Earl Austin
GERMAN
GERMAN_185_REVIEW
The 40% decrease was the largest in one day required by the IMF; Iceland's currency was
devalued by 24.6% in 1967 and again by 35.2% on November 12, 1968
Qaboos bin Said, who had deposed his father Said bin Taimur on July 23 from the throne of
Muscat and Oman, informed his subjects in a radio broadcast that the nation would
henceforward be known simply as "Oman".The Sultan also announced also that his uncle,
Tariq bin Taimur, was the nation's new prime minister
Born:
Chris Cuomo, American journalist and political commentator for CNN; in New York City to
then-lawyer Mario Cuomo
Thomas Lennon, American comedian and TV actor; in Oak Park, Illinois
== August 10, 1970 (Monday) ==
A proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was overwhelmingly
approved in the House of Representatives by a vote of 350 to 15, after having been
introduced every year since 1923.Although a similar measure would be approved in the U.S.
Senate, the session of the 91st United States Congress would expire five months later before
the two houses of Congress could agree on a form to be submitted to the 50 States for
ratification.The 232 prisoners housed on the ninth floor of the overcrowded Manhattan
House of Detention, colloquially known as "The Tombs, took five guards hostage at
daybreak and demanded a reforms meeting with Mayor John V. Lindsay At the time, the
facility had a maximum capacity of 932 men for its small cells, and had almost 3,000
detained in filthy conditions, many of whom had been awaiting a court date for months.The
prisoners released their hostages, unharmed, after a pledge from the city that they would
not be prosecuted for the takeover, and the overcrowding would be eased by the transfer of
inmates to other prisons in the state
Died:
Dan Mitrione, 50, U.S. envoy to Uruguay who had been kidnapped on July 31, was shot and
killed by his captors a few hours after a midnight deadline passed.A witness in Montevideo
heard two gunshots at 4:30 in the morning, and police found Mitrione's body inside a stolen
car a few minutes later
Joe Lapchick, 70, pioneering professional basketball player and coach, inductee into the
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
Bernd Alois Zimmermann, 52, German operatic composer known for Die Soldaten, by
suicide
== August 11, 1970 (Tuesday) ==
At the predominantly Roman Catholic village of Crossmaglen in Protestant County Armagh,
two police officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, became the first victims of the Irish
Republican Army's announced campaign to target UK law enforcement officers in Northern
Ireland Constables Bob Millar, 26, and Sam Donaldson, 23, were fatally injured when they
stopped to investigate a small Ford Cortina automobile that had been abandoned on
Crossmaglen's Lisseraw Road.When one of them lifted the hood (bonnet) of the car, 15
pounds (6.8 kg) of gelignite detonated.Millar and Donaldson both died the next day.In all
301 members of the RUC would be killed until the campaign ceased in 1998.Former
heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was granted a license to box for the first time
since being stripped of his title in 1967.After the lobbying of Georgia state senator Leroy
Johnson, the aldermen of the city of Atlanta agreed to let Johnson's venture, House of Sports,
lease the Atlanta City Auditorium for an October 26 bout; Georgia Governor Lester Maddox,
who had previously said that he would not approve any match involving Ali, concluded that
the state government had no authority to stop a boxing bout.At the time, Ali's conviction for
draft evasion was still on appeal and awaiting a hearing before the U.S. Supreme
Court.Although then-heavyweight champion Joe Frazier declined to appear, Ali's return to
boxing would take place as scheduled against popular heavyweight Jerry Quarry.Father
Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit Roman Catholic priest and fugitive antiwar activist, was arrested by
the FBI at a summer home in Block Island, Rhode Island On May 17, 1968, Berrigan and his
brother, Philip, had destroyed draft board files in Catonsville, Maryland.Daniel Berrigan had
been on the run since April 9, when he fled after being sentenced to three years in prison.He
would serve 18 months and would be released on February 24, 1972.Born: Daniella Perez,
Brazilian telanovela actress, in Rio de Janeiro (murdered, 1992)
== August 12, 1970 (Wednesday) ==
West Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact that relinquished further
claims of former German territory east of the Oder–Neisse line.East Germany had
previously agreed that most of the former German territories of Pomerania, Brandenburg,
Silesia, Danzig and East Prussia were ceded to Poland, with the exception of the a portion of
East Prussia ceded to the Soviet Union.West Germany, however, did not agree to recognition
of East Germany as a separate nation.The ceremony took place in Moscow, with Chancellor
Willy Brandt and Foreign Minister Walter Scheel signing for West Germany.The
independent United States Postal Service (USPS) was created, and the existing United States
Post Office Department was set to be phased out, as U.S President Nixon signed the postal
reform bill into law.The measure had been sent to Nixon on August 5, and had an effective
date of July 1, 1971.Fourteen people were killed in the crash of China Airlines Flight 206 as
it was approaching Taipei at the end of its flight from Hualien.
