August 1, 1975: The Helsinki Accords

Ford (left) and Brezhnev

August 1, 1975: President Gerald Ford and Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the Helsinki Accords in Finland.

The United States, Canada, and all then-existing European countries, including the Soviet Union, except the microstate of Andorra and the Communist nation of Albania, signed the Final Act, in an attempt to improve the détente (French for "relaxation") between the East and the West.

The Accords' signatory nations agreed to accept the borders of European nations as they then stood, and to not invade them. While the Soviet Union did exercise influence in Poland in the early 1980s, and attempted to keep Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from achieving independence in 1990 and '91, never again did they invade a separate European nation to stop them from exercising even the smallest of freedoms, as they had in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, and threatened to do in West Berlin in 1948 and 1961.

Most of the world approved of the Helsinki Accords. American conservatives did not, and they were a major reason why Ronald Reagan opposed Ford in the 1976 Republican Primaries.

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August 1, 1975 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Shea Stadium, where the Yankees were groundsharing with the Mets while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated. Jim "Catfish" Hunter was the winning pitcher. The Yankees hit no home runs, but John "Boog" Powell and Jake Brohamer, neither of whom is remembered as a Cleveland player, hit them for the Indians. Indians player-manager Frank Robinson put himself in the lineup as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.

This was the last game the Yankees played with Bill Virdon as manager. The next day, team owner George Steinbrenner fired him, and replaced him with Billy Martin, his 1st time managing his former team.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. George Stone outpitched Ken Brett. Willie Stargell did not play.

* A doubleheader was split at Jarry Park in Montreal. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 8-6. In the top of the 10th inning, Johnny Oates attempted a sacrifice bunt, and Montreal Expos 1st baseman José Morales threw it away, allowing Mike Schmidt to score. The Expos won the nightcap, 6-4. Over the 2 games, Schmidt went 4-for-6 with a home run, 2 walks and 4 RBIs, and Larry Parrish went 3-for-8 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-7 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Tigers scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th, but the Sox scored 2 in the bottom half. The winning run came when rookie Jim Rice bunted, and pitcher Gene Pentz threw the ball away, allowing Carl Yastrzemski to score, making Jim Willoughby the winning pitcher in relief of Luis Tiant. Yaz went 2-for-4. Bill Freehan and Willie Horton each hit 2 home runs off Tiant.

* The Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4 and 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim Palmer was the winning pitcher in the 1st game. Hank Aaron drove in 2 runs with a pinch-hit single, and Robin Yount was sent in to pinch-run for him. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-3 with a walk. Ross Grimsley won the nightcap. Robinson sat it out. Aaron went 0-for-2 with a walk in the 2nd game, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Yount went 0-for-3.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 9-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lou Brock appeared as a pinch-hitter, and singled home 2 runs.

* The Chicago White Sox were leading the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, when the game was called due to rain. Uncharacteristically, Rod Carew went 0-for-3.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Steve Busby pitched a 6-hit shutout. Stan Bahnsen started for the A's, but didn't get out of the 4th inning. George Brett hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4.

* The Texas Rangers beat the California Angels, 2-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Gaylord Perry outpitched Ed Figueroa.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-0 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Randy Jones pitched a 3-hit shutout. Dave Winfield went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Ron Cey hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th to win it. Pete Rose went 5-for-5, and Johnny Bench went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs, but it was for nought.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.