Fighting breaks out between Turks and Greeks over disputed islands in Cyprus and 16 are killed; the UN responds the following month by sending a peacekeeping force. The fate of the British‐United States peace proposals for Cyprus was uncertain tonight. Fighting between Greek and Turkish Cypriotes in the southern port town of Limassol entered its second day. Under Secretary of State George W. Ball and Cyril Pickard, Britain’s Under Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, formally presented the proposals to Archbishop Makarios, the President of Cyprus, shortly after Mr. Ball arrived by air from Ankara. He and Mr. Pickard conferred for four hours with the archbishop. Another negotiating session was set for tomorrow.
The intensity of the talks and their scheduled continuation suggested that the British-American team was not yet ready to take no for an answer. However, Greek Cypriote sources indicated rejection or an equivocal response. A highly placed Greek Cypriote official was said to have indicated that the revised United States‐British proposals did not differ much from the original and that the Cypriote Government’s position remained unchanged. The official was also understood to have indicated that Archbishop Makarios had agreed to tomorrow’s meeting only to “show his good faith” and that he did not expect much to come of it. The diplomatic tension was high in Nicosia and the sharply deteriorating situation in Limassol was causing grave concern. Limassol had been quiet for the last seven weeks. Now, according to reports, the city Is torn by conflict.
Greek Cypriotes reported one dead and four wounded in the last 24 hours. Turkish Cypriote casualties were put at two dead and eight wounded. There were unconfirmed reports that more than 15 persons had been killed. A cease‐fire laboriously negotiated by British truce forces was said by the British to have brought uneasy calm to the town at nightfall. Later accounts by Greek Cypriote sources said the cease‐fire had collapsed and fighting had resumed.
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Sir Alec Douglas‐Home, Prime Minister of Britain, began a two‐day conference at the White House today and moved toward firm support of each other’s interests in Southeast Asia. Officials said that the communiqué the two leaders will issue tomorrow would reflect strong agreement on the need to resist Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam and to support the new country of Malaysia against Indonesia. Experts of the two nations will continue to discuss details of the Malaysian‐Indonesian dispute as well as the problems of Laos and Cambodia. The British were eager to dispel any notion that they found merit in French or other proposals for the neutralization of Vietnam at this time.
The President and the Prime Minister differed strongly, as expected, about Britain’s trade with Cuba. The rest of the three hours of discussion through the day amounted to reviews of various issues, without any search for decisions. Members of both delegations emphasized that this was primarily a get‐acquainted meeting, since Mr. Johnson and Sir Alec did not really know each other well. Much of the special relationship that is often ascribed to dealings between London and Washington depends upon frequent personal meetings between the heads of government and even more frequent telephone contacts. Sir Alec and Lady Douglas-Home arrived this morning at Andrews Air Force Base from Ottawa, where the Prime Minister had conferred with Canada’s leaders.
Semyon K. Tsarapkin, leader of the Soviet delegation to the disarmament talks, accused Swiss authorities today of having shown a “clear lack of desire” to help find Yuri I. Nosenko, who defected last week from the delegation here. Mr. Tsarapkin also accused the Swiss of permitting “provocative activity” on their territory by foreign intelligence agents. He called on them to utilize “their sovereign rights” and to take “all necessary measures” to assure Mr. Nosenko’s return “to his place of work, to his family and children.” Mr. Nosenko, 36 years old, disappeared after the conference session February 4. He had attended as one of six experts on the official Soviet delegation list. Washington announced Monday that Mr. Nosenko was a staff officer in the Soviet security agency and had requested political asylum in the United States.
The Pentagon announced today that no more dependents of military men or civilians would be allowed to go to the Guantánamo Naval Base in Cuba. The wives and children of military and civilian personnel now living there will return home at the normal rate in the next two years as the personnel end their tours of duty. Assistant Defense Secretary Arthur Sylvester, who announced the plan, said there were about 3,000 dependents at the base. He said this number would be reduced by 800 during the next six months. Military personnel will be assigned hereafter to the base for one‐year tours instead of the usual two years. This will give the base, which is about 470 miles from Florida, the status of a hardship post comparable to Greenland and Antarctica. Up to now Guantánamo has been considered a desirable base assignment.
United States officials closed the American community’s movie theater tonight because of the possibility that Communist terrorists had planted a bomb inside. A radio shop next door had been broken into the night before and this could have given terrorists access to the theater. A search uncovered no bomb, but officials felt the movie house should be closed as a precaution.
Representatives of the United States and Panama were questioned today as an Organization of American States commission an investigation into Panama’s charge of aggression against the United States in the anti‐American riots of January 9 and 10. The commission is seeking to determine responsibility for the riots and deaths, which occurred at the Canal Zone border. Twenty‐three Panamanians and four United States soldiers were killed. Galileo Solis, Panamanian Foreign Minister, spent two hours with the commission this morning. In the afternoon, Edwin M. Martin, United States representative. was questioned.
France named Claude Chayet today as chargé d’affaires in Peking as the first step toward implementing the diplomatic recognition of Communist China. Almost simultaneously, Jaques Duhamel, the organizer on a French industrial exposition planned in Peking this year, forecast that France should be able to capture at least a $200 million share of the Chinese market. Mr. Chayet will leave Tuesday by plane, arriving in the Communist capital, via Tokyo and Hong Kong, February 23. The French diplomat, who lived in China for six years, was recently Consul General in Oran, Algeria.
President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanganyika indirectly appealed to the countries of Africa today to create a joint military force to replace British troops in his troubled land. He implied that Tanganyika’s position as an independent East African state would be compromised by further reliance on British commandos, whom he called in to put down last month’s army mutiny. Until 1961 Tanganyika was a United Nations trust territory under Britain’s administration. Mr. Nyerere described Britain as a country “deeply involved in the world’s cold‐war conflicts” and said that the continued presence of her troops would compromise Tanganyika and Africa’s policy of nonalignment between East and West.
Bachir Boumaza, Minister of the National Economy, warned tonight that French oil companies operating in the Sahara could not expect to continue indefinitely to take their profits out of Algeria without control. “It is not good enough that Algeria has no control over the annual export of 158 billion francs [$310 million], over half the total value of Algerian exports, which bring no benefit to the Algerian economy,” Mr. Boumaza said. Speaking at a news conference, the minister said that talks with France were to begin soon to find a “constructive” solution to the Saharan oil question. The talks must result in genuine Algerian participation in the industry on Algerian soil, he said.
President Johnson went to the Lincoln Memorial today to call for “a fair chance and equal opportunity, not for some but for all our people.” Honoring Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, Mr. Johnson spoke briefly from the steps of the monument. He was accompanied by Sir Alec Douglas‐Home, Prime Minister of Britain, who arrived here today for an official visit. “We stand with Lincoln for union and for the freedom of all men, Mr. Johnson said. “But the great task remaining before us is to fulfill the promise, to turn the words into acts — acts of private citizens, acts of corporations and unions, acts of churches and voluntary groups of all kinds, acts of state and Federal agencies, acts of the President, and acts of Congress.” The American promise, Mr. Johnson said, will be unfulfilled while children lack schools and teachers, men lack jobs and houses, and Americans go without adequate medical care or are “denied their full human rights.”
President Johnson issued an Executive Order 11141 establishing a U.S. government policy against age discrimination in federal employment and against hiring contractors and subcontractors that practiced such discrimination.
Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy, shows anger for the first time in the courtroom at his change of venue hearing in Dallas, Texas. Ruby glares at Carl Fruend, reporter for the Dallas Morning News, when he defends his story that recent neuropsychiatric examinations showed no damage to Ruby’s brain. The hearing is marked by irate clashes between attorneys. With the witness count running 25 in favor of transferring the trial, 14 for keeping it in Dallas, and 1 undecided in the three-day hearing, the defense moves to wind up its case.
The activities of a public relations aide to the judge in the Jack L. Ruby murder trial were sharply criticized today by Ruby’s attorneys. Melvin M. Belli, who heads the team of defense lawyers, clashed frequently with Sam R. Bloom, the owner of a Dallas advertising and public relations agency. The defense was attempting to show that Mr. Bloom, a member of the Dallas Citizens Council, had conferred with council members before drawing up regulations governing the trial. Mr. Bloom denied these implications, He said he had volunteered last December to assist the judge without a fee in arranging for press coverage. It has been generally understood, however, that business leaders in Dallas approved Mr. Bloom’s offer of services to Judge Joe B. Brown. In some quarters, the judge is considered to lack the temperament and experience for a trial of this scope.
The Republican National Chairman, representative William E. Miller, called for a “’Teapot Dome type of investigation” into the Baker case today. He told a luncheon at the National Press Club that he was not satisfied with the progress of the inquiry being conducted by the Senate Rules Committee into the outside business activities of Robert G. Baker, the former secretary of the Democratic majority of the Senate. “What President Johnson ought to do,” he said, “is what President Coolidge did with the Teapot Dome scandal. He appointed Senator Tom Walsh, a Democrat, to head the investigation so it would be nonpartisan. “We ought to have a man like Senator John Williams [Delaware Republican] heading this investigation.”
President Johnson will be accompanied to Miami Beach February 27 by two men mentioned as possible Vice‐Presidential candidates —Senators Eugene J. McCarthy and Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, both of Minnesota.
A bandit forces Leon Ames, TV star, to produce $50,000 and then kidnaps the actor’s wife and two men. Police, alerted by an employe of Ames when he goes to the bank for the money, surround the home and cover the area with a helicopter. Minutes after the bandit flees in his car with Mrs. Ames beside him and the two men in the trunk, police capture him. They also seize his wife, who is in a car nearby with her 3-year-old daughter. The money is recovered.
Henry Ford II and the former Anne McDonnell are divorced at Fairfield, Idaho, clearing the way for a possible marriage between the grandson of the pioneer automobile builder and an Italian beauty, Mrs. Maria Christina Vettore Austin, 34. Mrs. Ford, 44, obtains the divorce on grounds of mental cruelty in a quiet, 20-minute civil proceeding before Idaho District Judge Charles Scoggin. Ford, 46, was not present. Scoggin is the same judge who a year ago granted a divorce to Mrs. Margaretta Fitler Murphy, who later married New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Mrs. John F. Kennedy arrived in New York yesterday for a visit expected to last through the weekend. A spokesman said she was here to attend to some details of the memorial library to be dedicated to the late President. Mrs. Kennedy arrived by air from Washington with two secretaries, Pamela Turnure and Nancy Tuckerman. She is staying at the Carlyle Hotel. Secret Service agents are also accompanying Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy’s children, Caroline, 6 years old, and John F. Jr., 3, remained at the new Kennedy house in Washington.
Two nights after performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles performed at Carnegie Hall in front of a screaming crowd. An Associated Press reporter commented that “The Beatles… may actually have been playing and singing. The audience couldn’t tell. All it heard most of the time was its own screaming.”
Police in Buffalo, New York, rescued a radio station worker who had inadvertently found himself the butt of jokes as “a prisoner… in a Chinese fortune cookie factory”. Robert Grove had contracted with a bakery owned by Philip Leong to buy 150,000 cookies for a promotion, and was touring the factory when it closed early for the Chinese New Year celebration.
The U.S. female Figure Skating championship is won by Peggy Fleming.
The U.S. male Figure Skating championship is won by Scott Allen.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 794.82 (+2.66).
Born:
Michel Petit, Canadian NHL defenseman (Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers, Quebec Nordiques, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes), in St-Malo, Quebec, Canada.
Maurice Douglass, NFL safety (Chicago Bears, New York Giants), in Muncie, Indiana.
Derek Tennell, NFL tight end (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 27-Cowboys, 1992; Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings), in Los Angeles, California.
Henry Thomas, NFL guard (New Orleans Saints), in Richmond, Texas.
Joe Bitker, MLB pitcher (Oakland A’s, Texas Rangers), in Glendale, California.
Cameron Drew, MLB outfielder and pinch hitter (Houston Astros), in Boston, Massachusetts.
Raphael Sbarge, American actor (Risky Business, My Science Project, Werewolf), in New York, New York.
Died:
Willy Schmidt-Gentner, 69, German film score composer
Gerald Gardner, English Wiccan and author of the books Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959)
History Diaries 