May 12, 1975: American freighterMayaguez and crew seized by Cambodian communist troopsMay 15, 1975: U.S. Marine and U.S. Navy force fights Khmer Rouge troopsU.S. recaptures theMayaguez
Under pressure from theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, theNew York Stock Exchange dropped the requirement of afixed commission for stock transactions. Free to vary their rates, brokerage houses could compete for large investors by offering a lower charge than that for individuals.[1] "Overnight...the average commission dropped by 75 percent,"Alan C. Greenberg would note in 2010, adding "the 5,000 share trade of IBM stock 35 years ago included a $1,500 commission but today can be executed online for $8.95".[2]
Hank Aaron broke the career record for RBIsruns batted in when hisMilwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers 17-3. Aaron, who had already brokenBabe Ruth's career home run record, surpassed Ruth's RBI mark with the 2,210th RBI.[3] Aaron's record of 2,297 RBIs remains unbroken.
The remaining South Vietnamese soldiers, in the last fight against North Vietnamese invaders, surrendered at 9:00 am in the battle ofLong Xuyên, An Giang.[4]
In his last meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, ChairmanMao Zedong spoke out to reverse the disastrousCultural Revolution. Mao criticized his own wife (Jiang Qing), along with her associates (Zhang Chunqiao,Yao Wenyuan, andWang Hongwen) for their instigation of the movement, telling them "Don't function as a gang of four."[6] The Chairman would also call for the reversal of the persecution of intellectuals, who had been referred to by cultural revolutionaries as "the stinking number nine" (choulaojiu), the ninth group of pariahs (the first eight were landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements, rightists, renegades, enemy agents and capitalist roaders); quoting from the Communist Chinese operaTaking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Mao proclaimed "We can't do without 'number nine'."[7] After Mao's death the following year, the Party would remove and prosecute theGang of Four (Sìrén bàng).
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrierUSS Nimitz, first of theNimitz class group of the ten largest "supercarriers" in the world, was commissioned.[8]
All former South Vietnamese military personnel and government officials were ordered to register with the victorious Communist conquerors, starting with generals on May 8 and 9. One month later, all registrants would be ordered to report to reeducation camps.[9]
The city ofJerusalem was struck by missiles for the first time, after two Czechoslovakian madeKatyusha rockets, fired by Arab guerillas, struck 500 meters from the Knesset parliament building.[10]
The one millionth run in Major League Baseball history was scored byBob Watson of theHouston Astros, during a game against theGiants inSan Francisco. By the end of the 1973 season, sportscaster Mark Sackler calculated that 981,823 runs had been scored since the National League began play in 1876 and the American League in 1901; and before the start of the 1975 season the mark was 997,869. When the count reached 999,500 MLB set up a center in New York City to record each additional run at the moment that the batter finished rounding the bases. AfterClaudell Washington of Oakland registered #999,999 against the White Sox at 3:26 pm New York time, both Watson (in San Francisco) and the Reds'Dave Concepción (in Cincinnati, against Atlanta) came up to bat. Concepcion's hit actually came a few seconds before that of Watson, but in the race between the two men, Watson reached home plate at 3:32:30 (12:32 local) while Concepcion was rounding third base for #1,000,001.[11]
Weeks after taking control of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a fight against the new Communist regime in Vietnam, seizing control of South Vietnam'sPhú Quốc Island and making the first attacks in what would lead to theCambodian–Vietnamese War.[12]
Died:Moe Howard, 77, leader and last survivor ofThe Three Stooges. Born Moses Horwitz, he outlived his brothersCurly Howard (Jerome Horwitz) andShemp Howard (Samuel Horwitz). The other part of the famous team of Moe, Larry and Curly—Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg) — had died three months earlier.
For the first time since the founding ofSocial Security in the U.S., the Social Security Administration announced the retirement and disability program was in debt; and that its $46 billion reserve would be drained by 1983.[14]
Atornado destroyed much of the city ofOmaha,Nebraska, touching down at 4:29 in the afternoon local time, and then moving north-eastwardly for almost half an hour.[15] The amount of damage— more than $300,000,000 (equivalent to $1,450,000,000 in 2019)— set a new record for the costliest tornado in American history, but only three people were killed[16][17]
The first "Moon Tree" to be planted, so called because it was grown from a seed that had been part of small canister containing about 500 seeds that had been taken to the Moon on theApollo 14 mission, was placed atWashington Square Park inPhiladelphia.[18]
Died:József Mindszenty, 77, Hungarian Roman Catholic cardinal who was imprisoned and tortured for defying the Communist regime in Hungary. From 1956 to 1971, he was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy in Budapest.
U.S. President Ford proclaimed the end of theVietnam Era for purposes of certain veterans' benefits.[20] Under Title 38 of theUnited States Code, §101 (29)(A), the era is now defined as "The period beginning onFebruary 28, 1961, and ending on May 7, 1975, in the case of a veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period."[21]
Died:George Baker, 59, American U.S. Army sergeant and cartoonist who created the World War II comic strip character "Sad Sack" (later adapted as a comic book series forHarvey Comics.
The last known foreigners remaining in Cambodia, about 550 occupants of the French Embassy inPhnom Penh, crossed the border into Thailand three weeks after Cambodia's fall to Communist guerillas. Transported by a convoy of cars and trucks, and escorted by soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, the group that walked over intoAranyaprathet consisted of 230 French citizens and about 300 Khmer Muslims, but no Cambodian holders of French passports.[23]
In Laos,Kaho Xane Pathet Lao, the official newspaper of the Lao People's Party, ran the announcement that the nation'sHmong people "must be exterminated down to the root of the tribe" because their soldiers had assisted the United States in fighting the Communists. The extermination would begin days later.[24]
The Constitution of Cameroon was amended to create a new office,Prime Minister of Cameroon, which would also be first in line to succeed the President. The first officeholder would bePaul Biya, who would become President in 1982, a post he still holds.[25]
TheBetamax home videotaping system was introduced bySony with the LV-1901 going on sale in Japan. The unit, which contained a color TV, the recorder, and the tapes, retailed for $2,488 (equivalent to more than $9,000 USD in 2010).[26]
Brian Oldfield of the United States set a mark for theshot put of 75 feet, more than 3 feet further than had ever been achieved. The record was not recognized, because Oldfield was paid as an athlete for theInternational Track Association (ITA).[27]
Darrell Waltrip won his first national NASCAR race in his fourth season of competition, in the Music City 420 inNashville. Waltrip would go on to win three NASCAR championships (1981, 1982 and 1985).[28]
U.S. Treasury SecretaryWilliam E. Simon announced the federal government would not provide aid to provide $1.5 billion to meet two months of expenditures for New York City. The requests had been made by city MayorAbraham Beame.[29]
At 2:10 pm local time (3:10 am in Washington DC), theUnited States merchant shipSSMayaguez was stopped in international waters by the P-128, a Cambodian gunboat manned byKhmer Rouge forces. Ten minutes later, P-128 fired machine guns across the bow as a warning, and at 2:35, a group of seven Khmer soldiers boarded theMayaguez,commandeering the ship and taking its 39 crew captive.[32][33]
Two Soviet destroyer ships, theBoykiy and theZhguchiy, sailed into Boston Harbor, becoming the first Soviet ships to dock at a U.S. port since the beginning of theCold War. The occasion was the 30th anniversary of the Allied victory over Germany.[35] The next day, the U.S. Navy ships USSLeahy and the USSTattnall sailed intoLeningrad.[36]
Helmut Kohl was selected ahead of Franz Joseph Strauss as the Christian Socialist Union candidate for Chancellor in the 1976 West German elections.[37]
South Korea's PresidentPark Chung-hee issued "Emergency Decree No. 9 for the Preservation of National Security and Public Order", prohibiting anyone from trying to "deny, oppose, distort, slander, revise or abrogate" theYushin constitution that had been adopted in 1972.[38]
Turkey's Prime MinisterSüleyman Demirel was punched in the face by a 34-year-old unemployed man, Vural Onsel, at Ankara. Demirel's nose was broken as he walked out of a cabinet meeting.[39]
After the British government declined to award a patent toCésar Milstein,Georges J. F. Köhler andNiels Kaj Jerne for inventing a process to create specially-made antibodies, Milstein and Köhler submitted a letter to the British science journalNature, which published the news in its August 7 issue. The three biochemists would win the Nobel Prize in 1984.[40]
Nineteen years after the Academy Award for best screenplay was awarded to, but went unclaimed by, an author with the pseudonym of "Robert Rich",Dalton Trumbo was presented the 1956 Oscar for scriptingThe Brave Ones. Trumbo had beenblacklisted from Hollywood during the 1950s for his former membership in the Communist Party.[41]
Thousands ofHmong soldiers and officers, who had assisted the CIA during theLaotian Civil War, reported to theLong Chieng airbase inLaos, along with their families. Though the Hmong were told that they would be airlifted to safety before the country was taken over by the Communist Pathet Lao, only two cargo planes were allotted to the rescue, which saved only 2,500 people.[42] The others were forced to flee into the surrounding jungles, where they were hunted down after Communist troops captured Long Chieng. Those who survived to make it to Thailand lived in refugee camps for years.[43]
The first full-sized luxury electric car, the Transformer 1, was introduced byApollo Energy Systems at a press conference in the Detroit suburb ofSouthfield, Michigan. Robert Aronson showed the car to reporters and Aronson's friend, television personalityArthur Godfrey, drove the vehicle around the grounds of the Raleigh House. The Transformer 1 was a modified two-door 1975Chevy Chevelle powered by a 180-volt lead cobalt battery
Died:Ernst Alexanderson, 97, Swedish-born American inventor and pioneer in the development of radio and television.[44]
The American merchant shipMayaguez, seized three days earlier by Cambodian forces, was rescued after the U.S. Marines landed on Kohn Tang Island, where the 45 crewmen had been held captive. Another contingent of Marines had boarded theMayaguez and found it deserted, while the 130-man force sent to the island fought in combat against the Khmer Rouge. Under the white flag of surrender, a Cambodian vessel brought 30 Americans to the destroyer USSWilson.[45] Thirty-eight U.S. Marines were killed in America's last battle in Indochina.[46] The American assault force that landed on Koh Tang expected only 20 Khmer Rouge defenders, and encountered 150. A Khmer rocket brought down "Knife 31", a U.S. Sikorsky HH-53 helicopter, and 18 of the 231 Americans were unaccounted for when the attack force withdrew. It would later be revealed that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.[47]
Sikkim, formerly an absolute monarchy, became the 22nd state ofIndia and its 200,000 residents became citizens, as Indian PresidentFakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed an order ratifying an amendment to the nation's constitution. Sikkimese voters had overwhelmingly approved annexation onApril 14 and India's Parliament had approved statehood the same month.[49]
Junko Tabei, a 35-year-old homemaker from Japan, became the first woman to reach the top ofMount Everest, arriving at the summit 29,028 feet above sea level at 12:30 pm local time. Mrs. Tabei was accompanied by a Sherpa guide, Ang Tsering. At the time, she was only the 36th person to scale the mountain, the first two having been Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.[50] Mrs. Tabei would go on to become the first woman to scale the highest peak on all seven continents.
Filbert Bayi ofTanzania broke the world record for running thefastest mile, held byJim Ryun for almost eight years (June 23, 1967). Bayi, who led the race inKingston,Jamaica, from start to finish, bested Ryun by a tenth of a second, covering the distance in 3:51.0; less than three months later, on August 12,John Walker ofNew Zealand would break Bayi's mark.[51]
The "Wild Man of theGreen Swamp (Florida)" was captured by sheriff's deputies inSumter County, Florida after surviving on his own for eight months. First sighted in September, he had eaten armadillos, snakes, turtles and alligators.[52] Identified as Hu Tu-Mei of Taiwan, a mentally ill man who had escaped from a Tampa hospital, the "Wild Man" hanged himself in jail two days later.[53]
Trial began againstInternational Business Machines (IBM) for violations of anti-trust law, and lasted for more than six years. On January 8, 1982, the U.S. Justice Department would voluntarily drop further proceedings.[55]
Marxist rebels fromZaire crossedLake Tanganyika intoTanzania, and invaded the Gombe Stream primate research facility that had been home to primatologistJane Goodall. Three Stanford University students, and one Dutch national, Goodall, nursing a sore eye, had turned off her nightlight minutes before the troops arrived, which she would say later kept her from being taken hostage. The four hostages would be released two months later, but the Gombe park has requires armed protection ever since.[56]
In India'sMaharashtra state, a truck, filled with people on their way to a wedding, was struck by a passenger train while crossing the tracks, killing 66 people and injuring another 18.[57]
The newKhmer Rouge regime inCambodia began theCambodian genocide, a coordinated effort to purge private citizens associated by the new government as impediments to the revolution. Between 1975 and the1978 invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam, an estimated 1.3 million people would be executed out of a population of 7.8 million.[58] Although executions of public officials of the old regime had taken place after Phnom Penh fell, May 20 is now commemorated in Cambodia as the date that the Khmer Rouge campaign against private citizens began[59] and is a public holiday, the"National Day of Remembrance"[60]
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 303-96 to admit women to the previously all-male service academies at West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs.[61] The Senate would follow suit, and the bill signed into law in June.[62]
In Game 5 of the NHL championship, a hot, humid evening in Buffalo, New York, the temperature insideMemorial Auditorium reached 90 °F, causing a foggy mist to hover over the ice hockey rink. By the third period, the mist was thick enough that the puck was difficult to see. Play was halted 15 times so that the fog could be dispersed (by having players from both teams skate around the rink). The hometown Sabres tied the game 4-4 against the Philadelphia Flyers, then won 5-4 in sudden death overtime as a shot byRene Robert got past Flyers' goalieBernie Parent.[63]
The 174th and final episode of the NBC police dramaAdam-12 was broadcast, ending a seven-season run for actorsMartin Milner (as officer Pete Malloy) andKent McCord (as officer Jim Reed).
The musicalA Chorus Line was performed for the first time, opening at the Newman Theater in New York City. When the production moved to theShubert Theater on Broadway, it would run for 6,104 performances.[64]
Seventy-six of the 100 United States Senators signed a letter to U.S. President Ford, asking him "to endorse Israel's demand for defensible frontiers and massive economic and military assistance" when preparing the budget to be submitted to Congress.[65]
New York Jets quarterbackJoe Namath turned down what would have been the most lucrative contract in pro football up to that time, $4,000,000 to play with theChicago Winds of theWorld Football League for the 1975 and 1976 seasons, and the 1977 for a future WFL franchise in New York City.[69]
Died:
Lefty Grove, 75, former MLB pitcher and member of Baseball Hall of Fame
Torben Meyer, 90, Danish-born Hollywood character actor
The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 was signed into law by U.S. President Ford, providing for resettlement of South Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees into the United States. The Act would be amended on June 21, 1976 to include refugees from Laos.[70]
A military government was appointed to lead Lebanon, with Brigadier GeneralNureddine Rifai as the interim Prime Minister, and a cabinet with only one civilian member.[71] The administration of Lebanon's "first military premier" ended when he resigned after only three days.[72]
Dave Beck, former President of the Teamsters International, was given an unconditional pardon by U.S. President Ford. The man who succeeded Beck,Jimmy Hoffa, would disappear two months later.[73]
The last naturally occurring case of thesmallpox virusvariola major was found on a woman named Saiban Bibi, who was found ill at a railway station inKarimganj in the Assam state of India. The last case ofvariola minor would be found inSomalia, atMerca, in October 1977.[74]
Bobby Unser won the1975 Indianapolis 500, which was halted after 435 miles (700 km), with 25 laps left. Unser, in his second win, was in the lead when a rainstorm caused officials to stop the race.[76]
TheDibbles Bridge coach crash nearGrassington,North Yorkshire, England killed 32 people, all but the driver being middle-aged and elderly women, in the worst road accident in the history of the United Kingdom. The women, all bus passengers fromThornaby-on-Tees, were on a sightseeing tour of theYorkshire Dales. The poorly maintained brakes of the bus failed as it was descending a steep hill, sending the vehicle out of control and off of a 17 foot high bridge.[78]
TheAlaska Supreme Court ruled, 5-0, that the right to possession and use ofmarijuana within one's home could not be outlawed, citing constitutional guarantees of privacy, making Alaska the first of the United States to partiallydecriminalize cannabis.[79] The decision came in the case ofRavin v. State, 537 P.2d. 494 (Alaska, 1975),[80] a test case brought by lawyer Irvin Ravin ofHomer, Alaska, who had arranged to be stopped while driving to his home with a small amount of pot in his possession.[81]
ThePhiladelphia Flyers defeated theBuffalo Sabres, 2-0, to win the NHL'sStanley Cup, 4 games to 2. The series marked the first Cup finals, since 1923, that neither of the two finalists had been one of the "Original Six" (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, N.Y. Rangers, or Toronto).[82]
Laos and the United States reached an 8-point agreement inVientiane, with all Americans to leave Laos, the last nation in Southeast Asia not controlled by Communists, by June 30.[83]
Quechua, spoken by three million of the Quechua people inPeru, was made the second official language in that South American nation, joining Spanish as a language to be used in education and court proceedings.[84]
Less than a month after the fall of South Vietnam created doubts about American commitment to its allies, U.S. President Ford reassured the other members of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization that "NATO is the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy and has the unwavering support of the American public and of our Congress. Our commitment to this alliance will not falter."[85] Ford declared inBrussels the next day that none of the 310,000 American troops in Europe would be withdrawn and re-emphasized that the U.S. "unconditionally and unequivocally remains true" to its pledge to defend Western Europe against an outside attack.[86]
Ludvík Svoboda retired as General Secretary of Czechoslovakia's Communist Party, due to illness, and was replaced byGustáv Husák. Svoboda, 80, remained as President of Czechoslovakia until June 5, because he was too ill to sign a resignation.[87]
For the first time in eight years, theSuez Canal became navigable once more, after the last two ships, trapped since theSix-Day War of 1967, were raised and removed. The British freightersScottish Star andPort Invercargill, were towed 60 miles from the Great Bitter Lake toPort Said. The Suez Canal would officially reopen on June 5.[88]
The five-teamInternational Volleyball Association (IVA) played its very first game before a crowd of 2,451 as the San Diego Breakers defeated the visiting El Paso - Juarez Sol in a five-game match, 11-13, 12-10, 12-6, 8-12 and 12-1.[89][90]
Born:CeeLo Green (stage name for Thomas D. Callaway), 47, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor; inAtlanta
Died:
Steve Prefontaine, 24, American long distance runner described as "holder of every American distance record above 2000 meters",[91] was killed in an auto accident at the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Birch Lane inEugene, Oregon, after crashing into a rock wall and being pinned beneath his vehicle. Prefontaine, who held the U.S. records for the 5000m and 10000m races, as well as for two, three and six miles, died hours after having run the second fastest 5000m race in NCAA history. An autopsy showed that he had a blood alcohol level of .16[92]
CommunistPathet Lao troops took control ofSavannakhet, the second largest city inLaos, as Laotian Prime MinisterSouvanna Phouma ordered the Royal Army to lay down their arms and cease further resistance. By year's end, Laos would become the third nation in Indochina (after Cambodia and South Vietnam) to fall under Communist control during that year.
^"China gives market nod",Anchorage Daily News, May 10, 1975, p2
^"A Last Exit from Cambodia",Milwaukee Journal, May 8, 1975, p1
^Anne Fadiman,The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (Macmillan, 1998) pp138-139
^Mark D. DeLancey and Rebecca Neh Mbuh,Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon (Scarecrow Press, 2010), p114
^Paul McDonald,Video and DVD Industries (British Film Institute, 2007) p33;BetamaxCollectors.com
^"Shot Mark Beaten, but It Doesn't Fall",Milwaukee Journal, May 11, 1975, p2-1; Peter Matthews,Historical Dictionary of Track and Field (Scarecrow Press, 2012) p188
^Ben White and Nigel Kinrade,NASCAR Racers (MotorBooks International, 2009) p156
^"US Says No to N.Y. Pleas",Milwaukee Journal, May 11, 1975, p1-3
^"Thousands of activists celebrate end of war",Miami News, May 12, 1975, p2
^Denise Sullivan,Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-Hop (Chicago Review Press, 2011) p161
^James E. Wise, Jr. and Scott Baron,The 14-Hour War: Valor on Koh Tang and the Recapture of the SS Mayaguez (Naval Institute Press, 2011) pp3-5
^"CAMBODIA SEIZES SHIP; U.S. URGED TO RETALIATE",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13, 1975, p1
^"Soviet Ships Get Colorful Greeting",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13, 1975, p3
^"US Warships Stir Big Splash in Russia",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 14, 1975, p1
^Heinrich August Winkler,Germany: The Long Road West (Oxford University Press, Dec 7, 2007) p309
^Pyŏng-guk Kim and Ezra F. Vogel,The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea (Harvard University Press, 2011) p394
^"Assailant Injures Turkish Premier",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 14, 1975, p2
^"Nobel prize for inventors of monoclonals",New Scientist, 18 October 1984, p9
^"Belated Oscar Awarded",Merced (CA) Sun-Star, May 15, 1975, p22
^Vincent K. Her,Hmong and American: From Refugees to Citizens (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2012)
^"The Hmong Campaign for Justice: A Practitioner's Perspective", by Victor M. Hwang, inLawyers’ Ethics and the Pursuit of Social Justice (NYU Press, 2005)
^Charles J. Alber,Embracing the Lie: Ding Ling and the Politics of Literature in the People's Republic of China (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) p160-161
^"U.S. Drops IBM Suit, Settles With AT&T",Computerworld Magazine, January 10, 1982, p6
^Sy Montgomery,Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Biruté Galdikas(Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009) pp103-104
^"Train Rams Truck, 66 Die",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 20, 1975, p1
^Taylor B. Seybolt,Jay D. Aronson, and Baruch Fischoff,Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2013)
^David W. Haines,Refugees in America in the 1990s: A Reference Handbook (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996) pp10-11
^"MILITARY RULE IN LEBANON",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 24, 1975, p1
^"Military Premier Quits in Lebanon",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 24, 1975, p2
^"Teamsters' Ex-Chief Pardoned",Milwaukee Sentinel, May 24, 1975, p1
^C.K.J. Paniker, ed.,Ananthanarayan and Paniker's Textbook of Microbiology (Orient Blackswan, 2006) p470
^ab"Soyuz, Salyut Link Up In Space",Charleston (SC) News and Courier, May 27, 1975, p10-B
^"B. UNSER WINS AT INDY".Milwaukee Sentinel. May 26, 1975. p. 2-1.
^"Warriors Beat Bullets To Sweep Series".Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 26, 1975. p. 27.
^"Crash of Bus Is Considered Worst Road Disaster in British History",Nashua (NH) Telegraph, May 28, 1975, p2;"The day tragedy came to the Dales", "Yorkshire Post", May 27, 2005
