January 1973

Month of 1973

The following events occurred in January 1973:

After shooting a police officer a week earlier, Mark Essex, a former Black Panther party member, shot 19 people (10 of them police officers) with a sniper rifle from his vantage point at a Howard Johnsons hotel in the U. S. city of New Orleans. His stated motive was "retaliation for police killings" of African Americans. Essex had killed a black police cadet and fatally wounded a white police officer on New Year's Eve. In a single day, Essex caused the deaths of two hotel guests, two hotel employees, and three additional New Orleans police officers before being shot dead by a police marksman firing from a helicopter. Utah became one of the first states of the United States to reinstate capital punishment after the U. S. Supreme Court had struck down the death penalty in all states in its decision on June 29, 1972, in Furman v. Georgia. The replacement law took effect on July 1, 1973, pending approval of the new standards for capital sentences by the high Court. After the July 2, 1976 decision in Gregg v. Georgia, Utah would become the first state to carry out a death sentence, executing Gary Gilmore by firing squad on January 17, 1977. The CBS television network became the first U. S. network to broadcast a game of the new World Hockey Association, after having been outbid by the NBC network for the TV rights to National Hockey League for the 1971–72 NHL season. The first game featured the Winnipeg Jets visiting the Minnesota Fighting Saints at St. Paul, Minnesota and winning, 6 to 2. The 1973 All Africa Games, the second in the series, opened for 12 days of competition by 36 nations in Lagos, Nigeria. The first All Africa Games had been held in the Congo Republic in 1965. Egypt won the most medals (23 gold and 66 overall) with Nigeria second (18 gold, 60 total) and Kenya third (nine gold, 27 total)
The British Darts Organisation was founded by Olly Croft. The anime series Fables of the Green Forest began its run on Japanese television. Died: Pedro Berruezo, Spanish soccer football forward for Sevilla FC, suffered a fatal heart attack on the field six minutes into a match against the host team Pontevedra CF.

Amílcar Cabral, the leader of the fight for the independence of the African colonies of Portuguese Guinea from Portugal, was shot and killed by two former members of his organization. In 1956, Cabral had been one of the co founders of the Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) and its leader since 1963, guiding the operations from the republic (and former French colony) of Guinea. He was in front of his house in the Guinean capital of Conakry when he was assassinated. Guinea Bissau would proclaim its independence eight months later under Cabral's successor, his younger brother Luís Cabral. The government of the Soviet Union made official its "education tax" on emigrants, a higher fee for legally moving away out of the country. The Bulletin of the Supreme Soviet published the decree made on August 3, 1972, by President of the Presidium Nikolai V. Podgorny. Based on a theory that the Soviet government had provided free education for citizens, the "tax" was based upon the level of education as well as length of employment and averaged an additional 8,000 Soviet rubles (officially, $10,000 in U. S. dollars), an amount that represented the total gross earnings over five years for an engineer or physician. U. S. President Richard Nixon was inaugurated for his second term. In his inaugural address, Nixon began by saying that before he started his term, "America was bleak in spirit, depressed by the prospect of seemingly endless war abroad and of destructive conflict at home", but that "As we meet here today, we stand on the threshold of a new era of peace in the world", and asked "How shall we use that peace?" Paraphrasing a line used in John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural speech, Nixon said "In our own lives, let each of us ask now just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself?" Boxer Romeo Anaya of Mexico defeated WBA champion Enrique Pinder of Panama in Panama City to win the world bantamweight championship. Born: Queen Mathilde of Belgium, wife of King Philippe and Queen Consort since 2013; as Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz in Uccle.

Aeroflot Flight 6263, carrying 39 passengers and crew, crashed in snow while making its approach to the Perm International Airport in the Soviet Union's Russian SFSR, its final scheduled destination after departing from Kazan on a flight that had originated in Krasnodar. While only four people died from the impact of the crash of the Antonov An 24B in rugged terrain near Petukhovo, 57 mile (92 km) from Perm, the 35 survivors froze to death in while awaiting rescue.

U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords at the Hôtel Majestic. Neither Lê Đức Thọ or Henry Kissinger, who negotiated for North Vietnam and the U. S., respectively, was present for the signing of "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam"
At Paris, the government of North Vietnam and delegates from the Viet Cong presented U. S. representatives a list of 555 American prisoners of war that it was prepared to release, while the U. S. provided a list of 26,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong prisoners that were being held by the South Vietnamese government. The U. S. Department of Defense was aware of 1,925 missing personnel, and 1,370 servicemen would be listed permanently as "missing in action." After reviewing the names, the U. S. Department of Defense said through a spokesman, "there are 56 men that we had previously carried on our list of prisoners of war" who were not on the list provided. The consul general and vice consul of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles were assassinated by a 77 year old survivor of the Armenian genocide. Consul General Mehmet Baydar, 48, and Vice Consul Bahadir Demir were shot to death by a 77 year old Armenian American, Gourgen Yanikian, in retaliation for the Ottoman Turks murder of 26 members of Yanikian's family and at least 600,000 Armenians more than 55 years earlier. Yanikian lured both men to cottage at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, California, wounded them, and then killed each one with a gunshot to the head. Outgoing U. S. Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird announced that the United States armed forces would become an all volunteer organization and that no further draft of U. S. citizens would take place. Died: U. S. Army Lieutenant Colonel William Nolde, 43, of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, was killed by North Vietnamese artillery fire at An Lộc in South Vietnam, at 9:00 in the evening local time, 11 hours before the ceasefire agreed upon in Paris took effect. Colonel Nolde became the last combat death in the Vietnam War