5 News Headlines From 1975 That We Can't Believe Were Real

Every year, the weirdest news stories circulate from their point of origin to the delight and worry of readers and TV viewers around the world. It's an almost irresistible phenomenon to read or watch tape of such wacky and improbable tales, and while it's provided some of the most bizarre "Florida Man" stories ever, it's hardly a late-breaking, 21st century pursuit that came about due to the rise of internet news or the 24-hour cable news cycle. It may feel like the world is getting increasingly unhinged, unpredictable, and unaccountable because of the constant exposure to the wildest news items. Just because we see more weird stuff now doesn't mean it didn't exist in the past. 

In the 1970s, the news media consisted mostly of local and network TV news, plus whatever newspapers came up with that they'd share with other publications via syndicates. If something truly bizarre went down, it would definitely make the rounds. In 1975, that's just how the news worked, and it was just as daunting when something way out of the ordinary — be it frightening, unlucky, tremendously lucky, or hilarious — got the public's attention. Here are five lost news stories from 50 years ago, and they prove that the world was just as wacky in the '70s as it is today. They're entirely tough to believe, but they're very real.

The campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was the site of a gross and audacious protest on October 17, 1975. A collective devoted to promoting a meat-free lifestyle which also harbored a general anti-corporate philosophy that called itself the Radical Vegetarian League held what it deemed a "puke-in" at the collegiate fast food restaurant. What's a "puke-in"? It's like a sit-in, love-in, or other such demonstration pioneered by protestors in the late 1960s. According to news reports of the era, around 20 people associated with the RVL walked into the McDonald's during its lunch rush, and helped themselves to as many mustard packets and cups of water as they could grab or handle. Then, amazingly, they all vomited, and virtually simultaneously.

"We will no longer conceal the sickness they have produced in us," the RVL said in a statement to the Michigan Daily (via Weird Universe). "Let the vibrations emanate from this space and time that a new generation of crazies has been born." In another statement the organization said that it staged its very literal protest to call out "the synthetic trash" McDonald's produces as well as the company's low pay structure.

United Press International used that brief and intriguing headline above on a news wire report in May 1975 about an artistic exhibition held in Buffalo, New York. It was all organized and executed by Dr. Richard Cimbalo, head of the psychology department at the nearby Rosary Hill College (which has since adopted the name Daemen University). Very crude paintings were publicly displayed and put up for sale, and all of them were made by a group of 11 rats under Dr. Cimbalo's supervision.

The professor claimed that the pieces were shown to a professional, human artist before the show, who wouldn't reveal their name but reportedly stated that the works showed real skill and potential — not knowing that they'd been made by rats. Dr. Cimbalo provided each rat with a variety of art supplies, and they achieved their tiny artistic pursuits by grabbing a brush stuck into their cages with their front paws. For every successful stroke of paint on paper, the rat received a treat of a Froot Loop. They easily determined how the experiment worked, and before long, there was enough art, and a wide variety of it, for the show. Sales from the paintings benefitted the Rosary Hill College psychology department.

"First Class Litter" was the enigmatic headline dreamed up by UPI editors to draw attention to a news wire story from June 1975 about a just-solved mystery in Rutland, Vermont. Some time earlier, the Rutland Kiwanis Club gifted the city a brand new outdoor trash receptacle. Concerned with improving life and beautifying the city, the organization wanted to cut down on litter by giving residents and visitors a place to put their garbage. Rutland's Public Works Department accepted the gift and dutifully installed the trash bin right by the Rutland Post Office — one of the most heavily foot trafficked areas in town.

And then, in the days after the posting of the trash can, the post office started fielding multiple complaints about missing mail. A brief investigation by the Rutland Regional Chamber of Commerce commenced, which figured out the case of the missing mail. Residents were throwing their mail into the garbage can, which wasn't at all shaped like a mailbox, but it was blue.

In April 1975, the Tampa Times ran a story that took place in Napa, California, seduced by the oddness of the story as much as the included wire photo of the item's subjects in action. Bob Pelusi, the superintendent of Napa's parks department, had tried almost every normal solution to get motorists to slow down when they were driving around Kennedy Park. Out of ideas, Pelusi got the idea to put chickens to work. He bought 85 chickens, and allowed them to be free range roamers around the park, and they'd often wander into the adjacent Streblow Drive. The presence of ambling chickens forced drivers to stop or slow down, so as not to hit any of the birds. Still, Pelusi said, the occasional angry driver would push through undeterred, leading to the deaths of 12 of the program's chickens in its initial nine-month operational period. 

The city of Napa readily got on board with Pelusi's chickens because feeding and housing the flock cost far less than it would have to put in speed bumps or manufacture and install warning signs.

Just over a year into his presidency, Gerald Ford very nearly died in office. While visiting Sacramento to speak with California's Governor Jerry Brown on September 5, 1975, Ford greeted the crowd outside the Senator Hotel. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme walked up to the President and pointed at him a handgun she removed from a holster on her leg. Secret Service took out Fromme before she could get off a shot from a weapon that was later revealed to not actually be loaded. Fromme, a member of the Manson Family that had terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1960s, later claimed that her assassination attempt was to save the redwood forests, which she was under the impression that Ford wanted to clear cut. However, this wasn't wasn't the only assassination attempt plotted against Gerald Ford.

Bizarrely, a mere 17 days later, and less than 100 miles away, another would-be assassin tried to kill President Ford during his visit to San Francisco. In town to deliver a speech to a labor union convention, Ford departed the St. Francis Hotel and was about to enter a limousine when Sara Jane Moore fired her gun. It missed Ford by inches, but struck a hotel door. When she tried to shoot again, pedestrian Oliver Sipple knocked her hand away. The bullet made contact with an innocent, and they recovered.