Events Date 1973 December | History by KabAstro

Dec 1 38th Iron Bowl: Alabama beats Auburn 35-0 in Birmingham
Dec 1 Australia grants self-government to Papua New Guinea

Australia Victory

Dec 1 Davis Cup Men's Tennis, Cleveland, Ohio: Rod Laver and John Newcombe beat American pair Stan Smith and Erik van Dillen 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 to give Australia an unassailable 3-0 lead, (ends 5-0); 23rd Cup title for Australia

Jack Nicklaus

Dec 1 Jack Nicklaus finishes at 13-under-par 275 to win the Walt Disney World Open by 1 stroke from Mason Rudolph; becomes the first player to reach $2 million in PGA Tour career earnings

Dec 2 Capital Centre (USAir Arena) opens in Landover Maryland; NBA's Washington Bullets beat Seattle SuperSonics, 98-96 in opening game; arena demolished 2002
Dec 2 Davis Cup Men's Tennis, Cleveland: After clinching a famous victory the previous day, Australians Rod Laver and John Newcombe finish a 5-0 rout of the US with wins over Stan Smith and Tom Gorman
Dec 3 Pioneer 10 passes Jupiter (1st fly-by of an outer planet) [Dec 4-GMT]

Band on the Run

Dec 5 Apple Records releases Paul McCartney & Wings album "Band on the Run" in US; the commercial and critical pinnacle of his post-Beatle work tops the charts in 7 countries

Dec 5 Chicago Cubs Ron Santo becomes 1st baseball player to invoke 10-5 rule and veto his trade (with the California Angels)
Dec 6 Bahrain's constitution goes into effect

Gerald Ford VP

Dec 6 Gerald Ford sworn-in as first unelected Vice President, succeeds Spiro Agnew who resigned over corruption allegations

Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew

Dec 6 NL votes to move San Diego Padres to Washington, D.C. (doesn't happen)
Dec 7 Apple Records releases Paul McCartney & Wings album "Band on the Run" in UK; the commercial and critical pinnacle of his post-Beatle work tops the charts in 7 countries
Dec 7 Orioles sell pitcher Eddie Watt to the Phillies
Dec 8 "Seesaw" closes at Uris Theater NYC after 296 performances
Dec 8 39th Heisman Trophy Award: John Cappelletti, Penn State (RB)

Năstase's 3rd Consecutive ATP

Dec 8 Romanian tennis star Ilie Năstase wins his 3rd consecutive season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix title with a 6–3, 7–5, 4–6, 6–3 win over Dutchman Tom Okker in Boston, Massachusetts

Dec 9 Arab oil ministers announce a further production cut of 5 percent for January for non-friendly countries
Dec 9 NFL St. Louis Cardinal Jim Bakken kicks 6 field goals vs Atlanta Falcons
Dec 9 Revival of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross' musical "The Pajama Game", opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater, NYC; runs for 65 performances
Dec 9 Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland

Sammartino vs. Stasiak

Dec 10 Bruno Sammartino beats Stan Stasiak, to become WWWF champ for 2nd time

Strongman and Professional Wrestler Bruno Sammartino

Two Tennis No. 1s

Dec 10 For the first time since 1885, tennis has 2 top-ranked male players - Americans Stan Smith and Jimmy Connors [1]

Dec 11 Houston Astro César Cedeño jailed for the death of a 19-year-old woman
Dec 11 NA Soccer League awards LA, San Francisco, Seattle & Vancouver franchises

Trade with Czechoslovakia

Dec 11 West German chancellor Willy Brandt normalizes trade with Czechoslovakia

Dec 12 Canada begins selling Olympic coins ($5 & $10 silver coins)
Dec 12 San Diego files anti-trust against NL (stopping Padres move to DC)
Dec 13 MPLA/FNLA accord about combat against Portuguese Libya
Dec 13 World Football League grants 1st franchise (Detroit)
Dec 15 American kidnap victim John Paul Getty III freed after ransom paid by oil tycoon grandfather John Paul Getty
Dec 15 American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness
Dec 15 Pirates of Caribbean ride opens at Disneyland
Dec 15 Sandy Hawley becomes 1st jockey to win 500 races in 1 year
Dec 15 Tennessee beats Temple 11-6 in low scoring NCAA basketball game

Simpson Rush Record

Dec 16 O.J. Simpson becomes 1st NFL running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season

NFL Running Back and Convicted Criminal O.J. Simpson

Dec 17 Arabs terrorists shoot passengers on Boeing 737 to Kuwait
Dec 18 Soyuz 13 launched into Earth orbit for 8 days
Dec 18 Yanks sign Dick Williams as manager, overturned later by AL Pres
Dec 19 Grenada adopts constitution

Cronin Refuses Williams

Dec 20 AL president Joe Cronin refuses to allow Dick Williams to manage Yankees

Dec 20 Dutch Antillean government of Juancho Evertsz forms

Richard Scores 1,000

Dec 20 Montreal Canadien Henri Richard scores his 1,000th NHL point

Dec 21 3rd Fiesta Bowl: #10 Arizona State beats Pittsburgh, 28-7
Dec 21 Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US & USSR meet in Geneva to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict
Dec 22 OPEC Gulf Six decides to raise the posted price of marker crude from $5.12 to $11.65 per barrel effective January 1, 1974
Dec 23 6 Persian Gulf nations double their oil prices
Dec 23 French Caravelle airliner crashes in Morocco, 106 killed
Dec 24 District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
Dec 24 Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200

"The Sting"

Dec 25 "The Sting" directed by George Roy Hill, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, with music inspired by Scott Joplin, premieres in Los Angeles and New York (Best Picture 1974)

Dec 25 1st pictures of a comet from space (Comet Kohoutek), taken by NASA astronauts Jerry Carr and William Pogue during a spacewalk from Skylab 4
Dec 25 Arab oil ministers cancel January 5 percent production cut; Saudi Arabian oil minister promises 10 percent OPEC production rise

Johan Cruyff's Second Award

Dec 25 Ballon d'Or: Ajax forward Johan Cruyff wins his second award for best European football player ahead of Juventus goalkeeper Dino Zoff and Bayern Munich striker Gerd Müller

Dec 25 The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze
Dec 25 Tommy Chambers (Scotland) finishes 51 yr cycle tour (799,405 miles)
Dec 26 2 Skylab 3 astronauts walk in space for a record 7 hours

"The Exorcist"

Dec 26 Horror film "The Exorcist" based on book and screenplay by William Peter Blatty, starring Linda Blair, rated X, premieres - 1st horror film to be nominated for Best Picture

Writer and Filmmaker William Peter Blatty

Dec 26 Soyuz 13 returns to Earth
Dec 27 MLB Los Angeles Dodgers announce their home night games will start at 7:30 instead of 8
Dec 28 Akron Ohio's Chamber of Commerce terminates itself from Soap Box Derby

"Gulag Archipelago"

Dec 28 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelago" - a literary investigation of the police-state system in the Soviet Union

Writer and Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Dec 28 Comet Kohoutek at perihelion
Dec 28 US President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law
Dec 29 Jerry Livingston, Leonard Adelson and Mack David's musical "Molly", starring Kaye Ballard closes at Alvin Theater. NYC, after 68 performances

Dolphins Defeat Raiders

Dec 30 AFC Championship, Miami Orange Bowl: Miami Dolphins beat Oakland Raiders, 27-10

Dec 30 NFC Championship, Texas Stadium, Irving: Minnesota Vikings beat Dallas Cowboys, 27-10
Dec 31 40th Sugar Bowl: #3 Notre Dame beats #1 Alabama, 24-23