The Year of Our Lord, 1973
Politics & Government
- President: Richard M. Nixon
- Vice President: Spiro T. Agnew
Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark enter European Economic Community (Jan. 1). President Richard Nixon, on national TV, accepts responsibility, but not blame, for the Watergate scandal; accepts resignations of advisers H. R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, fires John W. Dean III as counsel (April 30). Spiro T. Agnew resigns as vice president and then, in federal court in Baltimore, pleads no contest to charges of evasion of income taxes on $29,500 he received in 1967, while governor of Maryland. He is fined $10,000 and put on three years’ probation (Oct. 10). In the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Nixon fires special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus; Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson resigns (Oct. 20). Greek military junta abolishes monarchy and proclaims republic (June 1).
Chile’s Marxist president, Salvadore Allende, is overthrown (Sept. 11) and Gen. Augusto Pinochet takes power. Ephraim Katzir becomes Israel’s fourth president. Elections for the Eighth Knesset were held. Sheik Ahmed Yassin founds the Islamic Center in Gaza and becomes a key figure in the occupied territory.
Law
Remembering the observation of eminent jurist Mr. Justice Cardoza that all laws in western civilization are guided by a robust common sense, Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, after quoting Cardoza, went on to write:
The sum of experience including that of the past two decades affords an ample basis for legislators to conclude that a sensitive, key relationship of human existence (central to family life, community welfare and the development of human personality) can be debased and distorted by crass commercialization of sex. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits a State from reaching such a conclusion and acting on it legislatively simply because there is no conclusive evidence or empirical data…
- Enough.org {1} In 1972, George Carlin recorded “Class Clown”; on it was a bit called “Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say on Television”. An underlying premise of Carlin’s (which is often overtly stated) is that words are simply symbols, and inherently not harmful. There are no naughty words, Carlin asserts, only naughty ideas. On October 30, 1973, Paul Gorman, a DJ at Pacifica Radio Station WBAI, aired Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” during a daytime slot of his show, issuing a disclaimer that those who might be offended by strong language should tune away. John H. Douglas, a planning board member of Morality in Media, was driving with his young son at the time, heard the disclaimer, but decided to listen anyway. In a letter of complaint to the FCC enforcement bureau dated November 28, 1973, Douglas expressed concern that his 12-year-old son heard parts of the Carlin routine. While Douglas acknowledged that Carlin’s monologue had some social value and that he understood selling the record for private use, the complaint alleged the WBAI broadcast was inappropriate for children to hear during the middle of the day. The great irony, that the Carlin’s routine is itself about censorship, was apparently lost on the Supreme Court, who decided this case on July 3, 1978. Pacifica lost. - BC Voice {2} US Supreme Court rules on Roe v. Wade.(Jan. 22) In the landmark 1973 case “Miller v. California,” US Supreme Court rules that communities around the country had the right to apply local standards in deciding what is considered obscene. That was back in the day when most pornography was bought at sex stores or viewed in adult theaters, and when community was defined largely by geography. According to CNN’s {3} Jeordan Legon, modern technology like VCRs and the Internet have revolutionized the concepts of locality and threaten modern definitions of obscenity.
Sports
In the 1973 Belmont Stakes, Secretariat (the remarkable horse) capped a Triple Crown sweep, the first in 25 years, coming off a mind-boggling 31-length win.
- Super Bowl: Miami d. Washington (14-7)
- World Series: Oakland A’s d. NY Mets (4-3)
- NBA Championship: New York d. LA Lakers (4-1)
- Stanley Cup: Montreal d. Chicago (4-2)
- Wimbledon Champions: (Women) Billie Jean King d. C. Evert (6-0 7-5), (Men) Jan Kodes d. A. Metreveli (6-1 9-8 6-3)
- Kentucky Derby Champion: Secretariat
- NCAA Basketball Championship: UCLA d. Memphis St. (87-66)
- NCAA Football Champions: Notre Dame (AP, FW, NFF) (11-0-0) & Alabama (UPI) (11-1-0)
- The start of a 4-year consecutive Big Ten championship by Bob Knight’s Hoosiers, led by Scott May and Quinn Buckner.
