the federal government.
First occurred: 1917
1919 Political Cartoon
Political cartoon from 1919 depicting the Russian revolution's impact on the Paris peace talks

wiki/Red_Scare
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Today in History 10/06 (Anwar Sadat)

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Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978 (© Bill Foley/AP)(1981) Egypt’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning president is slain
Eight years to the day after launching the Yom Kippur War against Israel, and just over three years since signing the Camp David Accords that would lead to a peace treaty with Israel, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt is killed by militant fundamentalists as he reviews a Cairo army parade.
The assassination of Anwar Sadat occurred on 6 October 1981. Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr, during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back a small part of the Sinai Peninsula from Israel at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. A fatwa approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The assassination was undertaken by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
Date: Oct 06, 1981

President Jimmy Carter welcomes Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House, Washington, D.C.
Sadat (left), with President Jimmy Carter, in Washington, D.C. on April 8, 1980, during a visit to the White House.
wiki/Assassination_of_Anwar_Sadat
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(1981) Egypt’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning president is slain.
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1889 | Moulin Rouge opens as cabaret’s crimson windmill marks a Parisian hot spot
The Red Mill, or ‘Moulin Rouge,’ opens its doors in Paris, just a can-can away from the bohemian Montmartre neighborhood, and the glitzy nightclub will go on to attract not just starving artists but also hordes of the well-heeled looking for a little scandalous entertainment.
1945 | Blackballed billy goat curses the Cubs
Billy Sianis and his pet goat are asked to leave game 4 of baseball’s World Series between home team Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers because of the goat’s odor. Outraged, Sianis allegedly declares, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” Thus cursed, as some fans would come to believe, the Cubs will lose the game, the series, and never play in a series again until 2016, when they beat the Cleveland Indians 4 games to 3, winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years, thus finally breaking the curse.
1973 | A Mideast clash with far-ranging implications as Arab-Israeli War begins
Egypt and Syria strike Israeli-held territory in a two-front surprise attack aimed at regaining land lost in 1967’s Six Day War. The Yom Kippur War ratchets up conflict between its combatants as well as their allies and arms-suppliers, the US for Israel and the USSR for Egypt and Syria.

Today in History 10/06/17

Israeli troops maneuvring to block the Syrian attack during the Yom Kippur War (© Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)(1973) A Mideast clash with far-ranging implications
Egypt and Syria strike Israeli-held territory in a two-front surprise attack aimed at regaining land lost in 1967's Six Day War. The Yom Kippur War ratchets up conflict between its combatants as well as their allies and arms-suppliers, the US for Israel and the USSR for Egypt and Syria.
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War, also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was a war fought by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel from October 6 to 25, 1973. The fighting mostly took place in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, territories that had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat also wanted to reopen the Suez Canal. Neither specifically planned to destroy Israel, although the Israeli leaders could not be sure of that.
Start date: Oct 06, 1973
End date: Oct 26, 1973
1973 sinai war maps
The 1973 War in the Sinai, October 6–15.

wiki/Yom_Kippur_War
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Today in History 09/20 (Battle of the Sexes)

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Billie Jean King shakes hands with retired tennis champion Bobby Riggs after defeating him in a 'Battle of the Sexes' match (© Bettmann/Corbis)(1973) No love lost in tennis battle of the sexes
Having bested Margaret Court months earlier, former Wimbledon champ Bobby Riggs, 55, meets women’s tennis superstar Billie Jean King, 29, in what the media dub “the battle of the sexes.” Riggs’ dream of proving male athletic superiority is smashed when King handily wins the match in front of spectators and millions of TV viewers.
In tennis, “Battle of the Sexes” is a term that has been used to describe various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman. Most famously, the term is used for a nationally televised match in 1973, held at the Houston Astrodome, between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs and 29-year-old Billie Jean King, which King won in three sets. The match attracted massive attention and was viewed by an estimated 90 million people around the world; King’s win is considered a milestone in public acceptance of women’s tennis.
First occurred: May 13, 1973

From the
Paraphernalia from the Billie Jean King vs Bobby Riggs match
wiki/Battle_of_the_Sexes_(tennis)
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(1973) No love lost in tennis battle of the sexes.
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1746 | Bonnie Prince Charlie escapes Scotland after failed uprising
As the second Jacobite claimant to Britain’s throne, Charles Edward Stuart has spent a year in Scotland struggling to do what his father, ‘The Old Pretender,’ could not. This ‘Young Pretender’ has no better luck, and breaks for France as the dream of a Catholic British king dies out.
1873 | Panic on Wall Street as bonds and banks fail as a depression looms
Wall Street is in free fall in the wake of US railroad bonds defaulting and the biggest banks in the US failing, and the crisis will close the New York Stock Exchange for 10 days. A major worldwide economic collapse follows and will not let up in some countries for two decades.
1946 | 1st Cannes opens to glamour, commerce, and art converging
Scheduled to hold an inaugural gala in 1939, Cannes had to delay its film festival’s rollout for seven years while WWII raged. Now that the all-clear has sounded, the Cannes Film Festival begins its annual tradition as the film world descends on the French Riviera resort.

Today in History 09/20/17

Illustration of officials closing the doors of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during the panic of 1873 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1873) Bonds and banks fail as a depression looms
Wall Street is in free fall in the wake of US railroad bonds defaulting and the biggest banks in the US failing, and the crisis will close the New York Stock Exchange for 10 days. A major worldwide economic collapse follows and will not let up in some countries for two decades.
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879, and even longer in some countries. In Britain, for example, it started two decades of stagnation known as the "Long Depression" that weakened the country's economic leadership. The Panic was known as the "Great Depression" until the events in the early 1930s set a new standard.
Start date: 1873
End date: 1879
Panic of 1873 bank run
A bank run on the Fourth National Bank No. 20 Nassau Street, New York City, from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 4 October 1873

wiki/Panic_of_1873
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Today in History 09/19 (Radio Free America)

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The Rev. Carl McIntire leads a protest (© John G. White/The Denver Post/Getty Images)(1973) Pirate radio station protests the FCC
Controversial minister Rev. Carl McIntire starts a pirate radio station, broadcasting 12 miles off Cape May, NJ, after the FCC had shut down his Pennsylvania station over violations of the fairness doctrine. Twenty-two years later, the day will be dubbed ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day’ for reasons completely unrelated to McIntire’s broadcast.
Carl Curtis McIntire, Jr., known as Carl McIntire, was a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church, founder and long-time president of the International Council of Christian Churches and the American Council of Christian Churches, and a popular religious radio broadcaster, who proudly identified himself as a fundamentalist.
Born: May 17, 1906 · Ypsilanti, MI
Died: Apr 19, 2002 · Collingswood, NJ
Nationality: American
Written works: Author of liberty · Servants of apostasy · Twentieth century reformation · Communist China · For Such A Time As This · A Cloud of Witnesses: Or Heroes of the Faith
Education: Park University · Princeton University · Princeton Theological Seminary · Westminster Theological Seminary
Buried: Harleigh Cemetery, Camden
Highlights
  • 1936: In February 1936, during the series of ecclesiastical trials, McIntire launched a weekly newspaper, The Christian Beacon to give greater voice to his message.

  • 1937: McIntire and others left in 1937 to form the Bible Presbyterian Church, which emphasized Fundamentalist distinctives in contrast to continental Reformed positions, supporting political involvement, the Scofield Reference Bible, a premillennialist view of eschatology, and abstinence from the use of tobacco and alcohol.

  • 1941: In 1941, he helped create the American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC) as a conservative alternative to the liberal Federal (later, National) Council of Churches (NCC).

  • 1948: In 1948, he likewise helped to found the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC) to challenge the World Council of Churches (WCC).

  • 1956: McIntire and west coast supporters of the Bible Presbyterian Church founded Highland College in Pasadena, California, a small Christian liberal arts college, and remained associated with the college until 1956.

  • 1965: In 1965, McIntire effectively purchased radio station, WXUR, Media, Pennsylvania, although it was formally owned by Faith Theological Seminary.

Carl McIntire (1906-2002), fundamentalist Presbyterian radio preacher
Carl McIntire (1906-2002), fundamentalist Presbyterian radio preacher
wiki/Carl_McIntire
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(1973) Pirate radio station protests the FCC.
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1893 | New Zealand is first to give women the vote
Following some 20 years of activism and a 32,000-signature petition, Governor Lord Glasgow gives Royal Assent to a bill granting adult women the right to vote, and New Zealand becomes the first country to achieve the milestone. US women will gain voting rights 27 years later.
1970 | Rock music fans converge for the first time at Glastonbury
The bucolic fields of Somerset, England, begin to rock as the Pilton Festival opens at Worthy Farm. Some 1,500 revelers dig glam-rock band T. Rex at Michael Eavis’ open-air music concert that will later be renowned, and attended by hundreds of thousands, as the Glastonbury Festival.
1988 | Diving mishap doesn’t stop Louganis
US Olympic veteran Greg Louganis is competing in the Seoul Olympics springboard diving preliminaries when he slams his head against the board on a reverse pike, resulting in a concussion and a cut requiring five stitches. The next day’s thrilling final will net Louganis the gold medal.

Today in History 09/19/17

New Zealand women participate in an election for the first time at Wellington North (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1893) New Zealand is first to give women the vote
Following some 20 years of activism and a 32,000-signature petition, Governor Lord Glasgow gives Royal Assent to a bill granting adult women the right to vote, and New Zealand becomes the first country to achieve the milestone. US women will gain voting rights 27 years later.

On 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

In most other democracies – including Britain and the United States – women did not win the right to the vote until after the First World War. New Zealand’s world leadership in women’s suffrage became a central part of our image as a trail-blazing ‘social laboratory’.

That achievement was the result of years of effort by suffrage campaigners, led by Kate Sheppard. In 1891, 1892 and 1893 they compiled a series of massive petitions calling on Parliament to grant the vote to women. In recent years Sheppard’s contribution to New Zealand’s history has been acknowledged on the $10 note.

Today, the idea that women could not or should not vote is completely foreign to New Zealanders. Following the 2014 election, 31% of our Members of Parliament were female, compared with 9% in 1981. In the early 21st century women have held each of the country’s key constitutional positions: prime minister, governor-general, speaker of the House of Representatives, attorney-general and chief justice.


Suffrage petition, 1893
Suffrage petition, 1893

wiki/Women's_suffrage_in_New_Zealand
wiki/Women's_suffrage
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Today in History 09/11 (Chilean coup d’état)

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Chilean President Salvador Allende speaks during a news conference in Santiago, Chile on July 5, 1973 (© AP)(1973) Allende overthrown in Chile as a dictator waits in the wings
His presidential palace bombarded by his own air force, the world’s first democratically elected Marxist head of state, Salvador Allende, dies as a military coup ousts him from power in Chile. The South American country will then fall under the dictatorial rule of General Augusto Pinochet.
The 1973 Chilean coup d’état was a watershed moment in both the history of Chile and the Cold War. Following an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress of Chile and the socialist President Salvador Allende, as well as economic warfare ordered by US President Richard Nixon, Allende was overthrown by the armed forces and national police.
Date: Sep 11, 1973

Coup of September 11, 1973. Bombing of La Moneda (presidential palace)
Coup of September 11, 1973. Bombing of La Moneda (presidential palace)
wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d’état
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(1973) Allende overthrown in Chile as a dictator waits in the wings.
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1792 | King Louis XIV’s 68-carat ‘French Blue’ diamond is stolen
Looters take advantage of the French Revolution’s chaos by breaking into the Royal Storehouse and nabbing the Crown Jewels, among them a steel-blue diamond of enormous size. The ‘French Blue’ will vanish for 20 years before one recut piece surfaces in London as the Hope Diamond.
1850 | ‘Swedish Nightingale’ makes her US debut to rapturous acclaim
American showman extraordinaire P.T. Barnum has secured the Swedish singing sensation, soprano Jenny Lind, for a US concert tour and tonight’s premiere in New York is met with a thunderous ovation. The press will dub the hubbub surrounding the singer’s American debut, ‘Lind mania.’
2001 | Al-Qaeda attacks US cities in coordinated attack
Four passenger jets are hijacked in a terrorist suicide plot, with two planes slamming into New York’s World Trade Center twin towers, one hitting the Pentagon outside Washington, DC, and another crashing in Pennsylvania. The death toll from the worst terrorist attack on American soil will reach nearly 3,000.

Today in History 09/11/17

A jet airliner nears one of the World Trade Center towers in New York, just before impact, on Sept 11, 2001 (© Carmen Taylor/AP)(2001) Terrorists hit major US cities in coordinated attack
Four passenger jets are hijacked in a terrorist suicide plot, with two planes slamming into New York's World Trade Center twin towers, one hitting the Pentagon outside Washington, DC, and another crashing in Pennsylvania. The death toll from the worst terrorist attack on American soil will reach nearly 3,000.
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.
Date: Sep 11, 2001
Fatalities: 2,996
World Trade Center, NY - 2001-09-11 - Debris Impact Areas
Diagram showing the attacks on the World Trade Center

wiki/September_11_attacks
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