History Diaries

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During a series of air strikes against Syrian anti-aircraft batteries east of Beirut, Lebanon, two U.S. warplanes are shot down. The U.S. bombed Syrian targets in Lebanon as fighting there increased sharply. Two American carrier jets were shot down, and eight marines were reported to have been killed during an intense artillery attack by Syrian-backed militiamen. Sixth Fleet warships then opened fire on militia positions. The American air raid, which followed an Israeli air strike in the same area east of Beirut 24 hours earlier, was directed against Syrian antiaircraft batteries and involved 28 American fighter-bombers.

A Marine spokesman, Maj. Dennis Brooks, said the marines were under continuous shelling for four hours beginning around 7 P.M. (noon New York time). At first the marines returned the fire with their own machine guns and M-60 tanks, but later, as the shelling intensified, they called in support from American warships offshore. A United States ship blasted away at the sources of fire beginning at 10:55 P.M. and the loud booms from the naval guns could be heard all across the Lebanese capital.

The U.S. is prepared to strike again at Syrian positions in Lebanon, President Reagan warned, if American forces there are again attacked. Mr. Reagan was said by aides to have personally approved the bombing raid on Syrian antiaircraft.

The Administration’s decision to bomb Syrian aircraft positions in Lebanon was “reasonable,” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel said. He said he hoped it would encourage the Syrians to avoid an “all-out war” with American and Israeli forces.

Senator Alan Cranston said in response to the American air strikes on Syrian positions in Lebanon that President Reagan’s approach to foreign policy was “trigger-happy and reckless.” Mr. Cranston is one of eight candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Syria’s Foreign Minister called for international and Arab action against what he said was America’s aggressive policy in Lebanon and the Middle East. His appeals followed United States air raids against Syrian Army positions in the central mountains of Lebanon today, but before the shelling in which eight marines were killed in Beirut and American warships responded with shelling. The Syrian minister did not mention the number of American planes shot down. Earlier today a Syrian military spokesman said Syria shot down three United States aircraft and captured one of the pilots.

President Reagan travels to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington to participate in a Hanukkah Celebration. President Reagan said today that the United States would quit the United Nations if Israel were ever expelled from the world organization. “Just so no one gets any ideas, let me be blunt,” Mr. Reagan said. “If Israel is ever forced to leave the U.N., the United States and Israel will leave together.” Mr. Reagan made the pledge at a Jewish community center in nearby Rockville, Maryland, where he attended a menorah candle-lighting ceremony for Hanukkah. The President said the United States was “making sure that Israel is not hurt in the United Nations.” “Ambassador Kirkpatrick is our watchdog on this, and let me assure you one thing about Jeane, she is a very determined woman.”

South Korean forces sank a North Korean spy boat and captured two armed enemy agents in a clash along the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula on Saturday, the Defense Ministry announced today. The two captured North Koreans were wounded but not seriously, military officials said. There were no South Korean casualties or damage in the incident, the Defense Ministry said.

The North Korean infiltrators were spotted late Saturday along the coast near Pusan, South Korea’s second largest city, 205 miles southeast of Seoul. South Korean troops at a coastal guardpost waited for them to reach shore, the Defense Ministry said. When they were close enough, the soldiers jumped on the infiltrators and overpowered them, ministry officials said. At the same time, South Korean Navy and Air Force units were called into action and chased a North Korean boat offshore. The vessel was trapped and sunk, the officials said.

The Soviet Government has added a new law to its books that dissidents fear will be used to stretch the labor-camp terms of political prisoners. The law, which went into effect in the Russian republic of the Soviet Union on October 1, provides terms of up to five years for prisoners who disobey or oppose labor-camp administrators. The measure is applicable to all prisoners, but dissidents believe that it will be applied primarily to human rights activists who refuse to renounce their activities or causes while in camps. Both dissidents and Western diplomats who monitor human rights in the Soviet Union saw the measure as a new weapon in the tough crackdown on dissidence that began about three years before Yuri V. Andropov became the Soviet leader and has continued unabated under him.

The law, Article 188-3 of the criminal code of the Russian republic, states that “malicious disobedience to lawful demands made by the administration of a corrective labor institution, or any other opposition to the administration in the execution of its functions” by a prisoner who has been sent to an isolation cell or transferred to prison in the preceding year can bring up to three more years of imprisonment. Prisoners considered “especially dangerous recidivists” or those convicted of a “grave crime” can be sentenced up to five additional years.

Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican Secretary of State, said today that the Vatican was trying to play a mediating role between the United States and the Soviet Union, but did not think “very conciliatory results” were attainable. The Cardinal made the comment in reply to questions by reporters after he celebrated mass at a church in the center of Rome. He made it clear he was not discussing a specific papal initiative. The questions were prompted by the fact that Cardinal Casaroli recently returned from a visit to the United States and that Pope John Paul II received the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, Bohuslav Chnoupek, on Friday. Speculation about a possible papal effort to mediate after the breakdown of the Geneva talks between the United States and the Soviet Union on medium-range nuclear missiles was also fueled by a visit that the Italian Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi, paid to the Pope. No details of the Pope’s conversations with Mr. Craxi or Mr. Chnoupek have been made public.

Four people, including an American priest, slipped into a United States Army base today and damaged a tractor of the kind used to transport Pershing 2 missiles, authorities said. It was the first report of sabotage since protests against nuclear missiles began last Easter. The protests increased last month as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization prepared to deploy Pershing 2’s in West Germany. Armed guards surrounded the four protesters about 15 minutes after they cut through a fence at Hardt Barracks soon after 8 A.M. and began smashing the tractor and a truck with crowbars and other tools. No shots were fired and no one was injured, according to officials at United States Army Europe headquarters in Heidelberg. An Army spokesman, Sgt. Linda Lee, said the four people “smashed windows and cut the hydraulic lines” on the tractor and were arrested by West German policemen who were called by the Army. She could not say how the four were able to sneak into the base undetected.

Police officers broke up a gathering of about 500 people at a coal mine in Katowice today as Solidarity activists turned the traditional coal miners’ holiday of St. Barbara’s Day into a salute to workers in the union underground. Witnesses said 50 to 60 people were detained at the Wujec coal mine, where eight strikers were shot by soldiers in a strike in the first days of martial law in December 1981. Several dozen people were taken away. The Warsaw correspondents of the French and Italian news agencies and two of their Polish assistants were temporarily detained.

A number of churches around Poland staged ceremonies with the theme of support for the banned Solidarity trade union, according to reports from around the country. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, using St. Barbara’s Day observances to stress the government’s commitment to its policies, criticized his opponents and blamed the United States for backing them.

The police arrested a female suspect today in the kidnapping of Alfred H. Heineken, but the search continued for three other people in the abduction of the brewery chairman and his chauffeur. A police spokesman said detectives had “certain suspicions” about the 31- year-old woman, a friend of Robbie Grifhorst, who the police believe planned the abduction. Mr. Grifhorst was arrested Wednesday when he flew into Amsterdam from Spain. Officials did not release the woman’s name.

Victory in Venezuela’s election for President was claimed by Jaime Lusinchi, the candidate of the opposition Democratic Action Party, which released preliminary returns. His main opponent was Rafael Caldera of the Social Christian Party.

Nicaragua said the people who fled the country since the revolution of 1979 were free to return without punishment. The Sandinista junta said the only exceptions were the officers in the deposed national guard or security agencies of the defeated Somoza dictatorship and leaders of anti-Sandinista groups.

President Reagan returns to the White House from the weekend at Camp David.

Farm-support totaled $28 billion in the last federal fiscal year, about $3 billion more than all farm income, including direct payments to farmers from the Government. The $28 billion was more than the Government spent on welfare programs. Much of the money went to a relatively few large, successful farmers, while many less prosperous owners of small or medium-sized farms, for whom the farm-support program was established in the Depression, received little or nothing.

Antinuclear movement leaders are seeking an influential role in in the 1984 elections. They will concentrate less on educating the public about the dangers of nuclear war and more on direct political action.

In its latest attack on affirmative action plans using quotas, the Reagan Administration is trying to force the Supreme Court to confront the difficult questions that arise when a public employer gives preference to blacks over whites in an effort to remedy decades of job discrimination. The Justice Department translated the Administration’s political campaign against affirmative action into a Supreme Court brief when it asserted Friday that Detroit’s plan for promoting black and white police officers in equal numbers was unconstitutional.

But there is no certainty the High Court will take the case, in which five white police sergeants are asking the Justices to overturn decisions by the Federal District Court in Detroit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Supreme Court could announce a decision whether to take the Detroit case early next year but might wait for several months, until it decides on another affirmative action case involving the Memphis Fire Department in Tennessee. Justice Department lawyers acknowledged that their argument had not yet been fully thought out. While not professing to have all the answers, they said the Supreme Court should address important constitutional questions raised in the case.

Greyhound’s tentative contract still calls for a pay cut of 7.8 percent, but the overall package is much better than a company proposal that was rejected last week, union sources said. The strikers continued to picket, and the union said the walkout would continue until the terms of the tentative settlement, reached Saturday night, have been ratified by its members, probably not before December 20.

Spacelab resumed taking pictures in a test of the potential of making maps from space after one more of its several equipment malfunctions was corrected. The high-resolution photography, much of it of Western Europe, continued after one of the crew freed film that was stuck in a mapping camera.

A two-day fund-raising swing by two groups of Democratic Presidential candidates that their party had hoped would raise $1.9 million in a highly publicized festival of unity has become an exercise in damage control. Trouble lies ahead in Chicago for Walter F. Mondale, because local Democratic leaders are feuding, and in the South for party officials, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson planning to press his demands for changes in delegate selection rules.

A tentative agreement in the month-old Greyhound bus strike still calls for a pay cut of 7.8 percent, but the overall package is significantly better than a company proposal rejected last week, union sources said yesterday. The strikers continued to picket Greyhound facilities across the nation, however, and said the walkout would continue until the terms of the settlement had been ratified by the union’s membership. The results of the ratification will probably not be known until December 20 because of the time required to hold meetings and conduct a ballot by mail. Company officials said Greyhound would continue its limited service pending the vote and that it expected to expand its operations this week, as planned.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned banks and armored car services nationwide that a left-wing group prone to violence may have been responsible for the theft of $582,000 in five robberies, it was reported today. While the bandits have not been identified, The Boston Globe said the group has been robbing banks while heavily armed and wearing bulletproof vests. Director William H. Webster of the bureau said the bandits were considered suspects in a series of holdups in South Burlington, Vermont, and in the New York communities of Utica, Rotterdam and DeWitt.

The teenage birth rate dropped 10 percent in three years in Arkansas schools that offered sex education, officials of the Arkansas Family Planning Council said today. Arkansas once led the nation in teenage pregnancies but now is second to Mississippi, said Bill Hamilton, executive director of the council. Although sex education in Arkansas schools is still limited, Mr. Hamilton said parents increasingly favor classroom instruction about sex.

A magazine publisher who wants to buy The St. Louis Globe-Democrat says he has sent financial data and a $2.5 million “full- blown proposal” to lawyers for the Herald Company, which owns the money-losing paper. Edward R. Grotpeter of St. Louis said his $2.5 million offer included purchase of the newspaper’s name, circulation and advertising information.

Cold in a warm hospital room, Stephen Lamb pulled his yellow blanket tighter around his emaciated body. “My friends have abandoned me,” Mr. Lamb said, his voice a tired whisper. “They’re afraid of AIDS. But instead of just saying that, they would promise and promise to come and see me and then not show up. That really hurt.” Fighting a triple assault of cryptococcal meningitis, tuberculosis of the bone marrow and an intestinal infection, Mr. Lamb withered from 180 pounds to under 100. One of his few visitors at the New York University Medical Center was William Carroll, a man he barely knew. Mr. Carroll is a volunteer with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a nonprofit New York group that is currently helping 250 people with AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The story of the organization reflects the dramatic changes that have recast life in the city’s homosexual community in the two years since AIDS emerged as a mysterious and frightening national epidemic. Fighting a siege of death and prejudice, the community that was once characterized by a carefree and freewheeling spirit has evolved into a more mature and politically savvy population. Mr. Carroll, who works in a law library, joined the Gay Men’s Health Crisis after seeing its newspaper advertisement soliciting “buddies” for debilitated AIDS victims. “I felt compassion for these guys’ loneliness and despair,” he said. “I heard that they had been neglected by their family and friends, even other gays, and that they had been treated badly by some hospital personnel.’

The latest in a series of strong snowstorms blew through the Rockies yesterday, dumping up to 21 inches of snow. Meanwhile, snow and ice made travel hazardous in the Northeast, and the South started to dry out after waves of thunderstorms that produced floods and tornadoes. At least three people were killed by the flooding and tornadoes, and the storm in the West was blamed for three deaths, bringing the death toll from storms since November 21 to 89, 48 of them in the last week. Flood warnings remained in effect yesterday on streams in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama despite partly sunny skies, one day after hundreds were forced to flee their homes.

The storm in the West had produced wind gusts up to 92 miles per hour south of San Francisco on Saturday. The wind overturned vehicles and parked planes, shut down roads and bridges, felled trees, sank boats, mangled homes and cut power to an estimated quarter of a million people. The snowstorm had dumped up to two feet of snow on the mountains of California, and was centered over Colorado yesterday. Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Utah and Colorado.

The Kennedy Center Honors were presented at a gala in Washington to five Americans by President Reagan in the closest thing that the United States has to federal recognition in the arts. The recipients were Katherine Dunham, dancer and choreographer; Elia Kazan, director and novelist; James Stewart, movie actor; Virgil Thomson, composer, and Frank Sinatra, singer and actor.

David Shire & Richard Maltby, Jr.’s musical “Baby” opens at Barrymore Theater, NYC; runs for 241 performances.

Garry Sherman and Peter Udell’s musical “Amen Corner”, based on James Baldwin’s drama “The Amen Corner”, closes at Nederlander Theatre after 28 performances.

The New Jersey Devils get their first shut-out, beating Minnesota North Stars 6-0.

NFL Football:

As Mel Kaufman picked up a fumble and returned it 30 yards for the touchdown that increased the Washington Redskins’ lead to 27—0 over the Atlanta Falcons today, the fans in Robert F. Kennedy Stadium began the thunderous chant: “We want Dallas . . . We want Dallas . . .” It seems as if they and the Redskins have waited forever for another chance at the Cowboys, with games like today’s 37—21 victory over the Falcons constituting something between a formality and an annoyance. In fact, it was the first Monday night of the season that the Redskins last played Dallas and lost, 31—30. But now the rematch is upon them. The Redskins, whose record improved to 12-2, will travel to Dallas to engage the 12-2 Cowboys in a game next Sunday that will almost assuredly decide which of them appears in the playoffs as the National Conference East champion and which as a wild-card team. The difference is that a wild-card team cannot be host in a playoff game and must play one more playoff game, against another wild card team. Today, Joe Theismann moved the Redskin offense consistently well through three quarters with near-perfect protection by his line. He was sacked only once. His scoring passes were for 18 yards to the tight end Clint Didier in the first quarter, 11 to the running back Joe Washington in the second and 10 to the wide receiver Art Monk in the third. Moseley’s field goals were from 26, 51 (his longest of the season), and 43 yards. John Riggins, the lumbering running back, gained 87 yards on 23 carries, though he did not run for a touchdown for the first time in 14 games.

Mike Kennedy returned an interception 22 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown and Joe Cribbs rushed for a career-high 185 yards as Buffalo defeated Kansas City, 14—9. With Joe Ferguson completing only 6 of 15 passes for 76 yards, Cribbs provided most of the Buffalo offense with his 36 carries, also a personal record. The victory raised the Bills’ record to 8-6 and kept their playoff hopes alive.

Jan Stenerud kicked a 19-yard field goal with three seconds left to lift Green Bay to a 31—28 victory over Chicago and keep the Packers’ playoff hopes alive. Green Bay remains in contention for the National Conference Central title with a 7-7 record. Chicago fell to 6-8. Detroit and Minnesota, the division leaders with 7-6 marks, play Monday night in Pontiac, Michigan.

On a raw, gray afternoon at Three Rivers Stadium today the Steelers lost again. The Cincinnati Bengals brushed aside the Pittsburgh team, 23—10, giving the Steelers their third straight defeat. If the Steelers had won, they would have assured themselves of a place in the National Football League’s postseason playoffs. But now their record is 9-5 and their status is somewhat different. Because Cleveland lost to Denver, the Steelers retained their one-game lead over the Browns in the Central Division of the American Conference, a precarious margin. There are variables regarding the playoffs, but more important, the Steelers must resume their winning habits of the last decade or they can forget about playoffs. Their two remaining opponents are the Jets in New York on Saturday and the Browns in Cleveland December 18. Chuck Noll, the only NFL coach who has four Super Bowl championships to his credit, all with the Steelers, said, “We played lousy for the third straight game.” Meanwhile, the Bengals, now 6-8 for the season, went about their business. They led, 14—0, after the first period, scoring two easy touchdowns following Pittsburgh turnovers, a fumble by Frank Pollard and an intercepted Stoudt pass.

John Elway threw touchdown passes of 39 and 49 yards to the wide receiver Clint Sampson to beat Cleveland, 27—6, and keep Denver’s playoff hopes alive. Denver’s victory left both teams with 8-6 records. Six teams in the American Conference have 8-6 records or better, with five playoff spots still open. Denver’s first touchdown was set up by the cornerback Steve Wilson’s interception and 36-yard return to the Cleveland 3 early in the second quarter. Sammy Winder ran off the left side for the score on the next play.

Tony Dorsett scored two first-half touchdowns and Danny White passed for two touchdowns in the second half as Dallas tuned up for its rematch with Washington by routing the Seahawks, 35—10. Curt Warner, the Seahawks’ outstanding rookie running back who went into the game as the No. 2 rusher in the National Football League, was bottled up by the Cowboys’ defense. Dallas sacked the quarterback Dave Krieg eight times for 65 yards in losses. The Cowboys’ defense also forced four Krieg turnovers, two fumbles and two interceptions. One of the fumbles came when the Seahawks were at the Dallas 1-yard line in the first quarter. Dorsett scored on runs of 8 yards in the first quarter and 7 yards in the second. White teamed with Doug Donley with a 35-yard touchdown strike in the third quarter and found Butch Johnson in the end zone for a 16-yard strike. Seattle, which scored a 51—48 overtime victory over Kansas City last weekend, scored nine seconds before halftime when Norm Johnson tied a club record with a 54-yard field goal. The Seahawks scored their touchdown with 4:09 remaining in the game on a 2-yard run by Warner.

Ron Jaworski’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Tony Woodruff with 21 seconds left rallied Philadelphia to a 13—9 win over the Los Angeles Rams and snapped the Eagles’ seven-game losing streak. The Eagles, winning their first home game of the season, drove 71 yards on 6 plays after falling behind with 1:46 left. The Rams took possession at their 20 after the ensuing kickoff and Vince Ferragamo completed a 37-yard pass for a first down at the Eagles’ 43. But Ferragamo’s last pass fell incomplete as time ran out.

Tony Nathan ran 5 yards for a touchdown with 3:51 to play today to rally Miami from a 17—7 third-quarter deficit to a 24—17 victory over Houston that clinched the Dolphins’ 11th American Conference Eastern Division championship. The Dolphins (10-4) drove 82 yards for the game-winning touchdown, but the drive may have been costly for the Dolphins as their rookie quarterback, Dan Marino, left the game with a knee injury on the play before Nathan’s touchdown run. Miami fell behind by 17—7 early in the third quarter but fought back to tie the game at 17—17 on Uwe Von Schamann’s 19-yard field goal and a 28-yard pass from Marino to Nat Moore with 11:46 left in the game. The Dolphins got the ball again with 9:17 to go and started the game-winning drive. Earl Campbell gained 138 yards on 28 carries, He now has 1,078 yards for the year on 263 carries, the fifth time in his six-year career that he has gained over 1,000 yards.

Tony Collins scored on a 3-yard run after Ricky Smith returned the opening kickoff 53 yards to account for all the scoring as New England beat New Orleans 7—0 in snow, sleet and heavy rain. Smith took Morton Andersen’s kickoff at the Patriots 11-yard line and raced up the right side to the New Orleans’ 36. New England ran on all 9 plays in the 6-minute and 11-second drive.

Richard Todd promised to get even with the Baltimore Colts, but he wasn’t in a mood to rub it in afterward. But there were others among the New York Jets who admitted Sunday’s 10—6 victory over the Colts carried a little extra satisfaction. “I played a bad game,” Todd said, even though he passed for the game’s only touchdown, an eight-yard swing pass to Freeman McNeil with 65 seconds left in the first half to give the Jets a 10—3 lead. The Jets (7-7) kept alive their longshot playoff hopes with their third straight victory. The Colts (6-8), on the brink of elimination, absorbed their fourth straight loss. Todd, stung by comments by the Colts that he panicked in a defeat by Baltimore four weeks ago, tossed interceptions on New York’s first two series but ended the day with 15 completions in 28 attempts for 138 yards. He had no sharp retorts during or after the game. “There’s no need to get into that,” Todd said, although during the week he had promised to get even. “I didn’t say anything to anyone.” However, Freeman McNeil, the Jets’ star running back who gained 102 yards, charged that the Colts played dirty, hitting him late and with intent to injure.

Faced with the prospect of sitting in a heavy rain and watching a rematch between two teams that struggled to a comical 20—20 tie six weeks ago, only 25,156 fans showed up at Giants Stadium Sunday to see the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Giants, 10—6. With 76,745 tickets sold, the no-show total was 51,589, an all-time NFL high. The record was 48,830 no-shows for a 1974 game at Atlanta between the Falcons and Green Bay Packers. The crowd was by far the smallest since the Giants moved into Giants Stadium in 1976, shattering the no-shows record of 27,776 set against Philadelphia in 1977. Those who stayed home didn’t miss much. The Giants, gaining 22 yards on 22 plays, had one first down in the first half. The Cardinals had only one in the second-and it came on an offside penalty. The Cardinals are 6-7-1, the Giants 3-10-1. The Giants were shut out after two 44-yard field goals by rookie Ali Haji-Sheikh in the first quarter. The game’s only touchdown came on a 20-yard pass play, Neil Lomax to Roy Green, on the third play of the second quarter.

Joe Montana didn’t exactly ground the San Francisco 49ers’ air show Sunday, but instead he shared the work with his running backs. Roger Craig ran for three touchdowns, and Wendell Tyler rushed for 102 yards as the 49ers ended a tailspin with a 35—21 victory over Tampa Bay that pulled them even with the Rams for the NFC West lead. The 49ers (8-6) had lost four of five games to drop out of the lead but knew going into the game that the Rams had lost, 13—9, in Philadelphia. “We ran the ball better today, and I can’t remember when we ever rushed for five touchdowns in a game,” 49ers Coach Bill Walsh said. It was the 49ers’ best running game in memory. They picked up 227 yards rushing and 233 passing. Montana, even though he failed to throw a touchdown pass for the second straight game, had 21 completions in 31 attempts and no interceptions. His passing set up four of the five San Francisco scores. Dwight Clark, Montana’s favorite receiver the last three seasons, caught six passes to end a bit of a drought. In the four defeats, Clark had 10 catches for 111 yards.

Atlanta Falcons 21, Washington Redskins 37
Buffalo Bills 14, Kansas City Chiefs 9
Chicago Bears 28, Green Bay Packers 31
Cincinnati Bengals 23, Pittsburgh Steelers 10
Cleveland Browns 6, Denver Broncos 27
Dallas Cowboys 35, Seattle Seahawks 10
Los Angeles Rams 9, Philadelphia Eagles 13
Miami Dolphins 24, Houston Oilers 17
New Orleans Saints 0, New England Patriots 7
New York Jets 10, Baltimore Colts 6
St. Louis Cardinals 10, New York Giants 6
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21, San Francisco 49ers 35

Born:

Charity Shea [as Charity Guthrie], American actress “Alpha Dog”, “The Best Years”). in Denver, Colorado.

Died:

Estelle Omens, 55, American actress (“Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds”).

Bruce Drake, 77, American Basketball Hall of Fame coach (University of Oklahoma 1938-1955, career record of 200—181).

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