December 1975 in History

Events in History

Dec 1 "The Robert MacNeil Report", later "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report", currently known as "PBS NewsHour" program premieres nationally in US on PBS
Dec 1 Kuwait and Gulf and BP agree on terms of nationalization

Dec 1 US President Gerald Ford visits People's Republic of China

Dec 2 7 South Moluccans hijack train at Wijster, Drente (NL), 3 killed
Dec 2 Laos king Sisavang Vatthana resigns, Lao People's Democratic Republic founded (National Day)
Dec 3 Laos falls to communist forces; Lao People's Democratic Rep proclaimed
Dec 4 6 South Molukkans occupy Indonesian consulate in The Hague, 1 dead
Dec 5 NASA launches space vehicle S-196, it failed
Dec 6 Balcombe Street Siege: for 6 days, four Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers hold two hostages at an apartment in London, England
Dec 7 10th Islander shut-out opponent-Glenn Resch 3-0 vs Sabres
Dec 7 Archbishop Makarios returns Cyprus
Dec 7 Indonesian army occupies East Timor
Dec 8 Radio station 4ZZZ begins transmitting in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia at 105.7 FM; frequency changes to 102.1 FM in 1978
Dec 9 Iraq completes nationalization by taking over the BP, CFP, and Shell shares of the Basrah Petroleum Company
Dec 9 US President Gerald Ford signs $2.3 Bn loan authorization for NYC

Dec 9 Yelena Bonner accepts Soviet dissident Andrei Sacharov's Nobel Prize in Oslo

Dec 10 Andrei Sakharov's wife Yelena Bonner, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize

Dec 10 Terry Funk beats Jack Brisco in Miami Beach, to become NWA champ
Dec 11 US 1st class postage rises from 10 cents to 13 cents
Dec 12 Gas stove explodes & starts fire killing 138 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Dec 12 Sara Jane Moore pleds guilty to trying to kill US President Gerald Ford

Dec 13 Australian Federal Election - Liberals with coalition under Malcolm Fraser win largest ever parliamentary majority

Dec 13 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Dec 14 6 So Moluccan terrorists surrender, holding 23 hostages for 12 days
Dec 14 WCPR (Brooklyn New York pirate radio station) begins broadcasting on 1620 AM
Dec 17 John Paul Stevens appointed to the US Supreme Court
Dec 17 Lynette Fromme sentenced to life for attempt on US President Ford's life
Dec 19 The Red Hand Commandos, a very secretive Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, explode a no-warning car bomb in Dundalk, killing 2 civilians and wounding 20
Dec 20 Joe Walsh recruited to join Eagles

Dec 20 Pope Paul VI names J. Willebrands archbishop of Utrecht

Dec 21 1st NY Jet to gain 1,000 yards rushing (John Riggins)
Dec 21 Madagascar adopts constitution
Dec 22 US President Gerald Ford signs the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)
Dec 23 Peter Seitz makes Andy Messersmith & Dave McNally free agents
Dec 23 US Congress passes Metric Conversion Act
Dec 26 1st supersonic transport service (USSR-Tupolev-144)
Dec 27 Explosion at Chasnala Colliery collapses drowning 350 in Dhanbad, India
Dec 28 Earthquake in Pakistan, 4,000 die
Dec 29 11 killed, 75 hurt by terrorist bomb at LaGuardia Airport in NYC
Dec 30 Constitution of Democratic Republic of Madagascar comes into force

Dec 7 Nikola Wapzarow, Bulgarian poet and writer, born in Bansko, Bulgaria
Dec 19 Jon Smith, British writer
Dec 22 Chris Adler, American writer, born in Cheverly, Maryland
Dec 24 Young Zee, American hip hop artist, born in Newark, New Jersey
Dec 25 Pardis Sabeti, Iranian-American biologist and geneticist, born in Tehran, Iran
Dec 25 Rob Mariano, American reality show contestant, born in Boston, Massachusetts

Dec 6 US Senator Bob Dole (52) weds former senator Elizabeth Hanford (39)

Dec 19 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (45) weds Beverly Zile

Dec 4 German-American political theorist and historian (Origins of Totalitarianism), dies of a heart attack at 69

Dec 7 American playwright and writer (Bridge of San Luis Rey), dies at 78

Dec 9 Esdras Minville, Quebec writer, economist and sociologist, dies at 79
Dec 9 William A Wellman, American director (Ox Bow Incident), dies at 79
Dec 13 Hendrik Johan Kruls, Dutch general and chief military authority (1944-46), dies at 73
Dec 18 Theodosius Dobzhansky, Russian-American genetist, evolutionary biologist and author (Mankind Evolving), dies at 75
Dec 23 Richard S Welch, CIA station chief in Athens, shot dead
Dec 25 Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (Librairie Gallimard), dies at 94
Dec 29 Euell Gibbons, American outdoorsman and proponent of natural diets (b. 1911).