George Papadopoulos, the President of Greece since declaring a republic in May, and its de facto leader since 1967, was ousted in a military coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis. Lieutenant General Phaedon Gizikis was sworn in as the new president. The Greek military has overthrown the government; President Papadopoulos was ousted early today. Streets in Athens are quiet after the calm overthrow of the Papadopoulos government. General Phaedon Gizikis was sworn in as the head of the new government in a nationally televised ceremony.
The Nixon Administration had considerable forewarning of the coup d’état that replaced President Papadopoulos with Lieutenant General Gizikis, officials in Washington said. An official who has closely followed the military leadership since it toppled the civilian government in April, 1967, said: “We were not surprised.”
The cease-fire talks between Egyptian and Israeli officials that were scheduled for today were postponed. Talks are now on the verge of collapse. Several violations of the truce were reported during the day. Israel has agreed in principle to attend a peace conference.
Israel accepted an American proposal that she attend peace talks with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan on December 18. The decision was made at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, after Premier Golda Meir and Foreign Minister Abba Eban reported on the proposal made by Secretary of State Kissinger.
Three young members of the Arab Nationalist Youth Organization hijacked KLM Flight 861 with 264 people on board, over Iraq. The plane was forced to land in Damascus, then took off again. The Boeing 747 plane flew first to Malta, where the hijackers released eight female flight attendants and most of the passengers, then proceeded with 11 hostages to Dubai, where the hijacking of the largest number of airline passengers in history ended without further incident. The Dutch are targets of Arab hostility lately because of their friendship with Israel.
The Viet Cong in South Vietnam accused the United States of making reconnaissance flights over its territory, thus violating the truce agreement. The U.S. admitted to the flights but insisted that the planes are unarmed.
According to American intelligence reports, thousands of North Vietnamese troops have infiltrated South Vietnam since the cease-fire. Many officials believe the move is a prelude to a military offensive by North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. is unlikely to re-enter the fighting even if an all-out offensive is declared; a step-up in arms to South Vietnam is more likely, despite the fact that would also be a violation of the truce.
Cambodia officials said the head of the Cambodian air force will be fired because of last Monday’s bombing of the presidential palace by a dissident air force pilot. Brigadier General Pen Randa, head of the air force since March, will be replaced along with the commander of Pochentong Airport. The dissident pilot who bombed the palace escaped to an unknown destination. Three persons were killed in the raid but President Lon Nol was not hurt.
Five freighters and seven tankers steaming up the Mekong River ran a gauntlet of Communist rocket fire and reached Phnom Penh, but only after several of the vessels were hit. The attack on the convoy was the first in six weeks. The river is the only surface route still open into Phnom Penh. Highway 5, the “rice road” to Battambang, has been cut by Communist forces since September 5. Highway 4, to the deepwater port of Kompong Som, has not been open since November 11. A government spokesman, meanwhile, reported that troops repelled a Communist attack near Takeo, 40 miles south of the capital on Highway 2.
The Cambodian government reported that 31 Communist rebels were killed in fighting east of Phnom Penh.
Gunmen opened fire on a patrol in the Roman Catholic Bogside stronghold of Londonderry and killed two British soldiers, the army reported in Belfast. The shooting raised to 202 the number of British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland, 56 of them this year, and put the overall death toll in more than four years of sectarian violence at 913. Meanwhile, in Belfast, British troops. found the body of a Roman Catholic who had been stabbed to death after a beating. The body of Francis J. Benson, 27, was found in the Catholic Markets area of the capital.
A ban against Sunday driving went into effect in West Germany, three weeks after the Netherlands became the first nation to do so. West Germany joined the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Denmark in the motorless Sundays, and Italy would follow suit on December 2.
Dissident sources in Moscow said that Yuri A. Shikhanovich, a Soviet mathematician, will go on trial today on charges of anti-Soviet activity. Shikhanovich, a civil rights advocate, was last arrested September 28, 1972 and there have been reports he is held in isolation and is undergoing mental treatment.
Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, victim of a stroke that paralyzed him a week ago, remained in serious condition in Tel Aviv. His personal physician said he did not expect any change in the immediate future.
Congress must soon decide about resupplying arms to Israel. The House Armed Services Committee will be first to make the decision. Some Congressmen visited the Mideast for first-hand observations.
Prime Minister Tanaka of Japan reshuffled his cabinet in an attempt to deal with the Arab oil cutback and mounting inflation. The oil embargo has hurt Japan’s booming economy.
Japan was enjoying the greatest prosperity in its history until the Arab oil boycott hit. Last spring Japan’s barriers to the import of foreign goods was lowered; the Japanese overbought in their excitement. Ten giant trading companies oversee Japan’s buying throughout the world. Now suffering an unfavorable balance of trade, the United States was anxious to sell even more to Japan. The drive to sell U.S. goods to Japan was paying off until the Mideast war and Arab oil boycott shook the world. America’s balance of trade may slide too far in the other direction if the oil embargo is not removed.
Sweden’s ambassador to Chile, Harald Edelstam, was reported to have been assaulted by armed police in Chile and forced at gunpoint to hand over a Uruguayan woman seeking Swedish protection. A Swedish official said in Santiago that a scuffle started when police burst into a Santiago hospital room where the Swedish and French ambassadors were talking to the woman. The Swedish ambassador succeeded in getting out of the hospital with the woman but soldiers caught up with them and took the woman.
Sixteen Florida scuba divers remained in Cuba while negotiations continued with the Cuban government over a repair bill for their plane. Their charter plane was forced to land in Havana Thursday because of faulty navigational equipment. The Floridians are staying at a hotel pending payment of $11,000 demanded by the Cuban government.
Nigeria began a week-long national census as a major step toward return to civilian rule in 1976. The nation’s military leader, General Yakubu Gowon, has said the census is necessary before his army, which seized power in 1966, relinquishes the reins. Nigeria’s population is estimated at between 55 million and 65 million, making it Africa’s most populous nation.
Frenchman Dominique Guillet, co-skipper of the yacht 33 Export in the round-the-world yacht race, has been lost overboard, the organizers of the race reported in Portsmouth, Eng. The report said Guillet was apparently washed overboard by a giant wave in the Indian Ocean, but full details were not available.
President Nixon will speak to the nation about the severity of the energy crisis at 7:00 p.m. Expected measures include cuts in home heating oil deliveries, reduced speeds on highways and Sunday closings of gas stations.
President Nixon, in a national television address, said that he would take a variety of actions to reduce the consumption of energy, including a cutback in home heating oil deliveries and a reduction in gasoline production that is sure to cause shortages. As expected, Mr. Nixon said he would prohibit sales of gasoline on Sundays and lower highway speed limits to 50 miles an hour for cars, and 55 miles for trucks and buses. Heating oil deliveries will be cut by 15 percent to homes, 25 percent to stores and other commercial customers, and 10 percent to industrial users. The President banned all outdoor Christmas lights.
President Nixon’s plan for dealing with the energy crisis was described by New York City’s top energy official as shortsighted and inadequate, on the ground that it does not include rationing of fuel oil and gasoline. “It’s a disaster,” Milton Musicus said. He is chairman of the Emergency Energy Supply Committee recently established by Mayor Lindsay.
Closing gas stations on Sundays could have a serious impact. The president of the Gasoline Retailers Association believes the Sunday closings are unfair to consumers and dealers, and he thinks rationing would be a better solution. Stations being closed would rule out any long Sunday trips, but the nation’s highways probably will remain filled on Sundays anyway.
If the closing of stations on Sundays doesn’t work, the possibility of rationing exists as a last resort. President Nixon is against gasoline rationing, but some experts believe it will eventually happen.
The U.S. cuts the maximum speed limit cut to 55 MPH as an energy conservation measure.
The Los Angeles Times quoted a high White House official as saying that President Nixon’s personal secretary Rose Mary Woods erased the 18 minute segment which is missing from one of the subpoenaed White House tapes. Miss Woods is expected to testify to that effect in Judge John Sirica’s court. President Nixon’s personal secretary, Miss Rose Mary Woods, erased a key 18‐minute segment of one of the most important Watergate tapes, Administration officials said. They confirmed a report first published in The Los Angeles Times and said that the erasure was made while Miss Woods was listening to and preparing summaries of the recordings. They said the erasure was “inadvertent.” But a Washington audio technician said that, barring a highly unusual malfunction of the machine, it would be very difficult to wipe out such a long passage by mistake.
Dr. Arthur C. Logan, a prominent Harlem physician-surgeon and member of the board of directors of New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corp., plunged 80 feet to his death from the West Side Highway viaduct in upper Manhattan. Police called the death an apparent suicide but Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, a close friend of the family, denied that Logan had killed himself. “This guy had everything going for him and nothing against him,” he said. Dr. Logan, who once was personal physician to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, participated in the civil rights movement in the ’50s and ’60s and was still active in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post & Times-Star canceled publication indefinitely and announced layoffs of 502 employees at the Enquirer and 750 at the Post. The move was taken after the Teamsters struck the two newspapers in a dispute over a contract the union has been negotiating with the papers since September 15. Union officer Earl P. Mitchell said he felt confident that a settlement would be reached today. He said monetary issues had been settled with an offer of an 8% raise and that remaining issues dealt with work rules. Newspaper executives had no comment. The contract involves 46 truck drivers.
United Auto Workers members in five states ratified an agreement ending a 10-day walkout against the Caterpillar Tractor Co. A union spokesman said the locals voted 6 to 1 in favor. The contract provides 3% pay increases in each of the next three years, a 4-cent-an-hour increase in the first year and more fringe benefits. Workers now average $5.10 an hour. Most of the 33,000 workers idled since November 15 were expected to return to work today. An exception was 3,500 employees of the facility in Decatur, Illinois, where local issues were unresolved.
Psychologists and cardiologists working with dogs at the Harvard School of Public Health have linked Pavlovian methods and American technology to find out why so many people die suddenly.
The Skylab 4 astronauts repaired and tested equipment in preparation for their first full week of scientific study of the earth, the sun and the comet Kohoutek. Astronauts Gerald P. Carr and Edward G. Gibson removed and replaced a dead television monitor in the telescope camera control panel while William R. Pogue spent the morning checking out an array of earth-scanning cameras that will be used Tuesday, for the first time in the mission.
The weekend’s continuing tornadoes and violent thunderstorms throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas brought the death toll to eight. Two persons were killed near Clarkton, Missouri, when a tornado hit a farmhouse. One person was killed in a mobile home near Rosebud, Arkansas. Five others died in weather-related mishaps in Oklahoma. Other tornadoes were reported in Indiana and Kentucky.
Ned Rorem’s opera “Bertha,” a parody of Shakespeare’s plays, premiered in New York City with mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff in the title role.
The Ottawa Rough Riders defeated the Edmonton Eskimos, 22 to 18, to win the Grey Cup and the championship of the Canadian Football League.
NFL Football:
The Bills beat the Colts, 24—17, on a late touchdown. Dwight Harrison, a cornerback, picked off a Marty Domres pass that was deflected by Walt Patulski, defensive end, and ran 31 yards for a touchdown. It was Buffalo’s second touchdown in 23 seconds to give the Bills the winning margin with 1 minute 11 seconds remaining. Joe Ferguson, the Bills’ rookie quarterback, had just tied the game with a 38-yard scoring pass play to Bob Chandler, wide receiver, with 1:34 left. O. J. Simpson, of the Bills, held to just 3 yards in the first quarter, wound up with 124 including a 58-yard touchdown gallop in the second period.
Three San Diego fumbles, two by Robert Holmes, were recovered by Oakland and the Raiders turned them into touchdowns to rout the Chargers, 31—3, and lift themselves into a second-place tie with dethroned Kansas City in the Western Division, a half-game behind Denver, which knocked off the Chiefs. George Atkinson picked up a wet ball fumbled by Holmes in the first period and ran 59 yards for the Raiders first score. Dennis Partee, whose 14-yard field goal was the only Chargers score, slipped in the mud and lost a fumble which set up one of Ken Stabler’s two touchdown passes, a 16-yarder to Fred Biletnikoff. Holmes’s second fumble in the third quarter set up Stabler’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Bob Moore.
The Oilers were blown out, 32—0, by the Patriots. Playing before their smallest crowd, 27,344, since moving to the Astrodome in 1968, Houston, which has only managed to win two games in two years, crossed midfield only twice against New England, the poorest defensive team against the run in the conference. The Oilers’ deepest thrust extended only to the Patriots’ 22.
The Bengals beat the Cardinals, 42—24. Lenvil Elliott, rookie running back, broke into the line-up for the first time this year after Essex Johnson was shaken up; and came out in the third quarter. Elliott grasped the opportunity by running 17 yards on his first pro rush to set up a 2-yard plunge for his first touchdown on his second carry. Later, he caught his first pro pass, a 13-yarder for another touchdown to lead the Bengals to their biggest offensive output of the season against St. Louis, the N.F.L.’s worst defensive team. The Bengals’ victory, their seventh in 11 games, coupled with Cleveland’s triumph over Pittsburgh, helped tighten the close A.F.C. Central Division race. The Bengals still trail the second-place Browns by half a game, and now trail the first-place Steelers by a game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers lost another game and another quarterback today. They may recover from both although they now have the pesky Cleveland Browns, today’s victors by a 21—16 score, breathing on their backs. The Pittsburgh starting quarterback, Terry Hanratty, lasted only three plays before leaving with a sprained right wrist which was to be X-rayed for a fracture after the team returned to Pittsburgh tonight. That injury brought on Joe Gilliam, the third-string quarterback, because Terry Bradshaw, No. 1, is also injured. Young Joe almost won the game. He had the Steelers ahead, 16—14, with two minutes to play. But the Browns’ quarterback, Mike Phipps, pulled off an incredible play, a 42-yard scrambling pass to Greg Pruitt on third down from his 40. The rookie running back then followed with a 19-yard end run for the deciding touchdown. There was only a minute left to play and Gilliam, in only his fourth pro game, made the most of 60 seconds, moving his team to the Cleveland 15-yard line. However, his last four passes from there fell incomplete.
With Roman Gabriel nursing a bruised elbow, Philadelphia concentrated on the running game Sunday and Tom Sullivan paced the ground attack with 156 yards rushing as the Eagles beat the New York Giants, 20—16. Gabriel played all the way but threw only 15 times as the Eagles turned their runners loose for 253 yards and the clinching touchdown on a three-yard slant by Sullivan in the third quarter that gave the Eagles a 20—6 lead. Sullivan carried 32 times. The Eagles marched 92 yards without Gabriel completing a pass on the drive, with the Giants called for an interference penalty on the 9-yard line on the only pass attempt. Gabriel’s most ambitious throw was his second completion of the game, a 30-yard touchdown pass to Don Zimmerman that gave the Eagles a lead they never lost. The Philadelphia defense limited the Giants to field goals of 31, 43, and 15 yards by Pete Gogolak until Randy Johnson drove the Giants 80 yards to a 4-yard scoring pass to Johnny Roland with 5:42 left to play in the game. Gabriel consumed the remaining time, sending Sullivan through the line eight times on running plays that helped kill the clock without giving the Giants the ball again.
Bob Lee threw two touchdown passes through a driving rain and Eddie Ray plunged for two more scores as the Atlanta Falcons kept their playoff hopes alive and stretched their winning streak to seven games Sunday with a 28—20 victory over the New York Jets. Lee threw 38 yards to rookie Tom Geredine, who made a brilliant catch, for a first quarter score, and hit Louis Neal, another rookie, with a 47-yarder just before the half. Ray plunged a yard for a score in the second period and wrapped up the victory with a last-period, 2-yard burst that gave Atlanta an eight-point lead. Joe Namath, starting for the first time since September 23, threw touchdown passes of 2 yards to Rich Caster and 38 to Eddie Bell. The touchdown passes were Namath’s first of the season. The victory was Atlanta’s eighth, the Falcons’ most in a season in their eight-year history, and their 8-3 record left them a game behind Los Angeles in the NFC West in contention for a wild card playoff berth. The loss, the Jets’ eighth against three victories, insured Weeb Ewbank of a losing season in his final year of coaching. Lee took Atlanta 67 yards in six plays for a score after Ray Brown intercepted Namath’s first pass. With the Jets blitzing, Lee fired over the middle to Geredine who made a one-handed, behind-the-back catch, and raced in to complete the 38-yard scoring play. In the third quarter, Namath pulled the Jets to within a point at 21—20 when he threw 38 yards to Bell after Earlie Thomas recovered a fumble, but Lee marched Atlanta 62 yards in 16 plays, sending Ray over from the 2 after eight consecutive running plays.
John Gilliam, Fran Tarkenton’s favorite target and the NFL’s leading receiver in yards gained, caught a 54-yard scoring pass from Tarkenton, set up an 8-yard Tarkenton touchdown run with another 44-yard catch and then, playing no favorites, caught a 30-yard scoring pass from Bob Berry, a reserve quarterback, to lead Minnesota to its 10th victory in 11 games, a 31—13 trouncing of the Chicago Bears. Gilliam finished with 139 yards on 5 catches. It was the Vikings’ largest point output all season and their “Purple People Eater” defense sacked Bobby Douglass and Gary Huff, the Bears quarterbacks, eight times. Douglass came out in the third quarter with an injured leg.
Battling to stay ahead of rampaging Atlanta in the Western Division, the Los Angeles Rams rallied from a 13—10 third-quarter deficit to win their 9th game in 11 outings, 24—13 over the Saints, and virtually assured themselves of at least a wildcard berth in the playoffs. John Hadl threw two touchdown passes, connecting with Jim Bertelsen on a 17-yarder in the second period and with Bob Klein on a 4-yarder in the third period. Tony Baker’s 5-yard run for a fourth-quarter touchdown put the game away.
Charley Johnson, Denver’s seasoned quarterback, a 13-year pro, thrilled a jubilant Denver home crowd by connecting with Haven Moses, his wide receiver, on two touchdown passes within an 81-second span of the second quarter yesterday to lead the Broncos to a 14—10 victory over the Chiefs and knock Kansas City out of first place in the American Football Conference Western Division. Besides replacing the deposed Chiefs as the new western leader by a half game, the Broncos, who haven’t lost now in their last seven games (5 victories, 2 ties) gave themselves a good shot at their first winning season and also the first playoff berth in the club’s 14-year history. The Broncos rallied, after Jan Stenerud, who hit a 17-yard field goal, missed a 28-yard attempt with five minutes to play in the half, and drove 81 yards in eight plays. Johnson connected with Moses on an 18-yard play for their first touchdown, 1 minute 56 seconds before the intermission. Calvin Jones’s interception of a Mike Livingston pass at the Denver 26, which Jones returned to midfield, set up the second Bronco touchdown, a 40-yard Johnson to Moses pass play with 35 seconds left in the half. After the Chiefs had scored with 4:49 to play on a 7-yard Livingston-to-Otis Taylor pass to make the score 14—10, Denver had to punt, and the Chiefs marched from their own 22 to the 46 before Charlie Greer, snuffed out their drive by intercepting a long Livingston pass at the 15-yard line. with 40 seconds to play.
Buffalo Bills 24, Baltimore Colts 17
San Diego Chargers 3, Oakland Raiders 31
New England Patriots 32, Houston Oilers 0
St. Louis Cardinals 24, Cincinnati Bengals 42
Pittsburgh Steelers 16, Cleveland Browns 21
New York Giants 16, Philadelphia Eagles 20
Atlanta Falcons 28, New York Jets 20
Chicago Bears 13, Minnesota Vikings 31
Los Angeles Rams 24, New Orleans Saints 13
Kansas City Chiefs 10, Denver Broncos 14
Born:
Octavio Dotel, Dominican MLB pitcher (World Series Champions-Cardinals, 2011; New York Mets, Houston Astros, Oakland A’s, New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers), in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Erick Strickland, NBA shooting guard and point guard (Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Vancouver Grizzlies, Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks), in Opelika, Alabama.
John Fiala, NFL linebacker (Pittsburgh Steelers), in Fullerton, California.
Yatil Green, NFL wide receiver (Miami Dolphins), in Gainesville, Florida.
Libor Zábranský, Czech NHL defenseman (St. Louis Blues), in Brno, Czechoslovakia.
Died:
Albert DeSalvo, 42, American rapist who confessed to being the “Boston Strangler” who killed 13 women from 1962 to 1964, was stabbed to death by another inmate at the Walpole Prison in Massachusetts.
Laurence Harvey, 45, English actor (“Alamo”, “Romeo & Juliet”), died of stomach cancer.
Harry Driver, 42, British TV producer and comedian known for “Love Thy Neighbour” and “For the Love of Ada,” died of influenza and complications of polio.
Paulette Bernège, 77, French domestic engineer known for her concepts of efficient home design.
The new #1 song in the U.S. this week in 1973: Carpenters — “Top of the World”
History Diaries 