From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 31, 1973:

• Lawrence residents were ending the year 1973 “gripped by sub-zero temperatures and buried under 7 1/2 inches of snow,” according to a front-page article today. The year’s heaviest snowfall had arrived on the previous day, with temperatures plummeting to an all-year low of minus 6 degrees, just two degrees short of the all-time low for today. State highways and county roads were reported open today, although slippery and hazardous in spots, after the storm had dumped eight to 10 inches of snow in Topeka, Lecompton, and Lenexa. Most Lawrence streets were cleared and de-iced today, with the exceptions of 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th between Tennessee and Louisiana, which were barricaded “to prevent motorists from challenging steep, slippery slopes,” according to the article.
• Many people were making their plans to celebrate the coming of the New Year, but perhaps none with such variety (or confusion) as the 16 astronauts aboard Skylab 3. The astronauts could actually greet the new year 16 times as they circled the globe and crossed the international date line every 93 minutes. Their first “Happy New Year” had been proclaimed to them earlier today as the space station was in contact with a tracking station on Guam. “You guys are in 1974 now in that part of the world,” Mission Control communicator Robert Crippen informed the crew. “But you’ll be back in 1973 shortly. You’ll be back and forth between the two years 16 times during the day.”
• Lawrence patrolman Charles Williams and officers from two other counties had observed what might have been the same unidentified flying object for more than an hour in today’s pre-dawn skies. A report of an unusual set of lights in the sky came at about 2:20 a.m. from Leavenworth County deputy sheriffs, who said an object with orange, blue and white lights had hovered noiselessly over the central part of Leavenworth for several minutes. Deputies in Platte County, Mo., reported seeing the object soon after, and at about 3:30 a.m., Lawrence patrolman Williams reported seeing an object with red and white lights moving northeast over Lawrence. Williams said he had stopped his patrol car near Sixth and Iowa to listen for a possible sound of an airplane engine, but he had heard nothing.