The following events occurred in December 1973: December 1, 1973 (Saturday) Papua New Guinea was granted self-government by Australia in advance of eventual independence. No ceremonies were held because of the danger of violence from anti-independence groups, and at 10:00 a.m. at Port Moresby, Australian administrator Les Johnson administered the oath of office to Chief Minister Michael Somare. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, president of Bangladesh, announced an amnesty for 36,400 prisoners who had been accused, during the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Bangladesh genocide, of collaboration with the Pakistan. Bob Foster of the United States became the first black boxer to defeat a white challenger in a bout in South Africa, which had strict racial segregation under its apartheid policies at the time. Foster, the world light heavyweight champion, outpointed South Africa's Pierre Fourie in a 15-round bout at Rand Stadium in Johannesburg. In West Germany's Baden-Württemberg state, the villages of Conweiler, Schwann, and Pfinzweiler-Feldrennach were merged to create the small town of Straubenhardt. A fourth village, Ottenhausen, was added one month later and Langenalb would follow on January 1, 1975. Commercial diver Timothy House was lost at sea while conducting a surface-orientated dive in the North Sea from the semi-submersible drill rig Blue Water III. House, who was performing routine maintenance, was assumed to have cut through his umbilical due to hypothermia. Born: Bahareh Rahnama, Iranian film actress; in Arak Rajesh Sharma, Indian film actor; in Kollam, Kerala state Died: David Ben-Gurion, 87, Polish-born Zionist leader and first Prime Minister of Israel, died 13 days after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He had been in a coma since November 23. December 2, 1973 (Sunday) The Roman Catholic Church issued a change in the Rite of Penance (Ordo Paenitentiae) for the first time in more than 350 years, three days after approval had been granted by Pope Paul VI. The previous text for the Rite had been promulgated in 1614 by Pope Paul V. A team of military engineers from the 12th Vietcong Sapper Regiment destroyed the largest oil storage facility in South Vietnam with an attack on the Shell Oil Company's tanks at Nha Be. Born: Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player with ten Grand Slam tournament wins, including (in 1992) all four of the women's singles finals at Wimbledon and the Australian, French and U.S. Open tournaments; in Novi Sad, SR Serbia Grant Wahl, American sports journalist who suffered a fatal