Hans Remembers- Saturday July 25, 1970- 50 Years Ago.

• New Zealand is known for their rugby teams. They didn’t begin having a World Cup for Rugby until 1987- but since then they have been one of the dominating countries-winning 3 of the 9 World Cups- South Africa another great Rugby nation has 3 World Cup titles also. Going into this day in 1970 New Zealand’s rugby union team had not lost a game in five years-called the “All-Blacks” they had won 17 consecutive international matches and 55 in a row. On this day that streak ended when the second most successful team in the world- South Africa’s Springbok’s beat them 17-6 in a match played before 55,000 spectators in Pretoria.

• The U.S. Navy postponed its first ever submarine launch of the multiple-warhead Poseidon missile- the day after a Soviet fishing trawler came within 200 yards of the American sub USS James Madison during a trial run. Of course the fishing boat- wwas thought to have electronic equipment used to gather date on the submarine and new missile.

• In Italy it seems common that governments fail. On this day 50 years ago the President of Italy Giuseppe Saragat asked the Minister of the Treasury Emilio Columbo to form a new government after the failure of Giulio Andreotti to create a coalition that would include the same four parties that has been in Mariano Rumor’s government.