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© Copyright 2003 EPICS TCHA Team at Purdue University, All Rights Reserved.
Pyle Hall, honoring Indiana war correspondent Ernie Pyle, was completed at the Indiana Soldiers Home. During the year, the name of the entire institution, opened in 1896, was changed to Indiana Veterans Home, and the position of commandant changed to superintendent.
The new Tippecanoe County Court, replacing township justice-of-peace courts per new state law, opened in the Courthouse with Judge Kenneth Thayer presiding.
Gordon Straley, dean of the state's high school football coaches, resigned at West Lafayette after 32 years, and 187 wins.
The Selective Service office on Sagamore Parkway West was one of many in the nation closed by peacetime budget reductions.
The Journal and Courier, a six-days-a-week newspaper since 1920, added a Sunday edition.
Skeletons of three slain infants were found in shallow graves at 1216 N. 16th St. [On July 2, Charles M. Ross, was given three life sentences for murdering the children, all his own, between 1970 and 1973.]
The Lafayette City Council appropriated $40,000 to finish the City Center Parking Mall at Fourth and Columbia streets. [It opened July 17 and hosted the first mini-market for more than 100 vendors and 7,000 buyers.]
County government announced plans to develop 13 acres around the abandoned Davis Ferry iron bridge for a public park and fishing place, having finished construction of a wider, stronger concrete bridge.
Jimmy Carter, Democratic candidate for U.S. President, spoke of his religious beliefs at Purdue University to 2,500 delegates to a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Men's Fellowship convention.
Fireworks, a parade, events at Ft. Ouiatenon, churches and other locals marked the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Perrin Avenue neighbors applied for inclusion of their homes, some dating to the 1870s, on the National Register of Historic Places.
"Oubache," a piece of contemporary sculpture, was dedicated at the City Center Parking Mall in keeping with Heritage 75*76, the combined U.S. bicentennial, Tippecanoe County and Lafayette sesquicentennials.
Tippecanoe County Commissioners signed a 50-year lease allowing Ivy Tech to use 29 acres and the vacant William Ross Annex to the County Home (former Ross Sanatorium) for administrative and instructional space.
Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz, of West Lafayette, resigned from President Gerald Ford's cabinet under some political pressure. He had served since December, 1971, in the Nixon and Ford administration; and as Assistant Secretary for marketing and foreign agriculture during the Eisenhower years of 1954-57.
Employees of six City of Lafayette departments voted 95-69 to designate the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as their collective bargaining agent.
There had been Watergate in 1972; then President Nixon's resignation in disgrace in the summer of 1974. Vice President Gerald Ford served out the term. When Ford ran for election he was beaten by former Georgia governor and businessman Jimmy Carter. Democrat Carter received 40,830,763 votes to Ford's 39,147,973 and won the electoral vote 297-240. Independent Eugene McCarthy, Minnesota senator, drew 756,631 votes. Tippecanoe County remained loyal to Republicans, giving Ford 29,186 votes to Carter's 17,850.
Dedication took place at the South Side Community Center on South Fourth Street.
The annual United Way drive surpassed its goal of $1,050,000 - the first to reach $1 million.