A weekly look through the archives at how the century progressed March 9, 1973: The Hang Seng Index rose to a record 1,774. In April, it crashed.
June 11, 1973: A warrant was issued for the arrest of a high-ranking police officer who had vanished from Hong Kong. In the next few days the name of the officer became an open secret - Peter Fitzroy Godber. Bank records revealed that Godber was making large deposits from Hong Kong - more than C$200,000 (about HK$1.05 million) in a few months. The trial uncovered a horrifying web of police and government corruption. The Independent Commission Against Corruption was established the following year.
July 20, 1973: Bruce Lee died. The martial arts movie star and girlfriend Betty Ting Pei were due to meet Golden Harvest chief Raymond Chow and James Bond actor George Lazenby at the Hotel Miramar - but instead the actress called to say there was an emergency and Lee was not responding. Rumours were flying about Lee having been beaten to death by a dozen men, or about kung fu masters murdering him with a 'death touch' because he had revealed the secrets of Wing Chun to Hollywood. But the inquest concluded that death was caused by an acute cerebral edema from a reaction to compounds found in the prescription painkiller Equagesic.
November 25, 1973: Construction worker Boonsri Srivichainuan died while High Island Reservoir was being built. He was the first of five who died, and a monument to him and his colleagues was erected in September 1978. Almost every large Hong Kong construction has its death toll.
May 1974: 'Filipino servants on way out,' claimed headlines, after the Philippine Government suspended the granting of immigration clearance to applicants. Only 162 Filipino applicants had been allowed to enter Hong Kong in the first five months of 1974. By 1975 there were 1,200 Filipinas working as maids, 43 from India, 36 from Malaysia, three from Britain and 25 others. Since the 1960s, families had worried about the 'amah shortage', particularly during the 'annual amah migration' every Chinese New Year.
June 1975: The Hong Kong cricket club moved to Wong Nei Chung Gap, leaving the cricket pitch area to be turned into the more democratic meeting place of Statue Square.