It was Aaron’s 715th career homer, eclipsing the record total Babe Ruth amassed from 1914-35. It was an epochal event for big league baseball, which ended a ban on African-American players only 27 years earlier. Aaron received hate mail by the tens of thousands as he drew closer to Ruth’s hallowed mark.
Yet Aaron ignored the ugliness, which included death threats, and kept on hitting. If anybody was more powerful than Aaron at this historic moment, it was his mother, Estella. She burst through the circle of teammates surrounding her son at home plate to give him a lovingly crushing hug. (Braves History Blog)
In France, Parti socialiste Chairman François Mitterrand and incumbent Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing filed on the same day to be candidates for the May 5 presidential election. Giscard became the third member of the Gaullist Party (officially the Union des Démocrates pour la République or UDR) to enter the race, after former Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Assemblée nationale president Edgar Faure. Mitterrand was endorsed as well by the Parti communiste français (PCF) and the Parti socialiste unifié(PSU), both of which announced that they would not field a separate candidate. Giscard declared his candidacy in the town of Chamalières, where he was Mayor in addition to being Finance Minister. Faure dropped out of the race after Giscard’s entrance.
President Nixon’s talks with world leaders and his activities on the streets of Paris this weekend brought sharp criticism in France, as well as some grudging acknowledgment of continuing United States power. A letter circulated to journalists in Paris by a high official of the French Ministry said that Mr. Nixon had “shamelessly substituted a publicity campaign for the mourning of an entire nation, introducing an atmosphere of loud feverishness, the discourtesy of which is equaled only by its clumsiness.”
The commission that investigated the world’s worst air disaster, the crash of a Turkish DC-10 near Paris March 3 in which 346 people were killed, confirmed in its official report to French authorities that a faulty cargo door was the sole cause of the crash. The commission was made up of French and Turkish members with American and British observers.
Senator Sam Nunn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested today that the United States was keeping too many troops in West Germany because of a mistaken assumption that a conflict in Europe would be a long conventional war. The Georgia Democrat concluded in a report to the Senate committee that there could be a saving of 29,000 to 60,000 support and logistic troops if the 197,000‐man Army in Europe were adjusted to meet the more likely possibility that a war would be short and intense. The savings in support and logistic troops, he argued, could either be converted into greater combat strength or lead to troop withdrawals from Europe as part of a mutual troop reduction with the Soviet Union. Senator Nunn, the junior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was instructed earlier this year by Senator John C. Stennis, the committee chairman, to undertake a study of American troop commitments in Europe.
Icelandic Foreign Minister Einar Agustsson began two days of talks at the U.S. State Department in a renewed effort to secure closure of the U.S. air base at Keflavik, a campaign pledge made by the current government. The facility is considered an important part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which Iceland is a member, and Agustsson’s mission is seen as an effort to convince the United States a compromise could be in the form of a base operated by Iceland civilians.
Prime Minister Wilson of Britain went before the House of Commons in an effort to calm a raging political controversy over property transactions of his private secretary and her family. Mr. Wilson said that Mrs. Marcia Williams, his secretary for 18 years, was not guilty of any wrongdoing, attacked newspapers for “sensationalizing” the property transactions, and denied that he himself had been involved in any way. It was one of his most delicate moments since he came to power five weeks ago.
Dr. Dhani Prem, president of the Standing Committee of Asian Organizations in the United Kingdom, called for a government investigation into the refusal by Britain’s biggest blood collection center to supply the blood of nonwhite donors for transfusions. Dr. Thomas Cleghorn, medical director of the center, denied the ban was racist and said his tests have shown nonwhites were 10 times more likely than whites to have hepatitis, which can be passed on through blood.
Russian research chemist Pavel Litvinov, who spent four years in Siberian exile for protesting the abuse of human rights in the Soviet Union, arrived in New York from Vienna. Litvinov, the grandson of a Soviet foreign minister who also served as ambassador to the United States during World War II, was allowed to leave Moscow March 18 with his family. He said on his arrival in New York that he was happy to be in the “land of immigrants.”
Syria’s diplomatic representative in Washington said today that his country’s forces were shelling Israeli positions on the Golan Heights to hamper Israel from fortifying and settling the region. “The minute the Israelis get any land or territory they fortify and settle it in order to create an ipso facto,” Sabah Kabani, the diplomat, said in an interview. “After a while they consider it as Israeli territory and then the world at large, after a year or two thinks it is Israeli territory, as happened with the Golan Heights and in the Sinai.” Mr. Kabani, who spoke in English, said Syria was “trying to keep the status quo of the cease‐fire” since the October Middle East war but that “during this time Israel is trying to create settlements” on ground gained in October. “We must remind them that this situation is temporary until implementation of the United Nations resolutions which ask Israel to withdraw from the whole region,” he said. “So, we cannot allow Israel to create a new status in the area.”
Syrian forces said today that they had shot down an Israeli warplane for the first time since the October war. The Israeli plane, said to be a Phantom, was reported to have crashed in southern Lebanon after being hit by a rocket.
An Israeli spokesman denied today that a plane had been shot down by Syria. He said two crewmen had bailed out over Lebanon because of a fire caused by a technical fault, not by Syrian rockets.
A Lebanese spokesman said today that two pilots from an Israeli jet were safe and that they had been picked up about three miles west of Chebba. He did not say where they were being held.
The Security Council, after some behind‐the‐scenes wrangling, voted today to extend the life of the 7,000‐man United Nations Emergency Force in the Middle East until October 24. China and Iraq did not participate in the vote, which came 20 minutes after the Council met this afternoon. This was an hour behind schedule, after its members had finally reached agreement on the wording of the resolution. A point of contention was a passage that applied indirectly to Soviet efforts to compel Israel to allow free movement inside her lines for all United Nations troops, including the Polish contingent. The United Nations force separates Israeli and Egyptian troops in the Sinai Peninsula.
In a report Tuesday to the Council, Secretary General Waldheim singled out the matter of free access as requiring “urgent solution,” along with the question of the rate of reimbursements to nations contributing soldiers to the force. Today the Council resolution simply noted “with satisfaction that the Secretary General is exerting every effort to solve in a satisfactory way the problems of the force, including the urgent ones referred to in his report. Israel has balked at permitting entry by soldiers of countries that she considers unfriendly, and it is understood that Israeli leaders fear that if Polish troops were let in, the Soviet Union would press for admission of its 36 military officers who are members of the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization. That group operates side‐by‐side with the United Nations Emergency Force.
The Ethiopian government announced a series of sweeping social, economic and land reforms designed to settle down the nation after nearly two months of rebellion. The announcement came hours after quiet returned to the eastern city of Harar as troops there returned to their barracks after forcing the deputy chief of staff to resign. The land reform proposals, which diplomatic sources said were aimed at the Orthodox Church and Emperor Haile Selassie, would limit the amount of land a person could own to what he could develop.
A disappointing wheat crop is reportedly forcing India to shop around for imported grain to fill out the diet of its nearly 600 million people, according to reports by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The department said India’s wheat harvest may reach only 21 million tons, compared to the target of 30 million tons. There have been reports that India was negotiating with private U.S. firms for up to 2 million tons of grain.
New troubles appeared brewing for the newly independent Caribbean island of Grenada as one opposition member was fatally shot and another arrested the third time. Killed was Roy Donald, a member of the opposition Grenada National Party. He was shot twice, reportedly by a gunman who stopped his car by using a roadblock. In another development, Maurice Bishop, coordinating secretary of the militant anti-government New Jewel Movement, was arrested on a charge of inciting to do bodily harm.
U.S. President Richard Nixon signed legislation raising the federal minimum wage, effective May 1, 1974, from $1.60/hour to $2.00/hour, to reach $2.10/hour in 1975 and $2.30 in 1976. Mr. Nixon, who had vetoed similar legislation last year, said that although he had “some reservations” about this year’s bill, “raising the minimum wage is now a matter of justice that can no longer be fairly delayed.” For most workers the initial increase to $2 an hour will be made next month.
The U.S. Senate voted, 55 to 21, to make the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November — election day in the United States — as a paid federal holiday in even-numbered years, starting in 1976. The measure came as a bipartisan amendment offered by Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, both of whom had lost presidential elections in 1964 and 1968, respectively. Despite passing the Senate, however, the bill did not make it to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Senator Lowell Weicker, in a sequel to the Senate Watergate hearings, made public documents showing that the White House had frequent access to confidential Internal Revenue Service files on political friends and foes of President Nixon. He told three Senate subcommittees that were holding joint hearings on government surveillance activities that “the I.R.S. was acting like a public lending library for the White House.”
The impeachment inquiry staff of the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether fraud may have been involved in President Nixon’s handling of his personal income taxes. John Doar, the staff’s chief counsel, told committee members that the question of fraud was clearly part of their investigation. He said Internal Revenue Service records dealing with the President’s tax matters had been requested along with other tax information. Several committee members have said they would regard any evidence of criminal fraud in the returns as potential grounds for impeachment.
Vice President Ford paid more than one-third of his income in federal income taxes from 1967 to 1972, according to documents released by columnist Jack Anderson. The Internal Revenue Service audited Ford’s returns from the six-year period and he had to make only minor adjustments, the documents show. Ford earned $375,402 during the period and paid $150,091 in taxes. Ford’s office would not confirm the figures, saying the Vice President did not want to comment on stories that compared his taxes in a favorable light to those of President Nixon.
The Bankers Trust Company raised its prime rate on loans to corporations to 10 percent and a large New Jersey bank, the Peoples Trust Company, did the same. The basic lending rate had been this high once before — briefly last fall — but this time there was some feeling in financial circles that it might go even higher unless it was arrested by political considerations. Stock prices declined following the announcement of the higher prime rate. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.58 points and closed at its lowest level since mid-February.
The Department of Justice, in a significant display of current antitrust policy, took a direct hand in helping three leading meat packers diversify into other areas. It said that it had joined with Swift & Co., Armour & Co. and the Cudahy Company in asking a federal court judge to modify a 54-year-old consent decree that the three companies had signed.
The Agriculture Department responded to court orders and reinstated a $225.5 million allocation to a 1973 farm conservation program once terminated by the Nixon Administration. Under the plan, called the Rural Environmental Assistance Program, farmers can get federal assistance for carrying out approved projects. The department initially announced REAP spending in 1973 at $140 million, although Congress had set the figure at $225.5 million. But a few months later the department suspended the program after having spent about $15 million. A federal court late last year reversed the termination.
The prosecution closed its case tonight in the murder trial of W. A. Boyle, the former head of the United Mine Workers of America, after the state’s key witness testified that he had heard Mr. Boyle give the orders in 1969 to “take care of” Joseph A. Yablonski. The witness testified directly that the 72‐year‐old Mr. Boyle had initiated the plot that brought death not only to Mr. Yablonski, a longtime officer of the union, but also to his wife and a 25‐year‐old daughter. The witness was William J. Turnblazer, a miners’ union district president in the mountainous, violence‐prone Kentucky and Tennessee coalfields.
A federal jury in Dallas acquitted former Texas officials Waggoner Carr and John Osorio of stock fraud. The case grew out of the 1971 Sharpstown stock scandals that caused major embarrassment to Texas Democrats. A 50% turnover in the 1972 elections has been attributed to the scandals. Carr was a former attorney general and Osorio a former state insurance commissioner. The government had charged the defendants with a scheme to raid state banks with unregistered stock to raise cash for their personal use and for Houston financier Frank Sharp’s empire.
A United States‐Canada commission acknowledged this week that the two nations efforts to clean up pollution in the Great Lakes under a 1972 treaty were lagging. The delay was attributed to an “administrative morass” that the commission said was hampering federal grants to states to help build sewage treatment facilities. The Environmental Protection Agency, which parcels out the grants, conceded that some of its procedures under the 1972 water pollution law were slow. But it said the states shared some of the blame, noting there was money available that had not been applied for. The two‐nation Panel, the International Joint Commission, is the designated agency for coordinating the cleanup program under the treaty.
A federal judge ordered the integration of Denver’s 70,000 school children by next fall, primarily by redrawing boundaries and pairing requiring white, black and other students to share classrooms on a half-day basis. U.S. Appeals Judge William E. Doyle said his plan was an attempt at “a just, equitable and feasible plan for the desegregation… in accordance with the mandate of the Supreme Court.” He ruled that elementary schools should have no less than 40 and no more than 70% white enrollment and secondary schools must be between 50 and 60%.
The Animal Medical Center of New York City is suing tobacco heiress Doris Duke for $1,775,000, charging that “armed members of the Duke police department” halted medical research projects at Duke Farms in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. The suit, filed in federal court in Trenton, charged that “force, threats and other … unlawful acts” caused the termination of research into equine infectious anemia and bovine leukemia, which the center had been conducting since 1968.
Attorneys for accused mass slayer Elmer Wayne Henley, 17, told a judge that Houston police violated the youth’s constitutional rights when he confessed that he was involved in a three-year string of 27 sex-torture murders. Judge Preston H. Dial, who received the case in a change of venue from Houston to San Antonio, postponed immediate action on the request to suppress the confessions.
Discovery Island opens at Walt Disney World, Florida.
Paul McCartney & Wings release single “Band on the Run” in the United States.
Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a 7 to 4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking the record held by Babe Ruth since Ruth’s retirement in 1935. In the 4th inning of the Braves home opener 7–4 win against the Dodgers, Henry Aaron parks an Al Downing pitch in the left-centerfield stands for career home run 715, breaking Ruth’s once thought to be unapproachable record. Braves manager Eddie Mathews, with whom Aaron hit homers in a Major League record 75 games, looks on. Earlier in the game, Aaron had broken another mark set by another Hall of Fame player, Willie Mays’s National League record of 2,062 runs scored in a career. Aaron would retire in 1976 with a career record of 755 home runs.
After Downing walks the next 2 batters, Mike Marshall makes his first appearance as a Dodger, and the first of a record 106 appearances this year. The Dodgers are wearing black arm-bands this game (and for the next few) in memory of Ken McMullen’s wife, who died just before the season started.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 839.96 (-7.58, -0.89%).
Born:
Chris Kyle, American sniper for the U.S. Navy SEALs, later a best-selling author; in Odessa, Texas. In the course of his career, he had 160 confirmed kills of targets between 2003 and 2009 during the Iraq War. Kyle was shot and killed with his own .45 caliber pistol by another retired Navy SEAL in 2013.
Eddie Priest, MLB pitcher (Cincinnati Reds), in Boaz, Alabama.
Died:
James Charles McGuigan, 79, Catholic cardinal archbishop of Toronto.
K. A. C. Creswell, 94, English architectural historian.
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