September 1975

Month of 1975

The following events occurred in September 1975:

The Finnish opera Viimeiset kiusaukset (The Last Temptations), authored by Joonas Kokkonen and one of Finland's most distinguished national operas, was given its first performance. The aircraft units of the Canadian Armed Forces (Air Defense Command, Air Transport Command, Mobile Command, Maritime Command and Training Command) were merged into one national air force, referred to as the Canadian Forces Air Command and more commonly called AIRCOM. On August 16, 2011, AIRCOM would be renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force to reflect the branch of the services that had existed before the 1986 merger. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was opened in Hanoi so that the Vietnamese public could see the embalmed body of North Vietnam's founder, Ho Chi Minh, who had died in 1969. The World Football League owners voted 10–1 to revoke the franchise of the Chicago Winds, after two of the team's investors withdrew deposits of $350,000. The struggling American pro football league was left with ten teams, and would survive only until October 22.

Number One Observatory Circle was dedicated as the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. Previously, American vice presidents either already had homes near Washington, D. C., or rented temporary lodging. The first residents were Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and his wife Happy Rockefeller. Niki Lauda clinched the World Driving Championship by finishing in sixth place in the 1975 Italian Grand Prix, with only two races left for the season. Four American women became the last improperly ordained priests of the Episcopal Church, as Lee McGee, Alison Palmer, Betty Rosenberg and Diane Tickell brought to 15 the number of females to receive authority "to preach the word of God and to administer His holy sacraments". These women would become known as the "Washington Four". On July 29, 1974, a group of women known as the "Philadelphia Eleven" had been the first to be ordained. At the 1976 General Convention of the church, all fifteen women were approved as priests. The Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), which had been fighting against Fretilin for control of the colony of Portuguese Timor, issued a proclamation in favor of integration of the area into neighboring Indonesia after having been promised by the Indonesian government that the Timorese people would have an autonomous government.

On a cover captioned "I Am a Homosexual", U. S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich became the first openly gay cover subject of Time magazine after being discharged from the service for admitting his sexual orientation. Author Randy Shilts would comment later that "It marked the first time the young gay movement had made the cover of a major newsweekly. To a movement still struggling for legitimacy, the event was a major turning point." Matlovich, a Vietnam War veteran with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, would eventually settle his lawsuit against the U. S. Air Force for $160,000 and continue his work as a spokesman for gay rights. He would die from complications of AIDS in 1988. Two gunmen took control of a Paris bank, taking seven hostages, then escaping with $1,360,000 in ransom money. After California passed the first (and only) law in the United States to permit farm workers to organize labor unions, hundreds of vegetable workers for Bruce Church, Inc. voted in the first election on the choice of whether to join the United Farm Workers, the Teamsters, or no union at all. The UFW won the voting. For the first time since 1961, the United States authorized merchant ships from Cuba to enter American ports for refueling, as well as to no longer raise objections if other nations permitted port access to Cuban vessels. Officials in the intelligence agencies of Israel (the Mossad) and West Germany (the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND) met secretly to discuss a joint effort to conduct a new type of electronic eavesdropping by Mossad on foreign offices in Germany.

Serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo, at the time an officer with the Exeter, California police department, killed the first of 13 victims, shooting college professor Claude Snelling during a home invasion. Over the next 11 years, he would terrorize southern California committing rapes and murders, and become known in the media as "The Night Stalker" before ceasing his criminal activity, and turned to calling and taunting his surviving victims. In 2018, DeAngelo would be arrested based on DNA evidence and sentenced to life in prison. Six days after escaping an assassination attempt, U. S. President Ford began wearing a bulletproof vest beneath his shirt and suit. The bulk from the vest was noticeable as the President arrived in Keene, New Hampshire for a political fundraiser. Former United Auto Workers President Tony Boyle was sentenced to three life terms in prison for carrying out the assassination of his union rival, Jock Yablonski, in 1969.

Argentina's President Isabel Perón, believed to be "on the edge of a nervous breakdown", took a temporary leave of absence and was replaced by Senate President Italo Luder. She would return to office on October 16. Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii hosted its first event, with Texas A&I University beating the University of Hawaii Warriors, 43 to 9. The stadium had a unique design that allowed it to be reconfigured for ideal seating for various purposes. Four of its 7,000 seat sections could be moved on an air cushion to accommodate a baseball diamond, a football field or a concert venue.

Elizabeth Seton was canonized, becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint. Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch", dating from the 17th Century, was slashed a dozen times at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Wilhelmus De Rijk, an unemployed schoolteacher, was committed to a mental hospital at Middenbeemster after slicing the canvas with a kitchen knife, and would commit suicide in 1976. The Night Watch was also attacked on January 13, 1911 and on April 6, 1990, also by unemployed Dutchmen.

Chris Balderstone, who bowled for the England cricket team and played midfield for Doncaster Rovers F. C. in The Football League became the first and, thus far, only person to play first class matches in both sports on the same day. In the afternoon, he played for the Foxes of Leicestershire against the Falcons of Derbyshire, then travelled from Chesterfield to Doncaster, where he suited up for the Rovers and played in their 1 1 draw with the Bees of Brentford in a fourth division match. The next day, he returned to Chesterfield to help Leicestershire's win its first championship. In Argentina, the broadcasts of the TV signal LU 90 Channel 7 of the province of Chubut began.

Fugitive Patricia Hearst was captured in San Francisco. Hearst, granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst and heiress to a newspaper fortune, had been kidnapped from her apartment on February 4, 1974 by an American terrorist group that called itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. By April, she had joined her kidnappers, and participated in crimes as she eluded capture for 19 months. Earlier in the day, the FBI had captured two of the original kidnappers, William Harris and Emily Harris, who had been out jogging; Hearst, and fellows SLA member Wendy Yoshimura, were captured at an apartment on 425 Morse Street. Former kidnap victim Patty Hearst would be convicted on March 20, 1976, of bank robbery. She would be released from a federal prison in Pleasanton, California, on February 1, 1979, days after U. S. President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence, and would be granted a full pardon by U. S. President Bill Clinton on his final morning in office, on January 20, 2001.

The Angkar Loeu ("Center"), consisting of the leadership of the Communist revolutionary government of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), abolished the use of money, because "it creates individual and private ownership". In the same decree, formal schooling was abandoned indefinitely although people would be permitted to "educate themselves". Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos dismissed 2,000 government and military officials as "traitors" to his New Society program, and warned that the purges "had only just begun".

Frank G. Zarb, head of the U. S. Federal Energy Administration, announced that the President had rescinded part of a $2.00 per barrel fee on imported oil, reducing the price per barrel of refined petroleum products to $1.40. Sultan Yahya Petra of Kelantan became the sixth Yang di Pertuan Agong, an elected monarch, of Malaysia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, one of the largest mega project wonders of the 20th century marking the beginning of a new era in industrialization for the kingdom and a benchmark for the petrochemical industry around the world. The multibillion dollar investment exceeded speculations and was ahead of its time. Two twin industrial cities on the east and west coast of the Arabian peninsula were constructed from scratch as well as infrastructure for a community and heavy industry set up, thus achieving ultimate sustainable development objectives before the issuance of the 1987 UN Bruntlaund Report on sustainability which is an indicator that the project was ahead of its time (the project was featured in the 1981 Guinness World Record)

U. S. President Gerald Ford survived a second assassination attempt, this time by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco. As a UPI report noted, "It was the second time in 17 days that a woman tried to assassinate Ford in California." Oliver Sipple, a 33 year old gay man, grabbed Ms. Moore's arm after she successfully fired a .38 caliber bullet at the President outside the St. Francis Hotel. At the time of the shooting, 3:30 p. m., Ms. Moore's 9 year old son was waiting for her to pick him up after the end of classes at the Kittredge School. San Francisco police had seized a .44 caliber revolver, purchased in Danville, California, from gun collector Maria Fernwood from Moore the day before, after she had suggested that she planned to assassinate the President, but Moore bought a .38 caliber revolver from Ms. Fernwood on Monday morning, hours before the shooting.

The crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 150 in Indonesia killed 24 of the 60 people on board, and one on the ground, while attempting to land at Palembang. Dougal Haston and Doug Scott on the 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest by any of its faces and the first Britons to reach the summit by any route. Oliver Sipple, the disabled former U. S. Marine who had helped save President Ford from assassination, was "outed" by San Francisco Chronicle gossip columnist Herb Caen, who received information from gay activist Harvey Milk that Sipple was homosexual. Without specifically calling Sipple gay, Caen wrote that Sipple "was the center of midnight attention at the Red Lantern, a Golden Gate Ave. bar he favors", and that Rev. Ray Broshears, head of the Helping Hands center and Gay Politico Harvey Milk, who claim to be among Sipple's close friends, describe themselves as "proud maybe this will help break the stereotype." Sipple's Midwestern family, who were unaware of his sexual orientation, would disown him. Sipple would later commit suicide. Dr. Andreas Gruentzig of West Germany made the first successful test of the technique of coronary angioplasty, in experiments on dogs. The first human angioplasty would take place almost a year later, on September 16, 1976. The short lived civil war in Portuguese East Timor ended as Fretilin drove back the UDT across the border into Indonesia and the province of West Timor. Died: Earle Cabell, 68, former Mayor of Dallas 1961–64, U. S. Congressman 1965–73

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which would become a cult film classic, after being adapted from a British stage play, was first shown, debuting in Westwood, Los Angeles. The film was a flop until April 1, 1976, when midnight screenings at the Waverly Theater in New York City were accompanied by audience participation, which became a fad in the late 1970s. The U. S. Congress, in agreement with President Ford, voted to restore price controls on oil and gasoline for another 50 days, to last until November 15. The price freeze had expired on September 1, and the controls were extended retroactively by a vote of 75–3 in the Senate and 342–16 in the House.

The first x ray burster star to be discovered from Earth was observed by a team led by astronomer Jonathan Grindlay, who observed two x ray bursts from the source 4U in NGC 6624. Saint John Macías (1585–1645) was canonized by Pope Paul VI. The first Long Beach Grand Prix was held on the streets of Long Beach, California and won by Brian Redman, who beat out early leaders Mario Andretti and Al Unser. The route of the Indy car race took drivers along Ocean Boulevard, Linden Avenue, Shoreline Drive and Pine Avenue.

The Chicago Tribune abandoned its standard practice of phonetic spelling of certain common words after 41 years. Since January 28, 1934, the Tribune had set out to simplify spelling for 80 common words, including the rendition of "phantom" as "fantom" and "rhyme" as "rime". After expanding the list in 1949, the Tribune had reversed some decisions, such as spelling "sophomore" as "sofomore", "out of concern for schoolchildren who might be confused". It retained, however, such spellings as "thru", "altho" and "thoro" (for "through", "although" and "thorough"). Finally, the paper announced in a September 29 editorial that "Today we are adopting a new stylebook. Thru, tho and thoro are abandoned. Regretfully we concede they have not made the grade in spelling class Sanity some day may come to spelling, but we do not want to make any more trouble between Johnny and his teacher." Singer Jackie Wilson, most famous for his 1967 hit, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", collapsed after finishing a concert performance of his 1958 song, "Lonely Teardrops", taking place at Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He would never regain consciousness, remaining in a coma for more than eight years before dying on January 21, 1984. Died: Casey Stengel, 85, American baseball outfielder and manager.