On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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NY Times survey on impact of oil and gas shortages finds Southerns pol reviling environment-conscious Easterners for using Southern energy and barring development of Atlantic Ocean oil and natural gas
NYC Mayor-elect A D Beame on Dec 19 appts as Admr of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs E L Weisl, who makes promise that he will demand that any museums recg funds from city make detailed financial repts; Met Museum head P F Hoving says he has no objections to idea
The General Motors Corporation and the Ford Motor Company were found not guilty of charges that they conspired to fix prices in sales to fleet buyers. Page 61.
HR-Sen conferees on Dec 19 agree on legis to restructure bankrupt Eastern rail lines under new Govt rail corp; Fed Govt will provide $1.5-billion in guaranteed loans to be used to create new system from 7 bankrupt lines and $558.5-million in grants; breakdown of how grants would be used; Sen Hartke comments; bill would set up 11-member US Ry Assn with reprs from Govt, rail mgt, rail labor, state govs, shippers and local govt; Consol Rail Corp would be established to operate new system, and would issue $1.5-billion in loan guarantees in return for assets of bankrupt lines; plan detailed; major bankrupt lines are Penn Central, Reading, Erie-Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, Boston & Maine, Central of NJ and Ann Arbor
Judge Sirica sides with Pres Nixon on Dec 19 and rules that nearly all of 2 of tapes sought in Watergate case and part of a 3d are covered by exec privilege and thus will not be turned over to special Watergate prosecution; says he bases his ruling largely on his finding, after listening to tapes, that there is nothing on 3 segments relating to Watergate; ruling sustains, with only slight exceptions, both descriptions of contents of tapes and claims of privileges Nixon made in his statement to ct on Nov 26; White House accepts on Dec 19 service of subpoenas from Sen Watergate com for nearly 500 Pres tape recordings and other documents; papers are served on Pres counsel J F Buzhardt Jr; White House press office gives no indication of whether Pres will provide materials called for in subpoenas; com aide says subpoenas call for tape recordings, electronic and mechanical 'reproductions,' notes, field telephones and writings relating to meetings and telephone calls 'with just everybody'; says about 46 items are called for; Sirica's ruling appears to indicate that prosecution's subpoena for tapes and notes of 9 White House conversations is yielding somewhat less than prosecution originally hoped and forecast; prosecution says it will accept Sirica's ruling and not appeal it; Sirica's clerk D T Christofferson says on Dec 19 that remaining subpoenaed nonprivileged materials are being copied and should be turned over to prosecution by Dec 21; 1st of 3 tapes covered by ruling includes conversations held in Nixon's office at Exec Office bldg on June 20--3 days after Watergate break-in; only part of June 20 tape not excluded by Sirica is part that bears 18-min buzzing, which has already been played in ct; 3d tape involved in ruling--recording made Sept 15 '72, day that original 7 Watergate defendants were indicted--includes some discussion of Watergate; this part will be given to prosecution
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 19, 1973, covering December 20, 1973.
Elton John
The Steve Miller Band
Ringo Starr
Neil Diamond
The Who
1973Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish admiral and politician, 69th President of the Government of Spain (born 1904; assassinated)[†]
Admiral-General Luis Carrero Blanco was a Spanish Navy officer and politician. A long-time confidant and right-hand man of dictator Francisco Franco, Carrero served as Prime Minister of Spain. Upon graduating from the naval academy Carrero Blanco participated in the Rif War, and later the Spanish Civil War, in which he supported the Rebel faction. He became one of the most prominent figures in the Francoist dictatorship's power structure and held throughout his career a number of high-ranking offices such as those of Undersecretary of the Presidency from 1941 to 1967 and Franco's deputy from 1967 to 1973. He also was the main drafter behind the 1947 Law of Succession to the Headship of the State. Franco handpicked him as his successor in the role of head of government, with Carrero thereby taking office in June 1973.
1973Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1936)[†]
Bobby Darin was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed pop, swing, folk, rock and roll, and country music.
1973Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ETA in Madrid kills three people, including the Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco.[†]
On 20 December 1973, Luis Carrero Blanco, the Prime Minister of Spain, was assassinated when a cache of explosives in a tunnel set up by the Basque separatist group ETA was detonated. The assassination, also known by its code name Operación Ogro, is considered to have been the biggest attack against the Francoist State since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and had far-reaching consequences within the politics of Spain.
In 1973, the world population was approximately 3,920,805,042 people[†]