three of the five school board members, "the election gave blacks control of both major governing bodies— a first in Alabama." The date of the vote would later be described as "a watershed for black political empowerment in Alabama." Twenty-four people were killed in the city of Mladá Boleslav in Czechoslovakia after the bus they were riding home from work pulled into the path of an oncoming train. Died: Josef Blösche, 57, Nazi German war criminal, was executed by gunshot at a prison in Leipzig, East Germany, after being identified as the SS officer who led the roundup of Jewish civilians after the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Blösche's image had been seen worldwide in an iconic photograph now called "A Jewish boy surrenders in Warsaw", arresting women and children at gunpoint. July 30, 1969 (Wednesday) The U.S. President and Mrs. Nixon made "a secrecy-cloaked one day trip to Vietnam", ending speculation of whether Nixon would make an unscheduled side trip during his tour of Thailand. At noon local time, the Nixons arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon for "the first visit by an American president to the South Vietnamese capital". Previously U.S. president Johnson had visited the secure U.S. base at Cam Ranh Bay, from Saigon, in 1966 and 1967. Born: Simon Baker, Australian TV and film actor known as the star in The Mentalist; in Launceston, Tasmania July 31, 1969 (Thursday) Pope Paul VI became the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit Africa, arriving in Kampala, capital of Uganda, where he was welcomed at the Entebbe Airport by Ugandan President Milton Obote The American Mariner 6 space probe made its closest approach to the planet Mars, coming within of the red planet and transmitting higher definition images than had ever been seen on Earth. Among the details never before seen by Earth astronomers was that Mars had smaller craters inside the craters that had been seen previously. Elvis Presley returned to live performances for the first time since 1961, starting with his "comeback special" at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He would go on to break all previous Las Vegas attendance records playing to over 100,000 people in 30 days. TWA Flight 79 from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, with 131 people on board, was hijacked by a federal prisoner who was being transported by a United States marshal and by a prison guard who had